Latest / None of Your Business Podcast / How These Women Are Quietly Changing Healthcare Forever

Transcript

How These Women Are Quietly Changing Healthcare Forever · None of Your Business Podcast

• 0:00
  But we also have younger nuns now.
• 0:01
  We actually have a skateboarding nun hops on her skateboard and
• 0:05
  you see her in her habit, like the flying nun.
• 0:07
  But what I really learned is they're vicious businessmen you
• 0:10
  do not want to cross. No pun intended.
• 0:12
  The sisters. I left Trinidad.
• 0:14
  I know no one in New York. I bought a ticket and I decided
• 0:18
  that I was going to come by myself and I took the train from
• 0:23
  125th St. straight to Partners in Care and became a home.
• 0:27
  I remember I had a manager. I walked into her office, she
• 0:30
  asked me for something. I said no problem and I walked
• 0:33
  out. She said come back here.
• 0:34
  I turned around terrified. She says to me there are no
• 0:38
  problems, there are only solutions.
• 0:40
  Never say no problem again, only say my pleasure.
• 0:46
  None of your business, Oshi. None of your business, Michael.
• 0:49
  It's the None of Your Business podcast hosted by Michael
• 0:53
  Anoshi. Welcome back everybody, to
• 0:58
  another fantastic episode of the None of Your Business Podcast.
• 1:01
  You know, one of the things that we're doing these days is we're
• 1:03
  running around to conferences and interviewing thought
• 1:06
  leaders. And some of those thought
• 1:08
  leaders are women. And the women in healthcare are
• 1:11
  making a very big mark. Every time we go to a
• 1:13
  conference, there's a special section for the women and they
• 1:16
  have these conference within a conference.
• 1:19
  And we had the opportunity to sit down with two, what I would
• 1:21
  call Trail Blazers in the healthcare industry, and I'm
• 1:24
  excited for this one. Yeah.
• 1:27
  And you're right. You don't see a lot of women
• 1:29
  specifically in healthcare that are on the executive side and
• 1:32
  the ownership side. But now you have started seeing
• 1:36
  it a little bit more, more than ever.
• 1:38
  And it's very impressive and really begs the question that
• 1:40
  why hasn't this happened sooner? But I think that it's great that
• 1:43
  it's happening now and that we're recognizing these women
• 1:46
  and they're, they're very strong women and they're bringing
• 1:49
  something to the table that I think has been, has been missing
• 1:52
  in our, in our industry, You know, caretaking, you know,
• 1:55
  that's, that's their nature. They're nurturing, you know, so
• 1:58
  I think that is a big element to what's really enhancing what
• 2:01
  they're doing. So I'm loving it.
• 2:02
  And thank you for Prime Source as the production team, please
• 2:04
  don't forget to like, subscribe and comment, get involved.
• 2:07
  Check it out. So I was, I was at the trade
• 2:10
  show floor at the at the event that Prime Source had.
• 2:13
  And I like to tell everyone just look for people who are, you
• 2:17
  know, by themselves and just go be friendly and get to know
• 2:21
  them. And I saw you playing basketball
• 2:23
  on that court and I'm like, Oh my God, she's really good.
• 2:26
  Oh, I couldn't believe it. She was just banking them,
• 2:28
  swishing them. And I just said, you want to
• 2:31
  have a one-on-one. We got to meet.
• 2:33
  And then I find out who she is. Why don't you introduce yourself
• 2:36
  to all of us? OK.
• 2:37
  Hi, I'm Trish Gathers and I serve in the capacity of the CEO
• 2:41
  of the Carmelite System. And we just recently opened up a
• 2:44
  new organization called Karith Ministries where we're focused
• 2:47
  on trying to preserve the footprint of the Catholic Church
• 2:50
  and their ministries, particularly in post acute as
• 2:54
  many of the congregations are now coming to their completion.
• 2:58
  We need to find an Ave. for them to be able to, you know, have a
• 3:02
  safe landing place for their land and their ministries that
• 3:05
  they've had. And so the Carmelite Sisters,
• 3:08
  who is our sponsor in Catholic healthcare, you have to have a
• 3:11
  sponsor. And so they'll be able to
• 3:14
  provide a venue for them to be able to give purpose and ongoing
• 3:20
  service to the communities, you guys.
• 3:22
  Never stop. You have a mission and you keep
• 3:24
  going and you make more missions.
• 3:25
  And I have to tell you, I have the utmost respect to you all.
• 3:29
  And the sisters, I mean, they're involved on the day-to-day,
• 3:32
  right? Absolutely.
• 3:33
  We still have about 112 sisters and they still serve in the
• 3:37
  capacity of like Vice President of Clinical Services.
• 3:41
  How old are we talking about? What are the What's the oldest
• 3:44
  age group? Well, we have sisters that go
• 3:46
  the whole way up to 100 years old.
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  But the ones that are in ministry still and still like
• 3:50
  actually engaged, they're probably like in middle 70s.
• 3:56
  And Sister Diane always says we don't retire, we just expire.
• 4:00
  You know, they work right up until the end as as possible, as
• 4:03
  much as possible. And they're very inspirational.
• 4:06
  But we also have younger nuns now.
• 4:07
  We actually have a skateboarding nun.
• 4:09
  So yeah, she's amazing. How does she skateboard?
• 4:12
  Yeah. Sister Dolores, she just has on
• 4:14
  her habit and she when she's up at the system office, she hops
• 4:18
  on her skateboard and you see her in her habit, like the
• 4:21
  Flying nun coming right on down. It's amazing.
• 4:25
  So, yeah. And I think that's what's so, so
• 4:27
  encouraging is that we're now starting to see a resurgence.
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  And that's why it's also important for us to preserve
• 4:33
  this footprint because if we keep selling off, then how do we
• 4:36
  minister to people? And the Catholic Church is
• 4:39
  actually the the second largest owner of real estate in the
• 4:42
  world. And so it's really, really
• 4:45
  important for us to try to preserve that so we can continue
• 4:48
  to make impact. I have to tell you, on behalf of
• 4:50
  the entire Prime Source family, we're honored to be working with
• 4:53
  you hand in hand and the the account manager that we have,
• 4:57
  the person that manages your expenses on our behalf.
• 5:01
  He was an administrator for a non for profit facility, so he
• 5:04
  has that background. How's your experience been with
• 5:06
  Prime Source? It's been amazing.
• 5:08
  First of all, I want to call out Ishi for, you know, he, he, he
• 5:11
  scolded me on how to go through those outsourced contracts and
• 5:15
  find where those margins were that they were pulling out of
• 5:18
  the company. And I mean, that's what business
• 5:20
  is, but that alone helped drop to our bottom line $1,200,000 in
• 5:28
  one. What do you do with all that
• 5:29
  money? The sisters always find a way to
• 5:31
  provide more service to everybody.
• 5:34
  You know, we're a not-for-profit organization, but still if
• 5:37
  that's what's important. But sometimes we have to pull
• 5:39
  that back for sustainability. And Prime Source really has been
• 5:43
  instrumental. I sincerely mean this.
• 5:46
  The amount of cost that we lowered this year has been
• 5:48
  incredible. It's one of the first years
• 5:51
  where our revenues grew 11% and our expenses only grew 5%.
• 5:55
  So it was mainly staffing, but all of the savings that you guys
• 5:58
  have brought over our 10 buildings and we're on a growth
• 6:02
  trajectory. And now we can be on a growth to
• 6:04
  growth trajectory confidently because of everything you've
• 6:09
  done. But so thank you for noticing my
• 6:13
  basketball. But reaching out 'cause I don't
• 6:15
  know if you remember, we went then into karaoke and you were
• 6:19
  hosting the karaoke and it was a really nice time and I got to
• 6:22
  meet so many nice people at that.
• 6:25
  I gotta be honest with you. I'm gonna share something a
• 6:27
  little bit vulnerable with you. OK?
• 6:28
  So we were playing basketball for like, 15 minutes.
• 6:31
  Yes. And I said come with me to
• 6:32
  karaoke. And you came with me to karaoke.
• 6:35
  And I tell this to people all the time.
• 6:37
  Build relationships. Doesn't matter who you're with.
• 6:39
  It could be a vendor, it could be an operator.
• 6:41
  Everybody's a window into an opportunity somewhere, whether
• 6:44
  it's progress business or progress personally, you're
• 6:47
  gonna grow by meeting people. That's right.
• 6:49
  And you came to the karaoke room and you started singing.
• 6:51
  And then I walked outside to get a drink.
• 6:54
  Probably three people came to me in a matter of 30 seconds.
• 6:56
  Do you know who's in there? You should go in there and sing.
• 6:59
  And I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 7:00
  Who that. And then I got to know who you
• 7:02
  were. I didn't, we didn't have our
• 7:03
  badges on at the time and we didn't even know who each other.
• 7:06
  And it was amazing. So I really appreciate the fact
• 7:08
  that you allowed that to happen. And that's what's amazing about
• 7:11
  your background and who you are as a person, is that you're
• 7:14
  responsible for so much. I mean, your systems care for so
• 7:17
  many people. They do.
• 7:18
  And there's so much that we're learning from your operations
• 7:21
  that, you know, you're learning from us.
• 7:23
  I have to tell you, we're learning more from you and it's
• 7:26
  an honor to be part of your system.
• 7:27
  Well, you know, I'm so proud of this event today.
• 7:29
  And one of my business partners, the guy who really helped me
• 7:33
  form care if you kept nagging me, his name is Joseph Levin and
• 7:38
  he's actually doing a round table today.
• 7:40
  And you know what it's on finding purpose and meaning in
• 7:43
  post acute services. And it's because of his
• 7:45
  engagement with the sisters and seeing how we look at our
• 7:48
  decision making. And yes, we do need to be
• 7:51
  financially sustainable, but it also is about the impact that
• 7:54
  we're trying to make in the lives of seniors.
• 7:57
  And so it's really transformed him and I'm so proud of him.
• 8:00
  So even though I was so, so busy today, I made room 'cause I
• 8:04
  wanted to come out and support him as he's talking about this
• 8:07
  because he's brought also so much value.
• 8:10
  And you know, Isaac, Isaac Rubin, that was the that was the
• 8:13
  gold Seal for you guys. When.
• 8:14
  But he's like, I know who to take you to, to help you with
• 8:17
  your purchasing. And it was you guys.
• 8:19
  And I'm like, oh, boy. Yeah.
• 8:22
  Thank you, Isaac. Yeah.
• 8:23
  Isaac's the best. Isaac's a friend of the company.
• 8:25
  Trish, I have to tell you something that I've learned by
• 8:28
  working with your amazing organization.
• 8:31
  So I'm a nice Jewish boy from, you know, somewhat upstate New
• 8:35
  York, I like to say. And I've never really had a lot
• 8:38
  of interaction with a nun and with, you know, the sisters.
• 8:42
  This was really kind of my first major exposure.
• 8:45
  Here's what I learned. Here's what I learned.
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  OK, Apart from them being extremely devoted and dedicated,
• 8:54
  you could see what they do is it comes from a sincere place that
• 8:59
  if you peel it away, it's all heart.
• 9:01
  Tell you what it is. You could tell.
• 9:02
  You could see the way they talk about it.
• 9:04
  But what I really learned is they're vicious businessmen.
• 9:07
  You do not want to cross, no pun intended.
• 9:10
  The sisters, you do not want to cross.
• 9:12
  Like they know what's going on. They're.
• 9:15
  They do on the pulse thank. You for saying that because I
• 9:17
  think a lot of times they think that the sisters that they're
• 9:20
  not professionals, they are licensed RNS administrators,
• 9:25
  they serve in the capacity of the board.
• 9:27
  They understand their financials because it's so important for
• 9:30
  them to be able to sustain their ministry.
• 9:32
  And they're bold enough to say, you know what, we see that
• 9:35
  there's an emerging need in society and we're going to rise
• 9:38
  up after the pandemic. Once we stabilize ourselves,
• 9:41
  which you guys have helped us to do, we're now going to make that
• 9:44
  bold step to reach out and to really try to serve others who
• 9:49
  either or, or at the end of their ministries with the other
• 9:52
  congregations of sisters. And the other thing that we're
• 9:54
  going to be doing is helping the aged religious, which this is
• 9:57
  really, really sad. A lot of the school teachers in
• 10:00
  particular, they're 50% underfunded in their retirement
• 10:03
  needs because they took a vow of poverty.
• 10:06
  So I think a lot of times people equate that, you know, to
• 10:11
  justify who you are and that if you've been a successful person,
• 10:15
  you, you measure that in dollars, right?
• 10:17
  And these sisters who did a vial of poverty and the, and the
• 10:20
  sisters built 25% of the infrastructure of the United
• 10:23
  States with a vial of poverty. All of the various
• 10:26
  congregations, the schools, the hospitals, the nursing schools,
• 10:31
  way back when, the universities, they did all of that.
• 10:34
  And now some of them of the congregations are having
• 10:39
  difficulty in meeting that gap. And so it's something that we
• 10:42
  also want to help by, you know, using some of these buildings
• 10:46
  and repurposing them and making sure that the sisters aren't
• 10:49
  just trying to build everything on their own.
• 10:51
  We're going to have to come up with models of care to really
• 10:54
  make sure that they're properly cared for.
• 10:56
  Wow, you, you've been watching all this growth happen and
• 10:59
  you've been seeing so much impact that it can have.
• 11:01
  Yes. I'm curious, what would you say
• 11:03
  to someone who's starting in the industry?
• 11:06
  What would you tell yourself, your young self, like, oh I wish
• 11:08
  I would have known this. Well, you know what I in my
• 11:12
  career, my first entry into Catholic healthcare, there's,
• 11:16
  there's two things, three things.
• 11:18
  The first one is to have the courage to see where there's a
• 11:22
  problem. Because as I've grown through my
• 11:25
  career, it is about purpose and impact that you're making.
• 11:28
  It's not about all of the things that you accumulate, It's about
• 11:31
  what you give. And so, you know, when you move
• 11:35
  up in your career, you can find that all of a sudden you're a
• 11:37
  vice president or whatever and you find it's very empty.
• 11:40
  It's like, yes, I have more power and it's not power over.
• 11:43
  It's power to and be able to influence and create a vision
• 11:47
  for people to be able to make an impact in the world.
• 11:49
  I think the other thing that's important is not to be afraid to
• 11:52
  solve problems. So one of the other parts that I
• 11:54
  always tell all of them, but employees that start out working
• 11:57
  for us to don't be afraid to be a vacuum.
• 12:00
  And that means like if there's a problem, go there and fix it.
• 12:03
  And it doesn't mean you have to know everything.
• 12:04
  You'll learn through that experience.
• 12:07
  And the third one I have to say is really, really important.
• 12:11
  And it was Bob Stanek who was my CEO at Catholic Health East.
• 12:16
  And he said the one thing that you must always preserve is your
• 12:19
  integrity. If you lose your integrity, you
• 12:21
  lose everything. And so in all of my business
• 12:24
  dealings that really resonated with me and I always made sure
• 12:28
  that that's something that I put at the.
• 12:29
  That's beautiful. I I appreciate you sharing that
• 12:32
  all with us. I'm curious, as you're speaking,
• 12:34
  I'm thinking what was your first job?
• 12:35
  When did you make your first dollar?
• 12:37
  My very first job was flipping burgers, baby.
• 12:40
  Yes, you and everybody else in America, right?
• 12:43
  Apparently that's the number one job that most Americans have in
• 12:47
  common, that their very first job was working at a burger
• 12:49
  joint, right? You know that it just came out
• 12:51
  with that statistic. Yeah.
• 12:52
  Wow. Flipping burgers right, is the
• 12:54
  number one job that all people had at one point.
• 12:57
  And and then I knew that I wanted to go into accounting.
• 13:00
  So then during the summer I started working in accounts
• 13:03
  payable and then my first real job was working for Arthur
• 13:07
  Anderson. And I can shred paper really
• 13:10
  well. That's an inside joke on Enron.
• 13:15
  But but actually I did work for Arthur Anderson.
• 13:17
  The reason why I picked them was I wanted, my goal was to work at
• 13:20
  Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.
• 13:23
  And so I was able to do so. So what when I was at Arthur
• 13:26
  Anderson, they were one of my clients.
• 13:28
  And then when they had an opportunity, I went there and
• 13:31
  now you'll say, well, how did you get the post acute services?
• 13:34
  They tell you when you start working at a Children's Hospital
• 13:37
  that it may be very hard to actually cope working at
• 13:41
  Children's Hospital. And so is my lifelong goal.
• 13:44
  And after nine months it really was impacting me.
• 13:46
  It was so hard to see parents mourning the illness of their
• 13:50
  children and watching these sick children taking care of their
• 13:53
  parents. And so through my connection
• 13:56
  with Arthur Andersen, I was able to move to axe retirement life.
• 14:00
  And that's when I made my entry in the post acute.
• 14:03
  And then I got tired of like the CCR, CS and just serving the
• 14:06
  upper sector. I wanted to take those learnings
• 14:08
  and move it to middle income and to low income.
• 14:12
  And so voila, that's where I landed.
• 14:15
  Chris, we don't deserve you. You are.
• 14:18
  We don't deserve you. You're a powerhouse.
• 14:21
  I mean, you are you. You could probably, we could
• 14:23
  talk another three hours. Not just your accomplishments,
• 14:27
  but the intricacies of it and the details behind it.
• 14:29
  You've done so much. You've seen so much.
• 14:31
  You've been involved in so much, you know it for you.
• 14:33
  You keep saying you know Prime Source helped and you know you
• 14:35
  appreciate it, but you did. We appreciate you.
• 14:37
  We really do so appreciate. We want to invite you back,
• 14:40
  Trish. Come, come have a one-on-one
• 14:42
  with us. There's a lot more here.
• 14:43
  This is not enough. This is not just enough.
• 14:45
  Yeah. My New Year's resolution is to
• 14:47
  have you on the podcast one-on-one.
• 14:49
  In one of her amazing facilities.
• 14:51
  We should do it like that, with the scenery in the back with the
• 14:54
  sisters. With.
• 14:55
  The Sisters. They'll love it with.
• 14:57
  The Sisters. We're going to do it.
• 14:59
  What? What is your New Year's
• 15:00
  resolution coming up, you know? You know, I think it's really
• 15:07
  to, I've been so busy, like, you know, focusing on external
• 15:12
  things that I want to now take some time to focus back on my,
• 15:16
  my daughters who have been really watching me grow in my
• 15:20
  career. But I want to make sure that I
• 15:22
  take a moment not to get so busy.
• 15:25
  And it's really been a very demanding year trying to set up
• 15:28
  a new company and everything that I want to reconnect with
• 15:31
  them a little bit more. Not that I never left them
• 15:33
  behind, you know, 'cause you get it that.
• 15:35
  When they're 20. 9 and 32 they want to kind of like mom go away
• 15:39
  a little bit, right? So I just want to make sure that
• 15:42
  I take some time to really check in with them again to see how
• 15:45
  things are going for. Love that, love that for you,
• 15:47
  love that for your kids and I have to say congratulations for
• 15:50
  everything you've done till now and good luck on your new
• 15:52
  venture and the new journey that you have with this organ.
• 15:54
  Well, you're coming with us, baby.
• 15:57
  I'm ready. Your story matters.
• 15:59
  Let's talk is the slogan for our newest sponsor, the Serenity
• 16:03
  Center, which is a clinic for therapy and many other types of
• 16:07
  services that people need for mental health challenges.
• 16:09
  And I have to tell you that I did not want them to be a
• 16:11
  sponsor of ours until I tested them myself.
• 16:15
  And I sat down as a session paid by my insurance with the leader,
• 16:20
  Mordecai Weinberger. This person who has a radio
• 16:23
  show, he has live Zoom conferences with hundreds of
• 16:27
  thousands of people tuning in every single week.
• 16:29
  The reason why they do is because he is amazing.
• 16:33
  I sat with him for over an hour and I got the most out of it.
• 16:36
  And let me tell you, I did a lot of talking, he did a lot of
• 16:39
  listening. And I learned that the Serenity
• 16:42
  Center is a clinic that provides a service for therapy that's led
• 16:46
  and supervised by Mordecai Weinberger.
• 16:49
  And I see why they're so successful.
• 16:52
  And it's just something that, you know, we need to mention
• 16:54
  more of. And I want the community of
• 16:56
  Rockland County and even beyond to know that if you need
• 16:58
  therapy, don't wait and push it off because it might be too
• 17:01
  expensive or you may not be aware of the perfect therapist.
• 17:05
  Go to Serenity center, try them out.
• 17:08
  Insurance will most likely cover most if not all the charges and
• 17:12
  you will get top level service. Sounds like a no brainer to me.
• 17:16
  All right, we are here with Maria Santiago.
• 17:19
  Talk with Maria. Maria, I saw your boots
• 17:21
  downstairs, I went on your program and I still know nothing
• 17:25
  about you, so please introduce yourself.
• 17:28
  So my name is Maria Santiago. I am the CEO and President of
• 17:33
  the Talk with Maria Show, and I also have her school, Home
• 17:37
  Health Aide Training Institute that's been working very hard to
• 17:42
  train home healthies, certified nursing assistants and putting
• 17:46
  them out in the community to try to end the shortage.
• 17:48
  Wow. That's amazing.
• 17:50
  Yeah, I've been in home care well over 25 years and I've been
• 17:54
  a broadcaster for 20 of those. Broadcaster, that's correct.
• 17:59
  I'm very. Honored, Yeah.
• 18:01
  By the way, you know, I heard somebody like an inspirational
• 18:03
  speaker and he gives motivation to people and he says anytime
• 18:07
  you introduce yourself and you give yourself credentials, I'm
• 18:10
  in the business for this amount of time.
• 18:12
  Because people tend to say 10 years, 20 years, 25 years like
• 18:16
  you just said, because you know what sounds more appealing when
• 18:19
  you say and it's all about presentation, it's all about
• 18:21
  delivery. If you are working in this
• 18:24
  industry, which is very impressive for 25 years.
• 18:26
  Thank you. You know what you should say.
• 18:28
  I've been in this business almost 3 decades.
• 18:31
  Almost the ideal. Decades yes right and that
• 18:35
  sounds more profound yes it's and it's true it's.
• 18:38
  Absolutely. Decades.
• 18:40
  Yeah. Yeah, it's all about that
• 18:41
  experience. Yeah.
• 18:42
  Where are you originally from? I'm originally from Trinidad.
• 18:46
  I hear it in UX. And Tobago.
• 18:48
  We can't leave the other island out.
• 18:50
  I will tell you something personal about me is that my
• 18:52
  parents had an employment agency specifically for people from
• 18:56
  Trinidad are. You kidding me?
• 18:57
  What was the name of that? It was called Greenfield Agency
• 19:01
  Importance. How creative of a name, by the
• 19:03
  way. Wow.
• 19:04
  Name it after, well, it's all about your reputation.
• 19:07
  That's what it was about. Feel I'm not if I I.
• 19:10
  And we had one of our one of our first people that we worked
• 19:12
  with, her name was Roddy Kunjulad.
• 19:15
  And. She was from Trinidad and when I
• 19:16
  used to watch her music, she used to make us delicious spicy
• 19:20
  food. Oh wow, look at you.
• 19:21
  Do you cook? I cook.
• 19:23
  I love to cook. What do you love to cook?
• 19:25
  We have a favorite dishes called Palau Hello, it's rice and
• 19:30
  pigeon peas with if you want to do beef or meats and you put all
• 19:35
  the nice hot Peppers in there, some thyme and sive and cilantro
• 19:40
  and shadow Benny and you just yummy.
• 19:44
  Wow, delicious. With some with some lime.
• 19:47
  I didn't know anything what you just said, but I would try it.
• 19:50
  I'd try anything one. Time.
• 19:51
  You wouldn't love it. You wouldn't lick your lips.
• 19:53
  So let me ask you something, Maria.
• 19:55
  Are you from Trinidad? Very exotic, by the way, Very
• 19:57
  cool. So how long were you in
• 19:59
  Trinidad? Were you born there, or were you
• 20:01
  I? Was born in Trinidad.
• 20:02
  I later moved to New York. My parents thought it was a very
• 20:05
  crazy move. I decided that I wanted to join
• 20:08
  the Army and I came with the high hopes of getting into the
• 20:12
  Army. And then for some reason, my
• 20:15
  journey was not just subjected to that, and I got weaned into
• 20:20
  being a home health aide. That was your first job.
• 20:25
  That was my first job, and it was in the height of the
• 20:28
  pandemic of HIV, and no one wanted to work.
• 20:31
  Everybody was saying no to clients.
• 20:33
  And I took every job possible that I could have taken to care
• 20:37
  for everyone that had HIV as best as I can.
• 20:40
  That's amazing. And then I moved into being a
• 20:42
  coordinator. I moved into being an director,
• 20:46
  went back to Hostess Community College, became an
• 20:48
  administrator. Then I owned my own home care
• 20:51
  agency. I subsequently sold that.
• 20:53
  Then I moved into working with the insurance companies, Senior
• 20:57
  Health and Integra, worked with them for a while doing marketing
• 21:00
  on the field, bringing clients, going hub nubbing to every
• 21:05
  assisted living nursing home, helping with discharges, helping
• 21:10
  people to come back home to live or helping people to live in
• 21:13
  assisted living or nursing home as best as can.
• 21:17
  And as I was doing all of this and broadcasting, I figured, you
• 21:21
  know what? People are at home, but they're
• 21:23
  not happy because there's a shortage of home health aides,
• 21:26
  there's a shortage of people caring and how best.
• 21:31
  What can I do about this? I wanted to create a long
• 21:33
  lasting legacy of care. I grew up with my great
• 21:37
  grandparents in Trinidad. I'm from Ibiscus Drive and I
• 21:41
  grew up with my great grandparents since I was two
• 21:43
  months old. So working with seniors was
• 21:46
  ideally just a blessing and I thought that I would then train
• 21:50
  people to take care of people at home.
• 21:54
  Do they have do they have nursing homes in Trinidad?
• 21:56
  They do. Is it popular?
• 21:58
  Is it more popular to take care of your family at?
• 22:00
  Home It's more popular to care for your family at home.
• 22:03
  I'm hearing that a lot from out of America, yes.
• 22:06
  And you're bringing that culture into this world here.
• 22:08
  Yes. That's beautiful.
• 22:09
  And I just wanted to kind of cultivate passion and heart
• 22:13
  together, not just let's make the money or I have to work.
• 22:17
  I say to people, if it's a job, it's not for you.
• 22:20
  You have to enjoy what you do. You have to be happy to take
• 22:23
  care of someone at their lowest. You've never met them before
• 22:27
  that we're not we're not in a glamorous team.
• 22:29
  We're not doing a party. I'm taking care of your behind
• 22:32
  to make sure that it's not breaking down.
• 22:34
  I'm spoon feeding you. I'm giving you vital information
• 22:38
  for sustenance of mental health to ensure that you you can live
• 22:42
  through your days either to Wellness, in independence OR to
• 22:46
  heaven, but either way, we'll make you happy.
• 22:49
  How? Beautiful.
• 22:50
  And how profound. Yeah, I have to ask you, what's
• 22:52
  your New Year's resolution? My New Year's resolution is to
• 22:56
  travel the world and make sure that every senior does not go
• 23:00
  uncared for. Wow.
• 23:02
  Around the world, yes. That sounds like a very daunting
• 23:05
  task, Maria. You're impressive.
• 23:08
  I I only met you 5 minutes ago, but I'm already connecting to
• 23:12
  you. Thank you.
• 23:12
  I'm loving your story. I love your history.
• 23:15
  Thank you. And there's a famous expression
• 23:17
  or it's an adage. One parent can raise 10
• 23:22
  children. 10 children cannot raise a parent.
• 23:26
  That's correct. They can't care for a parent.
• 23:27
  There's something about this is a not a job like you say.
• 23:31
  It's not just something you do to make money.
• 23:34
  Sure, you can make money along with it, but the passion has to
• 23:37
  be there. And I could see that you're very
• 23:39
  passionate about this and you're a passionate person in general.
• 23:42
  I, I, I, I'm adoring you right now.
• 23:45
  OK, I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan until I hear some
• 23:49
  stuff that maybe I won't be a fan, but right now I'm a fan.
• 23:52
  Talk to me about the other Maria.
• 23:54
  I don't want to hear about this wonderful, amazing Maria that we
• 23:57
  just talked. Let's talk about some of your
• 23:58
  struggles, some of your challenges.
• 24:01
  You came in as an immigrant. You're not from the country.
• 24:04
  You built yourself up, you become successful and now you're
• 24:07
  in a position to help others. Talk to us a little bit about
• 24:11
  some of those those rainy days, some of those days you didn't
• 24:15
  want to get out of. Bed slept on the train.
• 24:17
  The days that I I didn't have enough money to pay for a cold
• 24:23
  basement apartment that I came back from doing 3 jobs.
• 24:27
  One of them was working at Texas Fried Chicken and I only had
• 24:31
  quarters in my pocket. And I got home and for the first
• 24:34
  time I was experiencing hail and I was saying Oh my God, these
• 24:39
  are pebbles coming from the sky. What are they?
• 24:42
  Is the world and. They're just hitting you.
• 24:44
  Bumpity bump. And when I walked to the
• 24:47
  apartment that I lived in in the basement, all our things was
• 24:51
  outside a little black and white television.
• 24:54
  My three kids and my husband, who is now passed and he said,
• 25:00
  she said, we cannot pay the rent on I'll pay you next month.
• 25:05
  We have to leave. And I looked at them and I said,
• 25:07
  where are we going? He said, let's first empty the
• 25:10
  two suitcases we have into one suitcase and then we'll figure
• 25:14
  it out. And that night we slept on the
• 25:16
  train, the number 2 train, going back and forth four times.
• 25:22
  And then he called a friend of his that was in the Army and he
• 25:24
  says, for heaven's sake, come to my house, where are you guys?
• 25:28
  And that was one thing, one of the most profound things that
• 25:32
  led me into healthcare and not in the Army, which is what I
• 25:35
  wanted to do are I worked at Best Western.
• 25:41
  And one very busy weekend as I cashed through someone's entire
• 25:48
  groceries, the supervisor came up to me and said you made an
• 25:52
  error. You cashed too fast.
• 25:55
  I can almost guarantee you that there's an error.
• 25:58
  And I backed out of the entrance of the cash register.
• 26:01
  And I said to her, I dare you if re rebuild everything again.
• 26:07
  And she said to me, if if you are not accurate, I am going to
• 26:11
  have to fire you. And I looked at her and I said I
• 26:15
  came. In my head, my brain was
• 26:18
  stirring. And it brought me back to what
• 26:20
  my grandparents, they cried when I left because when I left
• 26:23
  Trinidad, I knew no one in New York.
• 26:25
  I bought a ticket and I decided that I was going to come.
• 26:30
  By yourself and came. By myself.
• 26:31
  Just you and a suitcase in tow. How old are you?
• 26:34
  I was in my twenties, 22. Wow, what a journey.
• 26:38
  Yes, and so. And did you get a visa to come
• 26:40
  here? I got a visa.
• 26:41
  I I had a business. I worked for a very prominent
• 26:45
  woman. Her name was Grace Thaler.
• 26:47
  She was the first woman that ran for president of Trinidad.
• 26:51
  Wow. My mother had gotten me that
• 26:53
  position. We did not, she did not win, but
• 26:56
  I got an exposure to the entire political team there.
• 27:00
  And so my grandparents has estates.
• 27:04
  We, I came from an estate. I grew up in an estate.
• 27:07
  What's your village? It's my great grandparents.
• 27:10
  We had a lot of wealth and real estate that we still do.
• 27:14
  We have acres and acres of land. And I came from a home with
• 27:18
  everything. And my great grandmother looked
• 27:20
  at me in tears, and she spoke Spanish and French.
• 27:23
  And when she wanted to get something across to you, she
• 27:26
  would speak to you in both languages.
• 27:28
  And she was behooving me like, where are you going?
• 27:31
  Here's all the money. Here's all my jewelry.
• 27:33
  Here is everything. Why are you going to a big city
• 27:36
  that no one knows you? This is not a good idea.
• 27:39
  That's a fair question. Why were you?
• 27:41
  Why? What compelled you to leave?
• 27:42
  That I had known, I had walked all the phases of Trinidad and I
• 27:48
  wanted to do something else. I had gone to the Army in
• 27:51
  Trinidad, taken the exam, and after we'd taken the exam, the
• 27:54
  attorney general said, we don't think we should have women in
• 27:57
  the army, we should just have men.
• 27:59
  And so I created a rally and they later changed their minds.
• 28:03
  But then it was like, OK, I think if I went to New York, I
• 28:06
  could get into the Army and I could just be a captain.
• 28:11
  Be who you want to. Be.
• 28:12
  Be who I want to be. Well, she reversed everything
• 28:17
  back from the register and it was flush and I looked at her
• 28:22
  and the the the lady that was standing there was a Hispanic
• 28:26
  senior. She says I did not like the way
• 28:28
  you spoke to this young lady and I don't want the groceries
• 28:30
  anymore. And I looked at her and I said,
• 28:33
  you know what, I was so insulted with the way that she had spoken
• 28:35
  to me and there was other people in the back of the line.
• 28:37
  I was like, I said, I'm just going to leave.
• 28:40
  You don't have to fire me. She was like, no, Maria, please
• 28:42
  say I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
• 28:44
  And I just said, you know what, I am leaving.
• 28:47
  I was torn. I would just torn.
• 28:51
  And as I was walking out the door, the security guard said to
• 28:54
  me, well, Maria, if you really want to leave, here's the daily
• 28:56
  newspaper. Maybe you'll find something
• 29:00
  there. Check out the classifieds.
• 29:02
  Check out the classifieds and I checked out the classifieds and
• 29:05
  I saw partners in Carefree Home Health Aid trainee and I took
• 29:09
  the train from 125th St. straight to Partners in Care and
• 29:13
  became a home healthy. Wow.
• 29:15
  What an amazing. Year it all started and look
• 29:18
  where you are today, years and years later sitting here with us
• 29:21
  2 bad looking fellows. But you know what?
• 29:24
  I wouldn't say speak. For yourself?
• 29:25
  Yeah. Maria, let me ask you something.
• 29:26
  How did this talk with Maria tell us about this.
• 29:28
  What is that? So I think the talk with Maria
• 29:32
  stemmed from a lot of effects in the sense of generation.
• 29:37
  My great grandfather had. He was the head of the union in
• 29:40
  Trinidad. He always had the mic on.
• 29:43
  My great grandmother was the head of the society, the women's
• 29:46
  society, and we always had fun clubs and society meetings every
• 29:50
  month and dances and balls. And so my grandmother was a
• 29:55
  great communicator. Her name was Francois Julian and
• 29:59
  my great grandfather, they just threw parties and and hosted
• 30:04
  almost like taking care of the village.
• 30:07
  And so I like talking. And it's in your DNA.
• 30:12
  Yeah. Love it.
• 30:13
  In my DNA and I just wanted the world to know more about home
• 30:18
  care. I feel that people do not regard
• 30:21
  their seniors after you hit 7075.
• 30:24
  I mean, if my old grandmother, my old grandfather, they don't
• 30:28
  get visits anymore. If you have money, maybe your
• 30:30
  family visits. But if you don't have, maybe
• 30:32
  you'll never see somebody. And then you're parked up in a
• 30:35
  nursing home or you're just home alone, you know, just lonely.
• 30:39
  And I just hate that because when I came to New York, I felt
• 30:45
  bad that I had left my grandparents home.
• 30:49
  And I think that I I kept wanting to make that up.
• 30:54
  And as much as there was other family members, I just felt in
• 30:58
  me that I had to continue the legacy of care so that no one is
• 31:03
  home alone. When my grandmother was talking
• 31:05
  to she like, please come back home and I'll be like Mama.
• 31:09
  How often do you go back to Trinidad?
• 31:12
  What was the last time? I just went in June for my
• 31:14
  birthday to visit my family. Oh, happy birthday.
• 31:16
  Yeah. Thankful that's a nice birthday
• 31:18
  tree. Yes, my cousins are Gemini's as
• 31:22
  well and I wanted to surprise them.
• 31:24
  And I went back home and my friends were eagerly waiting for
• 31:26
  me. I still have all my high school
• 31:28
  friends and they had a nice, you know, we had dinner and it was
• 31:33
  amazing. It's nothing that coconut water
• 31:35
  and your friends talking and giving you a bath.
• 31:38
  Sit down, let me take care of you.
• 31:39
  Let's talk, let's eat, let's do fun things together.
• 31:43
  I need friends like that. By the way, what would you say
• 31:46
  Maria is like the one thing that really stands out for Trinidad?
• 31:49
  Like what's the go to thing? What are you most proud of?
• 31:52
  For the rest of the world that doesn't know a lot about
• 31:55
  Trinidad, what would you say is the one thing that really stands
• 31:59
  out? We live as one now.
• 32:02
  No country in its entirety can share the greatest love.
• 32:06
  In Trinidad we have a saying, Trini to the bone.
• 32:09
  If we hear another's another trainees accents, we yield.
• 32:16
  And our Prime Minister, Doctor Eric Williams, who I, I, I owe a
• 32:20
  lot to, he said. Together we aspire, together we
• 32:24
  achieve. So we're always helping each
• 32:26
  other. We have a company motto here.
• 32:29
  Yes. Together we are stronger, that's
• 32:32
  correct. And we resonate with that
• 32:34
  message absolutely. Thank you so much, Maria for
• 32:37
  coming on our program. We really appreciate it.
• 32:39
  It was so nice to have a talk with you.
• 32:41
  Yes, I look forward to seeing a lot of you in the future show.
• 32:45
  Thank you so much for having me. It's been an honor.
• 32:47
  Appreciate it, love your mission, love the idea of what
• 32:49
  you're doing. We share in that passion for
• 32:51
  senior care and we look forward to great things.
• 32:54
  Absolutely, and all the best. I'm going to get right into it
• 32:57
  with saying that juggling is a very difficult thing to do.
• 33:01
  And today we are joined by a master juggler.
• 33:03
  I'm just going to call you that for now.
• 33:05
  You juggle the balance of personal life and business life.
• 33:09
  And I've been following you for a while and I see what you're
• 33:11
  doing and I'm kind of blown away by it.
• 33:14
  So welcome to the None of Your Business podcast.
• 33:16
  So glad you're with us. Toby, why don't you give us an
• 33:18
  introduction? Thank you.
• 33:19
  I really appreciate it and it's an honor to be here.
• 33:23
  I don't know if I would call myself a juggler, but more of AI
• 33:27
  try to prioritize right and integrate as much as I can into
• 33:32
  my life, my personal life, my business life.
• 33:35
  My brother actually said to me the other day, he's like, you
• 33:37
  know, your, your sales style is you take a very personal
• 33:41
  stylistic approach to how you do business.
• 33:42
  And I'm like, I don't know how the how else to do it.
• 33:46
  Is there another way? Right.
• 33:48
  Somebody just asked me. I was standing outside.
• 33:49
  He goes, so how do you get like, how do you get deals?
• 33:52
  Like you just meet people you know, you build a connection
• 33:55
  and. You're not getting good by
• 33:56
  sleeping till 10:00 every day, that's for sure.
• 33:59
  Yeah, no, yeah. You gotta be out there, you.
• 34:01
  Just got it so. What time do you wake up in the?
• 34:02
  Morning. Right place, right time.
• 34:04
  I-55 I try to wake up at 5:00. I literally went to sleep last
• 34:07
  night at 5. Not even kidding.
• 34:09
  I don't even know what the world looks like at 5:00 AM.
• 34:10
  It's very dark, I imagine very dark.
• 34:13
  And now that we have a dog, it's it's like my alarm clock because
• 34:16
  I hear her barking and I have to go downstairs and take her out
• 34:18
  and let's go lunches. Everything has to be packed,
• 34:21
  ready to go, to have a smooth morning are.
• 34:23
  You a dog person? I grew up with dogs.
• 34:26
  My kids, you know, once we moved to Colorado, that was it.
• 34:28
  Everybody has a dog. You need to have a dog.
• 34:30
  You need to, you need to have skis and you need to have a dog.
• 34:33
  One dog, one dog, one dog. It's no one.
• 34:36
  We are done. Yeah.
• 34:40
  It's, it's been quite a journey. I mean, my, my whole career is
• 34:44
  just I, I look back and I'm just what, how did I even where?
• 34:48
  Did the time go? Can you give us a snapshot?
• 34:50
  Sure. So I started off in the
• 34:53
  hospitality industry. I was a sales manager at the
• 34:57
  Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City, and I loved it.
• 35:02
  It was the most fun job I ever had.
• 35:05
  When it comes to customer service, it's like, let's just
• 35:08
  upgrade you. Let's just let let's comp you,
• 35:11
  you know, very different from healthcare.
• 35:14
  And my grandmother came to live with us.
• 35:16
  I was single and about 24 years old, and my grandmother came to
• 35:22
  live with us. And through her last six months
• 35:25
  of life, she had Parkinson's and I was very involved in taking
• 35:28
  care of her. And my father was a physician
• 35:31
  for 30 years. I was a daughter of a doctor,
• 35:35
  and I could play one on TVI don't know why.
• 35:38
  When you have when when you have a parent that's a doctor,
• 35:40
  everybody calls you for medical advice.
• 35:42
  It's like, I don't know, Google it, you know, Web MD, but my, my
• 35:47
  father was a huge inspiration in, in my career.
• 35:51
  He is today everyday I have, I carry him with me and he
• 35:55
  tragically passed away. So I was sort of in this time in
• 35:58
  my life where, you know, I was working and I was just trying to
• 36:01
  I, I really wanted to have meaning in what I was doing and
• 36:05
  working in a hotel was fun and, you know, lots of meetings, lots
• 36:09
  of networking and lots of partying.
• 36:11
  My clients were Sony and Fox and it was just a very different
• 36:15
  world. I was not religious at the time.
• 36:17
  I was not orthodox and I, I just had this void.
• 36:22
  I really, I was talking to my mom like I just, I don't think
• 36:25
  this is where I want to be when I what I want to do when I grow
• 36:28
  up, I really want to begin healthcare.
• 36:29
  I wanted to live in my father's world.
• 36:31
  I wanted to help patients, I wanted to help families.
• 36:34
  And I had this idea. I was like, what if I can create
• 36:37
  a hospitality and healthcare training program?
• 36:39
  And I called the guy that I used to have Shabbos dinner with when
• 36:43
  I was in Stern. He was living in Queens at the
• 36:46
  time. And I called him and I said,
• 36:48
  Jason, I have this wacko idea. I want to create a hospitality
• 36:52
  and healthcare training program. And I he was the only guy I knew
• 36:55
  in the healthcare world, in in the business world.
• 36:57
  He was a chief marketing officer for Centers for Care at the
• 37:01
  time. And he says, can you fly out
• 37:03
  tomorrow? OK, so I'm 25.
• 37:05
  I fly out to New York from California, and I walk into
• 37:09
  Jeremy Strauss's office. And two hours later, he said, I
• 37:15
  wanted to hire you. I want you to be the corporate
• 37:18
  director of patient relations. And I said, what does that mean?
• 37:20
  And he's like, you'll figure it out.
• 37:22
  And that was my that that's how I stepped into the healthcare
• 37:25
  world. That was my entrance.
• 37:26
  Yeah. You know what's interesting
• 37:27
  about the Grand, which is Jeremy Strauss?
• 37:30
  Very reputable, credible group. They've been around for a very
• 37:33
  long time. I believe they predominantly
• 37:35
  operate in New York. I think it's a big state for
• 37:37
  them, something I know about them as a group, which is very
• 37:40
  interesting. Michael.
• 37:41
  They don't call their residents patients, they call their
• 37:45
  residents guests. That's how they refer to them as
• 37:47
  as guests. And I'm hearing your story and
• 37:50
  how this all began and it's starting to click for me that
• 37:53
  that was a mentality that they took on very early, which
• 37:56
  relates to patient satisfaction. You know, you're finding some
• 38:00
  synergies and hospitality in that world, how they do it and
• 38:02
  you're applying it in healthcare, which was probably a
• 38:05
  new concept, like a new idea. No one's, no one was doing that
• 38:08
  at the time. But I I find that very
• 38:10
  interesting because it's stuck after all these years, they
• 38:12
  still operate in that fashion. They really do.
• 38:14
  He, he really had a, a vision that he was going to set the bar
• 38:19
  high for nursing homes. He was going, he was an
• 38:21
  admissions director and he understood that the future of
• 38:25
  healthcare was all going to be about patient choice.
• 38:28
  And, and what is going to set us apart from the rest is going to
• 38:31
  be the experience and the, and the customer service.
• 38:34
  So we created this program and I worked morning till night going
• 38:40
  to nursing home to nursing home and doing these trainings with
• 38:43
  all staff on all three shifts. And it was just the most
• 38:48
  incredible learning experience for me, understanding the
• 38:51
  pitfalls and, and the, and the challenges and that, you know,
• 38:55
  healthcare providers have every single day, what they, what they
• 38:58
  go through. And, you know, one thing led to
• 39:01
  another. I, I went into admissions.
• 39:03
  I, I, I called my friend. We were, we had a building that
• 39:07
  they had just taken over in Buffalo.
• 39:08
  We were on a flight. I was sitting with my friend Ari
• 39:10
  Staus, who was in fin OPS at the time.
• 39:12
  And I'm like, Ari, teach me the business in one hour.
• 39:15
  I want to know, how does Medicare work?
• 39:17
  How does managed care work? How does Medicaid work?
• 39:18
  What does CMI teach it to me? You have no healthcare
• 39:21
  background. No healthcare.
• 39:22
  Background other than just some of the fundamentals that you're
• 39:24
  not going to apply in this? Ari was your ChatGPT.
• 39:27
  He was my ChatGPT. I actually still have my
• 39:30
  notebook with all of the notes that I was scribbling down and
• 39:35
  you know, in, in when I worked for Hyatt, they sent us to
• 39:38
  Dallas for a week in Dallas, we had trainings from 8:00 AM to
• 39:44
  8:00 PM all about how to give customer service, not just that,
• 39:49
  how to have a proper business meeting, how to communicate with
• 39:52
  clients. It was, it was wild and it was
• 39:55
  all day. And it was this mindset that
• 39:58
  they wanted the their employees to embody every single day.
• 40:02
  I remember I had a, a manager and I, I walked into her office,
• 40:05
  we had a meeting and she asked me for something and I said no
• 40:08
  problem. And I walked out and she said
• 40:10
  come back here. I turned around.
• 40:12
  I was terrified. You know, I'm young and I'm,
• 40:14
  I'm, I don't want to mess up. I don't want to make a mistake.
• 40:18
  And she says to me, there are no problems in, in, in the hotel
• 40:24
  industry. There are only solutions.
• 40:26
  Never say no problem again. Only say my pleasure.
• 40:31
  Wow. And to this day, to this day, I
• 40:35
  just say my pleasure, my pleasure.
• 40:37
  And it was one little thing that I remember when I was doing
• 40:39
  these trainings, I said, if there's anything that you guys
• 40:42
  hear from me today, I can put up a PowerPoint and you're probably
• 40:46
  get it's going to go in one ear out the other.
• 40:49
  You know, I'm this young girl from New York.
• 40:51
  I have no from California. I'm sorry.
• 40:53
  I had no experience in healthcare and that my pleasure
• 40:57
  really stuck. It really took.
• 40:59
  It sounds simple, but it's very profound in a way because it
• 41:02
  really, it really keeps your mind in a place of like, we're
• 41:06
  here to just provide a service and bring quality to other
• 41:10
  people's lives. Absolutely.
• 41:12
  And one of the, I remember at one of the trainings there was
• 41:17
  ACNA and she did not look happy. She was not happy to be there.
• 41:20
  And she's like, what do you do? And I said, I teach people how
• 41:22
  to smile. She said, how do you do that?
• 41:25
  And I walked right up to her and I gave her a big smile and she
• 41:28
  just started cracking. Oh, that's funny.
• 41:30
  And I said, you see, it's. Smiles are infectious.
• 41:32
  It's totally contagious. And I tell them it's like
• 41:35
  you're, you're an actress and you go to work and you walk in
• 41:38
  and you leave your problems behind and you are now on and
• 41:40
  you are getting paid to be of service to others and to take.
• 41:43
  There's enough difficulty, there's enough reasons not to
• 41:46
  smile already in a nursing home as is absolutely.
• 41:48
  Like if the people's attitude there are reflecting that, then
• 41:52
  it just makes things that much worse.
• 41:53
  So just it becomes like, you know, so just smile.
• 41:56
  You got to be in a good mood because people live there.
• 41:58
  This is people you know want to be around positive energy, good
• 42:01
  energies. Right.
• 42:02
  And and that's what it's about energy.
• 42:03
  It's all about that. Positive energy, you know, so,
• 42:05
  so you're now mastering the customer service side, which is
• 42:08
  great that you're not doing this backwards.
• 42:10
  You're not first learning your business, then how do I run a
• 42:12
  business and have to be a good person?
• 42:14
  You're doing that first, so you have that down.
• 42:16
  Like I was a secret shopper and I was going around and trying to
• 42:18
  understand like, what do you guys go through every day and
• 42:21
  what is, is the, you know, what do you need in order for you to
• 42:25
  do your job better, in order for you to give better ServiceNow
• 42:28
  for. Sure.
• 42:29
  So what happens next? So you're by Jeremy Strauss and
• 42:31
  you're learning the ropes. You're starting to get gain
• 42:33
  traction around the business. Yeah.
• 42:35
  What happens? Next, so my husband was in my
• 42:38
  husband's originally from New York and when he was 18 he made
• 42:41
  aliyah and he went to the army. He was in the army for two years
• 42:44
  and then he moved to a lot. He was in Israel for 10 years,
• 42:49
  living in Israel. His whole family, his cousins,
• 42:51
  they all live in Israel. And he came back to Brooklyn to,
• 42:54
  to see his mom. He was visiting his mom.
• 42:57
  And I remember I was at a barbecue on Shabbos on a on a
• 43:04
  balcony and I was going through, you know, I was dating and
• 43:07
  nothing was really sticking. I was really, I was financially
• 43:11
  independent. I had my own apt, I had my own
• 43:13
  car. I was making great money.
• 43:15
  I kept saying I don't need a man.
• 43:16
  I don't need a man. But I I wanted, there was still
• 43:20
  something missing. Like I really wanted.
• 43:21
  I had a family. I I've come from a big family.
• 43:23
  I'm one of seven. And so I, you know, I did the J
• 43:27
  date thing. I went on Sheduchem and it was
• 43:29
  very difficult. It was just nothing was working.
• 43:32
  So I remember I was sitting at this barbecue and I was with a
• 43:34
  bunch of my friends and I'm like, you know what, guys?
• 43:36
  I'm good. I could be single for the rest
• 43:38
  of my life. I don't need this.
• 43:39
  Like, I'm fine. I'm totally fine.
• 43:41
  They all, they all laughed. Yeah, sure, sure.
• 43:43
  Topa and I was at this BBQ till about 8:00 at night.
• 43:46
  It was Muncie Chavez and I walked back to my apartment and
• 43:50
  my friends were walking with me because there was a bar on the
• 43:52
  corner of where I was living on Franklin Ave.
• 43:54
  Franklin Bar and my my friend said Tova, let's go in for a
• 43:59
  drink. I'm like, guys, I smell like a
• 44:00
  BBQ. I got to go home.
• 44:01
  I'm wearing like jeans and AT shirt.
• 44:03
  I'm exhausted. I just want to go back to my
• 44:05
  apartment. One drink, Tova, just one drink.
• 44:07
  I'm like, fine, I'm one drink. I said, you know what, I'm going
• 44:10
  to sit outside. You guys go get the drinks.
• 44:12
  I'll I'll stay for one drink. There were these picnic tables
• 44:15
  outside. So I'm sitting there and I see
• 44:17
  this guy that I had been set up with a couple months earlier
• 44:21
  with at at a Shabbat dinner and it was not for me.
• 44:26
  And I remember putting my head down saying I really don't want
• 44:28
  to see that guy. And he walks over and he says hi
• 44:31
  Toba and I, I said, oh hi Ari, how are you?
• 44:34
  And behind him comes Josh, my husband with two drinks.
• 44:38
  And it turns out that they were best friends from the time they
• 44:40
  were kids. And Josh gives me a drink and he
• 44:43
  says, who are you? And I said, who are you?
• 44:44
  And the rest is history. Look.
• 44:46
  At that. So love at first sight.
• 44:48
  It really was. It really was.
• 44:49
  It really, really was. Also a lesson learned by the
• 44:50
  way, when someone says come for a drink, you go for a drink.
• 44:54
  Yeah, exactly anything that I. Really.
• 44:56
  Want to do other reasons but. I have to tell you, some of the
• 44:59
  best meetings that I have are at the bar at night after
• 45:03
  everybody's quieted down and letting loose, and some of the
• 45:06
  best you do. Some of your best work?
• 45:07
  Yeah, at bars at like 3:00 in the morning.
• 45:09
  Yeah, yeah. No, no joke.
• 45:10
  That's when I'm connecting with everybody's.
• 45:11
  Personal down, yeah. Everybody is just like very open
• 45:13
  and very open ideas, yeah. And good things happen when when
• 45:17
  people can communicate that way. What?
• 45:18
  A great story though, but yeah, how?
• 45:19
  How? We need more alcohol in the
• 45:20
  world. That's the bottom.
• 45:22
  I don't know about that, but I think the point is just to be
• 45:25
  open to opportunities. And, you know, I, I kind of live
• 45:28
  my life with this very, you know, authentic way of, of doing
• 45:32
  business of, of building relationships.
• 45:34
  And it's timing, right place, right time.
• 45:38
  But really I live my life with, with a lot of faith.
• 45:41
  I have a lot of faith in Hashem because just looking back at my
• 45:46
  life, I mean, there's a lot of things.
• 45:48
  Anytime I had anxiety, which was really, which is really fear.
• 45:51
  I mean, anxiety really is just being afraid.
• 45:54
  And I pushed myself to go outside of my comfort zone.
• 45:56
  Moving to New York, I didn't really know a lot of people
• 45:58
  going into an industry I knew nothing about, putting, putting
• 46:02
  together something that I was totally outside of my
• 46:05
  wheelhouse, outside of my comfort zone, and just pushing
• 46:08
  myself to take risk. Hashem has opened a lot of doors
• 46:13
  that way, so. Well, you took risk, you went
• 46:15
  through the motions and here you are today.
• 46:17
  But I'm actually very curious also to hear about, you know,
• 46:20
  you in this industry because let's face it, you don't really
• 46:24
  see a lot of women in in healthcare, especially at the
• 46:27
  front lines and the leadership level especially.
• 46:31
  And you are seeing it now more and more.
• 46:33
  You are seeing you get a lot more in the last 5-10 years.
• 46:36
  Than you've ever seen it. There's what, 70 women here at
• 46:38
  ECAP? Is that what it?
• 46:39
  Is good, yeah. You have a ladies.
• 46:41
  Amongst 1200 attendees, it's not bad. 70 out of 1200, it's, you
• 46:45
  know, about 4%, Yeah. But it's, it's, it's growing.
• 46:49
  It certainly is. But I am noticing a trend
• 46:51
  because we have had a couple of people on the podcast, also
• 46:53
  females that are, you know, in healthcare, but at a leadership
• 46:56
  level. And they're, they're very
• 46:58
  impressive. They really are impressive.
• 46:59
  And I think that in the hospitality business, you know,
• 47:02
  there are different things that may be for a female versus a
• 47:05
  male can can get that like that connection, that communication
• 47:08
  that they're that they're very good at and it serves the
• 47:11
  organization in in a big way. And I think that's something
• 47:13
  that you're bringing to the table.
• 47:15
  But I, I'm very impressed by you.
• 47:17
  I mean, you know, you're, you're doing things, you know, it's,
• 47:19
  it's hard, let's face it, you know, and sometimes you have,
• 47:22
  you know, men and, you know, and they're older even, you know,
• 47:24
  and, and they're part of the program and you got to direct
• 47:26
  them as well, you know. So like, how do you see that as
• 47:30
  a challenge? Do you see that?
• 47:31
  Like what, what do you like? How do you stake your claim?
• 47:33
  Like, what's your model? What's been your recipe to that
• 47:37
  drives you to become successful in in the industry?
• 47:40
  It's hard. It is really, really hard.
• 47:42
  This is not for everybody and you need to have a very thick
• 47:47
  skin. I mean, the things that I have
• 47:49
  that have been said to me over in my career have been kind of
• 47:53
  eye opening and also ill and and you just kind of walk away from
• 47:58
  it and not listen to it. It's a lot of noise and I just.
• 48:04
  Yeah, that's, and you're leading by example, you know, and it
• 48:07
  also gives a lot of visibility for others like you to follow
• 48:11
  suit and to say, I can do anything.
• 48:13
  I could be in any career, I could be in any position, you
• 48:16
  know, within a healthcare organization.
• 48:18
  So I I commend you. I think you're, you're doing not
• 48:21
  just something for yourself, but there are people watching, you
• 48:23
  know, people that are, that are taking notice.
• 48:25
  And I think that 70 number potential is going to grow and
• 48:28
  they're going to keep growing and equal opportunity.
• 48:30
  For you're a part of that. I'm you know, I'm curious before
• 48:33
  we wrap up, what would you tell your older self, like your
• 48:35
  younger self? I'm sorry, like, you know,
• 48:37
  someone that's getting involved in the industry now, a young
• 48:40
  woman that wants to, you know, make her mark, so to speak.
• 48:43
  What's that secret sauce? I think I would tell my younger
• 48:48
  self just to take a beat and to write down what's most important
• 48:53
  to you. And once you write down what's
• 48:56
  most important and what you want in your life, because let's face
• 48:59
  it, oh, I want to make money. OK, but what does that mean?
• 49:01
  What does that mean? There's so many ways of, yeah,
• 49:03
  why do you want to make money? There's so many ways of to make
• 49:05
  money also. But I think having a, a road map
• 49:10
  for yourself in your personal life, in your professional life
• 49:13
  is really, really important and has a lot of value.
• 49:16
  I wish I did that back in the day.
• 49:18
  I think I would tell her everything's going to work out.
• 49:21
  It's all going to be OK, and it's all in God's hands, just
• 49:24
  so. Amazing.
• 49:25
  Thank you so much for coming on our program.
• 49:26
  We really appreciate. It this is beautiful.
• 49:28
  This is amazing and it's funny how we know each other but we
• 49:30
  really don't. And then we're getting to know
• 49:32
  each other now even more and look forward to great things
• 49:35
  coming from your side.