A Conversation with Katherine Ambrose: Founder of Senior Home Coach & Senior Industry Influencer

Summary

Katherine Ambrose, founder of America's Senior Home Coach, shares her journey in the senior real estate industry and how she started her own television show, Empowering Seniors on PBS.

She emphasizes the importance of saying yes to opportunities and following your intuition.

Katherine discusses the unique challenges that real estate agents and other professionals face when entering the senior niche and offers advice on how to approach this market with a heart-centered and community-focused mindset.

She also talks about her seminars and workshops, the Senior Home Coach platform, and her future plans to empower seniors and help them plan for their future.

Takeaways

Say yes to opportunities and follow your intuition

Approach the senior niche with a heart-centered and community-focused mindset

Create connections and build trust with clients

Help seniors imagine their future selves to empower them to maintain control

Empower seniors to plan for their future and make informed decisions

Focus on serving others and making a difference in their lives

Sound Bites

"If you feel like, we all deal with imposter syndrome, whether we are valid, whether we have a good enough message or... if we're good enough, if our voice is good enough, our facial expressions, if we look professional, just everything about us, we just judge ourselves so harshly."

"The hardest thing is getting started."

"If you don't plan your future by design, then it's going to come at you by default."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:12 Starting a Television Show

06:15 The Senior Home Coach Platform

09:21 Challenges in the Senior Niche

11:20 Empowering Realtors and Professionals

16:29 Seminars and Workshops

20:26 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

23:18 Facing Fear and Climbing Walls

26:11 The Power of Saying Yes

35:37 Activities and Events at the Conference

40:03 Future Plans for Senior Home Coach

Katherine's LinkedIn Profile

Transcript

Janet Engel (00:02.107)
Hello everyone and thank you for being with me today. I have a very special guest. Her name is Catherine Ambrose and she is the founder of America's Senior Home Coach. She has been working in the senior real estate industry since 2018 and has a very large following on Facebook, also on LinkedIn. She is

a TV personality. Catherine, tell us about yourself.

Katherine Ambrose (00:36.866)
Hi, Janet, thank you so much for having me on. I'm so enamored with your contribution on all of these topics with your podcast, and so it's an honor to be here. Well, I've actually been in housing my entire life, real estate, since I was 21 years of age. So really always been fascinated with helping people decide where they're going to live. And then later, helping people buy and sell the homes that they live in.

which branched out into commercial real estate and corporate relocation and all of that. By 2018, I was a little bored with just general real estate, wanted to create my own lane, and thought back to my old candy striper days when I was a Girl Scout in seventh and eighth grade, and they took us on a field trip to...

nursing home and I decided to keep going back week after week as a volunteer which my grandparents called being a candy striper. So I really enjoyed that and I feel like after a lifetime of serving in the real estate industry I really love that kind of come full circle.

Janet Engel (01:33.659)
Bye.

Katherine Ambrose (01:42.626)
and decided in 2018 I'm going to devote the rest of my life to helping serve seniors. It just feels good. And I knew it was a place that I could really focus, but I had no idea what kind of doors it would open and what would really result out of that.

Janet Engel (01:58.605)
Well, that's great. You have a great story. So tell us about your your journey and specifically we really want to learn about first how you started your own television show.

Katherine Ambrose (02:13.004)
Well, that was a surprise to me. I knew about the idea of doing a monthly seminar series. And I thought, that's for me. A monthly seminar where I can present all kinds of topics that would be helpful to seniors that really don't have anything to do necessarily with what I do for a living, but just good stuff for people to learn. It could be about fitness and communicating with adult children, fire safety. I mean, you name it, we've covered it.

Early on in starting the seminars, which I launched in January of 2019, PBS, Kansas, Channel 8 television came to me and said, we like your topics and we wonder if you would turn it into a television program. So I was just absolutely stunned. I really felt like I wasn't prepared maybe to be a camera on camera person. mean, I was just absolutely in shock, but I also knew, know that you don't say yes to some

amazing door being open like that. And the topics that we cover are really important in that this was something that I could contribute and that I would learn from. And I just said yes. So it was a monthly show for the first season. Then I was asked to make it a weekly program. And I said yes to that without actually really knowing what that meant, how many episodes a year that would be. And but anyway, I've just kept saying yes, and I've learned a lot from doing it and really have enjoyed doing

So the show is called Empowering Seniors and you can find it on PBS .org if you type in Empowering Seniors. The history of the show is on there. Later I was asked my opinion on using my financial model that supports the show to support other PBS Kansas programming and I was flattered. And at the same time I said, I don't know why you would do that though just to support your other programs. Why don't you do it to support

another local program and they asked like what and I said well show for the go -to kids which is a term that we've coined meaning the adult children or the allies in your life that you turn to to help you through things as you're aging and so I said let's do show for the go -to kids and they asked what what would you call it and I just tossed out ageless enthusiasm it was my Instagram handle that I really didn't do anything with and I just kind of thought

Katherine Ambrose (04:41.196)
There's no way they'll use that. I wasn't attached to whether they used that name, but I'll be darned they stuck with it. And I found a host to host it. She's done a terrific job. She just finished up the second season.

and we're getting ready to hopefully launch a third season and we're going to pivot back to the go -to kids a little bit more because Ageless Enthusiasm became more of a lifestyle magazine for boomers and Gen X and we want to turn it around and make sure we're being very purposeful and targeted towards the viewers that are struggling with aging issues or guiding aging loved ones. So that's our plan for that.

Janet Engel (05:20.523)
Okay, well, and I know your host is Mindy East, which she is just full of enthusiasm herself. Yeah, and I love the name of the show. I think it's just ingenious. So, well, great. Tell me about the Senior Home Coach platform and how that got off the ground.

Katherine Ambrose (05:47.326)
say another happy accident. I decided a year ago that I would give myself a fourth quarter challenge to get up every day and be on Zoom to talk about real estate and housing and longevity issues primarily for real estate agents because I saw a lot of real estate agents really struggling with lead generation and career success and I thought if they knew how they could really help

are the oldest homeowners in a real positive way that they could also create their own lane and just the importance of serving seniors. And so I wanted to get that message out. I felt like getting up every day and being on Zoom would help me get personally motivated earlier in the morning, create focus for my fourth quarter, which creates focus for the new year. And so was kind of like just putting myself in the position of momentum.

Janet Engel (06:40.891)
you

Katherine Ambrose (06:44.332)
But what I learned really quickly, which was a surprise to me because I thought it would be hard to do it every day through the end of the year. What I learned quickly was how much I was getting out of it. And that was I was learning from the people getting on the call and I was getting a lot of clarity by having these conversations. And as we got closer to the end of the year,

I knew I wanted to keep it going and then it was just for a time and then it just kind of became a permanent thing. And so we're still doing those calls a year, almost a year later. And it has helped me grow my vision so much and grow my team. I invited people to come in and into my personal life and my daily business life and just be part of the day to day evolving and.

Janet Engel (07:14.66)
Mm

Katherine Ambrose (07:31.164)
never realized how great it would be. So May 1st, we actually turned it into

something official. We launched a platform called Senior Home Coach. So taking what we've been learning on the calls and turning it into something that we're building together, a collective. So rather than just a casual think tank mastermind call, turning it into something where we're working together to build the Senior Home Coach method. And so every day we're not only just talking about real estate, but we're talking about transitional moves, continuum of care, aging in place,

the placement industry, all kinds of things. Senior move management, we've talked about that from the beginning and what we've realized it's really the blending of all of these things and that if we get out of our own lane, we can help people in a much bigger, broader way.

And so I would say that it's no longer, we're not a real estate company, it's not a real estate academy, it's nothing really about real estate. There just happens to be some real estate professionals, but also placement professionals and just a blending of a lot of great people that want to serve in this silver tsunami, in this, all the challenges that are coming to us because of the aging population.

Janet Engel (08:51.707)
And I want to tell our listeners that I started joining the calls, I would say in March of, or maybe February, I don't remember, of 2024. And I really liked it. it was, the way I found out about your call, your daily Zoom call, was I had a student that was taking the CAP certification and she's a realtor.

and she told me about your call and you were encouraging people to either get the CAP certification or the CSA certification. And for a long time, I had been trying to get more realtors excited about getting CAP certified in order to create that foundation. So I jumped on your call and...

I'll tell you what I get out of it, which you didn't mention, is that you and the other experts that you have on the call talk a lot about marketing. And I, even though I'm not a realtor and I'm not a move manager and I'm not going to go in that direction, but I get a lot out of.

the marketing advice that you guys have. And in fact, just yesterday, I have a book with notes and I saw notes that I had taken during one of your calls about a month ago that said, identify the problem, what is the solution and what is the success story?

And so I wrote that down. I said, that's an excellent model. You know, any content that you create, you can just take that model and create content to those three points. So I think it's just great. And I've always said this, that realtors are the best marketers. So we can really learn a lot from your profession and your

Janet Engel (11:00.353)
expertise. So tell me what unique challenges do real estate agents that want to get into this senior niche which is huge, it's the fastest growing business there is, what are the challenges?

that they face, or not just realtors. You mentioned senior move managers, placement professionals, a lot of different professions that work in the housing industry.

Katherine Ambrose (11:36.522)
I think for realtors, first of all, there's a couple different types of realtors that might be a good match. It has to be realtor that's heart -centered, number one. But I see a lot of realtors that have become disenchanted or they don't feel as relevant as they did at one point in their career, and they feel kind of overtaken by all the changes in the market, and they're just really trying to figure out...

if it's time to hang up their hat or what are they going to do different. So this can be such a way for them to find their passion again. There's so much more to learn.

I think you can get very burned out in real estate and specializing in seniors. Now all of a sudden you have a whole new world of information to learn and different people to connect with. So it can really light people's fire that way. The other is like disenchanted healthcare people or social workers, people that think, real estate looks sexy, I'll do that. And they forget that their RN license or their occupational therapist license and background could be a perfect blend. what we're showing

people is that you can marry all of the skill and wisdom and professional experience you have.

with real estate and help people in a much bigger way. So I think those are a couple of really good examples of who this could be right for. But it's gonna be passionate, heart -centered people. And then it's thinking outside the box, and really thinking how big this is. Because real estate agents have a tendency to listen to the real estate industry and think, okay, I've got a door knock, I have to hold open houses, I'm gonna buy leads, I'm gonna call expireds, listings that fail to sell.

Katherine Ambrose (13:15.638)
I'm gonna call for sell by owners. They're gonna kind of do all these like annoying things. They think that's how they can do business. And what we're doing is we're teaching them an elevated way to work in their profession that they can work business hours because their ideal client is available during the business day and also their ideal referral partners are available during the business day. So right there, they get their personal life back and they get some dignity back.

Janet Engel (13:41.452)
Mm

Katherine Ambrose (13:43.614)
And so it's an entirely new way to work, but it's like kind of almost removing yourself from the regular real estate thing and thinking a lot bigger. I'd like to think of it as the driver's license enables you to drive wherever you want. And why don't we think about a real estate license being the same way you have.

You have a real estate license, but that's not who you are. You don't have to walk around with a realtor trademark R on your forehead and disclose to every person you meet, I'm a realtor, and here's disclosure documents. It's like, can you just calm down and be a human being that just happens to be a real estate agent, that just happens can help people with?

real estate challenges. But why don't you do something bigger, more holistic, and be the ambassador of a bigger problem and create bigger solutions. And then when it's appropriate, then maybe you can talk to someone about your senior real estate business or your senior placement business or your safety assessments that you do as an occupational therapist. So this is about thinking bigger and broader as an entrepreneur.

Janet Engel (14:52.281)
Basically creating a connection with the client and building trust and not coming in with that selling mode.

Katherine Ambrose (15:03.178)
Yes, because this is a different world that we live in. If you're going to work in the aging services field, you can't come around with that commission breath. That is a deal killer, a relationship killer. So it's about kind of approaching with more of a community outreach and a social services heart. And then you finding the opportunities to work in different ways there, but it is about

approaching more with social services approach. It's a lot more fun. It's a lot more fulfilling. And we're learning so much about how to take care of our own wellbeing and how to help our family and friends. And at the same time, we are marketing and lead generating and building referrals and building our sphere of influence, but we're doing it in a more meaningful way that definitely feels a lot better than calling for sell -by owners.

Completely different, completely different thing.

Janet Engel (16:04.987)
Catherine, tell us about your seminars and your workshops because I know you've been doing these for several years and I'm really interested in how you got started. I've learned since I started my business a few years ago that the best way you can gain business is by offering education for free and it sounds like that's what you've been doing.

Katherine Ambrose (16:29.096)
So what I told our first attendees, we invited seniors to come to our free seminar. What I told them is that as a realtor, I instinctively knew that there were a lot of challenges and issues they faced when they're exiting that last home, when they're exiting the American drive, they're selling that last home, they're having to deal with all their personal property and they need to find out about...

Medicare and all kinds of other issues. mean, there's all kinds of things that I knew our real estate clients needed information on. So I just said, I'm going to learn right along with you. So we brought in experts from different areas to educate us and ask questions. then along the way, I started getting an education that

Janet Engel (17:05.019)
Mm

Katherine Ambrose (17:16.288)
It's just been so cool and it's just because I've totally immersed myself and our senior attendees that have come have benefited greatly from it. So we just have a really great time and it was just kind of street hustle where we made cute little invitations and delivered them all over town and just did the best we could to extend these invitations through word of mouth. was our, it was very organic, very grassroots.

Very organic.

Janet Engel (17:48.495)
Well, great. And it sounds like those organic grassroots efforts are really the ones that take off and you slowly learn from them. And hopefully it doesn't cost you a lot of money out of pocket so you can afford to make mistakes. And then obviously it turned into a show on PBS. So it worked out for you.

Katherine Ambrose (18:13.196)
Well, yeah, well, it worked out. It's just, think that just saying yes to opportunities that speak to your heart, I'm a real big one on following your intuition and that it won't lead you astray. And if you feel like, we all deal with imposter syndrome, whether we are valid, whether we have a good enough message or...

if we're good enough, if our voice is good enough, our facial expressions, if we look professional, just everything about us, we just judge ourselves so harshly. And what I found is that when we are worried about how we come across or how valid we are, we're very much in our ego, which is kind of backwards thinking. When you're really letting your imposter syndrome take over and negative self -talk take over, you are in your ego.

Janet Engel (18:55.352)
Mm

Katherine Ambrose (19:01.994)
You think you're humble and that you're not worthy, but really what you're doing is you're stuck in ego. And if you would flip that around and say to yourself, you are going to do this because people need to hear what you're ready to share. Or I'm gonna bring experts in so that other people will benefit. If you think about other people instead of yourself, you'll get past that fear. And then when that imposter syndrome just creep in, that you can...

Rather than listen to self -talk, give yourself positive self -talk. So rather than just listen to those recordings in your brain, tell yourself what you're going to do and why you're going to do it. It's not about you, it's about other people. If I would have...

fallen into that trap of saying, I'm not good enough to be on PBS, Kansas television because I'm five foot one and I weigh 200 pounds and I've been in real estate my whole life and so I'm not good enough to be on TV. That would not have happened and I wouldn't have had all these learning experiences that have led from one thing to another. And so I said yes despite how I thought I looked.

how valid I was, I said yes anyway and just have worked at it. And I just think that's what we need to do if we really want to make a difference in our life and really make a difference for other people. And that saying yes and following your intuition will lead you into action and that's how you really learn.

Janet Engel (20:26.335)
Mm -hmm. Well, that's such great advice, Kathryn. That reminds me of a motivational video I saw a few years ago when I started my business by Jim Carrey, of all people, that said, he says, when a door opens, you walk through it. And I thought that was so powerful, that such a simple phrase that...

You know, so many of us, we take opportunities away from ourselves by never even trying. So I think that's great advice.

Katherine Ambrose (21:01.979)
That's beautiful.

I want to frame it and put it on a wall. That's so beautiful, Janet.

Janet Engel (21:09.595)
Jim Carrey said it. can go on YouTube.

Katherine Ambrose (21:15.574)
But that that is, that's it right there. When a door opens, you walk through it. You don't wonder, am I good enough to walk through that door? You just do it.

Janet Engel (21:23.351)
Yeah. And another one that I think a lot about, which also helped me with my entrepreneurial journey, because I've told you, I didn't know anything about business before I started my business. went to school to be an occupational therapist. I have never even taken one business or marketing class. And

So I had to arm myself with knowledge. So I'll tell you, someone that I listened to a lot was Sarah Blakely. She's the founder of Spanx. Great person, especially if you are a woman entrepreneur. She has great business advice and she has many videos on YouTube, many speeches that are available.

So another one that I heard was that fear is like a wall. you can choose to do one of two things. You walk up to it and you can choose to climb that wall even though that fear is there or you can choose to turn around and walk the other way. And so if you...

recognize the first thing is recognizing that the reason you're not doing something is due to fear accepting that it's okay to be fearful right but it's the real challenge isn't not allowing fear to control your choices and your actions

And so that's when you can choose to climb that wall, even though it will probably be uncomfortable and there's going to be a learning process.

Janet Engel (23:18.457)
But then when you get to the other side of that wall, you can figure it out slowly. But if you turn around, then you never gave yourself the opportunity. And you're going to continue to be in the same position that you've been in, which for me was being an occupational therapist, which I loved being an OT, but working in home health in basically a dead end job. And

It's like, well, I'm already doing that. So might as well climb over that wall because staying on the side of this wall is worse. Yeah.

Katherine Ambrose (23:58.486)
Good point, yeah. Well, you just never know. When you say yes, you just never know. So the seminars led to TV saying yes to doing a daily Zoom. It was like I had the two little things on my shoulder. I'm like, that is the worst idea you ever had. No, that's a really good idea. You should do that. No, don't do it. And I just found myself telling my two virtual assistants, well.

We're going to do a daily Zoom, so I need to have you create a logo and do this and do that. And so as I was giving these instructions, was thinking in my internal talk was, well, I guess we're doing it. I guess we're going to do a Zoom every day. So it is a huge commitment. And I really, I will tell you, I thought it was going to be the worst thing I ever did. I thought it would be good for me. I thought I would make it because it was such a big deal.

Janet Engel (24:38.777)
Which is a huge commitment.

Katherine Ambrose (24:52.098)
I knew that I would not let myself down and I would finish it. It was gonna be like December 28th or 29th, the last business day of the year. But I would do it every single business day for the last quarter. And I'm not real great at math. So I was thinking, okay, it's just for a quarter. Well, I started at September 5th, September, and I'm like, wait a minute, October 1 would be a quarter. I guess I'm doing it for...

a quarter plus an extra month. So I did it for four months. I thought it would be miserable and I would be the happiest person on December 28th, 29th. I thought I would just be like, don't ever do anything like that again. I thought I would get so much out of it, but that I would be so happy that it was over. But like I said, just a few weeks in, I'm like, my gosh, this is amazing. It just, I have about a personal jaw drop.

jaw dropping, aha, every single day because of conversations that we're having. And so it's just helping me move a little farther, but it's helping a lot of people because we've had people that have been on there this whole time and they're like a different person, some of them. It's just unbelievable to think about this journey that we've been on.

Janet Engel (25:52.453)
Mmm.

Janet Engel (26:11.115)
Yeah, and I think it's because you've created a tribe where you've given people a foundation where they have the strength to climb that wall and see what's on the other side instead of continuing to stay on the side they're on and doing what they've been doing because the hardest thing is getting started. It's true. You hear that all the time. The hardest thing is getting started and that really is true.

Katherine Ambrose (26:25.515)
I think that's what...

Katherine Ambrose (26:39.648)
Yes, and I think if you know that other people are climbing the wall and have climbed the wall, it makes it easier for you to say yes. And so we're creating a lot of faith in people. think really that's our biggest challenge is creating confidence in the people that are participating in the calls. What I see is people lack confidence.

Janet Engel (26:40.794)
Yeah.

Katherine Ambrose (27:03.57)
And so we tell people you are perfectly equipped. And we're getting ready to have our first conference in October and we named it Equip. Because we do believe you are perfectly equipped if you just jump in and start helping. Just start conversations. You're perfectly equipped. Just go for it. And then you'll learn more as you go.

Janet Engel (27:10.921)
Yes!

Janet Engel (27:25.465)
Well, that was my next question about the Equip Conference, which I want to tell our listeners that I am a member of your Senior Home Coach platform. And I will also be going to the Equip Conference. I fly out, I think it's October 21st. Is that the Monday? Yeah.

Katherine Ambrose (27:46.274)
Mm -hmm. So we're so excited that you're coming and I'm just so excited because we have so many really cool people like you and so many others and so I have confidence that when you get here and you meet the other people are here it's gonna be amazing. No matter what happens it's gonna be amazing just because of the people that are coming together and these are just people that want to help others that want to help people experience

healthy longevity and the best outcomes possible as we age with home ownership and everything. And so just really getting wonderful heart centered people together. What's funny is we just started senior home coach May 1st and almost immediately said, we're gonna have a conference in October, a two day conference. But then we had a pre -conference day where we're offering certified probate specialist and now another course. And then we're having a post -conference day with podcast camp.

and many workshops that's turned into a four day extravaganza. So it just kind of makes me laugh because we just jumped right in. That's how I do things. And I, since starting the calls became familiar with the National Aging in Place Council. They've been in business since 2009 doing extraordinary advocacy work. And to the best of my knowledge, they're just getting ready for their very first conference.

From 2009 until now, their very first conference, having a one day conference. And I get to go, I'm so excited. But I'm like, my gosh.

Janet Engel (29:16.963)
And you're gonna be a speaker too.

Katherine Ambrose (29:19.554)
So that's so cool that I'm thinking, well, they start in 2009, they're have a one day conference. I started in May and I'm gonna have a four day conference. So probably kind of insane that also I think, you we don't have time to waste. We're all aging. I don't have time to waste. And so the more we can do, the faster we can create momentum, the better, the faster we learn. So we're having a big conference.

Janet Engel (29:44.123)
And tell us about all of the different activities you're having every day because I'm very excited. I'm looking at as a little workation. You know, my husband goes on workations all the time. I don't.

Katherine Ambrose (29:59.328)
Well, so we are big believers in fun. We wanted our senior seminars to be fun. We have, we cover very serious topics and we're kind of hiding the vegetables in, the main dish, but we want it to be fun because we want seniors to keep coming. And so we're, so my local team and you know, our closest allies, we're kind of all about fun. So Monday, there's October 21st, people are gonna come here and they're gonna earn

Janet Engel (30:11.234)
Mwahahahaha

Katherine Ambrose (30:28.716)
their certified probate specialist designation, if they sign up for that through Buddy West. Buddy West is a phenomenal instructor and I took this course recently myself in Nashville. It's unbelievable to me. I've been in real estate my whole life and have had some listings that were attached to probate, but I didn't go that extra step to learn about probate. And then when I took the class, I'm like, my gosh, I could have known about this all along. So,

Sometimes we make things so much harder than what they actually are. So I'm real excited that people are going to walk out a certified probate specialist on Monday. We have Cathy Corden from Dallas here. She's going to teach a business planning clinic to help people plan their fourth quarter for this year and create momentum for 2025. So that's pre -conference. And then we have a welcome party that night. We started with the welcome party. We knew we wanted everyone to be here on time to be here for the party.

so that they could walk from the party to their hotel and get some sleep. Because I've experienced professionals coming here for media skills camp that I teach and not going to bed till two or three and then they're wiped out. We are going to have such important content, it's going to take their energy. So we wanted them to go to bed early Monday, so we thought, okay, well I'll have a party so that they know they need to be here. So we're going to have live music, a great party, we're going to have pickleball. We've reserved four courts so they can play pickleball, learn pickleball.

or pick a ball or just hang out, listen to the live music and meet each other for the first time. So that's gonna be fun. Tuesday we have an all day conference day. It's actually day one at PBS Kansas Television. We rented it as our venue. We rented the studio for our conference. So it's not being put on by PBS, but we're renting the venue. We're renting the crew and we are going to move my...

studio set up onto a stage and I'm going to experience doing my first live studio audience interviewing Buddy West so everyone will get to hear and observe how to do a television interview and and be part of that first live studio experience and then they're gonna get to hear from Buddy West. Well I didn't tell you the reason why Buddy West is so significant other than going all over the country teaching certified probate specialist is that he wrote

Katherine Ambrose (32:48.258)
and owned by the way, Seniors Real Estate Specialist, the designation with a gentleman by the name of Tim Corliss who back in the 90s was the president of California Association of Realtors. Those two men started Seniors Real Estate Specialist and they had like 41 ,000 Realtor members. Tim unfortunately got cancer, passed away and at some point Buddy sold

SRS to the California Association Realtors. This is for my recollection. And then they sold it to the National Association Realtors and that's how that came to be. So Buddy West was my first keynote master class within the Senior Home Coach Academy because I wanted to make that connection. The history of the National Association Realtors and serving seniors that came from Buddy and Tim Horliss. And so it's going to be good to have him as our first

breakout or our first expert that'll be speaking there at the conference. And then we just have a number of things going on that day. They're going to hear from a number of different professionals. We also have a breakout panel that's going to teach people about elder abuse and scams so that if you're going to be working in this industry, we want you to be aware and to be able to create awareness and recognize experts that can come together to help you.

tackle these issues locally. We also have experts on podcasting and public speaking that are going to help people kind of rise to the occasion of being advocates out there and community educators. So we just have a jam packed day. Then we have the VIP party that night at a country club where we have the author of The Invisible Patient, Annalee Krueger, and a lot of interesting people will be at that VIP party. So just another way to connect in a smaller environment.

The next day we're going to be at Botanica, which is our city garden venue that we've been using for our seminar since January of 2019. This is an immersive experience. I want our attendees to be in the room where we've attracted up to 300 seniors to come together to learn and be part of our Empowered Senior 501c3 initiative. And we have general sessions all day.

Katherine Ambrose (35:10.988)
We have a placement panel where they're gonna learn about the placement profession, which is senior living advisors helping guide seniors and their loved ones to make the right and best senior living choices. We also will have a panel on senior move management. That's a very key component of senior transitional moves. So we'll be talking about that. So just all kinds of good things that day and then a time warp costume bash.

so people can dress their favorite decade if they want to dress in costume. And we'll have a Mrs. Roper romp for those that want to come as Mrs. Roper from Police Company. So we've just tried to think of every fun thing. And then the next day, they're going to be right where I am in my office building about a block from their hotel. And we have three state -of -the -art custom podcast studios. And we're going to be teaching podcasting skills where you can learn to be a guest or learn to be a host.

We're also going to be teaching workshops on things like Sensory Safari, where they will learn how to do empathy exercises, where you can take, say, assisted living staff, or senior living attendees, or just anyone through an experience, what it would be like if you didn't hear as well, if you had low vision, if you had neuropathy, if you had challenges with signing things. And so just a really cool exercise that they can take home and start implementing locally.

to help people have more empathy for each other. And also to have seniors have a connection to their future self because there's a psychological block that we have as humans as we age where we just see ourselves as capable as we are right now and have difficulty imagining what it might be like if we start experiencing cognitive and physical decline. So you can give people a little bit of a taste of that so that they might take action

in protecting the future self and thinking about downsizing sooner or why they should go get their hearing aids because it's not just about missing out on things or maybe being annoying to your daughter, but it's about protecting your cognitive ability because when you don't hear as well as you could, it causes, it can cause some cognitive decline, it can further dementia, it also can cause you to fall and we explain why that is. So.

Janet Engel (37:21.892)
Mm.

Janet Engel (37:28.687)
Mm -hmm.

Katherine Ambrose (37:30.486)
That's what we're all about is helping people make connections so they might take action, positive action.

Janet Engel (37:37.359)
I love what you said and that's all true with everything you mentioned that, you know, when we start losing our vision or hearing that that is going to result in less stimulation to the brain and can lead you down a road of cognitive impairment because you're missing out, you know, through one of your sensory portals. But

I think the most important part of what you said is that if you help people imagine their future selves, then you're really empowering them to maintain control. Because that really is what it's all about, is that we want to maintain control of especially where we live.

for the rest of our lives or for as long as possible. And how do you do that? By staying healthy.

Katherine Ambrose (38:41.056)
Absolutely, you got it. And that's why I named my seminar series, Empowered Senior, because I wanted to make a statement. Like I am with senior, much you're perfectly equipped. With Empowered Senior, the seminar series, I wanted to make a statement that you are empowered. And we know from a book written by David Soley, How to Say it to Seniors, that the life developmental stages that we're in as we age is autonomy and legacy.

Janet Engel (38:42.33)
You

Katherine Ambrose (39:09.376)
Legacy is life review. Did my life have meaning? How much time do I have left? What else can I accomplish? Who's going to remember me when I'm gone? You know, all these things. That's that legacy piece. And the other is what you just said about autonomy and maintaining control of our own decisions, especially where we live. Because if you don't plan your future by design, then it's going to come at you by default. And you aren't likely to like the choices that other people

have in mind for you.

Janet Engel (39:40.363)
Mm -hmm. That's very well said. I love that. Your future by design instead of your future by default.

Tell us, Catherine, looking ahead, what are your future plans for your Senior Home Coach platform and your work in the senior real estate market?

Katherine Ambrose (40:03.522)
Well, my goal with Serving Seniors for the Rest of My Life in 2018, which really began with the launch of the seminar series and the launch of our Senior Move Management Team, was to help empower seniors and plan for their future. And I like the term the fragile years, and I know not everyone likes the term, but I really like it. The Fragile Years, that's a book by Amy Cameron O 'Rourke.

in that if we're lucky enough to have longevity, we may experience some years where our body and our mind is a little more fragile. And so how do we prepare for that? So what I've thought about is that if I work at empowering seniors locally through our seminar series and through our state, through PBS Kansas, our television show, which airs almost throughout the whole state,

I could have a bigger impact if I reach out to other professionals that go do some of the same kind of work. So now we're talking about empowering seniors all across the country and then empowering their adult kids and their allies who are in a position to be caregivers or to help guide aging loved ones. And so that is what has been born out of that empowered senior movement is the senior home coach mission. And I'm not exactly sure what

that is all going to turn out to be. I just know that I'm very dedicated to go out to help people with their careers, which in turn is going to help so many more people. And I'm very excited about it. And already we have professionals saying, my gosh, meeting you has changed my life. Or you've made me feel relevant again. Or this feels like a rebirth. Well, it's not me. It is just the knowledge that they gained about how they could serve in a bigger way.

And it's just people are just like, I've been looking for something and I didn't know what. I really think that the universe wants this to happen. That this is what we're supposed to do. That we're to go out there and build community and help other people. And that's how we're helping ourselves at the same time. That we're doing well by doing good.

Katherine Ambrose (42:20.98)
And it's not a monetary thing as much as it's a personal fulfillment. Like this just feels right.

Janet Engel (42:27.611)
Well, that's funny that you said that because the Dalai Lama has said something very similar to that is that the best thing that you can do for yourself to help yourself is to help others. And so you're actually being selfish when you help others because

you're going to end up helping yourself. So it's a kind way to be selfish is to help others.

Katherine Ambrose (43:01.356)
think it's how we fulfill the mission that we're on. I think that if you're spiritual at all, you might suspect, I'm here to do something. I was born for reason. There's something meaningful I'm to do with my life. And by reaching out to help other people, you are then getting into the meaning that you were meant for. If that makes sense.

Janet Engel (43:22.608)
Mm.

Well, I encourage our listeners, whether they're professionals or they are homeowners or caregivers, to check out your Senior Home Coach platform on the Mighty Network. You can check out the daily Zoom call, which is free and tons of value there. If you're a homeowner or caregiver and you want to sell your house or looking for a placement specialist, I highly suggest that you

look to the Senior Home Coach Network because they have many professionals on their team that are either senior real estate specialists, they're certified aging in place specialists, which many of your members have taken the CAPS courses with me, and or they are the senior

certified specialist, CSA advisor, I'm sorry, certified senior advisor. So regardless of what certification you're getting, someone who has been trained specifically in how to serve the senior client, which is nuanced and requires greater people skills and also a greater knowledge of different professionals that you need to network with.

Katherine Ambrose (44:23.298)
unless there's so many.

Janet Engel (44:48.475)
So I highly suggest that you check out Catherine on Facebook, Senior Home Coach platform, the daily Zoom call, and I'll have a link to all of your different platforms so that it's easy for people to find you as well as your show and the Equip Conference.

Katherine Ambrose (45:11.122)
Well, can help people connect anywhere. So anywhere across the United States or Canada, probably even beyond, we can help you find the connections that you're looking for. So absolutely. Thank you so much.

Janet Engel (45:25.943)
Yes, it was a pleasure, Catherine, and I look forward to meeting you. I'm going to meet you in person first at the National Aging in Place Council because I'm going to be there as well on October 12th. And then a couple of weeks later, I'll be flying to Wichita to be at your conference.

Katherine Ambrose (45:46.05)
just think it's so fun to have all these things to go to and be a part of too. And just being part of a bigger mission together, it's really cool. And what senior home coach is more than anything is that...

We are a collective of highly credentialed people that are leading with our heart. So, and we're so happy to be connected to you. And yes, I'm having my entire team get their certified agent place specialist through Janet. You're such a great instructor and I can't wait to meet you. It seems so funny that we haven't even met in real life. So.

Janet Engel (46:15.851)
I know it's been like eight months, but we will meet soon. All right, Catherine, thank you so much.

Katherine Ambrose (46:27.372)
Thank you. Bye bye.