Caregiving and Connection With Traci Lamb

Empowering Caregivers with Tracy Lamb and Odessa Connect

In this episode, Erin welcomes Traci Lamb, an international business development specialist for OdessaConnect, who shares her personal and professional caregiving journey. Traci discusses the challenges and emotional toll of caregiving, how she transitioned from being a media mogul to dissolving her business to care for her mother, who suffers from Parkinson's and dementia. 

They delve into the significance of technology in improving caregivers' lives, highlighting OdessaConnect's user-friendly TV-integrated system that simplifies digital connectivity for seniors. Tracy emphasizes the importance of support systems, self-care, and proper tools in caregiving, providing insights and resources for caregivers facing similar struggles.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:50 Traci's Journey into Caregiving
03:24 Challenges and Realities of Caregiving
06:54 Navigating Dementia and Emotional Struggles
10:14 Advocacy and Best Practices in Caregiving
14:21 Odessa Connect: A Game Changer for Caregivers
17:27 Personal Experiences with Odessa Connect
29:11 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

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Transcript

Erin: 0:35

Hi there. Welcome back to another episode of this of the podcast where we are going to have a special guest Tracy lamb, who's the international business development specialist for Odessa connect. But more importantly, she is a current caregiver to a loved one. She was once going to start a caregiving network TV show, which is fascinating to me, and how all of this part of her life, all the different parts of her life, Now are connecting and convening on caregiving and caregiving technology to make caregivers and the people that they care for their lives better. Tracy, thank you for being here today. I appreciate it.

Traci: 1:22

Thank you for having me. I am thrilled to be here, Erin.

Erin: 1:25

Yes, so talk to me about the big goals that you had. being, I want to say like a media mogul, like the Oprah of caregiving,

Traci: 1:38

right? Sure. and I did. Those were like my visions of grandeur. I'm definitely a visionary. Anybody who knows me knows that. I worked at hospice for 13 years. And I just saw and talked to day in day out patients, families, how frustrated they were that they didn't. Either 1st of all, they didn't understand the health care system. They didn't understand how bad it was. They thought Medicare and Medicaid would pay for everything. And then all of a sudden, they're stuck in the back problems, and they didn't know about resources. They didn't know about all these different things. And I just. 19, I'd gotten divorced and I was just like, I live in Florida, I'm in the Mecca of place where people retire. So if nothing else, maybe I can help Florida people. And so that really is where the thought process came in. I just wanted to help with resources and that's where it started. And I ended up doing that and, it built up to a really big. thing. it ended up going into radio and TV and all this big crazy and it was going really well. And, my dad got sick. My mom and dad had been married for 60 years. And in 2022, my dad passed. and then my mom could not take care of herself. She had gotten sick too. we ended up not having money. My dad hadn't saved money. So there was a whole big thing with financial caregiving and all of that whole. rigmarole, it was just, it was a lot. And but she was still doing halfway. Okay. So I was trying to keep building the business, but as you well know, when anybody listening knows, when you're building a business, it's pretty much 24 seven, you don't get to turn off whether it's night or weekends, you do not turn off. And I couldn't, especially with TV, there was lots of moving parts. And, mom, just about 3 months ago, she just took a turn for the worse. She's gotten Parkinson's now and dementia and it's gotten majorly worse and I just had to make the decision of, okay, am I going to keep trying to build this business or do I need to take care of mom way that I need to take care of her? And there was really no option. And so that was why I dissolved my business. And so that's what led me to where I am.

Erin: 3:45

Which is this amazing title of the international business development specialist of Odessa connect,

Traci: 3:51

right? It's a big, it's a big title for, you know, I mean, I have an international connection, it's just, that's all it is, nothing major.

Erin: 4:00

So as a caregiver, I know you've, when we educate people on caregiving, I was a caregiver for 15 years. for my grandmother, and then I had the hospice experience with my grandfather at a young adult age. I think that you can prepare people for that as much as you can, but then when you find yourself in that situation with all the baggage, whether it's small baggage or big baggage, that, parental relationships and, Children of the have, how do you find yourself navigating the hard parts of that? Do you have them? Are you perfect?

Traci: 4:42

oh, so not true. I am so not perfect. I am the 1st 1 to admit, I really believe caregiving is like marriage and raising kids. none of it comes with a handbook. You have no idea what you're doing. You do the best you can, but you are definitely going to make mistakes. She'll make good decisions and bad decisions, but you do the best you can. And, I tell people all the time. Exactly what you just said. I could easily talk the care the caregiver talk for 14 years of hospice. But until I actually got in it in 2022, dealing with my dad, completely different viewpoint. Now, now that I've been walking in it for over two years, you just, you get a lot more empathy and understanding once you actually have to dive in and deal with all those issues. So I think to answer your question, I absolutely have gone through the muck of it, the yucky part, the nastiness. And, where. You really don't know what you're supposed to do. And for me, my, my thing, and it's not for everybody, but for me, my faith has been what I, what has held me together. I do understand though, both my brother and my sister had problems with like drinking and drugs and stuff like that. And I never understood that. And I told my mom as late as a year ago, I said, I wish they were alive for me to be able to say, I do understand it now, I do understand getting to a place where you're just like, I just want relief. I just need relief, even if it's just for 20 minutes, you really can get to that place and I've gotten there, more than once. And, when the person lives with you, so you don't get to say. you're the problem, you can't do that, and it's just really hard. yeah, absolutely. I've walked through it still. I am. Yeah,

Erin: 6:28

yes, going back to the addiction piece of it. I feel as if when you really understand. Driving factors to some of that it's there is a space to understand how you get there and a lot. And it is a lot of not being able to cope or the shame of feeling. I don't want to do this, which caregiving will drive you to that you resent the fact that you have to do it. You resent the fact that no one's there to help you. And I think. It's a lot of it is expectations management.

Traci: 7:07

Yes, that great term. So true. So true.

Erin: 7:14

When I think that they can do more than they're doing.

Traci: 7:18

Yes.

Erin: 7:19

And so therefore I start creating all these, Stories and ultimately they really can't, or maybe they are manipulating you a little bit. Okay. I hear a lot of people when we talk about dementia. Oh, they're just putting on. Oh, they're just doing this. and I'm like, there's really no way to tell.

Traci: 7:39

No, there's not. No, there's really not. And the thing is that one of the things I had to get, and I only just recently got to this space. I fought it for a really long time, unfortunately in dementia, as they progress, they get angry, and they get resentful and they get defensive and all that stuff. And she's gotten to that place and. There was about three months where we were literally like, at each other's throat. And she would literally get like an inch from my face and ball up her hands and her fist. And she would be like, do you want to fight? Do you want to fight? And I'm like, oh my word, this is my mom. And my mom is the sweetest, nicest, kindest woman that you would ever know. And she's do you want to fight? And I'm like, oh my word, mom, no. it's. And so I really had to think about it and pray about it. And I finally had to come to the realization. It was I literally compared it to like my brother, who was an alcoholic for so many years, I finally told my brother about three months before he died when he finally got sober right before he died. I said, I hated the alcoholic because the alcoholic stole my brother for 15 years. And. she's angry because she feels it taking her away and she can't do anything about it. And I know that. And so I think 1 of the reasons why I was reacting in a bad way. Was because I was fighting it too, and I was angry too, because I was like, mom, you're supposed to notice, that the sky isn't green. It's blue, and. Once I got to a place where I accepted. This is the disease. This isn't mom. This is easy. That has helped me tremendously to be able to move.

Erin: 9:19

Yeah,

Traci: 9:20

it was hard. It was hard.

Erin: 9:22

Yeah. it's true. People don't want to accept it. They want to fight through it. I feel the same way just about, my own caregiving current caregiving experience and I've accepted a lot of things and it has made my life so much easier. I can only control what I can control. I'm not to blame for a lot of the different things. And I watch other people who don't accept it. Yes, and the negative energy that it creates.

Traci: 9:51

Yes,

Erin: 9:51

we are responsible for the energy that we create by the way that we think about things. And when you realize you just have to let it go. so it's a progressive thing, or I used to tell family members all the time. If you did not inject a dementia serum into your loved one, then you don't have to feel guilty about anything. What you have to do is meet the needs that are present today.

Traci: 10:18

Absolutely.

Erin: 10:19

Absolutely. That's really it. And when your best isn't good enough, then you have to find the next best thing. And that's just where we are in caregiving and parenting.

Traci: 10:29

that's exactly right. that's why I say it caregiving is almost exactly the same as. As parenting, or like I say, even marriage, all of it, you just do the best you can, sometimes you're going to get it. And sometimes you're going to be way off the mark, but you're just doing the best you can. And that's really all anybody can do. You can only control what you can control.

Erin: 10:50

yeah, from an advocacy standpoint, 1 of the things that I always ask, or I've always. So what I always tell people is from my experience as a caregiver and also as a parent to a unique child is you're the advocate. Too many times caregivers go into the doctor's office and expect the doctor or the nurses to be able to solve their problems. And in some ways, maybe they can, but they don't know the extent of the problems unless they're there. The caregiver brings in a lot of the information from other specialists, a lot of the information, just pattern recognition, those types of things. Do you have a system that works for you? Do you write things down in a notebook? Do you use an app on your phone? what have you seen in your caregiving, mobile, personal, all the things experience? What have you seen as some of the best practices?

Traci: 11:48

and it's been crazy because once you get into the space, you don't practice nearly what you preach. that's been part of my problem. I preached a lot of things, but I haven't practiced nearly as much as I should have. but I will say, I go to every single doctor's appointment with my mother. I go, because I want to ask all the questions I want to ask. And I don't really like for her to drive anyway. And so I just. And then I go ahead and I logged down, I've started just recently logging down, like, where she is, cognitively, because it is declining, for a while. She had a really hard time with blood pressure. We finally got her blood pressure problem under control for a while. I was tracking that. it just depends on what the biggest issue is. I hate to say that, but, whatever the squeaky wheel, it gets the attention. and I keep different apps on my phone, to be able to try and track some different things just to be able to, when I go in and see the doctors, I can say, okay, so this was happening this week or whatever, and this happened this many times this week, cause she has started falling a little bit. And all of those different kinds of things. become paramount and I know that. And, so yeah, I completely agree. The beautiful thing is there's so many fantastic apps out there now, that you can track all kinds of really cool stuff, and that's one of the main things that I highly recommend to people, you need to. Somehow stay on top of stuff. I know it's hard. God knows I'm the first one to raise my hand and say, I'm not doing as well as I probably should, but it does help the doctor. I know she's thanked me more than once about, thank you for. Back to some of this stuff.

Erin: 13:27

Yeah, 1, some of the most impressive families that I have seen come in would have a binder.

Traci: 13:35

Yes,

Erin: 13:36

and it would be like the binder of mom. The binder of dad and it would just all the tabs would be different topics and they didn't have the pressure to remember it. They had the binder to reference, which was really cool. I like that. And also the apps, but I think what you said is that it's the pattern recognition it's as an advocate and a caregiver for somebody to be able to answer questions. based on experience, based on patterns, based on we started this medication on this day, and then this started happening on this day. Like, all that is really important. So what, however, that works for you, is the best way to do that for sure.

Traci: 14:24

I completely agree. And it's different for different people. I'm definitely more old school. I do like to write everything down. but it, primary record is great. you know what Gene Ross created and, there's just, there's a lot of different ones out there that are really good, but I definitely believe that you could, you should do whatever is going to work. So whatever it is, so

Erin: 14:46

absolutely. And now you work for a tech company as the international business development specialist for Odessa connect. And you are using that for your mom right now. So explain to us what Odessa connect is and the benefits. For people, and then what you are seeing, in your home with your mom.

Traci: 15:12

it has been, like I say, mom's dementia has gotten worse and it has been a game changer for me and her for 2 or 3 reasons. 1 of the biggest things is she, most older people loves to watch TV and, with the normal remote, there's 45 buttons. And I had gotten to where the input for the HDMI, I had just basically called it. That's the no, no button. I said, please don't hit that button mom. You can do not hit the no, no button. Okay. Don't hit it because, she would mess it up and she'd call me if I was out and about the TV won't work. Now. I don't know what's wrong. I know what's wrong. She hit the button, it's all messed up. what 1 of the many reasons I love Odessa is that there's only 11 buttons on the whole of them and they're all big and so they're all easy to see and they're all it's all easy to, understand and so it's easy for her to navigate and there's no bad buttons on there. She can't cannot screw up the TV, which is great. and there's an on there's an on and off switch and everything.

Erin: 16:18

with Odessa connect, it's it this is a technology that works with the TV to keep people connected through technology because the problem is that a lot of seniors. lose the ability to connect technology digitally with family members due to eyesight or losing the capacity to understand how to work complicated small screens and Odessa Connect made As software, that will run through the TV and then needed to have some type of control that would allow both control of the TV and the software. And so then they created this remote control that's full of vibrant colors with big buttons that is. Simple,

Traci: 17:13

yes, and easy to use. It's basically for all intents and purposes. It's a hub. That's all it is. And it can connect to any TV. And it doesn't matter if you've got satellite direct TV, cable, streaming, whatever you have, you can easily connect to your TV. It can make and it may basically makes the TV. Become a giant iPad. That's the easiest thing to say. It literally becomes a giant iPad and the remote control. You basically can, your remote control basically becomes your universal remote. So you can still watch your regular TV on it, but you also can get. What, one of the other things that I love about it is not only is the remote easy for my mom to use, but like I've recently started traveling with Odessa connect. I went to Nashville for three days for the leading age conference. It's the first time I've left, for three full days, probably in three years. And especially with her cognitive to say, I was concerned was a little bit mild, but I could do a video conference with mom. The beautiful thing is it have a free app that anybody can have, they have to be invited. I have to invite anybody to call my mom, so I can invite any of her friends. I can invite any of our family. So random hackers cannot get in, only people that I invite, but the app is free, so nobody else has to have the Odessa box, and anybody can video call her, and the TV actually rings, and it says, video call from Tracy, and mom can hit a talk button. And immediately with the click of one button, she's audio and video connected to me on her TV. And the great thing for me is like when I was in Nashville, I could call her all three days I was gone and do a video conference and I can visually see her and see she was doing okay. I could call, I called her in the morning and at night and I could see that it was okay. And, She literally hit the talk button. She talks basically to the remote. And then as soon as she wants to go back to TV, she just hits the TV button and it immediately switches back to her TV program. So it's that easy for her to use.

Erin: 19:33

So if she was watching TV and you called, it would interrupt her TV.

Traci: 19:39

Yep. It would, it interrupts her TV show and it says video call from Tracy coming in and she wants to accept it. So she hits. And she immediately has it connected to me and on the Odessa Connect box, there's a messaging light. And so if I called her, and let's say she was out walking the dog, and so she wasn't home, then it actually, and I called, and I can actually leave a video recording and the little messages light will light up. And so she'll see when she comes back in, oh, there's a message from Tracy. And so she can go on and she can see the message that I left. I can all I could also send her, pictures and they can see she can see the pictures and the Odessa will store the pictures. 1 of the things I really do love about it too is, but let's say you have grant. Let's say you've got kids. You're doing Christmas morning and let's say your mom lived in Portland, Oregon. Okay. You could call your mom on her Odessa and you could turn your iPad around on Christmas morning, put it, in front of the Christmas tree and everybody doing Christmas and your mom would see all of Christmas morning on her TV with her daughter and her grandkids. And it would be, there's nothing that you can, I think that's amazing, that can be real, that can be really profound. And my mom, for me, she's told me more than once. She's I like that so much better. I, it just, it makes it so much easier for her, and she doesn't have to remember passwords. There's no passwords. There's no crazy thing. That's so cool. technology scares most older adults, as we all know. And so Todd Smith, who's the CEO and founder, when he created it, he purposely did a ton of research and that's what he found out, they wanted something very simple and easy to use. And that's why he created it that way, to make it very simple and easy to use. And it's just fantastic. It's HIPAA compliant. So they can even do telehealth visits. So if mom, when mom gets to the place where she doesn't feel like going to see her doctor, I can just add her doctor onto the app and tell her doctor, just call her, and the doctor can call, do a video conference with her on the TV, and it'll be HIPAA compliant.

Erin: 21:54

Yeah, that's pretty darn cool. the other thing about, using the TV, which is genius is cell phones get lost tablets get lost. Sometimes they're just in between the cushions of the couch. but lost in the moment, and especially in inside senior living, things can get lost. Things can get washed in the moment, but the TV is always there.

Traci: 22:22

Yes. Yes, it's always there. And the great thing too about the Odessa, especially even in senior living is that, we can do the dining menus. We can do the activities. We can do all of that through 1 app. You don't have to use. four different apps to put all those things in. And if you want to send any messages to like all the residents, you can actually see the residents. The residents will actually give you a thumbs up on the TV that they got the message. So that way, and that's even if you're a daughter and you send pictures to your mom and you want to make sure she got the picture, she can give you a thumbs up on her side and you'll see it on your app that, okay, mom, I got my, I got the picture of that, it's great, especially, like I say, senior living, it allows them, they know, okay, who got the message? Who didn't get the message? Who's, who do I need to go check on? bingo changed from four o'clock to three o'clock. Okay. We need to go tell John because he didn't get the message. you can do all kinds of those things. and it can be white labeled. It can be reformatted. It can be, we can do all kinds of different things. And with the health side, we can actually, we actually have a health care dashboard. So we can, we can send a few extra devices and we can get their temperature, their blood pressure. their pulse, all those kinds of things, and it can actually go to the dashboard for the healthcare provider. we can also do questions and ask them questions like, did you, how are you feeling today? Are you happy? Are you sad? our, did you take your medication today? Did you have a fall and then they get a little celebration at the end. So they get excited about it. And so they do those questions because they like the little celebration at the end, and, but that's a good because it can be a key indicator back to the caregiver or the senior living that this patient's not is depressed today, or this patient didn't take her medication or she fell last night and she didn't tell anybody. So all of those things are really important and we can change those questions. However, we need, but all of those things are really important factors.

Erin: 24:22

Yeah, that's to have a 1 stop shop that, can collect all that data and also receive and interact and connect digitally is. is pretty important. and for that to be able to be used in your home.

Traci: 24:39

Yeah, exactly.

Erin: 24:40

for an individual use. you're currently using it right now.

Traci: 24:44

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's like I'm going out of town next week again for three days. book caregiving panel in Cincinnati, and I'm going to be on again, but I know I feel so much better because I know I can check in with her like morning and night, how was your day? Did you sleep okay last night? I can check in however many times I want, and it's okay. And it's not a difficult thing for her, unlike Zooms or, anything like that, where it's really difficult for the seniors to be able to do audio video or whatever the heck it is, this is just very simple and they don't have to remember passwords or anything crazy. It's just, it's their TV. They're used to their TV.

Erin: 25:23

Yeah, that's pretty amazing. and your mom, what's her feedback of that?

Traci: 25:28

she loves it. She has said it has just been, she said she really likes it. She goes. it was funny because I got rid of the other remote, the one that has, 45 buttons on it and, she's I don't you can just throw that away. I don't want to use it anymore. And I laughed and I said, okay, don't worry about it. And the great thing, too, is that the installation was really easy. I'm not really a person and we literally had it connected in, 5 minutes and I have a smart TV. So I have, and all of that on my TV. And it was able to interact with all of that. it's not been it's not a difficult setup. So you can very quickly interact it with the TV. It can be done. It's not a problem at all. And I said, she absolutely. Loves it. Loves it.

Erin: 26:15

That is pretty. I love that. I love the idea of connecting people digitally who don't feel comfortable with technology or maybe even has some eyesight challenges that has just resigned to the fact that. They're not going to get that connection. Now all of a sudden this opens up a new world, for them. And that is promising. I know it's promising for me as I get older to think if something were to happen, glaucoma, macular degeneration, all the things that I will still have a way to digitally connect with people. Oh

Traci: 26:55

yeah. and the same thing with hearing, a lot of people have hearing issues, especially as they get older, they're hearing. And like even my mom, she turns the TV up a lot louder than I would normally but because her hearing is not great. And, it allows her because it's the TV, she can turn it up louder, and I think that's another big piece of it, between the hearing and the eyesight alone, those two things are going to be a lot better because it's a lot bigger screen. Plus the bottom line is that every single person on the planet knows how to run their TV. They may not know how to run anything else electronically in their house. Okay, a smartphone terrifies my mother. my mother says to me all the time. She's I don't know. How in the world you do all the things that you do on that phone. And because she sees me, it's my, my Bible. I like live with this thing and she's I don't know how you do all that. And so smartphone scare my mother, so we have a landline, we have an old fashioned phone, because that's the only thing that she can do. And she's not alone with that, she's 84. she, they just grew up in a generation. That was not techie. They're very analog. And so they're very used to old school. And so I think that was 1 of the brilliant things that Todd Smith did when he created this was to create something that was more in what their realm was. and he has some really exciting things that are going to be happening with gaming and all kinds of really cool stuff and all kinds of fun stuff is coming. but I think already it's just a genius thing. it really has. Tremendously given me as the caregiver. Peace of mind, which is what every caregiver wants. No matter what the ages of the person that they're caring for and, and it's given her peace of mind because she doesn't like freak out. Every time she turns on the TV. Oh, no, I could possibly mess it up. And then I'm not going to watch.

Erin: 28:53

That HDMI no no button. That's right, it's the no no button. Because

Traci: 28:58

we don't know how to, we don't know what you did in order to get back, That's exactly right. Oh my goodness, I can't tell you how many times she's called me and she's just What do I push to get it back? And I'm like, Mom, you're gonna have to wait until I get home.

Erin: 29:11

There are so many stories that every senior living leader could tell you about the remote controls. Inside senior living and so many more for people who are caring for their loved ones at home. It's just oh, my gosh, don't flip the red switch. You know what I mean?

Traci: 29:31

I know. That's why I love, love, love our remote. Our remote alone is worth its weight in gold because it's just, it's so much fun. Oh, you took it away. Thank God. You took it away. Yes. Yes.

Erin: 29:46

So let's end the conversation on, just, giving a summary on your caregiving knowledge and experience, both personal and professional, we all want peace of mind. Are there ways. That you find for you that it's easier to get peace of mind if you focus on these things or if you get to a real anxious point, how do you get yourself down off the ledge? You know what I mean?

Traci: 30:16

oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been on the ledge a lot. Yeah. I think I, and I think every caregiver has, I think two or three things. One, I think you have to find your space where you can breathe. Yeah, and it's a different for everybody, for me, I, if I have to go out for a walk and just listen to music, or if I can just go for a drive, I just have to get alone and just breathe and just pull myself down off the crazy. and I think that's really important. Sometimes you just need to completely separate yourself from the situation and the person, because if you stay in it, you're just going to keep ratcheting up at least. That's the way it is with me. Yeah. So that's 1 of the things for me. And then I would say, secondly, knowing that, what's coming, it's okay, I know this is coming. I've been in health care long enough to where I know the drill. I've seen it with other people, so I know what's coming. I'm trying in my own way to get things prepared as I know things are going to be coming down the line. And I do think that as much as you can prepare, you need to try, because the loved ones that are left behind need help, and they don't want to get in all of a sudden in the middle of, you know, and then everybody's going crazy. that's a very bad place to be. I've been in that place with my father. Don't wish that on anybody and nobody. I think the last thing would probably be, I would just say. try to have a really good tight knit. I have maybe about four people, but they're awesome of people that can really support you. And that really can just say every once in a while, okay, I'm just going to go take care of this and you just need to go breathe. I'm going to, I'm going to watch your person for a 30 minutes or an hour or whatever it is. And you just go get yourself a burger and fries or go get you a salad. Just go do something Because you really do need people that can really support you. Because otherwise, this is not a journey that you can take home. It's just too hard. And I don't care who you're caregiving and what they've got. It's just too hard. So you need people that will love you and support you, even through your crazy, because you're going to be going through your crazy, going, okay, I am not acting right, and I am making crazy decisions, and you need people that are going to support you even through your own crazy, because you will.

Erin: 32:38

yeah, it's true. I agree with all of that. I would also say, Some of the things that I've taken away just 2 things that I believe is true that I've realized I fell into this trap said it's not always about you reactions are not about you. We can have a tendency to get real defensive start thinking things that aren't true. If we understand or we just assume that it's not about me, like you did with your mom, it's not about me, it's about the progression, it's about her losing her independence, it's about all kinds of things, but it's not about me. Then it makes it easier to assume positive intent.

Traci: 33:16

Yep, for sure.

Erin: 33:18

Because if we just assume that they are doing this to us, or they are manipulating us, then we're creating negative energy. Yep. And negative energy ruins what good time you have left.

Traci: 33:33

Oh, very well said. I agree. I agree.

Erin: 33:37

I lived a long time thinking that it was about me, which is a very egocentric way to think when it really wasn't and I create and I lost a lot of. Sleep about things, that I shouldn't have. I think that's important. take that down. Caregivers take it down. Have you a support system? Definitely take a walk. I think a walk can solve all the world's problems. get outside, because that really does help for sure. And if people wanted to contact you about Odessa Connect to learn more about it, to figure out if this would be something that would benefit them and their current situation, how would they do that?

Traci: 34:20

They can email me. My email address is Tracy at Odessa connect dot TV. they can go to the website as well, Odessa Connect TV or, they also could just, I do have a, put my cell phone, eight one three nine nine seven seven five. I'm more than happy to talk to anybody. They can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn. so happy to connect. And I'm on our Twitter, I'm on Instagram so they can look up me anywhere. But happy to talk to anybody about it. it's a great tool. it's all about having the right tools. To help you get through your journey, I really believe you have the right tools, then it will at least make the journey easier. It's not going to make it easy because it's never going to be an easy journey, but it will make it easier if you have tools that can help you get through it and Odessa is an amazing, the Odessa Connect is an amazing tool.

Erin: 35:19

Yes, I agree. Every tool man would tell you. In order to make a perfect, whatever, you have to have the right tools to do that. So that's a. that's a good connection to that. And Tracy is T R A C I. Correct.

Traci: 35:37

Correct. Yeah, mom wanted it to be different, so there you go. So I'm not the Y. Everybody always thinks I'm the Y or the I E or E Y or whatever. So no, it's just I.

Erin: 35:48

Okay, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate that. And for any listeners, if you found this valuable, please share this episode with 1 other person, because we're all in this together, you know, as, always for my listeners aspire for more for you.