hello was tourist central massachusetts and the whole world welcome to another episode of exposure with mosier where we are here to spotlight local entrepreneurs innovators and good news in our community and in our world we have got three amazing people here for you to meet today interestingly enough one of them last name is also mosher so far as we know no relation but will go right down the line and i want you to keep in mind that this particular show is unique in that it's focused on senior solutions so for people that are wise a little older in your years i think you and perhaps your children who are taking care of you or might be taking care of you will especially tune in and so thank you so much for joining and without further ado we'll hear first from we have donna mosher we have stephen meta and we also have share meta and this is both a married couple and a business partnership so thank you guys i don't think we've had any actual married partners on the show so that's pretty cool episode sixty eight so john let's start first with you i hear you have been in worcester for many years so tell us a little bit more about yourself your background it was something unique about you my name no relation i am the director of the year living while i doubt the health center what is unique to me i have lived in wister for close to thirty years where well raised our three children and a unique story about bringing me to living while was when i interviewed i met the director of nursing and she was one of the people who brought me on board fast forward six months later when we were getting to know each other even more and we realized that we not only grew up in the same city but we were on the same pop warner cheerleading team over forty years ago so it just tells me that i was in the right place and where i belong and i think three so for help me to be here how well that's also what a story and you found out six months after you would actually come on board that is true that's incredible meant to be they say thank you for taking us off so stevie let's hear a little bit more about so i know there's a lot of different directions we could go here but you know the famous question they ask during those interviews tell me a bit more about yourself so my leak help us get to know you my name is steven mead i'm also foremost i was born here i left western spent about twenty years in southern connecticut where i spent the bulk of my time working in the building and construction trades and for a lot of reasons i ended up migrating back to was ther in one nine hundred ninety and i've been a sense i have a large extended family who's from the sea area my wife and i have raised three very special children and unique about me is and it's great to see you guys again i know we met a number of years back at the career center and i'm really excited to hear more about your business it sounds like it's a very complementary skill set and it's great to to see how you're sort of utilize your different skills and experiences to create the sustainable senior solutions company that we hear more about so great to see you on the set and cheryl and i recently bumped into you at a women's power lunch networking and that was pretty fun to see you we have to do a double take you right to tell us more about you and well first let me thank you for having us and as stephen said the wife of the steven and sharon we we have our own business sustainable senior solutions originally i grew up in new bedford graduated from college and with a math degree which is always surprising to people and i ended up in worcester have three kids pretty much for the last thirty years i've had kids in my house so i've really concentrated on bringing the kids up getting them through colleges and whatever and the last the past six years we've started our business unique about me as i also have some physical therapy background so i do some personal training as well for seniors oh wow all very cool this is being interesting not only you know the similar work in terms of serving seniors in our community but the fact you guys have been in with serve for thirty plus years and you've all raised three kids so congratulations on getting them raised in they all out of the house at this point doing their own thing that you're getting there  caf a quick shout out over there in west boyle thin and it sounds like vivienne we met a couple times i was hearing great things and you were saying oh i don't think i want to be on that show but i want to get people to come check out your place it's an awesome spot to have both breakfast and lunch is that correct and dinner me and amazing grace is very friendly faces great service and she actually connected me indirectly to my soul sister here donna mosher and then here we are today on the show so i think you've been ok great so we're going to move it right along let's actually when we start here with you again donna so can you tell us sort of what led you to this particular path and how did you know it was the right thing for you and i know you already said it was to research right that you guys you're met years later and realize you were on the same time warner cheerleader too but how did you know this was the right fit for you i spent all of my adult career in emergency medicine which has some great stories some happy endings but it also has not so happy and everything that we did was phenomenal but it was about heal them and move the move them on transport them move them on what we do every day is we develop them we keep them happy we keep them healthy and we sustain that as long as we possibly can and that's just such a good feeling and to be able to share that with the community with the staff with the caregivers we touch hundreds of people every day that's phenomenal how do they may be watching you right now so quick shout out to me that such a such a big group of people i mean you've got a huge fan base i mean we do what we do we have over two hundred thirty five clients roster so you double that with their caregivers and then you add the staff and again it's that human  stephen what led you to this particular path and how did you know it was the right thing for you well as you would said before we had met in two thousand and ten i had become one of many displaced workers during the recession and at the age of fifty three fifty four years old i found that there was not a lot of enthusiasm for anyone to rehire me a lot of people were applying for jobs and with my age a lot of the jobs i was applying for just felt that the companies didn't want to invest time and somebody at my age my father difficult to get rehired anywhere which led me to self employment so if i can't get someone to hire me then i'm going after go to work for myself so i back pedaled twenty years to the building and construction businesses worked in connecticut and basically started throwing some cards around to a lot of my wife's clients and started their own some handyman work and that led into you know basically a home repair business but it was a phone call from my mom who decided she no longer wanted to live in a single family home my dad had been passed away for seven years and she was tired of waiting for the lawn guy the window guy the guy to put the screens in the guy for this guy for that she wanted to move and my sisters and i moved her and when i saw that happened i realized that there was a huge void in society to assist senior citizens in making that transition and that's basically what gave me the idea to start a business of helping people downsize relocate who need to do so or want to do so but their adult children are scattered all over the country and sometimes are adult children live in the next town but just don't have the time to undertake the projects so that's how i got here on your show and the second half of our business is like stephen said a lot of our clients were asking can he do this can he do that and being a personal trainer i would get questions like oh i work out all the time but i'm having trouble getting in the shower lifting my l having trouble getting off the toilet and i'd go and look and they would need some kind of modification and then their second question would be can steve do it so you start thinking about well geez this could actually be a viable business so we put the two together so if you want to stay in your home we can make the modifications and like i said i have p t background so i go in do the assessments modifications and if you need to leave at some point we can manage that as well it's great partnership and how do you say no to mom right it is your mom still with us she is she yes but the for the first time what happened in time i would visit my mother is we'd go right to the blackboard and she'd have a list of things you needed done before we socialised before we do anything else i need all this the sunny do list to get really do i just came up with that now that's great well thank you and you know i am again impressed you certainly innovated and you kind of looked at each other skill sets and i imagine some mary partners say you know what i don't know that i've ever thought about working together in business right so maybe your partnership could inspire other people to take a look at their complementary skill set who know so thank you guys so i'd love to ask you maybe we'll start down perhaps at the end just to shake things up a little bit this sheryl so what advice or insight do you have for other people in the community that may be thinking about pursuing some creative hobby or passion but maybe have not yet so any insight or advice from you well i think that first of all you have to kind of figure out what you really like and i remember stephen i love personal training i love working with seniors steve loves working with seniors and then you once you have that that's not enough though i can remember just having all these ideas running around in my head but i didn't know what to do with them so you need to find  there's many many places in this community that you can go for help and it's not and it's free help oftentimes it's very we want to see w we center for women in enterprise they helped they had a vision class what helped us focus exactly where we wanted to go we did our business plan with them i think you need to think about it but then you need to act on it and not just be whimsical about it you need to have a business plan you can go to clark clark has a great program there for entrepreneur or school or there's many people in this community that want to help like yourself you want to help entrepreneurs and if you need to seek those out it's easy to find and then you just need to work at it and just follow your heart it's really great advice thank you so you want to piggyback on that i always enjoy talking to people there because i always felt that i learned more from speaking to seniors and to you know talk of the people that were younger and often times seniors find themselves in a position where they don't want to say that there's they're scared but there are a lot of things that quickly can overwhelm us for at that time in your life especially if you're missing your spouse and they get very  like my mom were very anxious about you know when's it going to come shovel the walkway and i it's no to things like that so i've done a lot of helping out of seniors and what i basically want them to know is that there are my wife as  there are people out there to help you through all these things that perhaps our age group may seem to be small things but to them right there are large things and when is it go the spring is coming and i need my screens put in and they start to worry about that in february so i just basically want them to know that there are businesses out there there are people out there that can help them with all those little problems that they have thank you so much that's great and done or what you what insight or advice from your own life experience what you offer people that are considering launching something or pursuing something they haven't yet i think they have to take a good strong look at themselves and understand who they are and where their passion lies because for me following your passion if you do that and if you're  when you do what you love every day that's not work and there is such a need out there in the fact that we are all here together what i do with the staff that we have everything we do all day long is to keep them in their homes you make a custom custom customized to them to make it easier for them so it is a great tag to us and it just works and follow your dreams and follow your understand who you are because you can't you can't do that unless you know who you are and where you want to go that's great and i do view you as one of many intrapreneur is within our community so that's that idea we've discussed before on the show the notion of an insight entrepreneur and i know  we think back to the days of work for essential when i was there at the career center i was very proud to be an intrapreneur sort of an inside entrepreneur and i view you as something similar at the adult day center where you're basically you don't own the organization but you're playing a key leadership role you're a mover and shaker and really making things happen and really delivering the kind of quality programs that people talk about not to mention here you are on t v and they're just i'm excited you have to tell me if they all line up with popcorn or how that all shakes that'll be an activity very good ok so let's move along to some questions that you all have helped me design so thank you very much for helping me design these questions so i'm going to start first with donna so donna what exactly is a day health and what makes your center the living well adult day center in west boylston unique or stand out i think the key word for what is adult day health is the word house it's not day care it's all about the clients that come to us to keep them happy and healthy it's monitoring their health skills their needs and their emotional being to keep them in their homes as long as possible and it's a multicultural center we have a large latino population russian albanian american speaking we're growing every day because the need grows every day and what helps us to stand out the most is the staff because their compassion their energy their creativity it's just it's endless and shaking it up they know how to do that and they do a really wow and it gets people moving and they they create bonds with people and that's what makes it work and the layout of the building and the fact that they can sit in our backyard and put their feet in the grass or walk on the track or or garden in our garden boxes these are all the things that they want to do every day we've just given them the opportunity and the location to do  cool combination opportunities where it sounds like for the most part is it correct that the majority of your clients are actually they still live at their own home many of the live in worcester of the surrounding area and then do they take buses to get to your center how does that work logistically we contract with a transportation company also we pick our clients up wherever they call home whether it be a group home a rest home private home we bring them into the center they enjoy breakfast structured activities structured exercise programs because that's key we feed them lunch and then we bring them back in the second part of that is those caregivers they can go to work knowing that their loved ones are cared for in a happy healthy environment and in the must also provide so much relieve not only to the individual clients but also to their families their children knowing that they're in a safe place and having fun with their peers that fun is a good word i know how to have fun thank you so much ok so stephen and cheryl were you going to sort of tag team off each other here so what would you say makes your company again the name being sustainable senior solutions based here in worcester correct  yes so what makes your company unique so why don't we start first with that question you have a flyer as well you can share in a moment before i start that i personally and i know a lot of people of my age think that when you retire your challenges in life go away they don't they just change and what makes our company unique is no matter what challenge that senior citizen comes to confront we can help them with that if like my mother they decide they don't want to live in a single family home any more than we can help them to downsize and relocate to a new facility with my wife's background and physical therapy we can help them find that facility and most cases they're the downsizing is key because they're moving to much smaller quarters so what do you do with everything else and we can take care of that aspect of it and when that's all done again in most cases the senior needs the equity that they have in their home in order to sustain them to where they're moving to so we can prep their house get it ready to put on market and even hook them up with a realtor to sign the house so that they can put the money in the bank that they're going to to use lavonne that's are they really holistic suite of services so what's from a to z no matter what their challenges and if they want to stay home and their challenges they're only you know five foot six and their light bulb is six feet high and here they can reach it we offer all the services to help them age in place and stay in their home oftentimes that can be something as small as just installing a few grab bars in other cases we had a client who had a stroke was in a wheelchair with that old home we removed all the thresholds in the house so he could wheel from room to room we installed  a electrics they are lift that would take them up stairs to the bathroom and the next step was how is he going to get the tub he's not so we remodeled the bathroom and made him an handicapped accessible shower person that was really visual i really got some tangible examples and i think other people can really envision that they probably know people that could really benefit from these services so so i say every show don't be bashful are amazing exposure with mosier viewers please be in touch directly with these awesome entrepreneurs people in our community that are doing great things and solving problems and coming together and transforming our headlines because as we all probably know we could use more positive headlines and definitely be in touch even grab coffee have a phone conversation and start the conversation toward some solutions ok so cheryl definitely tell us a little bit more about in your opinion kind of building off what stephen said so why do seniors need to know about you well everyone if you may everyone is going to come to the decision at some point you know why stay here in this current home or do i downsize and relocate sometimes it's quicker than other times so but with that being said we have the solution so if you decide that you want to stay in your home and the thing is with seniors they don't really they don't want that grab bar they don't want any modifications because that means they're getting old  so when i do a presentation i always come out saying ok so is your home aging with you because when you have yes because it has to your health hell has to age with you if you remember when you brought your babies home you had to have a nursery you had to have a monitor then they were toddlers and you plugged up all the outlets and then they went outside and we got a fence and then they were teenagers and we remodeled the downstairs so they'd be home and safe it's just a natural extension of what's happening now so if you want to stay home we need to look at your home to make sure that it's aging with you so i like to say that is a brilliant analogy yes he's breaking that down so at any cost through stages what you need now you know what you need later on like a stairlift need now so we don't need to address that but having us in place we make a list and it's ok i think it's about time now that we start thinking about a ramp or we start thinking about this and if we don't do it we have the network of people who will do it we manage it for them because seniors they're out of touch a little bit their handyman person probably is retired now they don't know who to call unfortunately sometimes they get taken advantage of so we're there where they are someone they can trust will manage it for them make sure they get the job done done right done efficiently and cost effectively same thing is if they're going to move so which so overwhelming often times they don't they just say this is just too much they've been in the house fifty years i just can't even move and then they wait till it's too late right right i'm sure you see that all the time so we're there we we can take the whole thing what happens on a move day is they've we've already discussed what's going to happen what's going what st they leave go have fun go with your girlfriends go with your husband go to fox with whatever when they come back to their new home everything is taken care of the t v s are plugged in the phone is working everything's put away there's no boxes there bet is made it haven right straight so you are on a roll sharing so what i'm going to have to do is if you can speak directly with our community sure and if you can again just restate your name your business name again i might sound redundant but it ca sane enough right when you're just starting off a little bit more of a detailed description of your product and services and really be an ideal client for you how would you say that your services are differentiated from other perhaps competitors and what's the best way for people to contact you and steve ok so again my name is cheryl meta our company is sustainable senior solutions and what we do is resupport seniors and their families in the decision to either age in place in their current home or downsize and relocate now if they're deciding to age in place then like i said before i have p t background i'll go into a home safety evaluation and then based on that evaluation we'll make modifications we'll see the modifications through some of them like i said well maybe our immediate modifications others would be something that we would tackle down the road now if the decision is for them to know they can no longer stay in their own home they need to downsize and relocate then we manage the whole thing what makes us unique is the fact that we've combined the two because sometimes the your hope is to stay in your own home but eventually things change and you're going to need to to leave your home when we not only move you but then we also take care of what's left whenever there's a move there's two stages it's the actual move getting you to the new facility and the second stage would be what do we do with everything that's left in the house and we do three things we try to sell what we can through the network of buyers that we have we donate what we can because it's very important to give back to the community whenever we can and whatever we can't sell or donate then we would have a trash removal now what else makes this unique is the fact that we can also prep your house for market if it needs to be prepped and you can just phone number five zero eight eight five two eight three seven five and we also give a free consultation so you can call us for that perfect that's awesome thank you sheryl and i know you can go back and grab that information from the screen and that's great that you offer that free consultation thank you very much so let's hear just in wrapping up from donna if you can tell us again anything in particular you can just kind of chat with me about this anything more about your program what you need how they can contact you and also what's coming i think you have a big event and then also here from the event these guys have to tell us more again it's the living well adult a health center it's in west boylston  one of the things that is so unique about it it's a multi cultural center we have very large american speaking population latino speaking russian and albanian we have multilingual staff an open house and we're inviting everybody to come in and spend a couple hours and do the exercise do the activities have a meal with us come and go as you please and i'm going to direct everybody to our website for that flyer that will be posted soon  living wild day health dot com website and we also have a facebook page that i'm still look at look us up and see all the activities that we do great definitely definitely check them out online and check out that event on december third you said an open house at their facility and then i think you guys said just very briefly about something coming up the j c c in november take ten seconds jewish community center of eleven to three it's of health and fitness fear i'll be doing a presentation on senior safety with sue rich from associates and we'll have a ball so if you want to come down talk to was pick our brains were we available all right while this one quickly thank you guys so much for being on the show