TIM AND TANNIS ROBERTS: Echos of Love - The Power of Preserving Memories & Safeguarding Stories with EchoBox Memory Vault

Navigating the emotional labyrinth of Alzheimer's care can be both heartbreaking and frustrating, especially when personalized care falls by the wayside. Our journey begins with a relatable exploration of these challenges—stories of care facilities that miss the mark on truly understanding their residents, turning beloved family members into mere room numbers. We wrap this poignant narrative with a lighthearted twist, sharing personal anecdotes about how life’s quirks and ailments can be surprisingly comedic.

Enter Tim and Tannis Roberts, the innovative duo behind EchoBox Memory Vault, who are reshaping person-centric healthcare with their groundbreaking tool. Neither were tech people, worked in healthcare, or had a business background.  Yet both were moved to improve our care model by providing the comfort of a loved one's voice. EchoBox preserves cherished memories and stories, enriching family bonds and supporting those dealing with dementia and palliative care. Tim and Tannis share profound insights and personal stories that illustrate how capturing memories can provide lasting emotional benefits and a sense of belonging, transforming the caregiving experience.

This episode celebrates the importance of personal connections and innovation in Alzheimer’s care. We discuss the powerful impact of EchoBox, a technology that helps preserve and share the stories of loved ones, offering caregivers the ability to provide individualized care. 

• Conversations surrounding the emotional challenges of caregiving 
• The dehumanization often faced in care facilities 
• Introduction to EchoBox and its founding story 
• How EchoBox captures memories and personalizes care 
• Real-world examples showcasing its effectiveness 
• Technical details on practically using the app 
• Insights on the growing adoption of EchoBox in care facilities 
• Encouragement for advocacy and connection in caregiving

Chapters

• 0:00 Love Conquers Alls
• 4:53 The Impact of EchoBox Memory Vault
• 19:28 Improving Communication in Senior Care
• 25:27 Capturing Memories Through Technology
• 28:46 Journey of Developing a Healthcare Tool

Transcript

Don Priess: 0:00

When the world has got you down, Alzheimer's sucks. It's an equal opportunity disease that chips away at everything we hold dear and to date, there's no cure. So until there is, we continue to fight with the most powerful tool in our arsenal, love. This is love conquers all, a real and really positive podcast that takes a deep dive into everything, Alzheimer's, The Good, The Bad and everything in between. And now here are your hosts, Susie singer Carter and me. Don Priess, hi everybody. I'm Susie singer Carter, and I'm Don Priess, and this is Love conquers all's Hello Susan,

Susie Singer Carter: 0:48

hi, Donald. I'm not gonna ask how you are, because I know you're in bed back. This

Don Priess: 0:53

is a this is a new position for me in our show. Yeah, I'm so much better. But, yeah, I still can't sit so, yeah, hence I'm laying back. But so it's a little weird. But hey, you do what you got to do,

Susie Singer Carter: 1:11

yeah, well, at least you're not moaning, oh my god, like you were right.

Don Priess: 1:17

It was, it was, it was, I mean, I've had bad backs my whole life. There was nothing even similar to this. This was, yeah, yeah. This was horrendous. And, but so like I say, I can, I can walk again, I can actually stand for a little bit and just sitting. That's, that's the worst. So,

Susie Singer Carter: 1:39

yay. Yeah, so don't get me started. Don't get me started. Our next podcast all our ailments, we're going to talk about them all. Don't get us started. It could last a week. Anyway, I was thinking about, I don't know what triggered this, but I was thinking about the fact that when you go, when I was going to look for a place for my mom, when I had to move her out of my house, and I was thinking about all the pomp and circumstance, right? That when you go from from facility to facility, and initially you're horrified, and then your bar gets lower, you're like, Oh, well, this one's not that bad. This one's okay, this one's right. And then you can land on a place that you think is like, this is it? This is this, I feel good about data. And then starts the up intake. And you know, they you're filling out all this stuff and all the paperwork and and I remember specifically filling out kind of an info sheet on my mom, right, like about what is, does she like? Music? Does she like, you know, movies, what kind does what kind of food does she like? What's her background, what, you know, where does she come? You know, all these kinds of things, which I thought, oh, that's, that's nice. Like they're actually asking me about mom, and they're going to actually, you know, use this information and and, lo and behold, that didn't happen. Like, nobody knew anything about my mom, right? Like, not nothing. Like zero, like I would say today, like I'd play mom's music, that, you know, her recordings, and they'd go, wow, who's singing? I go, what mom is? That's her, you know. And it didn't know anything. And it and in it happened with the social worker who came when mom went, was going into palliative nobody, like they asked me so all this stuff, and I'm and at that point I was like, a jaded, you know, pro, so I'm like, Yeah, okay, like, I'll just go through it, because I knew no one was going to even pay attention. And that's such a problem. It that that, because what it does is, like, it dehumanizes everybody, right? So there's no, there's no connection to these humans as as people, but just bed fillers or chair fillers or room fillers. So it's a big problem, and and we have some guests today that are going to have a solution to this horrible problem, because it really is a problem. I mean, if you, if you don't, if you're not recognized, like, can I just tell a quick story one of my colleagues in Australia, Monique Pok who is is part of open the doors, which is a big it's a big international organization for quality of living, for demand people with dementia and Alzheimer's and others, right? And she was visiting. She wrote this in on LinkedIn today. She was like, there was she went to visit. Her dad and and they were having a lovely time, and at one point she just said, you know, Dad, I love you, right? And he said, I love you too. You see me. You see me. That's so beautiful, right? Like that just gets you in the heart, because, and, and in fact, she does see him. And how important is that to be seen as As for who you are?

Don Priess: 5:26

Because people forget, people forget who you were and and people who never knew you don't know at all, don't

Susie Singer Carter: 5:34

know so to have, but for him to have, for him to actually verbalize that and say, You see me, that tells you right there, how important it is for all of us to we all want to be seen, how important it is for him to say that to his daughter, that I love you too. You see me, I get chills, just like it makes me cry. Anyway, I are our guest today. They get that. They get it. And why don't you introduce them? Don they will

Don Priess: 6:05

our guests today, they saw a need, and they did something about it. And let me tell you a little bit more about them. Tim and Tannis Roberts are the driving force behind the newest person centric approach in healthcare, Echo, box, memory vault, a remarkable innovation that is transforming the way we connect and communicate with our loved ones, especially for families touched by Alzheimer's, Echo box makes connections, creates legacies, informs care teams, streamlines daily routines, encourages engagement and offers a place to tell life Stories. Simply put, the better we know somebody, the better care we can provide for them. Tim and Tannis are here to share their story the mission behind echo box and how this ground breaking technology is making a meaningful difference in caregiving. So let's not wait another moment and say hello to Tim and Tannis Roberts, Hello, guys, hello.

Unknown: 7:00

Thank you so much for having us. Excellent. Oh, it's lovely to have you. Yeah, it's amazing to be here. Thank you so much for having us on you know, this is, this is what it takes. We're trying to get the word out, and we think we're onto something, and so we couldn't be more happy to be on the show. Thank you, of course,

Susie Singer Carter: 7:18

of course, we're happy to have you. Yeah, I it's funny. I was reading some of the information that you sent to us, right? And, and you said, though this, this idea started with a doodle, right? Yeah, and I love that. That's because, for me as a filmmaker like I just want to see you doodling it right, and see what that doodle look like, but, but there's something behind the doodle, or you know that either you knew it or not, that doodle was motivated by something that you know either you recognized or you know you were or you Already you already knew. So why do you tell us? I'm interested in how you how this came about. You know, I think all good, good, good changes come about from personal experience,

Unknown: 8:12

right? Well, I guess it goes back to 2016 Believe it or not, I saw a video about a gentleman who lost his wife and used the sound of her voice on the answering machine as a source of comfort to just get him up and going during the day, when he was feeling sad or sentimental, you know. And unfortunately, his service provider had to upgrade their system, which meant he lost that recording. And so the video I saw actually showed the team finding the recording and giving it back to him, and it was such a powerful, emotional sort of moment that it kind of got us sitting back thinking, what options do seniors possibly really have right now that, you know, aren't riddled with problems of their own, whether it's privacy concerns or just familiarity with technology. And so we kind of thought, you know, there might be a need for for a technology for families, initially, that could capture, you know, grandpa and grandma's favorite fishing holes and recipes and childhood stories, things that just are fleeting, but just once they're gone, they're gone. And our pilot model just just kind of took off on us. We we launched in 2020, and we got some local news that went national, here in Canada, and then it went international, the BBC to kind of cover story, or not a cover story, I guess, a follow up story on Stan Beaton and how he had inspired some technology. And so we kind of thought we were doing and what we knew what we were doing. And we thought, you know, the rose colored glasses were on, but was through. What was really interesting was that the global response just was overwhelmingly obviously coming from caregiving, specifically Dementia Care, Alzheimer's care, palliative care, special needs, children, music therapy, speech. We couldn't even it was so distracting at first, we we thought, Well, that's nice, that it can help in these realms. But we didn't really see the evolution that was before us and what would happen in the next four years that brought us to where we're at now. So I think that was kind of our inspiration. Story was just that basic, sort of those feelings that you're you're mentioning there just the you know, the loving sense of connection when you understand, you know, someone recognizes that they're being seen, or a little job that you that's something fleeting, and you know at the moment, it might not seem all that meaningful, but boy, these little packets and treasures sure carry a lot of emotion, and they do us a lot of good in the long run.

Susie Singer Carter: 10:40

Absolutely, they're so powerful, right? I mean, I remember making a book for my mom. I didn't know anything about Alzheimer's, and when she moved in with me for a year, I did, like when the apple book an apple my Mac, you could make a book with pictures. And so I did the story of lovey, that was her nickname, and I started from babyhood all the way to present at that time, so that she could look at it, you know, and and remember all those, you know, the the long term memories, like her grandparents and and all that you know, which was, was, it was great, you know, but, but by the way, it got worn and torn. It got, you know, from overuse. Because it was about eight years before she passed in two years ago, but it was like eight years before that. So it's also difficult, once they're not living with you, to get other people to take the time to to really know the person that they're working with. And so how does, how does the echo box help the caregivers?

Unknown: 11:44

Sure, trying to take this one, sure? Well, I guess at a family level, Echo box, it can work as more like a legacy piece, right, collecting all of the favorite stories, recipes, anything about that they love, about life, and then when you move into more Let's care teams, it can work as a way to familiarize yourself with the individual, and you can use it kind of as a helpful tool, like, if they're having a bad day, well, we've got the music section so you can take on that and then play their favorite song, or you can learn about what their favorite meal is. Yeah, we're kind of, we're discovering more. The more we talk to caregivers, the more they kind of inform us on what it can do. They're saying that it can, it can maintain and tease out the cognitive function of people that are sort of declining in their verbal, you know, what they want to express. Once people have have kind of, you know, gone through their Alzheimer's or dementia journey and they're no longer expressing what they love. If they had an echo box that listed off their favorite songs and colors and scents, then we can it goes a long way to make sure that we're maintaining the quality of life and for the caregivers. You know, we've heard that there's a often, there's times there's a rotating door, there's a lot of caregivers that switch facilities, and there's a lot for them to do and to to try to take on all at once. And once again, they're telling us that, boy, if, if we had a little echo box, it would be like a cheat sheet for everyone to genuinely not just kind of read that they like music, but what music they like from what genre they like, they'll have a link to actually play that music. So, you know, it really in one we heard a wonderful story from from someone we couldn't help, but we put it right onto our website. Actually, it was a senior care specialist, and she said she was describing a team that had an A Perth, a resident that was very abject to being told to go to bed. So if it was around bedtime, you had to be very careful about how you address bedtime. And as soon as he kind of caught word that it was going to be bedtime, that his dug his heels in. And one day the mash song came up, and the theme song for mash just kind of came into the room, and he stood up and he said, Oh, mash is on time for bed everybody. And he said, Good night to everybody. And he got ready for bed. And so the care team just they couldn't believe it, and so they were jotting this down. And they never played that during the day. They played it at night when he was having trouble grieving. So that's just one example, but if we kind of expand that general idea to cover all of the senses and all of the little things that we love about life that makes us tick, then I can't imagine me picturing my mom or my dad on the other side of the country not appreciating the fact that his care team has all these little things that he loves about life, whether he can express them or not, as

Susie Singer Carter: 14:25

beautiful. It makes one of you were talking. It made me think about, you know, when, when we go, and when you watch a doctor go onto the the computer screen and looking at your records, right? It's a it should be in the records. It should be like, you know, part of echo box should be like, Oh, okay. And then it's this, okay, I see you like this, and I see you like that. Oh, you come from Cleveland. That's, you know, I have family there, whatever. I mean it because, because that is part of care. It's not just medical, right? So, so it is, be, it is that part of a. The whole person

Don Priess: 15:01

a more important part of care, if one could say, and that medical is to keep you living, but you're not, you know, if there's no life live, there's you need you. I mean, what are we living for if we don't have those things we can enjoy and share?

Unknown: 15:16

Absolutely, we've been told that we are, you know, and this just, it raises the hair on my arms. But people tell us that, oh, you know, you're going to fill the gap. This is a person centric approach to care. You're going to elevate quality of life and life, you're going to enrich lives. And, you know, we thought we were just kind of creating a digital legacy, a digital legacy like, like a, you know, on a photo album with words and a recording or two. We didn't realize this application could be used as a tool, not like you're saying in the medical sense, but in all of these person centric ways that really make us tick. We're just really surprised and fortunate. I think that there's room for a technology to we've been told that there's a gap big enough in the market, that there's a market in the gap, and we're just the first ones in. We're kind of, you know, we're kind of, that, would that's nice, but we're coming from a place where, you know, we didn't see this coming. We didn't, we're not, we don't have a health care background. We aren't, you know, business tycoons by any sense. And we are not tech savvy. We're not tech savvy. So, you know, we're in the deep end three times over. But it's just the virtue of the idea itself keeps us just hanging on to the coattails. And so here we are. Yes, so

Don Priess: 16:26

where does the technology sit? Where does it meaning that, okay, you're at a facility, or, you know, you're 3000 miles away, your father's at a facility. Is it a something physical? Is it on a phone? Is it on a tablet? And, you know, how do you get if the facility doesn't have the that tablet, what do you do? How does it work? Technically?

Unknown: 16:47

Right? Well, one of the great things we discovered is that there's technologies out there kind of like us not doing the exact same thing, but you have to buy their devices. You have to buy their tablets, their screens, all of their, you know, their gadgets proprietary. We thought, boy, well, we just snuck in the back door and we made an application. You can find us online. You go straight to echo box.ca you've figured you can read all about us, and then there's a free you can join for free, so you can check us out before you make any decisions. If you think echo box is the right choice for your caregiving situation, whether you're at home telling your own story. I love taking care of a loved one, or whether you run a small business or a CEO of a large corporation, you can, you know, choose an adequate subscription for your caregiving environment, and then just go from there. It's a simple process of filling out some caregivers in your account. They get invited automatically by email, and then you can just start going to work and capture stories for the people that are in your care, and the caregivers will have that on their phone or their tablets as they go, right. Okay, so

Don Priess: 17:47

the facility would have to have somebody there with a phone or a tablet to share that with, with the individual,

Unknown: 17:56

with the individual. Yeah, the great idea is, whoever likes the whoever likes echo box as a service would sign us up, and then the people that get invited through those emails would now have a chance to join the application side, and so all of their devices would have that information. So if I was speaking with Stanley in the morning and I entered something about how he loves 50s cowboy movies, Tannis that came in that night opened up in Echo box, she would see that entry in her system. So the network just goes, it's private, it's within house, but at the same time it's it's shared between everybody,

Susie Singer Carter: 18:28

right? I think you should, guys should, you should pitch it. Okay? I'm just saying you should pitch it to as as part of the program of every facility like that should be mandatory that everybody their medical records and their and their historical records need to be part of their their records in whole. Why not? Because they ask you, like I said in the opening, they ask you this information, but nobody looks at it because it's on a piece of paper or, you know, on a PDF somewhere hidden away, nobody's going to look at it. It should be, it should be co mingled into your chart. Absolutely,

Unknown: 19:07

absolutely. And these needs assessment forms and these intake forms, we've just been told like they mean well, but they go into a filing cabinet and they never see the light of day again. I'm

Susie Singer Carter: 19:17

proof. I'm telling you. I'm right, you know. And I'm an advocate, can you can imagine, with someone who doesn't have an advocate, and for the voiceless people that don't have a voice, you know, and I mean, literally, don't have a voice, because my mom got to the point where she couldn't articulate verbally, she could articulate other ways, like, you know, like we do when we lose certain abilities, we compensate, but no one was looking again, the concept of being seen, and of course, they don't have the time. That's a whole nother story. Hello, No Country for Old people. That's why I'm doing the documentary. But that that, in the meantime, make it easy on the caregivers that are there, that. Easy. That's easy, and it helps them to say, you know, oh, this woman doesn't speak English. Oh, no wonder she's not responding to me, right?

Unknown: 20:11

I mean, I think it's a great diffuser. I mean, what a crime it is to that some of these people just ended up being called like the scratcher or the biter, because what they have left to them is to them is to just defend themselves and try to defend their comfort. And that's the only way

Susie Singer Carter: 20:25

they can communicate, right? Tim, I mean, that's their way of communication. I mean, there's a great one of our one of our heroes, Al power, who speaks all the time, all over the world on Alzheimer's, is a geriatrician, geriatologist, rather, and he's brilliant. And he says, you know, when people lose their articulation, they are still communicating to you, but no one's really taking heed, right? So they're these do. It's like, Oh, that hurts. You would say that hurts someone else that can't. So they, they they push, they bite, they do whatever they can to make it stop.

Unknown: 20:59

That's right, absolutely. And of course, as a caregiver, that must be frustrating. And so it's just from both ends. It's just like a negative feedback loop, whereas it I mean, and this isn't something that we meant to do, these people have told us that we stumbled into having kind of lightning in a bottle here. But if we can somehow kind of tease out the better halves of both of those sides of things and create a winning solution for everybody. I think that's kind of the Win. Win that families are looking for in senior care is just to know that my loved one is in good hands and you know, and they're not overburdening the that caring team that's trying to provide the best for them. So we'll

Don Priess: 21:38

be right back.

Peter Eun: 21:40

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Don Priess: 22:38

are there any facilities that have taken this on as a whole and said, Yes, this is the program we use, and we use it with everyone who's here is that Has that happened yet?

Unknown: 22:48

It it has it's happening kind of as we speak, we launched our most recent iteration just last month, and so we actually took about a month off because life was just bottlenecking so much, we didn't realize how much of a break we needed to take. But the lucky thing was, over the last few years, we've just been talking with so many people. We've made so many affiliations and partnerships that once we were available, there were, first of all, there were testing teams in Texas and Ontario and Florida and California that helped us get it to the point where we weren't so nervous about pushing it out as a launch. Once we did launch, we had some teams, some hospices that took us on hospice in the Pines with Demetrius Harold down in Lufkin, Texas. Thank you very much. And Sierra boats, with Sierra boats memory method out in Florida, and we're just trying to, they're trickling in. We're doing we've got so many balls in the air right now that we're trying to do so much. But luckily, yes, we're finally at the point where onboarding people and they're enjoying

Susie Singer Carter: 23:43

the service. Ah, this is so great. Ontario is doing some great things. You guys in Ontario are the bomb. I just interviewed another young guy. He's 35 Daniel Clark, who is also doing some incredible things in this space, not not in any way you're what you're doing, but you know, just helping, helping, you know, decipher how to choose a place in a real way. You know, facilities without, you know, the pay for play kind of situation that goes on and, and he's so, he's so great, and he's, he's in Ontario as well. So I think it's, I think you guys, there must be some good water, there compassion water,

Unknown: 24:23

right? We found the same thing about Connecticut. We looked it up like Connecticut, not that big, but, man, the caregiving power down there. There's powerhouse of caregiving.

Susie Singer Carter: 24:31

There is good people there. I agree with you. There's a there's more of a family feel. Yeah, we have a good friend who runs a film festival. Couple of them in it there, right? Don Am I thinking of who we speaking of? Oh no, I'm thinking of Cleveland, talking

Don Priess: 24:47

about Cleveland, but they both start with people.

Unknown: 24:52

It's practically the same.

Don Priess: 24:57

Very much. Is, yeah. So when. New the process as far as so you go to your the platform that you're on, and then it's just people, they're filling in information, uploading what videos, music, anything that they feel is, you know, how does that process work? Sure.

Unknown: 25:14

Well, once you've got your account set up, and then you're kind of ready to capture some stories, the subscriptions are based on per story. So depending on how many stories you want to capture, each story can be titled. It can have 1000 words. So even if I'm just describing, you know, my favorite copy, cup that I picked up in Switzerland, you know, some some train adventure or something, I can, I can take a picture of it. Tell a big story about where, you know, I picked it up from. I could put some links. If I knew where the actual Potter came from, maybe I could add a couple pictures, a video recording and an audio recording. So even though that was just a souvenir that I picked up haphazardly on some trip in Europe, that one little story can really be rounded out. And when we get to something more meaningful, like your favorite five songs, you know, your favorite smells or your favorite recipes. All of a sudden we really start digging into the memories and really kind of make someone enjoy the little things about life. And so, yeah, we basically capture whatever device you're working on. You can capture the title, the plot or the body of work, the links, two recordings of audio, video and then three pictures. So we're hoping that as people expand or their accounts and work on all these stories, it's just kind of like this grape vine of of treasures and comforts for people

Susie Singer Carter: 26:31

that's so cool. I think it's like I just instinctually wet as my mom lost her her ability to articulate. I kind of use those tools. So I would talk to her about things she knew. And I there's in our documentary, there's, you know, there's, it opens on me, telling, telling her the story of of Norma, right? Because, because, you know, and just in a fun way, just like, you know, oh, this is my mom. She might have heard of her. She started singing opera at nine years old, right, right? And, and so she would be like this. And, you know, because if I told her all these memories, but in a fun way, that she would, it, would, it would, you know, what was the tease out the cognitive right, like, as you said, and it does work. It really does. It really does. Because I want to say that, like three months into her not articulating at all. At one point, I was doing my dog and pony show with Don was in the room, and out of nowhere, my mom just leaned forward and went, I love you like that, and just articulated it perfectly. And, and that was a gift that she gave me, because that's the last thing that she ever said out loud, and, but, but that was I gave her the chance. I just I didn't you know. I gave her the safety and and her feelings safe by even if she didn't remember I was her daughter, although I reminded her every time I walked in, like, hi, it's me, your daughter. I'm here. Dada. Dada, you know, because that's I learned that that's a good tool. Don't make them try to figure out who you are. Tell them who you are, sure.

Unknown: 28:04

Yeah. Oh, and it's been so humbling learning these exact things from all the caregivers that have helped us out. Like we said, we this. We would not be here if it wasn't for the time that caregivers offered us and the advice and the experiences like you just described there. You know, we're kind of like babes in the woods, and we don't really, we didn't think we'd be here. So to have people help us put it into focus makes a lot, you know, it means a lot to us.

Susie Singer Carter: 28:28

It's incredible. Because you really didn't have any experience as caregivers yet, right? Not yet. No. Very interesting that you came in and then, and did you, I mean, I'm, did you have experience as app creators, you're not taking at all. Our

Unknown: 28:46

family and friends were genuinely and rightfully concerned for us when they heard that we were trying to develop an app, you know, they were, you know. And then as it evolved and it became more of like we're trying to tell them, Oh, now it's a person centric, non pharmaceutical senior healthcare tool. They're just like, what are, where are you guys now? And so, you know, it's we try to keep them up to speed, but it's been bewildering for all of us. What a

Susie Singer Carter: 29:12

great origin story you guys. You guys are, well, you're, you are married, right? Yeah, you're married. Okay, I didn't I, yeah, she's

Don Priess: 29:21

a better brother and sister. I'm going with married.

Susie Singer Carter: 29:25

Yeah, so and you haven't really so, so does. Does all this sort of freak you out because you haven't been in the caregiving arena? How does that? How do you feel about that? Because it is right. Yeah,

Unknown: 29:43

it's just it's actually been kind of a beautiful journey to tell you the truth, terrifying. To be honest, it kind of started driving itself at one point we were calling it HERBIE, the love bug, because especially once we started talking. Talking to people in the health community, because it was just, you know, they would get so excited about it and tell us what they thought it was, and then recommend us to somebody else. So then we would talk to them, and it was just, it kept going and going, and we just kind of let go, and we followed it where it went. And we're just so grateful.

Susie Singer Carter: 30:17

What an orange I love your story. It's so it's so awesome. It's just like you were chosen to do this somehow.

Unknown: 30:26

Yeah? Well, you know what? I mean, yeah, it's been, it's been a roller coaster, really. There's been ups and downs that we just didn't know the depth and scope of until we kind of got into it. You know, at the end of 2021 all things seem to be working out for us. We had an international story, and had gotten all the attention from all the caregivers in the world, but our development team had started to slide. They lost a couple tech leads. Our project was changing, trying to pivot with the response that we got, and they ended up not being able to support us anymore. And then Tan's father passed away, and he was the kind of driving force. He saw what echo box could be. And so I think early in 2022 we were pretty much dry docked, and we didn't expect, we kind of thought it was over, but there was just enough of a response from from caregivers around the world, and we had been in touch with a second development company, enough that we kind of threw this one fishing line out there and tried to get $100,000 grant from the government, and we got it, we got it, and we couldn't believe it. It was just, you know, one in a million. And so the it just kept it suddenly got back on track. And now it's changed our lives. It's, it's like a calling, pretty much, yeah,

Susie Singer Carter: 31:36

wow. It's that. It's amazing. I just am so I love it because it's very inspiring on so many levels that you clearly are awesome humans. You have heart. You have, like, amazing hearts. I mean, honestly, like, I mean, I mean, yeah, okay. So we all, we all want to be successful. And I hope you, I pray you are successful because you deserve it. So that comes, you know that you should be renew, you know, have have renumeration for that, but, but you are. You wouldn't be doing this. I don't think you know, I don't see you as, you know, greedy, awful people that are trying to take advantage of of, you know, people that are vulnerable. It seemed, I feel like you're, genuine human beings, and I appreciate that.

Unknown: 32:24

Thank you. I think our fault is, and we've been told this by our development team, that we're hopelessly non money driven, and it bites us in the butt all the time, but I think just again, with all the help of all the people that have helped steward this with us, that that it's finding, it keeps finding its feet over and over again, even though we fumble into the next room. So, yes, well, because

Don Priess: 32:47

it works on every level, it really, it really works on every level, because you're, you're, you're really providing for the person themselves, the caregivers, the facility. Everyone benefits from this, you know, by, you know, taking the stress levels down, I know that just sometimes you you would go in, especially when somebody is non communicative, and it's like, you go in and it's like, okay, I go in every week. And what more is there to, you know, what more can we do? What more can we say? Or, if a new carrier, what? What do I say? And now that this takes so much out of that, and it just brings it. Because people, who are they, they sense stress. When somebody comes in and they're stressed out, they sense it, and that makes them stressed. And so to take that away from everybody, it's just, it's a beautiful thing. It's really wonderful.

Susie Singer Carter: 33:34

Thank you. And by the way, Don and I, as we're business partners, and we've been best friends forever, and been in filmmaking we've done, that's what we do. And we are, we are egregiously not money driven. And it does, it's not good. It's not we have to change

Don Priess: 33:50

that. We really have to change that.

Susie Singer Carter: 33:55

We are no honestly and and, you know, I'm on all levels, like I should be so much more I should be so much more successful. We should be rolling totally, I mean, honestly, like, but, but, yeah, so I, I'm, I'm gonna say to you, learn from from our mistakes, which were, you know, art, you know it's for art. Well, do it for free. No, it's okay to it's okay to make you got it. It's okay to make some money. It's important. But what? So what if we left out that you would love to have everyone know about what you're doing, how they can help, whether they can support any or words of wisdom. I mean, I think you're so inspirational and aspirational in that you took an idea that can be difficult. I mean, we do that with every project we start, right? So I I say, I'm going to do a documentary about the nursing home industry, and then it's like, Okay, what did I get myself into? We're talking two years later, and I'm working 20. Seven on it, right? And it's a lot of work and stress and everything else and but that's every project. So you know, how do you what? What is your what drives you, what? What words of wisdom can you give somebody that says, I have an amazing idea. I know what's needed, and I want to do it, but I don't know how.

Unknown: 35:20

Wow, wow. Keep with it. We were in Florida and and Joshua Gervais, that was with Sierra boats, asked us, you know, what is this journey taught you? You know, what have you learned from this? And somehow, I meant, I just said, without even thinking about it, how to take a punch, because you can only go so far. I mean, you get some good news, and then you and then it seems like you get stonewalled, and you just have to kind of keep the faith, and, you know, keep a good track of what what your idea is and what you're trying to do. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I think that's one of the one of our worst things, is that don't say no, yeah, don't, don't say no to anything. Throw spaghetti at what. Throw Italian markets at walls to see what sticks, not just spaghetti and yeah, I mean, that's just worked for us. I mean, we've, we've been the beneficiary of 1000s of helping hands. So, I mean, I don't know how to answer that question truthfully, just from, from, without being in a position you just did, yeah, but yeah,

Susie Singer Carter: 36:20

you just answered it. No, that's, that's that that makes it takes 1000 villages. It doesn't take one village. It takes 1000 villages for something super important to get done, right? And, and especially when you're just, you know, you're, you're, you're learning how to to run as you go, right? You're you, you're just doing it, and you're going with your instinct and and all and everything that's driving you, whatever it is, and and so you have to believe in in your initial idea and what you thought, why you even started it, right? I mean, it doesn't mean that you can't be collaborative and learn from other people, but you have to, there's a certain amount of trust you have to have in yourself and in what you know you're capable of doing and and I don't think there's two other people to lead this, this, this project, better than you two because of who you are. I don't know you that well, but just I have good instincts on people, and you are so super cool and so super heart driven, and, you know, I don't imagine anyone not cheerleading for you.

Unknown: 37:31

Well, thank you. That means, that means a lot. And yeah, I get, I guess we're just, we're just hoping that, you know, this kind of resonates with some members of your audience, and the word spreads, and that it finds a purpose among them, and the dominoes keep falling. If anyone's, you know, out there wanting to get a hold of us, we don bite, feel free to get a hold of us. You know, I guess that's what we're looking for right now, is just to spread the word and and for people to see the promise in the service well,

Susie Singer Carter: 38:00

that we can help you. We'll do the best we can, where all your information will be on our on the show notes, and they'll know how to find you guys and to support and to get you know and to benefit from your technology and your idea, and to spread the word. Just spread the way, if you like it, then spread it, because that's how things you know, get, get, get out there, and how they grow and, you know, it, it is it? These are the things that are important. These are the important things that we need to, to put our attention on and really help lift you guys. Put some wind under your sails. So, because I know you're tired, I get it. Do we

Unknown: 38:45

look tired? We are. It's true. No,

Susie Singer Carter: 38:49

no, no, no, you don't look it at all. I'm just saying I know how hard it is. It's a lot of responsibility. You're pushing a you're pushing that rock up the hill. I get it, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely,

Unknown: 39:00

yeah. It is a lot of work. Even when we try to take some time off, like, it's like a gold goldfish in a little fish bowl, it only takes 10 seconds. And I'm, yeah, working on something else. And I'm like, I thought I was going to watch the ball game, but I guess not.

Susie Singer Carter: 39:13

Get you. We're so, we're so, we're soul brothers and sisters on that. So I get it. That's why I say that. Like you, you know, it all the help. Yes, yes, tennis. So don't say no ever. Like, take all the help you can get, right? Because, you know,

Unknown: 39:27

tennis herself has been a massive help. She was in the library system for 20 years until echo box finally had to pull her out of it because I was like, Dan, I can't my water table is so full, I kind of lost the for a while.

Susie Singer Carter: 39:40

Oh, well, that's great. You guys are a great team. I well, I know I speak for Don and I that we are just really proud of you and can't wait for this to be, you know, fully embraced in every facility and every caregiver. It's just like, part of it, you know, it's like, the Yeah, well, and, and then this is the. Echo box part you know, and you feel that you know, it's just becomes, you know, part of it. So thank you for sharing your story with us. I really, really am excited for you and sending you blessings and prayers that everything goes you know, as well as it can. And just stay, stay lovely like you are. And I just think you're just a gift. So thank you. Well,

Unknown: 40:25

thank you so much for the kind words and for having us on. Yeah, Susie, Don thank you so much. Means the world to us. Thank

Susie Singer Carter: 40:31

you. Loved it. We love this. We love hearing this, right? Donald, as I do up for and

Don Priess: 40:36

that's because love is powerful, love is contagious, and love conquers all. We thank everybody for watching, listening. Today, we'll have all the information about the echo box on our show notes and like, share, subscribe, do all those things that we love you to do and we're gonna see you next time on Love conquers all's Take care everybody.

Unknown: 41:02

Bye, bye, thank you. See ya.

Angela Fairhurst: 41:13

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Don Priess: 42:19

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