Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha, where I have the lovely Raelene or Rails Wynyard on the podcast. Welcome.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: When I first met you ... And we've only known each other for a few months. We're part of a, part of a women's networking group where we sort of deeper conversations and that, and I thought, "Oh, I really love what you do," and you have such a beautiful energy, so people who are watching you will be able to see that. Otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it if you're listening. And when you said Rails, I was like ... And then I got this invite, I think on socials, for Raelene. I was like, "Who's Raelene?" then I was like, "Oh, Rails. Okay, got it." What do you prefer to be called?
Speaker 1: That's my mum. I'm Rails.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, I forget to answer to Raelene. ... Yeah, I just completely forget. I won't answer I'm so used to being called Rails. If it's Raelene or the full name, it's normally my mum.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah. And
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know when ... Full names seem to have a connotation of like, oh, you're in trouble or you've done something.
Speaker 1: I'm in
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Or it's like something formal. Whenever someone Like I get my, my middle name in there, going, "Okay, is this an application for something?" 'Cause I never use my middle name, so.
Speaker 1: And my, my husband still calls me Raelene.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: but probably the only two, yeah.
Speaker 2: So that's become the, the the special people get to call
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: ... by your full name. Go. All right, so what you do is an incredibly valuable, amazing work. And the other thing I love too is that your family is in it. So you, you provide NDIS.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Which is National Disability ... What's the I?
Speaker 1: Incentive Scheme.
Speaker 2: Incentive Scheme. But you, you basically help people who need help.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: And there's, I think, more and more that we're coming to realize in our society that do actually need help, and I think it's good having a system, whether it's a perfect system or not is another thing, but at least having a system to help provide that support. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about you and how you got into this in the first place, and then how you've also managed to bring in your grown-up children into your business, too.
Speaker 1: Children?
Speaker 2: Which is amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, sure. So just really ... I'll give you the quick version. One of our children is 21 now.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: He is actually autistic as well. Now, when he was, when he was diagnosed well, about 17 years ago, he was about four. There was no such thing as NDIS. We hadn't even heard of autism. I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And it was very scary. As we started to learn and develop and go through the school. So we went through the school, the special ed programs for the school, 'cause there was no NDIS. And we just ... We, we struggled with my son being a number.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is that he was being treated exactly the same way as everyone else, and they weren't really getting to know him. He was just put under an umbrella.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And everyone was the same.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: And he was really, really struggling. So by time he finished year 12, which he did. Finished year 12 very well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There was an incident where he had a support worker come to the school. And I have a very unemotional child. This child has no emotion whatsoever. And for the first time ever, I saw this 18-year-old crying. And I asked why, and he told me, "Mum, people think I'm dumb."
Speaker 2: Oh, no.
Speaker 1: And I said, "What do you mean?" And he goes ... The support worker came to the school. He talked... Now, my son, I wanna add, is extremely intelligent, like extremely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they spoke to him like he couldn't even speak English or know A, B, C or, "What does colors were?" And he was just over
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: and crying, and we've never experienced that before.
Speaker 2: As an 18-year-old?
Speaker 1: At 18, yeah. And I got upset naturally. Mama
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: came out. I went up to the school, and they just were so generic with us. They were just like, "Oh, look, autism. They, they all do this." They were ... It's not even a human. It was, "They do this."
Speaker 2: Yup.
Speaker 1: "And that they do that." So I said, "That's ... No, this isn't okay," and my son wasn't gonna get anywhere with that. At the same time, our grandson ... So we have a beautiful now seven-year-old grandson, was diagnosed ... We started to see the signs, and he was diagnosed non-verbal, delayed learning, ADHD, ASD level three. So he was even higher again. And I was scared about the
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: that he was about to enter into.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I knew though that I couldn't help him myself if we were gonna go down this area, but I wanted to be educated so that I knew the background of NDIS 'cause it was in by ... I could at least know what's going on, and if we were to get
Speaker 2: the system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, bullied around. My son, who ... Whose dad actually who's 25 now, was actually a support worker at the time. And my husband then had worked in civil engineering civil construction all his life, body was starting to take its toll.
Speaker 2: Mm.
Speaker 1: So he also became a support worker, and he was a very good one because I've had this personal experience. You can't get this from a book.
Speaker 2: No. You've gotta have it in your nature.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. And I wasn't doing any of this. I was actually ... I worked in employment services. I was a manager for ... one of the MAX employment offices. I then went into what I was one of the managers for the COVID hotline.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And that was dying down as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I got diagnosed with something myself with MS. And so we all had a bit of a change in lifestyle. We then spoke to my son. We said, "Do you know if you could run things your way or want it your way-"
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: "... how would you do it?"
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he just started talking to us and we realized that we could do this ourselves. It was around that stage the company my son was working for unfortunately was stopped for doing some fraudulent activity, so we learnt from that as well, which we know is a thing in the NDS industry. So we decided to take it on ourselves and I decided to go down the registration path.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And... Which is very full-on. Very extreme.
Speaker 2: Lots of hoops.
Speaker 1: Yes, but we, we did it. And then by the time that had all come, we had two clients that were just amazing and we started off from there. And then finally, my other two children, one was a manager in a clothing store.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: The other one had just finished school and the youngest, and we, they said, "Look, we wanna do this as well." So we were
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: "Sure." I didn't think not everyone would actually fall into it.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: We don't all have the same personality. We don't all have the same thing. And I was thinking, "You? You wanna do it?"
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But they ended up being probably the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just that. They were helping with little things. My son helped design the logo.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Explained to us, "Mum, let's not wear uniforms on shift. This is why." and just things like that. we've managed to now function as a registered company. We're coming on three years now.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: All working together. We don't fight. They know the difference between Mum and boss.
Speaker 2: yeah.
Speaker 1: It helps that
Speaker 2: mum and boss mum, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It helps that they're adults,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... definitely helps. We also have other staff as well, so it's important for me to see, for them to see that my kids don't get any sort of special treatment. It's...
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: If anything, they get it worse I reckon. A bit harder. Yeah. But we function really well and now, I, we weren't expecting to end up like this at all. It wasn't the goal. But that's what's happened. And it's probably the best thing ever. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh my goodness, that's such a beautiful story and there's so many things in there that I want to unpack.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: the first one is, like, as a, as a business owner, like, you set out because you had, there was a problem that you wanted to solve or you you saw that the current solution just wasn't cutting it and you wanted to, you improve, improve it because of your lived experience, especially for your son.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: so how did the shift go from... Because working as an employee and then becoming a business owner, there's, a, there's a huge... Like I always ... running a business is like personal development on steroids. How did, how did you make that shift?
Speaker 1: Look the first thing we wanted to do was when we decided... So we did have a client that wanted to work with my husband. In particular. When he left, when that company shut down.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we went through that and that's pretty much how it started. Now, you don't need to be registered in this industry. You don't need to do all that.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: However And I actually didn't quite understand at all what was involved.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people think you just get matched up with somebody and you become their friend and you go to coffees and you go and have fun stuff. No, it's actually not . And that's what a lot of people thought, so the shift was just really the education of it. I pulled back from the actual hands-on work with the clients.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Purely because with MS, if I'm flared up I'm no good to anybody. So... But I do that. But becoming a boss in this industry is very, very scary. It's the legalities, the red tape, the forms, it's very overwhelming.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But it's all there to help you sleep at night. And as much work it is, it really, it's there for you. But yeah, becoming a business owner in this industry was... For me wasn't... Not just being a business owner and being responsible for your participants and their needs, but the pressure I felt with my staff and my kids, I was now fully responsible for their daily
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: and
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... snowballing on effect. Two of my sons work for us. Both of them have children, so now it's like, oh my gosh, and I'm supporting my grandchildren too. You know, it's
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: ... it was the, it, it's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a lot of responsibility.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of responsibility if you're willing to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And,
Speaker 2: But you love
Speaker 1: it
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: A, I'm learning so much. Every day something changes. And I love it because I love... I know the feeling parents get when you finally get that break and you've got someone you trust to give you that respite and that relief. I understand the frustration of the system.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Well, you've experienced it yourself
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: as a parent.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I don't think you could do this without some sort of personal experience. I, I know you can, but I just feel like, oh, how? 'Cause you just, there's something in you that you can't think of the money, you can't think of your hourly rate, you can't think of anything else but that person's needs. And if you're not concentrating on
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... then that's when it goes belly up.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, so how, what sort of services do you provide?
Speaker 1: Sure, so we have from minimum needs to high needs. So at the moment we do a lot of community access, so that means going to your appointments, going to different things that you're already
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... like you've already been doing, like your hydrotherapy. Yeah, you go to a café for lunch and stuff like that, but that's not your job.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then we also do a more higher need, so we also have a SIL home, so we're actually in that person's home 24/7. We have staff in there. They're involved with peg feeding and very high dietary needs wheelchair-bound, non-verbal.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: So we have staff in there. We have other staff who are, sorry, clients, who we've had since school and now they're in work.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so we have a support worker with them at work to help with the training.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Helps the employer. Yes, it's different all the time, but that's what we do. We, we service a lot of people with different needs. If there's a need, we have two wheelchair access vans.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: So we're very mobile with our clients and wheelchairs.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Especially we've been able to get them to airports and all those sort of things. So yeah, it's...
Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing. So how many staff do you have?
Speaker 1: At the moment, we've got 11.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's, that's quite a bit. how do you keep all the different personalities? 'Cause you've got your children as well as other staff. How do you manage it all?
Speaker 1: You know... Just we keep things... I find, like, we like to laugh. We
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: and I, I say this in a, and how I say is that we have everybody in a group chat 'cause we're not always together. We're everywhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Spread out. Some of our staff still haven't met. Because it hasn't been available to do so.
Speaker 2: Geography.
Speaker 1: So we are all in a chat together. And one thing that we do is everything I put in there, I make it humorous.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: So because we don't want anyone to burn out as well, it's very emotional.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's very So when you've got all these different personalities, like you said as long as everyone's in there for the one goal, it's okay.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're fine. We keep things very lighthearted, and I say that, I know that's a weird answer that I've just gotta keep everyone laughing, but it's actually the truth.
Speaker 2: Well, they're probably dealing with some heavy stuff, so a bit of light will
Speaker 1: We don't, just take the clients, you know? We take on their families and their fears. Parents have looked after their children for 20, 30 years, and now all sudden you, they're expected to just hand you their child? That's not gonna happen overnight.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: And so we have their fears. Some families have their own personal issues that even though they're not part of you, you end up involved in because you're ... all the time. So you need to have that space where you can come back and debrief. We have some brilliant services that a lot of companies use 'cause EAP, so they can actually, if they ever need counseling or anything, that is free service for them. But we find just laughing at everything, the jokes. We're probably not very PC when it comes to our But we, we have to.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We have to laugh. We have to make jokes. We have to mock each other. We have to do all that because you need a, a bit of an outlet. And it shows in our client participants, so they're so relaxed with us because we're relaxed and they get the real us. They don't get... They get the cheeky gosh, we
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they get the everything. We call, 'cause we're a family. They know we're a family. I make it very straight
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: that my, our children work in it.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And a lot of them love it. We've got a lot of like Australian participants that call themselves cuzzies. They call themselves participants. They're like, "So I'm a, a cuzzi." And I was like, "Sure, you're a cuzzi," you know.
Speaker 2: We might need to explain that to some listeners because you're from New Zealand.
Speaker 1: well, yeah, we call everyone, it's like cousin, a cousin, like, you know? We're all cousins. That's what we call each other. But I think because we're Kiwis and we've all sort of come and we're all there's a few of us that are Polynesian as well, not all of us.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: But they just like you know, they're like, "Oh, I wanna be a cuzzi." And we talk to them like that, you know, sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: And so it's very relaxed
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: that's how I think we've managed to-... stay how we are, yeah.
Speaker 2: think that's beautiful too because humor is a when they say humor is the best medicine, that's not just a phrase.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That is actually for real.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If you're if you're laughing, you cannot be sad. And sometimes there's that whole, like, even if something's really I've had a few kind of family things happen recently, and I just, I don't know, I saw something on a show and I just got into the most fit of, I just got the giggles, I could not stop laughing. And at the end of it, I was like, "God, that felt really good just to laugh." So to have that, that relief sort of built into your
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: ... is really special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just really hard. I've got to try and figure out ways to maintain it 'cause like I said, I'm not always with everyone.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: In my dream world, we'd all have, be in one space and, you know, you can see it all, but that's not possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: you've got to really, always be with your staff, checking in, checking in with your clients and things like that, I think I treat my staff like they're one of my kids and they're
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: just respond like that
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... they're all happy to be, yeah. It's a lot easier
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's very easy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's good that you've, you've come out at seeing them as humans and other, sort of an extension of the family which is, which is nice too. Because you're going into, or you and your, when I, when I say you, we say collectively, like your staff or your team, they're going into other people's homes and they don't want to just feel like somebody's there, just it's a job and then you know they're just counting their minutes until their shift are over like that's, that's not nice for anybody. the service provider or the recipient, yeah.
Speaker 1: They feel it. and you're allowed to feel that way too. Sometimes you just... It's a lot. And when, when it's, when you're there if you've got to that point, that's when I really encourage everyone to ring me. I, I do encourage mental health days. They're important. Not every week like I tell them. I them, "Not every week. You do not need a mental health day every week, mate."
Speaker 2: I used to give my daughter one a term. that's about it. I was like, "You can have one mental health day a term."
Speaker 1: But some days I, I, I do get it. I do get it and they need that space so we're very lucky that in a way we can keep, we keep everyone together so that if someone does need their break, they'll go, "Hey, I'll do it. I'll swap shifts with you," so they will swap clients over or something like that just to have that break up.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We only do that if the clients know you. We always introduce everyone to at least two people so the sudden changes if someone's sick or anything
Speaker 2: Doesn't, yeah.
Speaker 1: scare them fudge out everyone.
Speaker 2: is... Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's a beautiful approach because my, I had some care organized for my dad last year and he had a different care worker each week. It was meant to be the same person, but they were constantly sick or they just didn't show up or they, and it, there just going, "That's not, that was not what this was meant to be." This was somebody you could actually have a bit of a relationship with to give me a bit of a
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: and to just give him someone else to interact with as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so we, we always sort of you know, we match up with your personality and your hobbies and interests and stuff like that. But we always had two people and that was because a main person and a backup.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And because, and that's from my son. You could not just have a relief teacher there when you rocked up at school and not given us warning.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No. I climbed the school roof at the high school at least three times to get him off.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Dear.
Speaker 1: And you know, and things like that, so we understand you can't just do sudden changes, you can't just do that, and no one just wants whoever rocking up and coming into your home.
Speaker 2: Well, this is your sacred like your, not sacred, your, your space, your sanctuary.
Speaker 1: It's
Speaker 2: That's how I see my home, right? Yeah. I can't even get a cleaner because I'm like I want it to be somebody that I, I don't know, have a relationship with and it's just, you know, someone to clean my house.
Speaker 1: person.
Speaker 2: I totally get that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and build that relationship and build that rapport,
Speaker 2: Yes, I can sit and have a chat. Like, sorry, just to on the cleaner
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... my, grandma had a cleaner for decades. She had the same guy. We used to sit and have coffee and cake with him on a Saturday when he'd finished cleaning, like we had a relationship I still remember him. I can picture him, I know his name.
Speaker 1: And we do
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We do that as well. And, but yeah, when you just get a complete stranger just you don't know who's knocking on your door and who's coming
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's not a comfortable thing, and we took all those cues from our ... and, has relief teachers at school.
Speaker 2: Yes,
Speaker 1: And I always used to say to the school, "Please tell me as much if it, if, ever you can. I know sometimes it's sudden, but if you can please give us the heads up, because we know it's going to be a bad day."
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so that was one thing that we were really stiff about in our company is making sure you've
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: ... your soulmate and your backup. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And so how does... 'Cause the NDIS system is, it's, there's a, there's a whole structure to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And like, from a financial perspective, how does that kind of play in? Does, does, do you ever have to have financial conversations with your clients or is that all kind of taken care of in the back end?
Speaker 1: You know what, I... Thank you for bringing this subject up, it's my favorite topic. But did you
Speaker 2: I love talking about anything financial, so yeah.
Speaker 1: So, in a nutshell, everybody gets a pre, who, whoever gets a pre for NDS, they get given a budget.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Okay? And that's their budget. Their budget's normally broken down for them, you get so so much money for this service, this service, whatever. But then there's also a lot of hidden costs that people can charge so a company can charge a one-off sign-up fee for $695. We've never charged that, and there's a reason for it. A, that's $695 straight out of their plan, which for me is about five hours' support, six hours' support work gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's hours from my staff, gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, you know, and you don't need it. Honestly, once you've got all the paperwork in, it takes 10 minutes. It takes 10 minutes just to scan it all in.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's things like that. We cap our travel, so a lot of people it's normally NDIS set the rates, okay? So, we don't set the rates, NDIS set it.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And we they set the maximum. So you can go there or under. A lot of it's a dollar per kilometer.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: People are charging 8 to travel from their home to the person's home all over the world. Do you get paid to go to work, like to drive from your house to your job? No.
Speaker 2: That's my ex, that was my ex-tax accountant had on, you know, it's not even tax to drive from your home to your work.
Speaker 1: Right. 'Cause it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, it is... And so we've been seeing, like people get billed every week from going from, say, Brisbane to
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: return, 700 something dollars.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Because they're charging a dollar per kilometer, they're charging a call-out fee, some people are charging $180 call-out, travel fee and they live five minutes from the client, or they're... Yeah. So we just switched all of that. So, we changed our structure, we don't charge per kilometer we have a client that we do probably about 300 kilometers a a
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: driving with them to different appointments. Instead of going a dollar per kilometer, we just worked out how much petrol we were doing per day. And it saved them so much money, so financially, yeah, we're always trying to save money on their plans because then they lose support hours and my staff lose work.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: If we don't treat their plans properly. We've seen people charged $600 for a disco off their plan and all they got was a Domino's Pizza and a parent with a playlist on a speaker box. $600.
Speaker 2: Uh-huh. That's an expensive disco.
Speaker 1: But, you know, so I guess that's, financially that's a, that side of things is so important to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because the, the their plans only go for a year, then they get reviewed, not all of them just get rolled on. If you don't spend it wisely, you can end up, they've got no no money
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: and you're working for free 'cause you, you can't,
Speaker 2: They still need help, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Or just, yeah, you just find that you've got to do it right, you've got to do it right. But I look at, oh gosh, that's five hours out of their... That's a whole day of support
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... gone. For what? So the financial side is probably the most important side.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because that's the part that seems to be causing the most headaches in this industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And so that really, really speaks to your values, and I'm a big believer in combining, you know, understanding what our core values are
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: matching our money to that. And you're a beautiful example of living your values and doing it in a way that's still profitable, like you can still run a, a business that supports
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: and still also keep the, the best interests of your clients and your staff in mind. So where, where did those core values or those values come from? Like, was that instilled in you growing up? Or how did... Where did that all come from?
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was instilled in me growing up. I think it's just the mum in me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I, I just think, you know, if that was my child, it's been my child.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: No, no, don't waste my you know, sort of thing. Like I used to get... It was when my son was younger and at primary school, I was always getting things to sign, "Can you sign this? Can you sign this? It means our school can get this, and our school qualifies for that." And he ended up, it felt like he was a funding kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And we weren't getting... Some of the stuff they got, we didn't even need or use for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I felt like he was a funding kid, and I didn't want to, my participants to feel like we're their they're our funders.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Like dollar signs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, 'cause that's, you, that's when it just goes all wrong, and I think that's what it is. It came down to probably that experience with my son where I was like, "Mm-mm."
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had that experience
Speaker 1: my son for that. Don't-"
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: "use my son for that."
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was non-stop and,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... I think I, I sort of kept that when we were doing this, like, "Mm-mm." "Don't use these people for that. That's not..." Yeah.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. That's, that's an empathetic approach to, to life, having experienced it and not wanted, like you wanted to fix it. It's a little bit like you needed to disrupt the industry in a way that you could do things your way based on what you saw. 'Cause some people will go, so there's often two paths. You can don't, go down the path of, "Oh, well, everybody's doing it." So I'm going to do it, too. Or, "Everybody's doing it, but it's not right. I can see why it's not right, and I can, I've felt it, so I'm gonna do it differently so that I don't-"
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: treat people the way that I have experienced, and I don't want anyone else to experience that." So
Speaker 1: And I wanna sleep at night.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wanna sleep at night.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's amazing how people can justify things, though. So yeah, That's lovely. So...
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so how does, how does money then show up in your, like, your 'cause you've got your, your business and your business is there also funding
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Like you said, you've got your, two of your children and your grandchildren's lives and then your lives. Like how does, do you feel that pressure or, like,
Speaker 1: A
Speaker 2: How do you then manage all of the different moving components? Because you've got so many so I mean, you've got the the business finances and you've got the personal finances. You don't obviously have to go into too much detail, but how does, how do
Speaker 1: fine.
Speaker 2: feel like managing all of that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it can get pretty hard. Probably about, like I said, it's, when it comes to the business and stuff, yeah, I feel a lot of pressure because if mom doesn't do her job properly, then, you
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: it affects my sons, it affects my grandchildren.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Now my it affects my other staff. My other staff have rent to pay and bills to pay and things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I, I think about that non-stop, which is why we have to do these things like saving money and the plan.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And just, so yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: Bigger picture.
Speaker 1: Constantly
Speaker 2: And do you use accounting software? And is there software for, like staffing what's the word,
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Shiftcare.
Speaker 2: scheduling
Speaker 1: Shiftcare has been brilliant for me. And Shiftcare's also just introduced a new NDIS certification side so that I can now, if they, if there's modules or certificates I want my staff to get, I can actually just assign it through there now.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: and once they've completed it, it goes straight into their file with Shiftcare. So that stuff is brilliant, zero is... Took me a while, took me a while.
Speaker 2: But you figured out, so
Speaker 1: But figured it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Did, did, did an accountant help you figure it out or did you
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, in the end I just was convinced I was doing something wrong, and I was.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Amneic, they came and fixed it for ... showed me what to do and
Speaker 2: Awesome.
Speaker 1: because going from sole trader, like, in life to
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... was such a big difference in business
Speaker 2: It
Speaker 1: I had to lose some habits
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... sole trader.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have less control. Yeah, you've got, well, less flexibility I should say when
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... a company. There's, there's certain things you can and cannot do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes I'm like, "Why on Earth did we do this?" But then I think, "I am so glad we did."
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, that's, and that goes to show the importance of having a good accountant and having the right support around you.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: Because we don't get taught any of this stuff either, so it's, and knowing your numbers is important as well.
Speaker 1: But one of the most important things to me as well is that my son that I'm talking to you about, our 21-year-old.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Our 20-year-old daughter also only has half a heart, so she's had four heart attacks since birth.
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
Speaker 1: ... she caught a virus when she was a baby still at the hospital, and it affected ever since. And it her she lost oxygen to her brain during one of her heart attacks, and it's really affected her memory, very much so.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: retaining information.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And so, things like, for both of them, finding
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: ... and interviewing, and all that sort of stuff is, just was like we knew there was no way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: but I also knew I wasn't gonna have two kids sitting on the couch.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So,
Speaker 2: You're gonna work your way through this.
Speaker 1: ... we were, very lucky to be in a position where we found the most amazing client.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That they
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: ... 'cause this person needs two, this person loves them. Our dog's involved as well, our dog is involved in the business as well.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: He goes on quite a few shifts, he's always in demand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can, I would be like, "Where's the dog?" I literally booked a hotel once, specifically because there was a dog on reception.
Speaker 1: Yep. And but it enabled my kids to have a job.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they didn't have to go through the interviewing process and all that, they're still working. And my daughter has almost saved, almost, and when, by, when I say almost I mean within the next month, have saved a house deposit.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, real.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: what, how amazing is that?
Speaker 1: And she's, she's 20.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we were, because she doesn't go anywhere or do anything or have a life, so she's like, "No." She doesn't like spending anything,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: we were able to create these two jobs for her and him.
Speaker 2: Mm.
Speaker 1: And my other sons of course, but for those, those two in particular, where they didn't have that fear of,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... everything else. My son can't be in crowds amongst people, so he's got the perfect client, they're almost the same age, the parents love them, everything's perfect. But yeah, they've, so now they have work, which I really don't feel they would have if we weren't doing this.
Speaker 2: No, it would've been a lot more traumatic. And
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... having that stability and that's, that support, and also feeling like they're valued and they've, they're actually contributing something valuable
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... as part of their life too,
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That part is priceless. And being able to provide that as, as a mom, I think is just sensational. And not only that, you're also, you know, your daughter is becoming money like at the age of 20, she's only saved up a deposit for a house. Like that's, that's incredible. Like on her own. That's, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I looked at my mom and dad, I was talking to my mom and dad, I was like And they were like, "Yeah, we didn't have that when you were born."
Speaker 2: No. No. Oh, that's, that's fantastic. So, how do you then instill like, you know, 'cause you're, we're all on our own, we all had to learn about money as well because most of us didn't get taught it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So how do you kind of build your own or learn on your own journey and then also model that for your children to the point where, at the age of 20, your daughter has this, this nest egg already?
Speaker 1: Look, my husband and I have done every dumb thing you can possibly think of. From when it comes to finances, 'cause we've been together, like we've been married coming up 25 years.
Speaker 2: Whoa.
Speaker 1: We've been together since we were 18. We, we, I, I was 18, I'm 46 now. We had kids extremely young.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And just did everything dumb. You know, everything, we were getting credit cards chucked at us, we were getting credit left, right and center, but didn't have the income. But still did it. So we
Speaker 2: Yeah,
Speaker 1: ... the hard way.
Speaker 2: Ugh. Done.
Speaker 1: We learned the really hard way, we had to like pay off debt, and get our credit rating back. Honestly, we, that, we actually had to do that.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: so luckily we were able to do all that a couple, good couple of years before we even got to where we are now, like even starting the business.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think it's very easy for us with the kids because the kids remember a lot of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They remember the, they remember the days that, you know, we're struggle straight, "Oh, oh," or camp was coming up and I was a bit stressed about paying for it. Body fees, dance fees, you name it. They remember it all, so they're a lot more appreciative.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Especially with two of them having children of their own now.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're just a lot more appreciative. So the only example we set for them
Speaker 2: What not
Speaker 1: first of all, what not to do. But then second of all is how you get through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that,
Speaker 1: how you pay it off
Speaker 2: talk about, yeah, resilience, that's the resilience.
Speaker 1: lose pride.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we've always been really strict with them about loans and credit cards. None of them have ever had a credit card, none of them have had a loan.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Everything's been brought, saved up and buy it that way. We still had to learn about, teach them more about you still need credit
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: you know, to build that up. But pretty much, yeah, everything like that we've just gone, "Oh, you know..." My daughter was actually gonna buy a car. She was gonna use all that money she saved and go blow it on a car.
Speaker 2: Mm.
Speaker 1: And it was, I spoke to the lovely Grace in The Referral Sisters.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
Speaker 1: Told her that my daughter had saved all this money and that was when we were like, "Whoa, stop." And that's when we got her on the house track. That wasn't her idea originally, she was just gonna go buy, spend it all on a car.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But she had, had the guidance, and that, that's the important thing to
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: as a, as a mom, and then also, 'cause sometimes our children don't like to listen to us, so you brought in someone who's incredibly knowledgeable and human and Grace is wonderful and she has her own children too, so she can come in as like this sage, you know, advisor who's reinforcing what mom's
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: so that she's more likely to listen to it.
Speaker 1: Well, if I was back then at her age, and I had all that money, and I said to my mom, "I'm gonna go buy a car," she would've just said, "Oh, what kind?"
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I whereas I'm like, you're gonna draw all that money out and just go waste it on a car 'cause I've learnt so much, you know?
Speaker 2: Yes. Oh.
Speaker 1: Over the years. And that's when I grabbed onto The lovely Referral Sisters and said
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know my daughter had this deposit, okay?" When she it was, she was so nonchalant about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when she finally showed us and I was looking at it and thinking-... I realized what she was gonna do with it,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: sort of jumped in
Speaker 2: And this
Speaker 1: figured out how to share it both.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is why it's important to give your money a purpose. Like I, I harp on about this a lot in the work that I do 'cause what she was doing was, you know, she didn't know what else to do with it so she was saving it, which reminds ... a bit of me 'cause when I was... 'Cause my, my parents blew a lot of money, my, you know... I remember coming home one time and the and the house was dark because my mum hadn't paid the electricity bill
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... there was just debt and it was credit cards we're paying, other, like it was just credit paying credit. And so I grew up like that and then I, I was like, "Mm, okay, I don't wanna be like that." So I would just squirrel money, I didn't what to do with it. But then I studied accounting so that already got me out of buying the car thing, but again, I didn't, I didn't really know what I was doing so I ended up blowing some as well, 'cause you know, we, we do have lessons to learn.
Speaker 1: I, always look at my kids and worry ... they're repeating what my husband and I were like at their age, like, but they're not.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Thankfully.
Speaker 2: No, but they, they, even though they might a little bit, like I got into credit card debt at one and then I it wasn't huge, but it was enough for me to go, "Oh my goodness, I'm turning into my mother."
Speaker 1: And easy to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Very easy to
Speaker 2: They may, they may still do it a little bit, but it's, it's important for them to know, even if they do, they know how to get out of it because you modeled that as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: that, that's really good. But yeah, having that purpose, like helping your daughter redirect her focus from a car, which is a depreciating asset, to a house, which is gonna give her a lot more of a future, whether she lives in it or rents it out or whatever she chooses to do with it, it's a good, it's a good starting point, especially for a 20-year-old.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that's tremendous, so well done you, and not repeating patterns of the past
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: it's sometimes the easy path and what you've done is not the easy path.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: So that, that's sensational. So where to from here? Like what's, what are your plans for your business and, and life? What would you like to do?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I I, hubby and I talk about this a lot we never wanted to be big.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: 'Cause I find it so hard to the bigger you are, sit there going, "Oh my gosh, that would just make me rock, I'm gonna really need a lot of help." And when I start getting, when you start getting all the extra help and everything and I, you start losing bits and pieces, right, of what's going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, but, you know, I'm 46, my husband's 49 this week, we're off to Bali actually on Thursday for his birthday. But we want to retire around 55.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And we think it's doable.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We know what we need to do. I spoke to another lady who's on NDIS
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: just gone and increased her level of services to ... the next step. We've just gone through the same thing, we've just gone through another audit to ... our services, and I think it's, now it's about we're working to create time.
Speaker 2: Ah-ha, love it.
Speaker 1: And we, like I said, we have these beautiful grandchildren
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... seven, five and two. I get to bring them here all the time, they know this place, they even know how to operate the wheelchair access vans, they, they're little workers, they'll probably end up working for us probably.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but I want I want to be able to grow but not to the point where I just don't know what's going on under my nose.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: And that's really scary for me 'cause it's so easy to do in this industry when you've got people everywhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So fear has really stopped
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: from going further 'cause I'm, I keep thinking, "Oh God, the more people you take on, it's, it's such a responsibility when you've got someone's life in your hands." But yeah, fear, but getting over that fear.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Meeting new people to help and guide me, which is what's been
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... making sure they're the right people which is along my instincts I use for that.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: I deal with a lot of people who are as qualified as you can ever think
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: ... but I can't resonate with them.
Speaker 2: No. And that's, we're humans, we have to connect and
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: connect on levels where we've got that, that heart, that soul connection
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Especially because you are very driven by that, which is beautiful and it's not uncommon, but not super-duper common, especially in a business environment too, so you have to connect on that level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. And, but to answer your question, what's next is we are going to increase our services. We are, in the process of bringing on more people for that but at the same time, I'm hoping everyone is understandable in how slow we're sort of taking it because it's a very daunting thing just kind of jump into it. Blows my mind when people do. We want... That's where we want to be but we don't want to be to the point where we lose that personal
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: ... and you become outshipped. And that's the main thing. You know, when my daughter had her heart attack, my we lived in the Ronald McDonald House for six months.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And my sons ended up going to school through the Ronald McDonald House.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: And even though they were healthy, they were in a school with all these children with cancer. Some were burnt from head to toe and you could only see their eyes. And bandages. And my my sons were only, like, five, six, seven at the time, but I really feel that that taught them and gave them the skills they need, not just for this work, but in life in general and being a parent as well. You know, with my sons, it's very important for me that they're parents first and foremost. And so, their rosters are actually scheduled around both of their partners work, so the mom's work as well, but the their rosters are scheduled around so that my sons are actually home more than with the children than the actual
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: ... by themselves. And so we kind of flipped the roles here and there as well, which I love because it's
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: they're dads.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: It's important that my daughter-in-laws can go and be themselves as well and play soccer and do everything else as well because, well, they're health.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And my son's a once a footy player. He's just come back from living in London for two years.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: The other one is a dance champion. He's actually one of the current Australian hip hop champions. The Australian hip hop champion for the Mega Crew, his crew is. So we've represented Australia four years in America, the last four years we've gone over and done that.
Speaker 2: it I saw recently you posted?
Speaker 1: Oh, that was in... Yeah, they just won another championship, just
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: And he's 24. His son goes to dance with him. His son and his partner now they've been to America. My other grandchildren have been to London with us to, get their dad. We can't do that if we don't have a well-oiled machine and look after each other. Not just in business and that, but my sons can't afford daycare. So, and my grandsons, my youngest one is two, so, but daycare would just take all their things away, so we roster them so that one of us is always off to have our grandson when he's on shift. So we do a lot to help each other out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What a beautiful community and support network you've created.
Speaker 1: But we try not to kill each other too, 'cause trust me, you do, you... I'm like, "Can I be a mum or can I be a boss right now?" 'Cause I'm about to say two different things.
Speaker 2: I
Speaker 1: One's, one's legal, one's not. So...
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you kind of, like, need to preface it, this this is your boss speaking right now. Then blah. And then you're like, okay, now be a mom again.
Speaker 1: they do get it. and they do help me. I, you know, like, I just said, "Everyone wear your shirts when you're on shift, you know, it's advertising," and my son was like, "No." And we were like, "Sorry?" He was like, "No, Mum, not all clients want the world to know that they've got support workers and like-" you know, especially if they don't have physical disabilities." Like some you
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: and some he goes, "You know, some people don't... These teenagers, they don't want everyone to know that they don't have friends and them getting hanging out with paid people." Like that's
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'm
Speaker 2: That's fair enough.
Speaker 1: "I never even thought of stuff like that." So I bounce off my son a lot who went through school, and I was like, "Son, you know when this happened at school, how did you feel?" He was like, "No."
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I have sort of inside information which is very helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, like, that's what makes you guys special and so powerful as well, like, you're really, like, bringing the human element to it which is sensational. My goodness, I've learned so much about you in this conversation.
Speaker 1: I
Speaker 2: It's tremendous.
Speaker 1: But the money, you know, the money, you do need it. that you do need it. You need it for We do have... Yes, it's good money. I'm not gonna lie, it's good money. I feel we pay our staff very well. Very well actually. I've been told. And they're like, "Really?" But they deserve it. they earn it. They do very hard work.
Speaker 2: Yeah
Speaker 1: But we want all the money in the world for us, we translate it into time.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: My husband and I love being able to have the time. We can be with our grandchildren whenever we want. And you're seeing I plus them 24/7. It looks like they live with us, but they don't. I just constantly want them. You know, like I say, my son can still dance and work and pay his bills.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: So he's got, just creating his
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: ... picked for him to be able to do his goals.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so that's what it is. Like we're saying to everyone, "Don't blow it." we're very open with the kids. They're very open with us. They've all got... Now that their little sister's got this deposit for a house, they're like
Speaker 2: Jealous.
Speaker 1: "I'm... Yeah."
Speaker 2: Like, "We've we've got some catching up to do."
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sort of... But that made them flick a switch as well.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Going, "Oh,
Speaker 2: bit of peer pressure, it's amazing what it does.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I-i try, I try and give them advice and stuff like that, but half the time they look at me like, "Mm."
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: "Mm."
Speaker 2: Which is why it was good that you brought Grace into that conversation with your daughter because then it's an objective third party coming in, telling them something. You're like, "Oh, okay. Yeah."
Speaker 1: Well, funny you say that, because when I actually suggested to her, when she told me the whole thing, before I reached out to Grace, she actually took it as if I was trying to kick her out.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: And I was like, "Don't you want me to live here?" Oh wait, that's how she took it. And,
Speaker 2: dear.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I got Grace, I spoke to Grace and I, then I re-explained things to her that she finally... So she
Speaker 2: it's amazing where, where our brain goes. And, and like you said, like even with your son and how, you know, wearing the shirt with your name, like there's things that we don't comprehend. And it's being open to what someone else is saying, and doing it in a way that's not judgemental, but you wanna have
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: curiosity to go, "Okay, so why did you respond that way or react that way? Why did you take that suggestion like that?" And then when you found out why, you're like, "Oh, no, no, no. That's not what I meant. So let's keep that communication line open so that you can understand what my actual motives are, not the ones that you think they might be, but we just haven't spoken about it." So yeah.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: Openness is important. Wonderful.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So how, do people then find out more about you? If they, they're looking for a, you know, service, an NDIS service service provider with, like, heart and empathy, where, where can they find you?
Speaker 1: So I'm very lucky, we are located at the Buzz, which is powered by the YMCA.
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: So we are in a in Yarraville. Our office is literally five seconds from my house. I nice little drive, but anyway. But so everything here in Yarraville, we're at the community center, it's a brand new building, it's got tons of different services and things here. And we've been very lucky in the sense that being down here, everyone knows we're here, we get promoted in the community quite a lot for the YMCA and things like that. But I will be very honest with you, I have never advertised once.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's very weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: everyone's been word by mouth word of mouth.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have I do have a Facebook page that I'm completely useless on.
Speaker 2: We was gonna say, we'll put the link in the show notes if anybody wants to follow you.
Speaker 1: I apologize I'm already, I'm so useless on that. ... and that's only because, eh, I don't get a lot of time for social media and stuff like that because I'm, something's always happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then there's it's been seriously word of mouth. And the beautiful people down here at the Buzz, people come in, they wanna know what services are here, and they find out that I'm here. But I haven't, I don't have a website or anything. We've been going for three years now. We now have, like, 11 staff, we've got nine clients none of which I've advertised for. I really should start. But at the same time, I believe that it, it'll happen when it it's, when it's meant to.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I may not even need to. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like, everyone's just fallen into place when they were when we weren't
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: when we didn't know we needed them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, that's a beautiful philosophy. There's, there's so
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ... so much beauty there, Rails. I'm so, I'm so ... to have met you and to find out a bit more about you.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2: So I will, I will wrap up the the official part of our conversation there so
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: But yeah, thank you so much for, for coming on and, and sharing all this beautiful wisdom
Speaker 1: I hope didn't rant on too much. I total verbal diarrhea when I start talking.
Speaker 2: Not at all, but this is, this is the This, these are things, there's, there's so much in this that we need to be reminded of, the kindness, the empathy, coming at things from the right, you know,
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: and what money really is, which is just allowing you, like I love that, working to create time and the, the, the life that you want to support your kids and you and your husband and all of that. It's just, just absolutely beautiful. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank
Speaker 2: All right, everybody. I hope you all enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Have a wonderful week and I will catch you in the next episode.
