Laughter and Lessons: Balancing Business and the Desire to Help Others

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning, and today’s episode is brought to you in part by our Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street warriors.org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at diesel.david.com. You guys are in for a real treat this morning. We’ve got a studio full. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, first up on today’s episode director with Acti-Kare Marietta, Cherokee and North Fulton. Ms. Myrna Cesar. How are you?

Myrna Cesar: [00:01:19] I am doing awesome. So glad to be here.

Stone Payton: [00:01:22] It’s a delight to have you in studio. We’re neighbors here at a co-working spot, uh, called the Innovation Spot.

Myrna Cesar: [00:01:28] Yes we are.

Stone Payton: [00:01:29] We’ve had lots of conversations. This has been in the planning for some time. I’ve got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think a great place to start might be if you could paint for me and our listeners a bit of a picture of mission purpose. What you and your team are, are really out there trying to do for folks.

Myrna Cesar: [00:01:49] Well, um, Acti-Kare of Marietta is basically our focus is to, um, keep client as active as possible in their home. Um, the the age range varies depending on their needs. So our main focus is keeping a client at home safe and providing awesome service.

Stone Payton: [00:02:15] Well, it sounds like noble work and fun work, if you can get it. What, uh, what’s the backstory? How did you find yourself doing this?

Myrna Cesar: [00:02:22] Um, I, my aunt, uh, who lives in Florida. Um, we went to visit my mom and I. So I have to say, it was my mom who dragged me in this space.

Stone Payton: [00:02:35] Way to go, Mom.

Myrna Cesar: [00:02:36] I know, so, um, we went to visit her in Florida. Um, she has at the time, a slight case of Alzheimer’s dementia. Mm. Um, I didn’t like the service that, um, the agency that was providing the service, the way they talked to her, the way they were engaging with her. So, um, I let them go, and then I stayed a couple of months, and at the time, I was working in corporate, um, so I can pretty much work anywhere in the US. So I set space for about three months, um, and trying to, um, get engaged, engage with her and see, um, the best service and agency that can provide care once we leave. So I had a slew of them that came through, and an active care was one of them. So I like the way, uh, they engaged us from start to finish and how they incorporate her into the decision making, um, care plans and all of that. So, um, my mom was sitting next to me. She said, oh, you can. She has a very French accent. Oh, you can do this. This is you. I said, no, mommy, I have a I have a nice little cushy job in corporate America. I don’t want to do this. She’s like, oh, you can do this. Um, so a few months went by and she came back again. She’s like, have you decided what to do? Because you want to leave corporate because you want to do your own stuff? I’m like, no, I don’t, I’m okay. So finally I did, um, and and I did all my research and, and so active care it didn’t break the bank, so I didn’t have to sell my first born child to buy into a franchise. And and I’m glad I did.

Stone Payton: [00:04:36] And you made the decision to join a formal franchise. Did you ever consider, hey, I’m going to do this, but I’m just going to be, you know, CSR chair.

Myrna Cesar: [00:04:46] No, because I didn’t know the the ins and out of the business. And I needed to be part of a of a family that’s been around for a while. Um, and so I needed that structure and that knowledge before I could have, but it would have taken me a while to get, you know, dirt under the fingernails type of. Yeah. So. Yeah. Right.

Stone Payton: [00:05:16] And there’s, uh, I’m operating under the impression there’s some brand equity, if that’s the right phrase, there’s some recognition, there’s some procedures back into the house. All that.

Myrna Cesar: [00:05:25] Exactly, exactly. It, um, they educate you to a point where it makes the process dealing with the red tapes. Um, from, you know, state to state, way better. So now, if I wanted to, you know, consult with someone who wants to do it on their own, I can definitely help them, because now I know the, uh, all the nitty gritty of what to do, how to do it. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:05:51] So now that you’ve been at it a while, what’s the what’s the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Myrna Cesar: [00:05:57] For me, it’s, um, uh, working with not just my team, but learning from, uh, the seniors and their life, uh, uh, understanding what makes them tick. And they’re funny as heck. So to me, it’s the, the relationship, um, with a client and also their family, because we’re not only providing care to them, but also making sure that their family feels comfortable and they know that, you know, their loved ones safe. So because one of the, uh, slogan of active care, when you can’t be with the one, your loved one, we can. And so so we’re kind of like an extension of, of their family.

Stone Payton: [00:06:44] Well, that’s an excellent point. Um, we’re not there yet for me, but my parents, they now live two minutes away. They were down in Florida. I grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and they’re not there yet. But when they are, yeah, I guess I’m going to be a client too, right? I’m the client, too. Not just not just Mom and dad.

Myrna Cesar: [00:07:03] Exactly, exactly, exactly. So what we do and what I. What I’ve been doing is really educating the public on if you have, um, an aging parent, um, what to do, um, how to engage them, because we seem to think a lot of people think and even I’m I’m definitely guilty of that, that now that my mom is, uh, is older now, I’m taking, you know, rein of this now she’s my child that I’m taking care of, and I can tell what to do. But no, they’re not. They’re grown adults. They raised she raised me. So I have to follow a certain line that she needs help. And I’m there to provide help. But she’s also an independent person, so you have to respect those boundaries as children of an older parent.

Stone Payton: [00:08:00] So you talked about educating. How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a business like yours? Is that a big part of the the strategy, the way that you meet your market is by educating people and maybe ideally early rather than late.

Myrna Cesar: [00:08:17] That that’s definitely one aspect. Uh, the other aspect is really, um, you know, door to door going down, meeting, going to senior facilities and, and talking, reaching out to them, providing free service. Um, I do a lot of bingos and a lot of facilities. Um, uh, so I’m in the community and, and they just they see me as the brand of active care of Marietta. So that’s one aspect of this. Then I also have leads, um, that we received, um, another.

Stone Payton: [00:08:55] Benefit of being part of this formal franchise. Okay.

Myrna Cesar: [00:08:57] Exactly, exactly. So and then we have, you know, um, a bootstrap marketing, um, I have, you know, a couple of sales, uh, ladies that goes out and sell our services, uh, facilities, um, doctor’s office. We have all our marketing material all over the place beside myself, you know, doing the show and dance.

Stone Payton: [00:09:23] Well, no, it’s a good lesson and a good conversation for, uh, budding entrepreneurs. Aspiring entrepreneurs. I don’t care how great the franchise is or how cool the idea is. You know, you’re not going to build it, and they come. You gotta have some kind of approach to go to.

Myrna Cesar: [00:09:39] That is a that’s exactly what I tell people. Don’t, don’t, um, put in your head that, um, I provide all these services and people will just going to be knocking at my door. That doesn’t happen. You have to you have to be out there promoting it and sometimes giving free services, uh, going to expos wherever I said wherever a senior is, Myrna is there with the banner of active care. This is who we are, what we do and how we do it. All right.

Stone Payton: [00:10:10] So let’s talk about who you are, where you are, how you do it. Uh, the work itself. And if we if you want, you can use me as a case study. Although maybe I’m too early in the. But I would like to know. Let’s talk more about the work itself.

Myrna Cesar: [00:10:23] So normally, um, a client will, um, uh, son or daughter will call me and said, I have mom. She lives alone. Um, we want to respect her space and have provide service at home, which is awesome because that’s where you want them to be. Yeah. Facilities. Um, you know, sometime, you know, uh, family can help, but put someone in a facility. But there are, you know, 1 or 2 caregivers, and they’re taking care of 24 people. So that one on one, that connection is not there. Um, the level of care is not there. So when someone calls me and said, okay, mom is 80 years old and, um, you know, she has no major, um, no major health concern, but we want to have someone that comes and provide companionship that makes sure that she’s eating the right food, um, making sure that she’s dressed, she’s showering. Uh, she can do that. All those things by herself. And sometimes she’s afraid that, you know, she may, you know, she may slip and fall in the shower. Right? So, um, I will go and I will do an assessment, um, to make sure that there’s no, uh, no rugs around, that she can easily fall. There’s some grab bars in the bathrooms. Um, things are easily accessible to her in the kitchen. Um, so I will look at all of that and.

Stone Payton: [00:12:01] See that never even was on my radar. None of what you just said was on my radar. I mean, the idea of a companion and someone there. Yes, but not the. I need to check their house for rugs when I go later today.

Myrna Cesar: [00:12:13] Well, we we we have a we have a checklist that I can share with you. Uh, so there’s a checklist that I go through the house and I make sure that things are okay. Yeah. Um, so once that happens, then I kind of get a feel for how many days of the week that you want this? Um, we don’t impose, um, you know, that you have to have 40 hours. You have to have someone here because they may not need someone 24 hours a day. They just need someone three hours a week, 2 or 3 times a week. So we’ll go and we’ll kind of fine tune that. Um, and then talk to mom. My engagement is really to, uh, mom or a dad, uh, just to get into their head, um, if they’re okay with this. Now, I’ve talked to son. Now I’m talking to. How are you okay with this? Um, what are some of your concerns? Because sometimes I’m like, I don’t need anybody. And then now my job is to really say, okay, we’re not going to intrude. We’re just here for some help. We’ll help you. If you need, uh, help with the laundry, we’ll do that for you. If you need, uh, a good cook meal instead of going to Wendy’s, we’ll do that. Um, a little vacuuming. He’s like, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And. Usually I put it in such a way that this is really to help your daughter, because your daughter is at work in the office, so she doesn’t have to worry that you’re going slip and fall. She doesn’t have to worry that you’re not eating the right stuff, but it clicks for them automatically.

Stone Payton: [00:13:54] That’s a great way to frame it. Yeah, because that would be meaningful. That would be far more meaningful to my parents that it’s helping me. Yeah, I love it.

Myrna Cesar: [00:14:02] Yes. So kind of take that burden off of you. Um, and then so once that happens and like, oh yeah, we yeah, we’re going to do it. They make the decision. Yeah. We want you. Let’s do it. Before they sign any any, um, uh, agreements. So I go back to my office, called the nurse, and have the nurse do an assessment that is a requirement by the state of Georgia that if you are licensed by the state of Georgia, you are required to do a nurse supposed to come and do an assessment. So we scheduled the nurse to do the assessment. They signed the agreement. The agreement. Is this a list out all the, you know, three days a week, the time we’re going to be here from ten to 10 to 12, and we’re going to provide X services. Um, and then um, and then you sign. Now you can try it out for whenever, whenever you decide to say, you know what, mom is okay, we don’t need the services anymore. So you’re not locked into a two year contract. It’s as needed basis. Um, so once that happens, and then I also, um, try to connect, uh, the personality of the client with the caregiver.

Stone Payton: [00:15:19] Oh, I bet that chemistry would be important.

Myrna Cesar: [00:15:21] Exactly.

Stone Payton: [00:15:22] Dans over here, nodding his head. And we’re going to visit with Dan in a little bit, but he’s he’s living through very much a lot of what you’re describing.

Myrna Cesar: [00:15:29] Awesome. Because even for even for Dan because he’s providing care to for your mom. Right. So even respite care, we do provide that service to caregiver home caregivers, um, so they can go to their doctor’s appointment or do the kind of thing or go have a lunch with a friend. Uh, so we also that’s all underneath that umbrella and all.

Stone Payton: [00:15:53] Of this, uh, I’m under the impression that we may start with program A, and it’s outlined like this. But as we get further and further in, we kind of we can dial it in and fine tune it, right? The needs evolve or we’re now we’re a lot smarter a month or two in. But what we really need and want.

Myrna Cesar: [00:16:10] Exactly, exactly. And and at times it, sometimes it, it just grew from three days to five, seven days, uh, depending on the level of care that the client needs.

Stone Payton: [00:16:26] And this didn’t have anything at all to do with your corporate job.

Myrna Cesar: [00:16:31] No. No. Actually, I have to say, my mom reminded me the other day, she’s like, well, you know, you when you were in, uh, when you were in high school, you work in a nursing home. I was like, oh, yeah, your major was a pre-med major. I’m like, oh, yeah. Um, you’re you’re it’s like your degree is in clinical clinical psych. You work with autistic kids and da da da. And now that you, you know, you you have forgotten. That’s what you remind me. So you have forgotten the gifts that was planted in your heart. I’m like, okay, I’m done.

Stone Payton: [00:17:07] I feel like you’ve described a lot of the elements and I’m connecting the dots, but in short form. How would you articulate the difference in in active care and what you guys do and the way you approach it versus maybe the rest of what we might find in the general market?

Myrna Cesar: [00:17:24] I think the way we approach, um, uh, dealing with, um, our care partners, that’s what we call them, our care partners is that, um, that one on one is always there. They have my number at any time they can call me. Not a not a whole lot of agency. You can call the owner.

Stone Payton: [00:17:49] Yeah, I bet.

Myrna Cesar: [00:17:50] You can call me. Um, the type of care plan that we provide, we, we create for our client. Um, they, they are part of not just the client, but also the family. When we create the care plan, we incorporate them into that so they know exactly when a caregiver walk into their home, what they what they’re supposed to do. In addition, uh, we leave a communication log in every home. That communication log has my direct number. It has, uh, our liability insurance. Um, so you know that if something happens to a caregiver in your home, you’re not going to be burdened with the costs of making health care. Yes. So we incorporate all of that in that communication log. So if I’m a daughter and I live in Texas, which I do have clients, and we’re taking care of their family, they live in Texas. If they walk in two weeks from now, they can tell exactly what happened, what mom ate, when when we do laundry for her, when we took her to a appointments, doctor’s appointment, all of that. In that communication lock and it goes back. So that’s a requirement of mine. So I know so I know as a daughter who has an aging parent that that’s what I would like to have to see when I walk in I want to see, okay, mom did this. She did that. Oh, she ate this this morning. Oh, okay. Okay. We did this exercise. So we incorporate all of that in that communication log.

Stone Payton: [00:19:32] All right I’m going to switch gears on you okay. For a moment before we before we wrap your segment, I don’t know when you’d find the time because it sounds to me like you got a lot going on. Uh, but passions, pursuits, interests, hobbies outside the scope of your of your work, anything you have a tendency to. My listeners know I like to hunt, fish and travel. Okay, but is there something like that that you nerd out about?

Myrna Cesar: [00:19:52] I am, um, I come from a technical world, and I’m still in there, and I’m a creative person, so, um, uh, last year I created this magazine called Senior Chronicle, which we’ll talk about. Um, it was a way for me to highlight all these, um, uh, aging seniors that have so much to, to offer. And they’re just sitting at home, um, looking at the shiny object we call television. So. But I wanted to put them up front in terms of who they are, as fabulous as they are on a magazine cover, so they can have something to talk about. So, um, so that is the creative piece of me in terms of what I do on a daily basis. I’m a big, uh, hot yoga fan. Um, I, I also play pickleball.

Stone Payton: [00:20:55] We were chatting about that before we came on here. The whole studio, everybody but Stone plays pickleball. I’m gonna have to look into this.

Myrna Cesar: [00:21:01] Yes. So, um, there’s a wonderful indoor pickleball place, uh, in Roswell that I go to, uh, some friends of mine. So. Yeah. So I’m learning pickleball. Uh, it’s awesome.

Stone Payton: [00:21:13] All right, let’s leave our listeners with a couple of actionable tips. Maybe they’re in my situation where it’s early, but, you know, the parents are getting a little bit older, and they need a little help. I thought, like, just like what you mentioned earlier about just around the home. Well, a couple of of tips so that we could practical, actionable tips to help them just be better at communicating with and working with, uh, aging family members.

Myrna Cesar: [00:21:38] Yeah. One tip I would like to leave, and I think I, I, I alluded to that earlier, um, that your parents or your parents, um, and, uh, rather than coming and take over. Um. They need more guidance than for you to take over their lives. You will get a lot of pushback, so I would suggest not to do that. I’ve, I created actually a, um, a presentation on how to talk to an aging parent on receiving services from agencies. Mm. Uh, it’s, um, and I usually send that out, uh, to potential leads or people that have called me. I send that out. Um, in addition to how to select the best care agency that fits your fam for your family. Um, there are certain things that the certain questions you need to ask because they’re coming into your space, they’re coming into your parents space. You need to know, um, the the questions to ask, like, you know, what kind of, uh, training does your caregivers have? What how do you, uh, make sure that the caregiver is who they say they are? I know I act a care. Uh, although we run them through the, the database and the state of Georgia. But I do a statewide check because you can be beautiful in Georgia and not so beautiful in North Carolina. Yeah, yeah. So you have to know, and I know for some it’s, uh, it’s new territory and they get really, uh, you know, trying to figure it out. Mhm. Call actor care will help you figure that out.

Stone Payton: [00:23:36] I love it. And when you come back and you are coming back we’re going to dive in more on this magazine I could see like a periodic uh, installment, almost like an audio column of what’s going on with Senior Chronicle.

Myrna Cesar: [00:23:47] Senior Chronicle. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:23:49] Right. So we’re going to have you back and we’re going to dive into that. But for now, let’s make sure that our listeners know how they can tap into your work, where they can get their hands on some of this educational material, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, whether it’s a website, whatever. Uh, coordinates make sense?

Myrna Cesar: [00:24:06] Um, the the the number is, um, (678) 559-5887. Uh, you can send me an email. It’s mce sa at acti k a r e. Acti-Kare. Kare with a k, not a c where you can go to, um, to our website www.actikare.com slash marietta.

Stone Payton: [00:24:32] What a pleasure to have you in studio and visiting with us.

Myrna Cesar: [00:24:37] It was awesome. Thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:24:38] Well thank you for joining us. Really appreciate you sharing your insight, your perspective. And uh, I’m quite sincere. We’re going to have you back in here and we’ll, uh, we’ll explore that later. We’re neighbors anyway, so we’ll grab some coffee and and talk it through. How about hanging out with us while we visit with our other guest?

Myrna Cesar: [00:24:53] I would love to because you have some really cool people here.

Stone Payton: [00:24:56] I do. All right. Next up on Cherokee Business Radio this morning, please join me in welcoming to the show with Chase King Art the man himself, Mr. Chase King. Good morning sir.

Chase King: [00:25:07] Good morning.

Stone Payton: [00:25:08] Hey, did you learn anything in that last segment?

Chase King: [00:25:12] I did. You have, uh, you offer some personalized care for seniors, and that’s a great thing.

Speaker4: [00:25:16] Thank you. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:25:16] We’ve got an aging population, and they need it.

Stone Payton: [00:25:19] Some of the folks in this room are a little longer in the tooth than Chase, but let’s not get too personal. Tell us about Chase King Art man.

Chase King: [00:25:29] Well, it started, uh, started when I was about 15 years old. I was, um. I had a great art teacher in high school. Um, we he took me under his wing. And at the time I needed a little bit of guidance. I just lost my mother to, uh, to cancer, to a brain tumor. It’s kind of like a. It happened pretty fast about, I guess, six, eight months. It just kind of swept over and took over. But it was a kind of a traumatic event. But I had my grandparents with me and they raised me and they took me, took me under and helped me out. But I needed a little bit of guidance. And at the time I was skateboarding and I loved skateboarding. I had some good friends in the all the way up through high school, but we, uh, I needed some something to do, and painting became that. And it was a good outlet for me to express my emotions and angst at the time and just kind of figure out life. And from there, it hasn’t stopped.

Stone Payton: [00:26:28] So have you landed on a niche, a style, a type of painting? A I don’t even know the right questions to ask. I’m just asking questions like the like, do you paint oils or watercolor?

Chase King: [00:26:40] Yeah, I do just about all of that. Uh, my primary my primary medium would be oil painting. Uh, but I do work in a lot of graphite watercolors, pastels. I like to draw a lot, so I just kind of bring that into the fold as I do my drawing. And then the oil painting is like the, like the pinnacle of my ideas. Whenever I get to a point where I’m going to do something major, I’ll do it in oil.

Stone Payton: [00:27:04] And your painting people, landscapes, uh, you know, hot rod cars. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:27:09] Pretty horses. Um, I like I’m a, I’m an observer. And my life, I just like to watch things and look and see. And I’ll just pull from just about any resource that I can, if it’s interesting enough to me, or if it’s not interesting, and I want to figure out a little bit more about it, I’ll paint it and see what I can.

Stone Payton: [00:27:25] Make it interesting. Yeah, right.

Chase King: [00:27:27] So, uh, just about anything, but I have a I have a very expressionistic style, and I use a lot of color, and I take a lot of liberties with form. So it may not look like as realistic as, as it could, but it’s identifiable and it gets your attention.

Stone Payton: [00:27:44] Now you do something that seems very unique to me. At least I haven’t come across it. Where you’ll paint. Is it live painting? You paint like at events? Yeah. And you capture what’s going on at the event. Mhm.

Chase King: [00:27:56] Yeah. So I’ll, um I’ll. I’ll either be on the fringes of the of the audience, or I’ll be slap dab in the middle. It just depends on what? All events are so different. So I just have to coordinate with with who’s organizing the event. But yeah, I take in the entire audience. Um, everything that’s going on and I’m either working from my sketchbook or I’m working from scene and I’m just painting. And people love watching stuff evolve in front of them. It’s like you could watch a tree grow, but it’s a painting instead. It’s just super fast and it’s, you know, some events can be an hour or two hours or less. So it happens fast. And I’ve been doing this for about half my life, so I’ve been able to develop speed. And it was kind of a natural way for me to to showcase what I do to the public.

Stone Payton: [00:28:50] Well, I’m so enamored with the idea. I mean, even in my world where we in studio like this or like a Thursday, we’re going on site to do what we call a remote broadcast. Yeah. You know, we’ll be broadcasting live. It’s a big technology summit kind of thing. I just how cool would it be if you were kind of off to the side painting the action? Maybe at the whole event, but even just the Business RadioX action, I’m really I’m intrigued with this. Yeah. You get it’s.

Chase King: [00:29:15] A great opportunity for me to meet people. It’s also a great opportunity for other peoples to be around creativity in a way that you wouldn’t expect. It’s kind of surprising, and I like that about it, and I think other people do too. And I’m just trying to grow a business model around that. And it’s been exciting. It’s been really fun and it makes me tick. It really does.

Stone Payton: [00:29:35] So that’s the other side of all this. You’re an artist. Marvelous. I’m sure you’ll continue to get better and better and and enjoy all that, but oh, by the way, you got to run a business. Yeah. What are you learning about the business of being an artist?

Chase King: [00:29:50] Yeah, I’ve spent again half my life just developing my craft. I haven’t, I mean, I’ve sold paintings here and there, not consistently, but I’ve taken a leap as of 2 or 3 months ago now to do this full time. So I’ve been I’m in the midst of it. Oh, wow. Things as I’m going. Running a business is not, um, it’s not anything to take lightly, especially if you’ve got people who are depending on you to provide. So there’s there’s aspects involved that I have to learn and. Figure out. So I’ve been able to do I’ve had a I have a a business. My wife is a business owner. Madeline was on here a few weeks ago. Oh, she did.

Stone Payton: [00:30:31] A marvelous job. So you gotta have a high bar to clear here. Chase.

Chase King: [00:30:34] She’s a really great, uh. She’s so inspirational. So I have heard of in my corner to help me with figuring things out as the business goes on. Um, but, yeah, there’s, uh, lots to learn, but I’m getting it, all right?

Stone Payton: [00:30:50] So as a potential customer, I could come to you and say, hey, we’re doing this remote broadcast, or I’d love to have you come in this studio. We’re throwing a block party. So this live painting thing, I, uh, I can what a great, uh, accent to a party, huh? Darn right. Yeah. Very cool.

Myrna Cesar: [00:31:04] I think one of my questions for you is when you do these type of event, that energy must be, like, blinding. And because you’re you’re absorbing it, you’re absorbing it as you’re doing it. So that must be really hyped.

Chase King: [00:31:21] Yeah. No it is. And and there’s a lot of nerves involved. But as I get started it’s just those kind of simmer down and I get to get focused. And also I get healthy distractions from the audience members and they get to talk. And it just kind of takes my mind off of the nerves a little bit, too. It’s just a really cool, immersive experience for everybody.

Stone Payton: [00:31:42] I gotta agree, man. I don’t think I’ll throw another party without maybe reaching out to. I did a.

Chase King: [00:31:47] I did an event at a deer park, uh, Christmas around Christmas time. They had Santa Claus there, and they set me right up next to the fireplace where the kids were lining up, and I just was painting the Christmas tree in front of me. It was a big, grand Christmas tree they had decorated, and I just was painting that as the kids were lining up and I would let them paint on it and I would just kind of work it in a little bit. So it’s not didn’t turn into a mess. Not all of them. I mean, it just it was an experiment to say the least. We just made it made it something and it was pretty cool. And then we raffled it off. So there’s just so many different possibilities to get involved. Uh, get the community involved with painting too. So that was a that was kind of the first event that made me realize, like, this is something I really need to be doing.

Stone Payton: [00:32:32] Very cool. So how were you finding the Cherokee area business climate? Do you find that other business owners are trying to find ways to help, or ways to get you incorporated into things? Or if you need an accountant or a lawyer, are you finding them in the community, embracing you on this?

Chase King: [00:32:51] They’re, uh, they’re there for a lot of there’s there for support and friendship. And I’ve been I’ve been able to do business with quite a few of them, especially, um, the Woodstock arts organization. Oh, yeah. They were the ones who pretty much kick started my live painting suite idea, because they asked me to do it during 2020, right before I was getting shut down.

Chase King: [00:33:13] Just got back from, uh, from Mardi Gras. I was, I was riding high, you know, it was I saw a lot of theatrics out there. It was cool. So I got up on stage and it was 400 people behind me, so.

Stone Payton: [00:33:24] Wow.

Chase King: [00:33:24] I was like, that was nerve wracking. That was the first time I’d ever done that. And I was crazy. But the nerves went away after I just got locked in. Awesome. But, um, yeah, Woodstock Arts has been a great supporter of mine as far as getting my, uh. Career going. Honestly, I’ve taught there to painting live for their galas. Um, it’s been it’s been good. And then, I mean, there’s a number of other ones. I’m trying to think Capital Mortgage Solutions helped me out with that Adair Park event. And then, um. Uh, collaborative co-working space at Adair Park. They had, uh, hosted an event a couple two weeks ago, I believe so, yeah, they’re it’s all coming. They’re all coming together and seeing what’s going on, and and any way that they can help, they do. And I try to do the same.

Stone Payton: [00:34:08] And then what I’m viewing as the more traditional artists work, like can someone come to you and is commission, is that the right word? Like, yeah, hire you to paint a specific thing.

Chase King: [00:34:18] Um, the more traditional, uh, route of my business is commissions or custom art, and I sell my original work too, and I do a lot of that, and I have a lot of that.

Stone Payton: [00:34:28] So you give yourself plenty of latitude to sit down and do what Chase wants to do and then take that to market. But then you’ve got these other avenues.

Chase King: [00:34:36] Yep, yep. That’s the that’s the idea. I want to be able to hopefully just sell my artwork and do commissions and live paint. I love it.

Stone Payton: [00:34:46] Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:34:48] So how about you? Outside of painting you enjoy other stuff or that really is your thing? That’s my.

Chase King: [00:34:52] Thing. But I love, uh, I have a growing family. We, uh, like I mentioned, my wife. Yeah. And we have, uh, very two little girls, two and a half and one.

Stone Payton: [00:35:02] Oh, my. Oh, you can’t have a hobby for 15 years.

Speaker4: [00:35:05] There’s a little bit of.

Stone Payton: [00:35:06] Right, Dan?

Dan Adkins: [00:35:08] I think it’s all about the girls at home, huh? I say, and then the hobby is all about keeping the girls intact. After 14 or 15 years, they keep us busy.

Chase King: [00:35:18] They’re so much fun, though. I mean, we it’s so up and down and chaotic, though. It’s. You just can’t predict any kind of behaviors. It’s just whatever you get. So we can be feeding them dinner one night and they love it the next night. They hate it. It’s the same food just drives us up the walls. But then we have moments where it’s just watching them play together and they’re so sweet.

Stone Payton: [00:35:38] So I do know your wife and I think the world of her. Uh, Madeline, it’s a two entrepreneur family. Have you have you have you come across begun to build some? I don’t know what you call them. Disciplines or, like, here’s how we’re going to conduct our, our lives. Because have have you is it too early or have you kind of you’re figuring your way on that. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:35:59] I mean we we’re we’re getting some things in order. We we started doing that a little while ago. We got life insurance policies and stuff that we’ve been investing in. And just like trying to keep our house somewhat ordered as far as, like getting necessary things we need, like food and paying our bills and our mortgage and all that, just making sure that all that’s taken care of as far as like the growing business, it’s it’s a crapshoot. Sometimes it’s just whatever works works. We try to capitalize on what doesn’t or what works, and then kind of put things to the side that don’t work and try to refine things. So it is a learning curve for both of us to entrepreneurial spirits in the house. One’s pretty fresh off the block too. So right. Madeline’s got an upper upper hand I think. And I’m I’m learning a lot from her.

Stone Payton: [00:36:47] I’ll bet you are. So, uh, like Myrna are are you out there shaking the trees and networking and talking to people? And I mean, you you got to do that, right? In addition to all the art.

Chase King: [00:36:59] Yeah, yeah, I learned that you have to do that. And there’s so many ways to do that. But, um, I’m a pretty shy, reserved, shy person, naturally. But I’ve been able to go to some networking events and just listen to people and talk with people and tell them what I do. It’s got me out of my shell a little bit good, and doing this is a pretty big deal for me too, because I don’t know. But doing the live painting thing that was like, I didn’t think I would be able to do that. But then again, I’m internally, though, I’m a pretty shy person.

Stone Payton: [00:37:29] But you.

Chase King: [00:37:30] Mentioned try to get it out though.

Stone Payton: [00:37:32] But you mentioned listening, and I think all of us who have been at it a while as entrepreneurs have learned that while being able to articulate ideas and frame up and all that, that’s that’s certainly helpful. But I think the most powerful tool you can utilize in a, in a sales and marketing capacity, and I think I see the other two nodding their head, is just being good at listening. Yeah. Um, so it’s good to hear.

Chase King: [00:37:57] It’s reaffirming. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:37:59] And you’ll, you’ll, uh, profit from the law of contrast because not every. Yeah. A lot of folks who may be think they’re listening are actually waiting. They’re just waiting till you’re done talking. Then they want to. They’re not actually listening. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:38:14] Yeah that’s a good, good point.

Myrna Cesar: [00:38:16] I think for me as a as a business owner in this space. Yeah. Um, and I don’t know if you, if you come across this because I want to help so much and sometimes I’m like, okay, um, uh, I’ll do it for free. Do you find that? And and then I have my staff will stop me and said, well, no, well, we’ll do it for free today. And then because I have this, this, this yearning to help, I want to save everybody. Do you find that? And not so it’s the humanness of it. And then. But you have to. Balance the business side of it, and that’s what I’m learning. Um, uh, now that I have to do the I have to do the balancing act, it’s.

Dan Adkins: [00:39:04] Pretty typical of entrepreneurs. Yeah, I don’t know how to price themselves. And they they want to give it away. It’s a dart game. It is.

Myrna Cesar: [00:39:12] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Dan Adkins: [00:39:13] And a lot of that is because they’re they do want to serve as people. That’s why they do what they do.

Myrna Cesar: [00:39:18] Yeah. And it’s not even the pricing. It’s just oh I feel so bad right. Yeah. Well we’ll do it for free.

Chase King: [00:39:27] And I just tried to take what I do and, and educate people on the value of it. I’m not trying to boast or anything, but what what people do for their livelihood is important. And you got to try to exercise that and and display that to people and present it in a way that they’re going to understand how valuable it is. Yeah. Otherwise they’re going to want to deal. Yeah. And if you keep giving them deals, they’re going to keep expecting that. And that word spreads.

Dan Adkins: [00:39:53] Well. And and also you have to explain how valuable it is to them because it’s wiifm. What’s in it for me is so often the case. Yeah. And um, and you’re selling the value not not anything else. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:40:10] Sometimes you’re even selling yourself, right?

Myrna Cesar: [00:40:12] Yes.

Dan Adkins: [00:40:12] That’s usually what you’re selling in the value. But, um, people sometimes ask me, why am I different? It’s because I’m me and nobody else is. And that’s what one of the things I offer. It’s not the key thing necessarily. But if somebody doesn’t buy into me, they don’t buy into what I do. Sure.

Myrna Cesar: [00:40:33] Well, I like that.

Stone Payton: [00:40:34] Sounds to me like.

Dan Adkins: [00:40:36] Well, I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Stone Payton: [00:40:37] I was just going to say, it sounds to me like Chase has accumulated or already came to the table with a great deal more wisdom than I would have thought. For someone who is very early in their entrepreneurial journey, I think he’s got a good handle on it.

Myrna Cesar: [00:40:50] Yes, yes.

Dan Adkins: [00:40:51] And you, you had a phrase that I really liked when you said, and I’ve forgotten the first word, which was the crucial word, but you were talking about distractions and healthy distractions, healthy distractions. That is such a great term. Um, because, uh, it’s getting ahead.

Chase King: [00:41:07] A lot, and you just have to let things come to you.

Dan Adkins: [00:41:10] And as opposed to trying to fight them off, which doesn’t work very well, or, uh, you know, get away from them. And that also doesn’t work very well when you’re doing things in the public eye. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:41:25] I’m a pretty firm believer of the law of attraction. I think if you can. Believe something and think something. Um, you’re going to keep attracting that to you, whether good or bad. So if someone comes up to you and is interested in what you’re doing, it’s because you’re thinking about something that you’re doing that’s interesting and the people want to know. So embrace it, right? Right. Or if you’re doing something wrong, you’re going to get something to come at you that’s going to teach you a lesson. So accept it.

Stone Payton: [00:41:52] Well, I can tell you I turned 60 in August, and I do have a lot of anecdotal evidence that there is something to this law of attraction, or whatever you call it.

Chase King: [00:42:02] God or what? Something something’s in the works that is facilitating all this.

Stone Payton: [00:42:09] Well, I think the universe is conspiring to help you. Uh, and I think the universe should conspire to help you. Chase, I was inspired on this pricing and doing work for money and not getting caught in the free trap. Uh, by something that happened last night. Uh, my wife Holly, we’re always looking for a new series to binge. And so we binge watched a series called tracker. And this guy, and it’s a network show, but we can watch it on Paramount+ without the commercials. And he calls himself a rewards. But, you know, like, if your kid goes missing or whatever and you offer a $20,000 reward, he goes and finds them, you know, or somebody stole your, you know, 1967 Mustang. Yeah. He goes and finds it. And every episode I thought to myself, okay, on this one, he’s not going to charge him. He’s going to say, here, you keep this and get, you know, get your life back or whatever, buddy, on every one and every one of them. I had like that draw to not charge them or and every one of them, buddy, he took the check. He put in his backpack. I was so inspired by that. So. But it’s it’s hard to help people if you don’t make money. Yeah.

Chase King: [00:43:17] You get sometimes you have to be less personal about it and just sort of, you know, but you’re in the business of being personal, right? So am I.

Chase King: [00:43:25] So are you, I’m sure.So there’s a balance like you mentioned. And that is so special. I’m learning that too as I go.

Stone Payton: [00:43:33] Sounds to me like you’re off to a marvelous, marvelous start. All right. What’s the best way for folks to connect with you?

Chase King: [00:43:39] You can find me at Chase King Art.com and you from there you can find my Instagram is linked to my website. You can also find me on Facebook at Chase King Art.

Dan Adkins: [00:43:52] Can we can we see your art in those places?

Chase King: [00:43:55] Yeah, yeah.

Dan Adkins: [00:43:55] Wonderful.

Chase King: [00:43:56] If you want to see more of my process and you can see everything on my website because my Instagram is linked. But if you want to see my process in more, in greater detail, follow me on Instagram because I’m sharing my process and how I’m creating. It’s not just finished products. Instagram. I’m kind of like behind the behind the scenes and what I’m doing, and that that can be interesting for some folks.

Myrna Cesar: [00:44:20] I like Chase.

Stone Payton: [00:44:21] I do too, and I like what he’s doing, and he’s got plenty of ideas for you. Uh, or if you come to him with a general idea, he can probably help you make it a reality. Yeah?

Stone Payton: [00:44:31] I mean, why not? All right, one more time. Those coordinates.

Chase King: [00:44:34] Chase King art. Com.

Stone Payton: [00:44:36] Fantastic. Are you gonna hang out with us while we talk with our next guest? Well, thank you, man, this has been fun. All right, y’all ready for the headliner?

Myrna Cesar: [00:44:46] Well, you know, I was going to clap for Chase.

Stone Payton: [00:44:48] All right, we can do that.

Stone Payton: [00:44:49] I think we clap for Chase. There we go. I’m all for it.

Myrna Cesar: [00:44:52] And people can’t see him. He’s cute.

Chase King: [00:44:56] Yeah. They can.

Stone Payton: [00:44:57] That might be a first clap for Chase. You know, that could be a whole movement. Clap for Chase. That’s a new meme. Clap for chase.

Myrna Cesar: [00:45:04] Clap for Chase.

Stone Payton: [00:45:06] No. Our headliner, he’s he’s been very patient. He’s been nodding his head. He’s been very, uh, supportive. Uh, please join me in welcoming to the show innovative coach with Strategystix, LLC, Mr. Dan Adkins. How are you Man?

Dan Adkins: [00:45:22] I am great. I’m happy to be here. I didn’t know what to expect. I’m here with two wonderful people and yourself, which makes three. And, uh, I just feel, uh, blessed to be here, particularly at this hour of of the day. I had to get up a little earlier than my normal waking hour, but, uh, but I was happy to do it, and I. It’s like discovering a new world, so.

Stone Payton: [00:45:47] Well, I’ve been doing this for right at 20 years, Dan and I didn’t know what to expect this morning either. So if that brings you any comfort. And that’s.

Dan Adkins: [00:45:54] What I think is great about it.

Dan Adkins: [00:45:57] Excuse me. It must be morning. Um, yeah. It’s I when I was working in the film business, and I would have to get up at 4 or 430 in the morning to be on set by six. And I would think, what was I thinking? You know, I mean, that’s just not my hour of the day. And yet getting up was terrible. But I loved being up once I was there. It just took a while for me to appreciate that. So, um.

Stone Payton: [00:46:26] So, tell us about Strategystix. What you out there doing, man?

Dan Adkins: [00:46:28] Well, it’s pronounced Strategystix, but everybody. But everybody seems to want to pronounce his strategy stick. Okay, so one day I’m going to go out and buy about 6000 drum sticks and put little strategies for strategies on him and hand them out. But, um, but, uh, a Strategystix is a, uh, we’re kind of a strange company in that we focus on strategies, but on a lot of different things. Uh, for the most part, I’m focusing on nonprofits right now, helping them with leadership, helping them with fundraising, which actually overlap. If you have good leadership, you’ll have successful fundraising if your leaders are not quite where they need to be or you’re not developing leaders, your fundraising will suffer. So, uh, as you were saying, you know, people people hire are they hire you because a lot of it is about you. That’s the same thing with people giving money to nonprofits. They they give people. They give money to people, not necessarily to cause sometimes to causes. But a lot of times it’s to people if they don’t trust the people, that cause goes down, down the tubes. So I work with them on that. I work with them on developing plans, strategic plans and on key investors or potential investors into their, uh, organization, people who will lead the parade, both with their leadership and also with their pocketbook because they can’t survive without having, uh, people contribute. But there’s a tiring effort for many executive directors because they are constantly asking for money, and they’re going back to the same people over and over and over and over again. And, uh, it it is, you know, almost a daily or weekly challenge for them because they’ve got to find money for this, that or the other.

Dan Adkins: [00:48:31] So what I try to do is I have a system that will lead them toward a, uh, a five year capital campaign or a capital campaign that will fund them for five years for their programs. Uh, a lot of nonprofits don’t realize that they can do that. They think that a capital campaign means I need to build a building, or I’m. I have to buy some extension on this building. Uh, it doesn’t it means that you have a secure five year budget, and you can apply that to your programs, if that’s what you’ve told the people who are investing in it. And, uh, and I believe it’s not donors that you want. You want investors. They want to invest their money. They want to you want them to invest their energy, their time, their brainpower, their contacts and and all of those things. And so that’s that’s what I go through. Um, it’s not magic. I was a professional fundraiser for a number of years and, um, fortunately had some successes. I also, unfortunately, had some failures, but the failures taught me how the successes worked and why the failures did not. And it usually stems from leadership and from an understanding of how to conduct a proper campaign or even proper asks. So, uh, that’s what I focus on. And, um, I have a new course that I’ve just developed to help, uh, nonprofits and to help executive directors who might want to enhance their leadership, want to enhance their teamwork effort, want to grow leaders within their organization, and, uh, and extend their financial situation by focusing on key, uh, potential investors and not just random, uh, investors into the Or donors, depending on how you word it.

Stone Payton: [00:50:32] So when you approached this five year frame initially, uh, do you often get some pushback or are people like, hey, that’s novel? That makes a lot of sense. Let’s dive in or.

Dan Adkins: [00:50:43] Well, it’s a combination because there are people who understand a capital campaign and, uh, they just don’t necessarily understand that it would apply to their budget for five years. It would. So it’s not so much pushback as as it is their, um. Reticent about a campaign because they don’t really know how to conduct it or how it works. Right, necessarily. And if that’s what they’re striving for, a lot of times they’re not in a position to do it, and you have to kind of prepare your way, which is not an overnight preparation. You have to get the right people involved. You have to get the right people that are supporting your organization from a non-financial standpoint, as well as a financial standpoint, and very difficult to just walk in and go, okay, I’m going to do a five year campaign and I want to raise all this money. Well, that’s great, but you also have to do a feasibility study to see how much money is reasonable to to actually raise. And by that you you go to your community and ask them. And so you go through that, then you have to actually ask them to contribute. Uh, but it’s, it’s not something you just, you know, grab a figure out of the air. Some do. And they said, well, we want to raise $5 million. And it’s like, well, good luck with that because your community says you’re going to max out at a million or or a little, you know, maybe a little more than that. And there’s just no way on the planet that you’re going to reach that dollar figure in, in, in a campaign. But you have to even prepare that. I mean, that has to be and a lot of nonprofits don’t do that.

Dan Adkins: [00:52:34] Um, and it’s painful. It’s painful to do a campaign. It’s all all hands on deck. Everybody’s involved. And it usually takes, uh, eight months to a year. So it’s not something that a lot of people want to do. And particularly when you have a board that is predominantly business people and they’ve got their own lives, they’ve got their own businesses, and suddenly you’re going, well, I want you to put a lot of time in this. And and also you’re asking them to call perhaps their friends to, uh, be as generous as they should be in terms of the campaign. And a lot of boards think that, yeah, you hire a professional fundraiser and go raise money. In the case that that I found myself in, I was going to cities that I’d never been to small, smaller towns and smaller cities. In the southeast, where I’d never been, and people would say, okay, go raise money. Most did not because they they understood it by that point, but. If they do that. Nobody in that town knows me. There’s no reason for them to give me a penny. Right? But if their best friend walks in and says, you know, I’m on the board of this organization. I’m thinking I’m going to contribute. Maybe they’ll say a dollar figure, maybe not. But I’m going to contribute to this effort. And I’d like you to listen to Dan so that he can tell you what it’s all about. I’ll carry it from there. So I’ll tell them what the story is. I’ll tell them what the strategies are. I’ll tell them what the idea is behind it, why it’s important to them, why it’s important to their community. And then I’ll shut up and I’ll say, how’s.

Stone Payton: [00:54:29] That for a pro tip on selling? I’ll say it and shut up.

Dan Adkins: [00:54:33] I’ll ask them for a dollar figure. But then I’m quiet and just sit and wait and listen. He who talks first loses the argument. Um, so so someone will then respond often. You know, I have to check with my board. I have to check with my wife. I have to check with, you know, my dog, whatever. And then sometimes I’ll respond and say, yeah, I’m in. But a lot of times, um, they’ll, they’ll have to check with somebody. I’ll do all the follow up. The person who introduced me is now. Pretty much out of it, unless I’m just getting nothing from that person and I may call them and say, hey, can you just give them a little prompt to make a decision? It can be yes, no, whatever the decision is, but could you prompt them so that if they’re not going to participate, I don’t have to keep bothering them? And if they’re going to participate, let’s get it rolling.

Stone Payton: [00:55:31] So I have a tendency to see a lot of things through a sales lens. I came from the training consulting world, but I kind of gravitated to the sales side of that world. And it occurs to me that you are constantly selling. You got to sell the work to get the gig, then you got to sell them on doing it this way, and then you’re going to go out there and help them sell to get you do a lot of selling, don’t you?

Dan Adkins: [00:55:54] Well, actually, it’s not that much because they understand if they decide, well, if I’m going to do a capital campaign, which frankly, I’m not interested in doing, I’m interested in doing the prep, okay. But if I’m going to do a capital campaign, they understand the need. They’re happy to have me there to do it. So I don’t have to sell them on that. Mm. Um. The main thing I have to sell them on is participating at a hot, uh, a fairly high level.

Stone Payton: [00:56:23] You got to get me to reach out to Chase and say, hey, Chase, you know, and I’d like you to listen to Dan for a while. I think you ought to get involved with. Let’s just. Whatever.

Dan Adkins: [00:56:31] Let’s get together for 30 minutes and give him a shot. That’s it. And, um, a lot of people are reticent to do that to their friends, and they’re also reticent to do it to people who aren’t their friends because they know it’s money and they they really don’t want to get into that. I don’t mind asking for money. I’ll ask anybody for money and I’ll ask him for a lot. So if it’s determined that that that’s what we do. But there are strategies for different people because those people who know them may say, well, you know, they’ve had a rough year this year. And we really I think what we’re asking is too high or they listen, they’re making money hand over fist. They can afford to jump in on this. And and I know that they have an affinity for this organization. So you you have to figure out how to approach them in the best way. And um, and that’s, that’s why you have a friend help you. Right? Right. They just point me in the right direction. Then I can be the dog after me.

Chase King: [00:57:38] So this is fascinating.

Stone Payton: [00:57:40] It is, isn’t it?

Stone Payton: [00:57:41] How do you get the business in the first place? Have you just been at it long enough that you’ve helped one organization and they’re also on the board of another one, and they go, oh, we ought to talk to Dan. Kind of.

Dan Adkins: [00:57:51] Well. Um. No.

Dan Adkins: [00:57:54] Uh, there is some of that, but it’s very limited in my case. Uh, but I do a thing that, uh, I call chatter boxing, and that’s I call people cold and just say, hey, you know, I have some questions for you. Uh, I’m doing this, this and this, and I’m wondering if I’m headed in the right direction, if your organization would think this was a good idea. And I have 6 or 8 questions. I never make it past the third question because people say, well, what do you what are you doing exactly? I’ll say, well, I just developed a course mainly for executive directors to understand, uh, better leadership and how that influences their fundraising. And I’m going to start the course at a certain time, and I’m just trying to make sure that I’m focused properly on the right things. And, uh. Is that something you’d have any interest in? And, you know, people tell me. Yes. No or indifferent. Um, I had one fella say, no, I don’t want to take your course, but I want you to coach me. And I’m like, okay, that’d be fine. I’m happy to do that. Um, and others have said, yeah, that sounds like something we need. So that’s that’s how I develop that is. And the same with my coaching. It just. I just talked to people and I’ll talk to, you know, the guy in the grocery store. I’ll talk to, uh, I’ll talk to a tree, you know? So, um, it’s it’s mainly that. Yes, ma’am.

Myrna Cesar: [00:59:26] Yes. Um, it. Is there a the company? Does it have to be worth a certain amount of money for you to work? Let’s say I don’t work with a company that’s less than.

Dan Adkins: [00:59:37] I would never negate any any organization. However, the key with nonprofit is they do have to have the money to pay me. If they don’t have the money to pay me, then obviously that’s not going to work out very well because I am not one who gives. I give some services away, but it’s limited and because this is my income. And so, uh, and the course in, in terms of. This type of offer and coaching. I’m I’m in the inexpensive level of that. However, that’s not necessarily inexpensive for nonprofits depending on their budget, and they don’t often budget for things of this nature. So I have to get them to either re funnel some of their budgeting or, uh, find the money. Some of them, you know, there are a number of nonprofits and it’s fairly significant that do have money like that, but there are a lot who don’t. So that’s the only qualification is they have to pay me. I’m happy to have him aboard. Awesome. In fact, I’d like to work with a lot of beginning nonprofits, uh, because I think I could help them a great deal.

Myrna Cesar: [01:00:55] So your the focus is mostly with nonprofits? Not necessarily, you know, uh, small business. Yeah. Um hum.

Dan Adkins: [01:01:05] Yeah, I do small businesses as well. I’ve just been focusing on nonprofits because I developed this course. Uh, my plan is to develop a course for small businesses as well, particularly startups. But even beyond startups.

Myrna Cesar: [01:01:17] Well, let us.

Dan Adkins: [01:01:18] Know. Okay. I have no fear. Okay. Um, and of course, the other thing is, is my book that I recently launched, and I want to say that Arktocara sounds like a fabulous service. My book is called gifts from My Father. It’s about my dad’s, uh, journey in dementia and the things that we had to accommodate, but it’s also walking away from it. With positive things, and I applied some of those to business and some of those to life. I have ten business gifts and 11 business lines. Uh, 11 life gifts. I’m sorry. And, you know, listening to you, um, describe your services is is fantastic. Uh, I have, uh, a, uh, a bonus within the book. Uh, you can also get it outside of the book, but it’s called 39 Questions to ask when you are looking to put, uh, a loved one in a facility. And, um, and it’s questions for the person or the family to answer. And then they’re also the majority of questions are about the facility. And you brought some up about, you know, are whose are you? Do you have trained personnel. Are they are they nurses? Do you have a nurse on staff? Am I able to call people at all hours? What happens? And and all of those things and.

Myrna Cesar: [01:02:52] And how you communicating to the family? Yes. Um, to make sure that, um, they know, uh, mom or dad that they’ve been they taken care of, um, facilities. I tried to, um, uh, as I do consult because I do consultant work with, um, children. So I, uh, when they asked me my opinion, I, I my preference is to keep a loved one at home. It’s a familiar. It’s a familiar place. Um, they’re more comfortable, and they’re able to live longer. Um, uh, when, uh, when they, when they stay it within the confines of, of their home and they can still provide, you know, you can still provide in the exercise the, um, you know, outings and all of that. Sure. Um, but they’re at home and they feel more comfortable there. So, um, so, yeah, uh, facilities for me are just kind of, uh.

Dan Adkins: [01:03:58] Well, I think you certainly have to make sure that you have a facility that is structured in the way that you were talking about your company being structured, um, and, and, uh, there are good ones and there are some that are not as wonderful, but, uh, it’s so important and I believe that they should stay at home as long as possible. In our case, my mother was my dad’s caregiver. Well, my mother was no young spring chicken and he was wearing her out. She just couldn’t do that. And so we eventually decided to put dad in a memory care facility where he had people there who theoretically were trained and were there 24 hours a day, and they were in eight hour shifts, not 24 hour shifts, like my mom, because she was just worn out. And my dad was, uh, in his early 90s and my mom was, uh, 90 as well. So, you know, she was just getting hammered. Um, now, in the case of my mom, now, I do take care of her, uh, for part of the time. We do have a companion that comes in, but I take care of her on certain days, all day, and, um. But she’s ambulatory, and she has mental capacity. She’s very sharp, even though she’s a hundred years old. She’s amazing.

Stone Payton: [01:05:24] Wow.

Dan Adkins: [01:05:25] And, uh, so she gets around, she visits, she goes and socializes, and, um.

Myrna Cesar: [01:05:31] I love that.

Dan Adkins: [01:05:33] Yeah. I’m really blessed. Uh huh. And so it’s it’s a little different than, uh, someone who is not capable of doing those things. Um, so. And my mom has to have a walker, but.

Myrna Cesar: [01:05:47] Which is fine. Which is fine.

Dan Adkins: [01:05:49] She gets on that walker, and she. She moves out.

Dan Adkins: [01:05:52] I have trouble keeping up with her.

Myrna Cesar: [01:05:54] Our focus is is is dementia. My focus is is dementia Alzheimer’s and dementia. Sure. Yeah. And we train our caregiver on that.

Dan Adkins: [01:06:02] That’s my book. I wrote my book because I ran into so many people who had parents who had dementia. And they would get so angry with them and they’d say, oh man, my mom was pulling my chain today. And I’d say, well, what do you mean? Oh? She kept saying, you know, you were a blond when you were a kid, and this, that and the other. I’ve never been a blond. And my I would say, well, who cares? What difference does it make? And if you’re not living in their reality, then you’re not living in a reality because their reality is the only one around when you’re with them. And and so I was very frustrated by some of that. And I’d say that’s the disease. Your mom’s not trying to pull your chain. She’s she has a disease. And I ended up I didn’t plan to write the book. I just ended up writing it. And and it was mainly because of people not understanding. And, um, and also because of the stages that happen. Uh, I include a lot of that in the book so that people are not shocked by the fact that my dad, who as a, for instance, who was well educated, he was an engineer, he was a brilliant musician. And, you know, toward the end, he didn’t know what a knife and a fork and a spoon. And, you know, as sad as that is, and it is tragically sad when it’s someone you love, the the point is that you have to help them through that in some form or fashion. And that’s that’s where he lives. So you just have to be aware and and not abuse him about it or anything.

Myrna Cesar: [01:07:51] Yes. I’m sorry. What did you learn? Um, as you were, um, uh, birthing all the book.

Stone Payton: [01:08:00] That’s a good word for it. I wrote a book a hundred years ago. To birthing is a great word for that.

Myrna Cesar: [01:08:05] What did you learn?

Dan Adkins: [01:08:07] Well, I kind of learned what I had learned.

Dan Adkins: [01:08:10] Uh, in other words, you know, my, uh, an example is, um, my dad, uh, when he was at home with my mom, and he would say, uh, isn’t it about dinnertime, honey? What’s for dinner? And my mom would say, spaghetti, and my dad would say, uh, spaghetti. As if he had it was.

Myrna Cesar: [01:08:30] Never heard it before.

Dan Adkins: [01:08:31] And and it was gold.

Dan Adkins: [01:08:33] And and I, I thought, you know, we lose touch with simple what we consider to be simple things. You go around the world and see how many people get spaghetti, you know, or or other things that we have here in this country, as, for instance. And they may not have that, but we have it. That’s just like a staple. And you go, oh yeah, spaghetti. Okay, fine. But dad would go, oh, he’d just be so amazed and ready to go. Yeah. Um, I learned that when he was, uh. Are you familiar with Sundowning? I’m sure you are.

Dan Adkins: [01:09:09] There are, uh, to kind of explain, um, to someone who may be listening. Sundowning is when a person with dementia will. A lot of times they revert to something that happened earlier in life and they have they have a need to get somewhere or find someone or do something. So in my dad’s case, he had to get to the place where they were doing the thing.

Dan Adkins: [01:09:39] And I said, what thing are they doing? Well, you know, they’re doing the thing. Uh, who’s doing it, dad? Well, the guy’s there doing it.

Myrna Cesar: [01:09:45] And where’s my keys? You gotta drive to that place to go to that thing.

Dan Adkins: [01:09:49] That’s right.

Myrna Cesar: [01:09:50] Yes.

Dan Adkins: [01:09:50] And so, um. What I would find is that we would go round and round in this circular conversation for 2 or 3 hours and, you know, I would want to take a gun and shoot both of us just to get out of the misery. Um, and I finally found a way, an understanding that my job was not to solve the problem of the guys doing the thing down at the place. My job was to give him comfort. And so what I started doing, I would go through one iteration of it, and then the second time it would come about, which was, you know, two minutes later, I’d say, hey, dad, do you trust me? And he’d look at me and he’d go, well, of course I trust you, son. So well, why don’t you let me take care of this for you? I can take care of it. And he’d say, you would do that? I’d say, yep, yep. Well, okay. And I’d leave. I’d go back in my room for five minutes. I’d come back out. My dad was fine. What I learned was that I really had to listen to him. It was so, so specific and pick up on a word to to utilize in my part of the conversation. And I thought, am I doing that with my clients? Am I listening to them well enough? When I ask a guy to give me $250,000, am I really listening to what he’s telling me? Or am I just going on my path and thinking, well, he’s he’s just making up an excuse or something of that nature? And it really caused me to refocus in my work and start really being in the moment with that person.

Myrna Cesar: [01:11:38] So yeah, that we call in our world redirecting. Yeah. Listening to him and then while he’s in his head, it’s all fire and kind of redirect him and bring him back into the present moment. Awesome.

Dan Adkins: [01:11:53] And a lot of these things sound simple. Um, but with my dad as a, for instance, going to the place to where the guys were doing the thing, this was almost a matter of life and death. He would he would feel like he had failed, that he was a failure. And, I mean, it was so traumatic for him that the intensity of it draws you in and and it’s just it’s amazing you’d be worn out.

Myrna Cesar: [01:12:25] And so it’s basically it’s the same story for a lot of people with dementia. They go through that sundown effect and it’s just it’s every evening. Yes. It’s from between 4:00, four and 6:00. It’s every day. So it’s different story, but it’s the same thing, same thing. So it’s all about redirecting redirecting them and kind of and in a lot of time we use uh music to, to, to do to, to help them kind of bring it down and then so we can kind of, you know, put them back into the present moment.

Dan Adkins: [01:13:00] Yeah. It’s it, it is an amazing thing. And I used music with my dad a lot because he and I, I grew up playing music with my dad. That’s how I got to know him. Uh, I’m a musician. I studied it in college, I taught it, I’m still songwriting and compose every now and then. And, um, you know, his. I could if I played something that he and I had played together. 40 years ago or whenever, you know, he could, uh, he would he would stop pretty much everything and focus on that. But in the midst of what we were doing, I couldn’t just get up and go play the piano. Um, so I, I would try and find other ways to get him just to, to refocus or not only refocus, which is what he would be doing, of course, but so he would relax and not worry about the problem that he had built into this incredible mountain.

Myrna Cesar: [01:14:01] Mhm. Yeah.

Dan Adkins: [01:14:02] So anyway that that’s the I thank you for that. Didn’t mean to get off on that but.

Myrna Cesar: [01:14:06] Thank you for that.

Dan Adkins: [01:14:07] I love what you were saying and I would, I would hire you guys in a heartbeat.

Myrna Cesar: [01:14:10] Well thank you.

Stone Payton: [01:14:11] So did the did the book come together easy or was it hard to get what was going on in your head committed to paper? What was the process of writing a book like? That’s a.

Dan Adkins: [01:14:20] Good question. Um, it it came together fairly easily, but over a period of years, because I didn’t start out to write a book, I just started writing and it became somewhat, uh, cathartic and therapeutic. And so I thought, well, you know, what about this? Well, I’ll write about that, and I’d write about that. It’s a it’s a series of essays. So they’re not necessarily connected. They’re not necessarily in order. And it came over a period of years. So I actually have a disclaimer at the beginning of the book saying, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future by the time I finish this book, but I’m not changing the I’m not following the chronology. I’m following what what happened. And you can, you know, take it from there. But, uh, and I also make another disclaimer, which is this is not a scientific or medical book. I do have some studies that are quoted in there, but it is more the the soft skills of dealing with, you know, how dementia happens. There are a lot of people who can tell you that better than I, uh, what what the issue is in the brain. There are people who are disagreeing with some of it at this point. Um, that’s up to them, I don’t care. I just know that my dad was having a problem and I needed to solve these problems. And in the in the course of that, he taught me. And so it became something that was, uh, meaningful for my life and that I try and think about and continue to invest in those gifts.

Stone Payton: [01:15:57] What a gift for so many of us to have access to the book. I’m looking forward to reading it. But I was, uh, intrigued and inspired by the idea that it was also a gift to yourself. And it even you found parallels to your work life lessons that you drew from really diving into this.

Dan Adkins: [01:16:16] Well and and it it. Uh, it’s where I felt a lot of people that I knew who had parents with dementia particularly, were were missing the boat. They they weren’t drawing from it. They were. It would just upset them. And it would either upset them because it would anger them, or it would be so sad that they would be upset. And I understand that. I miss my dad tremendously. We were very close, but at the same time, he would have wanted me to, to learn and and to, uh, be able to feasibly help others. In in the course of that. So why not give him that legacy? And I will say that I gave a speech. Um, a couple months after my dad died. And it was a speech on teamwork, um, that I have, and it’s called everything I learned about teamwork, I learned in prison. And, um.

Stone Payton: [01:17:22] Nice title.

Dan Adkins: [01:17:24] Yeah. Well, it’s it’s, uh, it makes another.

Chase King: [01:17:26] Podcast, I think. Yeah, I think so.

Stone Payton: [01:17:28] Obviously we’re having you back as well.

Dan Adkins: [01:17:30] Um, I’d be happy to come back. Uh, so anyway, I was giving that, and toward the end of it, it’s about my dad. And I was giving this to a bunch of medical professionals, and, uh, I started talking about my dad, and I started crying, and I got almost hysterically crying and couldn’t stop. And I was still trying to finish this speech, and I thought, well, okay, this is not going to work out well. And, and I finally finished it and moved on. But I, you know, I’ll never forget that because it just crept up on me suddenly that and and part of what I was telling them was about the, you know, some of the gifts that my dad had imparted and, and the next thing I knew, I was a mess. So, uh, I don’t think I’ll do that again. Um, not the not the imparted part, but the crying part.

Myrna Cesar: [01:18:26] That’s okay.

Myrna Cesar: [01:18:27] It’s it’s okay. It’s okay to cry.

Dan Adkins: [01:18:29] It is okay to cry. But you don’t want that to dominate your speech. Um, well.

Myrna Cesar: [01:18:34] At the time, you may have needed to do that.

Dan Adkins: [01:18:36] Well, apparently my body felt that way. Yes, my brain was going. What are you doing, fool? Uh, so.

Stone Payton: [01:18:43] All right, where can we get our hands on this book? And where can people connect with you on on your work?

Dan Adkins: [01:18:48] I will, uh, tell you that the book is available on Amazon.com. Gifts from My Father by Dan Adkins. Adkins. Um. And it’s available in an e-book as well that you can download, uh, as well as the paperback and I am available at my email is Dan at strategists or strategists.com. And I will spell that because it is strategy s t r a t e g y s t I x.com. And uh, my my, um, uh, you can go to strategists, uh, strategists.com and that’s my website as well.

Stone Payton: [01:19:38] Fantastic. Dan, I am so glad that you joined us this morning.

Dan Adkins: [01:19:41] I appreciate your allowing me and and with such a good crew here as well. I, I’m just so happy to meet you all and a pleasure to listen to you.

Chase King: [01:19:53] Let’s clap for Dan.

Stone Payton: [01:19:54] Hey clap, clap for Dan. All right.

Dan Adkins: [01:19:58] Thank you much.

Stone Payton: [01:19:59] Well on that note, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today. And everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.