Fight to The Finish

What a Utah boy named Tyler Smith, a high school class from Idaho, and a father's front-row seat to suffering taught me about running your home care agency.

On December 15th, 2025, my son Jantzen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

He was 23 years old.

I have spent the last seven months watching him fight.

And I need to tell you about it, because it changed how I see everything. Including this business.

THE MANTRA

There's a young man from Utah named Tyler Smith.

Tyler battled cancer. His community surrounded him, family, friends, strangers; all rallying around a single phrase that became his mantra and his battle cry:

Fight 2 The Finish. F2TF.

Tyler ultimately lost his battle. His finish line came at death.

But here's what I've learned in the months since Jantzen's diagnosis: the journey to that finish line is where all the learning happens. That's where courage gets forged. That's where character is revealed. That's where people discover what they're actually made of.

Tyler's story didn't die with him. It spread. It reached a local Idaho entrepreneur who had battled a similar cancer to Jantzen’s 15 years earlier; someone Tyler's family had lifted up with that same mantra during his own fight. And through that entrepreneur, the story made its way to Jantzen and our family.

Jantzen's high school class, Class of 2021, heard about F2TF. And without being asked, they came together. Raised money. Bought t-shirts.

"F2TF — Team Jantzen."

When one of his closest friends in High School brought the “Giving Tree” with the T-Shirts to the house, I cried. It was so touching and inspiring to me. Along with these gifts, they included a print out of Tyler Smiths story.

TWELVE ROUNDS

Jantzen completed twelve chemotherapy treatments over the last six to seven months.

Twelve.

I will not mince words. It was brutal. It was hard. There were days when fighting felt like too strong a word for what he was doing, sometimes it was just surviving. But he showed up. Every round. Every treatment. Every day after.

We believe he is now in remission. We are profoundly grateful.

But here is the thing I keep sitting with.

His finish line is unknown. Just like mine. Just like yours.

The day any of us cross it, whether decades from now or sooner than we'd ever choose,  none of us gets to pick that date. None of us controls the hour.

And that should not paralyze us.

It should ignite us.

THIS DAY WE FIGHT

In Peter Jackson's 2003 film The Return of the King, there is a scene at the Black Gate of Mordor. Aragorn stands before an outnumbered, exhausted, terrified army. They know the odds. They know what they're walking into. And Aragorn says:

"A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!" — Aragorn, The Return of the King (2003)

This day we fight.

That phrase has run through my head more times than I can count these last seven months. Not because Jantzen was going to win. We didn't know that. We still don't know what's fully ahead. But because today was the day we were given. And today, we fight.

You don't wait for certainty to be courageous. You don't wait for the odds to improve before you give everything you have. You fight the day in front of you. That's F2TF. That's what Tyler Smith taught thousands of people he never even met.

WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH YOUR HOME CARE AGENCY

I know. You came here for business content. Stick with me.

The founders I work with are fighting too. Different battles…but fighting!

Fighting for caregivers in a market that keeps pulling them away. Fighting to build a culture that holds together when the pressure comes. Fighting to stay present with their families while their agency demands more than they have. Fighting toward an exit that actually honors what they built, without losing themselves in the process.

And I've watched too many founders fight hard in the wrong direction. Grinding toward a version of their business that was never going to free them. Staying in a battle long past the point where strategic wisdom would have said: "This isn't the hill."

Here's what Jantzen's fight clarified for me:

The finish line matters less than how you run toward it.

Tyler Smith's finish line was his death. And yet his family will tell you, everyone who loved him will tell you, that the journey meant everything. The love that surrounded him. The lessons that were forged. The mantra that has now reached hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who never met him.

What is the finish line you are running toward in your agency?

Is it an exit? A succession? A business that outlives your direct involvement and carries on the mission you started?

Whatever it is, are you fighting toward it? Or are you just surviving each week?

CULTURE IS HOW YOU FIGHT

Here's what I believe after thirty years in this industry and seven months of being by Jantzen’s side with our family:

The culture you build is your fight. It's the team that shows up. It's the caregivers who stay because they feel seen and valued. It's the systems that run when you're not in the building. It's the autonomy you've built into your people so the work doesn't stop when life demands your full attention.

Over the past 7-months, being fully present at Riverside Home Care wasn’t always possible. My son and family needed me more at times and I am grateful I have help build a team around me that made that possible, especially my Integrator Megan Martindale, who has allowed me the confidence and space to be present through all of it.  

If my agency, if your agency, requires your heroics every single day just to function, then you're not building a business. You're building a dependency.

And dependency doesn't survive a diagnosis, a family crisis, a burnout, or an exit.

Culture is how you fight. Retention is how you win. And giving your people real autonomy is what makes the whole thing sustainable.

That is the KEEP Culture Model I have been focused on with you over the past month or so. It helps you stay in the fight!

THIS DAY

Jantzen's finish line is still unknown. So is mine. So is yours.

But today is the day we have. Today is the day we can build something. Invest in someone. Say the hard thing to our team. Make the call we've been avoiding. Start designing the exit we actually want.

F2TF.

Fight 2 The Finish.

Whatever your finish line is — fight toward it with everything you have today.

Tyler Smith's family gave that mantra to a community. That community passed it to an entrepreneur. That entrepreneur passed it to a class of kids in Idaho. And that class of kids passed it to my son.

Now I'm passing it to you.

If you're a home care founder thinking about your finish line, what you're building toward, what you're building for, and what it will take to actually get there; I'd love to have a conversation. Start here: www.rivhc.com/founders

P.S. Thank you to Tyler Smith's family for the gift of that mantra. Thank you to the Class of 2021, Jantzen's people, for showing up. Thank you to my Riverside Home Care team that has given me the space to be present. And thank you to everyone who prayed, texted, called, and showed up for the Marcum family this year. We felt every bit of it.