In the business of family and relationships
Join us for an honest discussion with Maeghan Scott and Melodie Toby, where we talk about running a family business and the importance of the relationships built along the way.
Maeghan and Melodie are a mother-daughter team, running Right at Home of Essex County, providing in-home care to seniors and adults in Essex County, New Jersey.
They are also celebrating 20 years in business this year. Established in 2004, Right at Home of Essex County employs a team of Certified Home Health Aides who provide personal and companion care services to adults with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, physical or mental disabilities, diabetes, chronic conditions and beyond.
They believe aging isn’t just about staying healthy, safe, and independent; it’s also about living well. Their goal is to help their neighbors stay in a place where they’re comfortable for as long as possible.
===
In this episode you’ll hear about:
Connect with Right at Home
Connect with BWB
Be sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify, and leave us a 5-star rating + review!
Podcast Song: Holding you by Prigida
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/prigida/holding-you
License code: CELWR55ONTDIFRSS
In the business of family and relationships
Join us for an honest discussion with Maeghan Scott and Melodie Toby, where we talk about running a family business and the importance of the relationships built along the way.
Maeghan and Melodie are a mother-daughter team, running Right at Home of Essex County, providing in-home care to seniors and adults in Essex County, New Jersey.
They are also celebrating 20 years in business this year. Established in 2004, Right at Home of Essex County employs a team of Certified Home Health Aides who provide personal and companion care services to adults with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, physical or mental disabilities, diabetes, chronic conditions and beyond.
They believe aging isn’t just about staying healthy, safe, and independent; it’s also about living well. Their goal is to help their neighbors stay in a place where they’re comfortable for as long as possible.
===
In this episode you’ll hear about:
Connect with Right at Home
Connect with BWB
Be sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify, and leave us a 5-star rating + review!
Podcast Song: Holding you by Prigida
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/prigida/holding-you
License code: CELWR55ONTDIFRSS
Casey: Welcome to the Questions to Hold podcast. I'm your host and BWB founder, Casey Carroll. In a world that often praises answers over questions, the act of holding a question is an act of resistance, presence, and devotion. In this podcast, I hold space for discussion at the intersection of life's biggest questions and our personal and professional worlds.
These are honest conversations with progressive leaders dedicated to questioning our institutions, igniting change, and provoking new possibilities.
Join me for my next discussion.
–
Hello all and welcome to the Questions to Hold podcast. This season, we're doing something special. We are going to be hosting a limited edition series on the questions surrounding unpacking partnership.
Cait: I'm Cait. I'm Casey's BWB partner for those who have not met me. We're super excited that we're going to be in conversation around partnership with a variety of folks and the questions central to what partnership means to them.
Casey: So as part of the series, we're going to be interviewing a variety of people that have impacted our story, either Caitlin's individually, mine individually, or ours collectively as part of BWB, as well as people that we've met out in the world with really unique points of view around partnership and how that impacts our lives.
Cait: We're really excited that you're here. Thanks for listening.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Questions to Hold podcast, where we're featuring conversations on partnership. Today, we're really excited because we have two of our favorite clients. And I mean that-- favorite clients-- from Right at Home of Essex County. We have Maeghan Scott and Melodie Toby. And we thought about this in advance. I want to just name, we think we would not do it justice by trying to give our overview of who you are. So we wanted to actually start the conversation by opening the floor to each of you. Whoever wants to go first is fine with us and just give us a little background on who you are and how you ended up where you are right now with Right at Home.
Maeghan: So I am Maeghan Scott and I am the owner and operator of Right at Home of Essex County. I'm going on about seven years now. My mom and I do own our business together. And we actually took it over seven years ago when my dad passed away. It had originally been his business. Prior to taking over this business, I was actually working in PR. So I, I was doing something completely different. It really wasn't healthcare related. I was working with consumer food and beverage brands. And then when he got sick, we just felt the need to keep his business going and keep things running. So it's, it's hard to believe that it's been seven years now that we've been doing this together.
Cait: Thank you. One thing you said, and Melodie, I'm sure you were going to mention it if Maeghan hadn't. I didn't in the intro say that you were a mother and a daughter. So thank you for bringing that into the mix.
Melodie: That might change the conversation. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. So, I am Melodie Toby. My background is varied. Like Maeghan, I did not come out of health care, but what I have found is that the skills that, that certainly for me, the skills that I've picked up over many, many years in the various areas that I've worked have all come together here in in this particular segment of health care. So, my background is actually finance accounting and finance, originally. I have an undergraduate graduate degrees in both international business and then actually the day after-- day before I gave birth to Maeghan, I realized that I really couldn't keep traveling back and forth to New York. I told her today, yes, I mentioned to her that I was actually in partnership with her godfather, who is a very close friend, and we had a partnership in New York because he owned a business and I was working with him in a financial capacity. Anyway, I was running back and forth to New York. The only way you get a seat on the path train at 7 o'clock in the morning is to be 9 months pregnant. So I actually, Maeghan was born on March 6th. I left as the partnership with Steve. On March 5th, I knew I couldn't make it back and forth to New York and ended up, you know, being home for a few minutes. And then a friend of mine asked me whether I'd be interested in teaching finance at a college close by. And I said, yeah, why not? I'd never taught anything in my life. Here I am, 30 something years later. Actually, many of those 30 something years later were on college campus. I went back, I did a doctorate and in ethics because I didn't want to do it in finance. And there again, it's the skills that I got by studying ethics that have helped me considerably in helping Maeghan to run this business, because there's certain philosophical principles that I learned, and I realized that that, you know, I was able to internalize that, and that has helped us to work together. I can say a lot more about that and how we came to work together the way that we have and what our partnership means to me. But, you know, I want to, I want you to ask your questions and then we could take the lead from your questions. She has already told you, by the way, how we came to start the business because when Moses became ill, we realized that we had to keep it going. I was still teaching full time and Maeghan was getting, what, one day a week to work in the business, I was getting whatever I could to work. So we had to keep going, there were people who needed to be paid. So we had to figure it out, literally. That's what we did, and we did it together.
Cait: Can one of you share, um, just for folks that might not know what Right at Home is or does, can you share a little background just for context?
Maeghan: Sure. So Right at Home is a national franchise and we are owners of Essex County, New Jersey territory and we provide in home care for seniors and adults all over Essex County. So we have certified home health aides who work for us, who go out and service the clients either in their homes, in the hospital and rehab and assisted living facility, wherever it is that the help or additional assistance is needed. And they help our clients to perform a variety of tasks to help with what we call activities of daily living. So that's really just, you know, helping someone get up and out of bed and get dressed, making sure that they're eating, having proper meals, you know, toileting, walking around the house safely. So we, we do all personal care and companion care using our home health aids.
Casey: A question I have that I want to ask is, well, and especially based on kind of the introductions that you gave and being family members in addition is, do you consider yourself business partners? You know, first and foremost, and if you do, you know, was partnership really a conscious decision or choice, or was it just something that's like, yes, we're going to come in and run this business. That's what families do. And we're going to take it over. And then how has that kind of like shifted how you really think of it as partnership?
Melodie: Let me try that one. I'll try that. No, it was not a conscious decision for me. I did it because I knew I had to help Maeghan. I also knew that this is what her father would have wanted. So it wasn't really a conscious decision to become a partner in a business as much as it was to attain a goal and to continue his legacy. And if that was the way to do it, I said, so be it. I did not do it right away. Maeghan actually was the one who quit her job first and she took the plunge. It was a sacrifice. And she felt, I distinctly remember her saying, I'm going to give this computer back. What am I doing? What is this? What am I doing? Cause she, you know, essentially she was saying, she couldn't figure out why what she was doing in New York was more important than what she was doing here. And she, she had the computer for a few days and for a few weeks, I think. And like she said, I don't need, you know, essentially I don't need this. And I saw that and I admired it because I knew she liked what she did. So, did I say, well, I have to partner with this person? No, I didn't. But I did say, because I knew it would be stressful, I said, when I sell my house, I promise I will come into business full time with you. I didn't care what that took other than the fact that I needed to help her to accomplish her goal. And one of the, one of the things we did when we talked a little while ago was to look at the definition of partnership. A partnership is really a meeting of -- meeting of people, usually two or more with mutual interests and benefits. Mutual interests and benefits. And I think we had both and that's how the partnership came together because we certainly had mutual interest in keeping the business going. She had certain benefits. I had certain benefits, and by keeping the business going, we will, we both benefited each other, and that I think is how the partnership gelled. It was, we created synergy between the two of us having these interests, mutual interests, and getting these benefits. It created the kind of synergy that we have today. We're very different people in some ways. You know, we're related, but we come at things very differently and one of the things I do want to add, by the way, is that partnership is not a zero sum game. It's not a 50/50 partnership. I'm not going to say what the percentage is, but she has significantly more than I do, which is fine. It is not a zero- I don't see it as Maeghan taking anything away from me. We're both benefiting. I think we're both getting what we want and it has become a partnership so that I don't see gaining anything without her input. There is no loss if she wins, which she does 99 percent of the time. Yeah, well, she's louder than I am. And, you know, she's more insistent. She's more of a perfectionist. I am not a perfectionist. Never have been, never planned to be, and she tends to be. So, you know, it's fine. It's fine. Not a zero sum game. I get what I want, of course. But anyway, so I hope that that answers your question, Casey, because it's, it's, we did not see it. At least I certainly didn't. Did you, Maeghan? Did you see it as a partnership?
Maeghan: No, and that's so funny because I never thought about that. Like, there was no formal sit down conversation of, okay, you get this and I get this of this business that was just like plopped in our laps by the death of my father. You know what I mean? It's like there was so much else going on that we were just trying to figure out, okay, how do we make this work? And there was never a conversation of, okay, do you want to do this by yourself? Because I, I would have said, I don't think I can do that. So we always approached it as coming at it together. The legality or, you know, the, the percentages, that was never really significant. I think that's one of the things with the family business. We both know that our goal was to, you know, make sure that we can both have a living for ourselves that was appropriate, take care of our family members if necessary, and then of course just keep our business going and keep our clients happy and keep having work for our caregivers and all of those things. So our objectives were always the same. Our goals were the same. So we never really had. sit down and like negotiate with each other. I really don't, I don't remember ever having a conversation of, do you want this business a hundred percent? I mean, it wasn't my business to give to anyone or not. It was just how it was approached. It was how we started talking about it right when things transpired.
Melodie: You know, I always knew how much, I always knew how much my husband put into the business, how much her father put into the business. He put his heart and soul into it. And I knew that there was no way I would want to see that go to waste. So, again, here it is, mutual interest. She had interest. I did- my interest was to make sure that we were able to sustain to the extent possible. It might not have been, we might not have been able to, but I think we, I knew that we both had the skills to do that. If we, you know, did it the right way. If we, you again, from an ethical standpoint, we try to run an ethical practice, and I, you know, we work in the community. We lived, I've been here for 40 years, as I've said, so I knew that we wanted to do the right thing. And I think that any partnership, if you, if you're going to be in partnership, and I'm sure Cait and Casey, you probably have similar ways of thinking about it. And this is where the philosophy comes in. You think about the big picture and you think about the fact that you have mutual interests and benefits. That is what keeps it together. That's what keeps me together.
Cait: Melodie, I'd be curious because you talked about your past life when you were going to the city and teaching on campus. When Moses was building the business, was there ever a moment In that where you talked about, or were there moments where you actually did help him with your skills? Or was it, were you really just separate and you both had your own careers and your own paths at that point?
Melodie: You're a psychic on that one. I was totally- we were totally separate in the sense that I never wanted, he asked me a million, I don't even know how many times he said, you know, the businesses, the ones that do best are the ones where, you know, the, couples are working together. He was thinking, you know, spouses work together. I said, are you kidding me? I would, you know, he might ask me a question about taxes or something, a financial related question or something like that. And I would help him on that level. And I remember maybe one summer, I came into the office a little bit and helped to get references done. You know, I answer the phones because he really didn't have any help. I think he was asking for help actually, but he didn't, he's not, he was not the type of person to come out and say, I need help. He says, you know, those businesses, they really do do much better, you know, and I said, I'm fine. Thank you very much. I'm good. And because I always wanted to have my own career. I liked having my own circle of people and my own interests, which did not exclude him, and he did not exclude me, but it was just nice to have a life, and I had that until, uh, a few years ago. You know my own-- I still do actually but you know, yes, he he did ask I didn't want to. I know I absolutely didn't see myself running In fact, I didn't even like the business because I said why would I want to go into business when I have- I work hard to get a client and then I have no control of what happens between a client and my caregiver. We have no control over the product. That's classic business failure. Where you build up, you have a product and no control. It's still kind of like that. Maeghan laughs because she knows. But you know, we do, we work very hard to try to avoid that, and we, we don't consciously talk about it that often, but I never wanted to be in that situation. I had no control over what happens when a caregiver leaves us and goes to a client. Think about that. Who wants to be in that situation? Well, we are , you know, but anyway, so that's, no, not, did not want to, to go into this business for sure.
Cait: And Maeghan, what about you with that same kind of thought in mind? Like growing up, did you ever think, you know, what your dad was building was something you might be involved in or, or were you involved in it in any way when you were younger?
Maeghan: I would help him out in the office, sometimes I guess it was in the years when I was in college and I would come home and need like a job, need to pick up some money, so I would ask him, can I come sit in your office for a few hours? And he would pay me to do that. And we would hang out and get lunch. And I would answer the phones and, and, and, you know, do the things that he needed me to do. He would always make comments and ask, you know, if I wanted to come and work with him. And it was always like, well, how much money can you give me? And he said, well, not much. And I said, well, no, thank you. So those were kind of, you know, we would joke about it a little bit. I knew, I always knew he would have loved it if I did say, okay, I'm going to join you in this business, like nothing would have made him happier for one of his children to be like a part of it. I didn't really think that this was my path or future. I was entrepreneurial. I thought one day I would love to own a business. I didn't know what that was going to look like, but this, this wasn't on my mind.
Casey: I was going to ask about, Maeghan, just to follow up on that too, which is and not to say Melodie that academia isn't in kind of inherently connected to partnership because it is in many ways as well and your path and finance, but particularly also coming from a background in communications like you, Maeghan, I think about when you were sharing your background story of just- PR is so fundamentally rooted in partnership, you're basically like the liaison between like the idea, the story, so many things and the media or the client and the media outlet. And it's so much about really thinking about how do you bridge these things together? How do you build partnership being kind of strategic in that way?
Maeghan: Yeah.
Casey: And obviously, you know, like that's the past life. But I, you know, there's so much skill building. I think that goes into, that happens naturally with partnership in that kind of industry. So I'm wondering how, or if you've even thought about how that then like applies. And now, you know, you're in Melodie's relationship, all the partnership you do with all your clients and your caregivers and everything else at Right at Home.
Maeghan: Yeah, I mean, I think like you're saying, there's really a level of partnership to everything that we're doing. I even think about a lot of like the networking and relationship building that I do now. And I was thinking the other day about how, you know, when I worked for PR agencies, like that was the goal. Like you wanted to get the relationship with the editor. Or the blogger. And you know, you wanted to take them to coffee. You wanted to be like texting with them. And you were always so envious of those other, uh, people in the agency who had those relationships. And it was like, how do I get those? Because that's when the authentic connections happen. And really that's kind of what it is today too. You know, I, I go out, I network, I build the relationships and I try to get on that level where we're actually knowing each other and understanding each other, not just like saying hi and bye, you know, when we see each other at events. So yeah, like a lot of those relationship building skills, also like just the following up, gosh, how many emails would I have sent out in my agency days? Just following up, trying to identify like what people are genuinely interested in, so that they would respond to your email inquiry. Um, again, it's like a lot of, it's a lot of the same now. So yes, I do feel like a lot of the skills that I developed doing PR are so, so helpful now. And, and I do sometimes laugh about like the overlap between the two industries that seem so different. I'm grateful for my PR background in this work that I do today. There's just, it was, I'm lucky for that.
Cait: Well, and neither one of you has mentioned yet that the business is celebrating 20 years this year. And I've been thinking a lot about this as we're thinking about some of the 20 year milestone events that are happening or things that are doing that we're doing to recognize what that looks like and what it takes. And I'm curious if either of you can think about any of the, like, whether it's partnerships or relationships or kind of like key moments that have happened in the past last 20 years, there are any that you'd want to share that stand out to you?
Melodie: I'm going to, I'm going to start, I'll just start actually from the beginning because I was, you know, that I knew. And again, I don't know how much of it that Maeghan knows, but I was telling her, I think we talked about this this morning for a few minutes. I was in academia, as you know, as we talked and we had an SBA office on campus, small business administration office on campus, and, um, Moses worked in corporate. He was in corporate and they were giving these wonderful packages and I said, take it, take it, take it. I have a good, yeah, pretty good job. I have lots of insurance. I'm good. We're good. We have a check. And they were giving all this money for, you know, retirement money and all this. Anyway, so I said, why don't I introduce you to the woman on campus who is heading up the SBA offices, SBA, you know, small business administration office. So I did, he was interested. He said, okay. I'll introduce you to him. And part of the process then, I don't know if they still do it now, they did a skills assessment, a personality, sort of a Rorschach test on a bigger level, it was a personality test. He came out with three different businesses. The one that he was so much closer to than any of the others was health care, home care, well health care, because they felt that his personality was- there was such a good fit between what he wanted his life experience and this kind of business. I would never have thought of that because one of the options, the other options, one of the others was consulting business, small business consulting, which I thought would be a better fit because he would, you know, he had a degree in MBA for Harvard and all this other wonderful stuff and all these businesses that he worked with and here they put him in to a box, a health care box. But it turns out that that was, that was the key, but it also matched with his life experience where he saw his mom being taken care of by a woman who was exceptional. And he felt that he wanted everybody to have that kind of experience at that stage of their, you know, their lives, that people should, that's how people should live, or should be attended to or cared for. So it actually was a perfect fit in many ways, you know, retrospective, so everything comes up right in retrospect, but I think that understanding that at the very beginning of this journey showed me the extent to which getting on that road was part of the success that we see today in those 20 years, because all along the way, and we've learned from some of the decisions that he has made that have helped us in terms of just the relationships that he formed. And he was not, I didn't consider him an extrovert, but he was still able to do some of the things that Maeghan talked about, network, develop the relationships with clients and facilities, that again, every step along the way over the last, well, for him, it would have been thirteen years, helped him to get us to where we are today. So yeah, I think that that, that was certainly, again, from the beginning, I don't know what else Maeghan may have, but I, I see that as pivotal in determining where we are after 20 years. Meg, do you, do you, do you understand where you are?
Maeghan: Yeah, yeah, no, I think, um, obviously the partnership at the beginning was very important to even bringing him to Right at Home and ending up purchasing this franchise. But, you know, Cait, as you were talking about us coming upon our 20th year and preparing for this celebration, it's been really interesting as I, you know, formed the guest list and, and my mom and I talk about people we need to invite. And so many of these people didn't just appear like these aren't people I just met in the last couple of months. These are people who we've had years and years of partnership with some started because my dad had partnership with them like ten years ago. And they remember the impacts that he had and the type of person that he was. And then some were just relationships that we've been able to form over the years too. So it's interesting because as I look at the names of the people. that we're inviting. I'm like, oh, you know, I've worked with this person. Oh, it really works well with that person. Oh, that was a good experience. You know, she used to give me referrals all the time. It's an interesting reflection just going through that list because that to me is really the core of like partnership and people who are really special and important to us are the ones that we want to invite, you know, to celebrate where we are today. So that's been something that's been coming up.
Casey: And like, what differentiates, what makes them partners versus just like community members or colleagues or where's that nuance live for you in that?
Melodie: I think that goes back to the definition. The mutual mutual interests in each case, you know, Maeghan asked me this morning when I told her the SBA stories and what's the benefit the SBA is, you know, getting small businesses up and running and getting funding, the benefit for the banks. They want they want to get your money and want to want you to pay interest on that you know so I think this idea of mutual interests and goals matters. I think it matters and many of these people, it's not a conscious thing where they say, I want to get this from this person. And, you know, I, I don't think it's always like that, but it works because we're human beings and we, we, we all have interests and goals and it doesn't mean that because I fulfill mine that you lose yours. It's not a zero sum game. And that's, I think that that is really important when we want to convey the idea of partnership. Just because you win doesn't mean I lose. And I think many of the people that Maeghan invited, she's, she's actually the chief inviter. She sees that perhaps more than I do, or maybe, you know, I can look at the list and see what she's saying. So, um, you know, we help each other.
Cait: We have a very similar philosophy that we say often, which is a rising tide lifts all boats. And, you know, we've, we've talked about that in many different contexts, um, in our business. And it sounds like when you're talking about it not being a zero sum game, it's maybe somewhat of a similar perspective there that for you to help out a partner who, you know, it could just be a vendor client relationship, very transactional. But if, you know, one of those people comes to you and you're actually trying to help them solve their problem with no other reason than, you know, maybe it comes down to your ethics and your values and the things you believe in, then that maybe sounds like it could be some of the differentiator between being a vendor. And then moving into that actual relationship building and partnership.
Melodie: Yes. Yeah. I get that.
Maeghan: I remember when I first took over this business, I sat down with my friend, Christina, um, she was also working in the healthcare space and she's like, okay. And she actually had a relationship with my dad. She did know him. And she said, okay, here's what you're going to do. When you speak to these referral sources, you're not only going to ask what they can do for you. You're going to tell them what you can do for them. And you need to show that you have a genuine interest in getting to know their business and that this referral relationship is not going to be a one way street. You're not just asking from them, you're also going to give to them too in whatever ways that you can. And that was like, maybe like two weeks after signing the paperwork and taking over this business. I was trying to jump in, get my feet wet and understand, you know, how do I start to build these relationships? And I will never forget when she told me that, because I think that's how I have approached every situation. And yeah, sometimes, you know, we help people without knowing that we're going to get something back from it. And it doesn't, it doesn't matter, because I know that it'll pay off in the long run. So I think those are the types of relationships that have grown into partnerships, uh, where we understand each other, where we trust each other, and we know how we can benefit one another.
Melodie: That's a very important word, trust. Trust. In any partnership, that is probably key. You know, the benefits, the mutual interests, all of that matters. It matters. But, you know, if you don't trust each other, you know, forget it, the partnership would probably fall apart.
Maeghan: So there's a lot of people who go out, they market their companies and their services, you know, they do it for a couple of years and then they move on to some other company. And then all of a sudden that new company is the one that is the best. And then they go on to another company. No, no, this is the one. This is the one that you should give me a referral score. And so I think there's a lot of value in the fact that we are, you know, we are owners of the business, and we're not going to go switch to another company in a couple of years. You know, what we're telling you now is what we're going to stand by and who we're going to be next year, the year after, and the year after that. And so I think that inherently that leads people to be able to trust and connect with us because they know that this isn't just a relationship that's going to be temporary. They know that if they remain like we have, you know, a number of relationships with what's called geriatric care managers, and a lot of them have their own business and they kind of help oversee care and advocate for clients. And oftentimes they're helping them set up home care services. Well, we get a lot of referrals from those relationships because they own their businesses, we own their businesses, and we know that we're in it together for the long term. So I think that that is another way that we've been able to establish a lot of partnership with longstanding players in the industry.
Cait: I remember one of you, or maybe both of you, telling us a story early on when we first met you about how your dad had gone to pick up one of the caregivers. Do you remember the story I'm referencing? Because when you're talking right now about trust and it's not just about the trust with the clients, which of course is quite important, alluding back to Melodie, what you had said about like the product as you, I think you called it is what services they're able to receive and the quality, but then there's all these other things in the mix with your business, like the caregivers and your team and your staff. And I wonder if you could share that story. Cause I think it, Sort of, for me at least, crystallizes that idea of what the whole kind of relationship loop looks like.
Maeghan: I think what Cait is referring to is when he used to go out at three and four in the morning. It was at 4 a. m. Yeah. You can tell that story.
Melodie: Yeah. So he had a caregiver who was afraid. She lived in an area that wasn't, she felt it wasn't that safe, but she had to get to one of the clients earlier, maybe 5, you know, it was an early shift. He said, okay, because he wanted to make sure that, you know, he wanted to make sure that she got there safely and that the client was covered and he would get up and go just to make sure that she got into her car and that she was able to get to, to the client. And then he would go to the gym because he was a gym, you know, that was a big thing for him. He felt that that was important for, well, not just for the business, but for her. And she, you know, she really trusted him to be there for her because several days a week, she would do that. And he would come and make sure that she was there, you know, safely. But, this morning, another, we had another interesting story by another partnership. We think she's the longest serving caregiver now, who she was in the office this morning, and she brought her granddaughter with the cutest little ten month old. Now, again, he used to, she had a son, has a son, and it's actually her son's little baby that this caregiver brought to the office. I said, you know, you have to show him, this child because this woman's son was, he had some issues and, you know, Black man in America and we want to make sure that he stayed alive. And Moses encouraged him to go into the military. And he would nurture this child so, so much, he would get, we would get books, he liked dinosaurs, he made sure that this child was, you know, all the way through until he did eventually go into the military. And here now, this caregiver, whose son he nurtured, now brought her granddaughter, and she's still with us, by the way,
Maeghan: Barbara reminded me too that Daddy used to watch Rodrick.. So, uh-
Melodie: The son, the father...
Maeghan: The caregiver would bring her son and drop him off with my dad at the office so that she could go to work.
Melodie: And it wasn't always working with us. Sometimes she also worked at a facility close by and some, she didn't always have anybody to leave this young man with, and he would bring him, and they'd sit in the office and talk or go to lunch, he'd get a hamburger, and now she brings his daughter to the office. Actually, I had took a picture because I said, you know, somehow we have to, we have to have that picture. You have to memorize that, you know.
Maeghan: And that's obviously going, you know, above and beyond, as they say, I don't even know if there's better words to describe that.
Cause some of the things that he did for people is truly outstanding. But we were talking this morning, how really with our business, I mean, quite possibly our most important partnership is the one that we have with our caregivers.
Melodie: Yes. Yes. I, you know, let's not forget that that's the most important partnership and also that helps us to have important partnerships between caregivers and clients. That's one of the strengths that he felt, well, certainly he felt he had and what we would like to feel that we have is matching caregivers with clients. That's a partnership. That's a life partnership. They try, they have to keep them alive. And how do you find the right match? Okay, because both have to benefit. So anyway, yeah, yeah, that's, um, those are wonderful stories. But I do, I know we have to watch the time, but I want to, I want to just make one point that I feel that we often make mistakes about, especially in business partnerships. We tend to think that people have to be similar in order to be good partners. I feel it. Sometimes it's almost the opposite. And this is why I'm, I guess I'm a big believer in diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI is big for me because I think that it is in the diversity that we find the differences in perspectives and the learning. That's where the learning takes place. That's the secret sauce, I think, in many partnerships that work with two people. They might look similar, you know, but come from differently able to bring in different perspectives on that strengthens the partnership and creates synergy where one and one equals oneone, you know, so it's, um, I think that that is something that we miss very often. We think we have to hire people just like us. No way. No way. We might have similar, similar educational backgrounds, perhaps maybe be from, from the same area. There's usually some similarity, but ultimately it's the differences that seem to help to create, you know, the bubble that allows us to, to both grow or all of us to, to reach higher. But anyway, I wanted to make sure that we understood the importance of DEI in a time when everybody's trying to put it down. Marketing, communications, finance. She's a networker. You know, I've had enough of that. I like to talk about what time I'm leaving. I don't always leave. We went, we had to go to an event last night, and I already announced that I was leaving before I got in.
Maeghan: She said five times she wanted to leave, but yet it took 25 minutes to walk out the door. I said, come on, you wanted to leave, let's go.
Melodie: But the point is, at least I went. But once I go, I'm okay. I'm okay. But nine times out of ten.
Maeghan: But you don't really want to leave.
Melodie: No, no. You know, I had to make it work. Well, I, she was a, she's a networker, she was actually out the door waiting for me at the door. We had different cars before. I had to make it work. I like people. It's not that I don't like people, but I'm not, you know. I like QuickBooks. I like statements. I like, I like my calculator. But yeah, we're different. We come, well not, we come at things different, but I respect her point of view most of the time. I trust her and I'm sure that that's what helps your partnerships. Respect, respect, respect, and trust. Trust you to be able to fall back, you know.
Casey: Alright, so, I'm curious, Maeghan, if there's any, any last piece you want to name before we close on the conversation or anything that's been percolating about this or kind of anything that fits into it.
Melodie: I wanted to make sure we got the diversity. The DEI piece, and I'm being a little political here, but I want to make sure we understand why it's significant, you know, and it's not just male, female, you know, it's age too, by the way, don't be afraid to work with somebody who's years older or younger, because we come from different generations and you can actually learn something.
Maeghan: And it's funny, we relate to different pieces of the business. So like, now, sometimes I feel like people my age are the ones who are calling and like setting up the services. And so I relate to them in a different way. I mean, there's a range. Unfortunately, there's sometimes people in their, you know, late thirties, early forties calling to set up services for their parents. And those are the ones I feel like I connect with. Sometimes it's people who are, a bit older. I won't name a number who are connecting, you know, they might have a mom or dad is a hundred years old and needs help. And so those are the kinds of people that, you know, my mom might connect with a little bit better. So.
Melodie: The elderly.
Maeghan: No, but having the different... "the elderly" (laughs), having the people who qualify for Medicare let's just say. No, but having us be so different helps because I do feel like it gives us different connection points.
Melodie: Yeah.
Maeghan: With our clients, with our caregivers, with our referrals.
Melodie: Yeah, caregivers, yes, definitely.
Maeghan: Yeah, it, it, it kind of lets us have a little bit of something for everyone.
Melodie: Don't forget age. Don't don't bury us yet.
Casey: I love it. Well, thank you both so much for sharing just the tip of the iceberg of what is a very huge conversation and obviously embedded in your relationship in so many different ways between the caregivers, you know, even your business structure and model and the customers that you serve, the clients that you serve, but then, you know, you two together, your family, there's just so many ways to connect. So it's been fun to connect on all of it. Thank you.
Melodie: I wish we could have heard more about your partnership, but I guess you don't want to do that.
Casey: You want to interview us? You can interview us.
Melodie: We'll get you. We'll get you.
Casey: Special episode.
Cait: Yes, and invite us to a conversation and we'll be there. Can interview us.
Melodie: Yeah, yeah, just might, just might.
Cait: We would love it.
Melodie: So would we.
Cait: It was really good to see you both today though, and yeah, thank you both.
Maeghan: Bye ladies.
Casey: Thank you for listening to the Questions to Hold podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and are leaving the conversation with way more questions than answers.
I invite you to build a more meaningful relationship with yourself and the world around you through the simple yet profound act of holding questions. Visit questionstohold.com and wearebwb.com to learn more about this practice, our Questions to Hold card deck, and explore more conversations. See you there.