Episode 56: We Know a Guy - Building Community Through Connection
Host: Jamie Callahan
Guest: Veronica Noble, Relationship Manager, Team Senior
JAMIE CALLAHAN: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight.
And now, the Team Senior Podcast.
Hi, this is Jamie Callahan, and we are in the studio today with Veronica Noble. Veronica is recently a new hire with Team Senior. She's been with us since October of 2025, and she is doing an absolutely fabulous job.
VERONICA NOBLE: Thank you.
JAMIE: She did some things before she came on board with Team Senior that we are helping her to continue. So tell us about that, Veronica.
VERONICA: So when I worked at Brookdale, I started a networking group, and I called it I Know a Guy, because I just had people that the clients that I worked with, they were always asking me, "Where do I get this, and how does this work, and who do I..." And so over the couple of years that I worked there, I developed a network of people that I could refer to. And so then I started just putting those people together by having a once-a-month get-together where we could all meet one another, and it just organically grew from there.
JAMIE: Yeah, I know. It was something that Linda Grieser, who also works for Team Senior, she was always talking about this event that she was going to with Veronica at Brookdale, and I hadn't met you yet, and so I didn't know what she was talking about. But I do remember one time when Linda was going to be on vacation and she called me and she said, "I can't be there, so can you go?" And I said, "I can't go, but I know Veronica serves wine, so I'll take her some wine."
VERONICA: Yes. Yes, and you did. You brought me a whole bunch of wine, and we used it, and everybody loved it.
JAMIE: I know.
VERONICA: And so thank you.
JAMIE: Yeah, you are so welcome. You have definitely been the force behind this. We have received so much positive feedback about what you were doing at Brookdale. And so when you came on board and I asked you, "Do you want to try to continue this?" I loved the idea of helping you to do that, but part of the challenge for us was finding a venue. Where did you finally decide to do it?
VERONICA: We are at Common Block Brewery, and we are there the third Wednesday of every month from 4 to 5 o'clock. And it's just a very informal get-together. That's one of the things that I like about my group is that there's no agenda. There's no, "Oh, you weren't here last time," or that kind of thing. Come when you can. If you can't come, that's fine, too. It's very informal that way. And it's just a great time to be able to just sit with people and just really get to know them on a personal level. I like that because I don't want to refer somebody to you if I don't know you. So you may be the best person in the world, but if I don't know something about you—that your daughter's doing kickboxing, or whatever the little thing is—why would I refer to you? Because I don't know you.
JAMIE: Sure. Yeah, we talk about that all the time. I think it's no matter what industry you're in, those types of things happen through relationships. And I know that there are some other networking events. There's lots, right? There's the Greeters, there's BNI, there's another one in our industry that happens in Medford once a month, which this Veronica's We Know a Guy event usually happens the night before Sonar, which is another networking event in Southern Oregon. But I love the fact that you said that it's completely informal. There's no training, there's no drama. And that's one thing that I did say when we agreed to support Veronica in wanting to do this under the Team Senior umbrella, is that we want to be very careful not to create an environment that people don't want to come to because there's drama. I know that I have been through that myself. There are certain events that I don't like to go to because I don't like that kind of catty girl talk behavior, and so I would rather just not go than have to deal with that at all.
VERONICA: Yep. Nothing like that here. We just literally—at Brookdale, we would sit around in a big circle and just talk, and same at Common Block. We just sit around the table. Everybody's got their drink or some little snacks, and we just visit with each other. It's just an hour of visiting.
JAMIE: Yeah, I've witnessed that. I've definitely seen the table where there's people just sitting around chatting with each other, and they're trying to mix up their seats every month so that they're not talking to the same person each time. And I know you've had a wide variety of different people coming from all different industries.
VERONICA: Yep, we have. We have case managers that come. We have realtors that come. We have guardians that come. Let's see. We also have organizers. We have in-home caregiving people that are coming. Just anybody and everybody that touches senior life in any way, shape, or form is invited.
JAMIE: I love that. And it's out an hour that is at the end of the day. So if you want to have a cocktail, you can definitely do that. Common Block serves all kinds of things, and Team Senior has an agreement where the Common Block knows—and Veronica helps to share this with folks as they show up and then also helps to organize it. If it is your first time to this networking event, We Know a Guy, again, on the third Wednesday of every month at 4:00 PM at Common Block, Team Senior will buy your cocktail the first time that you come. And we have a menu that Veronica has with her of things that you're able to order. But we're so happy to do that for you because we really want to give you the opportunity to come together and meet people that are in our industry, meet people that are not in our industry. The whole idea, like she said, is she developed this under the name I Know a Guy because she developed a list of resources that she wanted to share with everybody, and now she's doing it under We Know a Guy because we're a pretty robust team.
VERONICA: Yep. Exactly. So yeah, it's been fantastic, and it seems to grow every month. It's two or three more people every month.
JAMIE: I love it. Can you in brief just share what your role at Team Senior looks like and how it aligns with the work that you've already been doing in the community?
VERONICA: That's just it. My role at Team Senior is to find those people. I'm the relationship manager is my official quote-unquote title, and I really feel like that suits me because I like to go out and look for those relationships, and so that's what I do.
JAMIE: How do you feel like the mission of Team Senior aligns with We Know a Guy?
VERONICA: Team Senior knows everybody. Team Senior has most of the answers most of the time, more often than not. And I just like being able to contribute to that because I know that I've brought people to you that you didn't know about before.
JAMIE: For sure. So— Yeah. Veronica has been an incredible asset that we have added to the Team Senior family. She is not just a wealth of information, but she's also just this dynamic personality that is literally everywhere. When I talk with her at the end of the day sometimes and I hear all the places that she's been, I'm like, "Wait. Are you mean just in one day, or you mean last week?"
VERONICA: Yeah. That's me.
JAMIE: You are busy. You are very busy. Yes. Yeah. Since being a part of Team Senior, I would love to hear you share a personal story that really gets to the heart of what you do for Team Senior and why it matters.
VERONICA: Let's see. Personal story. I like helping people, and I've had, on several occasions, people who—just in a conversation—they'll talk to me about their problem or their situation, and more often than not, I'm able to say, "Hey, I can help you with that," or, "I can't help you, but—" We know a guy. So yeah, it's been fun to be able to do that and broaden my not only my horizon, but able to help people as well, which is essentially my personal goal, but it's also Team Senior's as well. So we like to help.
JAMIE: Yeah, I can definitely echo that about you, Veronica. And you are so flexible and can be Johnny on the spot. I don't know if it was last week or the week before last, we got a kind of a frantic call from somebody that was discharging from a skilled nursing facility, and she was hyperventilating because she didn't feel like it was time for her to be discharged. She was really worrying. She didn't feel like she was equipped or physically ready or emotionally ready or anything to leave the skilled nursing facility yet. They had told her that she needed to be out by that afternoon. She was returning to the same assisted living facility that she was living at before. And we knew that the only plan of action for us was to go and have a conversation with her, try to calm her down, and if she needed anything, to be able to help her connect with those resources. When I called Veronica, she was in Medford on some other task, and I just said, "Hey, there's this woman. She just essentially needs somebody to hold her hand and kind of calm her down and connect her with whatever might be available to her," which Veronica being the We Know a Guy person, I knew she was the right person to go and handle this. Veronica, tell us how that went.
VERONICA: So I got the phone call from you, Jamie, and I was immediately able to pivot, and I was only about five, eight minutes away. So I went over to where she was, found her, introduced myself, sat down with her, and I said, "So what's going on?" And I just listened to her and took her story and figured out what her fears were, and I was there for probably about 45 minutes to an hour. But it was beautiful. It was just letting her talk it out. And then I gave her some suggestions. I said, "You're going to go home, and it's a beautiful place that you live, and they have all these resources as well. But I also have someone else that I'm going to call, and I'm going to have them call you for caregiving in your home and just for some little extra support." And she appreciated that, and I made sure that got followed through on. So she felt much better going home.
JAMIE: Yeah, that's the beauty of having you as that additional person that's out in the community. Sometimes our community liaisons, they are so busy working with families every single day that they can't pivot that easily and go rescue somebody that really needed rescuing. Yeah. We're very grateful to you for that. Thank you. What do you see happening with We Know a Guy? Where do you want it to go? What's your big picture?
VERONICA: My big picture is just to make sure people have fun, enjoy themselves, and get to make connections and just feel like they belong. And that when they have an issue, they know who they can call. Or if you're sitting there in one of our little get-togethers, you meet so many different people from so many different walks of life that, "I'll never need that," but you never know.
JAMIE: You never know.
VERONICA: You might just end up knowing or needing to know that guy. So—
JAMIE: It's so true. It's funny, every time I fly, people exchange small talk on the airplane, and people will ask, "What do you do?" And I always say, "In our industry, if we are talking about what we do, there are folks all around us that need help with somebody that is in their inner circle right now, whether it's their neighbor, their grandpa who's a veteran, their dad who's in a memory care community that they don't like, or whatever that looks like." And I have never once been in a setting, including taking my daughter to the dentist recently, when I was answering that same question, and she said, "Oh my gosh, my neighbor really needs assistance with this." And within two days we were connected, and I was able to help her get the documents for a power of attorney. All the things that we do. And so it is so important for you to continue this We Know a Guy event because everybody, like you said, is going to need some kind of assistance. And there are so many different types of businesses at that table that if the person isn't at the table, at least one of us at the table knows how to get them connected to what they need.
VERONICA: That is correct, yep.
JAMIE: Yeah, that's the entire purpose. Veronica, is there anything else you want us to know about We Know a Guy, or what you do for Team Senior, or anything?
VERONICA: Just I would love to see you. Again, like Jamie said, your first drink is on me. So come on down. It's the third Wednesday of every month at 4:00, from 4:00 to 5:00. I try really hard at 5:00 to say, "Bye everybody. Let's go." If you want to linger, you can linger. But yeah, come on down and join us and see what the fun is all about.
JAMIE: Thank you so much. So again, third Wednesday of every month at Common Block Brewery at 4:00 PM, ends at 5:00 PM, so you're not signing up for this really long ordeal. And if you have any questions about that, please feel free to give us a call. You can call Team Senior at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Veronica, thank you so much for being here today.
VERONICA: Thank you for having me.
JAMIE: Yeah, you got it. Have a great day.
VERONICA: Thank you. You too.
JAMIE: Thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember that we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.
