Hey everyone, welcome back to Buzzworthy. I'm
your host, Shalicia Harris. I dive into the rare
stories entrepreneurs tell about building their
businesses, but most importantly, themselves.
Let's get into it. Hello everyone! Today we are
back with Dr. Laura Shoots, who is a physician
in her ER department at her hospital. She's also
a mom of two beautiful baby girls, a soccer player
who travels to play soccer, should I include
that, and now she's an entrepreneur and building
a tech company to help us take care of ourselves
and each other a little bit, but in a different
way than you might think right now. So Laura's
going to tell us a bit about her journey today
and what got her started on Take Care. Hi, Laura.
Nice to meet you today. Hey, thanks so much for
having me here. So excited to dive into your
story because it's so complex and you do so many
things. I know you still play soccer very actively
while you're a doctor and now building this tech
company. How, you know, how you can take it to
the next level with Take Care. Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for having me. It's definitely been a
ride and life is definitely extremely busy right
now. But, you know, there's only so much time
in the day. So some things just need to get.
cut back to make space for it all. It's true.
And like, you know, everyone wants to have it
all. But I think it's trending a little bit more
now that you just can't have it all at once and
be super happy with it all at once. But that's
a whole other discussion. I think what's really
important today is. to really help people understand
the inspiration behind Take Care and, you know,
who Laura is and why Laura is building this thing
called Take Care. So one of the things we really
love to understand about our entrepreneurs is
like, what do you think set you up to become
an entrepreneur? Because it's not for everybody.
So is there something that, is it a combination
of life experiences, a childhood experience,
or you are just so passionate? Tell us about
it. That's a great question. So I grew up in
a family of entrepreneurs, actually. So my dad
is in the automotive industry. He owns car dealerships.
And I have a grandfather who he was a builder
and now manages properties all over the place
that he owns, different strip malls and things
like that. And so I've been surrounded by a family
of entrepreneurs. And I've always known that
I've seen what they've done. And I've seen the
ability to, once you make something, great, be
able to be in that kind of leadership position,
and then still have some income while not having
to be in the emergency department on Christmas
Eve and Christmas Day or every other weekend
or nights and evenings, to be to be very honest,
you know, finding a way to be able to balance
both worlds and have some autonomy in my life.
But certainly I grew up working for my dad every
summer and, you know, worked at his dealerships
and was very involved. I actually sold cars for
a long time. It's a funny shift going from being
a, you know, working as a younger kid, basically,
you know, a teenager selling cars. And then in
my 20s, selling cars with my dad. And I worked
as his business manager for a while where I set
up everybody's car loans and did all that paperwork.
It was it was a great experience. But I certainly
realized that that industry wasn't for me pretty
quickly. And I felt like I had a handle on how
to do the work pretty quickly. And I was like,
I'm not sure this is like a long term thing for
me that's going to keep me engaged and interested
and excited. And, you know, you're also working
in a very to be. Frank, male dominated industry
that wasn't super pleasant. So I, I knew I didn't,
I, after my last summer, when I was working as
a business manager there, I was like, this is
not something I want to do for the rest of my
life. Despite my dad really wanting me to be
an entrepreneur and, you know, take over his
business. But I knew that I wanted to do something
on my own one day. And I've always been looking
for that thing that kind of had the right mesh
of, my skills, my interests, and something that
would do good for people. And something that
I truly believed in. That was, you know, I was
looking for that Venn diagram of my interests,
my skills, something that I thought I could be
passionate about that could do good for other
people. And that's, that's where Take Care kind
of checked all those boxes, and I decided to
go all in. Oh, I love that. What an incredible,
I think, journey, because I think a lot of business
owners have that goal, like your dad for their
children. And maybe eventually one day you might
feel the same about take care for your girl.
Totally. Yeah, I'm sure. So I'm sure you can
understand that from his perspective, but I think
it's incredible what working, one, working at
a young age can do for you in terms of building
your confidence, building your navigation skills,
building your problem solving skills. And those
are skills that like are completely invaluable,
especially when you jump into this journey as
an entrepreneur and also as a physician, as you
currently are. well, too. So yeah, I learned
so much from working for my dad. And even the
sales aspect, right? Like the number one thing
I learned was you have to believe in your product
if you're going to sell it, right? There was
stuff that, you know, don't tell my dad this,
but I'm like, I'm not sure I believe in that
product enough to actually sell it. And the whole
dealership actually felt the same way. You know,
we would have guys come and be like, take on
our critical illness insurance and sell it to
your customers. And it's like, No, I don't, I
don't feel good about that. That doesn't give
me warm fuzzies, you know, something that you
have to have a specific five illnesses only in
your lifetime. And then maybe, maybe they'll
pay it out and it's super expensive. I don't
know. There's just things that. You have to believe
in the product in order to sell it. And it's
so easy to be able to talk about things you believe
in and sell those things. Yeah, because when
you're selling, I think the biggest thing people
look for is authenticity. And they can sniff
it out like, you know. shark smelling a drop
of blood and water from miles away um and when
you don't have that it's it's hard to close that
sale so you gotta believe in it you're right
yeah so now you know take care is on the horizon
you've gained all these skills you've gained
all of these experiences with your dad um what
is it that you started to see was an issue? And
you're just like, we need this to happen. Like,
give us some context around that and help us
understand what led you to defining the problem
of take care. It's a great question. And it's
one that's going to take me a little bit of time
to answer if you're okay with that. So I might
just verbal diarrhea for a minute here. We're
here for a good story. I'm going to backtrack
you to I'll tell you a little bit about myself
as a physician first. So I was always involved
in physician leadership. I really enjoyed that.
I took on a really big leadership role in residency
where I was a program chief resident, meaning
I oversaw, there's different sites, chiefs as
I was a resident in Kingston, head Queens. And,
you know, they have a family medicine program
in Kingston, in Oshawa, in Peterborough, multiple
distributed sites, all under the Queens umbrella.
And I was the program chief, which meant there's
a site chief at each of the sites. And then I
was the program chief that looked after the site
chiefs and the hundreds of residents underneath
them. And I got to work really closely with the
program director. And I loved that job. I loved
that job. I loved being in that leadership role.
I thought that I was good at it. And it kind
of continued me on that trajectory of continuing
to be involved in leadership. very early in my
career. And so in Brantford, when I became a
staff physician, I was finished my residency.
I did my emergency residency. I quickly became
the president of the Medical Staff Association
and got shooed into that role. And it was 2019,
2020 when I had that job. And that role is...
basically the person who leads all of the physicians,
the dentists, the midwives at the hospital. And
I'm responsible for advocating for them while
liaising with the CEO, the board of directors
at the hospital. And we all know what happened
in 2020, right? So March of 2020, here I am.
I'm the president of the Medical Staff Association.
We're in the global pandemic. I'm a frontline
ER doctor. I also sat on our ER COVID committee
as one of the - a few people who dealt with all
of the rolling out changes that we had to react
to, sometimes multiple times a day, who could
get a swab, you know, what we're going to do
with people who come in with a fever and how
are we going to separate them from the chemotherapy
patients, how are we going to communicate all
of these algorithms with our community physicians
in town, sitting on, you know, meetings with
them, liaising with the entire hospital and having
meetings sometimes, you know, multiple a week
with all of the physicians in the hospital involved.
and getting informed about what's changing and
what rules we're following. It was a lot. It
was a lot. I was also finishing my master's in
quality improvement and patient safety at U of
T at the same time. So I was like a frontline
doctor. I was the MSA president. I was finishing
my master's. I was on this ER COVID committee.
I don't know. It was a very busy time in my life.
I was working some days like 16, 20 hours a day.
Like I was just up all night thinking about this,
how to keep people safe. And it was... incredibly
stressful, right? It was an incredibly stressful
time. And then we all had this like in a blink
of an eye realization, the whole world, our mortality
is like very in your face, right? Because we
are seeing and reading some crazy things that
are happening across the globe. And we're wondering,
is this going to happen to us? And how do we
prevent this? As physicians in the emergency
room and our nurses, we were not sure if we were
safe to be around our family. Are we going to
bring home something? We didn't have the right
PPE. We didn't have the right masks. And we didn't
even know how this was spread. It was a stressful
time, right? And so that experience really leads
you to think about how much time you're giving.
to your hospital to work, right? Like a ton of
time, how short life is. And then also all of
the experiences with families and patients that
I see, not just in the pandemic, but every day
in the emergency room where there's conflict
that doesn't need to be there because they haven't
had the appropriate conversations about planning
ahead for end of life, right? They haven't had
the time when they didn't. No, they don't have
the appropriate framework or the tools to know
how to have these conversations. And it creates
a lot of extra stress in between families that
doesn't need to be there. And it was something
that also bubbled up for me personally in the
pandemic. So I lost a couple of family members
in the pandemic. One who knew he was sick, he
had cancer, and he had planned ahead. He and
his wife were extremely organized. He had what
I would call a fantastic death. He died at home
with the hospital bed, his wife by his bedside.
He had an incredible memorial of life service
where he brought in a taco truck. They go to
Mexico every year for half the year, and they
just spent so much time there. He knew for his
memorial service, this is what they were going
to do at their country home. They brought in
this taco truck. They brought in a band. There
was all kinds of memorabilia there. There was
a microphone. People could get up and speak about
him. And it was just like this wonderful, incredible
day to memorialize him. And contrast that with
another family member we lost who his wife had.
mild dementia. So she couldn't be his power of
attorney. So the children were the power of attorney.
And I think they really struggled because they
didn't know what his wishes were. And he just
fell at home and wound up in hospital and just
went down, down, down. And there was a lot of
extra stress placed on them over all of the many
medical decisions that needed to be made. And
nobody knew for sure what was the right thing.
What was it that Sean wanted? there was um the
priest didn't even know his name at the funeral
you know which was just sad um so so it was it
was challenging it was a challenging situation
and it was I know it was so stressful on the
powers of attorney having to decide all of this
stuff and having to hear every other family members
chirp about what their opinion was on what to
do. And it just created a lot of extra stress
that is hard to see at an already stressful time
when you've lost somebody you love. Right. Yeah.
And so this is where take care is bubbling out
of this, out of my professional experience in
the ER, seeing this happen all of the time with
people who are getting, you know, this boom,
sudden change. there's a critical illness, there's
an accident, there's something that happens.
And then my personal experiences of seeing how
things can go really well, but how, you know,
when you plan ahead, but also how hard it can
be on the family and how it can be prevented
though with planning. Long -winded answer. No,
but I think it's the right answer. It's the right
answer because it's everything you had experienced,
especially at such a critical time in the world
where everyone, absolutely everyone was thinking
about their mortality and everyone was terrified
for. at least a period of time before things
sort of calm down and people can feel like they
can exhale just a little bit. So you being in
the thick of it all, seeing patients, seeing
the fear in people's eyes and seeing how, you
know, The risks being high, the uncertainty being
high, but not just uncertainty about life, but
like what happens if, what happens when. I can
absolutely see how those experiences stick with
you. And personally, it's something that I don't,
I've never really considered is maybe the emotional
aspect of what doctors actually see and experience,
especially with families when they come in for
medical services at one time. So that's actually
quite a unique insight into how, one, care can
be given. If decisions can't be made well, and
if the person who has sort of, you know, the
power of health kind of or power of attorney
status within the family, they're going to be
influenced in some way. And who knows if that
is truly what the individual receiving that care
decisions being made on their behalf. And that's
where all the problems come from. Yeah, it. It's
a very common situation because of the structure
in Ontario and in many, many places, many provinces
around Canada. There's something called a hierarchy
of substitute decision makers. Or when you're
dealing with powers of attorney of health, there's
different powers of attorney. But for powers
of attorney of health in Canada, it's generally
an automatic thing. If you have not. legally
named somebody you haven't filled out the paperwork
and said this is the person i want to be my poa
of personal care um there's kind of a rank order
list and if it's not legally done you know then
it falls to your partner your spouse if you don't
have one of those then it goes to your children
or your parents and this is where trouble happens
because it's when all of the children are sharing
this role which is what the law says right they're
going to share this role they're going to make
these decisions together and it creates a lot
of strife and conflict and disagreeing about
you know no mom wants everything let's do absolutely
everything keep her alive and then another kid
is like that's not what they want you know and
it's it's a very difficult situation for families
to navigate and for physicians to have to navigate
in the health care team like everybody that works
in health care has seen this they know it's real
It's not just my anecdotal experience. There's
so much medical literature that backs this up.
It's the number one reason why families fight
at end of life is over making these medical decisions
for their loved ones. And it's because they just
haven't talked about it. They haven't talked
about it. Yeah. And so Take Care is creating
now a space for these conversations to happen.
So tell us specifically. What is that very strong
problem you're looking to solve with Take Care?
Yeah, so Take Care helps you to get completely
organized. It is a platform that provides a framework
to walk the user through all of the things that
their family is going to need to know if they're
incapable of making decisions for themselves
and after they've passed away. So for example,
there's a category called My Health Wishes where
I guide the user through making a very kind of,
it's a spoon -fed. way to dynamically answer
questions about if this medical scenario pops
up, what would you want? What is a good quality
of life for you? What's a poor quality of life
for you? And there'll be little videos along
the way where I can give you some more tips and
some more guidance from my own experiences to
help guide the person. But the idea is that they
walk through, they just answer these questions
and they share it with their family. Right. So
the software allows you to share these wishes
automatically, digitally with your loved ones.
They get stored in the cloud. So whether you're
in Hawaii on a beach and there's an emergency
or you're with me in the ER, you can pull this
information up. You can see it and respond to
it, making an informed choice. That's the idea.
And that's where my slogan comes from. It's plan,
share, take care. Right. So the user goes through,
they answer all the things in the framework and
there's a lot more. to it than that, but you
know, they answer all of the questions. It spits
out a summary page. You share it with your loved
ones. They are able to access it. You can update
it anytime. And then this allows everybody to
take care of one another way better. Yeah. And
you can all just simply be on the same page.
That's right. Yeah. That's, that's the whole
point is that everybody knows what the real wishes
are and why decisions are being made. And the
whole point is to make this like really stressful
situation. more manageable, right? Try and pick
out these preventable stressors, these like medium,
these small stressors that are in there. There's
all kinds of other decisions that need to be
made that if you have information, it will make
it a lot less stressful. Informed decisions are
so much easier to make than ones where you're
just shooting in the dark and you don't know
what to do. 100%. And what that made me think
of just now is, I think maybe some people think,
and maybe I'm also actually uncomfortable with
the thought of death and planning it. But the
story you told about, you know, the patient that
was dying at home, and they had a memorial service
with a food truck and all of these like fun elements
around it. Your platform. like will create that
space for, for not just the doom and gloom, but
also like, how do you truly want to be celebrated
for the life that you've lived? Yeah. There's
supposed to be, you know, the hope is that you
can, I don't want to use the word joy because
a lot of people might find that weird, but almost
right. Like there's a thoughtfulness to it. And
that brings joy to a lot of people when they
can do thoughtful things for their loved ones.
It makes you feel good. Right. And it's, and
it's, it's a nice warm thing. And so there's
a lot of space in the platform for that, where
you can, you know, have this, whatever you want,
party, funeral, both, neither, you know, you
can say that stuff and you can talk about it.
You can say, I want a taco truck or this is the
food I want, or I want to have a big. gala where
people raise money for this specific charity
or there's a whole section on legacy planning
where you can upload recipes videos voice recordings
things that you want to be released after you've
passed away to your loved ones that they will
cherish right these mementos that they don't
know exist and then they will get sent out after
you've passed away there's so much you can do
with it to be thoughtful about this Really love
that because you always see, you know, the thought
of leaving a video behind or something like that
as like a manifesto, which often isn't in the
best, most positive light. But to receive these
like little tokens of gifts that somebody is
like accumulated over the years and has packaged
specifically for you. It's almost like a special
gift. And the way that person wants to be remembered
going forward. And I think it's interesting to
see maybe the discomfort of us when it comes
to the ending of things in general, right? I
don't think as like maybe a society we're as
comfortable with. things ending right take you're
absolutely right yeah Grey's Anatomy is it ever
going to end yeah what season are they on I don't
even know the pit is going to bring some competition
to them now though if you've watched the pit
it's like a new popular medical show I haven't
heard of it yet but man like I was you know I
don't feel like I'm old now, but when I think
back to Grey's Anatomy starting since I was in
like middle school, that blows my mind. Yeah,
that's crazy. I think I was in university, so
I'm older than you. But yeah, it's been on for
a long time. It's been on for a long time. And
you're totally right, though. It's one of the
big things I'm hoping to do with Take Care is
a culture shift to make it okay to talk about
this stuff because it's so important. There's
so much evidence that it helps your family. It's
like the most loving thing you can do for your
loved ones is plan ahead, right? But we plan
ahead. Kids do fire drills at school. They do
lockdown drills. We buy insurance for our car,
for our home, for, you know, stuff. doesn't mean
these things are going to happen right because
that's a common thing is people think oh if you
talk about death you're going to die right but
we do other things in our lives all the time
like if you buy car insurance are you going to
get in a crash no right and there's so much evidence
that these superstitions aren't true, but it's
this magical thinking, if you call it that, you
know, the physicians, we use the term magical
thinking, but it's, it's one of these things
that's, it's this weird societal and cultural
thing where it's much more common to be superstitious
about this, to be avoidant about it. But the
truth is, it's not much different from planning
for a fire drill, right? Where if you have the
plans, this situation comes up. you are much
better prepared for dealing with this emergency.
It's the same thing with your health. Most people
are going to have an illness and require the
hospital at some point in their life. One in
two people will be diagnosed with a serious illness.
You need a plan in place for what happens. You
know, when this happens, it's not just about
take care. It's not just about end of life, but
it's about that moment when you've been diagnosed
with something. And you need support from other
people in your life. And it's coming up with
this plan in advance for that, just like you
would for a fire drill or just, you know, same
thing for buying insurance for these things,
except these are. way more likely to happen and
guaranteed for death. Like it's, everybody is
going to die, unfortunately. So we kind of all
need a bit of a wake up call and to be like,
this can happen at any time. It's, I see it,
you know, the blink of an eye, unfortunately,
where family's lives are just flipped upside
down. And these are the moments where it's so
much harder, especially if it's a younger person,
it's so hard on the family. It's this horrific
situation for everybody. And then it. multiplies
if there's been no organization because everybody
thinks they're not going to be the one. It's
not going to happen to them. That invincibility
component that we all have like, oh, that's not
going to happen to me. I'm not going to be that
one in two. I'm going to be the other one, right?
But we all can't be that other one. Yeah. But
then it just creates so much added stress for
an incredibly stressful situation already. So
at what point in someone's life do you think
it's truly a trigger point, a moment, like what
is happening in someone's life that should have
them consider structuring or signing up for take
care? Because we often like I think people live
their life in sort of a linear way. Society sort
of set it up like, you know, you go to school,
you get a job, you get married, you have kids,
you take care of your parents, your parents die,
then... Maybe that's the first time they're even
considering their own mortality. Or from the
insurance industry's perspective, they say the
second you have a kid, you should get life insurance
because now you have to take care of that child
if something happens to you going forward. So
at what point in someone's life you think take
care really will be the pivotal thing at that
moment that they should consider? Yeah, I personally
think it's never too early to plan ahead. And
that is the joy of this is it's meant to be dynamic,
right? You update it as your life evolves, as
things change in your life, your experiences,
what you're exposed to changes, your wishes are
going to change too, right? And it's... never
going to be a bad thing to have your wishes documented
right it's it's an insurance policy for your
family at the end of the day right and especially
if you are responsible for big things in your
life if you have children if you are a homeowner
if you have a business you know these are all
things that your loved ones are going to have
to figure out if something critical happens to
you and having a roadmap and a game plan for
that stuff is super important. And someone might
say, you know, I'm just trying to think about
what the audience is thinking about. And one
of the things they might say as well, well, I
already have a will in place. How is take care
different than a will? Yeah, it's a great question.
So a will is about your assets. It's about dividing
up all of the financial things that you have,
right? Who's going to get your home? Who's going
to get your car? What about your investments
and your bank accounts that you have? You have
to outline all the things that your executive,
your estate are going to deal with and divvy
up all of the things of value in your life or
debts too. You know, how's that going to get
handled? Who's going to take care of your kids?
Who's their caregiver if you pass away? It's
these big major questions and really a lot about
the financial stuff at the end of the day. The
will. typically does not include all of these
dynamic and detailed things like, do you want
your Facebook account deleted or memorialized?
What about all your email addresses? What's going
to happen to them? You know, do you care what
clothes you're buried in? Do you want to be buried?
These are the things and the decisions that your
loved ones are going to have to deal with. And
they'll just be shooting in the dark if you don't
provide some guidance on this. And a lot of people
don't even know. to plan for this stuff right
like i just had a friend she had passed away
um about a year and a half ago and it was just
her birthday recently um the anniversary of her
birthday and people were posting on her facebook
wall wishing her happy birthday, right? And this
is stuff that happens all the time. Somebody's
passed away and their social media stuff still
exists. The family doesn't know how to shut it
down. They haven't talked about memorializing
it, deleting it, these kinds of things. And it
just adds extra stress that doesn't need to be
there. for families you know I've seen families
where they can't get into their loved one's computer
to do anything because they don't know any of
the passwords they haven't thought about these
things in advance and they're just totally stuck
now not knowing how to help sort out any of their
affairs their taxes like all of their digital
files are locked because they haven't thought
about this wow so it's more of you know a living
sort of a transition It helps you with that transition
from life and then once you pass and then after
that to make it really, really seamless for someone
that's responsible for you in any of those phases
of your life. Yeah, it's all of these details
and all of the decisions that need to get ironed
out that generally aren't put into a will because
nobody's going to pay a lawyer. $450 an hour
to write down all this stuff that, you know,
you might change your mind on or your passwords
are going to change or things like this, right?
So it's a space for all of this extra stuff that
your family's going to have to deal with and
to try and provide a framework for that. So everybody
knows, you know, what's the kind of stuff that
we need to communicate about in advance in case
or when this happens. That's the idea and that's
the difference. Does that make sense? Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. It makes sense. It's really a softer
touch to really managing someone. And like you
said, taking the noise out of the tension and
the problems that arise in these situations,
because even with a will, you know, those can
still be contested. They can, you know, all of
this. legal stuff can happen around wills as
well too but with take care you can probably
have stronger controls of what that looks like
in your life and it's a little bit more dynamic
and not so expensive to make changes to so that's
right yeah and and the whole idea is that it's
supposed to help with that conflict, right? It's,
I know that this is not going to solve all of
the chaos in the world. When stressful situations
happen, it's hard for families, right? This isn't
going to make it perfect. It's not going to make
losing a loved one, you know, all of the grief
and the stress that comes with that go away,
but it will make it more manageable and it won't
add on all this piles and piles of stress that
can just really accentuate a horrible situation
that's what it's supposed to do it's supposed
to help you and help you sort out caring for
your family and kind of gelling together at a
time when you're grieving and you're sad because
you're not fighting over all these details and
kind of taking that off the table so you can
focus on each other that's the point of it I
love that so Laura Have you written out your
own take care plan as yet? Of course. Do you
want to share a little bit? Do you have any fun
things in there that other people might want
to consider for using take care? Oh, that's a
great question. I mean, there's stuff in there
that, you know, my spouse already knows about.
I, and that we're already using some of it. But
I'll tell you, so one of the things is I would
like a bench to memorialize myself. So I'm an
outdoorsy person and I am somebody that, you
know, loves hiking, loves finding that beautiful
view and vista. having a bench or multiple benches.
My wife knows that the dream would be to put
one on the top of a mountain somewhere where
people can rest and it can be like, there's my
view forever is, you know, looking over a lake
and a mountain with a little plaque on it saying,
you know, this is a memorial of me. That's one
of the, one of the things in there. So serene
and such a great idea is even like an option
within the application as well too, right? Like
how can you even execute? something like that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a place to say, you
know, have you set aside funds for this kind
of thing? Cause it's one thing, you know, don't
do it to your family, please. Where you're like,
Oh, I want this huge ball gala after I die. But
like, I've saved zero money for it. You probably
should think about that aspect too. Cause that
won't be too nice. And it will be the opposite
of what I'm trying to achieve. If you say, Oh
yeah, throw me a huge, massive, like $20 ,000
party, but I've got no money for it. Like. you
have to think about this stuff too, right? Yeah.
Be a little bit realistic about it as well. Yeah.
I think what's, what's kind of really lovely
about your idea of a bench is you're still giving
after you're gone and, and there's something
that's really nice about that. Yeah. Yeah. It,
I kind of want it to be, you know a nice and
a thoughtful thing that's right instead of just
a a sad go and cry it's like look at this beautiful
thing that brings back memories of you know i
lived in new zealand for a little while and just
loved it there i'd love to be hiking and outside
and in the mountains and you know it's just it's
very me instead of a tombstone they can have
a tombstone if they want that that can be their
decision but for me it's like i would love a
bench I like it. I like it a lot. So Laura, we've
learned so much about Take Care and so much about
you and like your own, you know, entrepreneurial
journey. What do you find has been the most rewarding
thing in building Take Care so far? Great question.
I know that I'm building something that's going
to make a difference in people's lives, right?
Like even just having people hear about it and
think about it, I think that is a step in the
right direction and can be part of this culture
shift to normalize it. So it feels really good
to be building a product that I know is going
to help people. And at the end of the day, it's
something that... helps drive, drive me forward,
knowing that this is something that when I speak
to people who have been through a situation that
was difficult, they get it right away, like they
know how important this is, and their eyes just
light up. And it's, it's one of these things
that it's so crystal clear to the people who
have had these not fun experiences, how important
this is. And so being a part of that is really
great. So where can people find more information
about Take Care, Laura? Yeah, so you can head
over to my website. It's takecaretogether .ca.
You can sign up. There's free webinars there
that I'm running. You can check out our events
calendar and sign up for our free webinar to
learn more about the basics of the things you
need to know now. You can follow us. There's
a lot of stuff we put out on our social media.
So on Instagram at... TakeCareTogether .ca is
our handle. We're also on Facebook. You can find
us there. And we try to put out, you know, educational
things for people to learn more about what you
need to do to plan ahead. Oh, I love that. So
all of that information, how to find Dr. Laura
and take care will all be in the episode description
below that you can find. But before we wrap up
the podcast, as an entrepreneur, we know the
journey is one with lots of peaks and valleys.
And I want you to reflect on your journey for
the past year. And I have three questions for
you. All right. And all I need is a one word
answer. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what is the one
thing you're taken away from last year's experience
as an entrepreneur? Failure is normal. As a physician,
I won't get into the details. We're done. But
failure is a part of the process in being an
entrepreneur. Okay. Number two, what is the number
one thing you look forward to? I can't wait for
more people to be using the platform and benefiting
from it. What is one thing you are leaving behind
that you've learned last year? That's an interesting
question. One thing I'm leaving behind that I've
learned. um last year I think um as a physician
I already touched on this in the first one but
it was hard for me to realize that in being an
entrepreneur you're gonna fail like you're gonna
try things and they're gonna suck and they're
not gonna work and uh I think that's the thing
that I'm taking into um you know, my next year
moving forward is that that's okay. And you'd
think I'd be more used to it because I'm in quality
improvement and it's all about trying things
and failing and trying again, but. It's harder,
I think, to feel like, oh, do people not like
this? Is it like when you put up a post or something
and nobody interacts with it? I just got to be
more okay with that. And putting myself out there
and knowing that not everything's going to be
perfect. It's not a like 100 % right all the
time. It's a try it, see what works, see what
sticks, see what resonates. Wow, I love that.
So it's what I guess I learned from you in the
past year and how you're moving forward is you're
really learning from fear of failing and taking
that forward into the future. And you're leaving
that fear behind with all the confidence that
you've actually gained in the last year of doing
this and knowing that failure isn't a full setback
for you. That's right. It's part of the process.
I absolutely, absolutely love that. So anyone
thinking about. Going into entrepreneurship,
this is actually something that I struggled with
when I first started as well, too. And it still
happens to me. I'm still sometimes a little bit
fearful. So I want to thank you so much, Laura,
for telling us about your own personal journey
about building Take Care and what you're taking
into the future. And I know someone is going
to be inspired by this. And everyone, don't forget
to check out Take Care. at TakeCareTogether .ca.
All the information is down below and we'll see
you next week. Thanks Laura. Thank you so much.
Thanks for tuning in, everyone. We're so glad
to have you as part of our Buzzworthy community
as we grow our network of Buzzworthy businesses.
Continue to follow us on all the social media
platforms at buzzworthy underscore pod and follow
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that you can get the new episodes as soon as
they're out. This Buzzworthy podcast could not
be done without our incredible team, starting
with our music by Khaled Imam, our video and
sound engineer, James Clark, Yvette Robichaux,
our social media manager, Cesar Cardania, our
brand and creative lead, and finally, your host
and executive producer, Shalaisi Harris. We'll
see you next week.