Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / Adaptive Clothing & NDIS Supplies: How Better Products Restore Dignity for Participants | Bec Parry, InCare Supports

Transcript

Adaptive Clothing & NDIS Supplies: How Better Products Restore Dignity for Participants | Bec Parry, InCare Supports · Sarah Knows Support Workers

• 0:00
  It's Sarah. No support workers today.
• 0:01
  I've got Beck and I've got, I'm going to tell everyone we met at
• 0:05
  a networking event and I was just absolutely wooed by your
• 0:09
  products and the things that you do.
• 0:11
  So I just had to have you on this podcast.
• 0:13
  I hope you don't mind. So just get straight into it.
• 0:16
  Beck, can you tell us who you are and what you do?
• 0:19
  Cole, thanks, Sarah. Thanks for having me.
• 0:21
  So I'm Beck and I'm a director and cofounder at in Care
• 0:25
  Supports and we are a consumable and at store supplying
• 0:30
  participants within NDIS and also aged care across Australia,
• 0:34
  so. Before you even got into this,
• 0:36
  were you working in the disability or aged care sector?
• 0:39
  Yes. So prior to working in the NDIS
• 0:44
  space, which I've been in for about 8 years now, I was in
• 0:47
  sports and rec. So although not directly related
• 0:50
  to disability, it certainly had lots of correlations and lots of
• 0:54
  similarities to the NDIS sector. Was there a moment where you saw
• 0:58
  gaps or something that was a little bit off that you thought
• 1:01
  why not? Yeah.
• 1:02
  ABS Yeah. Absolutely.
• 1:03
  So in the product space specifically, we saw my Co
• 1:07
  founder and I saw that and there was a huge gap across Australia
• 1:10
  for in supply chain with participants were actually
• 1:14
  asking us to source products for them because they they just
• 1:18
  weren't able to get essential items.
• 1:20
  So when we talk essential items, we talk continents, we talk
• 1:25
  waterproof Manchester, we talk nutrition, we talk catheters, we
• 1:28
  we talk products that are not luxury items.
• 1:31
  These are items that people need every day and people just
• 1:34
  couldn't get them. They couldn't get the supply of
• 1:36
  them obviously throughout, but there were issues with supply
• 1:40
  chain. And so we, we looked at it at a
• 1:43
  exact level and asked lots of questions.
• 1:45
  Is this something we can do and can we do it well?
• 1:48
  And we certainly, we chipped away at it for a few years and
• 1:50
  grew our product offering and started with just a few skews
• 1:54
  and now obviously we have thousands.
• 1:56
  Yeah, there's a certain, it's certainly driven participant
• 1:59
  need and participant focus. Yeah.
• 2:03
  Prior to the shop, I was the Chief Operating Officer for a
• 2:07
  NDIS plan management and support coordination business.
• 2:10
  So I started with that business in its infancy, in its early
• 2:14
  days. And it was effectively, it was a
• 2:15
  startup 8 years ago. And it was a brilliant business
• 2:19
  with an incredible team. And we all grew together in that
• 2:24
  business. And yeah, I'm incredibly
• 2:26
  grateful for that business and the opportunities that that it
• 2:29
  gave me. And one thing's led to another.
• 2:31
  And yeah, now we are focused on products and that's the core
• 2:36
  business. You would have supports, yeah.
• 2:38
  You would have really seen that being a plan manager, like what
• 2:42
  would what to pay, what was going in, what was going out.
• 2:45
  Is there a particular product that you just love talking about
• 2:49
  for people that we serve? Look, I am very passionate about
• 2:52
  the products because each product that you see on our
• 2:54
  store is because a participant or their family member has asked
• 2:58
  us to stock it. So it's very much focused on
• 3:00
  what participants need. I love the continent space
• 3:03
  because I feel that part of our business model is to restore
• 3:07
  dignity. And many people who are
• 3:10
  incontinent haven't chosen that path, but yet we can help them
• 3:14
  feel really clean and tidy and we can make sure they're in the
• 3:18
  products that fit them. No one should be leaking with
• 3:21
  continent products and we can help participants and I love
• 3:24
  that ground level care where I know that our products are
• 3:29
  making a difference and I know that we're just restoring a
• 3:32
  little bit that may have been lost through our products.
• 3:35
  So it's really practical and it comes with so much passion and
• 3:38
  heart that yeah, I love talking continents and and happy to do
• 3:41
  it every day of the week. How do you source which
• 3:44
  products, like continent products, that you should put on
• 3:46
  the store? Because not it's not a
• 3:48
  one-size-fits-all. No, no, it's certainly not.
• 3:51
  And that's the beauty of the shop in that we have many, many
• 3:54
  suppliers and we work really closely with our suppliers to
• 3:58
  make sure that they're reputable, to make sure that
• 4:00
  they're trustworthy, they're ethical and they do business
• 4:02
  really well. And that's really important to
• 4:04
  us. But it's also really important
• 4:06
  that their product works and different people need different
• 4:09
  products and we offer that choice.
• 4:11
  So we have multiple brands. And I know the whole choice in
• 4:14
  control gets a little bit old and it has been thrown around
• 4:17
  for many, many years. But within the shop, we have
• 4:20
  maintained that we don't just align with one particular
• 4:24
  product or brand. There's choice there.
• 4:26
  Do you know, what I find really like I enjoy talking about with
• 4:30
  you is that when we were like in the beginning of, you know, will
• 4:34
  you be on this podcast? I love the fact that you were
• 4:36
  able to show me the products in different colours and why it was
• 4:39
  important. Would you like to explain to
• 4:40
  people why having that choice of colours, even in their products,
• 4:44
  is really important for their dignity?
• 4:45
  Absolutely. So one of our great ranges is
• 4:49
  waterproof and water resistant Manchester.
• 4:51
  So for someone who is incontinent and has, especially
• 4:54
  if they have funding for continents supplies, they're
• 4:56
  also potentially eligible for waterproof water resistant
• 5:00
  Manchester. And if you think back to the
• 5:02
  clinical days, the old fashioned days, they're blue, they're
• 5:05
  they're boring, they're not very nice.
• 5:07
  Whereas we have bright colours, we have patterns, we have pink
• 5:12
  bed pads, we have pink fitted sheets that are waterproof,
• 5:15
  beautiful prints. And not just pink as well.
• 5:18
  There's, you know, there's blue and there's all all sorts of
• 5:20
  colours. Not it's there's trucks,
• 5:22
  there's, you know, like the floral, the fauna, animals,
• 5:25
  there's, there's all sorts of prints.
• 5:26
  And that's what I love because everyone has a different style.
• 5:30
  Everyone has a different taste. There's no right or wrong.
• 5:33
  You know, sometimes people do like the more traditional, I
• 5:36
  shouldn't call them boring, but boring block colours.
• 5:39
  But most people are like, Oh my gosh, I love this.
• 5:41
  I love the colour. It makes me feel like I can have
• 5:44
  a beautiful bedroom again. Yeah.
• 5:47
  And especially if they've got a child as well who's incontinent
• 5:50
  and doesn't want the yucky colours, they want something
• 5:53
  bright and colourful and, and they can have that.
• 5:55
  Do they come in different sizes, like especially in bedroom?
• 5:58
  Because I know like when I was in home support back in back in
• 6:03
  the day, it was really quite bland in people's rooms.
• 6:07
  And then like, I'm a strong believe that that if you live
• 6:11
  in, say, the seal space, that's your home and how you'd have
• 6:14
  ownership of your room is to have all the colours and all the
• 6:17
  things and trinkets that make you feel, you know, like your
• 6:21
  home, like like you belong there.
• 6:23
  So is it like do you get to see the other side like the the
• 6:27
  photos, older products out and about in somebody's home?
• 6:30
  Yeah, Look, I love it when I run into our participants, whether
• 6:32
  it be at Expos or events or we also have a showroom as well.
• 6:36
  So we'll often get participants coming into our premise, which
• 6:39
  is in Nunawading, Victoria, and they'll bring us photos.
• 6:42
  Sometimes they'll bring if because we also sell adaptive
• 6:44
  clothing. So they'll come in wearing their
• 6:46
  clothing and you can just hear and see the difference that it's
• 6:49
  made. And I love it.
• 6:51
  I love hearing from our families.
• 6:53
  They love, they love it. They love sharing their, you
• 6:55
  know, different spaces that they've created within their
• 6:57
  homes that have really made impact and, and created that
• 7:01
  change. And ultimately, that's what we
• 7:02
  want. We're all in this for a reason.
• 7:04
  And I love the fact that it's just, it's so practical.
• 7:07
  So with Adaptive close, sometimes it gets a a nasty
• 7:10
  name. It could be a bit confusing for
• 7:13
  a lot of people. How have you been able to use
• 7:16
  adaptive clothes in your business to sell it to the
• 7:18
  people that we serve? Absolutely.
• 7:20
  So every piece of clothing that we sell has been adapted in some
• 7:24
  way, shape or form so that can be magnetized buttons.
• 7:28
  So for a participant who doesn't have the control to be able to
• 7:31
  do our buttons, it's magnetized. We have jeans that have catheter
• 7:36
  zip bags so that there's really good access.
• 7:39
  We also have like seated jeans that are higher at the back for
• 7:43
  a participant that sits on their bottom in a chair.
• 7:45
  And it also has zips down the side.
• 7:47
  So it makes it accessible and just makes changing 1 so much
• 7:52
  easier for the support workers, but also to the participants can
• 7:55
  wear really fashionable, beautiful clothing.
• 7:57
  The leaf back tops. We've got one of our ranges, the
• 8:00
  Christina Stevens range has many different colours in a leaf
• 8:04
  back. So for someone that has limited
• 8:06
  shoulder mobility or I had a lady in the showroom last week
• 8:10
  where she's got issues with her core and so she's not able to
• 8:14
  sit like you and I can. And so she, her life has changed
• 8:17
  because she was able to purchase with her funding all these tops
• 8:20
  that this now has become effectively her uniform for each
• 8:24
  day of the week. And she now has her dignity back
• 8:27
  because she can dress herself. Yes, because the the opportunity
• 8:32
  to dress yourself and pick what actually fits and feels nice.
• 8:35
  Yes, the idea that you get to go into the showroom and touch it
• 8:38
  too. Absolutely.
• 8:40
  And I, we have set the showroom up so that it's a very, very
• 8:44
  deliberate community space. It's there for our people to
• 8:47
  come in and, and see what we've got and come in for a chat.
• 8:50
  And we have like a free sample wall as well where our suppliers
• 8:54
  are really generous and we want to extend that generosity back
• 8:57
  to our community. So there's always something
• 8:59
  there for someone to be able to try or sample and hopefully, you
• 9:03
  know, make change for them. That would feel, I don't know,
• 9:06
  you must, you must get like the one fuzzy feelings, especially
• 9:10
  when you've got people coming in and trying it and feeling it and
• 9:13
  knowing when they exit the store, they've got more of their
• 9:16
  independence or that you know their style or the way that
• 9:19
  suits them the most. Absolutely.
• 9:21
  I look, we all work. We all have bills to pay at
• 9:24
  home. There's a purpose in each of us
• 9:26
  coming to work. Ultimately, there's a why for
• 9:28
  everyone. But my why is is pretty deep and
• 9:31
  I want to be able to make impact.
• 9:33
  And it's not, it's not just words.
• 9:35
  I leave it out every day and I make sure that we are improving
• 9:39
  lives. It's very, very important that
• 9:40
  we do that. When you've taken the jump from
• 9:42
  CCCO to director, was there anything that you had to learn
• 9:47
  that was a little bit different to what you were doing?
• 9:48
  Good question. It's always a different scope
• 9:51
  when you're like Co founder director, there's a different
• 9:54
  responsibility. Definitely.
• 9:56
  I certainly in the coup role I gave my heart and soul and I
• 9:59
  certainly did treat it, you know, with every respect that I
• 10:03
  wanted to work as hard as I could every day and that was
• 10:07
  evident. I would often get that feedback
• 10:08
  from my team. We had a very good team.
• 10:11
  We related really well, ultimately got really great
• 10:14
  results with the director role. For me, I guess it became even
• 10:18
  more personal of going, I'm now in the drive, one of the drivers
• 10:21
  on the team of directors and it does it is different, but I feel
• 10:26
  very humbled is one word, but also to our very, very thankful
• 10:31
  for the opportunity that I have. And I never, ever take it for
• 10:34
  granted. It's not just the role to be a
• 10:36
  director, but it's the role to create the impact that I'm so
• 10:40
  passionate about creating and that I want to see more of in
• 10:43
  our sector. So with that, what is the
• 10:45
  hardest lesson that you've had to learn from being a owner like
• 10:49
  a Co founder? Oh, it's backing yourself and
• 10:51
  it's backing your crazy ideas and it's, you know, we all might
• 10:55
  fail. And I, I don't like to fail.
• 10:58
  I, I like, I like my ducks lined up, you know, I like, I like to
• 11:02
  know there's 1 + 1 = 2. But you know what?
• 11:05
  In our sector, it doesn't always.
• 11:07
  And you've got to take a risk and you've got to back yourself
• 11:09
  and you've got to back each other and your team and the
• 11:12
  crazy ideas that we, you know, any one of us might have.
• 11:15
  It's that self belief, I think that you've really gone through.
• 11:20
  Well, I certainly do, you know, and also too, it's that mindset
• 11:24
  of what else can I learn? How, what else do I need to know
• 11:27
  to be a better leader and to be better for the people I work
• 11:31
  with, but also the people that we do serve and the people that
• 11:34
  we, the participants and the aged care recipients as well.
• 11:37
  How can I be better for for them?
• 11:39
  It's not, you know, I think the day you want to stop improving
• 11:43
  is the day that you actually need to say, all right, I'm
• 11:44
  done. And I hope I'm never, ever at
• 11:47
  that point. So what does a normal day look
• 11:49
  for? I'm really hands on.
• 11:51
  I love speaking to our families. I answer the phone.
• 11:53
  I make sure that I'm, you know, talking to our families, talking
• 11:57
  to the nominees, talking to our participants.
• 11:59
  So I will be doing simple tasks some days where I'm, you know,
• 12:03
  making sure the orders are being paid.
• 12:05
  So I do a lot of follow up with plan managers and make sure that
• 12:08
  our invoices aren't being blocked when they're essential
• 12:11
  items. And that's, that's been
• 12:12
  challenging, especially in the last few months, obviously with
• 12:15
  continual changes within the sector as well.
• 12:17
  Keeping up to date because I want to make sure that the
• 12:20
  products we're supplying are still relevant within the NDIS
• 12:24
  scope as well, because I think if you have products in your
• 12:26
  shop that are NDIS friendly and then not friendly, it's only
• 12:31
  going to confuse participants. And I think that's detrimental.
• 12:34
  So lots of hands on. Obviously there's an event that
• 12:37
  we're supporting myself and my other Co founder will attend
• 12:40
  that and really it's what whatever I need to do this week
• 12:43
  I'm at a special different disability school.
• 12:45
  So I'm off to an SDS open day where the the families are
• 12:48
  coming in and they've just got a few providers there to talk
• 12:51
  about their products and 90% of that school, the children are
• 12:54
  incontinent. So for me, that's, that's, it's
• 12:56
  my dream day where I get to help family get products, I'll have
• 12:59
  samples for them. I'll have hopefully some
• 13:02
  products they haven't tried before.
• 13:03
  And it's just giving out information and, and just
• 13:05
  relating to them and finding out what their, their stress points
• 13:08
  are. So I love it that there's never
• 13:10
  a dull day. Participants come into the
• 13:13
  showroom and I often will run down the stairs and you don't
• 13:15
  want to want to speak to them first and chat to them.
• 13:18
  And then there's some days where you do need to do more boring
• 13:20
  work to make sure that, you know, the bills are getting paid
• 13:23
  and you are, you know, taking off all your any compliance
• 13:26
  things as well. I feel like for you, when you
• 13:28
  get to go to these types of events because you're a rarity,
• 13:32
  it must be like, look, I will pull out this concert today.
• 13:35
  I will pull out these sheets like, is it fun like that?
• 13:38
  Because some things are quite like, because the new colors and
• 13:41
  the like is the block colors have changed a lot.
• 13:43
  It must be a little bit of fun to show people new products. 80
• 13:45
  years and we're always increasing our range and I get
• 13:48
  bored so quickly. So the moment our skews are
• 13:50
  settled, I'm like, right, what else is there?
• 13:52
  What other products can be sourced?
• 13:53
  But the beautiful thing that's happening now is that we're not
• 13:57
  as, I guess, in our infancy of the business, so suppliers are
• 14:01
  getting to know our brand and they're actually coming to us
• 14:02
  now and saying, hey, can you also look at our products as
• 14:05
  well? So we're getting that input,
• 14:08
  which I like as well because they're obviously already
• 14:10
  working within the industry. So then we can take it to our
• 14:12
  families and say, hey, what do you think?
• 14:13
  Do you think this is, you know, will this have merit?
• 14:15
  Will this help you? And we can always get them to,
• 14:18
  you know, test things as well. So yeah, there's always
• 14:21
  something new going on. I.
• 14:22
  Haven't asked you this, but how did you come up with the name of
• 14:25
  your business in care support? In care, well, we're obviously
• 14:28
  at the whole heart of our business is to care, and we
• 14:31
  wanted to have a name that people would remember and that
• 14:34
  was quite catchy. And obviously we've been in the
• 14:37
  sector for a little while, so just there's a, you know, play
• 14:39
  on words. And yeah, it was actually my
• 14:42
  other director that came up with the name and yeah, we went from
• 14:45
  there. So we love it.
• 14:48
  Yeah, a lot of support workers listen to the podcast and a lot
• 14:51
  of us have what I call the emergency bag in our car.
• 14:56
  What are some products that you would recommend for support
• 14:58
  workers to to purchase for when they're out and about in
• 15:02
  community or in people's homes that the type of products that
• 15:04
  would support the person that we serve in the most dignified way?
• 15:08
  OK wipes. Wipes are a no brainer.
• 15:10
  I've got lots of different types of wipes.
• 15:11
  We have a Medline product and it retails for just under $3 and
• 15:15
  it's in a purple bag and it effectively is a bath in a bag
• 15:19
  and there's 8 sheets within this bag and you can microwave them.
• 15:23
  They're disposable. So you throw them out afterwards
• 15:25
  and you can do a complete wash of a participant or also
• 15:28
  yourself if you're travelling or going camping or you're not, you
• 15:31
  know, near a shower and you can do a complete head to toe
• 15:34
  cleanse, obviously bottom area last throw it in the bin and it
• 15:38
  smells like baby powder. So it's really sweet.
• 15:40
  And that would be one of our most popular products that we
• 15:42
  just sell by, you know, the truckload chair pads are no, you
• 15:46
  know, they're, they're really handy.
• 15:47
  You can throw them in the wash as well.
• 15:49
  So we do have reusable, but we also have throwaway ones as
• 15:53
  well. So obviously if you're
• 15:54
  transporting someone in your car, you want to protect,
• 15:56
  whether it's fabric or leather that you've got on your own
• 15:58
  seats, you want to be able to make sure your car is clean if
• 16:00
  there are accidents. The other emergency thing is
• 16:03
  once you know the size or rough size of your participants, let
• 16:07
  me know and we can create sample bags with content supplies.
• 16:11
  So where we are able to order from our supplies individual
• 16:14
  bags of pull ups or wraps? That's all pretty cool.
• 16:18
  Like I didn't know about the $3 bag.
• 16:21
  Like that's news. Do you get to try them out and
• 16:25
  test them? Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:28
  When I travelled more, so probably about two years ago, we
• 16:33
  would carry, I'd certainly carried the purple bag with me,
• 16:36
  with my computer as well. Because if we were in airports
• 16:38
  and you had a really long day and you just felt gross because,
• 16:42
  you know, you had all this recycled air on you all day and
• 16:44
  you'd been in different cities and especially if we were flying
• 16:46
  up north, it was hot. So yeah, I, I definitely would
• 16:49
  try them out and, and use them then in that context.
• 16:52
  So, yeah. Are you?
• 16:53
  Able to give us like a story where a product which is, you
• 16:57
  know, something, a simple product made such a big
• 17:00
  difference to somebody'd life. Yeah, I love the memory foam
• 17:04
  pods which that we sell the Cloud SAC brand.
• 17:07
  And I love what they do for a participant because as the
• 17:11
  participant sits in them, you can see, you can visually see
• 17:16
  there's just this calm that will come over them and they relax
• 17:19
  into this memory foam and it molds to their body and it just
• 17:23
  has this light pressure. And so I love those because you
• 17:26
  can visually see it and you can see them come into the showroom
• 17:30
  and sometimes they're doing a bit of parkour where they're
• 17:31
  jumping from, you know, bean bag to phone bag to phone bag and
• 17:34
  and you're sort of holding your breath a bit and then you're
• 17:36
  like, OK, then you see them sitting up and then it's like,
• 17:38
  oh wow. You just see them relax and you
• 17:41
  can just feel the energy just settle.
• 17:44
  So I love, I love that, I love it when a participant obviously
• 17:47
  finds a continent product that doesn't leak, gives them good
• 17:51
  skin integrity and we can then help, you know, them heal, which
• 17:54
  is I love that and the adaptive clothing.
• 17:56
  I just love because if, if my business model is to restore
• 18:00
  dignity and I've got participants that can now dress
• 18:02
  themselves and they can wear fashionable clothes and they can
• 18:06
  feel good, that's just worth 1,000,000 bucks to me because
• 18:09
  you just, you see it in their whole demeanour.
• 18:11
  You don't have to be an NDIS participant or to to use any of
• 18:16
  your products. You can come into showroom or go
• 18:18
  to the website to buy for like a child all the way up to a.
• 18:23
  Older adult, absolutely. We are seeing, we are welcoming
• 18:28
  people every day at the moment, yeah, that don't have funding.
• 18:32
  And that's. And there's a lot.
• 18:34
  There's a lot of people in the general community, and you'll
• 18:37
  see it even through your own social groups.
• 18:39
  When you start talking about what I do, people quietly say,
• 18:42
  oh, I use this or I use that. I'm like, yeah.
• 18:45
  Because this is a bit of embarrassment for people that
• 18:48
  have been confident to be incontinent and having that
• 18:51
  transition and using all that. Do you have to work with a lot
• 18:54
  of incontinent nurses? Yes, yeah.
• 18:56
  So we work with lots of confidence nurses, support
• 18:59
  coordinators, we work with a lot of support coordinators and
• 19:01
  allied health professionals. They would be the three main
• 19:03
  groups of other providers that we work with.
• 19:06
  Yeah. What is one thing that you're
• 19:08
  really proud of when it comes to your business?
• 19:10
  I'm really proud of our team and I'm really proud of what we're
• 19:13
  doing. I'm really proud that we get to
• 19:15
  make a difference. And I'm really proud that the
• 19:18
  people in the business, you know, have really big hearts and
• 19:21
  want to be there. And I love that.
• 19:23
  I just, I just love what we're doing, that it's so practical,
• 19:26
  it's so hands on and I get to call this work and I just think
• 19:30
  it's great. I love how excited you are about
• 19:33
  WE. About we did you say?
• 19:36
  Yes, because, like I I told me we all do it so it's taking away
• 19:41
  that stigma of it's a bodily fluid that we all have it we all
• 19:45
  do it and then at times you probably need it the the idea or
• 19:48
  not even the idea that actually what you've shown them like and
• 19:51
  see having products that you know makes people feel a bit
• 19:54
  more independent and pretty The colors matter it's.
• 19:57
  Just it is. It's normalizing the whole we
• 19:59
  and poo talk because it is part of life and you know it.
• 20:04
  It affects so many. People like, I think it's, I
• 20:06
  think it's one in five that are over the age of 15.
• 20:09
  I'll have to do a quick Google, but I'm pretty sure that's the
• 20:11
  stats at the moment. So if you think even like we
• 20:13
  said before, expand NDIS, expand aged care, you're one in five.
• 20:17
  Need help now some the other thing I was going to say is like
• 20:21
  supermarket products and your chemist products are great.
• 20:25
  They're great in an emergency. Some, some of them aren't
• 20:27
  designed for incontinence either.
• 20:29
  And that that has a different purpose.
• 20:31
  And so some of our products hold can hold liters, which obviously
• 20:37
  you need to make sure people are still being changed effectively.
• 20:40
  And that's a whole skin integrity talk.
• 20:41
  That's probably for another podcast, but it's, it's really
• 20:44
  important that people are using quality products that are going
• 20:48
  to hold. Are they Vladavoid?
• 20:51
  How long does a product last? Like if to say a content aid,
• 20:55
  does it last once somebody relieves themselves?
• 20:58
  I used to hear the theory that it used to last for hours a lot
• 21:02
  and that be it. Is there a period of times that
• 21:06
  it lasts? For look, it's very specific to
• 21:08
  the participant and to the person to to with how many times
• 21:11
  they're releasing their bladder. Is it a full bladder void?
• 21:14
  Is it leakage? Is it light bladder leakage?
• 21:16
  There's a whole lot of variants. So you definitely need to do
• 21:19
  look at it case by case because if a participant is sitting in,
• 21:24
  obviously I used aid, it's going to break the skin down and that
• 21:28
  is not what we want. That's a very dangerous space to
• 21:30
  be in. We also have a fairly extensive
• 21:34
  range of washable undies too, which is great for your prostate
• 21:38
  surgery, for light bladder leakage, for girls who are
• 21:40
  menstruating who aren't able to use product.
• 21:43
  So there's a whole other gamut, I guess of products there that
• 21:47
  you know, people people can access.
• 21:49
  And they're not just not just NDIS either.
• 21:51
  Like that's the whole scope. We didn't have the opportunity
• 21:55
  to buy products like this. A lot of people would be buying
• 21:57
  from the supermarket and follow the chemist.
• 21:59
  And when when you said about skin integrity, I was like,
• 22:03
  you're right. Because the products now are so
• 22:06
  much more advanced than we've ever had.
• 22:08
  So does it, does it excite you seeing the how far it has come
• 22:12
  and where it's going and what's coming up on the market?
• 22:14
  I love. Yeah, it sounds a bit of a nerd,
• 22:16
  but I love reading up about the technology that our suppliers
• 22:19
  will give us and to find out, I find generally the general
• 22:22
  public doesn't really want to know about it.
• 22:23
  That does actually put them to sleep sometimes.
• 22:26
  But for me, I know because it gives me further confidence that
• 22:30
  it has different lock away mechanisms or different material
• 22:33
  or there's, you know, different levels that we can supply.
• 22:36
  And this is the other thing too, like one of our ranges, it might
• 22:39
  start low, but then it can go all the way up to like a 10
• 22:41
  drop, which is very, very absorbent.
• 22:43
  And that would be what you would have if you were very
• 22:45
  incontinent. So there's levels as well of
• 22:48
  what each aid is going to hold. And these are the conversations
• 22:51
  I have with people when they come to me and they say, oh,
• 22:54
  they've been embarrassed and they're leaking and they feel
• 22:56
  smelly and this and that I go, right, Let's just go back to
• 22:58
  basics. I, I'll send you a tape measure.
• 23:00
  We have paper tape measures and we start with really basic,
• 23:04
  let's measure you. Can your support worker help
• 23:05
  with that? Of course they can.
• 23:07
  The support workers generally love it because we're helping
• 23:09
  them as well. Ultimately, it's making
• 23:11
  everyone's life a lot easier. And let's get people in the
• 23:13
  right products. They might be in a wrap, but
• 23:15
  they actually need a pull up. They might need a pad instead of
• 23:17
  a wrap like there's. There's different purpose for
• 23:20
  every product. What's something that's fun
• 23:23
  about your job that people might not know?
• 23:25
  We love to laugh, we have to laugh often it ourselves.
• 23:28
  But yeah, I do like to laugh And yeah, keep life as light hearted
• 23:34
  as you can because sometimes we do see and we are obviously in
• 23:38
  the sector and it can be heartbreaking.
• 23:40
  So to try and have that light moment I think is really
• 23:43
  important. And whatever that might be, that
• 23:45
  can be to something silly. But yeah, how many?
• 23:48
  People are in your teams. We've got 5 at the moment.
• 23:51
  And when you're like packing orders, because you'd have to
• 23:54
  send it all over Australia tickets, write all the messages
• 23:57
  like in the. Yeah.
• 24:00
  So we have a personalized, how did you know this?
• 24:01
  We have a personalized like a card that we will include in.
• 24:05
  And depending on what we've been like, I know at the moment we
• 24:08
  were gifted some products and we decided to actually put one of
• 24:12
  our little like, you know, stickers on to say, you know,
• 24:15
  enjoy this on us. And they're now going out in the
• 24:17
  orders as a bit of a little sweep to make someone smile.
• 24:20
  Because let's be honest, we want to make sure that when your
• 24:23
  parcel arrives, it's packaged really nicely.
• 24:25
  It's got nice paper. Yeah, we put a lot of care and
• 24:28
  make sure that especially because a lot of it is skin
• 24:31
  related, make sure. All the bottles.
• 24:33
  Are lined up properly and they're packaged really safely
• 24:36
  as well, because no one wants broken goods.
• 24:39
  And I don't actually think we've probably had more than one or
• 24:42
  two in a few years of parcels actually getting damaged.
• 24:45
  So that's, that's testament to what actually goes out the door
• 24:47
  with how well it is packaged. Yeah, lots and lots of care goes
• 24:50
  into that. So you're super excited about
• 24:52
  what you do right? And you do a bloody good job of
• 24:55
  it. How do you keep yourself from
• 24:57
  burning out? Because it can be quite
• 24:59
  overwhelming being a Co founder and a business owner I've.
• 25:02
  Probably learned the hard way because I probably have burnt
• 25:04
  out. Yeah, a few years ago I, I found
• 25:07
  things really tough and he definitely had to make some
• 25:10
  pretty serious changes and I did.
• 25:12
  And I hope that I will never go back to that, that point of
• 25:17
  exhaustion. I definitely in a stage of life
• 25:19
  did give. I did give too much.
• 25:20
  There was no two ways about it. My partner had been telling me
• 25:23
  for quite a long time I was on a slippery slope of giving too
• 25:26
  much and, and effectively I was. And so, but I learned the hard
• 25:30
  way and I learned by doing. So I did continue to give.
• 25:34
  And then, yeah, I needed to pull back.
• 25:36
  I need to. There's practical things I do.
• 25:38
  So outside of work, I make sure there's different interests and
• 25:43
  hobbies that I have that I, you know, I do.
• 25:46
  I make sure we have time where at home I'm not looking or
• 25:51
  trying very hard not to look at my phone and just have those
• 25:54
  real practical boundaries of now I'm actually at home now.
• 25:56
  I'm with the family with my kids and I'm not I'm not talking we
• 25:59
  and poo right now and I'm not talking orders and I'm I'm
• 26:02
  actually not looking at my app to see whether it orders what
• 26:05
  people are on the shop right now.
• 26:06
  Like I'm just I'm switching off. I find for me, nature is really
• 26:12
  helpful. I love I walk a lot, I exercise,
• 26:16
  I love the beach. I just find it really grounding.
• 26:21
  I have a group of other CEOs or directors that I hang out with.
• 26:28
  We caught up last week for breakfast and it's just absolute
• 26:31
  highlight of my week. We laughed, we joked, we carried
• 26:33
  on, you know, but it was just, it was just the best.
• 26:36
  So I think all those things really contribute to being human
• 26:40
  and being real and staying real and being really honest about
• 26:45
  what's good that's going on. But what are you struggling
• 26:48
  with? And I think it's important that
• 26:50
  as you know, Co workers within this sector, we're always
• 26:53
  checking on each other. What do you need?
• 26:55
  What can I do for you? How can I help you?
• 26:57
  Because sometimes I can't help. And I'm OK to say that, but I
• 27:00
  never want people that, you know, I work with or people that
• 27:04
  know me. If they are going through a
• 27:05
  rough time, you know, I, I am there for them.
• 27:08
  So it goes both ways. Do you have to do any further
• 27:11
  training to get to where you are or was it the jump OK from the
• 27:16
  previous to here? Look, I'm always on a personal
• 27:19
  level, always researching and looking into the sort of leader
• 27:22
  I am. I understand my profile pretty
• 27:25
  well. Obviously it changes all, you
• 27:27
  know, changes as we change. But yeah, I think I'm fairly
• 27:30
  self aware. I know my strengths and
• 27:32
  weaknesses. No, I didn't do any formal
• 27:35
  training. I have learnt on the job and
• 27:37
  that has been my story from just about day one of my career.
• 27:40
  I've never sat still. I've always wanted to work for a
• 27:44
  company with purpose and I've always wanted to work for a
• 27:47
  company with heart. And I think back in the day I
• 27:51
  worked in early childhood and it was a role that I was doing
• 27:55
  bookkeeping. They were all best that sort of
• 27:56
  work. And I, I didn't really love the
• 27:58
  work. I found it a bit mind numbing.
• 28:00
  But for me, I've got 3 kids who are now adults and it, it served
• 28:04
  a purpose because I was able to, you know, pay for holidays and,
• 28:08
  and do a few other little things like that while working at home.
• 28:11
  But I got to a stage where I just, I needed, I needed more.
• 28:14
  And I, it was time for me to, to, you know, go and I guess fly
• 28:18
  the nest. And that's when I went and
• 28:20
  obviously worked in sports and rec for a while.
• 28:22
  So one job for me has always led to another and in an amazing
• 28:29
  spot where I'm just so I'm so thankful.
• 28:31
  Would you do it all again? Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:34
  Would you change anything that you did?
• 28:36
  Look, I think the textbook answer is yes, because you
• 28:39
  wouldn't burn out, you wouldn't give too much, you wouldn't, you
• 28:42
  know, blah, blah, blah. But the reality is I wouldn't be
• 28:46
  me. And I do.
• 28:49
  I do give and I wouldn't. I don't want to change that who
• 28:53
  I am and I do learn by doing and sometimes someone can say to me
• 28:57
  do AB and C but I have to experience AB and C before I
• 29:02
  learn. Sometimes I wish I learned by
• 29:04
  being told what to do. My parents probably wanted that
• 29:07
  for me as a child, too. But let's be real.
• 29:10
  I've I've always learned by doing.
• 29:12
  And I don't ever want to look back with regrets.
• 29:14
  Do I look back with kindness and compassion for myself sometimes
• 29:17
  and shake my head and go, Gee, you made that harder for
• 29:19
  yourself. Yeah.
• 29:20
  But do I hopefully take those lessons?
• 29:23
  And like, I'm clearly not 21 anymore, so I look to the future
• 29:26
  and I go, well, if I take those lessons, as long as I still keep
• 29:29
  learning. But I haven't made it.
• 29:30
  And I've got a lot more to learn.
• 29:32
  I've got a lot more to learn about myself and the sort of
• 29:33
  leader I want to be, and I guess more impact fact that I can help
• 29:38
  navigate whatever that looks like.
• 29:39
  So where do you see in care supports in the next five years?
• 29:43
  Look, I'd love for our reach to continue nationally, and it will
• 29:47
  because we've got a really solid foundation and I'm really
• 29:51
  excited about that. From a product front, Yeah,
• 29:53
  there's a lot more people that need to know about us.
• 29:56
  I know we've got something really special and I know we're
• 29:59
  doing something that's quite different to what else is out
• 30:01
  there. I'm not looking to my left or
• 30:03
  right. I know where we're headed and
• 30:05
  I'm quite single minded with that and I know we're on a path
• 30:08
  and I'm really pleased to be on that path.
• 30:10
  Is it going to be easy? No.
• 30:12
  Is it going to be a whole lot of work?
• 30:13
  Absolutely. But it has been to date and it
• 30:15
  will continue to be. So yeah, I'm excited.
• 30:19
  I'm excited to reach more people, more products, more
• 30:21
  people. Our team will grow.
• 30:24
  It's just timing now. I just love the way that you
• 30:26
  present products. I do like because my, my support
• 30:31
  worker hat goes on like, Oh my God, I can do this and look at
• 30:34
  this teller And you start as you're seeing the products.
• 30:37
  And I, I would recommend any support workers out there,
• 30:40
  support coordinators to get to your shop and see it and touch
• 30:43
  it and feel it, because then you start to be like, Oh, this could
• 30:46
  help. So and so or this would solve
• 30:48
  this problem here and to actually understand it because
• 30:51
  there's a lot to it, so much more we could do as a community
• 30:55
  to be better educated that we can have these products that are
• 30:59
  in our vicinity that can support people.
• 31:01
  Absolutely. You must feel like show and
• 31:03
  tell, like I reckon you'd have the best time.
• 31:06
  Yeah. Oh, it's fun.
• 31:07
  It's lots of fun. It's Yeah.
• 31:09
  There's never a dull day. Is there anything that I've
• 31:11
  missed about all a product that you'd love to talk about?
• 31:14
  No, you've got my favorites. It's the yeah, Continents,
• 31:17
  adaptive clothing. We do have products we haven't
• 31:19
  talked about like, you know, beds, recliners, chairs, shower
• 31:23
  equipment. You know, you've got your high,
• 31:24
  low beds, you've got adjustable beds.
• 31:26
  Recliners are different. Have you put?
• 31:28
  What was that? Have you put any for your own
• 31:30
  home? Because you're like, I've got to
• 31:31
  test it out. You know, the only thing I have
• 31:35
  bought and I paid for it was I bought my kids a cloud sack,
• 31:38
  which is the fine memory. And at the time I am denied for
• 31:43
  a while because it is an investment and I wanted to make
• 31:46
  sure I was being sensible and not just, you know, my gosh,
• 31:48
  show and tell. Here we go guys.
• 31:50
  I kid you not. It's the one piece of furniture
• 31:53
  in my house that every single night there's a body in it.
• 31:57
  It's the one piece that gets used more than my leather couch,
• 32:01
  as more than any other piece of furniture, guaranteed.
• 32:04
  And I actually heard someone got home tonight and I actually
• 32:06
  heard them say I just need to sit in the cloud sack for 10
• 32:09
  minutes. Did any of your best ideas come
• 32:11
  from the cloud sack? All the time.
• 32:14
  Absolutely. Well, when you relax, isn't that
• 32:17
  when all the you know the good stuff happens like.
• 32:19
  I could just imagine you pulling up a a laptop and thinking what
• 32:23
  products, what can, what can I add tonight?
• 32:26
  Absolutely. Look at it is there's yeah,
• 32:28
  yeah, you need to relax and part of that switching off and and
• 32:32
  often that is when your best ideas, yeah, your best ideas
• 32:34
  come. Is there any products that we
• 32:36
  should all keep our eye on for the future that's going to be
• 32:40
  coming up? Or release future.
• 32:43
  OK, look, the IT space is amazing of how technology can
• 32:46
  improve life. So I'm always really excited to
• 32:50
  see what's happening in that space.
• 32:52
  And I think the way of the future obviously is technology.
• 32:54
  It's technology for whether it's AI or, you know, any of the the
• 32:59
  tech stuff I think is really cool.
• 33:01
  But I think in saying that technology is great, but you're
• 33:04
  always going to need continents. Think about the you know, you're
• 33:07
  always going to need your clothing, you're always going to
• 33:09
  need your shower chairs. You're always going to need your
• 33:13
  adjustable beds, your recliners, your day chairs.
• 33:16
  There's many things that technology can't actually buy or
• 33:19
  change in our sector. I love the space that technology
• 33:24
  is having. I love, you know, I do love that
• 33:26
  and I'm learning it all the time because like, I am a bit of a
• 33:28
  dinosaur. I'm not young anymore, but, and
• 33:30
  my kids laugh at me because of that.
• 33:31
  But I I do think there's still a lot of product and a lot of
• 33:35
  support out there that can't be replaced.
• 33:37
  There's all this fantastic product to be used, but it's the
• 33:40
  way that we support somebody to use it and support them in the
• 33:43
  most dignified way as possible, even with personal care, how we
• 33:47
  dress and, you know, making the decisions and all that stuff.
• 33:49
  That really goes down to us and support workers.
• 33:52
  But it's so cool to see products out there that can really
• 33:55
  support somebody to live a full life and one that's independent
• 33:58
  now. If anyone was out there to find
• 34:00
  you, what's the best way to find your company?
• 34:03
  Yeah, sure. So we're in care supports with
• 34:05
  an s.com dot AU, that's our website or just Google us where
• 34:09
  we're there, we're online, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram.
• 34:13
  Yeah, we're on socials. Yeah.
• 34:14
  Or give us a call where is we're very, very accessible.
• 34:17
  Where's that? Where's the shop?
• 34:18
  We're in Nunawading, so in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and
• 34:21
  that's the physical shop, but we ship out every day nationally.
• 34:25
  So it doesn't matter where you are, we can get products to you
• 34:28
  regional as well. So we just keep it really
• 34:30
  simple. We've kept the model very, very
• 34:33
  simple in that we pick up the phone, we talk to you, we help
• 34:36
  you out, we're very available for you.
• 34:39
  And that doesn't matter whether you're a support worker,
• 34:41
  coordinator, parent, nominee, it doesn't matter where they're
• 34:43
  where they're to help. And just to make the process
• 34:45
  easy. No one should be chasing up
• 34:47
  where their order is. It just needs to arrive and be
• 34:50
  seamless and and have one less hassle make life a bit easier.
• 34:54
  And anybody that's coming to you, can they come to you with
• 34:57
  their NDIS plan to figure out what they can and can't spend
• 35:00
  when it comes to confident aids to assistive care?
• 35:03
  Of course. So obviously with the background
• 35:06
  of our previous life, I guess, of being in the plan management
• 35:10
  and support coordination space, we do have a fairly in depth
• 35:14
  understanding on what can and can't be funded.
• 35:16
  No one can claim that they know everything because it's
• 35:18
  constantly changing and there's obviously legislation and
• 35:21
  guidelines to keep up to date, which we do our very best.
• 35:23
  But yes, we do know a lot about what can and can't be funded.
• 35:28
  I understand what people with different disabilities are going
• 35:31
  to need, so that's really important.
• 35:33
  But we will support the participant with them through
• 35:36
  that process. Depending on who their plan
• 35:38
  manager is, will depend on often what's reduced for supporting
• 35:42
  evidence with the invoice. That is quite variable at the
• 35:44
  moment. But we understand that space
• 35:47
  quite well. And we can obviously just tell
• 35:50
  the participant what we know and then they can then make their
• 35:53
  choices around that and they might have a different
• 35:56
  understanding of what supporting evidence they need.
• 35:58
  And that's fine. There's, there's no, we're
• 36:00
  certainly not claiming to be an authority on it whatsoever.
• 36:02
  It's just, this is just what we know, this is what we've
• 36:05
  experienced, but your experience might be different.
• 36:08
  And that's I guess the the beautiful thing about the space
• 36:10
  to be working. No two days are the same.
• 36:12
  Amen. I wouldn't want it.
• 36:16
  I like change. I like a bit of variety to life.
• 36:18
  Is there anything that I haven't mentioned for this podcast that
• 36:21
  you'd love to tell people? I don't think so.
• 36:23
  I think we've covered everything off.
• 36:25
  You know, it's been great to chat to you and yeah, have this
• 36:28
  opportunity. I think no.
• 36:30
  I just love the excitement to be honest.
• 36:32
  I had to have you on the way that you explain the products to
• 36:36
  people out there Mind blowing. Yeah.
• 36:39
  Anybody listening to this podcast please go check out the
• 36:42
  website. Please go check out the store
• 36:44
  and I know that you travel back you'd everywhere.
• 36:47
  So she is around or your your other half or business peeps
• 36:53
  will be around to to try it and feel it and yeah, we'd recommend
• 36:56
  it go have a look like it couldn't hurt out of anything.
• 37:00
  It gives us more opportunity to learn.
• 37:01
  Absolutely. All right, That was it.
• 37:03
  Thank you. That's all right.
• 37:04
  Awesome. Stay on.