Navigating Technology for Seniors: A Critical Support Role for Care Managers
In a recent episode of the CareCraft Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Bill Vicary, founder of Just Call Bill. His business is dedicated to helping seniors and their families understand and manage technology, from using basic devices to preventing scams. With over 20 years of experience in marketing, business development, and technology training, Bill has seen firsthand the struggles and risks seniors face as technology becomes increasingly integral to daily life.
Why Safe Technology Use Matters for Seniors
Technology can be empowering for seniors—when used safely. It enables connections with family, access to healthcare, and even helps with tasks like medication management. But the risks are real. “Use technology as much or as little as you want,” Bill says, “but use it confidently, effectively, and safely.”
Key Risks: Scams and Digital Vulnerabilities
Scams are a top concern, often starting with unsolicited calls, emails, or texts. Ignoring these messages seems simple, but many seniors feel compelled to respond, risking financial loss. Bill shared the story of a woman who lost her life savings to a scam, underscoring the need for caution. To address this, he teaches skills like programming trusted contacts and ignoring unknown numbers. “When you say hello, or click on that link, you could be opening the door to a scam,” he warns, emphasizing the importance of safe practices.
Supporting Families and Care Teams
Family members and care managers may lack the skills to assist seniors with technology, sometimes leading to risky situations. Bill advises care managers to establish clear boundaries and offer basic safety guidance, recommending professionals handle complex tech support to avoid unintentional liabilities.
Strategies for Empowering Seniors
Build Confidence: Many seniors own smartphones or tablets but are hesitant to explore their functions fully. Bill’s approach starts with simple instructions to build confidence in using these tools effectively.
Prioritize Safety: Teach seniors to identify potential scams and avoid risky actions, such as clicking on unfamiliar links or providing personal information over the phone.
Utilize Resources: Partnering with professionals like Just Call Bill offers a valuable resource for care managers looking to support their clients without taking on excessive responsibility.
Stay Connected: Encourage seniors to use their devices to maintain contact with family and friends. Regular communication reduces isolation and helps seniors feel more connected.
Final Thoughts: Technology as a Lifeline
For seniors, technology serves as a gateway to connection, safety, and independence. But without the right support, it can also expose them to risks that have lifelong consequences. Care managers and families play an essential role in helping seniors navigate this landscape, ensuring they can use technology with confidence and security.
Through his work at Just Call Bill, Bill Vicary highlights the importance of technology training that is accessible, engaging, and tailored to the unique needs of older adults. His journey is a testament to the difference one person can make by addressing a gap in senior care—and an inspiring example for care managers and families committed to enhancing seniors’ quality of life.
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Transcript
[00:00:04] Ariadne: Welcome to the CareCraft podcast presented by Panacea today. We're really excited to be joined by Bill Vicary, who is owner of Just Call Bill. He specializes in providing educational programs and personalized technology services for senior adults and their families.
As a senior himself, Bill understands the unique challenges seniors face with technology and has built a team of experienced professionals to assist with phones, tablets, laptops, and more, and he's a proven instructor at Ollie Fuhrman and Wofford Lifelong Learning Institute, where he's worked with Numerous senior communities and organizations bringing over 20 years of expertise in marketing, business development and leadership to support adults 55 plus and navigating the digital world.
So thank you so much for joining us today, Bill.
[00:00:52] Bill: Thank you. Glad to be here.
[00:00:54] Ariadne: Yeah, I'm very excited to talk about our topic today, which is really around how care managers can support their clients and their clients families to navigate technology safely. And I know this is something you're very passionate about.
And that's really the work that Just Call Bill centers around. So maybe before we jump straight into it, can you tell us about Just Call Bill and how it all started?
[00:01:17] Bill: Sure. It started about eight years ago. A very good friend of mine, a couple, husband and wife. She received a hand me down iPhone from her husband when he got a new one and she was getting rid of her flip phone and she had no idea what to do or how to use it.
And one day she asked me if I could help her learn how to use her phone. Because her husband didn't have the time or the patience to teach her. And so I said, sure. So this, whenever they were at our house or we were at their house, it would be okay, whatever the lesson of the day was. One day we're at their house and whatever we're working on in the morning over a cup of coffee and her husband walked in and says, what are you all doing?
And whatever the topic was that day in the meantime, he had every apple gadget known to man. And he says, I don't know how to do that and went and got his phone and came back and sat down with me and his wife and we finished whatever we were doing. Well, he would complain to me. I kind of created the monster that created the idea.
He would complain to me that there was no one to help him learn how to use this technology. In the town he lives in, there's no Apple store, so he would travel 100 miles to come to where I live in Greenville, South Carolina, and he would go to a class or two at the Apple store, and he'd come to my house and complain the whole time.
They don't know how to teach, it's in the store, it's loud, it's distracting, the person that's teaching me. It doesn't look like me or sound like me and they have purple hair and a thing in my ear and whatever And and so he I said well surely there's somewhere you can go and he goes well if there was I would go there So the little entrepreneur light went on to me and so I did a bunch of research and he was correct.
There was nowhere to go or very, very few places to go. And so I started researching it and looked into it and actually went to a local senior center about five minutes from my house. At the time, it was the second largest senior center in the state of South Carolina. And I talked to the director there and she looked at me and says, when can you start?
And I mean, it was five minutes into the discussion and I said, well, I don't even really know what I'm doing. I think, you know, I don't have a program. I don't. And she says, I've been looking for someone like you for three, about three to five years. So, long story short, I created a curriculum that first started in the iPhone, how to use your iPhone.
From day one, what are the buttons do to and that's what I'm teaching at the colleges, universities, senior centers. A matter of fact, I'm doing a class tomorrow at a senior living community. And I say all of that is, so it started with that, the iPad, because I, Feel the Apple products are a little more intuitive and easier to learn than the Android.
There's just too many variables on the platform. And then it literally led to by listening to my clients of what else do they wanted to learn? And so it's led to more than 20 different educational programs. The two most popular right now are scams and how to prevent them. Number one problem with seniors and technology.
And I'm sure we'll talk about this later. And the second one is how to manage your digital and your personal assets, meaning usernames, passwords. Where are they? What are they? When it, when a life incident happens, sickness, illness, or death, who will come help you when you can't help yourself? And then the personal assets is where's your stuff?
Do you have a safety deposit box? Where is it? More importantly, where's the key? Who's your doctor? Where do your prescriptions? Because it's not if, it's when, and I tease when I teach this class, I said, I don't want to be the first one to tell you, but we're all going to die. And if you don't have a plan, you're going to be in trouble.
So it really has led to more than 20 different programs. The last one I did was actually this one for the Aging Life Care Association. But one that I was surprised seniors wanted was explain to me the difference between Zell and Venmo. And I'm like, wow, you, you really want to know this. And what I realized it was more curiosity than actually doing, because once I explained to them the risk I think half the room said, Oh, we're not doing this.
So again, I like to determine how tech savvy they are. Because obviously they can get in a lot of trouble very fast.
[00:05:49] Ariadne: Yeah, that's a great transition. And we are going to get into some of those risks that are post them. But I guess, you know, why is it so important for seniors specifically to be able to navigate technology safely today?
[00:06:04] Bill: Well, I think it is. And what I explain to people is use technology as much or as little as you want. But the technology is, as we all well know, is increasing in use and popularity and connectivity. My motto is I want the seniors to lose their use their technology more confidently, effectively and safely.
So a lot of them aren't very confident. Well, I've had this phone for five years. But they don't even know how to use their email. They didn't know that there was a video chat feature. So part of it is I want to get them confident and effective enough so the safe part is intuitive in that it just really is.
So literally, one of the stories I use is so during the pandemic, you had to have an email address to go get a vaccine. Well, there was a lot of assumptions made in the senior world that one, do you have internet to do you have an email address? And in this case, I was getting phone calls from people that did not have email addresses wanting to get the vaccine.
So they had a person in their community that was setting up bogus gmail accounts, so they could use that email address to go get a vaccine. That's pretty scary. That email right to this day probably never receives anything valid. So there's the importance of it is, I mean, I could sit here and talk for hours on this, but the one is the connectivity to family and friends you know, whether your family lives down the street or on the other side of the country, it's a way that you can see and talk to them and communicate with your family and even your health care provider. And, you know, through telemed and my chart and various things or just, hey, I want to listen to music and watch movies.
[00:08:01] Ariadne: Yeah. I mean, it really does touch every aspect of life today. I don't think there's a way around that. And so what are the more common risks that seniors are likely to be impacted by? I know you talked a little bit about scams and some of these other things. But in your experience, you know, like what is actually likely to occur when they don't have the right,
[00:08:23] Bill: Scams are, are it, you know, scams start with technology.
As I tell people, A scam starts with a phone call, a text message, or an email. That's how the majority of scams start. So when you say hello on a phone call that comes in your phone, landline or cell phone, the scam starts. So I, I encourage seniors to not answer the phone unless they know who it is.
Don't answer a text unless you know who it is. Well, how do they know who it is? Well, they have to learn how to put their contacts in their phone every phone now I mean those of us that are old enough to remember the phone on the wall with the cord we didn't know who was calling and we didn't have the technology then but now we do Home phone or cell phone, doesn't matter what kind of cell phone, we know who's calling.
And if you don't see a person's name pop up on the screen, don't answer, let them leave a message and call them back. But the bad guys that leave the messages now too, and it's, you know, they're very sophisticated and you know, it's the old saying, you don't know what you don't know. And here's a generation that didn't grow up with this technology.
So, and they might be lonely. Oh gosh, you know, I haven't talked to anybody today. Oh, I wonder who's calling. Maybe it's my doctor. Well, it's Sunday, you know, so they're not putting the logic together of what is, how do you be safe? How do you protect yourself? Because like I said, when you say hello, when you click on that text, or you click on that link in the email, bad stuff starts to happen.
[00:10:04] Ariadne: In your experience, how prepared are most seniors to actually deal with those threats?
[00:10:10] Bill: Poorly, probably less than 15 percent are prepared. A lot of them don't think it can happen to them. Oh, it's me. Or I've had I've had several people say, well, how stupid can people be to fall for that? It happens every day.
I mean, in your world, you hear it in my world. It's just I was just on a television show a couple weeks ago, and this poor lady lost 235, 000. She lost everything. Her life savings for business account. She's starting all over again. And that's what I tell people. I said, so I, when I teach the scam class, I tell them, I said, I'm here for two reasons today, one to educate and two to scare the living bejesus out of you because it's, it's serious.
It's bad. You can lose your life savings in less than five minutes.
[00:11:08] Ariadne: And do you feel that their families or their care teams are better prepared or? You know, what has your experience?
[00:11:15] Bill: I think some of the family might be, but if the family, it depends on the relationship they have in their family, you know, do they have a good relationship or a poor relationship?
How in geographic distance, how close are they? How often do they see mom or dad or grandma or grandpa to keep an eye on them? It, it's interesting when I presented at the Aging Life Care Association Conference, I asked the room of caregivers. How many of you are Android users? A third of the room went up.
How many are Apple users? Majority of the room, there was one lady that used a flip phone. I said, so are you equipped to help your client? With their technology and most of them said no, because they're not technology people. And so what's happening is because of the popularity, the increase of use of technology, well, geez, why you're here today.
Can you take a look at my email? Or can you help me pay my bills? Or I got this text message and I don't remember how to attach a picture. Some did, but some don't. But where this leads to with the care managers is how far do you want to go with this? Where, like, while I was there, I was getting ready to leave the conference, and one of the, a lady had one of her caregivers on the phone that had just been approached by her client, and we had to walk this man kind of off the ledge of wanting to buy something and having her help her.
And so the right words to say I'd like to but I can't you know, it's against company policy and so I think that's where the carriers have to to go with this is Do you want the liability of use my password to go in and pay my bills and then something goes wrong? Do you want the liability of? You know, I'm paying the bills and something went wrong.
Even though the person, the caregiver might be very tech savvy, but I think as an industry and as a company, they have to evaluate. That's why I kind of went through a little assessment of how tech savvy is going to be. The client, how tech savvy is the caregiver and how tech savvy is the family member because it creates this little triangle and the technology is in the middle of it all.
And if they're all not on the same page, you have a disconnect.
[00:13:43] Ariadne: That's completely true. So what are some practical steps that you were encouraging care managers to take to help their clients use technology more safely and be prepared to answer those questions?
[00:13:55] Bill: I think part of it is the assessment. It is going through and understand yourself.
How tech savvy are you and your team? You know, what kind of technology to use it? You use as a company and then in turn, then go and assess the client. You know, what kind of technology does your client have? And and how tech savvy are they? You know, do they know how to use their email? Do they have 965 emails in their inbox on a bell south dot net email address is going to show you they probably were not very tech savvy.
Then you're going to see from the, and I could, there's a whole list and I'll share with you later on that you can share with people, and then it's the, the family member. Well, you know, the daughter lives in Montana, and she wants to FaceTime with mom every Tuesday, well the caregiver has an Android, she doesn't know how to use FaceTime, and the client doesn't remember how to use FaceTime.
Or I want to use WhatsApp because my daughter lives in Spain. Well, what is WhatsApp? You know, so there's a lot of assumptions that go on. So what I say, if all of that comes together and as a caregiver, you're going, I'm stuck. What I, the key thing I recommended is one, find a reliable, trusted technology partner.
Selfishly, I say me. But wherever you live there, but it's hard because there's not many people like me in around the country. And so I would do a lot of research of, are they, yeah, you can go find a computer person, they can fix your laptop, but are they willing to work with somebody elderly? Do they have patience, do they have the ability, a servant heart to teach, as opposed to.
Click, click, click here. We're done. And they walk away and senior doesn't know any more than when you first started.
[00:15:52] Ariadne: Yeah, that's I think that assessment piece is really critical. And thank you for offering to share kind of that checklist that you go through in that assessment. What are the, like, ongoing education or resources that you're aware of that, you know, could, you know, Help care managers or their clients or their families.
Obviously, your company is one of them, right? If they want that sort of support, but are there, you know, publicly available options online that you trust and are and think are doing it?
[00:16:20] Bill: Well, I mean, YouTube is always an option. But, you know, again, how are you going to use it is, is it you as a caregiver that geez, I'm not really sure how to FaceTime with my Android, which you actually can you know, as long as the person that has the iPhone initiates the the call.
So YouTube is always a great resource. I would look at your local community college. May or technical college they may have some programs that could help educate but again, like I get people asking all the time Well, I want to can you teach me how to use my computer? Well, that's like tell me why the sky's blue what do you want to learn?
What kind of computer? Well when it really comes down to it They I want to use my email. I might want to research, you know using You know, search engines and and maybe use the Microsoft product or the Apple, you know, keynote or or word or whatever. And so numbers. And so they really most of them are not power users.
They want to use very basic stuff. The Apple store could be. But as a caregiver, it's taking time away from your billable hours. So, so that's where I say, you know, you could go learn this or I caution the group about, well, yeah, my, my 17 year old son can help. Well, he's in school all day, or he's at soccer practice, or mom, I don't want to go do this on Saturday.
So it's not a reliable full time resource. It could be a sporadic resource. I mean, if you really needed it. So I would really, you know, be careful of just going to search out the local IT company to to help you because Most of them don't like to work with seniors there. Well, they don't get it. And they're, they, they, they're old and they smell funny and they don't, they, you know, they don't understand.
And, and if, especially as a younger person, they start speaking and acronyms and phrases and they're not explaining, you know, what, what, what does it mean? What does AI and what is AI? And should I be concerned about it? And, and, and so it's really, me. It's not a two way reliable resource. It's more off.
Let me just do this and get out of here and, you know, be done with it kind of thing.
[00:18:44] Ariadne: Yeah, that customer support is, of course, critical to make sure you know, they've actually understood and are engaged, etcetera. So how have you seen care management practices integrate technology assistance into their overall services?
[00:18:59] Bill: I know a lot of them use it to manage their business, meaning probably from a sales and marketing, maybe a CRM. You know, there's probably a care manager database with, you know, portals for their employees. I'll say they do really well managing it from the business side. I haven't seen many use it from the front end side of the client because the client's driving their business.
You know, and I get there's some laws and regulations that they have to file. But, but here we are, and Mrs Smith wants help with her phone. Do we know how to do that? Do we want to do that? Do we know? And so part of that is this brings a whole new element. One of the things I mentioned previously is so most senior living communities are the same way.
They don't have, you know, robust wifi systems in their communities. And so what happens is then their tech savvy seniors are really frustrated, or they're not going to move there because they're accustomed, you know, let's say a younger senior, let's say 60 moves into a community. Well, they're already streaming television and they're paying their bills online and they're living their life like a 30 or 40 year old, you know, from a technology side for the most part.
Well, you just can't assume you're going to sit in your home and or go to a new community and. You know, you have to use a communal Wi Fi network on Sunday at 530. I can't even get on because it's so busy. And so part of that is I think as caregivers, they, they need to, that's why I did this talk is be more aware of your client and your family, and even yourself is, you know, your limitations so that then look at this, okay, moving forward.
Cause this is a trend that's not going to go away. How do we. Serve our client better if the technology question comes up because there are going to be some that don't care and don't want it And won't use it. But well, my doctor says I should do a telemed appointment. Can I do that on my flip phone? I don't know.
I'll have to find out answers. Obviously. No But you know, well, can you help me you're here Oh, well, you know, I, you know, our company policy says we can't do that. Well, how does that person going to feel? So, so there's a lot of interesting conversations. So if you have that conversation in the beginning, it might be, well, maybe we don't want to do it, but there's my technology partner would do that.
[00:21:40] Ariadne: Yeah. That's a great call. Cause you know, everything is only becoming more digital, right? Like your appointments, getting your results from appointments you know, even a lot of the, the pharmacy Interactions now are completely digital, so it definitely is a place where you need a strategy. Especially if you are, you know, kind of supporting all aspects of someone's care and I am curious.
What is the advice that you give to individuals? I think you mentioned the story earlier, right? Where maybe the client had a particular request. It's really not something you want to do from a liability perspective, or, you know, even just like, within the scope of. Your company's services? Like how do you address that potential pushback or resistance?
[00:22:26] Bill: Yeah, I, I think many times it, and again, we're kind of getting a little out of my area, but at least from what I've talked to some care managers is it might be, well, I have to call your son. He's the POA. and have that conversation. Sometimes a third party like the care manager or a technology partner, I I've been able to say and do things that the family members cannot do because I, I used my dad as my poster child.
He, he influenced a lot of how I, you know, got the ideas for my company, even though he was not tech, very tech savvy at all. But. The kids don't know anything, you know, you're my child. I've known you since you were, you know, little and, and, you know, what do you know about this? And so again, it's the family dynamic, but sometimes the care manager may have you know, more influence, I was going to say power, but I like influence better and then say, okay, let me, you know, part of the team or wow, you know, the caregiver that goes there every day, Mary, he loves her.
And Mary could tell him to go to the moon and back and he would and so you kind of have to and that's Obviously part of the care of anyone is figuring the dynamic of who they listen to how they listen to You know, I use the analogy of you know, how you raise your kids and communicate to them It kind of goes that way with any person is you know, how do they How do they want to be communicated to they don't want to be talked down.
They don't want to feel stupid They like their independence Independence And so you have to to work through this of how do we Tell him no, but not make him sound stupid or take away the independence
[00:24:07] Ariadne: and are there specific tools or technologies that You know care managers can recommend to specifically help improve their client safety I I know we were talking a little bit about scams and just the risks that older individuals are at today
[00:24:22] Bill: I think part of it a little bit is old school no technology, how what's going on in that person's life, has their behavior change not just the cognitive and and health stuff that they're working with every day but are they now all of a sudden.
The bills aren't getting paid, or there's really a, you know, gosh, we're here an hour and that phones rang 25 times or even six times, which is six times more than it ever rings. So they may have been scammed already or in the process of a scam. Things like medical alert is obviously, you know, some sort of push button, maybe with the GPS locator.
But you know, a lot of the phone technology has a way you can track someone. I always be cautious to say, are you surveilling or are you spying? And who's doing that? You know, is that the family member? Is it the caregiver? And I know there's regulations on all of that. So there there are, there is technology there, but I always am cautious about introducing technology that might frighten the client.
Well, my dad needs a new phone. My first question is why? Well, we want to be able to FaceTime him. We want to know where he is. We want to, well, if dad never takes it with him, turns it on, you've just wasted a bunch of money. And if dad doesn't want to learn it, So again, I'm really a big proponent of education.
I do them in person and I can do it via, you know, virtual through zoom and other platforms. So I really encourage the family and caregivers to say, okay, there's a lot of options out there. I mean, there's, you know, in your world, you guys have a lot, but, you know, there's ways that you can monitor someone, you know, how often do they get up and go to the bathroom?
How often do they go eat something? How, I mean, there, you can go crazy with this and that's the way the world is going, but I think you have to walk before you run, before you start introducing a lot of I'll call it cool, sophisticated technology, but sometimes you just have to do is we just got to make sure that when we call dad or mom, they'll answer the phone.
Because all of a sudden, if we call them three or four times, we start to freak out because they're not answering the phone. Are they okay? Well, Josh, now we need a camera on him. We need to put eyes on him. We got to make sure they're there. We're going to put a, you know, a tracking device in the car because the doctor told him not to drive and he still drives.
And I mean, this, this kind of goes on and on and on. Now mind you, caregivers not there every day. You know, so, you know, one of the questions I asked the caregiver in the assessment is, what can go wrong when you're not there? Everything, you know, seriously. So, so part of that is, you know, in their assessment, they're doing it, you know, from a healthcare and a cognitive side, but add the technology side to it.
Well, geez. Mr. Jones is not very tech savvy, so we're going to have to be aware of that, explain to his family members, i. e. children, or whoever the POA is, and then come up with a plan accordingly.
[00:27:39] Ariadne: Yeah, so what are some of the the warning signs that you look like to know if someone is in the process of being scammed?
I know this is something that also individuals frequently Won't share, right? Like if it did happen to them, it's a source of potential embarrassment, et cetera. So curious, you know, from,
[00:27:57] Bill: from all of your experiences, what you've seen that. Yeah. And you're right. They, they, they are embarrassed. They don't want to tell someone well, geez, you know, my daughter's been telling me not to do this and guess what I did.
You know, so I'm not going to tell her well so you'll see they'll start to be a little more guarded in their conversation. They might withdraw from conversations you may look at. Like I said, maybe the bills aren't getting paid there's a stack of bills that are coming and they're overdue or past due, or there's lots of calls or text messages.
They're on social media. Oh my gosh, Facebook, what a horrible place for seniors to go. They're they're talking to, as I always say, you don't talk to strangers. You know, you talk to kids, not to, you know, of course, a little different way we grew up. But here online, you put your picture, you tell the world you're a widow, and you're lonely, and you're on vacation in Europe, and it's the best time of my life.
Well, come into your house and stealing everything you own. So I think it's really keeping an eye out for them of what are they doing? How what's their behavior? Is it different? Is it You know lady, here that is a bank manager. She had a client that her normal behavior she would come in Frequently she would be dressed very beautifully makeup everything.
Well the one day she came in there when the bank opened She's in her slippers pair of sweatpants. No makeup and her hair was all wild looking And immediately said to the branch manager, I need you to wire me 15, 000. And she asked her why. And so through that, she said, well, it's none of your business.
Well, no, it is my business. And that's what most bankers should be doing, or not most, all, but long story short is the scammer was on the phone, on speakerphone in her purse, and she finally was so frightened because the scammer threatened her and her family harm, the bank manager grabbed the phone out of her purse and hung up.
Well, they're gonna, they're gonna hurt me and my family. No, they're not. And it went away. But they don't know that. So it's really unusual behavior. It's maybe they don't have any money to pay their bills. All of a sudden they have money and they don't have money. Well, you know, I can't go to lunch with you today because, you know, well, gosh, we've been to lunch every Wednesday for the past two years.
Why is it different? You know, so I, I really recommend family and friends, caregivers, anybody that you interact with, you know, keep an eye out, especially as us in the senior industry. I say keep an eye out with your clients. Watch for behavior that is unusual, weird, strange, I mean, they might be strange anyway, but, but weirder than normal to say.
[00:30:57] Ariadne: Yeah, that's all good tips of things to look out for. I guess what's the one piece of advice that you would give care managers working with seniors to really focus on to make sure that they're using technology safely and effectively?
[00:31:10] Bill: I think just having that conversation about technology, you know, some seniors will physically just be defensive, or you'll hear this, Oh, I hate my phone, but my kids told me I have to use it.
And so I think that you know you can, I always try to make it kind of a fun conversation so if I get that kind of response I'll say, Well, why do you feel that way. Well, you know, I'm old. I grew up and I didn't, I didn't know how to use this. And so I defuse that the old is an excuse. And I said, well, you know, my, my oldest client's 102.
Oh gosh, I'm only 74. I guess that's not bad. And so I kind of defuse the, the age as an excuse, but to, or go back and get your flip phone. You know, I I'd like to gently. Push back. I think I mentioned to you I like to be a little disruptive in how I do this, but I think the seniors appreciate that and even the family members appreciate that.
So I think just, you know, learning having that conversation with them to get a sense of, okay, what they're into this or not. They're they're really you know, even in the room when I had the conference I said, so how many of you are power users? Now, these are the care managers. It was less than three percent So so even the caregivers themselves, I mean, they're busy.
They got lots of stuff to do You know, and I call them the usual suspects. Well, every time I go see mrs. Smith, she's always asking me about her email Well, just like your kids, she's asked them 12 times before. She doesn't get it. She can't process it. So is there a different way? Maybe we write it down.
Maybe we, you know, or maybe we find a different way to do it or or not. Use it, you know, so as they're, you know going through their life It might be or just say, you know, what you really shouldn't be on facebook anymore You know, there's there's other stuff, you know, mom I'll call you once a week or however every day or however you want and then from the care manager Hey, did you talk to your daughter today?
I know you guys always talk around lunchtime or and make it kind of an upbeat conversation And you know, sometimes you do have to have that hard conversation that bad stuff can happen. So you just gotta be careful.
[00:33:36] Ariadne: Yeah, but definitely easier to start on the lighter note, right? Absolutely.
[00:33:40] Bill: Yes, yes.
[00:33:40] Ariadne: Work your way there. So, well, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a super interesting conversation. And how can listeners get in touch if they are interested in understanding more about what you offer at Just Call Bill or Picking Your Brain?
[00:33:54] Bill: Sure. And I would love to people call if they want to pick my brain, get some ideas whether you live close by or on the other side of the planet.
I have a website. Just call bill.net. I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn on Just call Bill. Or you just call Bill at (864) 621-0224. And I really did that because I answered the phone. If I don't answer the phone, it's going to voicemail and I will call you back. I like that personal touch. Many times I get clients that are like, wow, I can't believe you called me back.
And that's in any business owner that, you know, you can differentiate yourself by just saying, hello, how can I help you? And being. helpful. Many times I get calls on topics of things that I and services I don't offer, but I find them the resources that they need and get back to them. And, you know, because the worst thing any business owner or people in business can say, well, I'm sorry.
I don't know. I can't help you. Well, I don't know, but I'll find out and I'll get back to you. And they're like, wow. And so part of that is I like to be a resource to families and seniors and caregivers and and have become an advocate. So I really this has been fun. It's amazing what you know, meeting people like yourself, just casually in a hallway at a conference and you never know where it will go.
[00:35:15] Ariadne: That's very true. You never know where life will take you. Well, thank you so much again for joining us.
[00:35:21] Bill: Thank you. Appreciate it.