Guest Kathryn Gerhards 1 of 3

Adrian  00:02

Hello future millionaires. Welcome back to the get rich slow podcast. We are your hosts, Adrian Shermer, Robert Delavan and Lance Johnson. Good morning, gentlemen.

Rob Delavan  00:11

Good morning, everybody.

Adrian  00:14

We are joined today by Kathryn Gerhards. Hello, Kathryn.

Kathryn Gerhards    00:16

Hello.

Adrian  00:19

Am I pronouncing that right?

Kathryn Gerhards  00:21

Nailed it right.

Adrian  00:23

Love it.

Lance Johnson  00:24

So excited about this. Can't wait to interview.

Adrian  00:28

We got some links here on a bunch of different platforms. You may use your own personal flavor Spotify, Apple podcasts, audible and Amazon music. I think there's actually a few others that were on as well and we're going to be posting this on YouTube if you'd like to see our smiling faces. Kathryn is with Rise Services Inc. Well, we're going to let her explain exactly what Rise is. So, Kathryn is a born and raised Portland orgonite and she has a BA in Psychology with a minor in American Language Studies.

Rob Delavan  01:05

We should dig into that. Let's get details.

Kathryn Gerhards  01:08

You should say sign language studies.

Adrian  01:12

Gosh, awesome and looks like you graduated in 2012 and you've worked with nonprofits providing supports to underserved communities, we're going to dig into that today.

Lance Johnson  01:23

That's exciting.

Rob Delavan  01:25

As usual, you can go to ROI-fa.com, for backslash events, for everything that we have going on for the calendar for the rest of the year and that is on the slide deck here as well as in the details below. So, today, we'll be getting to know Katherine learning about her and her story and this is where I really want to encourage all of our listeners go to the YouTube site.

Lance Johnson  02:02

The camera.

Rob Delavan  02:09

Man, the duo is pretty incredible. So, I love this picture.

Adrian  02:15

So ready for the picture. He looks like he knows that he's taking a picture, 100%

Lance Johnson  02:21

The actual dog that did the movie?

Kathryn Gerhards  02:26

Long lost relative.

Rob Delavan  02:28

He only is having slight allergies at the moment, heavy breathing and so forth. But we're looking forward to this. This episode is all about Kathryn and everything that she's doing and what has brought her to where she is today.  Okay, so, the first question I have for you today, Kathryn, tell us your story. No big deal and how did you get where you are today? So, let's start.

Kathryn Gerhards  03:17

Sit back, relax. Pull up a chair. Get cosy

Rob Delavan  03:19

Should I get more coffee?

Kathryn Gerhards  03:23

I think I've had more than enough. So, we'll see how this goes. Well, I guess it's just the first thing that came to mind is, when I was little people would always ask, what do you want to be when you grew up? I never had a great answer. I'm the youngest of six. So, it was just kind of assumed that you would go to college and you would just figure it out. But I always was interested in psychology. They say you get into psychology to learn more about yourself and it's really about other people. So, what's wrong with me/family dynamics. I originally went to school, I wanted to be a sign language interpreter. and Western Oregon has the best sign language interpreting programme on the West Coast and that's what I did. I took sign language and call high school and then transferred it, I worked in a Deaf office in between as well. So, everybody in the office communicated in sign language and then when I went to Western, I just got disillusioned with it. Being an interpreter is really hard and it's a hard community to serve. There's a lot of bias and astigmatism. Astigmatism is not the right word with that community, and I just was like, man, maybe this isn't what I want to do forever. So, I switched that into my minor because I really still love the language and the community. But then went back to psychology as my major and it was just fascinating. I loved learning about psychology. Everything is new and different and exciting. Getting and what they don't tell you is what the heck do you do with a degree in psychology? It's not like a degree in finance, where you know what the next step is going to be or you don't graduate like with a job, it's just great. You can people go be free. So, after I graduated, I started working mostly with disadvantaged youth. So, youth in DHS, or Oregon Youth Authority custody, and a couple of different programmes, and those programmes were all high crisis.

Rob Delavan  05:35

So, can you define high crisis?

Kathryn Gerhards  05:37

Yeah. So, one of the programmes that I worked at is called sub-acute. So, acute is considered hospitalization level crisis, for psychosis, suicidal ideation, self-harm, kind of everything else that you can think of. So, it's sub-acute. So, people would be discharged from the hospital into this programme and it was a 24/7 lockdown facility, where we're trained on physical restraints. So, people who are experiencing physical aggression, suicidal ideation, how are you with your body going to stop that person from harming themselves or others. That was probably the most intense job that I had. So, you're physically restraining people, five or six or seven people to hold one person to keep them safe.

Adrian  06:32

You were getting your degree, were you like, I'm probably going to be doing this.

Kathryn Gerhards  06:36

Yeah. I'm going to get fit for a living.

Rob Delavan  06:40

Wow, that's a picture in my mind. When has that happened, more than once?

Kathryn Gerhards  06:52

Yeah. So, one funny story from there is that you get Crisis Response trained. So, if there's a loud noise, you go towards the noise instead of away from the noise. I was meeting with a family one time, they're talking about their kid, and there was a really loud thing, and I was like, I got to go and she was like, you're going to run towards that. I was like, wow, another good story. If this is the time for stories, it's might be too long. But yeah, no worry about it. I was pretty good at it, we had walkie talkies, where we would communicate and the kids would sometimes like, they didn't have a lot of control or power over the situation. So, what they could do is like refuse to go to bed or refuse to move from wherever you wanted them to and the best story is this kid had been refusing for a while. So, they called for backup over the walkie talkie I walked in, and the kid was like, oh, you're here. I'm out and just went to bed.

Lance Johnson  07:55

Good talk. So, you're with my kids?

Rob Delavan  08:02

Yeah. You need to call you need to call Kathryn, Lance about nine o'clock.

Kathryn Gerhards  08:09

Yeah. It's just a lot of de-escalation. and relationship building is what you're doing. Obviously, you don't want to go hands on, you want to stop somebody from getting to the worst moment of their day, if you can at all avoid it. So, staying calm in a crisis is something that I had to get very good at and so, that was subacute. After that, I worked at a day treatment programme for kids in therapeutic foster care. So, they would come to a treatment programme during the day where they'd get sex offence specific counselling, or drug and alcohol counselling, or just deep mental health counselling and then they'd also go to a high school that was attached to the programme. So, they'd get all their classes in a therapeutic setting and then they'd go to a foster home, that I also supervise all the foster parents. So, I was really up in these kids, for 24/7, which was also high crisis because kids would come home doing things that kids do, like skipped curfew, or didn't take the bus home or maybe smoked weed on their way home or whatever it was. So, just constantly being ready for whatever these 20 delinquent youth decided to do on their way home to exhibit control or power over their situation and just having to navigate being the manager but also the support for the parent, but also the advocate for the kid.

Rob Delavan  09:34

All right. Wow.

Lance Johnson  09:39

You are going to have to deal with Robbie and that's true.

Adrian  09:44

Give me last week actually.

Lance Johnson  09:48

Avoid Rob's advancements.

Adrian  09:51

Slow, no sudden movements, that's all important, sites based on movement.

Rob Delavan  09:58

You guys should take some tips from Kathryn.

Adrian  10:00

Kathryn's got a hell of a resume right now.

Rob Delavan  10:03

You're only halfway through.

Kathryn Gerhards  10:07

So, I did all of that for about 10 years. All of those services were court ordered, or someone saying, you're in DHS custody, you have to be here, or you're experiencing mental health issues, you have to be here and it is really draining unwilling events, yes, to force people to change. Fun fact, it doesn't work very well especially teenagers who are like, I don't know, my mom isn't answering the phone, I don't care about Maths but I need to get you to care about math when they have all these other crises going on. So, like really understanding where people are at in that moment, you don't have the capability to learn math right now, because of these other things going on. So, we're going to sit in this moment instead of like, but think about your future, that's not helpful all of the time. I did that for 10 years. I was on call for three years straight. I couldn't really go on vacation, because I couldn't not have cell phone service. Because if they couldn't get a hold of me, then who would they get a hold of, rand it just got to a point where there were some management changes in the position that I was working at. So, it was just time for me to move on. I found this position at Rise services, which is where I've been for the past almost four years. I was interviewed there by an all women panel, which was the first time in my career where it was just a bunch of like really cool women running this programme, our executive director as a woman and it's what we do, I should start there. We provide support to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities all across the state of Oregon.  So, people with disabilities want the support, and they want the services and they will wait for the services and they choose to engage or services. So, it's like, you want something that I have versus please do this. So, it was just it was a whole cultural change in the office, it was a whole culture change with a population. Once you spent life in crisis when you're not in crisis, and people are like, oh, my gosh, this deadline, or this thing or this upset parents like, I understand that this is a crisis for you and also in the grand scheme of crises like we can handle this.

Lance Johnson  12:49

Rob call your services.

Rob Delavan  12:55

What you're saying Kathryn your day to day now is like it was Tuesday at 10am after coffee. This is just a walk in the park for you.

Kathryn Gerhards  13:07

Yeah, it took some adjusting to for sure. Because if you're used to every loud noise being a crisis, being able to reregulate and not be triggered by everything was hard.

Lance Johnson  13:24

Well, we got a couple more questions to move. Awesome. So, we're just going to take a moment. We'll ask a couple more questions here. Kathryn, what piece of advice has made the biggest impact on your life?

Kathryn Gerhards  13:44

I would say that the biggest piece of advice that I've gotten is that tomorrow is another day and the work will be there. I working in high crisis working with people, decisions that I didn't make might have impacted their life, where they couldn't have the medication that they needed, or visit their family in time, or be late to a court date, or whatever it was. So, being able to readjust that tomorrow's another day, and the work will be waiting has been really impactful for me, because you're never done working, there's always going to be 50 million other things to do. But you can't pour from an empty bucket and if you just stay on all the time, you're going to burn yourself out and you're going to get jaded and you're not going to like what you do and then you're working to work instead of working to live. So, having that perspective, of being able to like shut off the work part and really focus on the rest of the life part is a lifelong, probably challenge, but also super valuable because there is more to life.

Rob Delavan  15:01

How do you do that? Because obviously, your inbox is always full.

Adrian  15:09

It's all important work.

Rob Delavan  15:12

What did you say? You said, you don't live to work, you want to work to live? So, how do you keep that perspective?

Kathryn Gerhards  15:21

With COVID, this was really helpful because I was working from my couch. I would go from my couch back to my couch. So, having something to do, at the end of the day, whatever it was, when I was driving home, I would listen to audiobooks, because that would be enough to get my brain to stop thinking about the next thing, like music, I could just keep thinking about work. I would just power through but an audio book would get me sucked into the story just enough to give myself a mental break. But now that I work from home more, having time to like, okay, now I'm going to start working on dinner, or now I'm going to take the dogs for a walk or not, I'm going to physically get up and do something else, delineates the work time from the not work time and gives myself the time to transition, which has been super helpful.

Rob Delavan  16:19

Interesting, that advice. You're basically segmenting out, that time you're trying to turn the switches on and off as much as possible. The high stakes nature, though, obviously, always wants to pull you back in. So, I would assume you're always fighting that switch being half on.

Kathryn Gerhards  16:42

Yeah, I've also found if it is really nagging at me, just do it, because I'd rather finish the task, and then stop thinking about it, then try to psych myself into waiting until tomorrow, or make the to do list or get up a little bit earlier, or whatever it is, but also being able to realize I can't today, I've given everything I can today, and people are just going to have to wait like you can't, you can't do it all. So, being able to be like check in with yourself to and be like, okay, I'm done, and if I keep going, then it's going to hurt me, which is also going to hurt the consumers of whatever it is that I'm doing, because I'm not giving them everything that I need.

Lance Johnson  17:24

Yeah, they talk about work life balance that book I alluded to in yesterday's BNI meeting.

Kathryn Gerhards  17:31

I have it on hold.

Lance Johnson  17:32

Yeah, nice. When your personal life is compromised by your work or your work is compromised by personal, it's that balance, that routine that you know, creates that happiness, and there's always going to be work And then the funny thing about it is everybody's replaceable And once you realize that, you just got to figure out that balance that makes work happy you happy balance and exercise And when people achieve that, that's what I see, Whether it's financial, personal health, it's just they're happier.

Adrian  18:18

All right, Kathryn, I get the funniest question in my mind. What are you most excited about right now?

Kathryn Gerhards  18:27

That's such a heavy question.

Adrian  18:30

Heavy and big.

Kathryn Gerhards  18:32

Yeah, but good, just immediately the sun is shining in Portland, which just feels like such a relief.

Adrian  18:41

That was five minutes of it.

Kathryn Gerhards  18:42

I know. It's awesome. But I really think just reflecting on that question is the unlimited growth potential of every person, and every position, and every opportunity. I think we're all part of a networking group. That has been really awesome. I feel like there's been a lot of momentum and growth and just having conversations with 30 professionals every week, just really isn't inspiring for what the potential options are and something that I really like is thinking about things in a different way. So, instead of just saying, this is the way that it's always been, this is how we're going to do it, why not try this other thing, or think about it in a different way, or even talking about the business that I do with people who have no idea what my day to day looks like, but hearing like, oh, have you ever considered this or that is really inspiring to me and like that's what gets me out of bed every day is like man, what can I do differently today? How can I make this better? How can I think about this differently and ultimately support people. I work in a nonprofit, which is different than other positions. But at the end of the day, we're all providing a service to people or to improve their life in some way. That's exciting to me is like, how can what can I learn today that I can pass on or what can what nugget of wisdom can I give to you that might help you or whatever it is? Just gets me excited. I think if you're not doing that, then what are you doing?

Adrian  20:20

Yeah, I love that. I've always prescribed that idea that you can learn something from everyone. However small, it's cool to see that reflecting in your life.

Rob Delavan  20:31

It's really an attitude. I think, why the four of us can have connected the way that we have with our individual relationships, of course, but it's that attitude of you're either going to grow or you're going to die, you're growing, you're like, how do we get better and there's a personal nature of that the personal growth, business, whether it be nonprofit, it doesn't matter. Like you said, you're even though you're nonprofit, you're still providing a service and there is technically an element of compensation for that, everybody that's doing that work has to still eat. So, it's a different angle, I guess. But still the same thing. It goes back to the personal growth.

Lance Johnson  21:16

Right, and if we're helping people, and we're growing, it doesn't feel like work, you're enjoying what you're doing. Because you are getting personal growth, you are helping other people. It's not really a job. I know, it's a job, you get paid for it. But the time goes faster, because you're enjoying what you're doing. So, that's kind of a little bit of Utopia right there if you think about it.

Rob Delavan  21:44

Especially in your line of work when things go hard. to the left, right.

Kathryn Gerhards  21:50

Yeah, and I just think like something that's super cool about this networking group, but also maybe just the times in general, is that everybody wants everyone to succeed equally and it's not like, well, I have this piece of knowledge, and I'm going to keep it to myself. So, I can be this person over here by myself. It's really like, how do we all work together and what does that look like it? There's just so many things to learn and grow and develop through that. It's exciting to bring it back.

Lance Johnson  22:18

I am just still trying to figure out if Rob even likes me.

Adrian  22:23

Work on him first.

Lance Johnson  22:25

He likes when I spend his money.

Rob Delavan  22:28

Oh, man, don't get me started, Lance.

Lance Johnson  22:30

Well, that's awesome.

Rob Delavan  22:33

Thank you for sharing that.

Adrian  22:36

All right, folks. So, this is part one of three. We're going to have Kathryn with us for a couple more episodes and we're going to dig deeper into where she's at now and where she's headed with this career with Rise services, such a fantastic company that provides much needed services. You guys are in a number of different states, aren't you? You're spread out. You got a bunch of stuff in California, just a fan. Check out the company. We've got a link here on the website. We've got Kathryn's email, her phone, you can call her up, you can text her a picture of your dog.

Lance Johnson  23:10

I'm excited. I met Kathryn when we had a great one, the one has like a month and a half ago and it was just awesome and you're exciting to listen to it. The BNI group, very articulate, there's a lot of great things that are surrounding you. I can't wait to see where you're going to be one year, three years from now. So, great job and keep it up girl.

Adrian  23:37

Yeah, but and having a positive impact on so many people's lives. We're going to get again into it further, but the way that Rise operates, and the piece of the puzzle that you are at rise is going to be very cool. A lot of career opportunities for folks within this, this really large company So, more to come. We've got our websites up on the screen. If you're watching us on video, if you're an audio links are going to be in the description. You can get to us Delevan Realty with Rob Delavan ROI financial advisors, Lance Johnson, Mr. brilliant at the basics himself and then Adrian Shermer, your friendly neighborhood loan officer. We have also got links to Kathryn's site on there. I think that about wraps it up for us guys.

Rob Delavan  24:21

Rise services inc.org and we'll have all of that there

Lance Johnson  24:26

So, thank you very much. Pleasure to have you on. All right, looking forward to the next one.

Kathryn Gerhards  24:30

Thank you so much.

Guest Kathryn Gerhards 2 of 3

Adrian  00:02

Hello future millionaires and welcome back to the get rich slow podcasts. We're your hosts, Adrian Shermer, Rob Delavan and Mr. brilliant at the basics. Lance Johnson. Good morning, gentlemen.

Lance Johnson  00:12

Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Kathryn, I'm excited to record with you again. It's awesome to have you back.

Kathryn Gerhards  00:21

Thank you.

Adrian  00:22

Yeah, we're back with Kathryn. Episode two of three exploring her life, her career and the wonderful thing she does with the company she's with. You can find us online on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon, music, YouTube, and a number of different streaming services. If you've got one you love, please let us know we'd love to hop on that platform. As I said, today is all about Kathryn Gerhard and specifically, Rice Services Incorporated, which is a wonderful organization. Kathryn was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, she has a BA in Psychology with a minor in American Sign Language and since graduating in 2012, she's worked with nonprofits providing support to underserved communities and yesterday was really all about Kathryn's very storied history, you've been through a lot that the work experience column is full of. I don't know it’s like strength training. You've picked up the heavyweights at this point, I know I did a shot put in high school, you do it with a heavier ball, and then you compete with something lighter. I think the work you're doing now is still extremely valuable. But you're not getting bit as much right now I hear. So, that's good. But mostly just that little guy, he doesn't seem to ferocious  and today is more about getting to know what you're doing currently, and how you're making positive impacts on the community that you work in.

Rob Delavan  01:48

Okay, Kathryn, let me kick us off here. So, tell us about your business, and what makes you so passionate about it and then we'll follow up with what makes you different, and sets you apart.

Kathryn Gerhards  02:07

Awesome. So, Rice Services is a nonprofit that provides support to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities all across the state. So, that's what we do, we have a bunch of different services, service models that we provide supports to a bunch of different offices. But at the end of the day, what we're doing is providing support to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. So, what that could look like is just really helping them live as independently as possible. Depending on if they're two years old, or 80 years old, we're focused on how to help them be as independent as possible. So, if that's learning social skills, playing games, going to the park, that kind of stuff, or if it's going grocery shopping, paying bills, making sure to take medications, whatever it looks like, it's a really dynamic position, because the people that we work with are super dynamic. So, this is what you do every day. But the easiest way to sum it up is just helping people live as independently as possible.

Rob Delavan  03:07

Obviously, your passion shines through on this, this is incredible work. You are making a difference.

Kathryn Gerhards  03:16

Yeah, definitely.

Rob Delavan  03:19

So, you're making that difference, what sets you apart and this can either be your role or Rice's, where's that come in?

Kathryn Gerhards  03:28

I think what sets us apart is we are, and this is why I love what I do is we are really all about personality and fit. So, the people that we support are super dynamic. They really, they range in ages, interests, location, etc. So, we're always trying to find the support workers that will match and be a good fit for that person. Because it's not just about you need the support, here's a person make it work. It's like, we're really trying to find someone who is going to be a good person for you to help teach you those skills or build a connection with you or have that rapport. So, that's a big focus of what we do every day, is trying to find good matches and then everybody what makes my job really fun is that everybody that works at Rise, really wants to work at Rice, and everyone really cares. Genuinely at the end of the day, what we're doing is trying to provide the best support that we can. So, we're all on the same team working towards the same goal and it's just a fun environment to work with. Because everybody's there for the right reasons and we get to be super creative. Because we work with people, we don't work with widgets. So, it's not like hey, this is how you solve this problem. It's always like the world is changing and this is what's happening and this is the person that we have today and this is their response. So, how do we adapt and change what we're doing to be the best that we can Be for that person and not everybody at what works for one person isn't going to work for that another person and what worked five years ago for recruitment doesn't work today, even a year ago with COVID, things have totally changed. So, what I look forward to every day is just thinking creatively and doing things different and having the opportunity to change up what I'm doing, and try to solve the same problem in a different way.

Rob Delavan  05:29

So, your product, every organization has a product. Your product, even though your nonprofit, but your product is literally making people with developmental disabilities, their lives better by connecting them with people who want to pour into them, and frankly, get paid to do it which is kind of powerful.

Kathryn Gerhards  05:51

Yeah, we don't sell anything. We don't make a profit. It's hard to say like, at the end of the day, we sold 10 widgets, or whatever we do. But at the end of the day, did you try as hard as you can as you make a connection, did you make somebody smile today? Those are the types of things that you can't quantify. But it's more of an internal feeling of like, man, it was awesome or today, we've been working all day or all year on how helping this person memories their address, and they memorized it and we did it and it's those types of things that we do every day.

Rob Delavan  06:36

Wow, that's powerful.

Adrian  06:38

All right. Kathryn, I love asking you these questions. Because honestly, I was a little embarrassed that I didn't know that you guys existed because it's such a wonderful organization. I think sometimes we feel in the world that there's not enough being done for people like this. This impacts me personally, I had a brother who had Down syndrome, it's incredibly difficult for people who are even high functioning to operate in this world and it's really great that the services that your company provides exists. So, I can't thank you enough for what you do. I want to ask, what do you get asked most by your clients and what's the number one pain point that you solve for them?

Kathryn Gerhards  07:19

That's a great question. I was reflecting on this question and there are a couple of things that we hear all the time. Number one, the biggest issue that we have is that there aren't enough people to do this work. So, we have 500 people sitting on a waitlist right now waiting for that person across the state and they're just waiting. They're just Oregon. So, this is a service that they want, that they know that they need that they know that they'll benefit from, and we just don't have the people. So, I would say I guess the number one question I get asked is when are you going to find my person, how are you finding my person? When am I going to get my person and that's the hope that we're always trying to solve is, who do we have? How do we match people and how do we make the best match. The biggest kind of issue with that is financing. People wanting to do this work hourly wage, it is more of an entry level position. So, trying to get people who want to do this work, want to stay and want to build that connection and it's great when we get people who we've had multiple people who this is their like, first job, and then they move on with their career, but they stay a natural support for that individual, because they've built that connection, and now they're part of their network versus being a paid support. So, that's kind of the dream. But I would say that's the biggest what we do every day. Our biggest hurdle is just literally having that people that want to do the work.

Rob Delavan  08:56

How many people Kathryn do you employ, right now compared to the 500 positions that you're trying to fill?

Kathryn Gerhards  09:02

We have about 650 employees in the state.

Rob Delavan  09:06

Well, that's just a small organization.

Adrian  09:11

If I can ask just a quick follow up, what's the ratio? I'm sure everyone requires a different level of care, but you hire someone and that one person gets assigned to a single recipient of care.

Kathryn Gerhards  09:23

It's a good question, it depends and in the Portland metro area, the majority of our clients are individuals that we support live at home with their parents. So, the family unit gets to set how many hours they want a week, or how much support that they get. So, they could have access to 700 staffed hours, but they might only want five or 10 or 15 or 20 a week. So, that's another thing that we do with our matching is if somebody comes to us and just wants part time work, great. You only want to work three days a week. Here's a family that only wants three days a week, and so we match them together but if you want 40 hours a week and then we might match you with two or three individuals that you work with one on one. But you would go to set several houses throughout the week. So, that's part of that fit that we're working on, as well as like, where do you live? Who are you looking for? What are the hours you want? What's your personality? Who do we have?

Rob Delavan  10:17

Your HR is busy.

Lance Johnson  10:21

Well, I'm kind of interested as the financial advisor, how do you get funding, you got 650 people and you got to step up. But how does that work as far as your funding is concerned?

Kathryn Gerhards  10:36

We are state funded. So, all of our money that we get comes from the state through Disability Services. If a person is diagnosed with a developmental disability, they take what's called an owner or an Oregon needs assessment and that is like a 200-question questionnaire that spits out a number that says this is how many hours the state will pay for you to receive services. So, it could be 20 hours a month and those are probably little littler kiddos, because it's expected that parents are the natural support for two-year-old. So, there will be a little bit of help that the state will provide all the way up to 700 hours, which is pretty much 24/7 And that's probably for adults or teenagers who are getting close to adulthood that really can't depend on parents to provide 24/7 hours’ worth of support. so, the state does all of that, figuring out and this year, we've been in legislation for years and years, the right model for this service has never been fully funded. But as of this year, the hope is that they are fully funding the right model. so, we're all looking towards getting a wage increase from the state because everybody that provides the service gets the same wage and kind of pigeonholes us into what we can pay staff because of what they'll pay us. So, that's something that's on the horizon.

Lance Johnson  12:09

For a good thing that Rob, Adrian, I don't take that questionnaire, because we probably be fine.

Rob Delavan  12:19

I'm sure. You know our limitations.

Kathryn Gerhards  12:24

Yeah. You guys kept us on the head earlier, as well as like, you wouldn't know about rise unless you know about rights, you wouldn't know unless someone who works for us.

Adrian  12:35

There is no rights billboards.

Kathryn Gerhards  12:37

Yeah, right.

Adrian  12:38

You're paying for a box seat at the Blazers, it all goes to help.

Lance Johnson  12:46

I think it's interesting that you all get paid the same. So, in any hockey team, and any business organization, there are your rock stars, and then there's people that need to get caught up and there's just a bell-shaped curve above quality of services, we all get paid the same. So, it's interesting, different than the private world.

Kathryn Gerhards  13:09

So, something that people ask is, why can this agency pay more than your agency, and it's usually because they don't offer benefits, or they don't offer HR or they don't offer supervisors or they don't offer, they cut the overhead to give the people more money, which is great, but then they're set up to fail. Because what happens if something goes wrong? What happens if you get hurt? What happens if you need time off, or whatever it is. So, that's another thing that the state is looking at is, how to the head of the agencies that are doing this work? All have the same expectations of employees and the only other thing that I wanted to just make sure to say is, you all know what a CNA is, right? If I say that acronym.

Rob Delavan  13:56

Nursing assistant.

Adrian  13:57

[Inaudible]

Kathryn Gerhards  14:04

That's another acronym that you know what that means. But if I say DSP, which is what we employ, you've probably never heard of, don't know what that stands for or have no idea.

Lance Johnson  14:13

I would say [Inaudible 14:16].

Kathryn Gerhards  14:15

So, that's another mission of what we're trying to do is make DSP which is people that provide the support and CNA, a similar like household term, because there are 1000s in the state of Oregon alone and you don't know it.

Rob Delavan  14:34

Is its direct service provider.

Kathryn Gerhards  14:38

Direct support professional.

Rob Delavan  14:41

It is a certification you're going through.

Kathryn Gerhards  14:48

Yeah, you get trained through us and then by the time you're done training, you are a direct support professional. It's not like, you can't go to school for it. So, it's a little bit different but it is a career path and then people can take

Rob Delavan  15:01

Interesting, that's fascinating.

Lance Johnson  15:07

I love asking this question. But Kathryn, right now, in your career in your life, what are you most excited about right now?

Kathryn Gerhards  15:17

This is a good question. I feel excited, I've reflected on this a little bit, because I feel excited every day, I am a goal-oriented person. and then I realized through this process that I set like, tiny goals. I'm like, oh, by the end of this week, I want to do XYZ or by tomorrow, I need to do these things. I guess I just didn't think about this a lot and what I'm really most excited about is, as you guys, you've probably heard of COVID. Before, I don't know if that has hit your business, but we are coming into a new normal and it's been really hard to plan or set long term goals, because especially with working with people, there's no way to like remote in that one on one service with people with developmental disabilities. So, everything's been on pause, or short-term planning of like, okay, let's get through this week, let's get through this month, let's wait until we hear back from this agency or whatever. So, what I'm most excited about right now is this like new normal of we're getting back in person, we're figuring it out, we're opening things back up and we're in a different world than we were a pre COVID. Things are more digitized, people are expecting different things out of a work environment, people are job searching differently than they have before. And there's just more and different awareness and opportunities. I don't think there's no way to know what that's going to look like yet. So, every day is just a new day, a new time. I'm just really excited for the untapped possibilities that are out there right now and what the next six months are going to bring, as well figure out this new normal.

Rob Delavan  17:09

So, you're definitely evolving. Your business model, you're in transition.

Kathryn Gerhards  17:13

Always.

Rob Delavan  17:15

Interesting. Is there some specific examples of like how you're hiring today versus what you were doing before? Are you still working on that?

Kathryn Gerhards  17:26

Well, we went pretty much fully remote as much as possible. So, pre COVID, we didn't do any virtual interviews, they were all in person. And that was just how you got a job and now we're then we were like, okay, now we're going to go back all in person, because we've been all virtual and now, we're finding, especially in the Portland metro area, our office is in Tigard. So, if you live in Troutdale, you're not wanting you're not going to drive to Tiger to do an interview for a job that you don't even know if you're going to get. So, that's a new pivot that we've done of like, okay, let's offer both, like, why not? We can do both. So, why does it have to be all or nothing. Job Fairs are another thing. So, we're at a lot of colleges, we do a lot of presentations. Job Fairs used to be super popular hundreds of students and now, virtual fairs, were not super successful, and back to in person haven't been super successful, because people don't want to be in a large group. So, that's another thing of like, okay, how do we have the same impact to the same student body? But differently, how do you get people to show up virtually or how do you get people to show up in person or how do you get your message out? So, that would be an example of something we're still figuring out and I don't think anybody knows yet what the answer to that is, because it's just all.

Rob Delavan  18:47

You said colleges, do you work with high schools also or is this an 18 plus position?

Kathryn Gerhards  18:53

You have to be 18 and over. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the people that we support, but for our job pool that shrinks it a little bit. But we have we actually have a college president or high school presentation and our Eugene office today, I believe, talking to graduating high school students, because it is a career and nonprofits, like we talked about in the last podcast. If you want to get into a nonprofit, you might not know what you're getting into until you're there. So, having the opportunity to talk to people that work at nonprofits to learn about different nonprofits, what's going on, what does it look like, I think is really valuable. So, the more we can get out into the community, the better,

Rob Delavan  19:38

Interesting. The beauty of that, though, is graduating seniors or maybe partway through their senior year, that sort of thing. These are flexible positions. So, as you evolve and target that and it's going to be fun to see how you tackle these problems. I just remember last year sometime when you and I first met, it was like, hold on, Kathryn, you have how many people on staff, you have an incredible amount of influence, that you're hiring all of these people like, Whoa, this is a big job that you do. So, obviously, it's exciting and we can hear your excitement and passion on this. So, keep up the good work. That's all. I have a 10th of the impact you do and that might be over egoic myself here. So, it's incredible.

Adrian  20:44

All right, Kathryn, thank you again for joining us. To our audience. I just want to say, we don't ask very much on here, we're mostly looking to preach the gospel of financial literacy, this is a free thing that we do. Obviously, our podcast doesn't cost any money to listen to and we love that we want to spread knowledge throughout everybody. I hope that as many people as possible get to hear these things that can help them grow their wealth, but I am going to ask that if you know someone, please get them in touch with Kathryn. This is incredibly powerful and important work. If you know someone who's graduating, if you know someone who's retiring, if you know someone who just loves the idea of helping people. This is an awesome career that clearly Kathryn you've shown us. You can have a ton of flexibility to if you only got 10 or 20 hours a week, you can still be part of this wonderful movement and it's sad to me that COVID impacted you guys the way it did in my mind. For some reason, I thought that these services would just kind of plough through that, but I understand that there were a number of logistical issues that you ran into and you guys , t sounds like you were hit as hard as some of the hardest hit industries like restaurants and other groups. So, Kathryn, where can where can people find you?

Kathryn Gerhards  21:53

Yeah, you can find me you can send me an email. My email address is Kathryng@Riseservices inc.org. Or you can text or call me by phone at 503-345-8001 and Rise services also has a Facebook and social media, Facebook, Instagram, all that good social media stuff at Rise Services, Inc. So, you can look us up there as well.

Adrian  22:21

Awesome, awesome. Rise services inc.org. Check out their website, find out what they're doing. Again, if you know someone, let them know this is an awesome opportunity. You guys are all over the place to write so you don't have to come to the Portland metro. This is we talk about work from home the freedom of being able to work from anywhere. You could do this anywhere because they need help everywhere. So, again, please if you can think of someone check out the show notes. If you want to contact any of us directly, you can also check out our website get rich, slow podcast.com and thanks so much for listening, folks. Kathryn, we look forward to wrapping this up with Episode Three where we talk about the future of Rise services and where you guys are headed.

Kathryn Gerhards  23:03

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Rob Delavan  23:04

Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, Kathryn.

Guest Kathryn Gerhards 3 of 3

Adrian  00:02

Hello future millionaires and welcome back to the get rich slow podcast. We are your hosts, Adrian Shermer, Rob Delavan and Lance Johnson. Good morning, gentlemen.

Rob Delavan  00:12

Was that a lot?

Adrian  00:13

Why don't I do that sometimes?

Rob Delavan  00:17

That's your journey.

Adrian  00:25

We are joined today again by Kathryn. Kathryn, thanks so much for your time. Episode three of three. We've had a ton of fun getting to learn a little bit about what you do. For our listeners, you can find us on Apple podcast, Spotify, audible Amazon music, we're on YouTube, a number of other streaming services as well. As I said today, Kathryn Gerhards, Rise Services Inc. is the company she works for, fantastic nonprofit. Kathryn was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She's got a BA in Psychology with a minor in American Sign Language and since graduating in 2012, she has worked for nonprofits providing supports to underserved communities. Yesterday, we learned all about what Kathryn and Rise is doing right now as they are actively working to rebuild the group of employees that they had before COVID, put a big notch and everything. Today, we're going to learn more about what's ahead for Kathryn and Rise.

Rob Delavan  01:34

So, let's kick it off. Kathryn, what are your three biggest goals right now?

Kathryn Gerhards  01:41

I would say my first goal is a personal goal. My hope is to be able to buy a house this year and give my dogs the life that they deserve. He saw one of them, but I do have to. So, that's my underlying what drives me every day. I need a bigger yard.

Rob Delavan  01:57

[Cross Talk], gotcha. You're chaos person, right?

Kathryn Gerhards  02:08

Yes, I am. I tell them all the time, they need to start pulling their weight around here, get a job. But for work, I guess my biggest goals right now are to have all the individuals that want services staff. So, that's a huge goal. Because there isn't a limit for people with developmental disabilities, we're not going to like serve them all. That's not a thing but I would love to get back up to having 100 or 1000 staff, we have about 1000 individual staffed pre COVID. So, I'd love to get back up there. So, that's one of our big goals and we talked about this a little bit in our last podcast, but just really being a household name. So, having people know Rise services, what that is, knowing what a direct support professional is, and having that acronym as synonymous with a CNA, or just having that be something that people know about and all of those things are my goals for life right now.

Rob Delavan  03:12

If I remember correctly, about 650 employees at the moment. So, you got to hire another 350 people. That's all, no big deal. Right?

Kathryn Gerhards  03:20

Yeah. Just to get to where we were pre COVID?

Rob Delavan  03:26

For a year. What would the stretch goal once you hit 1000? Where would you start to get to the point where you're fully staffed?

Kathryn Gerhards  03:37

Oh, maybe like 1200. But if we got to that point, then we probably just open another office and tap into another community. So, we have eight offices across the state. But we're not in every state or not in every city in every state. So, the potential is pretty unlimited. This as long as we have the support of the staff to get it done.

Rob Delavan  04:05

Okay, so, just little tiny goals here. No big deal, right? Easy peasy, easy cheese. You're incredible.

Adrian 04:18

Alright, so, then the follow up question is inevitable. Who should we contact you with? Who should we be on the lookout for in the communities that we're in?

Kathryn Gerhards  04:26

Yeah, that's a great question. So, I would love to have a conversation with anyone who is interested in just what nonprofits do. A really cool thing about getting to know all of you guys is that you're all in the for-profit space. I've been asked so many questions about, but what is a nonprofit and what does that look like? So, people who are just genuinely curious about nonprofit work, I feel like your kind of in one world or the other. So, I'm happy to just talk about what that would look like. I would also love to talk to me Anybody who hates working retail, I talked about a kid last week who was quitting my job tomorrow, I hate retail, I want to do something different. I don't know what that is like, who loves working in retail? I don't know, not me, it was not my jam. So, anyone who is like feeling like they're stuck in a reel to reel, tape, reel, retail, there we go. I'm trying to get world and wants to change wants to know what else is out there, I'd be happy to talk to them. Young professionals who are maybe deciding between for profit nonprofits, or just like what do I do when I graduate from college, I'd be happy to talk to those folks and then just another group of people that I would love to talk to you or people who might be interesting and interested in fostering. So, they are always looking at the statistics, there's probably like, this is probably wrong. So, don't quote me. But I think there's like 50,000 people in Oregon who need foster parents, and about 10,000 people providing a service and so, the need is huge. So, if people are interested, what would it look like to foster, if that's something that they're interested in adults, maybe empty nesters who are just looking for a way to get some more support around what it would look like to open their heart and home to somebody with disabilities, I'd be happy to have that connection as well. So, just a few folks in the world, I'd be happy to talk to you.

Rob Delavan  06:35

So, I'll throw this to Lance is a little bit of a follow up. But I'm thinking in my head like specific examples. So, sports clubs trying to target kids that are right at that 18, you want to catch them instead of going in and working at the mall, making slurpees or I don't know, whatever you do in retail officer. This concept of, okay, my kids are in swim team, and there's a bunch of kids that are right on that cutting edge. Maybe out groups like church, youth groups of the graduating kids every year, just trying to figure out like, Lance, this is this is me, you've been mentoring me for the last basically decade to think geometrically. Can you throw maybe some examples out there, could we get instead of interviewing one person at a time, can I introduce you to the youth pastor at a big church that's graduating 100 or 200 kids, you see where I'm going with this?

Kathryn Gerhards  07:53

Yeah, definitely. I'm just trying to think of options that you haven't already said. We are really like a word of mouth. That's definitely an interesting thought of, how do we get in front of people with more influence versus just like one or two people? One or two people are great. But what would that look like? That's definitely getting my wheels spinning a little bit more.

Lance Johnson  08:15

Oh, that's where the profit, nonprofit changes guidelines is you're part of, you're part of the community through the state service. So, it exists where the funding comes from taxpayers’ dollars that are being utilized and divvied up right for profit, is they look at it and say, okay, well, we're profits. So, how do we get out there and maximize? Social media, podcasting, website, design, all those things, those marketing ideas, which is what you're really talking about is how do you market the company. So, the fact that Rise, you don't really hear about you don't see a billboard, you don't such and such, but yet, there's a huge demand and need. I think, if I was a business consulting coming in, and looking at reset, I would sit there and say, the only thing that stopped you is to get your employees paid more. They're going to talk more about, and there's a fine line, a balancing act there because it costs taxpayers money for the benefits. But then how do we do all those things you would do as a for profit organization and how do we help you expand the word of mouth other than word of mouth? There's other things so that there are more interviews happening on a week to week basis, that there's already a demand out there for those services. I think that that'd be a great conversation to have with the owners of the company. I bet there's a bunch of things you could be doing that really put you more on the map across Oregon and other states. How do we help you do that and that's the difference between nonprofit versus profit we have to feed our kids, based on that the marketing that we do to bring business in. We don't have a state funded account. So, that would be fun and interesting to do.

Adrian 10:36

I even posed the question here, Rob and Lance, you guys both hire a number of different employees. How much more impressed would you be if you had a young person come in, and it said, I worked for rise services, nonprofit, taking care of people in need, versus I worked at Wetzel’s pretzels at the mall. No offence, I'm a German, I love pretzels. But it's an interesting thing to put on your resume, even if that's not the career path for you. So, I think it's great that you're reaching out to young people, because I think it's a stepping stone, if it's that job while you're in college, even because it sounds like part time is very feasible. What a cool way to spend that spare time you've got and make that bit of whatever it is your money. Maybe it's something a little more ethical, but yeah.

Lance Johnson  11:26

All right, Kathrynne, here's always the interesting questions like the interview question. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Kathryn Gerhards  11:35

We talked about this in episode two, I've set so many goals for myself, just like day to day, week to week, and the five-year plan was just really tough for me. I realized one of my goals is to create a dream board because I don't know where I'm going with all of this energy that I have to do things. But in five years, I will be 37 and I don't even know what the world is going to look like in five years, like we were talking about coming out of COVID. Everything is changing. dynamics are changing. I want to buy a house, have another dog maybe, we talked about that.

Lance Johnson  12:19

A third dog?

Kathryn Gerhards  12:22

Yeah, they all need help but what I can say is like, I am open to opportunities, and I'm open to growing in a way and it's so hard for me to picture because this is where I'm going, then I would just be tunnel vision to that place and that's not where I am. I'm open to learning and growing. I'm open to a world in five years, that is something that I can't imagine yet because maybe it doesn't exist, or maybe I haven't landed in the right spot to get me there. I don't know, not having a plan feels pretty freeing to me. But I want to be doing something with my life working in a field that inspires me, whatever that looks like. So, helping people, having the opportunity to be creative, learning new things, all of those things are values that I value to be repetitive in a day to day. So, it's going to be something I'm going to be somewhere cool in five years, I just don't necessarily know what that's going to look like,

Rob Delavan  13:37

You're already doing that you're making an impact. So, that's what's interesting. Lance is all about having that dream, and what's that dream? Yeah, there you go. He's pointing to it. For those of you that are watching on YouTube, he's about having the dream and then how do you actually transform that dream into a goal and its basically metrics right? You put a line in the sand? Lance, am I saying this right. So, maybe you can finish your analogy.

Adrian  14:09

You are brilliant at the basic’s methodology here.

Lance Johnson  14:11

Well, yeah, I often say, what's the difference between a dream and a goal. When you're walking down the Sands of time, and the day you draw a line in the sand that you want your dream to be reality is the day it becomes a goal. If you have no timeframe, the dreams just say in this euphoria type utopia, that it never really takes fruition or take shape because you never really set yourself with a specific timeframe of reaching that. But the day you decide I'm going to have this by then, is the day and it doesn't have to be perfect. It's just a day you made your dream a goal and it becomes more of a reality the day you put a timeline on it.

Rob Delavan  15:05

I'll go back to Kathryn, I know you're already doing it. So, that's what's cool and you are making those, those big chunk steps. You even if it means adding to your PAC, and buying a house, and going through all of that process, it's going to be fun to watch. That's all I got to say. It's not every day that we get a chance to talk to a woman of your power, so to speak. That's like, whoa, you're doing awesome things. So, thank you for sharing that with us.

Kathryn Gerhards  15:43

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Adrian 15:47

Thank you to our audience for joining us again, for another episode of the get rich, slow podcast. Kathryn Gerhards is her name, Rise services is the company that she is part of. Kathryn, where can we find you and where can we send our friends, family members, members of various groups that were part of and part of our community that might benefit from becoming part of this team?

Kathryn Gerhards  16:06

Definitely. So, our office in the Portland metro area, if you are in the Portland metro area, we have offices all across the state, but our office just moved and we do walk in Wednesdays. So, any Wednesday, anybody can drop by our office and get interviewed on the spot and learn more about rise services. So, the address is 7100 Southwest Hampton Street, and that suite 126 in Tigard. So, any Wednesday, if you want to stop by and send your friends that would be that'd be awesome. Or if you want to have more of an informal conversation, you can reach me by email. It's Kathryng@Riseservices inc.org or you can text or call me at 503-345-8001.

Adrian  16:51

That wraps us up for episode three of three with Kathryn at Rise services. Rise services inc.org as their site, check them out. Obviously, they've got walking opportunities as well. If someone wants to come and take a look at what a career might look like in this field, you can reach our respective sites and contact us directly Adrian, Robin Lance all in the show notes, links right through our website and we've got a few upcoming events as well. You can check those out at ROI-fa.com/events. I know some of the big ones we've got coming or on August 20. We've got our summer bash and there's some photos with Santa in Lake Oswego office November 12. There's also a number of events in between, though there's always sip and mingle events. We do some featuring of local businesses and different what do we have in this educational moments that we've worked into it recently that I really like. You can learn a lot and Kathryn, you said there's an event coming up for you as well.

Kathryn Gerhards  17:59

Yeah, we're going to be doing a fundraiser in the Tigard area in September. So, keep an eye out for more details about that.

Adrian  18:09

Yep, check out their site. Check out their socials as the details unfold on that. Thank you again to our audience and we'll catch you next week on the get rich live podcast.

Rob Delavan  18:16

Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Kathryn Gerhards  18:18

Thank you.

Adrian  18:19

Thank you.

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Episode 53

Episode 54

Episode 55