Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. I feel like sometimes, you know, everyone means well. It's, you know, they want to see mom and Dad move. They. They want to see this. But there's. There's some friction sometimes. And I think it's just working through that is it's not. It's not easy.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: As our parents grow older, it can be difficult to guide them through their golden years while still respecting their autonomy and fitting it into our already complex lives. Welcome to the Parent Projects podcast, where our guests share practical wisdom to tackle the issues that impact adult children of aging parents. I'm Tony Siebers. Thanks for joining us.
You know, Maya Thompson launched smooth transitions here in the Phoenix East Valley in order to fill that gap for seniors that decided they needed to downsize and needed assistance. And then I found her and others like her when I was dealing with a family member up in Sedona in my first parent project, trying to figure out what the heck, where do you start? Who does what? When do they do it? How do you get organized? We're going to dive into the engineering level project management mind of senior move managers today, which is a critical resource for you today.
Maya Thompson, thank you so much for joining us on the Parent Projects podcast.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Hi, Journey. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Well, I can't tell you how much this completes a circle for me. In a lot of ways, it's been quite a few years since about 2015 since I first stumbled upon senior move managers in the first place. In this craft of which you've been in the trenches for this, I jumped into that. I went through a lot of the classes of it. But I would tell you I've now been engaged to work for this other way to empower and really help senior move managers. You are in the trenches day in and day out, and you thrive with a project that most people say run away like they want nothing to do with.
Maya, tell us, how do you end up committing a life? How did you find this calling of yours? How did you get into this?
[00:02:15] Speaker A: So my background know, I am from North Carolina. I went to school at NC State. I have my master's in engineering. When I graduated, I moved out here, was thankful enough to work at intel, and was just in that for a while. And I really loved, you know, the technology and just the constant, you know, when my kids were young, I decided to take some time off of work and just spend some time with, know when I, when they're older and started going back to school, going to school. I decided I wanted to do something a little bit different. I wanted to be involved in the community. I wanted to make a difference. And just through a mutual friend, I met someone that owns a company, doing what I'm doing now and just talking to her and learning more about her, I realized this is what I wanted to do, and she really helped me through the whole process, and she's become my mentor and my friend.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: That is a story that I tend to hear again and again from people that are in your field.
There's a lot of women that find within that and probably the empathy and the natural things that come that way. But it's not just men or it's not just women, right? I mean, you've got men, you've got people of all ages that get into senior move management. Right?
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. I would think it doesn't really matter from different backgrounds. I think it's just the heart of just the people. And understanding that you can make a difference is what draws us all together in this industry.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: What did you see? It's interesting. With an engineering background and something so controlled as intel. I mean, when I think intel, I think like white suits, clean rooms, it is locked down tight.
That perspective, how does that come into play for you when you start to execute a project or you work with a project?
[00:04:28] Speaker A: So, absolutely, I use the same skills that I'd used before at Intel. A lot of it is project management. It's being detail oriented. It's being able to make a plan, but then also know that we also need backup plans.
And so in doing all that, I feel like we're able to look at our project, be with our families that we're working with, streamline the process so it's not so stressful for them. I'm looking at the cost for them, trying to reduce the cost, make our time really efficient with them. So I think a lot of the skills that I learned before and just through my background, we're able to apply that to what we're doing today.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Well, and that efficiency has got to be huge in business, like an intel or something like is because there's an avenue of, it's got to be scalable, it's got to be replicable, it's got to be profitable. Off of that side standpoint, you understand that it costs resources and time and energy of family members that they have to pour onto that. So is there a give get when you see a project with family that's something that makes you run away, or is that something that helps you be, are you able to embrace that in order to move people through it was something we embrace.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: We love it. I think it's just something where, like I mentioned before, it's something that you can plan to, but then also knowing that each move is very different, being able to kind of identify the heartbeat of each move and being able to respond to that. I think in a lot of ways our background is similar, each project you plan for, but with us, I think it's being able to identify with the person and work with them where they're at.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah. That bedside manner, if you will, of move management and going through a situation, there are a lot of families. That's that soft touch. I look forward to it. Well, we're going to jump real quick. We're going to take our first commercial break from this. But when we come back, we are going to follow up on that bedside manner. Some top things we're going to talk to with my Thompson when we come back is going to relate to. How do you get mom and Dad to think about making those steps? And what's the value of having a third party come in? What do you do if you're just at this loggerhead and they're not moving and they're not listening to what you have to say? Is there anybody out here who can help you? Maya and I were going to break that down in our next conversation right after this, so stay tuned. The Parent Projects podcast. We'll be back right after this.
And welcome back. This week we're breaking down senior move managers. What are they? What can they do for us? How can they help us get through this loggerhead that we might be at with mom and Dad? When we sit and look at that five bedroom house or maybe that pool and we realize that it's got a few more dangers than practicalities left in it for the family. My Thompson's join us with smooth transitions in the Phoenix East Valley High. Mike, thanks again.
And I'll continue to do better. I'll leave the Maya off the backside from our AI solution off of there. That keeps ramming through my head. We call our AI Maya and it will take me a matter of time to get there.
Sorry, Mai.
So, senior move manager, it actually seems like once you get into it, it seems like, well, why would anybody have to have this explained? It makes a lot of sense to us. But, man, I think back the first time I looked at it and I'm like, I don't know what a senior move manager does. I don't know why that doesn't connect maybe it's where our brains are at. At that moment. The first time you see it, you're thinking, oh, I don't know.
When you go to explain to somebody, how do you like to explain best? What does a senior move manager do?
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Okay, so, senior move managers, what we do is we specialize in helping seniors, aging adults, and their families with these physical and emotional aspects of downsizing and moving.
So typically, a lot of our clients, they've lived in their home for 20 or 30 years, and it is full of memories and items that they're very attached to. So when they're thinking about moving, let's say, from a 2200 square foot home to 1000 square foot home, the idea is overwhelming.
They're very stressed.
They need help with sometimes understanding, what can I bring? How do I get started? What do I do with the items that I'm not taking? So that's what senior move managers do. We specialize in guiding them through the process so that they're not so overwhelmed. And ultimately, on move day, what we do is we set up their home, we make their beds, we put the pictures on the wall, organize their kitchen, their bathroom, so that they can get settled in, so that they can have dinner and meet new people, get acclimated, be involved in the activities, and not worry so much about the boxes and the clutter. So for us, that's our goal as senior move managers, is to watch the entire process of the move, to make sure that it's as smooth as possible and to make sure that they are well transitioned.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: I don't want to breeze too quickly over the top of the magic of the moment. Almost like, in many cases, it feels like those reveals moments that you kind of get on a. There's a magic in a move day with great senior move manager.
I've had other clients talk to me about it myself when we would do a move in a move management project, and I've watched others go through the experience of their expectation is this day is going to be chaos.
It is truly one of the most difficult days of their life, thinking, particularly if they're on a downward slide generally in the first place, because you might not recover all of that. There's confusion to that, but there are some amazing tricks that senior move managers have that make that day as awesome as a. I'm trying to think the welcome home, the show where they do the big reveals, and the guy'd run around, right, and they'd see the old house before, and then the makeover, the extreme makeover, I guess that's what I'm thinking about. Those extreme, what are just a couple of those special things that you guys use to put that empathy and that touch on that magical move day?
[00:11:34] Speaker A: I would agree. I think a lot of it, though, is not just on that day. It's the pre planning, all of that. I think that is where all the hard work, all the planning, all the tears, the storytelling, the hugs, I think the accumulation of all that is what leads up to that magical day. And I think a lot of people just go about it a little bit different. Some people are very detailed. They want everything listed. They want the full schedule, what time, everything written down. And some people are not. They're very relaxed. I'm thinking about one of my favorite clients on Moving Day. We show up very early because we have a lot to do. The movers are on their way. We need to get the linens off the bed. We need to start packing last minute kitchen items, bathroom items. And I come in and he's making breakfast.
He's just making eggs. And he was like, my, join us. We're having breakfast.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: We're going to move our whole house today.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: He's like, no, because we have so much to do, but we have so many different types of people that we work with. But the magic is just really being able to walk them through the whole process, communicate, over communicate, and then set the expectations, knowing that we will try our best to plan as much as we can, but know that something may not go exactly right, but it will be okay. And I think it's just a lot of times just explaining and allowing them to know that people are here to help. Even if it doesn't go perfectly, it.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Will all be, you know, it's interesting. You were talking about how you took a lot of what you learned in intel, and that comes into how you structure your moves and work through. And for me, I remember learning early where they said, go with what you have and where that skill set, my project management had come out of the military. So when we start a military project, we start with the end in mind. And something that I really focused a lot on was getting people over the inertia in that first move by getting them to be able to ideate where they're going to be a detailed plan. And then on move day, just like in the military, where we would take that detailed plan and you throw it away, it goes to the side, and if it's all gone well, you've rehearsed that enough, you understand what's going to happen, enough that you just get to roll with the situation and kind of take that in the chaos of what it is. The fact that you can take it coming is kind of what created order for my particular brand for you guys. What does that feel like? What does it feel like for an engineer when you've gone that planning and you've set that side up?
What are the types of, as I'm going through a move day, what does a move day feel like with a senior move manager?
[00:14:37] Speaker A: So move day is basically, I feel like the culmination of everything that we planned for. For us, it is a lot of the prepping, getting everything ready, talking with the movers, getting that all planned, moved, putting the items, the furniture where it belongs, setting everything up for them. But it's also kind of making sure that our clients are okay.
I remember one time we were in the middle of this move, and everything was organized. It was planned, everything was moving right along. And then all of a sudden, my client, her face just seemed so stressed all of a sudden. And I asked her, I said, what's wrong? What are you thinking? How are you feeling? And she was so concerned because she had these wigs and they're on the dummy heads. And she said, are you guys going to pack up my wigs? Because she was afraid that the form would, you know, before I said anything, one of my employees just immediately said, miss Shirley, do you mind if I put your wigs in my car? We're not going to pack it. We're just going to hand carry. And her face just relaxed. It was just paying attention to the little details. For us, we probably wouldn't have noticed, but to them, it's a huge deal for them to have to reset her wigs and worrying about what's going to happen to them. So it was just kind of being able to be in the moment at the time and just making the details, the observations to making the entire move successful.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I know this is where I sense this is really where you want to go in that conversation, and I appreciate you humoring me and getting to that end state of what a magical move day looks like. But you've Stated really clearly there's a groundwork that gets laid in this. And the way that that groundwork gets laid down and how you kind of run into these challenges or things you do ahead of time is what makes that day magical in the first place. Of that, when you're sitting down with a family, are they most often up till now, at least up to this date? Most of the time. Is it mom and Dad have asked for somebody to come help take that over so that kids don't have to do that. Are kids contacting you and saying, I need help doing that? Is it a mix of those? What is it that you see now as we start walking our way through what this looks like?
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question. So half of my clients have. 50% of my clients have family in town, so they're not able to help, whether maybe their families are busy with their own families or maybe due to medical reasons, or maybe because they don't want them in the trenches being involved in all the decision making. So a lot of the times our clients are coming from just the seniors asking for help, knowing that they do have family in town, if they want it, but just preferring just to have someone neutral, someone like us come in and help. And then sometimes there are family members that come, the adult children will contact us because they sense that mom and dad are going to have a really stressful time. We need help with this move. We've never done this before. We need someone that's experienced and can guide us through the entire process. So it's both ways of have a mix.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay.
Now we get into that moment. You sit down, you're working with the family for you. What is the first thing you like to walk through with that family when you start having that conversation?
To get their mind out of that five bedroom, three bathroom house. And now they're going to go into, let's say we're not going, maybe not to a senior assisted living, but let's say we're trying to downsize ourself into that next Alamo, that they're going to ride it out for a good period of time. I think it's probably important. We have to go so many different directions.
Let's put something around that. What are some of the things that you like to have conversations with them about when you're now to start moving steps forward? What's some of the first things you do?
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Right. So when we meet with them, some of the things I'm trying to get a feel for is how are you feeling about this move? Some people are excited, they're ready to go, and some people are concerned and worried. And so I'm trying to figure out what are the one or two things that's holding you back, that's keeping you up at night. So if I could address those items, and for some people, it could be my furniture, it could be their antiques. I don't want them damaged. It could be something like that, or it could be. I feel overwhelmed because I have so much and I love all my stuff, and just the idea of having to pare down my items really stresses me out.
It's a multitude of things where I'm just trying to get a sense of what the family is concerned about, what the seniors are concerned about so I can address it when I come and meet with them.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And I know a lot of times I would talk with goals to figure out where the family sees themselves.
Is there something they still want to accomplish? Particularly if I remember one project I had, she was overwhelmed. One of the rooms that overwhelmed everybody, and actually, it's probably the reason that we got the call, was a sewing room that had hundreds, hundreds of bolts of fabric. Right.
And everybody's like, well, we got to get this down. It's got to get smaller than this. Everybody could understand that there was going to be.
Even mom could understand, yeah, it's going to be a smaller footprint. I don't need all of this. What's out there. But her hang up was that every single bolt represented a project that she was realizing she wasn't going to get to do, that she had always expected to do. And I remember that project sticks out in my head because it was the connector to other projects I had seen of stuffed attics and of all these other unfinished, like that closet that's got that stuff and of all these other unfinished projects, or even dad and his projects out in the workshop or what sits out in the garage. And the half finished pieces and scraps of stuff that go to. They go to something that has to be fixed in the house, right? And of course, he's going to tell you you can't sell the house until it gets fixed, so it has to stay there. And this is going to. Clearly, you've never heard any of this before.
In that chaos where all of that came through.
I'd reached out to a friend, which is another great thing I like about SMMS is the network. You talk about this mentor. I reached out to a friend. I'm like, hey, Matt, you ever dealt with this in a time? And what did you do off of this? And he's like, oh, yeah, okay. So he had this practice, which he's now taken to kind of an extreme off of that. He's like, well, I have him hold a few things. I have him to pick a few things, and then I give them a time to tell the story about those things, right? I give them either I set it up, I set it up at a senior center where they can do it today. He has a television show that does all of that stuff. But in that moment where they have that opportunity to talk about that thing and to pass on that family history, all of a sudden, the complexity of 500 projects goes down to just, like, a few. It's like, that got out of its system, and it could move forward. That isn't a really emotional thing.
Obviously, there's a big key of doing that, I guess. Any that stand out in your mind that you could go through or other things like that that you're looking for. When you're sitting down with the family, you run into those first roadblocks, little things like that, that families might be able to try to do, whether it's to give their family member an outlet for that, anything like that you've seen?
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So there are so many different stories that I'm thinking about, but I think for one, there was a gentleman that we moved, and one of his biggest concerns is his wife had passed, and he had this special memorial for her with pictures and just things that she loved. And for him, what was really important was if we can duplicate that look.
And so being able to let him know that this is really important and to be able to duplicate that look. And sometimes we do often do this, especially for families that do have dementia and things like that. We try to make the move not so stressful by doing as much as we can so that it's not so chaotic or unrelatable. Whenever they get to their new home.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Those are like the forks taking pictures of the doors. Forks on the right side. Right. That triplicate, it's escaping me right now. The term off that. But those pictures that have always hung in that one particular order. Yeah, those are awesome skill sets for that. Okay, so he was really concerned with that. Man alive. Holy cow. My. You're talking about.
Yeah. This is the memorial wall for a loved one. No pressure.
Good Lord. Okay, first of all, I don't want to drop or break it in addition to all of that from the outside, but capturing the moment and the reverence, even in moving, that I think of reverence, like in taking a flag down or something like that. How did you tackle a problem like that?
[00:24:52] Speaker A: We were just able to really talk to him, kind of identify where he wanted this memorial, because once you move from A to B, sometimes you don't have the exact set up. But just being able to work with him and figure out what are the most important, because it was a lot. What are the most important pieces here. And we kind of just worked it out and it looked beautiful. He was really happy. And I think sometimes it's not just the exact way it has to look, but like you said, it's the essence. It's the idea that she is coming along with him.
Sometimes when you're starting fresh, you need that. You need that. Especially his loved one.
To have her presence there was the most important thing to him.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
One place that I find a high value, too, in applying that skill set in the SMMs are if a real estate agent takes point and often comes in, and I know present company excluded, I know your husband also does real estate within this realm, and I value very much the SREs look and those that work with other accreditations. But a lot of times people will know the cousin Stu or some other family member that will come in that doesn't understand the soft side of that relationship, and they'll come in and, well, this has to go, this has to go. This has to go, this has to go. They get rid of those things and kind of leave this turmoil of an emotional dichotomy that has to be solved and resolved to move anything forward. And, oh, by the way, we just started the stopwatch. We have 30 days to get out. Right. Because the house sold, this is coming out, and you've got that clock starting and that pressure. They're being pressured, especially if they've got it on market now, to get that off. So it's not on market.
Any situations like that, you go under, okay. No, never.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Absolutely.
And I think that's the beauty of working with the senior move manager, is we have resources that we trust and that understand the process.
And so in working with realtors, if we've worked with realtors in the past, they're probably great realtors, but they don't understand what our clients are going through. So some of them, we had this one where the client, their house was sold, but the community that they're moving into was not finished being built, so we had to move them temporarily. Yes, you can imagine. We had to move them temporarily, move their items into storage, then wait for the community to be finished, and then move them again. It's a double move. And it was extremely stressful for them and then also their family, because that's where they end up moving with their family in the meantime. But things like that, I feel like it is great to have a realtor with an SREs just to understand and appreciate. It's not always about selling the home quickly. It's about. Again, it's the person. It's about understanding their situation and what they're going through.
And oftentimes you're right. I think even with the confusion, sometimes it doesn't make sense for you to maybe sell the home while they're still there. It just depends on the situation. But I feel like a realtor that has experience and understands the process would be able to kind of walk through and kind of make a suggestion so that the house is sold and for top dollar, but also with minimal stress.
Agree.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: And I think there is a great art to that, especially for a real estate transaction. When we're talking about maybe a final major real estate transaction, there's a lot of complexities that I've seen now over the years in those, we've seen transactions where they had never done, the seller had never ever done a real estate transaction in their life. Right. Because their husband bought the house 50 years ago and they weren't involved against that. But now they've got it. Husband has passed away, and it is the first time they're even trying to do what a real estate sale is. On top of having age and the pressures and the move and the downsize and all of know seeing a. This is in many cases, I think, in America, that move represents, and that home represents their largest retirement. Like single retirement could asset move that they're going to do it one fell swoop unless they had some major windfall of a stock or something else that came in. This is a major windfall that's going to come through and that's stressful to move and to land and to plan and work into, especially these days, right into where all that's going. So having a move manager in that particular case provides some ability to give like a predictable runway of model and know that you've got another group committed to being able to hit kind of that timeline and that target. They have other resources they can call on if things get shady.
Those are things that I've seen a lot of value against.
How do you work best with a real estate agent? Maybe even with you and your husband? When you guys tag team or work through one or Any of the real estate agents, what are some of the key things that you end up doing as a senior move manager with a real estate agent?
[00:30:38] Speaker A: So we work with a lot of real estate agents.
I think the main thing is for me to understand what they're looking for. Sometimes the realtor does think based upon the finances and stuff like that, they're asking us to help declutter the home, it has photos everywhere of all the travel pictures. And they're just kind of asking us to help declutter the home, make it not so personable. So we would help with that. Sometimes they would ask us to maybe go ahead and move them, clear out the home and then get it cleaned professionally so that they can take listing photos. So we are really flexible. It just depends on the real estate professional and what they think is best in this case.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And then being able to help read and go back and forth between, with that soft skill, I think between that family and explain to them what they need as they're working through that. That's got to be a lot of value.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. I think the dynamics is really important. And just being able to work alongside them so that we're all on the same page, I'm communicating the schedule, which is really important, why we're doing this. Oftentimes our clients just forget. It's just so stressful that they cannot remember, and it's just kind of keeping on track. If this is when we need to move, by then we need to start sorting and planning ahead and kind of keeping the momentum going so that they're not overwhelmed a couple of days before the actual move.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm going to go out on Lima. I know the answer to that. But you stay in contact with a lot of your clients after the moves, I take it.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: I do.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: And what are some of the top things that the parents tell you afterwards when they give feedback afterwards?
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of the families that we work with afterwards, they always tell me that they have learned so much through the process of helping mom and Dad downsize and move that they went ahead and cleared out and purged and sorted out their own home because they didn't want to do this to their kids. And I hear that over and over again. Sometimes they would even ask us to help them declutter their homes just because they don't. I think because they have an appreciation for space. And realizing that mom and Dad thought that I wanted all this. Well, I'm thinking my kids want all this, but they're realizing that's not the case. And so it's been great just to kind of keep up with them and kind of see what's going on, but just that relationship is important and just kind of the updates of how mom and Dad are doing. It's been great.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I know my children are banking on my Hummel and Beanie baby collection, so I am ensuring it goes nowhere. It is nice and protected.
It is interesting when you get in here in this project in ours, we're in a really small town that the family has been since the get go, founding of churches out of the family.
An attic is just full of incredible history and it does take time to determine who in the family wants that.
Just last night we were coming back from a wedding and listening to difficulties of when it wasn't handled well by one family. They were trying to get through it. And I'm thinking in the back of my head, I've seen this, I've seen this play out. And so I understand the frustration with the family members who are like, well, it just came in and it could have gone together so much better. And they were selling stuff they didn't want to sell. And I'm like, yeah, I can understand that. But I'm just kind of thinking to myself, oh, my gosh, I've been there and seen what that looks like when they are in, it's not drinking from a fire hose, it's drinking from a hydrant of what are you going to do? How does it come at you in a difficult time to communicate as a family?
Because 100% of your time is consumed with the task that's at hand. Then you layer on your own emotions and how you're feeling about it. Hopefully you're aware of them.
You understand what it's doing to you, let alone now. To be checking in with people to your left and right, that seems to be a huge challenge of families just getting along and talking with the family members and getting through that.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. I feel like sometimes everyone means well.
They want to see mom and Dad move, they want to see this, but there's some friction sometimes. And I think it's just working through that. It's not easy. So. Yeah, I understand.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah, not easy to downsize, not easy to get that reference. Actually. We're going to take this one commercial break and so stick with me. My don't take off. And those of you that are home watching, you stick with us, too. Don't you take off. We are going to be right back after this where we're talking with Mike Thompson from smooth transitions in the East Valley out in Phoenix about smaller spaces for senior living. And next, we're going to go through some of those tips and tricks in using a third party to come bridge the gap and handle some of that communication in the middle of all of that. So stay tuned. We'll be back right after this.
And welcome back. Smaller spaces for senior living and Mai Thompson, with smooth transitions in the East Valley out in Phoenix, is walking us through and helping us today understand how we could maybe lean on a independent third party to come broker peace or help us find a way into kind of calm when things are hard. Again, thanks for joining us this week on the show.
I think about, well, even in faith's a big part for me. So I think even biblical passages, right, even Christ went home and nobody gave him the time of day, right? Like, who are you? What are you doing? How are you going to tell us what's going to happen?
Families, it can be really difficult, especially if we laughed about it a little bit earlier. You're that 17 year old that crashed the family car. And that story every time just happens to be what everybody brings up. Or maybe you're trying to guide into this and you've had a couple of bankruptcies or a bankruptcy underneath your belt or a difficulty working off of stuff and you're still trying to advise and work a parent.
What can third parties, what can senior move managers do to help families that are having a difficult time getting on one sheet of music?
[00:37:36] Speaker A: Well, I think there's so many advantages to working with a third party. Senior move manager number one, we are neutral. We are able to kind of talk to the families.
We are able to diffuse the stress. Sometimes if mom and dad are upset because their kids don't want the China, then I can talk to her about that. I can explain, it's not personal. And so that's one benefit is being able to be neutral. And then the other one know, when we talked about day, for example, and the stress of that, when we are able to do the work, it allows families to spend that quality time together, whether they're going to take mom and Dad out for lunch, maybe they're maybe involved in other activities to help them get settled in. It just gives them a little bit more bonding time.
The other advantage is because we are able to streamline this process so much, we actually can save a lot of stress, but also saves our clients money because of the way that we have designed our process. It does allow our clients to save money and even working with a referral list and people that we trust, it helps our clients so that they're not interviewing all the different people and trying to figure out who should I work with, who's the best?
I won't even talking about even movers.
I've talked to people who have unfortunately gotten scammed when they're thinking about an out of state move. And I was not involved in the decision making process, but the families went and looked at different movers and just got scammed. And so things like that, that's what we're trying to alleviate, is just making connections for them so that they can have a successful move. And then also, we are bonded and insured. And so everything that we do, we try to make sure that we treat our clients items with as much care as possible. But just knowing that we are trusted, I think that's the main thing, is knowing that if it's not your children, then there are other people that could help you, that you could trust, and that would want to see you succeed and move and be settled in and not so stressed out in your move.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
The insurance and bonding that you talk about is something that I see oftentimes that will fly over the head, and I hear you talk about what that means from the inside of the business. I've really learned at parent projects, as we go through the verification process, it brings a level of accountability. Right. Those businesses that have it are businesses that are standing and saying, hey, I have a way to be held accountable, as opposed to one who does it.
There's nothing you could do. There's no recourse other than maybe to get on there until you get booted off of social media because you put something nasty on there.
Now you got that problem going on and you're kicked off X, but you stand accountable. And I love that authentic approach, that accountable approach, that actionable approach that comes from the senior move manager as a separate third party, being in there and helping to select or figure those things out. I think that could bring a lot challenges in things that go wrong during the projects.
Boy, finding stuff, coming across really sensitive items. There's one we have come across, and I know that in moves that we've run, we've come across sensitive items that belong to mom and Dad. Mom and dad didn't know where they were at. They knew they're in the house. They're in the house someplace, and they didn't want the kids to come across it, whether in some way, shape, or form. And that one client paralyzed, absolutely paralyzed with fear, refusing to move out of an unhealthy situation due to not knowing how they were going to handle that particular situation.
Those types of things, too. Anything like that that comes to mind, too, that you guys have run through?
[00:42:10] Speaker A: I think so. What I'm thinking about is there was a move that we worked on, and they had four siblings, and each sibling came, lived with their parents for one week. As they're sorting through and kind of deciding what they wanted to keep. And so each family member came through. And so after four weeks, it was time to move mom and Dad. So we moved them. And then with the remaining items, we were able to find really valuable jewelry that was missed. There was a jewelry box, but you had to know that there was a special compartment within the special compartment that was where all the jewelry was at.
I knew they were looking for it, and they got what they could.
I was just joking. I just sent them a picture of all the jewelry, and I said, hey, did you guys actually want this?
It's great. And so we just have so many stories like that where we are able to kind of do our due diligence to make sure that even though people, family members have looked through everything, that we want to make sure that they didn't accidentally leave something behind. But there's absolutely been multiple stories where we have found things where it's private. It's private, but you can trust us with it.
In those situations, I think for them just to know that no matter what, everything that we see, everything that we do, it's held in confidence. This is not something where anyone has the right to know, number one, about their personal health, but then also what they have or how they're living. People come in and they're embarrassed. They're like, oh, my house is. I haven't had anyone.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: Right?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Because I'm embarrassed, and I'm like, what? No, that's okay. None of us are perfect. We're here to help you.
But I think that's the message. Just knowing that the third party is like, we're not here to judge you. We're here to help you as little or as much as you need.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: And it's one thing to hear your kids say that, and their kids probably mean it. We probably mean that. When we go into that, it's just very different. I think sometimes in practice, for people to accept that and to see that, and I'm confident I'd have the same problem with my kiddos at the same level. And I know there are some things that I want them to do. They can go dig up my yard and fix a sprinkler system as much as they want. I'm happy to have them do that. Right. There are other things that I just know I don't want that on them. And even if they're coming from a good spot where it's worries that they do want to lean in, it might make more sense. Maybe for me, just to have that third party there to help broker that and bring it out. Yeah, I love the approach. So third parties as well. How about cost of stuff you mentioned?
And I know there is a range of costs, just like in real estate transactions. And sometimes move managers are built into real estate transaction costs. Sometimes they're built into the moving teams, sometimes they're built in. I've seen them built into so many other business models. But you alluded to being able to save money, being able to save time, things like that. What are some of those considerations that families should be having in order to save that money or to save that time by hiring a third party?
[00:45:50] Speaker A: I think the main thing is, there's just a few things, was when you are hiring someone to take into account the fact that they do not have to take time off work so that they continue working. Some people are out of state and they've asked me to step in because just even the cost, the cost of traveling, being there with mom and Dad taking time off work is one, just the time off, just from their own personal family. It's really difficult.
And then also, like we said before, as far as picking the vendors, but knowing that, number one, they're very efficient. So I'm thinking, for example, the movers, they're very efficient, but they also will take care of your stuff so that you don't have to worry about breakage or anything missing or stolen. So what you are, in essence, when you hire a senior move manager is you're hiring the trust. The trust of all the referrals that they've worked with is to know that the process that they have established will go much more smoothly because they don't have to worry about theft or people maybe breaking trust and things like that. So there's that. But then I think there's also just the streamlining of the events, not having to worry so much about what's next. What are we going to do? It's just being able to work with us to come up with a solution together. It's not my move. It's not their move. It's their parents move. And so being able just to work together and come up with a solution I think is invaluable.
[00:47:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that peace of mind is it'd be difficult to purchase that. It really would be.
Well, this has been an awesome conversation. I want to recap a couple of things that I learned against this, if you would mind. As we are walking through here, we talked about senior move managers. One thing we didn't on this groups of people, professionals. They're project managers. They come from all different walks of life. Some of them engineers, some project management. I came out of military, they all come out of real estate. But they've got that eye and that understanding to be able to set a project, do really a lion's share of work in the planning so that when it comes down to execution time, you're able to handle those hiccups and those bumps a little easier and an actionable plan. You've got accountability to that group and an authenticity I think is a key. I really pulled off of what you talked about of being able to handle those issues with empathy, to understand. I think once you. It is one thing when a family is seeing your parent project, and maybe you've seen a couple, but the reality is we might do this maybe three or four times. If you've got a couple of parents and your loved ones got a couple of parents, your spouse has a couple of parents.
I don't think it's realistic for us to think we're going to be amazing at this, right? That we're going to be the best there ever was because it's such a dynamic thing. But when you start turning to people that have the opportunity to see how that mover is performing across 50 different moves across the valley and the ups and the downs, or, hey, this is a great place. At this point in time, though, two months from now, you see where it's going to go, or the leadership structure shift.
That experience is an invaluable thing to understand what a senior move manager does. I didn't pick up accreditations or backgrounds for that. What do you stress and what do you talk to?
[00:49:41] Speaker A: I think for me One of the most important things is I'm a member of the National association of Senior Move Managers. That's important when you're thinking about hiring a senior move manager. We are insured. We adhere to a strict code of ethics and there's continuous learning, so there's courses that we take and then there's also just sharing best practices. It is a professional organization because what we do is very important. And it is not just when I think of before, when you're hiring movers and you just offer pizza, it's not like that at all. It's a lot that goes into it. So you want to make sure that you are doing your due diligence and making sure that one of the best ways is to go to our national association when you're thinking about hiring a senior move manager.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah, and I would agree. And parent projects does use the national association. We're members with the National association of Senior Move Managers. We do use them for our screening. Now there are others that are National association of Professional Planners and orgAnizers. There are others that kind of come in and also provide that up. I think NASA, fantastic organization. Been doing a lot over the course of the last couple of years to extend the reach of that organization. As things start to into. We talked a little bit about getting over some of the different communication problems or some of those top issues that become sticking points when move day comes about or where they might get stuck. Some of the techniques that you use for getting them unstuck. We really closed a lot on the value of a third party might be able to play in doing this.
THis is probably a perfect time to bring that up. A good friend, a senior move manager, was reminding me when we were thinking about how do you explain what it feels like to run into this and want to do this, but then decide maybe I got to tap out. Like, maybe this is a little much for me. And they were reminding me of, we both have quite a few kids. And they reminded me, they're like, do you remember when you had that first kid and you were like, I'm going to make baby food.
I am going to make baby food and I am going to go out. And I literally, no joke, I bought hundreds of dollars worth of baby food making gear.
I had grinders and we had presses and we had mashers and we had bottles. We had all this whole. We removed things we actually really needed because we didn't have enough cabinet space and that had to go in it. And then we planted this garden, and it was Oregon at the time. I don't know how people would even think about doing it in Arizona, but it was Oregon. We can grow about everything. I'm going to tell you what. That lasted all of maybe three months. Maybe three months. And I was like, Gerber what?
Okay, I want a healthy version of it. What's Trader Joe's got for me, right?
There is no way. Just you get into it and you have no idea. It's really hard to value the amount of work that goes in to creating a well manicured product or service.
And you guys, you know, move managers do a phenomenal job off of that.
That's obviously where parent projects looks to catch it. We look to help families that are in that. We're growing our garden and we're working through all of that. And in that moment, you need to tap out. Just know you got Amai, who's sitting right around the corner, she's a connect button away, literally, from being able to stand into that gap for you. And at that point in time, you're not going to hold it against them. Is that right?
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Right. Absolutely.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: You will be there no matter how bad it got, while you're trying to work your way through.
Just, it's a hard transaction. And man, boy, do I appreciate what you do and how you spread your joy, really, as you do it, Mai and your time, your talents, and your treasures. Thank you so much for what you do in our community. And I really appreciate you sharing it with our Parent projects community today, too.
[00:53:57] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:53:59] Speaker B: That's great.
Well, that's it for the team this week, and thanks for joining us. If you've enjoyed the content, remember to subscribe and to share this episode on the app that you're using right now. Your reviews and your comments, they really help us expand our reach as well as our perspective. So if you have time, also drop us a note. Let us know how we're doing for tips and tools to clarify your parent project, simplify communication with your stakeholders, and verify the professionals that you choose. You can find us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks again for trusting us until our next episode. Behold and be held.
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