Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / NDIS Provider Marketing: Why Authentic Relationships Beat Algorithms Every Time | Solomon
Transcript
- 0:00Hi everyone, It's Sarah from Sarah.
- 0:02No support workers today. I've got Solomon and we've been
- 0:05dancing in the same circles, but I finally got to you our fellow
- 0:08podcast. So let's just do you want to get
- 0:11just dive, get straight into it. Yeah, let's do it, Let's do it.
- 0:14All right, that's good. All right.
- 0:15Someone can you tell us something a little bit about
- 0:18yourself? Yeah, what can I say about
- 0:21myself? So as you know me, I'm Solomon.
- 0:25I work at like mini Cam. We've just started a podcast for
- 0:27Shift Dancer, which is, has been very, very far.
- 0:31A little bit about myself. Look, I, I love what I do for
- 0:36work. I've been working as a district
- 0:38for about 15 years, primarily with psychosocial participants.
- 0:43Outside of work though, I'm a lot of people would think that
- 0:48I'm introvert, like I'm an extrovert because I get a lot of
- 0:51events and I'm really chatting and and stuff like that, but I'm
- 0:55actually an introvert. I have really struggle when I
- 1:01see big crowds, a kind of bead line to like the most quietest
- 1:05part of the room outside of yeah, I'll just, I'm kind of a
- 1:11Lone Ranger a little bit sometimes, not all the time, but
- 1:13I turn it on when I need to work.
- 1:15I'm more out of events. Other than that, I love footy.
- 1:20Rugby fan in Australia. I was born in Rosa, Australia.
- 1:24My background is Fiji, yeah, we love rugby league in Australia,
- 1:28but our sort of rugby league I'm, I'm more messy than rugby
- 1:32unit then. So we're a small minority in
- 1:36Sydney, but our sort of rugby union, I'm not just feeding
- 1:40motor enthusiasts. Love Baptist 1000 a lot.
- 1:44Anything to do with cars. If you talk to me about cars,
- 1:48we'll be here all day. Lucky you are knowing nothing.
- 1:54Yeah. I, I needed to take you back on
- 1:57one part because he said something that like, I'm like,
- 2:00yeah, it's called androvert. So it's where you're in between
- 2:05a introvert and an extrovert. I feel that because I will,
- 2:09like, I, I recall like there's times where I'm like, this crowd
- 2:12is really big. Like if there's a music
- 2:13festival, I I'd rather stand or I at the back, like I'm not the
- 2:17person in front of the crowd or I get what you mean because then
- 2:20you've got to like charge yourself back up again to
- 2:22attend. Yeah, yeah.
- 2:25So besides that, you've got kids as well.
- 2:27Yes, yes, yes. I've been married for 13.
- 2:32I mean, it's 13 years now. Should get this started.
- 2:34My wife is probably going to watch this later.
- 2:37Yeah, I've been married for 13 years now.
- 2:41We have 3 kids, one in year 7 to start of high school.
- 2:46And we were debating the whole like, does he have a phone or
- 2:48not? Like it's, yeah, well, we gave
- 2:52in. We gave him fun because we
- 2:53needed to make sure that he can contact us.
- 2:57So he's in high school, just started year 7, and then I have
- 3:02a middle child who's in year 4, and then I'll have one that's
- 3:06just so funny. We're very similar.
- 3:11I've got 3 kids too so I remember when we were doing the
- 3:13pre show stuff I was like oh wow we've got so much in common and
- 3:16the more you talk the more you find out about people.
- 3:19And the the best thing about it at the moment is so my daughter,
- 3:22my my youngest has two days of prep and the best 2 days of the
- 3:26school drop because it means that I get to drop them all at
- 3:29the same vacation. At the moment I'm having to do 2
- 3:33different drops and I get stuck in traffic and it's just a
- 3:36nightmare. So I'm hoping we're on the
- 3:39waiting list for more days, but I can't wait for next year.
- 3:42Next year is just one complete drop.
- 3:45I can't wait. So I keep.
- 3:47Yeah, I'm counting down for my son like 3 years ago.
- 3:50I've got this. I'm nearly close.
- 3:52So what got you into the disability sector?
- 3:56Yeah, you know what? Great question.
- 3:58Yeah, let me answer that a long way.
- 4:00I'll give you short later. To be to be very honest, I
- 4:04stumbled into it, but I get I sit down with a lot of people.
- 4:10A lot of people are saying like, you know, I was just called for
- 4:12this. He was just calling me my name.
- 4:14This is yeah. And fortunately I didn't have
- 4:17that. I didn't have that experience,
- 4:18but I just heard an audible voice say this is where you need
- 4:21to be. I kind of, I can't.
- 4:26I stumbled into this sector and and you know, I've kind of never
- 4:31looked back. But as soon as I thought, once I
- 4:33stumbled into the sector, I've realized that I really enjoy
- 4:38this place. Like I really enjoy being able
- 4:40to be on the frontline. I started as a support worker
- 4:42back in the day. There's a company in Sydney or
- 4:45DSA Disability Services Australia.
- 4:48Later. I wonder if they merged this
- 4:51later on a couple years ago. But my years started there,
- 4:54started off as a support worker working with participants.
- 4:57They used to have a program called CJP Criminal Justice
- 4:59Program, and I just loved it. Yeah, the participants we worked
- 5:03with were very like high complex.
- 5:06So like any given day, it was just like, you didn't know what
- 5:09you were going to get in for. You didn't hear whether you were
- 5:13to walk at the door or participants going to intimidate
- 5:15you, or you didn't know family member was going to be screaming
- 5:19at you or something like that. And I don't know, just that kind
- 5:21of diversity was just like, oh, I think that kind of just
- 5:24appealed to me. And then as I, as I kind of got
- 5:28into it, found my feet realized, well, there's a little good that
- 5:32I can do here, you know, being able to have the small
- 5:35conversations, being able to walk families through was
- 5:39support a few clients that passed away.
- 5:42So I was able to walk our families through that time and I
- 5:46realized that I got to walk the way I got to 5:00 finished work,
- 5:50I walked the impact that I've had was supporting the I guess
- 5:56families lost on participants. It outlived the hour shifts I
- 6:02worked with. That means that's, yeah, the
- 6:04impact that we've got to make. I don't know, like it just just
- 6:08resonated with me and I just couldn't walk away.
- 6:10I tried actually. So I've been in decision for
- 6:14about 15 years and there was a steep day where I like just
- 6:17before COVID, I kind of just thought, I just said, and I
- 6:21tried a year and a bit outside of the decision sector.
- 6:25I went into workers on and I realized once I I left and then
- 6:32I realized, oh gosh, I missed the sector, I came back.
- 6:37So yeah, I came back and I've been here since.
- 6:41They look like, yeah, as I said, my stomach a little bit into
- 6:45this sector and then really found my feet when I realized
- 6:49the impact that I was able to make.
- 6:52So what did the early years teach you about real support on
- 6:56the ground? Yeah.
- 6:57New Years of support, I guess this is pretty NDIS as well.
- 7:02So it was a lot, it was a lot different.
- 7:06But I think just being able, there wasn't support when I was
- 7:10back in the days during that time.
- 7:13So support workers, we, we did a lot as support workers.
- 7:16You know, we, we advocated, we did, we did all the paperwork,
- 7:21you know, we, we, we spoke to always.
- 7:23There were so many times where Ivan, I would go to support
- 7:26clients to court and the climate opportunity is like, can you can
- 7:29you speak on my behalf? Like what I'm like, so, so like
- 7:33having to quickly like Google it.
- 7:35What do I do import? Like you've got a bow.
- 7:38You gotta say you were on a so like a learning all this stuff.
- 7:41And I think what it what it what it taught me.
- 7:45So the question was what it taught me, right?
- 7:47Yeah. Yeah, I guess what?
- 7:50Yeah, I guess what it taught me was the profound, the profound
- 7:54impact we had in our job, people that we support.
- 7:59What I what I found was like a lot of these people and, and
- 8:03also during that time and perhaps a little bit today,
- 8:08people with disabilities are frowned upon.
- 8:12Like there is there is a there is a unspoken, maybe not in my
- 8:19experience, I don't know, speaking about everyone else's
- 8:21experience, but in my experience, what I'm saying is
- 8:23that there has almost been silence spoken, whatever it is
- 8:26kind of something in the air where this is like it's frowned
- 8:30upon and it's all the worse stuff then, right.
- 8:31So being able to standard again and advocate for those that
- 8:34didn't have a voice behavior to support them, right.
- 8:37And see the difference in me. And it wasn't always, you know,
- 8:41we didn't always have wins. Some days we'd have wins and
- 8:43some days we'd have massive crashes of the winds.
- 8:47We lived for the winds and we born in the trashes with them.
- 8:50So yeah, that that that was massive for me.
- 8:53I think you you brought up something that like like you
- 8:57pulled my hatstrings because I remember there were points for
- 9:00Sabine and Setter for 17 years. We used to write the behaviour
- 9:04support plans. Yeah, yeah.
- 9:07Like we used to write like create the communication aids.
- 9:10They that was an expectation of our jobs and it's completely
- 9:13different now. But like we had to do that.
- 9:16So we've got all these highly skilled people that were support
- 9:19workers now working in offices, not expecting to do what we used
- 9:24to do that that's somebody else now.
- 9:28You absolutely, absolutely. For me, you know, it really put
- 9:31me on a trajectory and kind of set the platform to where I am
- 9:35today, because in that time you, like you said, we had to do
- 9:38everything that's we were almost running BSD means I mean, I hope
- 9:46the only are not listening. Well, we're talking nearly 20
- 9:49years ago. But yeah, 20 years ago, like we,
- 9:51we had to write them, we had to help we, well, we had to also
- 9:55help the BSP come up with that as well.
- 9:57I mean, there weren't these fees there like.
- 10:00We read the strategies, the triggers.
- 10:03The triggers or the triggers or trying to figure everything out.
- 10:06And, and, and really our approach, what I really loved
- 10:10about that time, like there was, there was no set, like there was
- 10:14no, there was rules of how you were to operate and how you were
- 10:19to behave and, and how you were supposed to do things.
- 10:21But everything else in between, you have to use your creativity,
- 10:25right? You have to, you have to use,
- 10:26you have to be, you have to use your initiative.
- 10:28You have to show and drive your initiative.
- 10:30And the ones that did, the ones that did, the ones that showed
- 10:33drives, the ones that showed initiative, the ones that showed
- 10:35creativity in that space during that time, free NDIS.
- 10:39Look at where they are now. A lot of them, I mean, look at
- 10:42yourself. I mean, Microsoft, for example,
- 10:44and a lot of other people are seeing you today as CEOs,
- 10:48managers, Coos, BDMS, because, you know, a lot of salad support
- 10:53workers bought everything. All the skill sets that we
- 10:56learned put us, put us on a projection that set us up for
- 10:59when the ADI is kicked off. But we're like, yeah, I can do
- 11:02this. I don't have a do that.
- 11:04Yeah, I can. I can write that easy.
- 11:07You know, second, I said this to, I was at AI was at an event
- 11:10today, a kismet event in Liverpool.
- 11:12And while I was talking, having a chat with one of the guys and
- 11:15I said, man, look, no offense to and and I say this not to
- 11:20generalize things, but I said, jeez, like back then when we
- 11:23were support workers, we'll feel different.
- 11:25Yeah. And and that's not that's I'm
- 11:28making a slap for that because there are a lot of great support
- 11:30workers today. There are, but the expectations
- 11:33are different. The expectations are different.
- 11:35We were expected to do not not, I mean not expected to do
- 11:38everything, but you know, we did the roles of spoken notice, we
- 11:42did the roles of implementing PSPS and stuff like that.
- 11:46And our T's were a lot, our T's were a lot more, but we just, we
- 11:50were a lot more robust this part of the word.
- 11:53I'm looking for. Yeah, I, I agree.
- 11:56And you know what the interesting part is?
- 11:57Because you wore this many hats as a support worker, what you
- 12:01see for work now, you treat it very differently, like, like
- 12:04some like, I'll see a plan that comes through and I'll be like,
- 12:07yeah, just you do that again. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 12:12You know what the the expectations are, We'll have to
- 12:15network. Like you said, support
- 12:16coordinators didn't exist as support workers.
- 12:19My job was to network people within the community and the aim
- 12:22was to leave service. And it was really brought out
- 12:27like, you know, you have to work to this point for them to be as
- 12:30independent as possible. That messaging I feel sometimes
- 12:34has been lost because it feels like we just, we don't assist
- 12:38somebody to be as independent as possible.
- 12:40We just assist them to to be around like I, I don't know,
- 12:44there's no exit plan. I find that part really hard to
- 12:48take in our sector because there should be that thing that we are
- 12:50working towards somebody to be an independent as possible.
- 12:53And if you're not the service, that's fine.
- 12:55Network along. I, Gary.
- 12:57Yeah, that part, that part stops me.
- 13:00That is, that is a pet hate for me in this sector.
- 13:04I think like if if we break it down international, OK, it's
- 13:09previous fun. This is, it has goals and a
- 13:13participant has goals and we provide funding in order to
- 13:16achieve their goals. With the buzzword or the LDI
- 13:18access capacity building, we we need to be building the
- 13:25capacity. When I started as a support
- 13:27worker, one of the very things that was taught to me was you're
- 13:33not there to work for them, you're there to work with them.
- 13:37We don't say what I and you're 100% right, boys said like we we
- 13:44support them just to be around. We don't support them to move
- 13:47forward. And I remember back there on us
- 13:50for work. You know, we would like, no, I'm
- 13:53not going to cook for you. No, we're cooking together.
- 13:56We're cooking together like no, another.
- 13:58We're cooking together. Come on, let's do it.
- 14:02And we didn't see that back in this year.
- 14:04I mean, and not to say that's that's not happening.
- 14:07We need to see more of it happening across.
- 14:10It needs to be happening for second, because that's how we
- 14:14get outcomes. Like we need to also ensure that
- 14:16this is this set that remains sustainable, right?
- 14:20Because it is, you know, it's a, it's a tax paid insurance scheme
- 14:23and the tax paid funds it at the moment we're getting a lot of
- 14:26budget content and it is what it is.
- 14:29Like we won't dive into that because that's the whole nother
- 14:31base, but we have a responsibility to play as people
- 14:35that work in the sector. And you know, you know, we need
- 14:38to be pushing it. We need to be making sure that
- 14:40this sector is sustainable. I put a post out the other day
- 14:45and it was for $70.00. I think 23 is what a NDIS
- 14:50participant pays for a 1 to 1 to come into their home.
- 14:53Is it bang for buck? Because I, I look at it like if
- 14:57you're like a support worker, I'm entering somebody's home,
- 14:59this is the amount that we're charging this person.
- 15:02Do they get what they ordered? Like is it what they wanted?
- 15:06Do they get the fullness? Because $70.23 in my world is a
- 15:10lot of money. Like that's a lot like for
- 15:13service. Yeah, it's interesting.
- 15:16It is because then if you put it on this perspective of the
- 15:18person we serve there in my sense, is it am I going to get
- 15:21what I want? Is it going to still build me?
- 15:25Am I getting banned for that? So when we talk about these
- 15:28things, it's very easy to forget that there's a toss a figure
- 15:34behind it that pays somebody to enter in and out of your house.
- 15:37Yeah, it's crazy. I.
- 15:38Mean that's someone shopping for the week.
- 15:40Oh, yeah, yeah. All right.
- 15:44So you've had a few different roles before you got to now.
- 15:48Yeah. So at the moment, not at the
- 15:50moment, I should say. So now you're in the operations
- 15:54and marketing. What is it called?
- 15:56Hold on one moment. Your role is head of marketing
- 16:00and community. Yeah, community engagement.
- 16:03So I'm seeing some of your content and it's really good
- 16:06content. But I noticed the content that
- 16:07you have is quite person centered and focus on that
- 16:11individual that's in your service.
- 16:13How do you keep that continuously in your marketing
- 16:17for the for the search you work for?
- 16:19Yeah. Well, you.
- 16:20Thank you so much. That is a great question.
- 16:22I've actually never been asked that question before answer
- 16:24friendly because of it. Also, we had a marketing
- 16:27strategy and and in the back of my mind, what you're saying and
- 16:32how I do that is like sitting here, but noise of arts.
- 16:35No, I don't have to take like that, But I think the most
- 16:38important thing is then get this out is so that it's I can do it
- 16:42justice for I think most important thing.
- 16:44There's a few things, right And it's, and it's not just a,
- 16:48there's a few things to, there's a few things to consider is
- 16:52number one, we work with people, yes, people.
- 16:58Our primary service, the we work for services, we work for
- 17:02services that work with people. Yeah, I think there was, what I
- 17:06said there was about there is from somebody that's probably
- 17:08about 2500 or maybe plus three close to 3000 service providers
- 17:12in New South Wales alone. I work for an accommodation
- 17:16provider. I don't know how many, there's
- 17:18probably maybe 1000 or 1500 silk provider accommodation providers
- 17:22in Sydney. They don't like us.
- 17:24So number one, it's important when we're marketing, how do we,
- 17:28It's important to be able to articulate the point of
- 17:30difference #1 #2 it's important to keep the main thing.
- 17:36The main thing. The main thing is people.
- 17:39We support people. And in terms of marketing, the
- 17:43ugly side of the other side of, I guess what we do is it's a
- 17:46business and we need to grow the business.
- 17:48So we need to be able to show people what we do with people,
- 17:52what we do with participants. I say it's a good sort of
- 17:54business because I mean, that sort of business has to do with
- 17:57none of those. And, and it has to do with
- 17:59KPI's. And, you know, when we're
- 18:00working with people, we don't want to think about, you know,
- 18:02we want to think about relationships.
- 18:05I think the, the, the, the most important thing else remember
- 18:08those that the other thing to consider as well for me when
- 18:11I'm, when I'm credit content is how do I add value to the
- 18:15sector? So when I, when I'm credit
- 18:18content, I'm also thinking about who's doing my content.
- 18:21I'm thinking about it's a support coordinator.
- 18:24So I wanted to add as well is different.
- 18:27I wanted to add as well is that a lot of providers are doing a
- 18:31lot of providers are doing a lot of great work that nobody knows
- 18:34about. Yeah.
- 18:36Any of these spaces that I mentioned earlier, like we're in
- 18:39this space saturated with providers and you and if you're
- 18:44doing great work and nobody knows about it, like at the end
- 18:48of the day, that's all great. We can do all the great work you
- 18:51want, but at the end of the day, you have to realize like you're
- 18:54also a business. How do you grow that business?
- 18:56So at the back of my mind, when I'm creating a concept, I'm
- 18:59thinking, how do I do that? How do I show we are the best at
- 19:05this? If you want to talk about
- 19:06talking about a combination, we're the best at this.
- 19:08We're the experts at that. And it's about placing.
- 19:10So what I try to do is when I create content, I try to do it
- 19:14so that I place us as subject experts, if so to say.
- 19:19But at the same time, bringing it back to the participant, it's
- 19:23important that when you're creating content that you're
- 19:25also creating content. You're not just because a lot of
- 19:28people just create content. One of the actually, and going
- 19:31back to this sector, one of the, one of the things that we don't
- 19:33do really well in this sector is we don't do marketing well in
- 19:35this sector. Because tell me, because,
- 19:38because at the end of the day, like this is a, this is a, this
- 19:40is a sector that's that, that this is a sector that that
- 19:47prioritizes relationships over marketing as one of the very few
- 19:51sectors where you can, that you can collaborate with your
- 19:55competitors, right? That's one of the various.
- 19:58So like, for example, if we worked in the tech sector or if
- 20:01we were, I don't know, in the banking sector, it's very rare
- 20:05that BDMS from different organizations get together and
- 20:07just sit down and have a chat in this.
- 20:09It's almost, it's just a normal Monday thing.
- 20:12We're going to all meet up and have a coffee for an hour and
- 20:15then. Whatever, we'll do that every
- 20:17day. So it's all it's so important to
- 20:20know who your audiences. A lot of guys actually, I won't
- 20:25even go down there because I'm an open account of words and I
- 20:27must say it's something controversial that people are
- 20:29going to hate me or but but I think it's important to know who
- 20:32your market is. So when I got confident in the
- 20:34back of mind, I'm always remembering that OK.
- 20:36My my view is that I want looking at my content is support
- 20:41mom and dad. I'm a guardian this POT and just
- 20:48maybe anyone because ultimately they're the guys that are the
- 20:51gatekeepers. They're the guys that are going
- 20:53to be talking about or looking about the services that I have
- 20:56to offer and what are they looking for, right?
- 20:59Because I think a lot of people when, when we create our
- 21:01content, what we do as providers is we, we create a lot, a lot.
- 21:08And I'm talking to people, I already get angry.
- 21:10They're like, well, no one's doing your content and do this
- 21:12and that, that and that. And yeah, you can pay ads and
- 21:14I'll pay a few ads sometimes as well to push content.
- 21:17And I'm also learning in this space as well.
- 21:19But I think what we have to understand is that you need a
- 21:22random right for people to do your content.
- 21:25Yeah. Creating content in itself is a
- 21:27creative art and it's a, it's a it's a science as fault.
- 21:31Like it is a science as well. Like you can't just create
- 21:35content and think like you could probably master the like edit
- 21:40the best content ever and normally look at it.
- 21:43Yeah. Yeah, because, because, because
- 21:46we walk into thinking that people are going to look at it
- 21:49and really they always know right to look at their content,
- 21:52where to be able to create content, we we have to earn the
- 21:55right to look at their content. So, so a lot of that, what I'm
- 22:00trying now at the moment is what I call content marketing, where
- 22:04I will try to show you something at the start.
- 22:08And it could be like, I don't know, this is how I was able to
- 22:13get this cloud 2 to 1 funding. And if you like it, like message
- 22:18me or something like that, I don't know.
- 22:19But automatically that it trades, that it trades you and I
- 22:23want to click and have a look or, and it has to be person
- 22:27centric, right? Because at the end of the day,
- 22:30people prefer to deal with people.
- 22:33We don't want to deal with systems and processes.
- 22:35I'm a Hoy from you. I'm a this guy because I know
- 22:39you have a relationship with you.
- 22:41So being able to articulate that online as well is is what I'm
- 22:46constantly trying to figure out when I'm busting onto it is
- 22:50tiring. It is tiring.
- 22:51Like when I'm doing stuff, I'm like thinking, OK, what do you,
- 22:56how do I, how do I earn trust? Also?
- 22:58Yeah, it's important to be able to earn trust online.
- 23:02What people don't realize is trust can be earned.
- 23:08Trust can be given. For example, if I go to an event
- 23:12and you go around and say, oh, let's just let's just I'll paint
- 23:16this actually, sorry. We go in an event, I walk in the
- 23:18door on my so we had like, obviously we've just started
- 23:22podcast shift there so I can walk in the door and no one will
- 23:25know me. And I would probably get pissed
- 23:27off because I mean, like everyone should know who I am.
- 23:29Like, you know, like I just done this and I just started out.
- 23:31Why isn't why isn't no one showing me?
- 23:34And there is like, yeah, we're not yeah.
- 23:36And because no one knows me. No, no, no, no.
- 23:39I haven't taken the time to build trust for rapport.
- 23:42So often what we do as providers is we post contact just
- 23:46aimlessly thinking like, hey, guys, I'm here.
- 23:49Like and we walk in the room and like, who are you?
- 23:51We don't know you and then we get annoyed and we get angry.
- 23:55So that's a bad way to build trust.
- 23:57There are two other good ways to build trust.
- 23:59Another good ways to trust is by earning doing.
- 24:02But the other other way to build trust is sometimes you need to
- 24:05build your own platform, have people like yourself beverage of
- 24:08this type of people. Because when you're also working
- 24:13with other people, they also can endorse you in a way not in AI.
- 24:18Guess I don't know if I'm offering you.
- 24:21No, no, no, no, no. Almost in a dosing, almost in a
- 24:25dosing way. And where, for example, I walk
- 24:27in the room and and you, we were there together and you said, oh
- 24:30God, same Tina Solomon's thing. This is Solomon's thing.
- 24:32That's someone's to do that. I might not know the person, but
- 24:35what you've done is you've you've you've set up platforms
- 24:39for me so that people trust them.
- 24:42Yeah. So when are we creating?
- 24:43People need to see it. Yeah.
- 24:45So when are we creating trust that?
- 24:46We need to do that and that's probably podcast.
- 24:50Yeah, actually. Kind of accidental podcast, but
- 24:53that's a story for another time. But podcasting has definitely
- 24:57opened plenty of doors that people that I wouldn't normally
- 25:00would speak to or know of because they're in different
- 25:03states or we're just in different places.
- 25:05I can't always go to networking meetings in Frankston, let's say
- 25:10that yeah, like I'm on the other side of town.
- 25:12So this year gives you a platform to push it out, push
- 25:18like the content. And then I also get to like
- 25:20interview people, which is cool. So it means that I develop
- 25:23instead of having like that coffee date that you want to
- 25:26catch up after, you know, like you go to your networking
- 25:28meeting or have a coffee or a virtual coffee, cut all that out
- 25:32and just go straight for the podcast because yeah, I didn't
- 25:35stuff around. Yeah, that's right.
- 25:37That's right. And you and you, you're giving
- 25:39yourself a, a voice where you know you can hand down it to the
- 25:43to the community. It's the coolest thing is I get
- 25:46to hear your stories and when I hear you get no, I do.
- 25:49And I learn so much from it. So when people go podcast, I'm
- 25:53like, well, actually, yeah, you create content at the end of it.
- 25:57But I'm having a one to one conversation with somebody and
- 26:00I'm understanding like they're wires.
- 26:03They've gotten business What what you know, makes them feel
- 26:06good. Like why they do what they do in
- 26:08this sector because it is very niche, like why people are here
- 26:12and what they do and what they deliver.
- 26:14The podcasting stuff. Just pretty much I was like,
- 26:17well, that's for everybody else. But today I've learned
- 26:19something. Yeah. 100% yeah, so.
- 26:23You can. Oh, we haven't even talked about
- 26:24the name of your podcast. What's the name of your podcast?
- 26:27How'd you get tonight? You know, it's so funny, you're
- 26:30on the honest trip or you won't look at a lie.
- 26:35I can tell you. Oh, you know, I just kind of
- 26:37just, you know, just came to me to dream that the real the real
- 26:40reality is. I was felt like the beautiful
- 26:43thing about AI. I was sitting there and I'm
- 26:47like, I, I literally said I want to do this.
- 26:52And I was thinking about these and me and my colleague.
- 26:55So Omar, if you watch this, big shout out to you.
- 26:58So with just me and him, we're the marketing team and the
- 27:01laundry. Yeah.
- 27:03Well, literally we came up with the idea.
- 27:05Obviously, it's not a new idea. It's done in America by someone
- 27:10really famous. Then he gets to do all of this
- 27:12stuff with celebrities, with the Hollings and stuff like that.
- 27:15Yeah. And I thought to myself, you
- 27:16know, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel.
- 27:18It works. It's a proven concept.
- 27:19So I'm just going to, I'm sure I don't know that we hadn't seen
- 27:22anything like this in the sector.
- 27:24I thought. And then so I started, you know,
- 27:26putting on my ideas and chatting with tea and just kind of
- 27:28throwing ideas and I was asking it to kind of cancel my ideas.
- 27:33And then we and then we kind of came out and we fine trained it
- 27:36and we're like, OK, we're happy with this.
- 27:38And I said, wait, what are we going to call it?
- 27:40And then I said this shit, I said to I said to change
- 27:42everything. I said this, I said, I said a
- 27:45little like, what did I say? I said this podcast is about
- 27:48spotlighting, spotlighting people in the sector.
- 27:50So the first three questions or two questions is about them, who
- 27:54they are, what they do. And then the recipes are about
- 27:56the sector. But this is not a serious
- 27:58podcast. This is not a podcast where we
- 28:00just talk about boring shoes shit.
- 28:03This is a podcast where we have fun and the entertainment of it
- 28:07is eating hot wings beautiful. AR my mate, best mate at the
- 28:11moment. That helps me a lot at work
- 28:13ChatGPT said. Lauren, I think they should call
- 28:17a shift banter. I saw, I saw it and I said
- 28:20that's the word shift banter. Yeah, because I think, I think
- 28:22when I said in the when I was writing the thing, I said I'm
- 28:26thinking of like this is a place where we can banter and stuff
- 28:30like that one one of the so we should better.
- 28:33So that's how we basically that's how we came up with the
- 28:35name in terms of what the people that we have on our podcast.
- 28:39Look, this is not just people who who I guess, you know, hold
- 28:44titles in this sector, support workers, it's people with
- 28:48disabilities as well, it's parents.
- 28:51And obviously you've been EMCO support clinics and all that
- 28:54kind of stuff. So it's literally anybody and
- 28:56everybody in the sector, well that has to do that has has to
- 29:01deal with the sector and it's just a place where we can just
- 29:04have fun. We can eat some wings, we can do
- 29:06it, and we can talk. What is one thing that you've
- 29:09learned from podcasting if you're I think I've.
- 29:13Learned one thing I've learned from podcasting.
- 29:15Yeah. Is that you, you, you can learn
- 29:20a lot about people by having just intentional conversations.
- 29:24Like I I learned, I learned a lot about why people are in this
- 29:28sector, what they do and it and it gave me a different respect.
- 29:31Like I often see them and I shake their hand.
- 29:34Now when I see them and I shake their hand, my my handshake and
- 29:38my conversation with them are followed come from a deeper
- 29:41respect because I know I not only know how far they have to
- 29:45travel to do things or how far they have to travel to even come
- 29:49to work and why they travel so hard to come to work.
- 29:53Well, the reason why they ended up in the sector and how they
- 29:56did it. Like, I mean like, I don't like
- 29:59myself. We just accidentally stumbled in
- 30:01this sector. But there are others that have
- 30:05real limbed experience. You know, like, for example, one
- 30:10of their first guests was Gigi and she was talking about how,
- 30:15you know, they were at a birthday event and well,
- 30:18Christmas party. And her dad went, walked out to
- 30:20the car to get some presents. And all of a sudden they were
- 30:23inside and they were screaming and shouting.
- 30:26And they came out and her dad was left on the ground like hit
- 30:28by a car as he was crossing the road with the prisons.
- 30:30And from that moment on, she had to become a full time carer.
- 30:34We did another podcast with another guy named Jack and the
- 30:38amount of traveling that he has to do just to come to events so
- 30:41that he can connect with us. He's traveling, he's driving
- 30:44like 2. And it's so funny because up
- 30:46until I thought this started Lincoln City, like just around
- 30:49us. Yeah, because he was done
- 30:51literally at every event I would go to and I'll shake his hand.
- 30:53I was OK, mate, and this will walk off.
- 30:55And not only did I learn about his why, but when I learned
- 30:58about how far he had to travel this, I was like traveling like
- 31:002 hours every single day just so that he can build rapport, build
- 31:06relationships, and just so that he could be able to add to the
- 31:10sector and help other people and, and, and, and many more,
- 31:15but there's so many more people. Yeah.
- 31:18I think that's one of the biggest things I learned, you
- 31:21know, podcasting. And then there's the bad stuff
- 31:23that we learned about podcasting as well.
- 31:26If you want to talk about. I think like, it's so funny.
- 31:31Like I remember and I look like whether this goes up as a real
- 31:35or not, I just don't know. But like, I it's so funny
- 31:38because, you know, it's good to know.
- 31:41It's like, I remember that. Like, so ever since I started
- 31:43the podcast, you know, up until the point, I would walk into
- 31:46spaces and there'll be like a group of people that will always
- 31:48walk with me, always talk to me, that we're a group, not a group.
- 31:52I mean people that I don't even know.
- 31:54And I'm like, it's so hard to even have a conversation with
- 31:56them. I know that they are a
- 31:58conversation. I want to say hello.
- 32:01They're just like just kind of obviously normally walk away and
- 32:05that's fine. I think.
- 32:05Yeah, that's asking. And you know what not it's not a
- 32:09very hypothetical. I don't think it personal.
- 32:11It's just a sector. There's like how many people
- 32:13that work in this sector it's from.
- 32:15But then the moment you do something out-of-the-box and you
- 32:19create a bit of noise, all of a sudden all these people that
- 32:23didn't have the tough, they didn't want to talk to you.
- 32:25You'd be messaging them. They leave you on red or
- 32:27whatever. All of a sudden turn around.
- 32:29They're like, hey, how did you do this?
- 32:31Can we can I can I, can I jump on And I'm like, yeah, I'm like,
- 32:35I was talking to my mate about. I'm like, yeah, no, I mean, I
- 32:39know that sounds bad. I know that sounds bad.
- 32:41Only I said that as a joke just to, again, the banter part of
- 32:45the. Yeah.
- 32:47But look like, hey, a lot of people that know is that I have
- 32:50new sorts of like, I'll just say it is that it is.
- 32:53I can be a bit insensitive sometimes.
- 32:54But yeah, I think the most important thing is that I've
- 32:59learned in this sector is that it's like we have our KPI's.
- 33:02Yes, we can. Yeah, we have our roles and what
- 33:04we do in our roles and for our companies.
- 33:06Yes, that's all important. Like again, like this is we
- 33:10don't work in the corporate sector.
- 33:12In this sector, relationship building is so important.
- 33:15So, you know, don't be that guy. Don't be the guy that just walks
- 33:21in and you only want to talk to the people that you perceive
- 33:23that can only give you value. You know, say hello to the
- 33:27people that you wouldn't probably go the way I say hello
- 33:30to because you don't know. Yeah.
- 33:32I was watching out and this is probably a really dumb example
- 33:35but it's one of my favorite movies.
- 33:36Intune. I don't know the internship, the
- 33:38Google One. Have you just watched that
- 33:39intern? Yes, I have.
- 33:41Yeah, OK, so you were there. So there's a scene there was
- 33:44that guy that's he's going to set those like mine and he's
- 33:46constantly typing on his keyboard.
- 33:48And then the guy that's supposed to be the guy that's going to
- 33:50get the Java at Google and he's kind of like the hot job or
- 33:55stuff, whatever. And, and he's constantly mean to
- 33:57this guy and, and he's constantly mean to everyone else
- 33:59around. Anyway, Long story short, so it
- 34:01turns out that that that guy that everyone's just kind of
- 34:05ignoring is actually kind of a big deal and doesn't reveal it
- 34:08to the end of the movie where the guys that had no mobile guys
- 34:12that were kind of our task people ended up getting a job.
- 34:15And I say that because it's important in this sector.
- 34:18It's important to value people. It's important.
- 34:21It's important to value people in value people, value
- 34:24relationships. Like this is not just a
- 34:26transactional space. Yeah, like there's so many.
- 34:30I can't even count family times where I've gone from maybe
- 34:34company to company. I've gone from different job to
- 34:37different job. And I've seen this person move
- 34:39from here to here to here to here, and they're constantly
- 34:41moving up. And as we move up there,
- 34:43everyone's moving up. And yeah, and maybe the guy that
- 34:47you were ignoring might be your boss tomorrow.
- 34:49Do you know the interesting part, like when I podcasted,
- 34:53there's been a few people that have podcasted at the start of
- 34:56their career and you're right, because I see them now and I'm
- 35:00like, Oh my God, look at all the cool things have done a long
- 35:03way. I'm so glad that I didn't put
- 35:07them to the side. I'm really glad that I still
- 35:09went ahead and pursued them because they, you know, like I,
- 35:12I feel like I'm a part of their story because I've got their,
- 35:14their time in the sun. Like they can talk about what
- 35:17they did and where they are. And I like there's a few of them
- 35:19that I want to catch up with and podcast and do like a live
- 35:22update because I feel like they need it because like where they
- 35:25started to where they are now completely different.
- 35:28I agree with you, but you know, also I was just thinking, so I'm
- 35:31totally off my script. Totally.
- 35:33We're we're off, yes. Yeah, that's all good.
- 35:35Well. You know, but I was just
- 35:38thinking like, there have been times that I've been to Expos
- 35:41and all that stuff and I'm terrible with that.
- 35:44So I would turn up to the Expo or turn up to the meet and
- 35:47greets and the networking and somebody would talk to me and
- 35:50they'd say, Sarah, I saw this, I watch this, but I realized that
- 35:53I can't put all of them together.
- 35:55The like a lot of what I'm trying to say is a lot of people
- 35:58watch your content and you don't realize they're watching your
- 36:00content. They're watching it from afar
- 36:02and they may never say anything to you.
- 36:04I think sometimes I'm might give.
- 36:08I think people might be intimidated to come near me or
- 36:12to talk to me. Yeah, yeah.
- 36:14I see. And absolutely.
- 36:15And I I also agree with you that like that's happened to me as
- 36:19well. Yeah.
- 36:20I mean, I just think, yeah, it's tough.
- 36:23Like we can't be all things everybody.
- 36:24We can't remember everybody. We can't.
- 36:26But it's important to be intentional.
- 36:30I think, You know, I mean like it's and you're in a space and,
- 36:33you know, you have a certain level of influence.
- 36:37You know, don't be that guy. Don't be that guy.
- 36:40You know, be, be the person. It's important to be the likable
- 36:43person. And I didn't say that because,
- 36:45you know, we we want to be likable, but because we want to
- 36:48work with people in this, the more if if we set ourselves up
- 36:52for success, then we we put us as we, we set ourselves up to
- 36:56position ourselves to be able to have a greater influence and be
- 37:00able to help people. Yeah.
- 37:02So, you know, be, be the people, be a person of the people.
- 37:07Yeah, I know, I know it sounds really dumb.
- 37:09And I'm saying probably, I'm, I'm probably showing you my
- 37:14intrusive thoughts at the moment.
- 37:16Well, you know, I, I feel that because we've had support worker
- 37:19backgrounds in our careers, we've had to go into situations
- 37:24where we didn't know somebody or we'd have to work very quickly
- 37:27to get to know as much as we could to make sure we could
- 37:30support somebody really well. I sort of think that's, that's
- 37:33probably had a helping hand when it comes to networking because
- 37:36you are put in for situations and you're going to see your
- 37:40people that you may never have met before and you've got to put
- 37:42yourself out in the station. And this is where support work
- 37:46like this is where I find we don't make support work sounds
- 37:49as professional as it really does does deserve to be because
- 37:52these are the skills that we got because of support work.
- 37:55Yeah, yeah, and, and, and, and you're right.
- 37:57And just to stem off that, I think, you know, for me
- 38:01personally, a lot of what I do is I love to help people.
- 38:04I don't care if you, I don't care if you are a competitor.
- 38:07Like today I was an event and this guy was a new provider.
- 38:11He comes up to me and he's just like, yeah, the worst thing.
- 38:14So before I even say that, the worst thing is when you're in an
- 38:16event, right? You're in a pain event and you
- 38:19want to be the guy that do you pay for crap and you come in and
- 38:23you want to push your content and be like, And the worst thing
- 38:25is like when you're we're a super provider and then another
- 38:28super provider is this like we're a new business.
- 38:30Can you send us some participants?
- 38:32OK, so that happens to me a lot, but I mean, I, I will still
- 38:36entertain the conversation, but I but because of, because of my
- 38:40support work background, I won't shut, I won't shut down a
- 38:43conversation. I will, I will go out to talk
- 38:45the person. So in that time, So what
- 38:48actually happened was I said I set them down.
- 38:50So we had them for 6 minutes and 6 minutes.
- 38:53OK, quickly tell me exactly what to do.
- 38:56A rather piece of technology you need to XYZ.
- 38:58This is I can't give you participants, but man, like
- 39:00this, this is my number. You need help, Just give me a
- 39:03buzz. Yeah.
- 39:05And again, like in this sector, like this is, it's not just
- 39:09about us. It's not yes, we work for
- 39:11companies, but it's not about us.
- 39:12It's about the people that we support.
- 39:13The sector actually want better outcomes and we need to.
- 39:17Then we need to have more collaborative conversations
- 39:21because there's a piece of pie for everybody in this sector.
- 39:24Collaboration is a lot easier than what we make, and I feel
- 39:28like sometimes we put the sock on things and we don't need to.
- 39:30Like, you're a podcaster. I'm a podcaster.
- 39:32Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
- 39:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. You get, you got the edit, I get
- 39:38the edit. That doesn't, doesn't bother me
- 39:40at all because at the end of the day, it's making sure that we've
- 39:42got this message out there to the people that we serve.
- 39:44But you know, we can collaborate, we can work
- 39:47together because we need a whole life approach.
- 39:49And I think that there has been my, I think my, it is if you're
- 39:55going to work with providers that don't see somebody with a
- 39:58full life approach, from support workers to Stock 1 and suppliers
- 40:02to OTS to ally young people, we can't all work together.
- 40:05The person doesn't achieve the goal that they really want.
- 40:08They get to be as independent as they need to be because we've
- 40:12become human bollards. A lot worse for support workers
- 40:16listening today. What do you wish more people
- 40:19understood about their roles? Now, what they're doing, it's
- 40:22it's not what yeah, what they what they're doing is it's more
- 40:28than just a job. What you're doing as a support,
- 40:31It's more than just a job. And you need to be able to see
- 40:35your role as a person who is a champion, is a champion for, for
- 40:41people that he would call. You need to be able to see your
- 40:45role as a capacity builder and see yourself as a support
- 40:47worker. Often you can, I think there are
- 40:50negative connotations today, like when you think of like
- 40:53support work and a lot of people kind of like, oh, just a support
- 40:56worker and, and it's kind of lost.
- 40:59It's, it's kind of lost it's, I don't know, like it's what's the
- 41:05word? It's lost it's and it's lost its
- 41:08professionalism and a bit yeah, as lost its professionalism
- 41:12because a lot of people just think like, yeah, it's just a
- 41:14job or whatever. Like I'm just, I'm just a
- 41:16support, I'm just a support worker.
- 41:17But you're not you're, you're a capacity builder, a capacity
- 41:22builder. You're when you look after work,
- 41:28your focus should be OK. For example, if on a scale of 1
- 41:32to 10, if my client, if my client, OK, look, we're not even
- 41:36going to look at a week to week. Let's just look at it first of
- 41:39January to the to the end of December.
- 41:42All right, So if my client on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of
- 41:46cooking is ranked at a is ranked at a two or three and your goal
- 41:54should be at the end of the year.
- 41:56This guy should be able should be sitting at a 5 or 6.
- 42:01And I think like that's if you're a support worker and
- 42:05you're listening. I heard a professionalism of
- 42:07support worker again and understand that your role holds
- 42:11so much importance. It might not mean anything, it
- 42:14might not. It might just be a job for you,
- 42:16but to the person you're supporting, it's everything to
- 42:19the IT may mean that they're able to get up.
- 42:22It may mean that they're able to have community.
- 42:25If you've never, never, ever experienced not having
- 42:28community, so and you may not, you may be very primitive and
- 42:33not be able to relate to any of the things that the people that
- 42:36we support go through, but empathize, have some empathy,
- 42:42you know, try and and put yourself in their shoes, see
- 42:46what they're going through. And that requires a lot of
- 42:48intentionality coming into work as a support worker.
- 42:51It requires intentionality. You need to physically be there,
- 42:55nurse yourself in your job thinking, OK, like I'm going to
- 42:59marry this person from A2 start a letter two this year.
- 43:02And by the end of the end of the year, I want to see this start
- 43:05as a three or four or A5. And maybe his only capacity, his
- 43:09his greatest capacity will only ever be a three.
- 43:12But if you get in there, that might, that might mean, OK, I
- 43:17got him to a three. Like it might just mean like
- 43:20that to you, like, well, OK, I got him to a three.
- 43:22But to him, you've just given him something.
- 43:25You've given him or her something.
- 43:27So I think I'm here. I think, you know, if you're a
- 43:29supporter, can you listen to this, understand the importance
- 43:32of your role, you know? Yeah, understand the importance
- 43:34of the role, like you, in terms of the role that you play in
- 43:39society and the community. You're keeping, you're keeping
- 43:42these people safe. You're keeping them safe.
- 43:44They're vulnerable. They're vulnerable people left
- 43:47alone. So it's I've seen so many
- 43:52participants who families are not there and they've had to,
- 43:57they've had to die alone. You know, you might, but it's a
- 44:02blessing to be able to be in that situation, to be able to be
- 44:07like, OK, like you're not. As long as you're long enough, I
- 44:10get it to be with you. I'm going to be with you.
- 44:12We do. And I think it's important to
- 44:14realize as well, like, like, since you get to do this, like
- 44:20if, if, if you do this, if everything kind of runs out of
- 44:23your head made me understand this.
- 44:25Like this is something that you get to do.
- 44:28You get to be a part of someone's life.
- 44:30You get to help. And I think in all of us,
- 44:33there's this, there's this, there's this.
- 44:36There's something built in all us where we want to keep back,
- 44:39where we want to help. Yeah.
- 44:41And you get to do this. You get to wake up in the
- 44:44morning and not have to worry about, you know, not like, I
- 44:47don't know, adding to the system, you know, or adding to
- 44:50the man or the guy sitting at the top of the ladder.
- 44:53That's not your safe, though. You're working in a sector where
- 44:55you're dealing with people and you get you get to help them,
- 45:00you get to add value to their life.
- 45:02You get to bring sunshine into their life.
- 45:03You get to bring joy, happiness into their life and like.
- 45:07Do you get jealous? Like do you get jealous when you
- 45:10see people out and about? Now, God damn, I love to be a
- 45:13support worker right now. Look who you get to work with.
- 45:16Look at the fun you get to do. Look at all the experiences you
- 45:20get. And you would not have got this
- 45:21experience unless you were a support worker.
- 45:23I often think that and then especially in office, you know,
- 45:28you know, I want to be out and about with you.
- 45:30Like I don't I don't really want to be in office.
- 45:33I thoroughly enjoy being with you.
- 45:36That part as well. Like I know sometimes people go
- 45:40we support with all they do. They go into the movies and they
- 45:43go bowling. It's more than that.
- 45:45Like the people that. We see it's moving funny.
- 45:48I know you talk about shift banter, but my God, the banter
- 45:52that I ever had with the people that we've served, it's Trump
- 45:55Notch. I don't think anyone compete
- 45:56with that. Like if you want to like a day
- 45:59where there's big times where I was thinking, wet myself out of
- 46:02laughter just purely because it's just so damn funny.
- 46:05Yeah, one of the one of the things I got to do as a support
- 46:07worker was I used to support this part years ago and he never
- 46:12got to say goodbye to us that his dad passed away, never got
- 46:15to say goodbye to us. That.
- 46:18And I was honored to be able to drive him from Sydney to Jesus.
- 46:23I can't remember the best. I was behind Newcastle.
- 46:25It was about a four hour drive. We drove there and I took him to
- 46:29the grave and he got to say goodbye to his dad and, and, and
- 46:34and driving back. But being able to be part of
- 46:36that movement, like man, like I'm not seeing that.
- 46:40I guess I get to drive, I get to have these funny conversations.
- 46:44We're reliving all, the all the memories that he had with his
- 46:47father, being able to witness that and being able to be a part
- 46:50of that environment that was just between him and his dad.
- 46:54But yeah, I, I was given the, I got the opportunity to be a part
- 46:59of that. And yes, like it was only
- 47:01driving him and, and, and making sure that he got his safety and
- 47:05showing back. But if I didn't do it, like he
- 47:08wouldn't have had that opportunity.
- 47:10I also want to, I also want to say as well, on the flip side,
- 47:16if this is a job for you and you know, you, you, you know, you
- 47:20just see the cash and the check. This is not the sector, if you
- 47:23will support that and you're thinking this is on this.
- 47:27I heard on the Facebook, what is it like one of the group things
- 47:31that this was a great job or you get to go to the football and go
- 47:35to the movies. Not the jump for you.
- 47:37It is. I've had people go, I have to do
- 47:39personal care. I was like, yes, it's a part of
- 47:43being a support worker. These are the things that, you
- 47:45know, like it's not, it can be sold as something that's quite
- 47:49delightful and, you know, it looks like fun.
- 47:51But there is the flip side of responsibility for somebody
- 47:54vulnerable assisting somebody to to support them to eat.
- 47:57There is personal care. There is following the support
- 48:00plans in place for behaviours of concern.
- 48:02Like there is all that stuff. Yeah, I there is the fun stuff.
- 48:07But it you, like you said, you have to kind of, you have to
- 48:10love it, you have to allow people.
- 48:12Absolutely. And and if and if you're
- 48:14listening to this and this is just a job and this is just a
- 48:18paycheck for you, you're in the wrong sector to be as, as, as,
- 48:23as that is. You're in the wrong sector and
- 48:25you're doing yourself a disjustice while staying here.
- 48:27You're doing the clients you support and disjustice while
- 48:29staying here. Because our clients know, I
- 48:31can't say when we're just rocket when we're there because it's
- 48:34just a paycheck. I mean, when, when, when, when
- 48:36body, soul, spirit or or whatever makeup is.
- 48:40And, you know, you don't have to tell me.
- 48:42Like you can walk in a room and you sit with someone and you
- 48:45don't have to tell me whether I don't have to.
- 48:47You don't have to say anything to me if you don't like me.
- 48:49Like I don't know that you don't like me.
- 48:51I don't know if we're having a chat and you don't want to talk
- 48:53to me because your body will just radiate that energy.
- 48:57I mean, just in like your participants will learn.
- 49:00The participants will learn, Yeah, that you don't want to be
- 49:02there. They have already kicked you
- 49:05before you walked in the room, they have looked you up and
- 49:07down, they read your body language, then they can
- 49:10understand your tone, everything that you say and how you present
- 49:13yourself. So when you are your very first
- 49:16time you turn up to support somebody, the way you turn up is
- 49:20so important because I reckon it's probably the first,
- 49:23Probably the 10 seconds you walk in that room never already made
- 49:26the judgement about you. Absolutely.
- 49:28And if you want to say this sector, then then do everything
- 49:32you need to do to learn how to be a great support worker and
- 49:35understand what capacity building is and what that would
- 49:38look like for working with your participant.
- 49:40So what do you see, do you see or predict in the NDIS space for
- 49:45the next couple of years? Here you're the big work.
- 49:49I think you kicked the ball out. It's out of my pay grade.
- 49:57Yeah, jeez, look, I think what do I put?
- 50:00What? What do?
- 50:02What do you, what do you predict?
- 50:03Yeah, that's right. You're in Seals.
- 50:05There's a lot going on there. Yeah, look, I think I see in the
- 50:10next, I think, I think they'll be wedding out of bad providers.
- 50:14I anticipate more funding cuts. So that's only to ensure the
- 50:19stability of the of the spin. I anticipate that a lot of
- 50:23people will also drop off the spin as well because, you know,
- 50:27I think there's lots to do at the moment.
- 50:30They're doing like a reassessment of participants
- 50:33that are currently on this thing and that's coming shortly.
- 50:35So I think I think in terms of whether it's going to be here or
- 50:40not, I see here, I think that in say the NDIS is good or for us
- 50:46here and for all the participants, it's great.
- 50:48It's a great initiative, it's a great steam.
- 50:50I think that providers need to be working together to ensure
- 50:57that this scheme is sustainable. The whole sector needs to work
- 51:02together to ensure that the NDIS.
- 51:04I think what we often do is we often pass the life again.
- 51:07We will put all the pressure on the NDI to come up with the
- 51:09answers, but the reality is, is that they don't necessarily have
- 51:13all the answers. Yeah.
- 51:16I think the in the near future there'll be more of a
- 51:19collaborative space between providers and the NDI.
- 51:23Yep, I know that they're, they do already talk.
- 51:25But I see in the near future that, that there's been more of
- 51:30a streamline of collaborative talks between providers and the
- 51:34NDIS and how they can work together to make the scheme more
- 51:37sustainable because, because and, and I think there is sorry
- 51:43and the reason why I, I just sort of know not the reason why,
- 51:46but by doing so, it will just produce better outcomes for the
- 51:49participants. And ultimately, that's what.
- 51:51That's what we're here for. That's what we all want and
- 51:53that's what we're here for. So, you know, I think that's
- 51:57what they'll probably do in general.
- 51:59So what excites you the most about the future of marketing in
- 52:03the NDIS community sector? You know, I love this.
- 52:09I what excites me most, I think what excites me most is at the
- 52:16moment, there's a lot of movement around AI.
- 52:19AI has been really slow to roll out in our sector again, because
- 52:23we tend to prioritize relationships and face to face
- 52:28value conversations and meetings.
- 52:32A lot of marketing is face to face value.
- 52:34The way the world is moving, it's moving online.
- 52:37It's it was already online years ago.
- 52:39The disability sector is as being very, very slow again,
- 52:42coming back to the way we way we work in this sector, we work
- 52:47face to face. Yeah, but it really excites me
- 52:49because I think what we're going to see is a lot more innovation
- 52:54around marketing. Marketing this sector is so, so
- 52:58boring. And in this, in this, I was
- 53:00actually saying this to to a business, I had an event.
- 53:04And I'm saying I think what we'll see is we'll see a lot of
- 53:10the great, a lot of what we see outside of this sector of all of
- 53:14the great modeling concepts that we see that's on the sector.
- 53:17We'll see that stuff coming into this sector.
- 53:20What we'll see is we'll see a lot of people, Yeah, we're
- 53:24already doing, we'll see a lot of people finally understanding
- 53:30a lot of people like will see a lot more high quality marketers
- 53:37see. I also think we'll also see a
- 53:41high increase in outsourcing the marketing, which, which will
- 53:46also be which, which will also be great on below businesses
- 53:49because it means that they'll get a lot of, you know, quality
- 53:52productions talk, quality ads and stuff like that.
- 53:57I think yeah, what we will see in the future is more high
- 54:01quality as people begin to understand how people buy, how
- 54:05people consume, how people research.
- 54:09Because there's there's, there seems to be a, there's a better
- 54:12understanding now and there'll just be a flown effect from
- 54:15there because at the moment, as I said, marketing this sector
- 54:19suck. So.
- 54:22I, it just feels really like it. I, I just, I, I get why we use
- 54:25AI. I get why we use stock images,
- 54:27but I feel like we could use the people that we've got in our own
- 54:31services, their pictures and what they're achieving and, and
- 54:33show you that more than somebody that's not even gonna use your
- 54:37service. I find that hard and drawn to
- 54:40that. I'm yet to see you might be the
- 54:43first one. You're ready for this.
- 54:44I am yet to see anyone advertise a seal house where the person
- 54:48that we serve and actually lived in that house, one of the
- 54:50residents hold a camera, go through the house, say I need a
- 54:54roommate. I'd love to see that.
- 54:58It'd be one of those things that I would love to see because that
- 55:02ownership of this is my house. This is, you know, I live with
- 55:05someone's Frank and blah, blah, blah.
- 55:07And this is a like, you know, this year is a room that we
- 55:10haven't got a roommate yet. We're looking for somebody to
- 55:12live with. I would love to, but they're
- 55:14holding the camera. They've got all control or even
- 55:16like a walkthrough of the sale house.
- 55:18So they've got the camera and they're like, yeah, and I've got
- 55:21this in the kitchen. I've got this, this and this.
- 55:23And what's important to that person that lives there, not us,
- 55:26because what you and I see is completely different to somebody
- 55:29that actually wants to live there.
- 55:30I would just die for that type of constant.
- 55:33I'm waiting. Well, a lot of, a lot of, a lot
- 55:36of the marketing and look, and I say this because when I start, I
- 55:39was probably really guilty of it as well as I've kind of found my
- 55:45feet in this space and, and done research and trying to
- 55:49understand how, how, how people in this sector are purchasing
- 55:53and how they're buying and what are they're looking for.
- 55:56You know, a lot of a lot of the stuff that I see in the market
- 55:59today where marketing has just been traffic shooting, to be
- 56:02honest, you know, just people just boosting their own egos
- 56:06and, and stuff like that and look like whenever like it is
- 56:09what it is. You know, like we see that
- 56:11across all sectors because, because, because we often talk
- 56:15about personal branding, right? Like you know, you know people,
- 56:19you know, you have to tie personal branding, you know, to
- 56:23and I guess you yourself are a personal brand and then you
- 56:27know, you kind of have to your business gets the leverage off
- 56:29that. Yeah.
- 56:32But, and that is true, the flying dance is how to do it
- 56:37well without treating your everyone and do it in a way how?
- 56:42To do it ethically in here in this center, how do we do it
- 56:45ethically? Yeah, How do we do it ethically?
- 56:47That puts the participant first because yes, people buy from
- 56:51people, people deal with people. So if your face is tied and you
- 56:56know, we see like, for example, we see it in the NRL, like like
- 56:59every single and a real player athlete is it is its own
- 57:02personal brand. And usually when different teams
- 57:05will increase, I guess they're increase, they hope they will go
- 57:10out and they'll buy like the best, the best person, the best
- 57:13brand, you know what I mean? They'll they'll go and pull that
- 57:16person on that tag because he's got a big personal brand and the
- 57:18skill set that they can bring. So I guess similar concept, but
- 57:22we don't do it well. And I think things will begin to
- 57:25change as we begin to educate. And actually was thinking about
- 57:29this the other day. Something that I want to take on
- 57:32as a personal project this year, once I went automatic, maybe
- 57:35this year or next year is I'd like to start helping, start
- 57:40helping providers, maybe even putting on a workshop or
- 57:42something if I can get it past my team.
- 57:45Because there might be like, dude, we can't.
- 57:47They don't have see things out of the bag.
- 57:48I you know, there's, I think there's something in it like how
- 57:51do you personal brand and how do you market in a sector that is
- 57:55not always very sexy? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 57:58Well, exactly, Exactly. How do you do it?
- 57:59Because the reality is we're not going to create content that's
- 58:02going to go viral. I mean, we're creating content
- 58:05for the people that consume their brands or consume in the
- 58:07sector. So, you know, yeah, it's a
- 58:12tricky one. But what I'm hoping for and what
- 58:15I'm predicting is better quality, better content and a
- 58:21better understanding of how we leverage personal branding and
- 58:25also be able to be respectful to the companies we wait for.
- 58:29Yeah. So just to where you're at the
- 58:34company, how does anyone contact you in regards to the company
- 58:38that you work for? What is the best?
- 58:40Contact yes and best contact for me is you can contact me or
- 58:47contact me directly or my e-mail address.
- 58:50I don't know if I should say that over here or put it in the.
- 58:53Description. Is it one of those ones that
- 58:55like LinkedIn or is it an e-mail?
- 58:57Yeah, Yeah. So it's just e-mail or LinkedIn.
- 59:00LinkedIn. I'm always on LinkedIn.
- 59:02I'm not LinkedIn more than I am on Instagram or actually because
- 59:05I do manage all of our socials. Yeah.
- 59:08So you can contact me on on social media.
- 59:11So allowing community care on Instagram, shift banter on
- 59:14Instagram, shift under score banter or Stallman Raptor on
- 59:18LinkedIn. Yeah, yeah.
- 59:21Or we can just contact me directly.
- 59:24And you listen to Shift Banter. What platforms is your podcast
- 59:28on? And so we're on YouTube, we're
- 59:31on Instagram, we're on TikTok. So I don't even know how to use
- 59:35TikTok. To me, I'm so, yeah, I have no
- 59:37idea. So we're on TikTok, we're on
- 59:39Instagram, we're on YouTube and. Spotify, thank you so much for
- 59:46being on the podcast you're a thrilled to talk to.
- 59:50Thank you so much. Cheers.
- 59:54Cheers.