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Aaron Tucker, founder and CEO of Forward Family Services. Tell me about your vision.

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Yeah, so we are located in Fresno and Clovis, California, which is right in the center of

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California for those that maybe don't know. But our vision really is Forward serves

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families with behavioral and mental health challenges. Specifically, we actually started

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by serving families with kiddos on the spectrum with autism. And we started working with about

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30 to 35 families. We launched the company during COVID. So you can imagine we had a plan.

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And we all planned that because of COVID or was happened and COVID happened?

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And COVID happened. Yeah, that one. Like we had a plan, you know, got everything launched, and then

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COVID like, like right after. So obviously, our plan had to change a lot, just like everyone else's

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plan. And but, you know, many other service providers in the behavioral mental health space

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were shuddering. We did not feel that was the best course of action. We decided to stay open.

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And we, you know, we were as an extension of the healthcare industry, you know, a necessary

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service for families where we were able to do that. And our families were very grateful.

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And where others were closing and trying telehealth or just, you know, kind of waiting

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it out altogether, we were kind of more bold and just stuck in the trenches. And our families were

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like literally in tears grateful for that that we were serving. And I think that decision to kind

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of tough out COVID and be flexible, really jumpstarted our launch, which which is our

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vision, which was to grow our presence, serve as many families as possible and, you know, move from

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one community to the next. So, you know, serving Fresno moved to Clovis. And we've gone from,

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you know, 3035 kiddos that we serve with ASD to now we serve about a little over 150

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families, kiddos with ASD. And we, along the way, we've incorporated psychotherapy services,

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that's just one to one counseling. And I'm pretty passionate about that also, because,

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I mean, if you can imagine being a family, you know, having having a kid or kids with

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behavioral health challenges, ABA or ASD therapy, that that's trying to address the direct behavior

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of the kiddo with a technician. But these families, you know, oftentimes they struggle with knowing how

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to how to, you know, work with the kiddos, it causes other stresses at home at work with siblings

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with with, you know, relationships. And so psychotherapy is also really helpful in addressing

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those types of issues or challenges. And our families were really grateful for that. And then

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besides our families that, you know, have kids on the spectrum, we also just provide psychotherapy

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services in general for those that need them. And going back to COVID, if anyone is keeping up kind

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of with the mental health, truly, my opinion is that the real pandemic is the mental health

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and behavioral health pandemic that goes unseen and unspoken really in this in this world.

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And it was only exacerbated four or five years ago. And that hasn't really changed, it's only

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increased. Right. And the need for providers and services such as forward family services and

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others that that are in this industry, there's never enough. And so we we we we branched out

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to psychotherapy and and we serve about 70 or 80 families with those services. And then we also

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branched out into addiction recovery. So we do mental health and addiction recovery services,

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intensive outpatient and like res residential detox services, which I love, I want you to bring

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me back to this. I'm going to interject a little bit, just to commentate on some of what you said.

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And this is this is fantastic. I'm I'm a big fan of every type of really every reality that you

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shared in terms of wholesome recreational well-being for families, for kids. I've got four

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kids myself. I don't know if you know that. I don't think that they don't seem like anyone's

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on the spectrum. I might be. I don't know. And the up here, you'll notice in the sponsors,

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Recovery Unplugged is now a friend of mine, Andrew Sosin. He came on the show. It's an awesome job

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for addiction treatments. Then yesterday we actually hosted T. Sandifer. I don't know if

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you know her yet, but T. Sandifer of Studio T.R. It's in California as well. She's helped over

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eight hundred and eighty thousand at risk youth with their after school dance programs and art

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programs. She's phenomenal. And you talked about the effect that COVID had. I agree with you. The

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mental health pandemic that already existed was a disaster. But I mean, imagine everybody listens

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in. We haven't. I bet most of you have considered this to some degree of fashion. But what happens

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when you take a child and you plug their ears with headphones, you muzzle their mouth with a mask

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and you put sunglasses on them and you throw a hoodie over their head. And that's how they

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spend the majority of their time. What would that do to a human being? You know, I couldn't imagine

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that a hundred years ago. Nobody could have imagined doing that to a human being. And we

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just went through that as a world. So, yes, there's a lot of opportunity for recovery.

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And we have a lot of great resources out there to help make that happen. Thanks to people like you.

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So as you as you get ready to dive into, let's we can certainly talk about the recovery program

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as well. But where did this massive vision come from, Aaron? Yeah. So I had worked for going on

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15 years in the, you know, just in the corporate, you know, grind of America. I think like anyone

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else or many other people are used to had a lot of good experiences, really gained a lot of valuable

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experience, things that I would do, things I wouldn't do. But I learned, I think throughout

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the course of my career that I found the most fulfillment helping families, serving families,

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like true services, not just, you know, pumping out widgets, so to speak, and just selling them,

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I guess. And so for me, there came a time where, you know, I'd kind of risen in the ranks of my

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career. I think like you, I have kids and you start to kind of take a step back. Where am I going?

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You know, am I going in a way that I can be the dad I want to be to them? Well, also, you know,

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not just being a provider, but providing like on my terms and like, really doing something that's

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fulfilling for me and also allows me time with them. And I had just moved back, back home to Fresno,

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and kind of, you know, reconnected with my brother, not that we we always talk on the phone,

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but reconnected now in person, right. And he had been in mental health and addiction recovery.

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And I just kind of started, you know, getting the lay of the land a little more of that space. And

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just through, you know, my own research and networking, it became apparent that there were

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some real needs, especially here in Fresno. We're a very agriculturally small business

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dominated community, meaning like attorneys, accountants, farming, you know, farming in

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general, so that's farming equipment, actual, you know, production of fruit and vegetables and stuff.

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But behavioral mental health services here is really, it's really limited in those resources.

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And so reconnecting with him and then also like my own family's experience, we have a lot of,

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you could say personal experience with behavioral mental health challenges.

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And I, you know, I had some skill sets, you know, financially, in terms of my background with

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auditing and healthcare and whatnot, things I've been involved with, where things just kind of

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culminated to like, you know, hey, with coming home, this is what I want to do. I want to help

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families with these kinds of challenges. And I want to build a company that's going to serve those

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needs. And I want to do it comprehensively. I don't want to just like etch out, you know, only one

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thing, some companies do that. I wanted to kind of build a team of professionals that could address

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various mental and behavioral health challenges. So I think it kind of, to circle back to your

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question, I think me kind of getting fatigued on the typical corporate grind, I've always had that

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entrepreneurial spirit kind of coming to terms with a combination of coming home, getting the lay of

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the land, looking at what the opportunity is, what I'm passionate about, and kind of looking really

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hashing out all those things. I landed on behavioral mental health. And that this is,

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this is where my passion is, and that I've got some real talents and capabilities that I could,

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I could work with here. And then also where COVID felt like really terrible timing at first,

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like, oh, shoot, this is maybe really bad timing. It actually ended up being perfect timing,

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which was pretty awesome. So that's amazing. Yeah. It, it's evident that it gave you some resiliency

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opportunities, you know, and some opportunities to look at things from a new angle. The same thing

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happened back to Recovery Unplugged with them. They were shut down, so to speak, in their five

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original locations. They also now have an online virtual program of what they did. They would not

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have created that had the COVID experience not happened. And so now they have the ability to

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serve nationwide, possibly even worldwide. I haven't experimented with that yet, because I

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like to dabble in what they're up to. The, back to your point regarding your brother in you

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and your story, I just love that you, you went out, you gained new skill sets in life. You had a

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child or children, and you started to see the opportunity to really optimize dadhood, right?

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Jump into fatherhood with even more intentionality. A lot of people see that and they don't do that.

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You did. You know, you saw an opportunity to align your life and your career with that. And the

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byproducts has been also reunited with your brother, leveraging his strengths, pulling your

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talents together to create something amazing. And that's, welcome back to that aspect of life.

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You know, I don't mean that pretentiously for those who are listening. I mean that because

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I've been a stay at home dad since my daughter was born in 2010. And that was a very intentional

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choice. We made a lot of sacrifices to make that happen and I would never take it back. Like the

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chance to be there from day one was, you know, it's again, one of those things where it doesn't

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matter what challenge I've been through, that led to probably the best blessings in my life.

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So it's fun that you were able to go find those skillsets in other ways. I had to find that too

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and create that balance just because you are a stay at home dad doesn't make you a perfect dad by

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any means. I had plenty to learn. Right. Thanks for sharing that. We're going to record two more

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quick segments. How many podcasts have you been on Aaron? Oh, did I lose you? Can you hear me?

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Can you hear me? There you are. How many podcasts have you been on? I've been on like five or six.

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Okay. Awesome. I'm going to give you one small piece of feedback for the next segment.

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And that is try to incorporate me as a color commentator sooner, knowing that I will recap.

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And like where you felt like you needed to go back to the question, if you give me that opportunity,

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then I'll do a little recap to validate what you said. Okay. And you'll then be able to correct

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me if I'm wrong. And if there's a conflict that actually drives a little bit of momentum and

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dynamic into the show. But if I nail it, then of course you can say, dude, you nailed it.

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Some podcasters need a lot of saving and need you to carry on other podcasters or more

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into the co-hosting thing. Awesome. So last segment.

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All right. So I have two questions. I'll go back to back on these are leading questions.

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Feel free to argue the question itself or, you know, feel free to answer them.

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Why do leaders often hide from funding their visions? And how can leaders lean into funding

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the vision? Why? It's hard. I think, you know,

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it's hard. I think that when people start, it's fun when you start to have your vision,

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it's really fun to start thinking what could be, what it might look like, you know, when it comes

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together. Then when you start actually making a plan and culminating everything that it takes

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to make it a reality, it gets a lot less fun really quickly. And I think that people, you know,

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that pushes them away. And it's unfortunate. But I'm a big believer in grit and in digging in.

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It's a being an entrepreneur or starting your own thing is hard. It's really hard.

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And, you know, we're located here in California, you might say it's a little extra hard.

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I would agree. I'm in Texas. I like to laugh at that.

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Yeah. So but and then as far as leaning in, it's just it's what I think when I spoke about earlier,

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like, what are you passionate about? If you're not passionate about it, I just frankly don't

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believe you'll be able to lean into it. If it's not something that you wake up in the morning,

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and it's like, I'm ready to do this, I'm looking forward to doing this, like, this is,

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this is my identity. Like, besides this, I'm a runner. Like, I just finished a marathon on Sunday.

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I love and congratulations. Oh, thank you. Thanks. But I like wake up and I look forward to my runs.

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Like I get up at, you know, 536 the morning. I love my run. That's how I feel about what I do

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for a living to like, it's got to feel like that to you. It's got to feel like breathing air,

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it's got to feel like whatever it is you love doing. That's if you're going to really start

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something and hold on for the long term, and like really lean into it. I just believe you got to be

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passionate about it. And hopefully, you've got skill sets and talents and things to like,

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compliment that. But that doesn't always matter. I listen, like, there's a lot I didn't know about

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behavioral mental health that I just decided, yeah, I'm just going to figure it out, though.

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Or hire the right people to help me figure it out. And that's so I think passion more than anything,

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even if you don't have necessarily the natural skill sets are all the natural skill sets,

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hopefully you have some, I think those things can come. But if you if you're in something you're

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passionate about, feel strongly about, I think that can drive you. Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more

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and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for

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giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and

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becoming a Vision Pro yourself.