Leading With Empathy: Healthcare Marketing Lessons from Jennifer Frankito

When a family is looking for home healthcare, they’re making a decision about who to trust with someone they love. For the nurses providing that care, choosing an employer means finding a place where they feel supported and valued. Healthcare marketing needs to understand both experiences.

In this episode of Market Like a Mother, Radiant Founder & CEO Karen Cummings sits down with Jennifer Frankito, Chief Marketing Officer of Team Select Home Care, to talk about how empathy shapes marketing, leadership, and company culture.

Jennifer joined Team Select in 2015, when the organization had roughly 600 employees. At the time of the conversation, it had expanded across 16 states with more than 10,000 active caregivers. Her experience helping support that growth offers useful lessons for healthcare brands trying to reach more people while maintaining the relationships that make their work meaningful.

Watch the full conversation below:

Strong marketing starts with understanding the people doing the work

Jennifer began her career in skincare marketing before moving into healthcare operations following the 2008 market downturn. At Team Select, she initially supported HR, acquisitions, and operational growth before stepping into the CMO role in 2023.

That background helped her understand what local teams needed from marketing. Today, her department provides resources and brand guidance while giving branches room to build relationships within their own communities.

For healthcare brands, there’s a practical lesson here: spend time with the people answering patient questions, recruiting caregivers, and managing local relationships. Their experiences can reveal concerns and opportunities that a marketing report alone might miss.

The way you support employees becomes part of your brand

Team Select’s marketing reaches both families seeking care and nurses looking for opportunities. Jennifer sees those audiences as closely connected because the way the company treats its caregivers also matters to the families welcoming them into their homes.

Content that recognizes nurses or shares their experiences can help prospective employees understand the workplace while giving families a clearer picture of the organization’s values.

One example Jennifer shared was Team Select’s Nurses Week resource featuring freebies and discounts. By keeping the blog updated and putting more effort into promoting it, the team reached nurses who might not have been familiar with the company or with opportunities in home healthcare.

It’s a useful reminder for content planning: think about what your audience would appreciate before they’re ready to inquire or apply. Helping someone find information they need can be the beginning of a relationship.

Stories and data work better together

Jennifer described how Team Select’s HubSpot implementation, supported by Radiant Marketing, gave her team more visibility into its marketing activity. Previously, much of her understanding came from branch feedback about what seemed to be working.

Having more data helped her see connections and ask better questions, while those conversations continued to provide context behind the numbers.

She brought that same care to the discussion of patient storytelling, explaining how her team works with its chief compliance officer and uses legal review and releases when sharing experiences. The people behind those stories remain central to the process.

For healthcare marketers, both points come back to understanding what information can help the business while respecting the people it represents.

Culture is something people experience every day

Jennifer talked about the attention Team Select gives to details such as lighting, music, office design, and opportunities for employees to connect. She also acknowledged that culture evolves as new people join and different teams find their own ways to spend time together.

Those everyday experiences help bring a company’s values to life, whether through a welcoming workspace, a conversation over lunch, or an event that connects employees with patient families.

Leadership expectations matter just as much. Jennifer sometimes sends early-morning emails, but she has made it clear that her team doesn’t need to respond at that hour. Explaining that distinction helps employees understand that her personal work habits aren’t an expectation for everyone else.

For leaders, supporting well-being often starts with being clearer about what’s urgent, when a response is needed, and when people can comfortably disconnect.

Bring more intention to the way your brand grows

Jennifer’s conversation with Karen shows how closely marketing, leadership, and culture influence one another. The support a caregiver receives can shape a family’s confidence, while feedback from a local branch can help a national team make better decisions.

If you’re considering how your marketing can build stronger connections with the people you serve, book a Discovery Call with Radiant to explore your goals and next steps.

And for more honest conversations about business growth, leadership, and well-being, Subscribe to Market Like a Mother on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube  so you never miss a new episode or idea.