The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Beyond the Remote: How Odessa Connect Transforms Senior Care
Traci Lamb shares her powerful personal journey as a caregiver while introducing Odessa Connect, an innovative technology that transforms any TV into a simple two-way communication platform for seniors. Her five-year caregiving experience provides valuable insights on balancing personal wellbeing with the responsibilities of caring for aging parents.
• From award-winning recruiter to caregiving entrepreneur, Traci's diverse professional background spans multiple industries
• The emotional reality of being a caregiver - "It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life"
• How Odessa Connect solves communication challenges with an 11-button remote designed specifically for seniors
• The platform offers video calls, messaging, photo sharing, and vital sign monitoring through the TV
• Common misconceptions about hospice - services can be available for years, not just final days
• White-label options allow healthcare organizations to customize the platform with their branding
• The importance of caregiver self-care and recognizing when to seek respite
• Resources available include Area Agencies on Aging, support groups, and respite care
Stay connected with the ones you love. Odessa Connect makes video calls, messages and updates as easy as pressing a button. No apps, no stress, just connection.
um, and then also because ours has that patented remote that's bigger and has only the 11 buttons 11, that, um, that really separates us from everybody else. And I was their top salesperson by the end of the first year and my boss bought himself a porsche with my last deal and my ex-husband at the time said did he have anything to do with your deals? They really do advocate for the patient and rather than making the patient have to or the senior even have to learn tech, they've made the tech easy.
Speaker 2:Stay connected with the ones you love. Odessa Connect makes video calls, messages and updates as easy as pressing a button. No apps, no stress, just connection.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to the Listen Comfy Podcast. I am Norman Harris, your host owner and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting. Thank you for joining us and thank you for supporting we. Have a wonderful special guest here today, ms Tracy Lamb. She's a community liaison entrepreneur, caregiver, a world leader. Thank you for joining us today. Ms Lamb, thank you for coming.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Yes, ma'am, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3:It's an honor and tradition on this show we allow our guests to introduce themselves. I always start off with putting individuals in the care arena in an odd situation because we typically don't like talking about ourselves. But if you will show your accolades, credentials and brag a little bit our credentials and brag a little bit.
Speaker 1:It is hard to do. Well, like you said, my name is Tracy Lamb and I've been in the caregiving space for probably about 25 years and I have worked in it, been a caregiver, done a lot of different things. My background is pretty diverse. I was in law and then I was was in recruiting and then I got into healthcare. So I have a pretty diverse background. I have won several awards with my own businesses, both with my recruiting business and with my caregiving business. I won several awards. I was named top recruiter in the country and I was named the number one CEO in the caregiving business and the Southeast. So I've won several different awards. I love caring for others. I love caring specifically for people that are in the aging space. It's very dear to me, so I get very, very passionate about any product or service that can help those that are trying to age at home. So that's kind of a little bit about me all right.
Speaker 3:Well, that's a lot so um before we get kicked off, I like to tell the audience how you and I connected and how we met. But I want you to say it though yeah yeah, I met Norman through LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Linkedin has been really wonderful for me. I've never paid for it, so I've always done the free service.
Speaker 3:Free service.
Speaker 1:And so I just find people that I think are interesting and that I think might have the same passion that I do for seniors and for helping the senior community. And that's how I saw Norman, and then I didn't even realize we lived close to each other, and then he invited me to be up on it for us to meet personally and I was like, oh my goodness, we actually live in the same town, so that was really cool. So I think it's a great.
Speaker 3:but LinkedIn has been amazing for me for sure, wonderful professional platform, great place for you to connect All this out there. Look Miss Tracy lamb and myself up on LinkedIn as well. But if you don't have one, you want to grow your career, you want to be able to connect with individuals. Get your linkedin account free version, like your boy amazlam. All right, absolutely all right. So we're gonna start go back, reverse back in time a little life segment with you, okay, sure, just throughout your life, you've made incredible impact, as you indicated awards. Um, just thinking about what has stayed the same about you throughout your life.
Speaker 1:I think I've always. I love to learn. You know I love to learn new things. I'm always striving to better myself. I'm always wanting to learn new ways that can not only help me grow but that can help me to help the other people that I serve. Because I guess I really, at the at the ultimate core of me, I have a servant's heart and so I really love serving other people and so that has been. Even when I was in the recruiting business, I felt like I was serving other people through recruiting. You know, I was helping the companies get a great candidate and I was helping the candidates get a great job.
Speaker 3:So for me it's always been gone back to that gotcha, gotcha, always caring, always being willing to serve, but also help people reach uh new milestones, but also opening them up to resources too. Correct, that's really good, really good. Uh, so in life would you say, who, would you say, most influential people that have the impact on your life today?
Speaker 1:By far probably the most influential person in my personal life was my mom. Uh, for more than one reason. Uh, she, just she was a very she was a great mom. I was very blessed I had a great, great mom. She was a stay at home mom. She got to stay at home with us kids and, um, she was a very godly woman, and so that impacted my life a lot and she, just, she, always, she always loved unconditionally. She really taught me what unconditional love was and I just that was really really amazing to me. Professionally. Probably one of the people that professionally helped me the most was a guy by the name of Kevin McRitchie. Kevin is the CEO and founder of a company called Tactical Rehab. He actually was on my board for my caregiving company and he mentored me a lot when I got into owning my own company, and so he really helped me a lot as well.
Speaker 3:well, good, mr. Shout out to uh, mr kelvin, uh, and thank you for sharing that as well, uh, where you're from originally I'm originally from, uh, huntsville, alabama, we only I only lived there till I was two, two okay, um.
Speaker 1:But my dad was born here in florida and wanted to come back to florida, so I've lived in Florida the majority of my life. I have lived some other places lived in Dallas, lived in North Carolina for a while, lived in Vegas for nine months. That was crazy.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:But Florida has always been home. Florida has always been really where friends and family. I went to college here, so Florida has always been home base.
Speaker 3:So you can't slide by that Vegas. Why was Vegas crazy?
Speaker 1:Vegas was crazy. It's one of those places I tell people it's a fun place to visit. You don't necessarily want to live there because it's a crazy place, but it is a fun place. It is a fun place for sure. There's a lot to do there, for sure.
Speaker 3:Anything you did crazy in Vegas, yeah. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Okay, I got you hello. I'm Norman Harris, owner and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting. We are a healthcare resource platform that specializes in business development for independently, privately owned healthcare organization. Let's partner together to support your business growth through strategic digital marketing and community engagement. You can DM us, call us, text me. I'm here for you. We're ready to serve you, thank you.
Speaker 1:But it could absolutely be beneficial for corporate to know okay, our people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. So there's several different ways that we can do that. We can also white label it so we can actually make it to where there are only, like right now, when it pops up on the screen it says Odessa Connect and our logo, but if it said I'll just say Comfort Keepers, just because it's a big corporation, so if Comfort Keepers was using it and they wanted to white label it, then when Odessa came on to all their patients it would say Comfort Keepers and their logo. So we can do that. So there's lots of different things like that, little things like that, that we can do to kind of personalize it to the company and whatever kind of ways they want to personalize it. We can do that.
Speaker 3:That is really good and that's a great way for independent healthcare owners out there to you know we understand the healthcare market here in Florida right, we're in like the retirement central of America, almost so great way to separate your organization from your competitors. Be the first right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, and ours is separated just because of the fact that most of the two or three others that do utilize the TV, most of those are not HIPAA compliant, which is by law. You have to do that. Not HIPAA compliant, which is by law you have to do that. Be HIPAA compliant for telehealth visits, um. And then also, because ours has that patented remote that's bigger and has only the 11 buttons, 11, that, um, that really separates us from everybody else.
Speaker 3:Yes, all right, all right, so Huntsville, from Huntsville, alabama. You've touched on a lot of different cities. All right, visit it. What's your most, I guess, city you think you probably love the most?
Speaker 1:I really loved. I lived in Raleigh, north Carolina, for about a year, year and a half, and I really loved Raleigh. I thought they had perfect weather, beautiful city. The city itself was just gorgeous, really nice place to live. I would love to go back and live there, but the taxes are horrible and I'm spoiled in Florida, where we don't have taxes, so you know it doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do, we, but we had a heat down here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got the heat here oh man, oh man.
Speaker 3:So, looking back, what's one important lesson from your childhood that you still carry with you today?
Speaker 1:I would probably say the biggest one that I learned was that they taught me to rely on God my parents I grew up in a Christian home and my parents started taking us to church from a young age and when I went through a lot of really tough times in the last two to three years, I really had to lean on God in order to get through them because, honestly, I joked with my mom and my dad I mean my mom I said I now understand at times why people can turn to alcohol or drugs when times get really, really, really difficult. It's just it becomes overwhelming at times. I mean really overwhelming and, honestly, if I had not had my faith to lean back on, I would have had a really, really, really tough time. So, um, that was probably the core thing that they taught me and I really didn't understand it and get it until probably the last two or three years when I really really needed it.
Speaker 3:Wow, Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that Sure. So from a caregiver, I know you personally, we've talked as well, but I would love for you if you would share with our audience here today your personal caregiver story?
Speaker 1:Oh, sure, so I'm one of three kids. I'm the middle child, older sister, younger brother and my older sister, denise. She died in a car accident 20 years ago now and she left a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old and my younger brother died seven years ago from alcoholism. So when he died, that left just me and mom and dad, and I got divorced in 2019.
Speaker 1:I moved in with mom and dad in 2020 just because COVID hit, and so in 2021, my dad got really sick and so I started taking care of him and he ended up passing away in february 22 and he and mom had been married for 60 years and mom couldn't I know a lot a long time, and mom could not take care of herself at all, and so she moved in with me and I took care of her until she passed away in January of this year. So, and it was, it was a hard. I never understood caregiving. I had been worked for hospice a long time. I heard a lot of caregivers talk about caregiving and everything, but I never really understood it and I could talk the talk is what I tell people, but I had not walked the walk and I could talk.
Speaker 1:The talk is what I tell people, but I had not walked the walk, and it is very, very, very, very different when you walk the walk. It was hard. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Without a doubt, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And there were days, just like people I've heard people say and I never understood it, but I do now. There were days when you wake up and you, you don't want to do today. You're just like I don't want to do this today. I don't want to do this today. I just want to pull the covers over my head and say forget it, I don't want to do this today, but that's not an option. You know it's kind of like when you have kids. You know, you're like okay, I don't want to parent today. Today is I want a day off and you don't get a day off.
Speaker 1:You know you have to because that person is relying on you and you're all they've got. And I felt a very heavy responsibility when my father died and, with my sister and brother being gone, that I truly was all my mother had, and my father didn't leave a lot of money, and so it just it became my responsibility money, and so it just it became my responsibility, right, right, right, uh.
Speaker 3:What do you say? Most thing that you probably uh lost during that time, just whether it's uh your personal life, professional life during that, during that span of being that caregiver I think you lose.
Speaker 1:You lose your own self in a way, because you're so absorbed in them, you know, because your every waking thought is okay, are they okay or do they need me? I, I did not really sleep deeply for five years five years that I was caregiving for my mom and my dad I did not really sleep deeply. I couldn't shut my door or anything, because if they needed me in the middle of the night, I was the one that had to get up and go see if they were okay or call the cops, or call the not the cops, but call the ambulance or call whatever in order to be able for them to be okay. So you really can't relax. You just stay keyed up and nervous and worried all the time.
Speaker 3:So no trips.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't take. I took no vacations for five years.
Speaker 1:I literally just took my first vacation, like a couple of weeks ago, and it was so weird because it was so hard for me to relax. It was so hard because I'm so used to being on all the time that it's very weird for me to not feel like still that I have to call and check on mom. Or is she okay, is she all right? You know, I mean it's very hard, it's a. It isn't really a transition. I've heard that and I never believed it, but now that I'm walking through it, it's true yeah, yeah, I bet it is.
Speaker 3:That's a lot.
Speaker 1:And then to do it for five years, see, that's a long time yeah, yeah, I tell people, you know people, that these people that do it even longer than that, they do caregiving, you know 10-15 years, you know with for dementia patients or whatever you know. I am amazed that they can do that. I tell people all the time God knew my threshold and he knew it was like, okay, tracy's not gonna be able to take much more of this.
Speaker 3:So so what resources? Uh, you'd say that that you know about now, after the fact, right, that you wish you had known at the start of this of your caregiver journey with your parents.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, there's so many that I found out about. I actually recently just found out about a company that I just absolutely loved. My mother would try and fix things around the house and it drove me absolutely crazy, and my father was not a handyman at all in any way, shape or form. He was a salesman, which is what I where I get mine, but he could not do anything. There's a company called True Blue, true Blue Ally, and True Blue Ally has franchises all across the country and they do senior, they do handyman stuff for seniors. True Blue Isn't that amazing? I think that's awesome. Yes, it is. I thought that was incredible.
Speaker 3:Let me think about it. I think someone from True Blue reached out to me like last year, I can't remember. Yeah, they're gonna make me look it up now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, true Blue is. And, of course, odessa Connect, who I work for now, is another one that I wish I had known about, especially with my dad. My mom got to use Odessa some before she died and she absolutely loved it. I mean, it was hilarious. She just was like okay, tracy, you can get rid of everything else. This is what I like, this.
Speaker 3:So what is Odessa Connect?
Speaker 1:Sure. So Odessa Connect is a platform that turns any TV into a two-way communication tool. It's HIPAA compliant, so it can do healthcare you can do healthcare, health care it can do health. You can do health care video. Uh, visits on it. Um, the great thing is it has a patented remote that has only 11 buttons. It's amazing. Um, that's what my mom loved the best was the remote. 11 buttons, yes, and she was like here you can throw all the rest of those remotes away I just want this one remote.
Speaker 1:You can throw all the rest of those away. And, uh, you can do. It has a free caregiver app um, that's available on google and uh, android and apple and um, it can do. You can basically do videos on the tv, you can do. You can send photos, uh, you can do like messages, so it's almost like email. So it basically becomes like a giant ipad. Your tv becomes like a giant ipad, um, and they now actually I just found out a week ago we are now I'm going to be rolling out in the next few months and then a fantastic gaming feature, okay, um, so it's going to be a really cool gaming feature for seniors that they can do on the TV, which is gonna be absolutely amazing. But it's awesome literally with the click of one button. You, the singer, is connected by audio and video and can do videos. So it's one button and and they literally, and then, when they're ready to go back watch, they just click the button for TV and they can go back and watch on TV, right, so it's that simple.
Speaker 3:Uh-oh, okay, all right, and we'll continue. After this comfy comedy moment, we're going to definitely get back in and talk about it I guess today, but we're going to take a small little pause here. Sure, all right, we have a little game that we we're gonna play with you, all right okay, all right. So it's called and it's for we say here at the lesson coffee positive test. Thank you that we believe in comfortability all over the globe all right, so I'm gonna hand you this globe here.
Speaker 3:Okay, three spins, okay, and then you stop it with your finger wherever your finger land. I have some questions for you, all right? All right, so three spins for me three spins, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, if I hold it correctly here, don't feel all over the globe two.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness you gotta use that wrist now. Come on now. All right, there we go one two, three, all right there we go.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here we go. So, um, let's see, I landed on India.
Speaker 3:India Okay.
Speaker 1:I landed on India.
Speaker 3:Have you ever visited India? I have not. Okay, what do you know about India?
Speaker 1:Well, not a lot. I do have some friends that are from India. Okay, so there you go and I do um, I have had Indian food.
Speaker 3:Indianian food.
Speaker 1:I know if any of you is a lot of spices, right it does have a lot of spices right uh, turmeric yes, and curry curry okay uh favorite indian dish oh goodness they have something called buttery chicken. That's actually pretty good. So, um, yeah, I've had that and that that's actually really good. Um, so, yeah, I but indian food is pretty good.
Speaker 3:I actually, yeah, it's actually I went to a restaurant here in tampa uh, like an indian restaurant yeah they had this like a spongy type of uh, I don't know, you can't really call it bread, but you can basically eat it with anything it has like, oh, I think it's called nan man, okay, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks kind of like pita bread.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, but it's well, no, it's really thin yeah, it's real thin, super thin and spongy like oh okay I don't know where it was I don't know I went there, dr petty took us there uh so that's thank you for playing the game. Comfy moment with us. I appreciate it but I definitely want to get back into talking about odessa connect. Yeah, what led you to joining uh the team?
Speaker 1:it's a great organization. Um, they, uh, the guy that created the, the product, um really has a passion for helping the seniors that he created it for, and that was one of the things that I loved about it is the fact that it's not just oh, let's just see how many of these we can sell. It's about actually helping the people, yes, and that's what I'm all about. So, for me, I I loved finding a company that that's what they love doing is really helping people, and we've been able to do that.
Speaker 3:Yes, and just from my personal experience working in health care as well, there were so many family members I come across that you know either live out of state and they're trying to get in contact with their loved one, but mom never answers the phone. Yep, you go into mom's room it's right there on the bedside table, the phone there, and then missing all the calls. But you had the ability to connect with them through their name pop up on the television.
Speaker 3:They can just hit okay, you pop up there. You know you can see them video chat right there. So it's a great way, even telemedicine as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah but there's two other quick things. One is that, even like with, if daughter lives in seattle, mom lives in florida, uh, daughter at christmas time could set up her tablet right next to the christmas tree and mom could watch christmas on the tv screen. Um, the other thing is we actually have the capabilities of taking vitals through the tv. So so in Seattle and mom lives actually take the vitals, can actually see those vi wants to, and so that can. Caregiver peace of mind patient monitoring.
Speaker 3:Yes come with any devices lik through.
Speaker 1:It comes with five devise their weight, their temper pressure, their pulse Uh, I forget what it is, but take all five of those. An have to like read the thr, like that. They put it up as soon as the thermometer immediately shoots it to the box and the the reading then goes directly to the caregiver app, so they don't even have to look and see. Well, I think it's 45, it's 95.8. They don't have to do that, it's automatically goes to the caregiver app and there's a whole dashboard that they'll be able to see oh, dashboard hold that so, um, that's one of the features that I like is the dashboard with the app.
Speaker 3:You can go right on the app, see the updates track. Actually, you can actually give that information and data also to the physician providers as well.
Speaker 3:So it really helps out overall, just staying connected with your family member, from checking on their health side, but also not allowing them to miss those wonderful moments right. So I definitely am an advocate of Odessa Connect and it aligns, like you said, with both of our missions as well. So my next question to you is what advice would you offer individuals looking to make meaningful impact in the caregiver and health care sector?
Speaker 1:You know, the thing is is that I do think you have to find something or some way, whether it's a product or a service, that you can support by doing that you know, and really be able to reach people that you know and really you know. For me that's back to the Odessa connect, a really good example for it. But they, they live w you know they really do and rather than making th the senior even have to l tech, they've made the tech easy.
Speaker 1:Easy yes, and so that's what really needs to be done. You know, unfortunately a lot of people are like, okay, well, we'll teach them, and older people don't want to learn tech. You know, they grew up in a certain way and tech seems too difficult. I know for both of my parents. You know, just email was a lot you know. So it's like okay, and this is very, very, very, very simple, and it's in their world you know everybody watches tv you know.
Speaker 1:So that's, that was really, really I I love the fact that they're advocate, advocating for the actual patient right.
Speaker 3:So we're going to take it even even deeper, into like for a assisted living facility or home care agency. Just how could that be beneficial for the clients there, for ALF and the home care agency?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, In fact we've actually just made a video about how it can help home health agencies is two or three different ways, you know. First of all, as far as the actual caregiver coming out to there, they could actually do a quick video call. The caregiver that's coming to the home could do a quick video call or send a quick message through the Odessa and say, oh, I'm on my way, I'll be there in 10 minutes, and that way the patient is aware the actual corporation could actually know and check on the actual caregiver actually being there like they're supposed to be there which at
Speaker 1:times can be a little bit of a hiccup, um, and they could actually either have the caregiver check in when they onto through the odessa, when they actually get there to the home, right you know, or, um, or check in when they leave.
Speaker 1:Either way, but it could absolutely be beneficial for um corporate to know okay, our people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Um, so there's several different ways that we can do that. We can also white label it so we can actually make it to where there are only like right now, when it pops up on the screen it says Odessa connect and our late, our logo. But if it said I'll just say comfort keepers, just because it's a big corporation, so if comfort keepers was using it then and they wanted to white label it, then when Odessa came on to all their patients it would say comfort keepers and their logo. Wow, so we can do that. Um, so there's lots of different things like that, little things like that that we can do to kind of personalize it to the company and whatever kind of ways they want to personalize it.
Speaker 3:We can do that that is really good and that's a great way for independent uh health care owners out there. Just, you know, we understand the health care market here in florida. Right, we're in like the retirement central yep of america almost we are uh, so great way to separate your organization from your competitors.
Speaker 1:Um be the first right, absolutely well, and and ours is separated just because of the fact that, um most the two or three others that do utilize the tv, um, most of those are not HIPAA compliant, which is by law. You have to do that be HIPAA compliant for telehealth visits. Um, and then also because ours has that patented remote that's bigger and has only the 11 buttons. That really separates us from everybody else.
Speaker 2:Yes, Comfort Measures Consulting was born from a simple truth Passion creates purpose. We're here to help aging adults and their loved ones navigate care with confidence. But we also know something else Entrepreneurship is hard. You're not just the owner, you're the caregiver, the driver, the CFO, the scheduler. You're doing everything and still not enough people know about the amazing work you do. Why? Because staying consistent with community engagement and social media is tough. But here's the thing Social media builds trust, it creates connection, it turns your mission into long-term success. And we see you, we see your passion, we see your commitment to our seniors and we say thank you.
Speaker 2:At Comfort Measures, we've expanded our services to support you, helping small, independent healthcare organizations grow through Digital marketing, local outreach and powerful brand strategy. Let us help you shine. Let's grow together. Take this, for example an assisted living facility providing excellent care but struggling with visibility. They had little community engagement, a barely visited website and few referral connections. But with the right strategy, in just a few short months, awareness grew, the phone started ringing and new residents moved in. Whether you're a mobile physician, home care agency or independent provider, we can help your business grow, too Ready to be seen. Call CMC at 850-879-2182 and let's get started.
Speaker 3:But also organization with purpose that practice what they preach as well. So I'm a big fan of Desi Connect, glad that your partner's here as well. So definitely glad you joined in the show to help spread the knowledge of a wonderful resources of connected families through the largest video screen in your home television. All right, so, going into your professional journey, you made a lot of impact. But also I like this part that you've been an entrepreneur. But also I like this part that you've been an entrepreneur. You believe in, in, you know leading by example. But also you took it to the route of you know what I'm a business person. I know how to operate as a business. Um, I want to provide care, the way that I desire to do so. Uh, but first we go back to the monarch group. Right, well, you won those accolades, recruit of the year, and? But tell us about that, or?
Speaker 1:so I started off in recruiting um. I was actually recruit.
Speaker 1:I I was actually recruited to become a recruiter um buying a recruiting company and, uh, I was their first hire. They were looking for people who had never recruited before, and so I was their first hire and I was their top salesperson by the end of the first year. Wow, and my boss bought himself a Porsche with my last deal and my ex-husband at the time said did he have anything to do with your deals? And I said, no, I did all of it. I negotiated and did everything and he goes okay, we're going to do it yourself. And so he was the one initially who kind of pushed me into entrepreneurship. I really wouldn't have thought it, but I did it. So I started my own recruiting company and I recruited for four years and was really successful doing it.
Speaker 1:But after four years that was I'm dating myself. But that was when Monster and Hot Jobs and all of those came out and everybody decided that they could just pay one person, you know, $30,000 a year and not have to use recruiting agencies ever again. So that was when I actually went and started working for hospice. Um, I got the job at hospice. I had started off in HR at hospice and then I transitioned into patient care and I worked for hospice for 13 years.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Wow, so hospice was my favorite job. No, so you, you worked in the patient care side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I worked on patient care side, um, I was a manager and um I uh helped schedule um nurses to go out and see if patients could be taken under service, and so I helped schedule all of that, and so I was a scheduler and I also was an admin assistant for the director and I did a lot of stuff. I wore a lot of hats. Even back then I did a whole lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:And then in 2019, I just got kind of burned out on doing all of that. I was just I got divorced and I wasn't really really sure what I wanted to do. And that was when, right before covet, and that was when I just decided you know, all these people call me day in and day out and they'll say, well, if a hospice can't help me, who am I supposed to call? And I got that question day in and day out and I felt so bad for them and I was like, okay, I live in Florida, I have to be able to start doing webinars or some seminars or something to start helping these people. You know, even if I just help people in Florida.
Speaker 1:So that's how I really kind of transitioned even into owning my own business. I just thought I would do it locally and I just kind of started tiptoeing into it in 20. And then by 21 and 22, it kind of grew from there. And 23 was when I ended up getting into radio and I ended up getting into TV, and then it became even bigger and it got it kind of grew from there.
Speaker 3:So what's the misconceptions that you found about hospice? Like just that notion that maybe just a community that may not have the knowledge of regarding hospice.
Speaker 1:Oh, the biggest misconception about hospice is that you only call them three days before somebody's gonna die, and because my dad was under hospice care for two years and I tell you two years and I tell people that and they're like how is that possible?
Speaker 1:and I'm like, because, as long as the person. So there are certain diseases that are terminal, like, like my father had CHF, which is congestive heart failure, and COPD, which is pulmonary disease. It's the lungs Okay, both of those are terminal, but you can live with them for 20 years. Okay, you can live with them for 20 years. Well, my dad got to where he was declining every day. So, as long as you are declining and you have something like that it's the same thing with Alzheimer's and dementia If you continue to decline, then you can be under hospice care. So you can be under hospice care for years as long as you're continuing to decline.
Speaker 3:Right, yes.
Speaker 1:And it can really help the family and the patient.
Speaker 3:Yes, patient, yes, yeah, so one thing I really, um, enjoyed about working in hospice is really spreading that knowledge and the education piece of it, because I love the fact that a lot of people will be opposed to it yeah, this is me in my own mind, right, yes, but, and I had the opportunity to educate them and get them to understand the, the true value in it. That's covered, typically covered under medicare. Most is covered under medicare yep, uh, but you have access to grief, grief support right after the loss. So, um, because that's a lot of times, the caregivers, right, we think there's a lot of times you have a focus on the patient right there on the hospice care yep but the caregiver, a lot of time, has been going through that journey with their loved one for many, many years.
Speaker 3:As you indicated, they provide grief counseling, some of them up to 18 months, yep, after after the loss. Right, yeah, but there's, you have nurses, social workers pastor chaplains yes, chaplains, that you have home health aides absolutely so many different resources. A hospice care consultant yeah, so many resources that can. Actually, that's there, that's covered under the insurance that, if anything. I mean. Some people I ran into they say, well, I needed more help than that. Yeah, then the hospital. But guess what?
Speaker 1:this is services you're not paying for exactly and then the other thing is is you can DME, you can get medical equipment for free you know, I mean, rather than you having to go out and buy it or lease it or whatever any equipment that you need a hospital bed, a shower chair, anything at all, a wheelchair, anything you can get it for free, I mean and that's that alone is huge.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is, I mean it really, really is.
Speaker 1:So I try and tell everybody. I always tell people. When I have to suggest to them that they call hospice, I always say, ok, we're going to have the talk and I need to like burst your bubble about hospice because, everybody's like hospice.
Speaker 1:My mom's not dying, my dad's not dying. I know I'm like, I know. So now we're going to have the conversation because you need to understand. I agree with you. Your mom may not be dying. When my when I called, when I told my dad I was calling the hospice on him he goes, he said the same thing he goes, trace, I'm not dying. I said I know you're not dying, dad, but the reality is is that mom needs help and you need help too. Yes, and so he told me he would let me do it for my mother's sake. And then what was hilarious was, two weeks into it, he looked at me and he goes Tracy, you need to call that hospice nurse. I need her to come over here and check on something. I'm like oh, the one that you didn't want me to call before.
Speaker 1:Now you want me to call her.
Speaker 3:So I used to tell people, and a lot of times when I have my introduction calls with families, I would tell them I say, hey, I'm a mama's boy. You know, no one likes the mama's boy, I guess, but I'm a mama's boy, uh, and I will place my mom on hospital. I love my dad too. I'll put him on hospital services as well. Yeah, so it is wonderful benefit and why not have an option to additional services that can support your family overall, and that this just doesn't focus on the patient but also the caregiver and, like you said, that DME equipment, to have that a new mattress arrive at your air mattress, arrive at your house, a bed, a functioning bed that could, you know, elevate the, the patient. You know, absolutely.
Speaker 3:All of those things are very beneficial when you're providing care to your loved ones. So, but thank you for sharing that and your journey as well. Can you share the challenges and rewards of balancing entrepreneurship?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. That's a good question, Cause that's hard.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean, that is really hard. You know, I heard a woman once say that there is no work-life balance and I almost have come to believe that.
Speaker 1:You know, the thing is is that it can be very, very difficult, you know when you're, especially when you're a caregiver, you already are not thinking about yourself because you're constantly worried about your person, and so I was having to balance between worrying about my mom and trying to run a bit of my own business, and that it was crazy. I mean, it was a really, really crazy three years and it really a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of, a lot of nights of am I really doing? Am I really doing the right thing?
Speaker 1:you know, and you really do. You kind of question yourself of like, is this the right thing? Am I doing the right thing because you love the person? And you will absolutely want to do the best thing for the person, but then you love what you're you're doing and you're passionate about what you're doing, so it is a very fine line. Yes, it is a very fine line.
Speaker 3:I always say entrepreneurship is an emotional rollercoaster.
Speaker 1:Amen to that, amen to that. It's an emotional rollercoaster, amen to that.
Speaker 3:I want you to tell me about Caregiving Worldwide Network.
Speaker 1:All right, Okay, so Caregiving Worldwide Network was um tv show. Um a couple of tv shows. They're actually still out there, um they. If you have a smart tv and roku, amazon fire, apple tv or google tv, you can add the rhs tv channel. Rhs tv channel that stands for red house streaming tv and uh, you can go on there and you can see the shows called caregiving worldwide and you can also see shows called safe and sound. Safe and sound was my second series. Um that I did, and Safe and Sound actually showed several different types of products that are fantastic for people aging in place at home Phenomenal products, right, and so those are all still out there and you can still go out there and see those.
Speaker 3:So and I know you indicated your caregiver journey was five years, right I made this show and this platform to provide knowledge and resources for people that are in the moment. Yep, and that's what I really want them to take advantage of those resources when they can use them, because a lot of times you get so I guess, into it and I just only hear the stories. I used to hear the stories all the time in, you know, working in the skilled nursing center.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That you don't really think about anything outside of that.
Speaker 1:That's very true, really, that's very, very true.
Speaker 3:But going into that. So let's educate a key signs a caregiver needs a professional help or a break. What are some signs you could think of?
Speaker 1:I yeah, I can absolutely tell you a couple of things, just that I should have done and I wish I would have done, but I didn't. Um, one would be um, when you just get so tired you can hardly see straight, you know, it's just, you're so mentally, emotionally, physically exhausted you need to go and, if nothing else, call a friend, call a family member, call a church family member, or go to there. You could call hospice. Hospice will take you into respite care for a few days, but get you some respite, get you two or three days to where you can just breathe because, you really need to just take a time out and and breathe, because everybody needs that, because it's like my mom finally said to me.
Speaker 1:She said, tracy, if something happens to you, what's going to happen to me? And you really do have to remember that, because you've got to take care of yourself in order for you to take care of them, and if you don't, then you're in trouble. So I would say that, and then I would also say just try to remember that, as tough as it can be, at times it's tougher on them because they know they're dying, they know that they've got a limited amount of time left and so they can't change what they're doing or what's going on with them. They can't change that. So, as hard as it is at times and God knows, I didn't always remember this but try and remember that it's worse on them than it is on you.
Speaker 3:Right. So it's a balance of responsibilities, with self-care, yeah, and if you have, uh, someone out there in your life today on their audience I'm speaking to you that you know that is taking care of their mom or their dad, be that resource for them, be that person that holds them accountable as well for self-care. Let them know that it's okay to take the trip, it's okay to have a girl's night out, because what happens is and this is all me, I haven't had the journey yet, but I, um, I simply for people that are in that, that situation, I really do, uh, but a lot of them to know it's okay, uh, to take those breaks, um, and you know that, respite care, as you mentioned, a lot of hot insurances actually yep they have, provide respite care a certain number of days per month and what?
Speaker 3:your loved one can go and stay at a nursing facility a few days a week or two, whatever your insurance allow. You can call your insurance provider uh to find that information out. That way you could go on a vacation, right? Uh, you have the area uh, on aging, um, actually, they have resources for you as well, uh, groups, community groups for individuals like yourself, but, um, you don't take the time and look at it when you really just focus on you know, providing the care and focus on your loved one, but I challenge you if you have someone like that in your life, a colleague, I'll share this information with them.
Speaker 3:Okay, um, it is a hard journey and, um, the statistics actually slipped my mind now, but there's a statistic out there where caregivers actually pass away before the person that they're caring for.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:All right, it's a serious statistic. I'm sorry I don't have it with me right now today, but you can Google it. There you go, the numbers and the percentage is there, and it's not a low number either, yeah, so please take advantage of those that as well. So what's next for you, ms Tracy Lamb? Moving forward, thinking about the future. I know you had a big life event here this year in January.
Speaker 1:Yep, my mom passed away in January.
Speaker 3:It's like a new beginning. It is.
Speaker 1:It's kind of been like a reset for me, so, in mostly good ways, I miss her like crazy, but it's been good. Next for me, honestly, just um, really to continue, just keep, keep working and promoting lodessa connect. Um, I just went to a conference with them a couple of weeks ago. Um, some really, really phenomenal things are already starting to happen. Like I say, this gaming thing is coming out. I just just found out last week and I'm really really excited about what's going on with all of that. I love the product and I love what I get to do with all of that. So it doesn't feel like work.
Speaker 1:I just get to have fun doing what I do, so for me that really is like a bright light for me for the horizon and on the future.
Speaker 3:All right, so could Odessa Connect TV if you could tell us where they could go to find more information regarding Odessa Connect?
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so. The website is wwwodessaconnecttv and that's O-D-E-S-S-A-C-O-N-N-E-C-TTV, and you can see it on there. You can, um. You can order one through there. Yes, you can do whatever you would like, um. If you have any questions, um, I'm sure norman can get you my phone number or my um email address and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that you have. Norman can answer questions for you too, because he knows a lot about Odessa Connect. But it really is a great product. I highly recommend it. Like I say, my mother was 84 years old and she was starting to have some cognitive issues and she absolutely loved it. She could easily use it and it made it to gave me peace of mind because when I would go out of town, I could call her on the tv. So it was great and I could see that she was okay and it was awesome right.
Speaker 3:Well, that's bringing peace of mind to families uh worldwide, nationwide yep, it's fixing to be worldwide.
Speaker 3:We're fixing to go to Australia, so we're going to Australia, baby absolutely so I thank Odescanet for believing the vision here of Comfort Measure Consulting and being a partner of Comfort Measure Consulting and the let's Stay Comfy podcast. If you have any family members that you want to connect with, right, if you want information, please reach out 850-879-2182. You can also find me on Facebook, comfort Measures Consulting as well. So I'm here for you, here for your families, providing a way where you can stay one connected, but also you have an option to check the vitals, check their health, right With that remote patient monitoring feature that Condessa Connects have. As she indicated early in the show, you also have an opportunity to play a little games. Right, we have adding our interactive activities in the Desk Connect Once again, all through the largest screen in your home TV, all right. So, miss Tracy Lamb, I thank you for joining me today. Any final words for our audience today?
Speaker 1:I would just say thank you again for having me. I greatly appreciate it. I'm very blessed to have gotten to meet you, Norman.
Speaker 3:Thank you and.
Speaker 1:I am super excited for being here and I would just say, if you're a caregiver, keep on doing what you're doing and keep on looking for it, and if you need more resources, again, I can connect with Norman or I can connect with you. There's lots of resources out there that can help you. Odessa Connect is just one of many, but I can definitely connect you with more resources that can help you with home.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I am someone that has the sympathy and empathy to understand the caregiver's journey. However, I have not had personal experience. This tracy lamb here today shared her personal story as a caregiver. Uh, she's telling you the time that she had this. Uh, the way she lost right. She's telling you how she self-care was put to the side, right in the back burner, and now she's almost having to reset. Utilize your resources while you're in it. Thank you for joining us here at the Lesson Coffee Podcast. I hope you was able to gain wonderful knowledge and resources that you can benefit from or someone in your immediate community. Share it with them. Be sure to follow us on all our social media platforms. That's Facebook, instagram, linkedin. Subscribe to the YouTube channel as well. We're also on all of your podcast platforms Spotify, apple podcast. Check us out there. Until next time, thanks.
