Driving Change in Medical Transportation with Marsha Marseille on Uncharted Entrepreneurship

Brent Peterson (00:02.114)
Welcome to this episode of Uncharted Entrepreneurship. Today I have Marsha Marseille. She is the founder of Cross Care Transport, a medical transportation company. Marsha, go ahead, do an introduction for yourself. Tell us your day-to-day role and one of your passions.

Marsha (00:19.315)
Wonderful. Thank you so much. I'm Marsha Marseille, the co-founder of Cross Care Transport. We are the premier non-emergency medical transportation serving the Lower Hudson Valley and New York City region. My day-to-day roles are the operational and operations and marketing for the company. So it's very exciting, a lot of new things happening, and we're just really here to serve and bring a new experience to the market.

Brent Peterson (00:55.566)
And how about passions outside of business?

Marsha (00:58.269)
outside of business. I definitely love my me time. So anything and everything self care, I'm all for it. Whether that is working out, a good spa day, maybe a great vacation. I love anything me and self care.

Brent Peterson (01:14.318)
That's awesome. All right, so Marsha, before we get started, we're gonna talk about your business and entrepreneurship, but we do this thing called the Free Joke Project. I'm gonna tell you a joke. You just give me a rating, eight through 13. So here we go. When my children say, Dad, where's Mom? That's the kind of version of, I'd like to speak to your supervisor. I'm going to straight above your pay grade.

Marsha (01:28.027)
Okay.

Marsha (01:31.551)
Nine.

Brent Peterson (01:43.278)
All right, thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, I didn't say they'd be funny.

Marsha (01:51.518)
But now it's a good one though.

Brent Peterson (01:54.22)
All right, so tell us a little bit, how did you get into what you're doing? How did you get into your business?

Marsha (02:00.036)
So before this I was doing project management and I worked with a lot of seniors. So on my day to day I was relocating them from nursing homes or any skilled care facilities to live back home by themselves or with family members. So a big part of that was facilitating whatever services they would need and transportation was a big thing. And I would find that I would constantly encounter issues with

getting reliable transportation, finding local providers that communicated effectively. And I just did some research on the industry and I was like, there must be a better way. And being on the other end and seeing how people were getting affected and seeing how frustrating it was just for coordinators and case managers and me.

As a project manager, to just do something as simple as facilitating transportation, I was like, you know what? I see there's a void in the market and I bet we can do this 100 times better. So that's what inspired CrossCare Transport.

Brent Peterson (03:06.19)
Wow, and so you have a business partner and you kind of split up your duties equally or tell us a little bit of how that works.

Marsha (03:12.974)
Yes, so a really good thing with having a business partner especially, my partner is my husband, Kevin Castell, so we work together really well. My duties are operations and marketing, that's my strength, that's really what I've learned throughout my entrepreneurship journey and his is finance and he's really good with training team members and onboarding team members. So we really play into each other's strengths and

we offer each other support in those realms, so we don't really step on each other's toes. Like we kind of have defined roles and defined, you know, like as I said, define roles and define things that work for us each. And we're really good at delegating to one another those things. So that's been really helpful because that's a big thing. When you have a startup, it's really all boots on ground. So you have to be invested in.

every component of the business. So to kind of have a partner that you can do it with makes it 100 times easier.

Brent Peterson (04:20.454)
My previous business partner is my wife or was my wife. No, she's still my wife. So do you find it a challenge to turn off business? like, you take times where you're just not going to talk about business with your husband?

Marsha (04:36.717)
Yes, I mean it is, it can get difficult because once your work life is like with your life partner, everything can get intertwined. But I think we found over the years what works for us. Like we have our moments when we know, okay, this is something we need to discuss. And then we have our moments where we're just like, you know what, let's bring this topic up tomorrow. Let's deal with this a different time. Let's just talk about this right now. And it's like,

I think we just have a good gauge on when is appropriate time and when isn't. So yeah, we've really found a way.

Brent Peterson (05:12.675)
How about employees and bringing them on? you take in different roles in terms of how you deal with your staff?

Marsha (05:22.725)
say yes and no. think our staff, our team members, love because we, really see everyone as it's a team. Like everything we do collectively is a team effort. Like even we'll get in and jump in and help everyone if they're out on a call and they have like a tough case. so I think because we've really defined our roles, our team members know who does what. So they're never confused as to who to speak to about something like.

A simple example, if it's like, you know, making sure they clocked in on time, maybe something went wrong, they know that's not Marsha's thing, that's Kevin's thing. I'll talk to her about that. But then if it's a schedule issue, they know automatically to speak to me about that. So I think we've done a really good job of defining our roles and also communicating that and showing it to our team members because without a doubt, they already know and they understand.

does what and who's more inclined to help me with what.

Brent Peterson (06:26.188)
And you mentioned you take care of the marketing side of things. Tell us a little bit about that. Do you have some specific challenges in terms of reaching your local market compared to some other marketers who would have the luxury of opening up the whole US or tell us any challenges you have around that.

Marsha (06:29.052)
Mm-hmm.

Marsha (06:41.328)
Thank

So yes, I mean, because we are a young company and in any startup, you do receive your challenges. Something that I think is really important on our end was how we introduce ourselves to the local market. So as a project management before, a common issue I would run into is when the transportation provider would give me a call and say, hey, I'm here to pick up so and so.

So I would call the client and I would say, hey, the van is outside or the driver is outside for you. And I'm on the phone with them and they're like, well, which van? There's like three of them and they're all white. I don't know which one you're talking about. And then it clicked before we even launched. We must have a color that distinctly lets people know who we are. And that's when we decided to do the all pink vans. So.

It's a big thing. So now no one ever doubts when we arrive because literally it's a bright pink neon van. And it's a very unique thing because no one else is offering that. So that was a big part of the marketing was if we're going to introduce ourselves to people, let's introduce ourselves with a big bang. And a lot of what I do on a local basis is like reaching out to my network, reaching out to new people.

kind of getting to know people through referrals. So as the marketing in terms of our company was really defining who we are in the market, distinctly making ourselves unique. And as a result, it's allowed us to be received well, simple changes as like making sure our team members wear a uniform. So all of that plays into the marketing. So when I do go and I do...

Marsha (08:35.607)
have the chance and opportunity to speak to people and present the brand, they actually get to experience it and they see and feel the difference. So the marketing in terms of the decisions we've made for the company really helped me make my job easier on that end. So I would say that would be the advantage that we have, of course, over people who have the opportunity to market on a global scale.

the impact that we just make on a local level allows us to kind of scale a little farther out, little by little, which is what we've been seeing. So it's been really good.

Brent Peterson (09:15.683)
I'll make an assumption that your demographic might be skewing older. Are you challenged sometimes with technology and your clientele?

Marsha (09:26.309)
So yeah, so right now a lot of our clients tell it's various. Some of it is older and then some of it is younger depending on what their needs are. Sometimes a lot of people will call us for surgery. So if people are having elective procedures, a lot of younger people will reach out to us. However, we have not had an issue with technology primarily because it's normally family members of the individual scheduling for them or we're communicating with

like facility members or maybe a hospital. So we haven't run into that. And because we do pick up our phone, it does make it easier for a lot of our clients. So even if they don't have someone younger contacting us on their behalf, they're able to like get on a call with us. And that makes a world of a difference.

Brent Peterson (10:17.696)
If you take in some of your experience as a project manager, do you feel that you have some extra skills that have helped you move into your role? Maybe it's a little different from the marketing aspect or even the scheduling aspect. Do some of those skill sets that you developed as a project manager helping your current role?

Marsha (10:35.594)
Yes, yes, yes. And I would say the thing that has helped me the most, more so than even organization, because obviously being organized is very important. That really helps you in a startup, is my people skills. Especially as a project manager, I dealt with so many personalities on a day to day and I communicated with so many different people. When we launched Cross Care Transport,

That skill that I developed as a project manager really followed me because our, you know, industry is really people based. So the first thing people want to know is, are you nice? Like, how do you communicate? Are you responsive? Do you care about me? Do you care that, you know, I need this or that I didn't like this? And that goes so far. The fact that people know you're willing to listen to them.

you're willing to adjust to their needs and that you're willing to go the extra mile just to make sure they feel comfortable and satisfied goes so far, especially in a service-based people-to-people industry. So that is something that has really come with me and I use it on a day-to-day and it's been so beneficial.

Brent Peterson (11:55.52)
Is this your first entrepreneurial journey?

Marsha (11:58.997)
It's not my first, but I will say it has been the most fruitful one. I love to say that I have a true entrepreneurial story. This is my fifth business and this has been, as I said, the most fruitful one. It's one that's full of servicing others, helping people, and because I'm enjoying and loving everything I'm doing on a day to day, it's been really showing.

me all the returns. So it's been really exciting. And what I'll say too is all of the lessons that I experienced from my previous ventures have come in hand this time around, because there's a wealth of knowledge that I've developed over the years that I would not otherwise had if I had not taken on those ventures that prepared me for today.

Brent Peterson (12:49.591)
What sort of surprises have you had that you didn't expect? Good and bad. Good or bad, I should say.

Marsha (12:55.865)
Good and bad. So many surprises. I think you never know every day when you wake up what you're going to get. Something that was really big. I love to tell this story. So when we were launching, we didn't realize that it was going to take forever. You typically think that you buy a van, you get some team members, you get on the road and you start advertising. But in New York state, it was a little bit different.

We had to go through this whole process. It was very lengthy, about three to five months just to get a certificate to allow us to be on the road. So I remember we were so excited on our first day. We were going to pick up our van, our first van. And when we got there, we're waiting to get inspected. And then we get a call and they're like, hey, I need your certificate number. And I was like, what are they talking about? Like I gave it to you.

Hence we find out we had a federal one approval, but you need a state one on a state level as well. So we were not able to leave with that van that day. And it took us an additional like three months before we can actually get the permission we needed to drive off the lot with our van and get started. And these are like the hiccups that you can encounter in business. You can't foresee it. And these are like kind of the learning lessons that I got to, you know.

in hindsight now i'm like that's crazy it's funny but like in the moment it was not

Brent Peterson (14:25.112)
What's your outlook on the economy now for the rest of the year? And it seems like you're sort of insulated from the general economy, but what do you think is going to happen now in this next year?

Marsha (14:37.036)
Well, it's a very interesting thing. mean, you cannot control a lot of things that are out of your control. I will say there are portions of our industry that are insulated and then there's little things that obviously I can't control. Like we got spring uniforms, for instance, and we got our first badge and we needed to get a second badge and everybody's been loving the uniforms. And when I reached out, the company told me, we're actually...

on hold because of tariffs. We're currently negotiating, so we don't know when we'll be able to process more orders. So little things like that on a day-to-day can affect your business, and you don't really feel it until it happens to you. So in regards to the economy, what I really say is it kind of just, we take it day by day, we do what we can, we hope that it doesn't impact us too much, but you can't control certain things. So ideally, I think it's all about how we pivot.

So whatever comes our way, we find a way to adjust and really finding the way to pivot determines your success. And that's the way I look at it. The economy is always gonna be here. The economy is always gonna have its ups and downs, but how you handle it as a business owner really determines, you know, your success. Yep. Exactly.

Brent Peterson (15:55.864)
That's awesome. I love that little saying, however you, how you pivot is going to determine your success. So Marsha, we have a few minutes left and as I close out the podcast, I give everybody a chance to do a shameless plug about anything they want. What would you like to plug today?

Marsha (16:11.855)
Well, we have the most beautiful vans and we arrive in pink and we have a great old time. Why wouldn't you want to travel in pink?

Brent Peterson (16:21.134)
That's perfect, Marsha. And Howard, tell us about how do people get in touch with you?

Marsha (16:21.846)
You

Marsha (16:27.296)
So you can find us at crosscaretransport.com and my social media handles including the businesses at Cross Care Transport and my personal is at Marsha underscore Marseille.

Brent Peterson (16:41.016)
That's perfect. Marsha Moshse is the co-founder of Cross Care Transport. Thank you so much for being here today.

Marsha (16:47.306)
Thank you so much for having me.