Aaron Tucker, founder and CEO of Forward Family Services. Tell me about your vision.
Yeah, so we are located in Fresno and Clovis, California, which is right in the center of
California for those that maybe don't know. But our vision really is Forward serves
families with behavioral and mental health challenges. Specifically, we actually started
by serving families with kiddos on the spectrum with autism. And we started working with about
30 to 35 families. We launched the company during COVID. So you can imagine we had a plan.
And we all planned that because of COVID or was happened and COVID happened?
And COVID happened. Yeah, that one. Like we had a plan, you know, got everything launched, and then
COVID like, like right after. So obviously, our plan had to change a lot, just like everyone else's
plan. And but, you know, many other service providers in the behavioral mental health space
were shuddering. We did not feel that was the best course of action. We decided to stay open.
And we, you know, we were as an extension of the healthcare industry, you know, a necessary
service for families where we were able to do that. And our families were very grateful.
And where others were closing and trying telehealth or just, you know, kind of waiting
it out altogether, we were kind of more bold and just stuck in the trenches. And our families were
like literally in tears grateful for that that we were serving. And I think that decision to kind
of tough out COVID and be flexible, really jumpstarted our launch, which which is our
vision, which was to grow our presence, serve as many families as possible and, you know, move from
one community to the next. So, you know, serving Fresno moved to Clovis. And we've gone from,
you know, 3035 kiddos that we serve with ASD to now we serve about a little over 150
families, kiddos with ASD. And we, along the way, we've incorporated psychotherapy services,
that's just one to one counseling. And I'm pretty passionate about that also, because,
I mean, if you can imagine being a family, you know, having having a kid or kids with
behavioral health challenges, ABA or ASD therapy, that that's trying to address the direct behavior
of the kiddo with a technician. But these families, you know, oftentimes they struggle with knowing how
to how to, you know, work with the kiddos, it causes other stresses at home at work with siblings
with with, you know, relationships. And so psychotherapy is also really helpful in addressing
those types of issues or challenges. And our families were really grateful for that. And then
besides our families that, you know, have kids on the spectrum, we also just provide psychotherapy
services in general for those that need them. And going back to COVID, if anyone is keeping up kind
of with the mental health, truly, my opinion is that the real pandemic is the mental health
and behavioral health pandemic that goes unseen and unspoken really in this in this world.
And it was only exacerbated four or five years ago. And that hasn't really changed, it's only
increased. Right. And the need for providers and services such as forward family services and
others that that are in this industry, there's never enough. And so we we we we branched out
to psychotherapy and and we serve about 70 or 80 families with those services. And then we also
branched out into addiction recovery. So we do mental health and addiction recovery services,
intensive outpatient and like res residential detox services, which I love, I want you to bring
me back to this. I'm going to interject a little bit, just to commentate on some of what you said.
And this is this is fantastic. I'm I'm a big fan of every type of really every reality that you
shared in terms of wholesome recreational well-being for families, for kids. I've got four
kids myself. I don't know if you know that. I don't think that they don't seem like anyone's
on the spectrum. I might be. I don't know. And the up here, you'll notice in the sponsors,
Recovery Unplugged is now a friend of mine, Andrew Sosin. He came on the show. It's an awesome job
for addiction treatments. Then yesterday we actually hosted T. Sandifer. I don't know if
you know her yet, but T. Sandifer of Studio T.R. It's in California as well. She's helped over
eight hundred and eighty thousand at risk youth with their after school dance programs and art
programs. She's phenomenal. And you talked about the effect that COVID had. I agree with you. The
mental health pandemic that already existed was a disaster. But I mean, imagine everybody listens
in. We haven't. I bet most of you have considered this to some degree of fashion. But what happens
when you take a child and you plug their ears with headphones, you muzzle their mouth with a mask
and you put sunglasses on them and you throw a hoodie over their head. And that's how they
spend the majority of their time. What would that do to a human being? You know, I couldn't imagine
that a hundred years ago. Nobody could have imagined doing that to a human being. And we
just went through that as a world. So, yes, there's a lot of opportunity for recovery.
And we have a lot of great resources out there to help make that happen. Thanks to people like you.
So as you as you get ready to dive into, let's we can certainly talk about the recovery program
as well. But where did this massive vision come from, Aaron? Yeah. So I had worked for going on
15 years in the, you know, just in the corporate, you know, grind of America. I think like anyone
else or many other people are used to had a lot of good experiences, really gained a lot of valuable
experience, things that I would do, things I wouldn't do. But I learned, I think throughout
the course of my career that I found the most fulfillment helping families, serving families,
like true services, not just, you know, pumping out widgets, so to speak, and just selling them,
I guess. And so for me, there came a time where, you know, I'd kind of risen in the ranks of my
career. I think like you, I have kids and you start to kind of take a step back. Where am I going?
You know, am I going in a way that I can be the dad I want to be to them? Well, also, you know,
not just being a provider, but providing like on my terms and like, really doing something that's
fulfilling for me and also allows me time with them. And I had just moved back, back home to Fresno,
and kind of, you know, reconnected with my brother, not that we we always talk on the phone,
but reconnected now in person, right. And he had been in mental health and addiction recovery.
And I just kind of started, you know, getting the lay of the land a little more of that space. And
just through, you know, my own research and networking, it became apparent that there were
some real needs, especially here in Fresno. We're a very agriculturally small business
dominated community, meaning like attorneys, accountants, farming, you know, farming in
general, so that's farming equipment, actual, you know, production of fruit and vegetables and stuff.
But behavioral mental health services here is really, it's really limited in those resources.
And so reconnecting with him and then also like my own family's experience, we have a lot of,
you could say personal experience with behavioral mental health challenges.
And I, you know, I had some skill sets, you know, financially, in terms of my background with
auditing and healthcare and whatnot, things I've been involved with, where things just kind of
culminated to like, you know, hey, with coming home, this is what I want to do. I want to help
families with these kinds of challenges. And I want to build a company that's going to serve those
needs. And I want to do it comprehensively. I don't want to just like etch out, you know, only one
thing, some companies do that. I wanted to kind of build a team of professionals that could address
various mental and behavioral health challenges. So I think it kind of, to circle back to your
question, I think me kind of getting fatigued on the typical corporate grind, I've always had that
entrepreneurial spirit kind of coming to terms with a combination of coming home, getting the lay of
the land, looking at what the opportunity is, what I'm passionate about, and kind of looking really
hashing out all those things. I landed on behavioral mental health. And that this is,
this is where my passion is, and that I've got some real talents and capabilities that I could,
I could work with here. And then also where COVID felt like really terrible timing at first,
like, oh, shoot, this is maybe really bad timing. It actually ended up being perfect timing,
which was pretty awesome. So that's amazing. Yeah. It, it's evident that it gave you some resiliency
opportunities, you know, and some opportunities to look at things from a new angle. The same thing
happened back to Recovery Unplugged with them. They were shut down, so to speak, in their five
original locations. They also now have an online virtual program of what they did. They would not
have created that had the COVID experience not happened. And so now they have the ability to
serve nationwide, possibly even worldwide. I haven't experimented with that yet, because I
like to dabble in what they're up to. The, back to your point regarding your brother in you
and your story, I just love that you, you went out, you gained new skill sets in life. You had a
child or children, and you started to see the opportunity to really optimize dadhood, right?
Jump into fatherhood with even more intentionality. A lot of people see that and they don't do that.
You did. You know, you saw an opportunity to align your life and your career with that. And the
byproducts has been also reunited with your brother, leveraging his strengths, pulling your
talents together to create something amazing. And that's, welcome back to that aspect of life.
You know, I don't mean that pretentiously for those who are listening. I mean that because
I've been a stay at home dad since my daughter was born in 2010. And that was a very intentional
choice. We made a lot of sacrifices to make that happen and I would never take it back. Like the
chance to be there from day one was, you know, it's again, one of those things where it doesn't
matter what challenge I've been through, that led to probably the best blessings in my life.
So it's fun that you were able to go find those skillsets in other ways. I had to find that too
and create that balance just because you are a stay at home dad doesn't make you a perfect dad by
any means. I had plenty to learn. Right. Thanks for sharing that. We're going to record two more
quick segments. How many podcasts have you been on Aaron? Oh, did I lose you? Can you hear me?
Can you hear me? There you are. How many podcasts have you been on? I've been on like five or six.
Okay. Awesome. I'm going to give you one small piece of feedback for the next segment.
And that is try to incorporate me as a color commentator sooner, knowing that I will recap.
And like where you felt like you needed to go back to the question, if you give me that opportunity,
then I'll do a little recap to validate what you said. Okay. And you'll then be able to correct
me if I'm wrong. And if there's a conflict that actually drives a little bit of momentum and
dynamic into the show. But if I nail it, then of course you can say, dude, you nailed it.
Some podcasters need a lot of saving and need you to carry on other podcasters or more
into the co-hosting thing. Awesome. So last segment.
All right. So I have two questions. I'll go back to back on these are leading questions.
Feel free to argue the question itself or, you know, feel free to answer them.
Why do leaders often hide from funding their visions? And how can leaders lean into funding
the vision? Why? It's hard. I think, you know,
it's hard. I think that when people start, it's fun when you start to have your vision,
it's really fun to start thinking what could be, what it might look like, you know, when it comes
together. Then when you start actually making a plan and culminating everything that it takes
to make it a reality, it gets a lot less fun really quickly. And I think that people, you know,
that pushes them away. And it's unfortunate. But I'm a big believer in grit and in digging in.
It's a being an entrepreneur or starting your own thing is hard. It's really hard.
And, you know, we're located here in California, you might say it's a little extra hard.
I would agree. I'm in Texas. I like to laugh at that.
Yeah. So but and then as far as leaning in, it's just it's what I think when I spoke about earlier,
like, what are you passionate about? If you're not passionate about it, I just frankly don't
believe you'll be able to lean into it. If it's not something that you wake up in the morning,
and it's like, I'm ready to do this, I'm looking forward to doing this, like, this is,
this is my identity. Like, besides this, I'm a runner. Like, I just finished a marathon on Sunday.
I love and congratulations. Oh, thank you. Thanks. But I like wake up and I look forward to my runs.
Like I get up at, you know, 536 the morning. I love my run. That's how I feel about what I do
for a living to like, it's got to feel like that to you. It's got to feel like breathing air,
it's got to feel like whatever it is you love doing. That's if you're going to really start
something and hold on for the long term, and like really lean into it. I just believe you got to be
passionate about it. And hopefully, you've got skill sets and talents and things to like,
compliment that. But that doesn't always matter. I listen, like, there's a lot I didn't know about
behavioral mental health that I just decided, yeah, I'm just going to figure it out, though.
Or hire the right people to help me figure it out. And that's so I think passion more than anything,
even if you don't have necessarily the natural skill sets are all the natural skill sets,
hopefully you have some, I think those things can come. But if you if you're in something you're
passionate about, feel strongly about, I think that can drive you. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more
and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for
giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and
becoming a Vision Pro yourself.