#awinewith Di Geddes
MEET Di Geddes, Founder of Exceptional Care For You
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Di Welcome to Spark tv.
Di Geddes (00:08):
Thank you so much for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:10):
Oh, I'm so excited to share your story. Let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Di Geddes (00:17):
Yeah, so my name's Gdes. I'm a registered nurse for a long, long time now, over 30 years, and I started this business just over three years ago, which is an in-home care business, which looks after people who have got NDIS funding, private funding, and we're moving more into aged care now as well.
Danielle Lewis (00:44):
Wow, that is unreal. So after being in a career for so long, what happened three years ago that you went, I'm starting a business.
Di Geddes (00:53):
Yeah, my career was very messy actually. And so I had my own business in my late twenties, an OK Health and safety consulting business. And then when I had kids in my thirties, that just didn't stand the test of having kids and having a business. And that was mostly because one of my kids had lots of allergies and stuff, so I had to be home to breastfeed and couldn't work. And so it became quite complex and I let that business go and then just did part-time nursing work. And then by the time the kids got through primary school, I started to look at getting back into nursing and got more into the teaching side of nursing. Loved that, absolutely loved it. Wanted to grow more though and couldn't So left that. And then there was a very messy divorce that happened, and I think that was the turning point for everything in my life and made me reflect a lot on my life and what I'd given up in order to be a mom.
(01:53):
And I don't regret that I loved having my kids being at home with my kids, but I had let my career path go completely. So I ended up deciding I would move after a few jobs that weren't really what I was looking for and where I wasn't appreciated. And then the divorce being appreciated became really important to me and being acknowledged for what I'd done because a whole chunk of my life was no longer there anymore. The divorce was such that I'd been living in a relationship that was filled with lies. So authenticity was really important to me and being appreciated for what you put into something was very important. So I found myself in age care. I love older people and I love their stories. They have so much to offer and I do think it's a real blight on our society, the way we treat our age.
(02:44):
So I wanted to get in there and make a difference, but I found out that the government has set it up in such a way that you can't make a difference. So busy ticking boxes to show you caring that you don't actually have time to care and develop relationships and ticking boxes has never been my strong point. Building relationships is. So I left that and went, found myself desperate for a job because by then I was a single mom with a very large mortgage and needed a job and found myself by chance in disability care, community care. And I was with another company for a year and I absolutely loved it. I felt like I had found where I was meant to be my whole life. Everything worked. Every job I'd been at before that had led me to this one and gave me the perfect set of skills, and I just loved the interactions with the clients and the carers who I was supervising.
(03:33):
But it became apparent over that year that my values didn't match their values. And that was really important for me. Again, going back to the authenticity stuff and being the true version of me because by that stage I'd been fortunate enough to be put on a new pathway to build myself again from scratch really, and become who I wanted to be, not what someone else needed me to be. So I decided to leave. We had a disagreement about clinical standards and care, and I just thought, this isn't for me. This isn't the driver in this sort of business. Shouldn't be to make money. It should be to provide great care, have great relationships, and if you do that, then you're going to have to make money. It just makes sense
Danielle Lewis (04:16):
That will come.
Di Geddes (04:19):
So I left there and I started my own business and scariest decision I've ever made, but this is where I've ended up now.
Danielle Lewis (04:29):
Yeah, I love it. That is absolutely spectacular. I just love how business can be the gateway to the freedom and the authenticity and the life that we know we're meant to live. Because
Di Geddes (04:42):
When
Danielle Lewis (04:42):
You start your own business, yes, it's bloody hard,
Di Geddes (04:45):
But
Danielle Lewis (04:45):
You do get to design it with your values in mind. And like you said, prioritizing care, prioritizing relationships over money and the money will come.
Di Geddes (04:55):
Yeah, absolutely. And that's happened for us. We've been incredibly fortunate. Well, I've got to stop saying we've been fortunate because I do think there are powers beyond us that have controlled it and made us be very successful. I think I wanted to do this in honor of my mom and dad who have passed away, and I became aware of aged care problems through looking after them and trying to get them good care. And a couple of our clients have passed away who were very special to us and two of our first clients. And I have no doubt you can actually see on our graphs when they pass away, we take off and it's almost as though they're up there directing the traffic towards us.
Danielle Lewis (05:35):
Oh my god.
Di Geddes (05:36):
They were major clients and we didn't even see a blip in our graph when we lost them. And we expected to drop business considerably, which was a concern, but obviously not our number one concern because losing them was our number one concern. It was terribly sad, but we didn't see those dips. We just kept growing and growing. And so I think there is a bit of that beyond that we don't know about that helps line things up for you. But we've worked really hard too. It's been really hard, but every day is great fun because we are doing it for the right reasons. And that's the other part of the business that's really important to me that we laugh every single day because this business is hard. So it's important to find the funny points in it.
Danielle Lewis (06:18):
Oh my gosh, I love that so much. And I couldn't agree with you more. I think that there's absolutely an element of hard work, but I kind of think you do need to believe that someone's looking out for you and whether that be any form that we would like to call it, it's nice to think that there are people who have our
Di Geddes (06:39):
Back
Danielle Lewis (06:40):
And are perhaps carrying us through
Di Geddes (06:43):
This
Danielle Lewis (06:44):
Difficult journey that we're on. And love that you said, bringing the laughter. I don't think I've ever heard anybody on this podcast say that. And it's so important especially, and I would think that perhaps you do also hear stories and see things that are perhaps a little sad and that are hard to deal with. So prioritizing that joy and that laughter and knowing the impact that you're making has got to make a big difference in the day-to-day business.
Di Geddes (07:19):
And look, that joy and laughter is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It just keeps creating more joy and laughter. It's contagious. It's a fact that if someone smiles at you, you can't not smile back. And that's what we bring. And even in the darkest hours for people, we're able to bring laughter. And I know that sounds weird, but we know them so well and we have such a great relationship that there's always something we can let them laugh with us. And if we can't laugh with them, if it's too sad for them, we can certainly come back to the office in our safe place, have a laugh together about something. And I think that's incredibly important. It is for me. I mean, losing those two clients had a massive impact on me. And in fact, it's 15 months since we lost the second one, and she was the reason I started the business. She gave me the courage to start the business.
(08:11):
So her loss to me has been massive. And I'm not exaggerating when I say there's not a day goes by that I don't think of her. And on Sunday, the family invited me to help scatter her ashes, which was such a privilege to be invited to that 15 people out of her whole life. And I was one of them to be there to do that. But we were laughing because I dunno whether I can swear on here or not. Yeah, go for it. When I was helping her prepare for death, we talked about what she wanted and she said, I want my ashes scattered and I want you to get a handful and throw them and say, fuck off now. And that's exactly what I did on Sunday. And I feel a lot lighter for having done it now, for having carried out that final thing. And that was lovely. We all laughed on Sunday. It was a good thing to do. So there can be laughter in the darkest of hours too, I think, and that's when you need it the most, so yeah.
Danielle Lewis (09:05):
Oh, absolutely. And it's so interesting. I think that often people who are going through grief or just a hard time would love someone to bring a little joy and let's forget about it for three seconds. But I think sometimes we feel like we can't, like we should be with them in the sadness or with them in the hard times. But I think that half the time we just want somebody to lighten our load a little bit.
Di Geddes (09:34):
And I think a lot of our clients want normal contact. We are very good at listening and holding hands and being there when they need that. It's about reading the room and knowing what they need, but they also crave normality and they crave in inappropriate behavior. We all do the inappropriate nudge, nudge stuff. And
(09:54):
The ones you can get away with nowadays, of course, yes, of course, it's very different now, but they want to be treated as normal. They don't want to be treated as a disabled person. They want to be treated as a normal person. And I think that's one of the strengths of the business too. We let people be who they are. We don't try and make them who we want them to be. So we have a young client who uses sex workers, goes to strip clubs. It's not the sort of thing I do. It's not the sort of thing I want to know if my sons do, but if the client wants to do it, we find the carer who's prepared to take them to do it, and it's all done. No big deal. There's no big deal made out of it at all. We have other people who want to do other things that smoke marijuana, which I've never done in my life, but I've learned how to use a bong so I can help them smoke their marijuana if they don't have the ability to do so. They've got to have control and choice over their life, and we have to be there to help them do that. Now having said that, we don't go out and buy the drugs for them and do all the illegal stuff. We just assist them with the bit that they can't do at the end.
(11:03):
I think it's really important to treat everyone as a normal person who just because you can't walk doesn't mean you don't want to use drugs or you don't want to have sexual intercourse or whatever it may be. We all have the same needs and I think I'm really proud of the way we just step in and do it in a very safe way. We make sure everything's done safe and our staff are safe and the client's safe, but letting them be who they are,
Danielle Lewis (11:27):
I just think that is so incredible. I think more people need to understand that we are all the same. Perhaps some of us look a little bit different, perhaps some of us sound a little different perhaps some of us have limitations, but at heart we are all craving the same kind of human connection.
Di Geddes (11:47):
Absolutely. And human touch is really, really important. Imagine living your life, someone touching you. Imagine the only reason they touch you is to clean you. That is just awful. So if we can help someone get touched that makes 'em feel good, increases their self-esteem, makes 'em want to go out more, makes 'em take more pride in their appearance, make them meat healthier, then all of that's positive outcome.
Danielle Lewis (12:14):
Oh, absolutely. And isn't it interesting how, and the most positive is that they're being touched and feeling good.
Di Geddes (12:21):
Sorry.
Danielle Lewis (12:22):
No, no, sorry. The zoom just froze a little. I'm talking over the top of you. No, but it is really interesting how simple it is as well. Like what we're talking about perhaps isn't rocket science, but it takes somebody like you and your carers to step up and be there.
Di Geddes (12:41):
Yeah, it's not rocket science at all. What we do is what I think it's probably what we all do in our personal relationships. If you're in a healthy personal relationship, this is the stuff you do without even thinking about it. And I think that's what makes people think they can't do it. They've never realized they're already doing it and they're just doing it automatically. Whereas usual work tasks, you have to think, oh, I have to learn that. But you don't actually have to learn much to work in disability. Obviously there's some things you need to learn, but if you've been a mom, all the stuff you need to know because you've wiped bums, you've fed children, you've done all the stuff that for our really more complex clients you might need to do. But there's so many people with very small disabilities who still need a lot of help to get out in the community for whatever reason.
(13:30):
And they don't need so much personal care, they just need social assistance. So we do lots of that as well. But yeah, it's not rocket science at all. The rocket science we leave to our nursing staff, which is something we do different. We have nursing staff overseeing all care and we don't charge for that. So that's a cost that the business absorbs. And that's so I can sleep at night, so I know that everyone's being looked after at a level that I accept. And yeah, it's great for the clients. They get a really big freebie out of that, but it's also good for our carers to see that it's not just a matter of walking in there and doing stuff. There's care plans developed and a lot of knowledge goes into it. So yeah, that's something we do different to a lot of other organizations.
Danielle Lewis (14:14):
So what is your staff structure and how many are there?
Di Geddes (14:19):
So we have about 60 staff, which blows my mind every time I say it. I can't think about it too often. So we have two admin staff who do the rostering and accounts and that sort of stuff answering the phone. And they are so key to this organization. They're the heartbeat. We have one nurse who's our clinical manager, operations manager. We have a part-time nurse who does care plan reviews and client visits and things like that. We don't do a lot of nursing clinical visits. So it's mostly the background stuff the nurses do most of the time. We do do some wound care though and stuff like that. And we have another nurse who is now our aged care business development person. So he's looking for aged care clients and doing all the stuff out in the community to try and attract them. But he gets involved in clinical stuff as well. And then we have a business development manager, excuse me. And then there's me as the CEO director. And how do you go? So we also have 60 50 carers out in the field. I forgot about them. So in addition to all that office stuff, we have the 50 carers who work autonomously every day.
Danielle Lewis (15:37):
Oh my God, how the hell do you manage that many people?
Di Geddes (15:42):
Yeah, I'm still getting used to that, to be honest with you, that the area that has challenged me the most, and we had an awful 12 months leading into this year where we had 10 different admin people, we just couldn't get it right. And the business has really suffered as a consequence of that. I think we could have been in a much strong, we're in a great position now, but we could have been much stronger if we had had the right people. But we've got the right people now and that's great. We can move on from here. And it really excites me. I couldn't have a better team in the office than I've got now, which is great. Managing the people who work out in people's homes autonomously is really a challenge and it's a huge leap of faith. So it comes back to recruiting the right people and being very strict about whether you keep them on or not. So I meet all new employees, potential employees, I interview them all. I've got to get the right gut feeling or otherwise they don't go any further. And I get it right. I reckon about 95% of the time I get it right. And it's hard for me to delegate. That's
(16:48):
Impressive. Well, yeah. I mean what they do. If you want to succeed in an interview with me, you just make me cry. That's how easy. It's you come in and you tell some beautiful care story I well up and then you get the job. It's as simple as that. But
Danielle Lewis (17:03):
Mines, if you buy me a wine, you get the job.
Di Geddes (17:09):
So I interview them and I get to know them. I see how vulnerable they are in the interview, and if they're vulnerable, they're going to make a great carer. It just makes sense. So we used to only employ qualified people. Sorry. No, we used to employ unqualified people, but we're changing to make it qualified now, which is a bit of a shame. Some people out there who would make great carers, but they don't have the bit of paper and some people with the bit of paper who should never have been given the bit of paper. So the way I assess them in the interview is really important. And then we keep in regular contact with them and we keep in regular contact with our clients. So we always know whether they're doing well and whether the clients are happy. And that's our main aim. We spend a lot of time matching clients to carers because if we get that relationship right, if you've got a good relationship, everything else is forgiven.
(18:04):
I think you can, A great example is yesterday afternoon we couldn't fill a shift, which is incredibly unusual for us, but we did not have anyone who was available to go. And luckily this client had in-home services he could call on as well. So we asked him would he mind if he used the in-home services that I would call him three times over the four hours and we would shout him dinner. He couldn't prepare his own dinner and he agreed to that. So we supported him all the way. We also called his next to kin and let them know I spoke to his next to kin again this morning. I spoke to the client when he was tucked up in bed last night and twice before that. So we still go that extra mile. If we can't send anyone, we still ensure the carers there. But it's challenging and managing people is by far the hardest part of my job.
Danielle Lewis (18:55):
I'm not going to lie. So at the peak of my other business, we had about 20 staff, and it was the moment that I realized I don't like managing people. It's super tough. Oh, really tough. Your mention of needing to be the one that interviews them to make sure there is that right gut feel. I tell you what, every time I've had someone that hasn't worked out, I knew it, I knew it and it was my fault
Di Geddes (19:21):
For hiring them. But I like the fact it's my fault because I can then wear the blame and I can't blame anyone else. And I've made the mistake and I need to learn from it. I actually find that easier to deal with than thinking, oh God, she's made another mistake. Do you know what I mean? I'd rather own that in myself. Yeah, yeah. And then you can fix it. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. And the hardest part of people management though, is not everyone's like me. And that's come as a very big shock to me. So I've had to learn to accept other people's ways of doing things and accept other personalities, which out socially would just drive me nuts and I would've nothing to do with someone. But they may be a great carer and the client may love them, even though we think, oh, they may love them. So I've got to learn more and more to get comfortable with that. And yeah, that's tough though. And it just sometimes I'm very much a just get it done and do it. Not a, oh, could we do it this way? Could we do it? I was just the deep breathing I do. Yeah, correct. It's lot of deep breathing goes on.
Danielle Lewis (20:32):
I know. I'm not going to lie. That was the hardest lesson for me because I have a sales background. The first time I hired a sales person, I thought that they would be like me, and they were not like me. And we spent months paying their salary of them not making any bloody money. And I was like, what is going on? It was the hardest lesson, learning to lead a team, stepping from corporate. If I work hard, I'll do well going into team environment. Doesn't matter how hard I work
Di Geddes (21:01):
Anymore,
Danielle Lewis (21:02):
People
Di Geddes (21:02):
Still might not do
Danielle Lewis (21:03):
Their
Di Geddes (21:03):
Jobs. That's right. And with the admin people last year, that was absolutely the thing, no matter what we did, no matter how we supported them. And then by number seven, we were saying, we have had seven duds. We need to get this position really working well. And they'd come in all guns blazing and straight away you would know. But I got better at detecting it by number seven too. I'd call the business development manager in who was also managing the admin team and say to her, they're not doing anything. I can tell they're actually talking a lot, but not doing anything. So you start performance management and you find out they're doing nothing. So yeah, it's fascinating how people function. That's what I find. Yeah. I also find now I'm going to sound really old. I know what you're going to say, and I'm with you. There's a completely different work ethic around in the younger generation than what we had. And whether that's covid related, whether it's, I wonder whether it's that with two parents working, they often haven't had to go and get a job to be able to afford stuff. So maybe they don't understand that that's what we have to do at their age. I was just happy to have a job and earn money, but now it's not. So that's challenging too. Having to bite my tongue on things like that, I find challenging.
Danielle Lewis (22:25):
Totally. I remember I made a decision at some point in the business that I was never going to be the first person that hired someone. I was like, I'm sick of teaching people that they need to show up at nine o'clock. What the hell?
Di Geddes (22:39):
Yes. Yeah, no, that is interesting. We had one person send a text message on their first day of the job to say they were unwell and wouldn't be coming in. Oh my God. I would've had to have been in ICU to not attend the first day of the job I was given. And if I had to come from ICU, I would've sent my mum in to knock on the door and apologize rather than just send a text. And admittedly, I couldn't have sent a text back then. But
Danielle Lewis (23:08):
It's so true though. And that ability to then bite your tongue, and also the fact that you have to manage every different person in a different way, they all have these different personalities. That's also huge
Di Geddes (23:21):
Too. Yes. Yes. And I think that has a huge impact on my mental wellbeing too, and my work satisfaction sometimes. There were times last year where I just didn't want to play anymore and I just had absolutely had it. But I should say the new admin coordinator is a young person. The new admin assistant is a young person, and they are kicking goals left, right, and center. And you get great feedback. Like the admin coordinator sent me a text the other night saying, I don't feel like I come to work. I feel like I come to volunteer and have fun, and you just pay me because I need to eat. And he said, I really love this. I've never felt it before. So stuff like that
Danielle Lewis (24:01):
That
Di Geddes (24:02):
That's amazing. Keep going. Yeah, we've got an amazing team at the
Danielle Lewis (24:05):
Moment. That is absolutely fantastic. I love it so much. Now, Dai, we could talk all day, but I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Di Geddes (24:27):
I think the biggest one for me is be yourself. I spent probably the first 18 months trying to be a business woman that I thought a business woman should be. And then I realized I went to something once and I realized a lot of the women weren't like me at all, but my business was successful. So something about me as a person had made this business successful. And it wasn't the fact that I was trying to be someone I wasn't. So I decided to just be myself and make my gut decisions the way I make them, and support my gut decisions, the way I support them. Be prepared to say, well, that was a stupid decision I made, and walk away from whatever's not working and just be me. And because going back to what we started with, I think being the authentic version of me is what is so important to me.
(25:20):
So the way we speak in this office is not the way you would hear in another corporate office anywhere in the world. I can guarantee you. We like to be quite descriptive in our language. And as I said, we have fun, but the work gets done. And that's because I'm being me. I couldn't come and pretend every day. If I had to come and pretend every day, then I may as well be working for someone else. So I think let yourself be yourself and let yourself succeed in the way you want to, and don't let others measure you. Measure your own success. Because my success would never be considered success in business terms because I could make a lot more profit than I do. But my success for me is we're helping people every day. I'm loving what I'm doing. I'm happy and we're making some money, and I'll get to retire one day and have enough money. I could probably retire earlier if I was financially driven, but that's not what drives me to get up every day.
Danielle Lewis (26:18):
Oh, I think that is absolutely incredible. And it must be the time of year because I am having a similar conversation with other women in business around this. Be yourself, back yourself. And I think you're right. It's hard. If you are pretending to be someone else, how the hell are you going to show up and do the hard stuff every
Di Geddes (26:37):
Day? No. No, you can't. And after 21 years of being in a marriage, that was all pretend. Pretend. I don't ever want to pretend anything and I don't want anyone to pretend to me again. So it's really important to just be yourself.
Danielle Lewis (26:52):
Oh, I love it. Di you are absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and wisdom with the Spark community.
Di Geddes (27:00):
Thank you so much for having me.
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