My Warm Table ... with Sonia
My Warm Table ... with Sonia
Illuminating Lives with Lightbulb Skills: Embracing Independence and Hope with Desley Delic and Megan Hancock
Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn a spark of inspiration into a beacon of hope for others? Desley Delic and Megan Hancock sit at my warm table, sharing the heartfelt origin of Lightbulb Skills, a testament to their determination to help individuals with additional needs learn life and independence skills. Their stories, steeped in personal family experiences, will touch you as they discuss the transformation of challenges into opportunities for growth and social connection within their workshops.
As we gather around, you will feel the genuine passion Desley and Megan have for their transition from their careers in education and human resources into the empowering realm of Lightbulb Skills. Their anecdotes are rich with victories—imagine the pride in achieving independent living for the first time. This episode is not just about the skills; it's a celebration of each participant's personal triumph and the fulfilment that comes from witnessing such empowerment.
Links:
Lightbulb Skills
Book quote, Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett
Warm thanks to:
Sponsor: Females Over Forty-five Fitness in Victoria Park
Sound Engineering: Damon Sutton
Music: William A Spence
... and all our generous and inspiring guests around the warm table this season!
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My Warm Table, translated into Italian is Tavola Calda. These were the words my Papa used to describe a table of good friends, good food and good conversation. I always aim to create a tavola calda in my life and I hope this podcast encourages you to do so too!
We don't pretend that we're therapists, so we're not getting into the therapy space. It's almost like running alongside therapists. We're people developers, and I'm a parent of a person in the space and we're very pragmatic and we just tell you you know the stuff that your mum would have tried to teach you, and we just hope that hearing it in a different voice amongst your cohort, so that you're all asking questions together and all very comfortable saying the wrong thing. Very safe space, very safe space, and so that's where we look for our lightbulb moment.
Speaker 3:Thanks for joining me, sonia Nolan, around the warm table, or the tavola calda as my Italian papa used to call, a welcoming table of acceptance, positivity and curiosity. Thank you to be sponsored by Females Over 45 Fitness, with a studio in Victoria Park and also online all over Australia. So now please take a seat and join us for Season 3 as we explore Stories of Hope. I have a wonderful story of hope and inspiration to share with you today. Around the warm table.
Speaker 3:Often I get friends telling me about amazing and interesting people they know who are doing fabulous things and who would be great to have around the warm table. One name that came up a few times was Desley Delick, a fellow rowing mum from our son's school. I didn't really know Desley, but our sons were rowing together but not in the same year group. But I'd heard nothing but good things about the Delics. So I've had Desley on my ever-increasing talent list for an opportunity to chat, and this season, with the theme of hope, I knew it was finally the right time to reach out and I'm so delighted that Desley said yes to come and join me. But also an added bonus is that she's brought her business partner, megan Hancock, with her, and I've got them both around the warm table today At 6am.
Speaker 3:Each day you'll find Desley and Megan walking their dogs at the local park where they met. It was during these walks that the two women realised they had a lot more in common. They both had family members who needed extra support and they wanted to help them fulfil their full potential. They knew that there must be other families in the same boat, so together they decided to do something about it and started their dream business. Lightbulb Skills is the name of this dream business, and together they turn a light on and teach important life and independence skills for people who need more support. Usually they would be preparing for a day of workshops and fun to bring hope to families all over Perth, but today I'm so excited to chat to them and find out more about light bulb skills. Welcome, desley and Megan.
Speaker 4:Thank you, sonia.
Speaker 3:I'd like you to take me back to the light bulb moment and I'm going to just, you know, just use the pun completely throughout this entire podcast. It's there for a reason it's there for a reason exactly. I want you to take me back to that light bulb moment when you two met and you realised that you could pull your superpowers and experiences to create something to help other families. Tell me about that time and moment.
Speaker 4:Well, megan and I were walking and Megan was sharing a frustration yeah, frustration, that's right, we've had her son was going to develop more friendships and, more importantly, sort of find a partner. Develop more friendships and, more importantly, sort of find a partner. And I'm on the dating scene and I thought, well, I suggested we could do some speed dating. But Megan, being the voice of reason, pointed out that it isn't always easy to deal with the fallout of energies and emotions around when you are doing speed dating, particularly for people like, well, all different types of people, for a myriad of reasons. So we decided that if we did some actual workshops to help each other or to help these people, then there would be a common interest and more likely to generate some friendships. Because I know you tell a different story. That was my epiphany, that was the point that I remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 1:Megan.
Speaker 3:I can see your thinking yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess because we had so many layered conversations over the time before we got to.
Speaker 1:Let's do this kind of thing, and so you know my experience of it was more the concern about getting my son to a point where he's able to thrive on his own outside of the family home, so more living independently. And Desley said to me, well, what can't he do? And I'm like, well, he can't even make a meal for himself yet. And so we kind of went well, we can help with that, you know. And decided that we could run our cooking workshops. It was running side by side with your dating experience.
Speaker 1:We were talking a lot about the social isolation that people like my son and some of his peer or cohort, I suppose or peers experience, and so we often talked about the whole dating thing. Yeah, we did. And so we often talked about the whole dating thing. Yeah, we did, and I was, and am still, cautious about going down dating, but we thought we can do a lot in terms of helping people develop social connections, and so, with our workshops, one of the key things that we try to achieve is to always have that social connection within the workshop and then try and even extend it outside of the workshop and then try and even extend it outside of the workshop environment. And so our social skills program, or workshops that we run, was actually our compromise on the skill building and the dating outcome.
Speaker 1:And, you know, maybe not focusing the compromise was not focusing so much on the romantic entanglements or establishing romantic relationships, but just developing social relationships, Friendships and building friendships, yeah, so important.
Speaker 3:So I want to go back to all the workshops in a moment, because that is, I guess, where Lightbulb Skills has evolved to. But just going back to your own, I guess your personal stories, can you tell me a little bit about? You know the wonderful family members who've inspired this dream business for you. I think I should go first.
Speaker 1:I think you should too, and because again, it was another really lovely synchronicity that we found. So I have a now 24-year-old son who has cerebral palsy and some other associated intellectual disability and things like that. He's an extremely capable person but he just takes a whole lot longer to develop the skills that other people might just have intuitively, or that transferability of skills just doesn't happen as easily for him. And so Desley really understood where I came from, because one of her family she's grown up with a family member who has some similar and yet different challenges, because in our cohort you can have the same diagnosis and still have quite different challenges present in your life through that. So we just kept on going oh yeah, we kind of get that. You know, it's sort of there was that deep understanding.
Speaker 4:Very much so yeah.
Speaker 1:And, having grown up with it, you can also understand the challenges that the families face. Yes, siblings and parents. Yeah, that's it. And how to support that person without prioritising everything about them, them being the central part, because families don't run that well when you have just one person at the focus of the family and everyone else has. You know, everybody else has their needs that need to be addressed as well.
Speaker 4:I also came from it from the point that Uncle Graham is much older, obviously, than Morrison, and so I'm now seeing the repercussions of not being taught all of those things. And as much as he does now live independently, he eats Lean Cuisine for dinner every night, and I feel that there's some real gaps in the market, or there was, that would have certainly helped him to be in a slightly different place to where we are now.
Speaker 1:More choice.
Speaker 4:Yeah, healthier options, yeah, yeah, all those things. So I feel that it was a real empathy we had together for going on the same journey in very different sort of ways.
Speaker 3:So where were you at then, I guess, as mums and you know friends walking dogs in the parks, where were you at in your own careers? That actually was the catalyst moment for you guys to say do you know what I'm going to stop what else I'm doing or start something new? What was happening in your world then, because you are a registered teacher, is that right, I am, that's right.
Speaker 4:I became a teacher in 2018. I had an epiphany then as to whether or not I would renew my lease for a jewellery store that I had in Subiaco.
Speaker 3:You were selling diamonds. I was selling diamonds which was very exciting, my other best friend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was very exciting, and I had a career in diamonds as such, among other things, and I did think do I want to do this for the rest of my life? And as fun as that was and as romantic as it was, I thought I had more to give. So I went back to uni and became a primary school teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that, but I also recognised that I was able to develop a rapport quite quickly with people that were struggling students that were struggling for a whole myriad of reasons and so I thought I can give more at this stage of my life to more than 30 people students every year. And so I.
Speaker 4:And then, when Megan and I were chatting, I liked the idea of incorporating sort of my past business life. I liked the idea of incorporating sort of my past business life into being able to help people, and certainly both of us, because of the journeys that we've been on, recognise the real need for it. And then you did some more adult education. I did. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So I did some further learning and we are continually growing. Last weekend, Megan is an amazing partner. We continually listen to our clients and develop ourselves. I went back and did some more scripted learning around teaching adults and then Megan.
Speaker 1:So I had a career in human resources and I worked in organisational change and development, so I've been for a long time working on the development of other people. It's where I find I get the most kind of pleasure. I suppose I chose to leave those roles in about 2018, I think it was and I began to help other people in the NDIS space who needed to recruit their own support workers, and so I would work for the participant themselves so self-managing or plan-managed people and I would help them choose the people that they wanted to work with, and I suppose that gave me a really nice introduction to what the needs are of people in our space who we now use a lot of that information that I learned from those people to inform the work that we do, and so, yeah, that was my kind of background, as well as having had a son, or have a son who is an NDIS participant.
Speaker 3:Ah, so there's so many different puzzle pieces which are really coming together weren't they, yeah, which is really serendipitous, yeah, but yeah, just so wonderful.
Speaker 1:But it is a really lovely collaboration of all of the skills and life experiences that brought us here so both professionally and personally.
Speaker 3:And the best things are, aren't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3:The best things are when it just sort of like the describe it like the kaleidoscope you know, sort of finally coming into focus with all the beautiful colours and all the you know, finally making a vision that is so clear and you're ready for it.
Speaker 4:It's a beautiful analogy because I feel that that's what our work is about, like it's. My friends often comment on the ridiculous amount of hours that we work, but I don't even feel like I work at all. It fills my cup. It's so enjoyable working with so many beautiful people and having a really supportive partner in Megan. We really bounce off of each other and it yeah, it is. It's fulfilling and that's what I've. That's how I want to sort of see out my career and give back to the community?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and make a real difference to families, like the impact you must have through Lightbulb Skills is quite phenomenal. Are you measuring your impact?
Speaker 1:Well, we get some really, really nice feedback. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes, like, one of us will get a text or an email from somebody, we just like do a screenshot and send it straight to the other person. It's like, oh my God, look what they said. This is great, we're doing this.
Speaker 4:We are, we are really it's having an impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you?
Speaker 3:hearing from family.
Speaker 4:Well, last week we got a photo one of our participants who'd made fried rice for the first time, independently, independently that's right yeah, at home We've got another person who took an Uber for the first time and we went through, taught through the steps and the importance of safety, checking the vehicle you're going into and all things like that. And now she independently catches Ubers by herself, which has allowed for so much more autonomy. And how old are your participants? Who that one? Uh, so she is 35. Another lady, who's 26, has moved out of home, which is just amazing. She's done all of our courses and now uses the skills that she's developed with us, uh, puts them into play in a home. She does have support workers come into her home, but she has actually moved out of home and that was one of her goals. So, really, really lovely, a 19-year-old. She had her first sleepover away from home, never done it before, and was able to have her first night away from home. Oh, there was our first black tie event.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, when we got nominated for the Disability Support Award last year and a lot of our participants had told us that they missed out on going to their school balls, or they just wanted to get dressed up and do something, go to a really fancy place, so we got to take them to the Crown, into the ballroom and had a really beautiful black tie event. We hired the limo.
Speaker 4:So it was the first time for a lot of them in a limousine as well. They loved it, so that was a first for all of us. Yeah, it really was. There's so many First weekend away, remember, so she is 32, never been away from home for a weekend, had done a sleepover, but certainly not consecutive nights going to an unfamiliar environment, and she was really happy to do that.
Speaker 1:Probably a first for us was we got our first employee from one of our workshops. Oh, so one of the people who came along and then you saw potential there Yep, he's a really fabulously capable 47-year-old man who enjoyed the cooking workshop, and as we got to know him through the cooking workshop, he sort of disclosed to us that there was a lot of elements in his life that he wasn't happy with. One of them, most especially, was not having regular work, and so we thought we can fix that. We call him the kitchen fairy.
Speaker 4:And when he does come to our workshops, we, as an employee, we let all the other participants know that we've got a fairy in the kitchen and he helps us. I'm sure he likes to be called that, or he just flitters around and does everything, gets stuff done.
Speaker 1:That's fabulous so we also have had our firsts. We've had a lot of first experiences with our participants as well, so it's very reciprocal in that way.
Speaker 4:We had our 50-year-old woman who was able to take her family to mini golf for the very first time. She'd never done an outing with her family and we took her to Holy Molly so she got the opportunity to experience it and then she was able to replicate it. She had severe anxiety and or has, and she was unfamiliar with it. Because of that, she was able to share that with her family. There's so many things. It fills our cuff. So, part of going to our participating in our workshops, you then get the opportunity to showcase your skills at one of at going what's it called? Let's Get Away, let's Get Away.
Speaker 3:I can't even speak. Oh yes, it's a weekend away that you have, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4:So let's Get Away. People get to showcase their skills at let's Get Away by doing that. She got then exposed to a new recipe which we made together, and then she went home and replicated that and proudly sent us a photo. How fabulous.
Speaker 1:But there was also, like last week, on the cooking theme, there was the girl's mum who sent you the photo. It was her birthday and her daughter, who'd come to one of our workshops, had made her a chocolate cake completely independently and she wrote on there. I should find it off my phone.
Speaker 2:It was the best gift she's ever been given, so that's nice.
Speaker 1:And then, not to mention, reuben with the fruit salad. So one of our gorgeous, gorgeous boys he's a more young man who's come to a couple of our workshops now. His mum had taken a photo of him, a couple of photos of him in the process of making his fruit salad for the very first time on his own, and that was just that. One really brought tears to your eyes, didn't it? Yeah, it did. He's got a lot of challenges in front of that he lives with, so to see him do that and do it with such pride, and shortly after that his mum sent us a message and honestly, we could talk.
Speaker 4:There's so many of them, it really does fill our cup. But shortly after that, when the first round of let's Get Social, our first workshop series, concluded, she sent us a photo of him sitting in front of the computer, which is not something he ordinarily does, and he was on the Lightbulb Skills website wanting to register for another program.
Speaker 1:See what comes up next. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful, that's wonderful.
Speaker 3:Oh, so much impact and so it's all life skills. So I want to go back to this because I do want to unpick all of the workshops in a little minute, because it's just so exciting, what you're doing is so important. But I just want to find a little bit more history about when did you start? When did Lightbulb Skills actually start as a business?
Speaker 4:Megan might know the date, but it's pretty much two years ago.
Speaker 1:Our first workshop was April. The first cooking workshop was April 2022.
Speaker 3:I must have heard of you immediately after that, because you've probably been on my list since not so long. After that we did run a pilot with some of Morrison's closer friends after that, because you've probably been on my list since not so long after that. Not so long after that, yeah.
Speaker 1:We did run a pilot with some of Morrison's closer friends in the October of 2021, and we did that to sort of have a little trial about is what we think we want to offer the right thing for our participants, and so we got so much wonderful feedback from those families from the participants, but also from their parents and, I'm not going to lie, that's really the most valuable feedback that we got, because it really set us on a clear path. It's not just what I think or what I want for my son, but what you know a broader audience are needing, and then we've just heard time and time again that feedback being reinforced. So we both felt pretty confident that we're on the right track yeah.
Speaker 1:And we started with the cooking workshop and then we followed it up with the, so the cooking workshop's called In the Kitchen. Then we moved to the social skills workshop, which is called let's Get Social, and then we developed our third workshop, called Around the House, which is all the titles speak for themselves.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. Parents love the Around the House, don't they?
Speaker 1:Cleaning, changing sheets. The most common feedback we get about Around the House is oh, I should send my husband, or they go.
Speaker 3:my neurotypical child could do really well with this. It's like uh-huh, because why would we expect anything else? Well, that's right. I think everything that you offer, I think everybody could come and learn something. Yeah, yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then to give people the opportunity of showcasing the skills they've developed in those three workshops we designed. Let's Get Away, which is our going away. So it's a little bit of respite but a whole lot of showcasing your talents. And then we designed On the Road, which is a new one that Desley's really doing well at, so they can get their keys for life if they want to.
Speaker 3:That's right, but they can learn how to be a good passenger as well as a good driver and a good pedestrian. Perfect, is that right? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4:So I went back and became a keys for life instructor. Oh, did you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did. What haven't you done?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I know she's amazing right. Our participants want what our clients want, and they were asking for that.
Speaker 1:And so I thought, well, we can do that. Yeah, it's a real door. So what we do is about developing independence, and that on the road, when so many of our cohort would like to have and are capable. They go through a functional capacity assessment with their OT and establish that they're capable of becoming drivers. It will take longer, but they're capable. And then they've got to go and sit their learner's permit, which is sitting in front of a computer with very tricky kind of questions that you have to understand the question to be able to demonstrate that you know the answer. Sometimes it's just an overload for people and they might not get it their first or second or third time.
Speaker 1:By then. You start to doubt. Question yeah, your confidence is knocked. You question whether or not this is actually something that I should be doing, whereas going through on the road with Desley and doing the learning but also the interactive activities that support that learning and then being able to work out how to read the questions and answer them correctly, it just sets people up for success and then they can see whether or not they're going to be capable drivers when they actually start doing the lessons. Yes, but the door opener is on the road you can't.
Speaker 3:It's just so tricky for a lot of our cohort to get there without that extra support and I think that's something that we can take for granted pretty easily, that you know there are so many stepping stones and when you can skip past them pretty easily without thinking about them.
Speaker 3:You don't necessarily break them down to actually see what all the steps are. And that's what you ladies are masters of, because you've actually seen it and you with your education background and you with your wonderful people skills, Megan, to actually identify, you know who's right for the program and also who the right support people are.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know you're breaking down those steps and making them so achievable, Accessible, yeah, yeah yeah, and that is why I think that everyone continually comes back all the time, because and we've now started a lightbulb community through chat groups A lot of these people were socially isolated and now they're not. They communicate so frequently.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're less so, yeah, less so, it's obviously yeah we're working on it aren't we.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, less so, and it's just a way of communicating what are you doing today? And they've got friends An 18th birthday last week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was another lovely highlight.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she invited so many of the lightbulb community to her birthday and was able to celebrate, whereas if she didn't have all of those new friends, it might have been a smaller gathering.
Speaker 1:Family and friends, rather than her own friends as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, that's special, that's really special. So, with your let's Get Social, I want to talk about the let's Get Social and you've also got a let's Get Social Ladies for over 30s, oh, yes. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1:Well, I love that group, probably because I can relate to them a bit more in my age, I don't know the Friday night group is a lot of fun, but it's high energy what?
Speaker 3:other stuff do you do? What do you do for the let's Get Social?
Speaker 4:So we start with some learning. We start with actually the opportunity for everybody to catch up.
Speaker 3:We recognise that they need 15 minutes to meet and greet each other because we weren't able to Become familiar again.
Speaker 4:Well, no more.
Speaker 4:they're excited to see each other and they want to Catch up with what's been going on. Yeah, exactly, have those real social interactions. So all of the programs we do, we really reflect and then refine and improve them so that we can change it, and so for that reason we've paired it back. We start 15 minutes earlier with the anticipation of then setting sitting up in a classroom inverted commas, environment to do some learning, and the learning is around how to plan a social event, among many other things. Often we reflect on some topical situations that might have happened during the week or something, and we all discuss those. So it's a learning opportunity for everybody.
Speaker 4:And then we've developed a program of how they, of how to, yeah, the steps involved in organising an event. And then we go out and do some social activities and the bounce is popular. We hide a water slide, we go something that they really love, and every week we include going to a bar, getting a meal, practicing ordering at a bar, ordering a meal sorry at a restaurant and then going to a bar and having a drink. Social engagement in age-appropriate activities Fantastic.
Speaker 3:So what are the ages that you actually?
Speaker 4:mainly the people that come to Lightbulb Skills workshops. Well, it's quite varied. In let's Get Social, we've got a couple of 16-year-olds and they obviously don't do the bath scenario they don't do the bath.
Speaker 3:We'll be very clear on that, yeah that's right.
Speaker 4:But then it's sort of from 18 to about 35. But with all of our other cooking workshops we've got sort of typically school leavers and up to 65. We've got a 65-year-old man and he is loving it. He wants to keep coming back. We're in the process of establishing a let's Get Social for Mature People, because he really wants those social interactions, like our younger cohort does, and it's not really appropriate for him to come and join that group. Yeah, so for more mature people they are. Yeah, but we have found that the more mature ladies want to go out during the day, which is where Ladies let's Get Social came about.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you were saying that's one of your favourites. Is that what you take? To shopping Cuts of tea. I mean, that's what. I'd be wanting for let's Get Social Ladies.
Speaker 1:We ask them to tell us what they'd like to do and then we work with them to help them learn the skills that they have to put it all together for themselves. So in the last, let's Get Social Ladies. We went to a pottery painting opportunity. We went to that community weaving activity at the Fremantle Arts Centre, and so you all go and just do a little bit of weaving yourselves, and then we went and had lunch. So the activities are very much about what the participants want to do themselves, rather than us saying, oh, we're going bowling today and we're all going to have fun.
Speaker 3:That's right, you're going to like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And a lot of service providers in our space do do it that way because obviously it's a lot easier to manage logistically and so forth. But with that ladies group it's a smaller group and we just work the other way. Customer tells us what they want us to do and then we'll work to help them develop the skills so that eventually they can do it themselves or at least be a lot closer to doing it for themselves and by being able to understand the steps they also have then more ownership, so when their support worker is involved the support worker is doing what the participant is directing rather than the other way around, which so often happens. And I guess our ultimate goal with all of our workshops is we want to be building independence so that people become less reliant upon NDIS and more independent, less reliant upon the help of support workers and family members, so then they ultimately have more choice and control over what they do and how they do it and when they do it, just like we do.
Speaker 3:I love that. It's so important. And listening to your clients yeah, listening to your clients is just gold, because they know what skills they need to learn. Is it money skills? Is it budgeting? Is it planning? Is it you know how to um, how to dress up to go out one evening? Yeah, whatever it is, they're all so important and, like you've said, so individual, aren't they?
Speaker 4:yeah, absolutely the very first, let's get social. We went to, we went to dinner and we didn't actually factor in how long it takes for everybody to order food, because they weren't used to doing that independently and we were giving them that autonomy to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just put menus in front of them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly what would you like?
Speaker 3:And they're like hmm, well, sometimes it's hard to even decode some of these menus, correct?
Speaker 1:What's aioli. What's evo yeah. Not to mention nowadays, we've got the QR codes on tables everywhere so you've, got to be able to be technology savvy, to be able to figure out the QR coding and scrolling through the menu. Exactly, and where are the drinks?
Speaker 3:Takes a lot of practice yeah.
Speaker 4:One of our support workers, who's been with us for a while, said to me the other day she goes look how good they are at ordering. Now, like everybody knows how to do it, and it's that practice and belief that they can do it, and the explicit instruction around this is what you do.
Speaker 3:That's the teacher in you, just coming out. You said explicit instruction. Just love the layers. We do lots of explicit instruction.
Speaker 4:But that's what it is. They need that explicit instruction, little bits of step by step. This is how you do it, this is how you break it down. They're very capable of learning and, but you've got to have the patience and um to do it slowly, and lots of practice. They get there and know how to teach it.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I think that's so important, desley. I mean, people can be masters of a craft, but if they don't know how to then impart that knowledge, you know, that's where things break down. So often so having your skills in this is really, you know, so important, so important. Yes, it is Well done, Desley. I really enjoy it.
Speaker 4:It comes naturally to me.
Speaker 3:I can see, I can see the enthusiasm and excitement in this, which is just wonderful.
Speaker 4:I'd like to share a story with you Please to share a story with you that I received a random phone call one day from one of our participants who was doing Ladies, let's Get Social, and she called to let me know that, despite her daughter being in second year law at uni and three of her children still at high school, she made the first phone call she'd ever made to her school after following the program that we had taught her. So the steps to make a phone call so planning an event, as we would call it also involves booking a restaurant or making a phone call, and she would get anxiety around doing that. So we came up with a formula of documenting it and we make it quite simple Pre-planning the phone call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. What information you need to have?
Speaker 4:So she said. But she called me and said I just want you to know I've made my very first phone call to my child's school and I did what you taught me to do and I was able to do it. How amazing. We love what we do.
Speaker 3:I can tell, and it's so important. What you're doing is so important and, like I said, bringing hope to so many people and families so that they know that they can do the next step. They're empowered.
Speaker 1:And it's all about working to what your capacity is. So obviously we have people with very varied levels of capacity, and that's okay, because if everybody's just taking small steps and hopefully often or many times. Then everybody's just developing and it doesn't matter you know what that end game looks like, because everyone's going to have a difference there.
Speaker 4:But yeah, just chipping away all the time a little bit by a little bit, and sometimes I say to people you've shown up, showing up is enough. Like you're here, you actually made it Because they do have anxiety and it is really difficult. And one of our participants for let's Get Social is not comfortable to leave the house at all and I've said to him you don't need to contribute to the group conversations, you don't need to send out group text messages, but I ask that you show up. And that, for him, is his goal. And the first round of let's Get Social when he came, he was permitted to not attend on two occasions. That was a deal he had with his mum. He could select two evenings that he didn't need to come, and then the last few workshop series. He has come to all of them and that is. He shows up. So that is so. Everyone's goal is quite different and it's what they making them grow?
Speaker 3:Yeah, very much so. And look, showing up is always the first step in everything I say that when I go to the gym. Well, at least I show up first step in everything.
Speaker 4:I say that when I go to the gym. Well, at least I show up. Yeah, exactly, I'm here. Correct, I'm here.
Speaker 3:It's the first start for anything and it's empowering people that what they're doing is enough.
Speaker 4:It's like that was tough at some time it was yeah, and you've achieved it. Well done you, and sets them up for success that night, as opposed to feeling, oh, I'm late or whatever it may be, you're here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, that's wonderful. So how does the program evolve? Is it through listening to your clients and actually making sure that you're tailoring what they want? Is that the evolution of lightbulb skills?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's 100% where we start, but then we always put an overlay in onto that of what skills are we actually developing here? Because there is a lot of service providers in our space that don't necessarily develop skills. And so, as a parent of an NDIS participant, that concerns me that people are either maintaining or further entrenching a level of dependence, and we're all about building independence, and so we've had a level of dependence and we're all about building independence, and so we've had a number of ideas thrown at us from participants about things that we could do and we could, but if it's not building independence, then we choose not to. We leave that to some other people in our space that do a really good job of that and we'll just stay in our lane. That do a really good job of that and will just stay in our lane and do a really good job of building skills.
Speaker 3:So that's your unique point of difference, if you like, is that you're building these skills?
Speaker 1:It is, but the thing that I quickly want to add is that we don't pretend that we're therapists. Yes, that's important.
Speaker 2:So we're not getting into the therapy space.
Speaker 1:It's almost like running alongside therapists. So we have a lot of people participants who will come and tell us what is happening in their therapy, or some of the parents, or even some therapists will come and meet with us and say this is what we're doing with this participant, can you work alongside that? This is how it would, and we're absolutely anything that's going to work for that participant to build those skills. We'll incorporate, no worries at all. But we're not therapists, no, we're people developers. Yeah, and you know, I'm a parent of a person in the space. So, yeah, I think that's a really important distinction. We're very pragmatic, yeah, and we just tell you you know the stuff that your mum would have tried to teach you, and we just hope that hearing it in a different voice amongst your cohort, so that you're all asking questions together and all very comfortable saying the wrong thing. Very safe space, very safe space, and so that's where we look for our lightbulb moment. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3:So how did you come up with the business name? Who came up with lightbulb moments? Whose lightbulb was that?
Speaker 1:Whose lightbulb was it?
Speaker 4:I bulb moments. Whose light bulb was that? Whose light bulb was it? I don't actually know. We workshopped I think it's for those conversations walking at the park.
Speaker 1:We workshopped a number of ideas and then it just resonated with us and it really was all about that. Not being therapists, we're just people, developers. We're going to teach you stuff that your mum has tried to teach you and hope that this time it just clicks. Yeah, and I think clicks was another name that we tossed around for a while. We did, you know, just waiting for that information to click.
Speaker 4:To click. Also, we wanted a name that everyone could relate to, particularly our clients, and that it was something, a word that they were familiar with. And it's pretty obvious. You turn on a light bulb, the light comes on you know, like that's what we're doing.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and that is, we are really mindful of everything we do to make sure that we do make it appropriate, whether it be the level of language, the way we write things, the way we present things. We are really, we monitor our audience and how they can perceive it and I think yeah, and I think that light bulb is one of those things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that. I love that and I just want to share with you. As I was inviting you to come, desley and Megan, I was reading a book. I was reading this book called the Diary of a CEO, by Stephen Bartlett, and this paragraph jumped out at me as I was reading it because I was thinking, you know, I'm going to invite Desley. And then this is what the paragraph said. The book reads we talk about light bulb moments, the moment when we see the light and change happens. In fact, change is a gradual process, small steps that lead to something bigger, a bit like the invention of the light bulb itself. The light bulb was not invented in a moment of inspiration. Thomas Edison worked in a moment of inspiration. Thomas Edison worked with a team of 30 assistants and fellow scientists through a slow web of experiments. There were moments of triumph and of failure. Each time something was learnt. The learning was incorporated into the process which eventually led to success. Oh my gosh, I think we might need to quote that, exactly, exactly what you just said now was exactly that, that there is this light
Speaker 3:bulb moment where the light goes on but, what goes on in the background To make that happen. It's so significant and we're always reflective.
Speaker 4:I say to we speak to the parents, we ask the participants, we ask our support workers what can we do better? How can we do it better? Because we really pride ourselves on reflecting. But I feel we are really outcome focused in that we want the best for our participants to be able to achieve, to be able to grow.
Speaker 1:And we're still learning.
Speaker 4:Very much.
Speaker 3:so yeah, we're only two years young. Yeah, we are, we've done so much in that time. Yeah, so what's the future look like for Lightbulb Skills? What are you hoping to continue developing Good?
Speaker 1:question yeah, really good question, because we really love what we do and that temptation to go Global. Yeah, well, more expanding the workshops that we offer. But right now, our next sort of iteration, the challenge that we've got. Well, one of the good things that, well, I think it's a good thing that we do is we like to move to different community areas so that the participants that join those workshops are working within their own community and therefore they've got another opportunity to connect and build a network within their own community.
Speaker 1:And therefore, they've got another opportunity to connect and build a network within their community and also like you know, I might run into you at Coles while we're doing our grocery shop and have a little chitter chat in aisle three. Yes, that's what we want for our participants as well, so just increasing their visibility in that community space. So the challenge that we've got, though, is, for some of our programs, like let's Get Social, we run out of Mount Hawthorne. Well, we've got people as far as Baldivis, kelmscott, coming to Mount Hawthorne every Friday night, which is not great. So now we need to divide and conquer, and we'll have a north and a south, and so that way, hopefully because it's an awful waste of your NDIS budget to spend in transport costs getting from Baldivis to Mount Hawthorne- Makes sense.
Speaker 1:yes, so we're now in the process of finding another venue where we can run the same program. So, to answer your question, it's all about running more programs in more areas so that we can broaden our audience.
Speaker 4:The opportunity for people to participate in our program. But, also make it even more meaningful for them, like you said so they're connecting in their own community, so learning those skills where they'll be able to practice them every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and make more social connections while you're doing that.
Speaker 4:It's been a common question to me why haven't we grown quicker? Why aren't we doing it here? Why aren't we doing that? And Megan and I are really conscious of staying in our lane but also refining it, and we don't want to replicate ourselves without having a program that we're confident achieves the outcomes that we want to achieve. So it has been a really busy, reflective couple of years, but it's also been really enlightening and we've learnt so much because we've grown so much by listening and I feel that we are now refining our programs to be able to replicate them and then we're able to help more people in their communities.
Speaker 3:Do you do anything in the regions?
Speaker 4:Oh, yes, we love to do that. We have. We've been down to Esperance and so we ran some programs down there, which was lots of fun and really rewarding. We've got a number of conversations happening at the moment for other regional environments, and that is something that we are definitely working towards. We also recognise that we're two people that are really busy.
Speaker 3:I know, I know, as I asked that question, I thought I just don't know how you would do that. But, actually, let's think of the regions, yeah but we do.
Speaker 4:There is so much opportunity because there is limited services there. Yeah, that's right, and so we would really like to continue to develop in those environments and we're very open to that and I do feel that is somewhere. Like I said, we do have a number of feelers out at the moment about getting a program. That's great for them and for us.
Speaker 3:I notice you also do an In the Kitchen with the Thermomix.
Speaker 4:We do. Yeah, that's right. A Thermomix has always been a passion of mine. I still use my Thermomix every day, even though I've had it for 22 years. Well, you were an early adapter. I was, I was the 72nd person in WA to get the Thermomix.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, you know that Only you were not my lover.
Speaker 4:I remember my consultant telling me and I was like oh wow. And I was like oh wow, and I really do love the Thermomix, but I really love how it has developed. And so the Thermomix has changed quite significantly and the opportunities that it provides for people to become more independent in the kitchen is amazing, and so we do run programs for that. I also run programs where of an evening where we cook I do, you do, I do, you do and people cook dinner for their family at home and they love it. And we do that through FaceTime, yeah, through FaceTime. So, yeah, that is really fun and the families love it because they're cooking dinner and the participants do too. So it's great Sense of achievement, accomplishment.
Speaker 3:So once you maybe have graduated through the current light bulb skills offerings, you might be able to find your way around a kitchen and cook a meal for your family. You would be able to make your bed and maybe even change your sheets. Definitely change your sheets, definitely change your sheets and know how to clean up. Put the washing machine on.
Speaker 1:Hang your clothes out properly. Use the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's the around the house one. Yeah, excellent. And then you'd be able to potentially get your driver's licence, or at least the keys to life, and know how to be a good pedestrian passenger. Lots of road safety, lots of road safety. And you'd also know some more social skills knowing how to connect with people, build friendships, go out and order a meal at a restaurant and to communicate how to meet your friends, because we had one of our participants was telling us.
Speaker 4:one of our participants was telling us that he really doesn't like it that he organises a coffee and the person doesn't turn up. Oh yes, and he said how do we? Do that. Yeah, and that's actually how let's Get Social originated, how the idea sort of sparked, because we thought, well, you need explicit instruction to make sure that they know the date and the time and the venue and how that all sort of plays out and the RSVP, like checking one last time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's right, that all sort of plays out and the RSVP like checking one last time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, Even texting in the morning.
Speaker 4:Yeah that's right. Checking is still on today.
Speaker 3:I've just done that this morning. You still on for one o'clock coffee.
Speaker 4:That's right. Well, we do, and we do that. That's part of our program. So people know they need to respond and the to be in there yeah, so with our let's get social, each week we run three or four programs through different activities and we coach the participants, or a participant each week, to send out the message on a group chat through a formula that has all of the information. So, like you said, when they graduate then they've got. They then can transfer those skills and to organize some social gatherings themselves.
Speaker 3:Do you have a graduation?
Speaker 1:It's again a really good question. We do and we don't. One of the reasons why we don't is because we have a really high retention rate. So people finish the workshop and then they want to register for the next one. So I guess that sort of takes the graduation part out of it. But what we do do with every workshop that is completed, we go through a list with the participant one-on-one, and it's kind of reflective learning. We've got our I can statements which go through every single skill that has been introduced throughout the workshop series and the participant gets to rate themselves as either working toward or having achieved that particular skill, and so that is kind of the graduation, if you like. So they've got something where they can say I've invested this much time in developing these skills. This is what I now can do. This is where I need more funding to support me being able to develop the skills to be able to achieve those things.
Speaker 3:Right, and so people can use their NDIS funding to come to your workshops. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's definitely part of it. And what sort of limitations do people have that they come to these classes?
Speaker 1:And again it's a really good question, because that's another area where we're a little bit different. You would have heard of the Autism Association, down Syndrome, wa, all of that. We don't sort of specialise in one diagnosis, we're open to everybody, and so the people that come to us have got all sorts of different needs.
Speaker 1:They yeah, they could have different sort of levels of anxiety disorders, or they could have chromosomal syndromes, or they could have autism, or they could have intellectual disability, down syndrome, like we have got people from every different sort of space, so NDIS, participants of any kind Of any kind?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, they can. However we do. Typically, they have a goal of becoming more independent, so we know that they're capable of growing and that is what we make sure that they do have that capacity to grow. And how do you assess that? Desley, megan, this is Megan's strength.
Speaker 3:How do?
Speaker 4:you assess that, Megan?
Speaker 1:Well, it's a lot of self-selection.
Speaker 4:I think, really.
Speaker 1:So we describe when somebody contacts us to say they would like to register. We have a conversation about what their goals are and how it all fits into their plan, and we talk about what their support requirements are, and then we have a frank conversation about whether or not we think that they will be able to develop the skills within our framework, because sometimes people still might be in a therapy framework, you know, not ready to work outside of therapy. Yet we also use a one to four usually, sometimes a one to three support ratio, and so that defines very quickly for you if you're not capable within a one to three or one to four support ratio, then your needs are probably more significant than what we can offer in our workshops.
Speaker 3:So what that means, just for people who may not be familiar with it, it's you've got one support worker for three clients or four participants. That's correct, whereas I guess with people who've got um more, um more needs, they might have a one-on-one, a one-to-one, that's right so you're working with a one-to-three or one-to-four that's right so they need to be somewhat independent and capable. I see what you're saying, yeah.
Speaker 1:However, some of those people that can work in a one to three or a one to four ratio successfully, they still may choose to bring their support worker with them, because sometimes they'll have a level of anxiety that would otherwise preclude them from participating, and so when they bring their own support worker they just have a higher level of comfort, I suppose, and we often find that people will bring that support worker and then the support worker will just gradually drop off, which is terrific, as the person sort of feels more comfortable and establishes themselves in the group environment and so forth. So we work pretty flexibly.
Speaker 4:It's all about, again, what the participant needs to best access what we have to offer, and we'll work with them, however that best works and when they present in the workshop, I see them as a person and we deal with what is in front of us and they're very capable. It's quite incredible how we went away one time and one of our participants stood in front of the bin and said, can you open that for me? And I was like you can open that? She's like oh, and she's just used to getting everything done for her. I was like sure, and now she knows, and we teach them to make, we'll make sure that they make their beds, whether they've been to around the house or not. When they come away we might help them make their bed, but they're practising those skills. That it's part of life and we expect them to be able to grow and to do things and to want to learn and that sort of thing. So it's, in a way, it's not military camp.
Speaker 2:No, it's really not.
Speaker 4:It's lots of fun absolutely.
Speaker 3:You don't measure the seam or anything.
Speaker 1:No, definitely not. A nurse's corner is not just the corners not required.
Speaker 4:Definitely not required.
Speaker 3:Good to know. I've just had a friend whose son has just gone to the Defence Force Academy and he's got the 30 centimetre rule and the corners and everything and it's just like so. It's not like that.
Speaker 1:No, it's not like that.
Speaker 4:Absolutely not like that.
Speaker 1:But the one thing I'd add to that, though, is people come to that let's get away knowing that that's the expectation. They actually really enjoy doing it. Not once have we had somebody say oh, I'm not going to make my bed, no, they see each other doing it. It's an activity we all. Just first thing we do is get there and sort out where we're going to sleep and who's got what bed, and let's put the sheets on, and they actually enjoy it. They enjoy that sense of mastery.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and being more independent. Yeah, with our let's Get Away, we start with they design the menu for the weekend. So we go to have a picnic and whilst we're doing that, we chat about what food we're going to eat and cook together on the weekend. And then we go and do the shopping together, yeah, and then we go away and then we talk about some how we're going to live all together and how it's going to work and what's house rules.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how many do you normally take away with?
Speaker 4:you eight. Yeah, like knock and wait is something we've had to teach people, because they say I've knocked on the door and they walk in. Okay, you've got to knock and wait. You know they're just what time you wake up in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is very important what time you can actually start activities in the morning. We had one gorgeous participant who was right into her yoga and she wanted to do 6.30 yoga every morning and we're like, oh, that's fine, but you can't wake up everybody else. So we sort of talked around it and set the you know and we don't, you know, sort of be really bossy and say you can't do that. We explain why it's. You know, you've got to think about the other people in the house and how can we actually achieve what you want but also not interfere with what other people's?
Speaker 2:needs are.
Speaker 1:Negotiate you want, but also not interfere with what other people's needs are. Negotiate that little thing anyway, of course. First morning everybody in the house is awake at 6 30, except for that girl, and she's still in her room sound asleep.
Speaker 2:We're trying to wake her up.
Speaker 1:So we have little. You know things not work out, yeah, but again it's all great learning, yeah, and everybody was a little dark on her for a short time. She learnt. You know people are not happy when you wake them up at 6.30 in the morning, yeah, and that's when you're living with other people.
Speaker 3:You've got to be respectful, you do, and it's about I call it the rhythm of a house you know, rhythm of the home because you know, and on how old they are or what their needs are at the time. And I know we're in a different rhythm now, where my son will come home at 10 o'clock from the gym and he'll have a shower with the music on and it's just like, well, that's actually not the rhythm of this house. We're in bed, yeah, we don't need the music on. So yeah, it is. It's all the house rules. All the house rules.
Speaker 1:You're always negotiating, yeah, and with the way the NDIS looks like it's heading, you know that sort of shared services model is probably going to become more and more important. So we recognise we need to upskill our people to be able to live, you know, cohesively with other or happily with other, harmoniously with other people, success with other or happily with other, harmoniously with other people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, successfully is the word. Living successfully with others is our catch cry for Around the House.
Speaker 1:Whether that's in the family home or outside of it yeah, Because we do have participants who come to Around the House who actually, you know, don't have any intention of leaving home in the next sort of five years, or if ever you know don't have any intention of leaving home in the next sort of five years, or if ever you know, but they still, you know, can do well to take more independence within the family home.
Speaker 3:So our theme is hope around the warm table this season and you definitely are a story of hope and I've loved hearing about all the impact that you've made and the changes you've helped families you know sort of experience in a really positive way. But Desley and Megan, what does hope mean for each of you? Desley, maybe you can go first.
Speaker 4:I think that hope is about looking forward, being positive, and I feel that with Lightbulb, we instill hope in people, in that they have got the capacity to grow, and so what we're doing is giving hope to not only the participant, but also to their families, that they can become more independent, and that it's empowering them to become better.
Speaker 3:Fantastic. What about you, megan?
Speaker 1:Oh, that one's hard to beat. I'm sort of on your page that's very normal yeah, um, I.
Speaker 1:I think for me, hope is um, also, yeah, like quite aspirational, and I feel that our cohort are taught not to aspire. It's okay to just be where you are. You just are you, and we'll do everything around you. So for me, the hope and the aspiration, I suppose, is I hope for participants and I want them to hope for themselves that they can take more ownership over their life and have more independence and more choices, and I think it's a totally reasonable expectation. So I feel like it's a hope that they can deliver upon, and if we can inspire a little bit of that hope in them, I feel like we've done a really good job and if we can help them get there even better.
Speaker 3:Oh, you, ladies, are hope in action. That's wonderful. Whatever you're doing, it's so successful, and I'm just delighted to have had you both here around the warm table. So thank you so much for joining me this morning and and just keep those light bulbs turning on in all of those beautiful minds that you're working with. It's just truly a story of hope. So thank you for coming around the warm table with me, thank you.
Speaker 1:Sonia, thank you, it's been lovely. Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 5:Hi, I'm Kelly Riley, creator and head coach of Females Over 45 Fitness, or FOF as we are fondly called. Our studio is located in Victoria Park and we are also online all across Australia. At FOF, our members range in age from 45 through to 84 years of age at the moment. They're amazing examples of hope. Let's meet one of our members now and be inspired by her story.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Heather and I'm in my 50s and in menopause I joined Females Over 45 Fitness to increase my strength and fitness and with my children, now young adults, I finally had time to prioritise my health. It's been great to be surrounded by other women at the same stage of their lives. I know that my health is a priority, especially because I have epilepsy. I was diagnosed as a child and have learned to manage my epilepsy so that I've been blessed with three children, a job as a nurse and have a great, supportive husband who I've travelled the world with. I haven't let epilepsy slow me down too much and I try to share my story of hope and epilepsy to teach others about the condition. I had the pleasure of joining Sonia around the warm table and sharing my story and first aid tips for epilepsy in season one, so feel free to check out the back catalogue of my Warm Table episodes and find out more.
Speaker 3:Thanks for joining us around the warm table. My Warm Table is produced, hosted and edited by me, sonia Nolan. It's my way of amplifying positivity and curiosity in our community. I invite you to share this conversation with family and friends and follow my Warm Table podcast on Facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. Also, you can subscribe and follow my Warm Table on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and maybe even leave a review, because it helps others to find us more easily.
