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Falling and not being able to get up is one of the primary reasons people are, are forced into convalescent care and everybody wants to stay at home. And if you give them the right tools to stay at home, they can do that for a long time. And that’s, that’s our goal.

Caring for aging parents or other loved ones while working, raising Children and trying to live your own life, wondering how to find the time for your personal health and happiness. Well, you’re in the right place. Welcome to the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast to show where real family caregivers share how to be happy and healthy while caring for others. Now, here’s your host, Family Caregiver and certified Caregiving consultant, Elizabeth Miller.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast, which is part of the whole care network. If this is your first time listening, welcome. This is a show produced biweekly to help family caregivers integrate self care and caregiving into their lives. I am grateful for my listeners. Your ratings and reviews have helped expand this show’s reach and impact more caregivers lives. If you haven’t left a rating or review for the podcast yet, consider doing so by visiting bit dot Lee forward slash HHC pod review and that’s all caps HHC pod review. Podcasting is work. It’s work that I enjoy but still work and your reviews are like unexpected tips in my tip jar. So thank you so much for that. I’d like to thank our episode sponsor Eve. Loneliness and isolation are problems that many of us face and the health consequences are serious equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day according to the surgeon general. So today, I’d like to introduce you to a new companion service aimed at older adults and people who live alone called Eve Eve is available to chat by phone 24 4873 and speaks multiple languages. She hosts yoga classes plays word games, does cooking lessons. The list goes on. She also sends real time alerts and daily healthcare updates to caregivers to keep you in the loop and it all starts from as little as $15 per month. Sounds too good to be true. Check it out for yourself at I AM Eve dot A I, that’s I am Eve dot A I for this episode segment of what I’m reading. I recently completed two very big books in a fantasy series that my daughter recommended and gifted me. Each book had over 500 pages, not my usual genre or length of books. The first book in the series was called Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros. This book won many awards. It’s a romantic adventure filled series with dragons who bond to human cadets in book one. You’ll experience a university experience like no other. And if you like the Hunger Games or the Divergent series or even Game of Thrones, I think you’ll want to give this one a try. My review on goodreads said that when you want to devour an almost 500 page book and are ready to dive into the second of the same length. You know, this is a good read. Dragons, Forbidden Love War, family loyalty action. Yes, please. Five out of five stars for book one and I gave four out of five for book two. The favorite thing I want to share with you in this episode is something that I discovered through my banking app. I Bank at Wells Fargo. And I suspect that some of you do too. One perk that I did not take advantage of for a while was to activate some of the my deals that Wells Fargo offers with participating partners. Basically, you open up your Well cargo app, scroll down a little bit until you see my Wells Fargo deals. These aren’t automatically applied. You have to do something, you have to activate them to get the cash back in your Wells Fargo account. Basically, you just read through the list of offerings. You open up the offerings that you think that you may use. There’s no disadvantage from activating them and you activate what you think you might use. Right now. I see deals in there for Hilton American Eagle Brooks shoes, home chef Dell Little Caesars, top Golf and Buffalo Wild Wings. I’m always texting my kids reminders to activate deals as well as we all need to pinch as many pennies as we can in this economy. The deals are always changing. So when you’re in your app doing other stuff, just be sure to check them out. Let’s meet today’s caregiver in the spotlight, Steve Powell cared for both of his parents as their health and mobility declined. His experiences mitigating many, many falls for his parents prompted his invention of a device designed to lift individuals safely and comfortably off the floor. In this episode, Steve and I chat all about this and we also talk about aging in place fall prevention, perfectionism and why he has the well deserved nickname of the singing winemaker. Enjoy the show.

Hello, Steve, welcome. To the Happy Healthy caregiver podcast. Well, thank you for having me. I love it. I love your hat in particular for those that are watching. Like I want to get my husband to wear more hats like that. So maybe I’m gonna show him a picture and we can encourage him to do that. Reminds me of our time back in Italy where a lot of, um, we saw a lot of people wearing those types of hats. Well, they’re very comfortable and convenient and they keep the sun off. They do. Exactly. We gotta, we gotta protect our epidermis for sure. Um, well, see, we always kick off the Happy Healthy caregiver podcast with the guests with some words of encouragement for family caregivers. So I’d love to get your thoughts. These are some sayings and things that I have collected over the years. Um, and now it’s available. If somebody wants to create their own jar, they can find that on the site. But your episodes inspiration says, have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. And that’s a quote by, uh Salvador Dolly. So have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. Are you a perfectionist, Steve? I’m not, but I like to get things as close to right as possible. And sometimes being a perfectionist takes a whole lot more trouble than getting it done good enough. And many times we, we really just need to accomplish things without overstressing by trying to hit the level of perfection. So it’s a great quote because we’re not going to find perfection on this planet. So we need to do the best that we can and be happy with what we can accomplish and caregivers like, listen, I collected a lot of these because they were speaking to me, but we are juggling a lot of competing priorities and there’s, there’s not enough time really to just kind of essentially focus on one thing. And one of the sayings that I used to self talk myself a lot with, related to this is done is better than perfect. So, just crossing it off and being done with it is better than, than perfect. Yes, I agree. And the extra bit you get to get out of perfection doesn’t benefit anybody except for the stress monsters. Exactly. We don’t need to feed those stress monsters. Anything else was they get enough to eat already? So, well, well, Steve, I’d love to hear a little bit about your caregiving story. Can you share a little bit about, you know, your time when you were a family caregiver and what that was like for you? Well, so my mother who was 91 just passed away on December 18th and I was her caregiver. I was not the only person that provided care, but I was the one responsible for her care overall and, and getting helpers and to do things and take care of her needs and I spent a number of years doing that and uh I, I was a caregiver for my father, uh a kind of ancillary. His wife was a nurse and she had to go to work. And so she needed, she needed extra help and support. So I provided the care for that. And uh i it’s, it’s really doing God’s work to take care of your parents and those people who have raised you and given you life and, and it’s our job at the end of life for to help as many of those folks as we can smoothly enjoy the remaining days and, and in the, in the level of transition. And so I’m, I’m proud that I got to be a caregiver as I did and I have a relationship with my mother that would not have occurred if it wasn’t for my caregiving capability and willingness. And so it’s just a beautiful thing all around and that’s what the world should be focused on the beautiful things all. Yeah, I love that. I mean, it sounds like you had a close relationship with your parents. I love that you, you know, recognize that you had a primary caregiving role, but yet you weren’t the solo caregiver, which I would never advise anybody to, to be a solo caregiver. That’s a recipe for disaster. So I’m glad you had a, a team of support available to you, you know, as a family caregiver for your parents, like where did you find support and resources for you? Not necessarily on how to provide better care for them, but how, how to mitigate burnout and how to find the support and resources that you needed to have that I have and I have to think about it. You know, you just do what you do and you, you plug on through and, and in the end you look and the smoke is cleared and everybody’s ok. So now I can take a breath and then, then we do it again and it just, it’s an ongoing thing as you know, with, you know, ongoing support for those in need of caregiving. It never ends well. It does eventually but survive on adrenaline um for a lot of it. And, um, and, and you, you’re a problem solver, a creative problem solver who’s constantly learning and figuring things out. And, um you know, I think, I think put a lot of, we put a lot of trust in ourselves that we can do that we can problem solve. So I, I hope that caregivers listening realize like all of the skills that they have when their caregiving is, you know, with the researching and advocating and, and, and problem solving and decision making. Like there’s a lot that goes on in a caregiving and a caregiving journey. Um And I know that you, you know, started to become an expert in falls like routine falls with your folks became kind of part of your life. What were some of those, those early falls like for you? Like, what did those look like for, for your mom or your dad? Well, my mother had been falling for a number of years and some reason was hers. So she, she fell before she had a diagnosis. She would lose her balance and fall over and, and, and that happened for years and as she got older, it happened more regularly. And during one period in 2013, 2014, the transition, she fell six times in four weeks. In five of those times. I got up at four o’clock in the morning and answered the phone and ran over to her house and picked her up and, and, and got her on her way and, and the, the last of those times I wasn’t able to be there because I was out of town. She had to call 911 and the fire department came and they broke into her house because it was locked. And then they, they find this woman on the floor, messed herself on the way to the bathroom because that’s where she was going when she fell. And she was the most, most humiliated person on the planet at that point. That, and she swore up and down that she’s never gonna call the fire department again. She’ll just wait until I come back to town to get, get her up off the floor. That’s not a safe answer. And, uh, so that coupled with my dad who had, had, was following me because he had osteopor osteoporosis or osteoarthritis and he had knee knees that were bone on bone, but they wouldn’t fix them. They, they couldn’t fix them because, um, because he was obese and he couldn’t, maybe not survive the surgery and they don’t wanna, they don’t wanna put people at risk. So he had to live with the fact that he would just walk through the house and out of nowhere and he would go out and he’d end up on the floor. And it was, that was ok until he got into his mid seventies when he could no longer pick himself up. And then we would struggle with, how would we do that? And we, we got a Hoyer lift that was, uh, prescribed and that lasted a couple of times because what a Hoyer lift is in case somebody doesn’t know that the engine is like an engine, engine hoist that you take engines out of cars with and, and you jack them up off the floor and you put them on a, in a harness and you roll them over and you jack them up and you try to put them into a place where they can stand up and, and it’s kind of airborne and they’re airborne and swinging. And my mom was not, she didn’t want anything. She tried, we did it a couple of times we wanted to have one for her. Um, that was not going to happen. My mom was, well, we had one and then it was that they’re useless because he would not use it. And so that led us to calling the fire department to pick him up and, and he fell so many times because in the middle, in the night he’d need to go to the bathroom and he’d wake up and try to jump out of bed and go to the bathroom like he’d done for all of his other 77 years of life. But his edema in his feet and his diabetes and these other things caused him to not be able to really balance and take care of those things. So, the first thing you do is jump out of bed and end up on the floor and that happened so regularly that the fire department picked him up by his arms and his, and his shoulders and he became black and blue and bruised from that. So now on top of the fact that he’s falling and we have to get him up, he’s screaming and hollering in pain because it is the, the muscle space, the soft body tissue that was being used to pick him up was, uh, was in pain and uncomfortable. So it just, yeah, I mean, and I’m assuming the fire department is trained on how to pick people up correctly because of course, there is a method to that where you can, you know, thousands of times a day all over the country. But between my mother and my father, I had to come up with a solution. They both were falling. Right. How many falls do you think that you’ve had, like, had to over the years, like, how many falls for your? Yeah. Yeah. And, and then, you know, the 1003, I know, we used to have to get my mom, my both my parents were large people. My mom would have the falls and we would have to do, yeah. Call a non-emergency assist, right? Or is that what we call it? Yes, a lift assist because uh we could not physically get my my mom off the floor and you know, I’ve witnessed other people in my family that falls can be really detrimental to people. Of course they’re, you know, they break a hip um and things start kind of can start spiraling for, for older adults there. Did you try some of the fall prevention tips? Do you have anything there that you would say? Like sure we we we spend a billion dollars a year teaching people all over the country how to not fall and how to make their houses safer and how to make it so that they can, they have less opportunity to fall. But that doesn’t change the fact that people fall. I know what are some of the so just So people are listening like what are some of the like grab bars in the bathroom, grab bars done along the hallway. You know, things that no, no throw rugs because there is something they are tripping, tripping hazard. Uh Lots of, lots of sweet things that you can do to minimize the opportunity to fall but falls them from losing balance and tripping in missteps and that is going to occur no matter how much you train them, no matter how much you modify your house, you can’t change the fact that humans lose balance. A little bit of neuropathy in your feet. A little edema in your feet. Um, a little osteoporosis or osteoarthritis in your knee and you become a falling victim, falling so much to get you lots, 9090 plus percent of all falls do not result in a medical emergency, kind of an injury. Ok. Well, we do get a lot of hips and a lot of, uh, a lot of leg and arm concussion or something. Yeah, concussions. They, that’s, that’s really the smallest portion of the falls. You don’t hear about most of the falls, most of the falls, they just slip out of bed when they’re trying to get into the bathroom and it didn’t hurt them, but they just need help up getting up. That’s the problem. So, the, the problem is how do we get up? And I didn’t have an answer for that. There was nothing that was practical for people at home. So between my mother and my father’s needs, and I, I swear, God pushed my mother down those six times. Now in that, in that, in that two months, because he knew that if I was angry enough about having to do this, that I would find a way. And in fact, I created a machine to solve that problem so she could get up on her own. And in fact, what a joyful day that was when a machine that I installed in my mother’s home so that she could recover herself after a fall. She didn’t fall for nine months after I put that machine in. But when she did, she called me up and she said, Steve, you gotta come get me. I fell down again. But then she called me moments later and said, Steve, never mind. I screwed it over to that machine you put in the hallway and I picked myself up. You don’t have to come get me. Well, she, she fell another and about two weeks later, she fell again and she called me up, excited and said, hey, Steve, I’m just calling to let you know that I fell again. But I scooted over that machine and I got up by myself. So you don’t have to come get me. I just want you to know that that was so helpful because I got up by myself. And let me tell you the big difference in life at that point was she walked on eggshells as she moved around through her house because she was so afraid of falling and having to call 911 or having to call someone to come over, she wasn’t comfortable in her own home. But after she found that she could get up herself, the weight was lifted from her shoulders. She walked around her, gave her confidence and, yeah, II, I love that. I love that she’s falling, but I’d love that she kept her independence and you, you know, had a, had a solution and, you know, I, I’ve witnessed that with my mom, you know, I’m sure she was bedridden the last two years. I mean, there just became a day where she could not like get herself up anymore. Um, even, you know, from a, a bedside commode, uh, but I’d wonder if she had the confidence of not tripping and stuff. Had she been more active, but she would wait so long. You know, it’s like, and then it’s like an emergency to get to the bathroom and when you’re running and well running, I’m using that loosely but you, you know, hurrying to get somewhere. Um, like you’re likely to incur a problem. I know it has informed my health and happiness of my parents caring for my parents and I am definitely, you know, fearful of like both of them are morbidly obese. So, you know, very conscious of that. But also like the mobility. So still do my strength training twice a week and stuff so that if I, that I can get myself, you know, off the, off the floor. So I think, you know, as we get older, our muscles start to deteriorate. So I know it’s important for us to do. You still lift some weights or do you, what do you, what do you do to stay? I exercise. I do a lot of walking and, and I do a lot of hard guitar playing. I’m a guitar player, so I spend a lot of time for everybody with guitar and, and I do a lot of walking for help. And after watching, watching people deteriorate, it’s, it becomes important, a priority to stay healthy so that we don’t have to live in those conditions with those. No, I mean, that’s why happy healthy caregiver started because I was, you know, I saw what that looked like and did not want that same, um, same story for, for me to happen. Going back to your Indie lift though, Steve. Like, how do I mean, are you an inventor? Like I know you mentioned your guitar play. Like, did you, how did you start this? Like, how did you start inventing something? Well, I, I realized it was a problem and I couldn’t get my mother up for, uh, I, I, she couldn’t get herself up. So, but I could, I needed to solve the problem. So that she could do it herself. And then with my father, she, he was married to a registered nurse and she was fully capable and everything she needed to do. And we did all the sorts of things we could, but she couldn’t get him up off the floor either. So I realized that I could solve this problem. I looked all over the world for a solution. Something to pick up people. And there didn’t seem to be one that existed. In fact, there was not one that existed. So I thought, well, I’ll just make one. And I’ve been, I’ve been a product developer in the telecommunications area for 30 years of technology career. You’re not afraid of machines and getting your hands. I can, I can solve this problem, you know, and, and so, and I did, and so it took us a couple of iterations to get it right. But between 2014, when I started focusing on this problem on the first couple of months of 2014, we then started talking around with folks and realized that, wow, my parents are not the only two people on the planet that fall down. And if we had a solution that would be helpful for them, it would be helpful for many, many more. So that’s when the idea was bond to create this company called Indy Lift and, and the products that were going to help people up off the floor and since October 1st of 2014, I’ve been full time employed and working for the effort. And now we have literally helped tens of thousands of people avoid their following problem or, or avoid their getting up problem by having those that they can get up now. And so we do that all over the planet right now and we’re very proud of that. We don’t, we’re now at a major breakthrough point in that we were manufacturing things in America and it’s very expensive to manufacture in America. Consequently, our prices were had to be high and, and so just to recover our costs and we couldn’t help as many people and it got too expensive. And so we’ve gone offshore with manufacturing and now we have a much more competitive product that is a great value is we can get you up off the floor and it’s only literally a few $100 to have this tool that will help you day after day and be there for you whenever you need it for, for, for years to come, we build a machine that’s, that’s intended to be last, last for 20 years. And, and it does and people use them for year after year. My mother died in, in December 303th and after, after nine years, she used that machine three times in the last two months of her life before, before she finally, but her goal was to stay at home because everybody wants to stay at home. Everybody wants to stay at home, which, you know, called aging in place. I didn’t know it was like a, it had a term. Um but, and with 12,000, it used to be 10,265 baby boomers every day, but now it’s 22004,22004 according to a RP, baby boomers every day turning age 211. Now, disease and age are not synonymous. But um we are have an older generation living longer with medical things and stuff. And so the chances of us things falling apart, just like you would like a, you know, a car that you’re using, we’re gonna need some help. And so I I’m with you though. Most people do want to age in place and this is a great way for them to um safe at home and be independent with that. So you call it the people picker upper. But I’m also thinking it’s the caregiver back saver. Well, in fact, so the the object was to get the folks off of the floor on their own. And so we created a self operable machine. And for those folks who, who have somebody around that can be a caregiver, it just makes it even that much simpler. But now we don’t injure the fallen or the people that are caring for them because we have a machine that does the work. And every time, every time you have something that might cause a problem with humans, somebody comes up with a better answer so that we can make it a little less, a little less painful and a little less hurtful. And in this case, we found a way to do that to pick people up and keeping them at home is important, falling and not being able to get up is one of the primary reasons people are, are forced into convalescing care and everybody wants to stay at home. And if you give them the right tools to stay at home, they can do that for a long time. And that is there, is there a weight limit for the Indie Lift? So we have multiple machines, multiple have a version which I didn’t know. Bariatric was the nice way of saying like for larger people, bariatric wheelchairs, like these are all the terms you have to learn as a caregiver. We like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. So, so we have our, our base model machines now support people up to £2487. Ok. So we have our consumer machines do that for £2100. We have commercial machines that support people up to five and £353. Although there’s far fewer of those folks than, than there are in the £235 range. But we do know there’s a lot of folks over £226 now. And so our base machines are have a capacity of £22028 which takes up 96% of the people on the planet. Amazing. Amazing. And like you said, like, it could be a two person, like if you feel more comfortable there, but it’s, it’s designed for someone to do this with the remote independently. Right. So the idea is to keep you at home independently and if your spouse has to go to work or by the way, or if your spouse has moved on to the next chapter of eternity, you want to stay home, nobody wants to go away. And, and so to be able to keep you at home safely by giving a tool that you can scoot over to and pick yourself up is a great answer. And you can read reviews from people who use our products and think it’s just the greatest thing because it’s kept them safely at home and nobody wants to go to care facilities. No. No. Um, not as, not as their first choice for sure. No. And, um, the is one of the things I remember about the Hoyer lift, which I mean, there’s really no comparison like the airborne thing. A hard, no, for my mom. Um, but what you could also not use it on certain types of flooring. So it works on all types of flooring. Yes. All types of flooring. It’s a small little device. It’s the size of a vacuum cleaner kind of, and it’s, you, if you were going on vacation, you could take it with you. You could, and you can roll it around anywhere in the house and you can, and you can pick somebody up, they can pick themselves up wherever they happen to fall. And so the people who live alone, typically that are senior or disabled, they don’t have very large homes. They find a central location. In fact, most people between the bed and the bathroom because that’s the most likely time they’re waking up in the middle of the night, they need to go to the bathroom and they slip out of bed as they’re, as they’re trying to get to the bathroom. And that’s a common, really common occurrence. So many people, many people just put place their indie lift in between their bed in the bathroom and that’s where it lives. And whenever they happen to fall, they can scoot over to it and pick themselves up and get on with their day. That’s the beauty of the project is that we can get on with our day without it, without it interfering with everything, without calling the neighbors, without calling the family, without calling the fire department, without calling anybody else. We are now able to just get on with our day and it’s nobody else’s business that we fell down, but we got back up. Yes. Yes, it’s lovely. And I know that you go to a lot of expos, I’m sure you get a lot of great feedback from folks that are. Yeah. What are some of the things people say, well, we were the abilities, which is a kind of a place for people who are trying to support their family members or themselves with these disabilities and, and they provide tools, everybody there is trying to help people be safer at home in one way or another. And, uh, it’s very satisfying when you go to a conference like this and the staff that are helping the people understand what we do come and tell me, well, this guy stopped by. He says he bought one of these things three years ago. He uses that thing every other week and he’s the happiest guy going and, and he just wanted to say thank you for making this machine because it made him, it gave him the ability to stay at home and that’s what most people want. So we get that over and over again and every time that happens it gets in a chill up my spine and I get goose bumps and I just want to help more people because there’s more people that need it and we can, we can alleviate a lot of suffering because if you ever tried to get up and couldn’t, you would realize how frustrating and you will sweat, you will work hard, you do everything you can to try to get off the floor and may not be successful. So now you’re not only still on the floor but you’re totally exhausted and, and it’s just harrowing and I watched that occur over and over again and that was enough to make me do something about it. And here we are today. Yeah, here you are today. I love that. I love your stories, David. So, um amazing. You know, there’s a lot of um caregivers who have experienced different things that have invented things to help other people. Um And so hopefully this podcast will help get the word out and you are very kind too because for your consumer um models, you are offering the happy healthy caregiver community $100 off with the code HHC 100. So we will definitely link to Indie Lift in the show notes where people can watch the video. Um If you know somebody that could, this could help them age in place better, you know, surely send this podcast to them so that they can learn more about it and take advantage of that discount. But thank you for offering a discount to the community. We’re happy to. Our goal is to help folks. Our goal, we are not a typical capitalism, American company. That’s goal to make the most money off of everything that you can do. Our goal is to be able to survive comfortably with a reasonable margin while we provide solutions that help people have better lives. And that’s a good goal. That’s a great goal. What, what is the Indie Lift retail for currently? So we’ve been, we’ve been go wobbling back and forth. But the Indie lifted will the base unit that picks you up from the floor and picks you up to a seated height is around $800 right now, which is, which is $1000 cheaper than it was a year ago because we now have offshore manufacturing so that we can accomplish those prices. And so you take that price approximately and then you, you take $100 off and somebody really is able to have one of these things at home for 11 bucks and they will use it over and over for years to come. And it’s one of the best investments for anybody who’s trying to stay home. And yeah, you’re falling. And if people have a um you know, home care business or a community or that needs this type of thing too to save their professional caregivers back, I think this would be a wise investment for them. And you have some commercial um products of two. That’s correct. And we are, we’re specifically uh focusing on assisted living and continuing care residential communities. Those places, they’re, they’re struggling to get people up because they’re afraid to get hurt and to hurt the people. So they’re calling 911, which means we have this, this epidemic of 911 calls for people for lift assists. And if all of these facilities had just one of these machines there, they wouldn’t have to call 911 because the people could be themselves up and solve the problem. And so we’re working towards that and in the future everywhere that you house people that that of the 65 million baby boomers that are getting older right now. Uh The all the places that house those people and take care of them are going to have the tools that they need to care for them and falling is something that is real. And we got, we can address that. Now we can address it. So good, so good. Well, you know, you mentioned some of the things that you do for your personal self care, like playing the guitar. Do you play for fun or do you play events or as a musician? All of my life, I didn’t want to be a starving musician. So I found a way to make a living as a technology. But then I got into the winery business in 2004. Did you say wine wine business? And so, and, and so in 2004, I got into the winery business because I owned a property that was right between two big wineries. And I ended up having to get licensing to do the right sort of thing. And so I became the singing winemaker. So I solved my wine enthusiast kind of thing by becoming a winemaker and I saw my music thing by becoming the singing winemaker. There are 11,487 wineries in the United States of America and there’s only one singing winemaker. And that’s me. Well, where do we find this? Um where, where do we visit you? Livermore, California. But we, you, you can actually find the singing winemaker on the web. And there’s lots of people that have posted me playing songs with them singing in the tasty move. I am, I am the, I have more uh I have my picture on more refrigerators than you know, because everybody that comes into the winery on their birthday, we sing them songs and they sing along with us and they take a picture with the singing winemaker. So I’m famously on, on refrigerators across the country. I love that. Do you have a AAA website for your business? The singing wine maker with the singing winemaker is the sing the singing winemaker.com. And uh and we have a small little boutique winery and we have little events and we, we focus on a number of different kind of uh nontraditional red wines with sweets and sweets and things and fun things and, and it’s just a lifestyle thing which is, it’s a beautiful thing and people enjoy it and appreciate it and it gives me an opportunity to share my music as well. Yes. Yes. Have you written any songs that came from your caregiving experience? No, I I’m not really a song composer. There’s so much good music out there that I can’t play enough of the music and every time I find a new song, I wish I could learn, I learn songs regularly, but I’ve got a few 100 in my repertoire. But, but I didn’t have time to write new ones. I, I just play the ones that have been, that are part of our psyche. Right. We, that’s amazing. And then, and then that’s, it’s kind of ancillary thing. But it’s, it’s how I keep sanity in, in my, in my rule of business between caregiving, which I don’t do so much now because both of my parents are now gone. But uh between all the things I do in running this business, we’re working on it. I love that. I love that you have this thing that fills your cup up the win. What’s your favorite wine, by the way? Well, I’m uh I like, you know, medium body red wines. And so we have, we have lots of good things and I make a number of blends and so we have melody. We have, we have wines that are called melody and harmony and so on which are musical terms. And, and so, uh that again, another little thing that makes our winery different than others is we’re not focused on traditional wine verbiage. We made, made our own path to do something a little differently. And we celebrate truth beauty and goodness through wine, music and art. I love it, truth beauty and goodness through wine, music and art. Um So cool. Very cool. I have to also, I’ll put in the show notes, but I have a caregiver anthem playlist that I created like I hear songs and they make me think of caregiving and remind me. So I have a playlist that I put together that I’ll add into the, the show notes and you know what I love to see, you know, your experience, this invention, but you’re in what we also call the age tech space, do you? Um which is a growing area where people are inventing things. Um What, what kinds of challenges are you facing in this age tech space for older adults and people who need assistance. So I have found my calling, so to speak. I was a technology person for 30 years, 35 years and then I got into this, solving the problem of lifting people up and now I’ve made it or, or God made it my challenge to successfully bring this product to market and help millions of people do have a better and more independent life. And so I don’t really pay much attention to it, solutions outside of the space of falling because it’s taking all of my time and more. But uh I think in and of itself, if, if you were to look at my legacy, at the end of my, at the end of my life, all the things I did that were great for this or that were nothing compared to creating a solution that helps people stay at home. And that’s just the most gratifying thing you can imagine. I love it. I love it. Well, we talked a lot about what you’re doing for your self care, but we’ve got to get your thoughts on some of the questions from the daily self-care journal. So I’m gonna ask you a couple of things. We’ll see what comes to mind for you, Steve. Um, let’s see if your best friend asked you what to do to relieve stress. You would tell them to what. Take a chill pill. We have chill pills. Now they, they call them gummies and there’s chill pills all over the country and then, and uh, take a chill pill and relax a little bit and, and go to your happy place. The happy place is something that people forget about. What is it? Yeah. Yeah. And there’s CBD Gummies and THC Gummies and Delta, depending on what state you live in, which ones are available to you. I know you’re in California. You have more available probably than we have here in Georgia. Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty much everything. But, but you know, it’s, you, you, I, I have horrible experience with people in alcohol so I could never recommend somebody to do something like that. But, but I have experience with these gummies that makes people sleep better, give some calmness. And, uh, it’s, uh, there’s, there’s real help out there. That is, uh, that’s, that doesn’t cost them much and is, uh, is, is actually acceptable technology. Yeah. Yeah. True, true. Um, what’s your latest go to Quick and healthy meal? I do a lot of salads but I’m really a sushi fan because it’s fresh and it’s, and it’s, uh, so, uh, my healthy meal is, is some sashimi with, uh, uh, half an avocado and, and a little bit of brown rice and uh and some wasabi to spice it up. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a place you go nearby or do you make it at home? No. II, I go to a place nearby and interestingly enough, I’ve been in sushi restaurants all over the planet and one that’s just three miles from my house is got some of the best sushi that exists anywhere on the planet. So I’m very lucky that, that I have my favorite kind of food and my favorite kind of place. Just moments from my home. Nice. That’s great. That’s so good. OK. Last question is, what is what? Oh, sorry. Your favorite daily ritual is like, what’s something you do daily? That’s like a ritual for you? Mm I don’t really have any daily rituals. My, my day gets so full, so quick with all of the different things that I go that I have going on. That II, I try to play my guitar every day. That’s right. So that, that is something I try to do if I get a few minutes of that, then where do you find is the best place to squeeze that in? Um, at night time just before bed. Ok, chillax a little bit. Get your guitar songs. And so I sing, I sing songs to my wife and, uh, and so after, after, uh, 26 years, she still listens. So I guess it’s ok. I love that. I love that you and I have been married about the same amount of time. So, um, I think I’m going on 2028 years this year. Um, so, so exciting. Is there anything else that you would like to say to caregivers or anything that you wish that we talked about? That? We didn’t, um, anything else you’d wanna add, Steve? Well, the caregivers are the angels of the humans and there’s not that many people that will step up to the plate and truly become a caring caregiver and take care of their people have families that they don’t interact with. They are afraid they might be obligated to do something for them. But the people that are really caregivers are really the angels in human form. And I’m so happy to help those folks do a better job and a safer job taking care of those in their charge. Nice. Nice. Thank you so much for that. And how do people stay in touch and find out more about your product and, and what you’ve done? Indeelift.com and we have videos and we can show you how to work out how to solve the problems and, and what it takes to see it in action. Yeah, it’s perfect. We’ll keep making music and sipping wine and just um yeah, enjoying your after caregiving years because you’ve, you’ve been through a lot, you’ve been through a lot and now you’re still helping all everybody in this space. So thank you so much for what you, what you offer, Steve. Thank you for recognizing that and, and I, I appreciate you having me here and allowing me to tell our story. Thank you. Take care. Bye bye.

Do you enjoy listening to podcasts? So do I and I’m always up to support a fellow Care Prene whose podcasts I value Nicole will host of navigating the world with your aging loved one explores the world of aging and care. As a former guest, I can tell you that Nicole’s podcast has an ideal mix of practical tools and resources and messages of hope and encouragement. You can find Nicole wherever you download your favorite podcast or go to her website will gather.com.

Thanks for joining us today on the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast on the whole care network. As always show notes that a company today’s episode can be found on my website Happy Healthy caregiver.com. Just look under the podcast menu for today’s episode image and that will take you to the page with the links and information we spoke about today. You’ll also find other resources on the website along with links to purchase the just for you daily self care journal. When you purchase from my website, you’ll get a signed copy and for a limited time free shipping. If you’ve enjoyed what you heard today, consider subscribing to the show on your podcast platform. It really helps other family caregivers find the podcast and you’ll automatically receive our biweekly shows in your podcast listening queue. Maybe while you’re subscribing, consider leaving a five star rating and review or just simply talk it up on your social channels. Let’s stay connected. I’m on Instagram and Facebook as Happy, healthy caregiver. And until we meet again, please take care of you.

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