Tuesdays with Corey interview with Beth Dow

Beth Dow is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of LaGrange College with a BA in Psychology and Social Work. She is a Certified Alzheimer’s Educator, a Certified Senior Advisor and a Geriatric Case Manager.

Beth opened Home Helpers of GA and AL, a Home Care agency, in 2007. Her goal was to provide families support as they cared for their aging parents. As the business grew, her husband and son, joined her in the business. In 2018 she turned the business over to her son Grant so she could pursue her passion, which is education. In January of 2018, Beth launched a new company, Solutions by Beth. The goal of SB2 is to provide guidance and education to both the family and the professional caregiver. Beth presents community presentations and workshops for seniors, the children of aging parents, and family and professional caregivers. She has provided CEU programs for many hospitals, senior communities, rehab, nursing and hospice, as well as other professional organizations. 2018 brought the publication of her new book “My Loved One Has Dementia. Now What?”. In February of 2019, she took a short 3-month contract to help an Assisted Living Community with a few challenges. 5 months later, she is still there. “I came to help with processes and regulations and fell in love with the residents.” Beth is presently the new Director of Monarch House Assisted Living.

Beth has spoken at National and State conferences. Beth is a certificated instructor for The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving. She is a past county Chair for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Coweta and Troup Counties. She is a past board chair for Newnan Coweta Habitat for Humanity, Past President of Historic Newnan Kiwanis, and is presently on the board for the Home Care Association of America Georgia Chapter and Dunson Redevelopment Corporation (Dunson Apartments, a property of DASH, Dependable, Affordable, Sustainable Housing. Dunson Apartments is a Senior Living Community)

She has been married to her childhood sweetheart for 40 years and they have 2 boys, 2 daughters-in-law, 5 grandchildren. Beth and her husband Phillip love to travel.

Connect with Beth on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it's time for Atlanta Business Radio, spotlighting the city's best businesses and the people who lead them.

Sanjay Toure: Good morning. And this is Sanjay Toure. Welcome back to another episode of Tuesdays with Corey, with your host, Corey Rieck. Today's show is sponsored by our dear friends at the Long Term Care Planning Group. How are you, guys, doing today?

Corey Rieck: Doing great, Sanjay. How are you?

Sanjay Toure: I'm doing good. Who do we have the pleasure of speaking to today?

Corey Rieck: Well, Sanjay, today, we have another great guest in the Tuesdays with Corey Show. Beth Dow comes to our show as a very successful business owner in the senior living space, having started Home Helpers in Newnan in 2006. And she also has a lot of experience in the assisted living area as well. Beth is also the author of My Loved One Has Dementia. Now What? Without question, she's an excellent resource for helping senior citizens and their families. Beth, welcome.

Beth Dow: Hey, good to be here.

Corey Rieck: I think your experience and success is timely for our listenership, Beth. And tell us a little bit about you, so that you can introduce yourself further to our audience.

Beth Dow: Well, I am a late bloomer, so to speak. I-

Corey Rieck: How can that be? You're only 25.

Beth Dow: I know. I went back to college when I was 30. I did the, back in my day, typical thing of you get out of high school, and you get married. And I did go to college, but I kept on getting pregnant. And so, I figured out I need to stay home and keep babies. And I stayed home. And then, at 30, I went back to school. Originally, wanted to go to school to work for hospice. I had been volunteering for hospice when hospice was a very new idea-

Corey Rieck: Great people.

Beth Dow: ... back then. And that's why I went to school was to work for hospice. As things happen, they did. And the dean of my school was very tied in with the juvenile court system. And after I graduated, he got me hooked in with juvenile court. But through-

Corey Rieck: How was that experience?

Beth Dow: I loved it. I love juvenile-

Corey Rieck: Why?

Beth Dow: I worked with sex offenders. And the reason I loved it is because for whatever reason, God gave me the ability to see people for people and not what they did, but who they are. And I very quickly realized two things, is that the kids that were offending, most of them were offenders. They had been offended themselves. So, they were sexually abused. So, I realized that they were doing something they had been trained to do, and they really did not understand that it was wrong because it had been done to them or even if they did understand it was wrong, it didn't matter because it was done to them. So, I understood that very quickly. And then, I also understood very quickly is that there really wasn't a lot of rehabilitation that was going to happen for them. And those two things allowed me to really treat them as children, of which they were. That also gave me the ability to know that they had to be punished, and they had to be locked away from other children that they could hurt. And I absolutely love that job.

Corey Rieck: How did you help them given those circumstances?

Beth Dow: I think the two things that I did to help them was I treated them like people. They all loved me, but they also knew I was going to lock them up. And I locked them up, and I got them treatment, but they would be locked up.

Corey Rieck: So, you did that for a while, and you seemed to have all these family experiences, senior-related experiences. Tell us about that.

Beth Dow: Well, going back, way back, my dad and granddad were both in the military, and my grandmother was 15 years old when she had my mama. So, there was only like 14 years difference between my grandfather and my daddy, okay?

Corey Rieck: Okay.

Beth Dow: So, they were in the military together and were lots of time stationed at different places. So when daddy was stationed away, we would live with grandmom and granddaddy. When granddaddy was stationed away, grandmom would live with us. So, I was raised with grandparents a lot. And then, grandmama had a stroke, and-

Corey Rieck: How old were you when that happened?

Beth Dow: I was an adult. I had children. So, I was like in my 20s when she had her stroke. We had always thought grandmama was just crazy because back then, they really didn't have a term for it. Now, we understand it was vascular dementia. It was dementia caused from the stroke of where the brain bleed was. And because I was working, because I was raising children, because I wasn't really close by, I didn't know how to help granddaddy. And my granddaddy was a phenomenal man. And no matter what, he would always tell us, he had it. He thinks he's got it. "Do you need anything?" "No, I got it."

Corey Rieck: Not a typical of that era.

Beth Dow: Right, exactly. And so, we believed him. And granddaddy died of a massive stroke, which often happens. There's a statistic, and it's a very big statistic, but it says that 40 to 70% of people who care for someone with a long-term illness will die before the person they're taking care of. But the reason the gap is so big, 40 to 70, is it depends on the age of the person taking care of somebody. So, if you're 20 years old, and healthy, and you're taking care of somebody with a long-term illness, you're gonna make it, you're going to survive. But if you're 70, and you're taking care of somebody with long-term illness, and you're not in really great health yourself, you're not. And that's what happened to granddaddy. And it was at that time that I realized what a damaging effect care-giving had on him, and we were really clueless partly because we probably didn't want to see it, because we were so busy, we didn't know how to make time, or put on our platter of stuff we had, how to make room to help him, but then the other-

Corey Rieck: Yeah, denial is not a river in Egypt, is it?

Beth Dow: It's not, you know. And he always said he had it.

Corey Rieck: Yeah.

Beth Dow: And we believed him, too.

Corey Rieck: Do you think that taking care of chronically ill people makes the caregiver chronically ill?

Beth Dow: Yes, without a doubt. You can see it over and over again. When there's someone who's taking care of somebody with long-term illness and that person dies, the caregiver will get sick. And very often, once again, depending on their age and their health, very often within 12 months, they'll be dead. But yes, it really wears on the caregiver.

Corey Rieck: Do you think your experiences as a caregiver and the experience that you just shared with the listenership was useful in you developing the Home Helpers idea in 2006?

Beth Dow: Yes. I mean, I can remember it so clearly. At that time. I was working with DFS. I was an employee of DFS. I was a contract person with DFS, working with children who had been removed from their homes. And I remember clearly laying on my couch one day, and this idea of needing care and providing care for seniors and people who needed help just popped into my head. And I called one of the girls I was working with at the time and I said, "I got this great idea." I said, "I think we can do this. We need to build a company where we can have people that go in and help people who are taking care of their loved ones." And she said, "Oh, there's companies like that." I had no idea there were companies like that at all. And then, started doing some research and found out there were companies like that, that it wasn't that I had a brilliant idea, that somebody had a brilliant idea before me and started to do it.

Corey Rieck: I think it is an excellent idea. Would you agree, Beth, that people are called? Being a caregiver, would you agree that it's a calling? Because you said it differently, not everybody is cut out to be a caregiver.

Beth Dow: Being a good caregiver is a calling. Unfortunately, what happens is life happens.

Corey Rieck: Yeah.

Beth Dow: And we have lots of caregivers that were not called into it, and they are just struggling trying to do it every day, and it is wearing them ragged because they weren't called. So, yes, caregivers, professional caregivers, I truly believe are called. It is an unbelievable profession of how much heart, and dignity, and empathy you have to have to be a good caregiver. But unfortunately, most family caregivers do not have that calling. It just happened.

Corey Rieck: Why would say, with your experience and success with Home Helpers and prior to that, you working with the juvenile folks, and then prior to that, the hospice experience, clearly, I would put you in that category of a professional caregiver, somebody that is empathetic, somebody that does all those things. I mean, anybody who works with hospice, those are really special people to be able to fill that role knowing the people that you're helping, kind of the circumstances and the path that it's taking.

Beth Dow: Yeah, I love the people I work with. I absolutely love them. I am nowhere near the level of the caregivers that take care of them every day. My mom is a perfect example. She has Alzheimer's, has had it for 15 years. We have 24-hour caregivers. Those caregivers take better care of her than I could ever take care of her. And the level of care that people need, I'm not there.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. Well, you're certainly providing on your role as a CEO and founder of Home Helpers Newnan, I mean, certainly that's a really important role because a lot of people, they don't realize that you can go out and get somebody to keep you in the community that you've created. And that's a really valuable thing for somebody that is struggling with their health. And I think it's valuable equally for the caregiver because they get the opportunity to go out and do things to run the household, get a respite, and so on. Would you agree?

Beth Dow: Yeah. There's very little that someone has to go into a nursing home for. It does cost money. So, you do have to have the monetary ability to do it, but you can keep almost anybody in your home if you choose to do that. And people don't realize that care. I mean, it can be as simple as providing meals because that's usually the first place we see. There's two first steps we see in people who are elderly or who are are sick that they start deteriorating. One is, is they quit eating good food because they stop cooking, they don't feel like cooking. Maybe because of dementia, they can't remember how to cook. So, good meals and healthy nutrition is really high on something you can bring someone in to do. The next step is the medication of having somebody overseeing that medication. Those are two vital steps that kinda get missed. You still think mom is okay because she likes Stouffer's dinners, and she only misses her meds once in a while. But those are really important steps. We probably need to start look again at bringing someone in the home to start helping.

Corey Rieck: Well, in an area like Atlanta, there are so many organizations, would you agree, that are out there to help? They can help you with meals. They can make sure that their nutrition is where it needs to be for each of the meals. Somebody can deliver it. It's a lot different being ill now in dealing with the consequences of living a long life than it was 50 years ago, right.

Beth Dow: Oh, yeah. And now, no one lives close to their families. So, you think too, "Okay, mom is two hours away. What can I do?" We've got all these mail delivery places. Like you said, you can have a good, healthy meal delivered right to their door. We can arrange that. Amazon will deliver food right to your door. There's so many things, cleaning supplies, everything. You can live states away and still ensure that your loved one is getting the nutrition they need. And then, there's all these technology, even with medication. We have machines now that you fill up with the medication, and you can only get to your medication at 8:00. That compartment will only open at 8:00 for you to get your meds. So, there's there's lots of things we can do now.

Corey Rieck: There's been a lot of advancements in helping people that, for whatever reason, need more assistance as time goes on. I think that what we see is, essentially, one of the main questions that we ask people is, do you think that you'll live a long life? And while it may seem straightforward, 35 to 40 years ago, if a person had a stroke or a heart attack, they died. And now, that's not necessarily a death sentence. And I remember reading your book that we're going to get to in a few minutes here - My Loved One Has Dementia. Now What? - just a great read and a great playbook for having to learn to deliver care. And one of the things that you'd highlighted in your book was the C-word.

Beth Dow: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: And 35 to 40 years ago, back in the old country in Southern Minnesota, when somebody uttered that word, 'cancer,' usually that meant that the person they were talking about was gonna be gone and dying. And now, that's not necessarily a death sentence anymore.

Beth Dow: No, thank goodness. People with cancer, we're not afraid of that anymore. People lived. It's not, but like I said in the book, now, it's the A-word. Everyone's afraid of the Alzheimer's word.

Corey Rieck: Yes.

Beth Dow: And people don't want. They won't go to the doctor because they're afraid they may have Alzheimer's.

Corey Rieck: Well, I think to wrap that up, I mean, I think people, by and large, there's certainly more information out there about how to live a long life - going to your physician, eating the right things, wearing the right workout clothes when you work out, hydration, and all of the information out there, eat this, not that. And think about how the medicine has progressed over the last 35 to 40 years. I mean, so people are living a lot longer, which really lends itself to people needing some help at some point. Would you agree?

Beth Dow: Yes, I mean, definitely.

Corey Rieck: And I think most reasonable people would say that. And a lot of times what is missed is when the long-term care issue that you have so much experience with and its associated challenges present itself to that person, they don't realize that it's no longer about them. It's about the people that have to drop what they're doing and help them.

Beth Dow: Exactly.

Corey Rieck: And there is a big emotional toll to doing that, and physical as we've kind of discussed. But there's also an additional set of consequences and that's financial. Somebody's got to pay for it.

Beth Dow: Exactly.

Corey Rieck: And a lot of times, it's missed, but it's such an advantage to have the specialized knowledge, like an organization, like Home Helpers to come into the home. They can anticipate. They can look at what needs to be done. They can say, "Hey, Mr. Rieck, you're going to need this, you're going to need that." And somebody else with more skill and more knowledge is doing the work as opposed to maybe somebody like myself that doesn't have that knowledge, doesn't have that experience. And if you don't have those things, it can be extremely stressful to try to figure out on the fly what's going on. And I think just having access to the knowledge in the history and the experience that someone like you has, really, it's game changing.

Beth Dow: I mean, because most or a lot of families, really, this is the first time they've dealt with something like this. And I can't tell you how many times families come to me, and they'll tell me, "We thought mom and dad financially were fine. We thought the house was paid off. We thought they had money in the bank." And they found out there's a second mortgage on the house, that there's credit card bills. They had no idea because as we get older, we don't like to talk to our adult children about our finances. It is none of their business, and we don't tell them.

Corey Rieck: Well, that's not uncommon. A lot of families, they don't talk about those things, and that could be generational. There could be other matters there. And I think that one of the things that that I see is your family has the opportunity to care for you or about you. And the about you part is having access to somebody that is the formal game plan like yourself, like Home Helpers. The alternative is to be the plan. And to families that don't take the time to do that, that is what happens many times. The family is the plan. And a lot of times without any prior experience, it's easy for somebody to say, "Well, my wife will just help me," or "My son will just help me," and without respect, without regard to all the other things that are going on in those folks' lives because people are very busy. And I think if you're in the same city, it's difficult to help out with care. Would you agree?

Beth Dow: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, because we do have busy lives. And a lot of times, our older relatives, they really do not realize the imposition it puts on them because to them, it's just taking me to get my hair done. That's all I'm asking for is you to take me to get my hair done, but what they don't realize is all the other things you're having to do. So, you work in a 40-hour week job. I do not know of a 40-hour week job.

Corey Rieck: Not if you're doing it right. Not if you're excelling.

Beth Dow: There is not. And then, you've got drive time. And then, you have some people that are working second jobs. And if you've got kids, you've got all their sporting events. I mean, I did a thing one time where I put the number of hours in a day or in a week, and then minus out travel time, work time, getting ready time, cooking time, housekeeping time, cleaning, I came up with negative number at the end of how we actually can do it all. And now, you're trying to add on care for an additional person. No wonder we're like so stressed. It's pathetic.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. Right now, I'm so far behind, I can never die.

Beth Dow: Exactly, exactly.

Corey Rieck: I think people do have a lot going on. They are taking on more. I think it is harder to be an adult. It is harder to be a child. And I think with the advent of the smartphones and everything, getting away can sometimes be a challenge. And so, I think people are very, very busy. And the consideration after some period of time of the opportunity costs, whether it's in the workplace, or whether it's with hobbies or activities, it can affect the circumstances. Would you agree?

Beth Dow: Oh, yes. The average number of hours, someone, a caregiver gives is 20 hours a week. You think right now-

Corey Rieck: That's a lot.

Beth Dow: ... of your life.

Corey Rieck: Three hours, that's almost three hours a day.

Beth Dow: So, pull 20. Give me 20 more hours. And that's average.

Corey Rieck: Well, I think, that's almost a whole day.

Beth Dow: Exactly, out of your week.

Corey Rieck: And they're not making any more time. So, that, I don't know how anybody could do that, but I know that, obviously, it is being done.

Beth Dow: It has to be done.

Corey Rieck: Do you think people are aware of the services, and the acumen a company like Home Helpers has?

Beth Dow: I hear all the time, "I didn't know there were services like yours around."

Corey Rieck: Why do you suppose that is?

Beth Dow: Because unless you need it, you don't pay attention to it.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, that's true.

Beth Dow: I mean, there are all kinds of advertisements on TV. You see on magazines. You see it. You hear it on the radio. But if you don't need it, you turn it out. You just don't listen to it, or you may not understand it, or you may think, "Oh, that's for somebody who's really sick. Mom is not really sick. She just can't drive anymore, and cook anymore, and take her medicine, but she's not really sick yet."

Corey Rieck: Or, "It'll never happen to me."

Beth Dow: Right. Mom is sharp as a tack. We're not gonna need that. So, you turn it off.

Corey Rieck: Well, I think prior experience is a very, very powerful educator and a very powerful predictor if somebody does anything about this. And unfortunately, most families don't learn about that until they're already in the middle of it.

Beth Dow: Exactly.

Corey Rieck: But it would be easy for me to look at ... never having gone through it, it would be easy for me to say I don't need it. But since that's not the case, and I have seen it up close and personal, it's very easy to see how valuable somebody like you in an organization that has people that are trained to help people and to really, more importantly, anticipate the next step.

Beth Dow: Right. I do a talk that's called The 40-70 Conversation. And it's the conversation you need to have if you are 40 or your parent is 70. And it's actually a talk that I have the children and parents there together. And it's all about the conversations you need to have.

Corey Rieck: Is it in a cage? Is there a cage match afterwards?

Beth Dow: Yeah, that could work. It gets lively sometimes.

Corey Rieck: Sounds full of good ideas.

Beth Dow: [But it talks about everything from driving, of when to give up the driver's license, of where do you want to live the rest of your life?

Corey Rieck: What do you tell them about the driving? I want us, folk, come back to that for a second. What is your advice on somebody about when they need to give up driving? What are the signs?

Beth Dow: The physical sign is-

Corey Rieck: Don't tell me I need to give up my driving.

Beth Dow: I have to look at your car. The physical sign is if you look at your loved one's car, and you say dents and scratches on the four corners, that is a good indication they don't need to be driving. Another thing is to ride with them. I'll have people all the time that tell me, "I'm not going to ride with them," or "I won't let my children ride with them." Okay, if you're not gonna ride with them, or you won't let your children ride with them, why are you allowing them to be on the street? But the problem that we do is, one, is we don't have the conversation with them ahead of time. Second, we take the driver's license away from them, and we do not give them another option. Do not ever take someone's driving privileges away from them, unless you have an alternative for them to get around.

Corey Rieck: Well, what would be that alternative?

Beth Dow: You can hire somebody. Go with it slowly. If they go to church, the typical thing is mama only drives to church. Okay. She doesn't need to. So, let's talk to the church. Is there no one from that church that drives right by her house? So, before you take her driver's license away from her, you say, "Hey, how about calling mama and just say, 'Hey, Betty, I go right by your house every Sunday. Let me pick you up, and maybe we go to dinner after church or something.'" Start a process.

Corey Rieck: Great idea.

Beth Dow: Just start. Before you take the keys away, put things into place. If she goes to the hairdresser every Tuesday, every Tuesday, she goes to the hairdresser. Before you take the keys away, let's move that appointment to a more convenient time for you or for whoever is going to be taking her. Maybe it's a Saturday. But do that before you take the keys away, so that she's already in the habit, so you're not changing her entire life.

Corey Rieck: Well, lessens the sting, I would imagine, of taking somebody's driving privileges way and having an alternative to say, "Hey, you can still do these things. It's just that you won't be the one driving the vehicle."

Beth Dow: Right. So, get them in the habit of being the rider, not the driver. Get in the habit of that. But the sting, you got think your first sign of independence when you were 16, and you got those car keys, that is your first sign of independence.

Corey Rieck: One of them, yes.

Beth Dow: Getting those keys taken away is devastating, unless you can show them, you can still be independent, you can still have control. Telling your loved one, "I'll take you wherever you need to go," when I'm working 70 hours a week is not the answer. That's not taking them wherever they want to go when they go. You've got to be able to-

Corey Rieck: It will create additional stress for both people.

Beth Dow: Both. So, provide them a way, whether that's hiring someone like Home Helpers, a home care company, or someone else. Allow them to have the ability to decide where they want to go, when they want to go there. They're just not driving.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, that's another advantage of an organization like Home Helpers is, hey, I would imagine if someone needed to get around, they could call your organization, and you could set up a schedule, and you would help them do that, I would imagine, right?

Beth Dow: We can help them. We have minimums hours and things that we can do and all. So, it's very hard for you to call up and say, "Hey, I need somebody tomorrow."

Corey Rieck: Yeah, you have to schedule it, right?

Beth Dow: You got to have it scheduled. You got to have it set up and all that, but we can do that. And it's just it's all planning. And it's not just taking them to the grocery store. It's taking from the grocery store, helping them with a buggy, help them with the groceries, help them bring in the groceries, help them putting the groceries up, and making sure they're getting what they need, taking to the doctor and listening because, sometimes, they don't hear what the doctor's saying. So, a lot of times, you need to look past just the transportation. You need to look what the task is, and what's the best way to fulfill the task.

And if you're dealing with someone with dementia who really does not need to be driving, it's amazing how, sometimes, if you just remove the keys or the car from their sight, they forget. And people think that's so odd. We did that with my father-in-law. He was driving one day, we moved his truck to the back of the property where he couldn't see it, and he never thought about driving.

Corey Rieck: Interesting.

Beth Dow: The truck was the cue. As long as he saw the truck, he knew he was supposed to go driving. We removed the truck. And you can borrow the car, and accidentally tell him you wrecked the car, and it's in the shop. So. there's ways you can get around them driving.

Corey Rieck: Really great alternatives. I like the idea of if you have to suggest to someone, "Hey, you can't drive anymore, but here's how you're going to continue to be active, and here's how you're going to continue to live your life. We can, now, hire a driver. We can have a cab. We can hire Home Helpers. We can develop a schedule." I think that's great that you kind of try to establish a schedule and try to establish an alternative before you take something that is so important and so, in many cases, fiercely held onto.

Beth Dow: And if you can have that conversation early, so that everybody knows, when you get to this point, this is what we're looking for. We're looking for the dents in the car. We're looking for when you drive the wrong way on the one-way street. This is what we're looking for if you had those conversations early, and then you have the plan in place.

Corey Rieck: So, I'm never going to let you see my car or drive with me.

Beth Dow: I love it when I do these, when I do my talks, and I start talking about the car, and you can see people kind of squirming because I do a talk just for churches because dementia and all in churches, it's a major issue with the congregation. And so, I talk just to churches, and I tell them that this is a good place for their parking lot attendants to really see who should be driving and who shouldn't because they see those cars coming in, they see how they park, they see who they have to get out of the way of when they pull in. And so, I tell them, there's many places churches can help families, but even parking lot attendants in churches, who you would not think could really help a family, can make a major impact on telling a family, "Your loved one probably is at danger."

Corey Rieck: Was there a certain jumping off point that led you to know for certain, "Hey, I've got to start Home Helpers. I've got to start a home help agency"? Being an entrepreneur and business owner, was there a set of circumstances or an event that happened where you just knew you had to do this?

Beth Dow: I guess when I first came out, when I thought I had come up with this great idea is ... where it was? My husband has always been an entrepreneur. He's owned grocery stores, convenience stores, logging companies, noise abatement companies. He has always been an entrepreneur, always owned his own businesses. And I would help slightly in those things, but I always knew I could do it too. I can make decisions. I can see visions. I know where something should be. And so, I just I knew I could do it. You know what? What is the whole thing is you miss every at bat. You miss every hit that you don't try.

Corey Rieck: You miss every shot you don't take.

Beth Dow: Every shot you don't take. So, failure never even came into my head. I didn't think I would fail. I thought I could do it. I knew that the need was out there. I knew that I had the work ethic to do it. And so, I did it.

Corey Rieck: What was involved with getting the company started?

Beth Dow: Well, it's a franchise. So, I called and looked into many different franchises.

Corey Rieck: How did you decide on this one?

Beth Dow: Two things that really didn't matter in the end. It's when I was looking at the different franchises, Home Helpers franchise, at that time, did not require a storefront. So, I didn't have to have brick and mortar. And then, they also had a segment where you worked with new moms. And I thought, "The fishing hole is bigger. It's not just seniors. It's now new moms also with new babies or moms who have been put on bed rest and things like that." So, those are really the two things that had Home Helpers shine better for me. Once I get in it-

Corey Rieck: Very clever about the new moms.

Beth Dow: Ain't that a great idea?

Corey Rieck: Yes.

Beth Dow: But once I got it and I started doing it, I did have a storefront, and I really ended up not doing new moms because I just kind of naturally gravitate toward the seniors in that end. So, when I looked at where I wanted to put my energy, it wasn't that the new mom end, it was the senior end. So, the reasons I initially picked it really didn't matter. It's a great company. I'm glad I picked it. We signed 10-year contracts. We've signed another one. If I didn't think it was a great company, I wouldn't have. So, I'm glad we picked it.

Corey Rieck: What are some of the things you like best about Home Helpers?

Beth Dow: Home Helpers, my company and the business or Home Helpers as corporate Home Helpers?

Corey Rieck: Your company. Well, both.

Beth Dow: The corporate, I can just head to corporate. When I started in the corporate, now is really different. When I started with Home Helpers, they were also new. So, they were also finding their way. Now, Home Helpers has their act so much more together corporately than they did when I started. That's not anything negative. That suggests they were new. We were both running our ways at the same time. So, the new person coming on to Home Helpers now is getting much more support from corporate than I did. When I came on from Home Helpers, I got support from other Home Help franchisees-

Corey Rieck: Oh, that's good.

Beth Dow: ... more so than I did corporate, which was phenomenal. And it was another woman-

Corey Rieck: Really?

Beth Dow: ... that helped. Mary [Pore] was phenomenal, and she helped me, and took me under her wing, and showed me the ropes, and she was great. So, that was the thing about a franchise. When you go out and you started to ... and my husband always told me, "You need to do it yourself. You don't need a franchise. You don't need to spend the money on the franchise. Do it yourself because you can do it." I'm glad I didn't do it by myself because I needed that support. I just needed. For me, I needed them. And so, I'm glad I did. I think it's hard to do it by yourself. Harder to do it by yourself than it was for me.

I love Home Helpers as a business because we really, really do help people. We really do. And I love people. I love the older people. I'm working now, have kind of shifted gears. Two and a half years ago, I gave the reins of Home Helpers over to my son, Grant, who is doing a phenomenal job and is continuing to make it grow and is doing great. Initially, when I left, I left to go teach and to do speaking gigs on Alzheimer's because that's what I love to do, is I love to teach people on Alzheimer's. And then, a friend of mine who has an assisted living community. I reached out to him and I said, "Do you need some help?" And he said, "Yeah." So, I started helping Monarch House, an assisted living community and Newnan in February for a three-month stint of helping as a director, getting some policies and procedures, and things like that in order, and fell in love with the people.

And so, with the assisted living and Home Helpers, it's both. It's always goes back to those people. They are wonderful. And the stories they have to tell are phenomenal. And one thing that working at Monarch House allows me to do now that at Home Helpers didn't allow me to do is, now, I'm with these people all day long, and I have a lot more time to talk to them. When I was running Home Helpers, I was running a business, and I would get to talk to the families when I signed them up, and I would get to talk to the families when I checked in on them, or I get to talk to families when they're having a problem. One thing I do at Monarch House is I go in every morning at 7:00, primarily just to serve breakfast to help because that's when I get to talk to everybody in the community. And I love that time. When I get through breakfast, I always tell them, "Okay, I'm going to work now," because I just love the people.

Corey Rieck: What would you say are some of the main differences between an organization like Home Helpers that helps folks in their home and assisted living like Monarch House?

Beth Dow: It fills two different needs, okay? For example, my mom and dad, daddy had Lou Gehrig's and a ton of other things. He was an Agent Orange kid coming back from Vietnam, so he had everything you can imagine. He stayed in his home until the day he died. 24-hour care through Home Helpers. My mama has been in her home 24 hours care Home Helpers. We were able to do that, first off, because financially, that's what they wanted. We were able to meet all their needs. And mom and dad had a network of friends that they still was able to get social engagement, which is majorly, majorly important. It's really the social engagement key. It doesn't matter what age you are.

Corey Rieck: Why is that important, do you think?

Beth Dow: It is the most number one detrimental thing to your health is social engagement no matter what your age is. You will live longer, you will be healthier, you will be happier if you have that social engagement. So, if you're sitting at home by yourself and no one ever comes around, I'm going to say you're a candidate for assisted living because there, you're gonna get the social engagement. You're gonna get people around you. We had a lady that came in to Monarch House, gosh, I think was February or March. Her family was so concerned. They were so concerned they didn't even think she'd meet the criteria of assisted living. They were afraid she was gonna have to be in a nursing home because she was so depressed, so down. That's exactly what it was, she was depressed. She comes into Monarch House, she starts making friends, she starts doing activities, she's the first person on the bus whenever that bus leaves to go somewhere. She's in all the activities. They cannot believe the difference it's made in her. I'm telling you that woman would not be alive today if they had left her in her home.

Corey Rieck: Certainly, assisted livings are very, very helpful to the inhabitants but, also, to the families because don't you think safety is a big part of this too?

Beth Dow: Oh, they prey on people. We also have a resident in Monarch House who's owned ... and unfortunately, the number one person that preys financially on someone is a family member. So-

Corey Rieck: Really?

Beth Dow: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's their number one predator of older people is family. And this one resident we have is a perfect example of that. Her family, extended family has stolen thousands of dollars from her. They have just substantially taken advantage of her and exploited her. And the whole reason she's with us is for that protection of where no one can do that anymore to her.

Corey Rieck: You won a lot of awards at Home Helpers?

Beth Dow: Yeah, I think we've won about every one Home Helpers has to offer. And what is so cool? Just so cool to me is one of the first awards we won was the Pioneer Award. And it was an award for ... yeah, Pioneer Award. And what was so cool about it is that that's an award for people who kind of look outside of the box, and try to do things different, and try to do that. And I won it early on. And last year, my son won the same award.

Corey Rieck: That's great.

Beth Dow: And-.

Corey Rieck: Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Beth Dow: That was just really, really cool for me. I'm so proud of him and the job he does with Home Helpers. He has just done a great job.

Corey Rieck: How many employees do Grant have there now?

Beth Dow: I would say probably 90 to 100. It kind of wavers. And I really have completely remove myself from that. It is Grant. And we tried to work together for a little while. Very hard to try to work together and have things-

Corey Rieck: Just in, families often finds difficulty working with family.

Beth Dow: Right. I knew that Grant was the future of Home Helpers. I knew that there were some other things I wanted to do. And I also knew he would never be able to run Home Helpers like he needed to if I was still in the wings. So, I really have stepped back. So, I try to know what's going on, but to know like when I was running, and I could tell you how many employees I had. I'm not sure right now how many employees he has but somewhere around there.

Corey Rieck: Was it hard for you to step back off something that you built?

Beth Dow: Awful, yeah. It really was because that was my baby. I wish there was a way we could have figured out how to do it together, maybe, but I don't think doing it together because I am very much a domineering person. I don't like to be, but I see how something should be. And sometimes, I don't-

Corey Rieck: But don't you have to be if you have your own business?

Beth Dow: I think it helps. I'll tell you where it hurts is helping with the assisted living because I'm not the owner. So, now, it's like I see things the way I would do them, and the owner sees things the way he wants to do them. So, it is kind of hard to get back in that role, but it was very hard. What really helped me was when I really settled in and thought, "You know what I really like to do is take..." And that's how I built Home Helpers is I built Home Helpers by doing classes, by doing workshops. That's how I built it. So, going back to that, and I was able to do quite a bit of that last year, a lot of teaching and things like that, and I loved it. And then, I've been wanting to write a book, because that's one thing that families would always tell me, there's lots of books out there about dementia, but they're like a thousand pages, and I just can't get through them," or "They're too technical," or "They're kind of dated." And so, I've been wanting to do something like that. And I actually have a couple more in the hopper that I'm wanting to spit out soon. So, I was able to do that. And my husband and I like to travel. And so, we were able to do some traveling. So, while it was very hard and very difficult, it was the absolute right thing to do. And if I hadn't done it, the book probably wouldn't have come out. I wouldn't have been meeting these folks at Monarch House than I'm meeting and living with and loving, so.

Corey Rieck: Well, seems like you've prospered as a result of the transition. And one of the things that I wanted to ask you, does Home Helpers serve a specific area, or do you have a certain geography that you work with?

Beth Dow: We do. It's pretty much from South Fulton County, Palmetto, Peachtree City, Fayetteville. So, start going down south to Lagrange, Harris County, that area over to Carrollton. So, it's kind of a West Georgia, South Atlanta, Metro area. Yeah, there's other Home Helper franchises. So, there's Home Helper franchises in Atlanta. So, there's Home Helper franchises everywhere. My particular one is the South Atlanta area.

Corey Rieck: I would imagine that if I had a client in Florida that needed some assistance, I could maybe call you, and you could find somebody, or make a referral, right?

Beth Dow: Yes, yes. I could refer you to somebody with Home Helpers. I could refer you. I can tell you other agencies that are in the area that you can do it.

Corey Rieck: You would know somebody that's competent to help probably.

Beth Dow: I would know. I tell people all the time, I don't know all the answers, but I know people who know the answers.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. What's the greatest challenge in an organization like Home Helpers finding new clients? How do they get their new business?

Beth Dow: Most of it really is word of mouth. Really and truly is word of mouth. The biggest competition with home care is the independent person, the Aunt Sally that provides care in someone's home. That's the biggest competition because they can do it cheaper. You know, companies like Home Helpers have to do workers comp. They have to have liability insurance. They have to have-

Corey Rieck: They have to properly licensed and-

Beth Dow: Plus, the licensing in Georgia for home care is enormous.

Corey Rieck: But doesn't that protect the client ultimately?

Beth Dow: Yes. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, you don't know. Just because Aunt Sally is the person you go to church with, you know nothing about them personally. You do not know what is going on with their lives. And so, what I always tell people, if you go that route out, at a minimum, do a financial background check, and do a criminal background check, at a minimum, and put a camera in your home because I do not care how much you like somebody. Once again, you do not know how they are when you are not around.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, I think that the fact that they have presumably some compliance metrics to meet and requirements that ultimately protects the client and their family and-

Beth Dow: Well, the stress. If you have Aunt Sally, and she's sick, and Aunt Sally calls out, you've got to go to work, well, what do you do? If you're working with an agency, and Susie calls out-

Corey Rieck: Find somebody else.

Beth Dow: ... they've got Billy ready to come.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, yeah.

Beth Dow: So, it's just the stress levels reduced, the risk is reduced. They're gonna be better trained. They have to do training. They have to have annual training when they work with an agency. An independent person doesn't.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. So, certainly, the clients are in a much better position to use a license agency like Home Helpers. Families are protected. You've had so much success with Home Helpers, but I want to talk about your book. The book is titled My Loved One Has Dementia. Now What? And I've read it. It's 76 pages. It's a great read. It's about 30 minutes. It gives some great advice in there. And I can tell from knowing you that it was written from a place of love and wanting to help people, but this would have been very helpful for me about 15 years ago. Tell us about the journey of writing the book and how all that came about.

Beth Dow: Well, like I said it, it really came about from people that were attending my talks and all are just saying they can't read these huge books. And so, I wanted something that was a 15-30 minute read-

Corey Rieck: A Cliff Notes' version.

Beth Dow: Yeah, exactly.

Corey Rieck: Cliff Notes.

Beth Dow: Exactly. And I have had one the best compliments I've ever had with somebody that told me ... well, there's two really great compliments. One was someone that told me, "I read so-and-so book, which was the Bible of dementia that everybody would know." And they said, "You said everything that book said in 30 minutes." That was important, and I thought that was great. And then, another really neat thing that someone called, it was actually a preacher, he said, "I was reading your book." And he called me from the restaurant, and he said, "I need another one of your books." He says, "As a matter of fact, I need 19 of them." I said, "Okay." He said, "I was reading your book, and the waitress came up and asked me about it. And I found out that her mom had dementia. I gave her my book. And so, I sat here and started thinking, who else did I know that had dementia? I need 19 more books."

Corey Rieck: Well, certainly, with your great run at Home Helpers, doing this has certainly separated you. And I think that it certainly lends itself to your educator mentality. And I think it's another way that you're really helping people. And you're right, we've evolved from talking about the C word - cancer. Now, it's the A-word - Alzheimer's or dementia-related items. But I think that for anybody that is experiencing challenges with their family around this, it's an excellent read, and it lays out a way to kind of deal with it, getting your team together, and having people. It's sort of like having a boss and having everybody sit in the right seat.

Beth Dow: Exactly. The main thing, the takeaway is that you can not do this alone.

Corey Rieck: No.

Beth Dow: You really can not. And there are people around you that you may not even be able to think about that could possibly help you. Like I said, I had people all the time that they'll say, "Well, all my brothers and sisters live states away. There's nothing they can do." Well, yeah, there is. There are things they can do. So, that's what I try to point out is that there's jobs for everybody.

Corey Rieck: I like what you say on page 41, "Success is what comes after you stop making excuses," I absolutely love that, and that's 100 percent true. And I think having helped multiple members of my family with this, I think it seems like if you're delivering care with your family, there's usually a couple people that step up and do what needs to be done. There's others that maybe don't. Is that consistent with your experience?

Beth Dow: Always. It doesn't matter how many children a parent has, there's always going to be one or two that step up and the others are busy. And it's not that the ones who step up aren't busy. It's just there's family dynamics. There's all kinds of stuff. There's personalities. There's all kinds of reasons that you really do have to get rid of excuses, and you just have to build a plan.

Corey Rieck: Well, it doesn't change the fact that certain tasks have to get done.

Beth Dow: Exactly.

Corey Rieck: Is it fair to say that the one that does the least usually wants to comment the most?

Beth Dow: The one who does the least and the one who's furthest away-

Corey Rieck: Yeah.

Beth Dow: ... is the one who's gonna have the most negative comments to say, typically not always, but a lot of times because they're not close enough, they don't see it. And especially when you're dealing with dementia, people with dementia can hold it together for a 30-minute conversation where you think there's nothing wrong. So, you live in San Francisco, and your sister telling you, "Mom. she doesn't remember anything. She can't do anything. She really needs help." And you say, "Well, I just talked to her on the phone, and she's tell me what she did yesterday. And she's telling me this." And I tell people, Mama, who was the typical perfect military wife ironed everything of my daddy's t-shirts, boxer shorts, everything.

Corey Rieck: I remember reading that in the book.

Beth Dow: Yes, I would call her. And I'd say, "What you doing, Mama?" "Ironing." That made sense. Mama would always be ironing. So, if I didn't know better, I could have a conversation with her for 20 to 30 minutes and really think there was absolutely nothing wrong.

Corey Rieck: You make a point in your book, and I think we've chatted about this earlier about being a medical advocate. And I love the phrase that you put in here from Dr. Seuss. It's, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." And I think, also, what that says to me is if someone has an Alzheimer's matter or a memory matter, they really need someone there to help them but, also, to think critically. And many times when folks go to doctor visits, the person with the issue here is one story, and the other person that's there often hears another. Would you say that that's accurate?

Beth Dow: Yes. And well, what is so hard for adult children to understand is that once their parent has dementia, there is going to come a point in that dementia where they are still functioning, but they no longer can make a logical, rational decision about their safety. And so, the adult child will still say, "But Mama doesn't want to get help. Daddy won't let me take his guns out of the house." There comes a point where we are going to have to love a whole lot, and step up, and understand that our loved one can no longer make that logical, rational decision. So, we have to do it for them.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, people with afflictions often see and hear what they want to see and hear. They have difficulty thinking critically. And I think it's really important to have an objective, independent third party that's available, which could come from a caregiver operation like Home Helpers or a resource like yourself that can lay it out and call like it is.

Beth Dow: Right. And keep in mind that part of Alzheimer's is that they do not know there is anything wrong with them. That is not denial. That is part of the disease where they do not recognize there is anything wrong with them. So, they're not going to understand why you're telling them they need to do all these things because there's nothing wrong with them.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. Well, I think the book does a lot of counseling about you're not alone. This is what I picked up from reading it. You're not alone. There are others that have gone through this. Don't go it alone. Here is a checklist and some items that you want to keep in mind. I think putting together a team, this was really well laid out here. And I like what you say at the end. And it says always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. And to me that says, "Hey, don't be afraid to ask for help."

Beth Dow: Exactly, you’ve got to.

Corey Rieck: And I think-

Beth Dow: You've got to survive. This is what I also tell family members, your loved one is not going to survive. Unfortunately, they're not. You have the option of survival. You've got to do what you have to do to survive.

Corey Rieck: Well, and you have a life to live. And I think if the parent or whoever is afflicted with Alzheimer's or dementia, whatever the matter is, would want you to have your own life, would want you to probably participate on some level, but also want you to, hey, go live your life. So, you've had this great run prior to getting to Home Helpers. You had the great run at Home Helpers. You've written the book. And now, you have Solutions by Beth, kind of a continued evolution. You're a gifted speaker. You've got enormous knowledge. Tell us about Solutions by Beth and kind of how all that is going and how it came about.

Beth Dow: Well, Solutions by Beth is really twofold. One is I will help individual families, I'll come in, I'll talk to you. I'll help you make a plan. I'll help you see ways that family members who don't think they can do anything really can't help and contribute. I'll help you look at your finances, doctors. I can just help you develop an entire plan for what you need. So, that's the individual side of it. On the group side of it is education. Like I said, I have one talk specifically for pastors and lay leaders of churches. If someone's in your church, hopefully, they're going to come to the pastor and let them know.

Beth Dow: There's a story that I actually heard in one of my talks I did. And there was this one preacher who they had a woman in the church. She was flirting with the man, she was cussing with the man or just cussing. She was saying things. They called her down. They talked to her. They did the Matthew thing. They talked to her. She wouldn't get any better. And they finally excommunicated or from the church. What they didn't know is that woman had frontal lobe dementia. She couldn't help what she was doing. They didn't realize that. Contrast that to this other church where, man, every time the whole church would say, "a man," he would say, "OSA Chatty" loud and proud every time. That pastor understood that he had vascular dementia.

Corey Rieck: Wow!

Beth Dow: And where his damage was done is in his vocabulary. And he did not know he was saying "[OSA Chatty]." He thought he was saying amen. And he got up and stood in front of the congregation. He said, "I know what you heard, but that's not what he's saying. And if you can't hear him praising God, this may not be the church for you." That's what churches need to understand. They have got to understand their congregation, and they've got to understand what their families are going through. So, I talk to them. I want to talk to professionals. I want to teach professionals. I want to teach caregivers, civic groups. This is a major, major thing.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, sure.

Beth Dow: One in six people right now have dementia. One is over 65. One in six, that's you.

Corey Rieck: Well, you don't die from that generally, right?

Beth Dow: Okay. Now, we get to get on my soapbox. The reason that dementia is not the number one cause of death is because we do not put it on the death certificates. When you have-

Corey Rieck: Why is that?

Beth Dow: Because what you actually die from is when the part of the brain dies that stops your heart. You die from heart failure. When the part of the brain hits your respiratory, you die of respiratory failure. So, when you have Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, what you actually die from is another event. That's what gets put on your death certificate, okay?

Corey Rieck: Interesting.

Beth Dow: Once we start putting on our death certificates that they have dementia and the type of dementia, you are going to see that dementia is really the number one cause of death, but we're not putting it on there. We have got to get it on the death certificate.

Corey Rieck: It seems like even though there is a lot of information out there, education is really, really important around this issue. I think about the items I picked up in the book and just items I picked up knowing you over the past several years, there's a lot that the public doesn't know. And so, I think that what you're doing with Solutions by Beth is so important. And it seems like the mission is we've got to tell people to deal with Alzheimer's-

Beth Dow: We really do.

Corey Rieck: ... and dementia-related illness.

Beth Dow: I have a segment in the book and I have a talk about what people don't tell you.

Corey Rieck: Yeah.

Beth Dow: We need to talk about what people don't tell you. And because it's the same thing, like we talked about the cancer. Everybody's so afraid of it. They're so afraid of what's gonna happen. They don't want to talk about it. They're so afraid that for someone. So, like said, I do this talk for preachers. And I had one preacher tell me, "You just really destroyed every commandment there is," because when you're in the Alzheimer's world, it's okay to lie. When you're in the Alzheimer's world, they're going to steal things, and they are going to think you're stealing things. When they're in the Alzheimer's world, they're gonna cuss, and they're gonna use God's name in vain. When they're in the Alzheimer's world, they may fall in love with someone other than their spouse. So, I go through, and like I said, I do. It's hard. It's a different world, but if you think you're the only one going through that, and you don't realize these things are happening to everybody else, it makes it so much worse.

Corey Rieck: I think that was a really good part of the book. You did a very clear job of illustrating that, hey, this is not a journey that you're the only one that's on it. There are others going through it. You don't have to do it yourself. You've laid out a lot of ideas for people to deal with it. Are there any other projects in the works, any other books coming our way?

Beth Dow: I do. I have actually two books. One's further along than the other. The one that's the farthest along is it's for families to understand that even if they do hire professionals to come in and care for their loved ones, even if they do place their loved ones in an assisted living, that it does not remove their responsibility for ensuring that the caregiver is trained. And so, it's a book about how to help the caregiver that's caring for their loved one, understand how to care for their loved one. Because I think that's a lot of us, we do. We place our loved one in a memory care, and we assume that those people working in that memory care understand everything they need to know about dementia, and they don't. So, even though we ask someone else to help us care for a loved one, we're still part of that care team. So, my next book is explaining what that family needs to do to help give the tools to their caregiver.

Corey Rieck: That's interesting.

Beth Dow: And then, I have one, the next one, which is further back, is helping children understand dementia.

Corey Rieck: Well, Beth, you've certainly separated yourself from your competitors in what you've done with your experience at Home Helpers, the book, Solutions by Beth. If you could give the younger version of yourself some advice, what would it be?

Beth Dow: Wait. You talk about or people talk about their regrets and things like that. When I think through my regrets, I think of them more in terms of motherhood than I do, a lot of times, professional. I can remember because I was so busy working, and no matter what job I had, and I worked for Delta Airlines, and I worked for a church, and I worked for different places, I always wanted to be the best, and I always wanted to be the number one, and I always gave 120 percent. And I can remember doing stupid things like cooking a cake for my work and telling my kids I couldn't have a piece of it because I had to take the perfect cake to work without a piece out of it. And I think back on how stupid that was.

Beth Dow: So, when I think about regrets is that of the things I did trying to get to the top or trying to be number one, and somehow that was so important to me that giving a piece of cake to my child was wrong. And those are the things I regret. I wish I just had realized that that part didn't matter as much. Other than that, I kind of like the path I did.

Corey Rieck: It certainly worked.

Beth Dow: I kind of went all over the place.

Corey Rieck: It certainly worked.

Beth Dow: It's hilarious that I went back to school to work for hospice. And even though I'm not working in hospice now, I kind of still ended up with seniors toward the end of their life.

Corey Rieck: But all that experience, don't you think that they were very effective building blocks to get you to where you are now?

Beth Dow: Everything I've done, every job I've had has been people in crisis and families in crisis. Even at the church, there'd be families in crisis. At DFS, families in crisis. Everywhere I've been, that has been the thing that I've been able to deal with most is families in crisis and helping them work through that crisis.

Corey Rieck: Well, you've certainly been great at that. If there was a young lady out there that wanted to follow your path, what would you tell her? What insight would you have for her?

Beth Dow: I think it's important to not only believe that you can do something but to find someone that also believes you can do it because there is so much ... and I think I know men have it too, but women really do have the negative self-talk about, "I'm not good enough. I can't do this. What do I think I'm doing? Why do I think I can do this?" And just having someone there who will tell you, "Yeah, you can do it," helps. But even if you don't have that person, if you've got to do it.

Corey Rieck: Well, it helps to have a mentor, somebody to bounce ideas off of. I mean, I think if you're going to follow the path that you did, certainly, you would be a very good mentor. And I think you'd be candid about sharing, "Hey, with this task, I could have done this, this, this and this, and it may have turned out differently," and so on.

Beth Dow: Yeah, but that's the hard thing. People always want to tell you about all their successes, you're really not going to learn anything about their successes. If you're going to learn about their failures, that's what you're going to learn, what they really screwed up on is where you're going to learn.

Corey Rieck: You're not going to help anybody unless you can help them understand the things that you should have done differently. And so, if the listenership wanted to get in touch with you, how would they do that, Beth?

Beth Dow: They’ve got Solutions by Beth, solutionsbybeth.com. They can e-mail me at beth@solutionsbybeth.com. And they can call me at 678-590-6599.

Corey Rieck: Well, Beth, you've been a tremendous guest. And just congratulations on all of your successes. I know that that will be continued in the future. And thank you for being a great guest on Tuesdays with Corey.

Beth Dow: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.

Sanjay Toure: The show is brought to you by our great friends at the Long Term Care Planning Group. Thank you for joining us today. This is Sanjay Toure for Business RadioX.