Marnie Rae Biln

I attribute my success first and foremost to God - he's the one who told me to start my agency 18 years ago. I felt like he was asking me to jump off a cliff, but I'm so grateful I listened to him. What I do every morning is I get up and I renew my mind. I spend time, I like to spend an hour, renewing my mind every morning and always trying to better myself. With all the stress and things that come with running a business, I just have that faith, knowing that I need to take it where God needs me today. I can't be everywhere, I can't do everything, but I can do what he has for me. Beyond my faith, it definitely takes a team - there's now 8 of us total. It takes the village, it takes the team, it takes a community, and that's really what we've created with Colorado Placement Referral Alliance. We've created a community of people that support each other, stand up and fight when we need to, and have each other's back. Perseverance is one of the keys to success - you just keep moving. Even when I started my company, I went through a divorce, became a single mom, my ex-husband was laid off for 4 years and didn't pay child support, and I had a business partner who was stealing money from the company. I cried one day, then I picked up my big girl panties and moved on and started again. God provided, and I was never late on my house payment or anything, even though my company didn't start making money until 3 years in.

I would advise them to become a CSA, a Certified Senior Advisor - that certification is worth its weight in gold. It really educates you on many different levels. It doesn't make you an expert in all of the areas that touch seniors and their lives and their aging process, but it gives you a broad knowledge. Of course, placement and the housing piece is what we're the specialists in, but it gives you enough knowledge to know how to speak to different situations and how to get them resources and get them to specialists, like with elder law or financial planning, or real estate agents you can trust. I also would advise them to become a Colorado Placement Referral Alliance member, which is that association that I'm one of the founding members of. You've got to do the right thing, you've got to have the passion. Do what's best for them, not what's best for you, and it comes full circle, it comes back. We help so many people that we are never compensated for, but the ones we are compensated for work out for the ones we're not. And anyone that has a problem with getting licensed, that's a red flag - that tells me they probably should go do something else.

The biggest challenge in our field right now is that bad players are flooding our industry. While there's many good agencies out there like ours, there's lots of people entering our industry who are not educated, not certified, and are just in it for money. They're doing such harm to a vulnerable population. We're currently working through the sunrise process with the state of Colorado because I really feel that placement agencies need to be licensed and regulated. Everything else in this senior industry is regulated, so we tried self-regulating by creating the association 8 years ago. While we've done great good and it's a great resource and education piece, you get to choose whether you're a member or not, and there are many out there doing things not ethically that are not members. Licensing is just the next step. The population is very vulnerable because if you have somebody bad steering you to a building where they're going to get paid more, or to a building that doesn't meet your needs but that's the only building they have a contract with, and you as a new person doing this have no idea, even though they're supposed to self-disclose and have a disclosure signed, it just makes them so vulnerable.

Faith is the most important value to me - I'm a strong Christian and I attribute everything to God. He's the one who told me to start my agency 18 years ago, and I renew my mind every morning spending time with him. I always try to take it one day at a time, knowing that I can't be everywhere or do everything, but I can do what God has for me. In my work, doing the right thing and having passion are essential - you've got to do what's best for the families and seniors, not what's best for you, and it comes full circle. Forgiveness is also key - when my former business partner who had stolen money from the company reached out to me asking for forgiveness, I gave it, because I had already forgiven her. Perseverance is another core value - even when I went through my divorce, became a single mom, and faced my business partner stealing from me, I cried one day, then picked up my big girl panties and moved on. Quality time with family is something I value deeply - looking back, I wish I had spent more quality time with my kids when they were growing up, even though I was a single mom starting a new company. People tell you it goes so fast, but you just don't have a clue until you experience it.