Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

This is Valerie VanBooven with the Senior Care Industry Netcast, where leaders with three or more years of experience in the senior care market share their advice. So let’s get to it.

In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do.

Rena Yudkowsky:

Hi, I am Rena Yudkowsky. Thank you so much, Valerie. I am a geriatric social worker and memory coach. So I teach memory improvement courses online for mid-lifers and seniors. I usually define that as about 50-plus, age 50-plus. And really trying to help seniors age more confidently and keep their minds sharper for longer.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

And are you nationwide or just local or how do you do it?

Rena Yudkowsky:

So I am actually located in Israel, but thanks to Zoom and Corona, we can be anywhere. I can be memory coaching and teach my courses literally all over the world.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

That’s awesome. And then, you know what, we found that there really are no limitations and no boundaries at this point, so that’s great.

All right, what is the best thing about serving aging adults?

Rena Yudkowsky:

Okay. So I absolutely love, love, love seniors. It is my passion. The best thing about serving them is that I feel like I can make such a difference in their quality of life by helping them improve their memory and also feel more confident that they can remember. And getting older is not an excuse for losing your memory and it doesn’t have to happen. So the best part is giving hope, empowerment. And I love seniors.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

That’s awesome. Yeah, I think that helping someone work through a situation where they feel like maybe they’re not as sharp as they used to be, I think we all have those moments, especially as we turn 50, where we think, “Oh my goodness, I am losing it. I can’t find my gaze. I know I put this here and it’s disappeared. There’s no way.” You start thinking. So yeah, I think that helping people get back that confidence that you really can improve your memory. It’s a muscle and improve it by stimulating it and working with it every single day. So I love what you do. I would imagine that in your career, in your adult lifetime, there have been leaders or organizations in your life that have really meant a lot to you or helped you further your entrepreneurial efforts.

So who would you like to talk about?

Rena Yudkowsky:

Okay. So there have been a lot of wonderful, wonderful people in my life that have helped me over the years, and that continue to. I’m part of a couple different masterminds in terms of helping me develop my business. In terms of though in the senior field, I’ll just pick one organization and one leader here in Israel. I’ve been living in Israel for 22 years, working in the field, doing a lot of interesting things. So there’s an organization called Melabev, and they have community clubs for the elderly in different languages. And some of them are specifically for people with memory issues and cognitive deficits. And when I first came to Israel, I started working with them. And I worked with two very special people, Leah Abramowitz, who at the time was heading Melabev. And she’s also a geriatric social worker and I worked with her in many capacities over the years, and she just really believed in me and really helped me when I came here and it was a different country and a different language, and she really helped me a lot.

Rena Yudkowsky:

And then the other person I worked with in that organization, her name is Bernie Schwetzinger. And I’ve worked with her on and off for 20 years. She’s older than me and she’s my mentor and colleague. And in fact, I just got finished doing a three-part workshop with her. So these people have been very instrumental in helping me move forward, believe that I could do it, and really help me help a lot of people.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

That’s awesome. I’m so glad you have mentors and mastermind groups. I think everybody needs … In some different points in your life, you need someone to either show you how it’s done or give you the confidence to keep moving forward. So mentors and masterminds are excellent. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you for sharing who’s had an impact in your life. Let’s talk about your marketing strategy. I know you’ve reached out to us and things have changed tremendously. We are still in moments of change here and we probably will be for a while.

So what do you do to get the word out about your services?

Rena Yudkowsky:

Okay. So when I started two years ago to put my stuff online, because I was doing this live, and then even before Corona hit, I decided I wanted to go online with this so that I could really be global and help a lot more people. But I knew nothing about digital marketing. I’m a social worker. So I learned a lot and I spoke to different people and I actually hired a digital marketing coach to get me started. So I do a lot. I have a Facebook group that I moderate with 885 seniors from all over the world. And I post in there pretty much five days a week. I have a YouTube channel, I have an email list, I send emails for my courses and programs. But one of the really cool things that I love doing and then serves as a funnel for my other stuff, is webinars for senior groups around the world.

Rena Yudkowsky:

So all these senior groups that used to get together live are doing everything on Zoom, and they need programming. And they don’t care where I’m located. I don’t need to show up live. So I’ll do these one-time or two-time or three-time webinars for senior groups all over the world. And it’s about memory, it’s about focus and aging, and they love it. For them, it’s great programming, for me, I love doing it. I have about seven prepared webinars that I could do in my sleep basically because I’ve done them a lot. I love doing it. And for me, it’s a way to reach a lot of people all over the world, and then I promote my own stuff. So I funnel them into my email list, my Facebook group or my programs, whatever I’m launching at the time. So for me, I found that a very effective marketing strategy.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Very good. That is awesome. You’ve done a great job.

Rena Yudkowsky:

Thank you.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

I know we have a group that is international. I would say most people, most of these folks, and this is kind of almost by accident, most of the folks are in the United States, but we have people who join from all over the world. And it’s an Alzheimer’s and dementia support group, and they support each other. And I know there are many of these and that there are hundreds of thousands of people in them. This one is growing so fast that I’ve had to ask somebody else to help me manage it, be the admin of it. I don’t have to do a whole lot.

But these folks need more professional answers sometimes, and so I’d love to invite you to that. If you could just look around and say-

Rena Yudkowsky:

I would love to. I’m happy to. I’ve run a lot of support groups in my life. I would love to.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

They’re doing a great job of supporting each other, and my role as admin … I mean, I do speak up and do encourage and do that, but my role as admin is more to keep the spam out than it is to, “Oh my God.” And make sure I vet the people who … But we have 60 signups sometimes a day. I mean, it started out as just a little bitty small group and all of a sudden it went nuts. So anyway, so those are the kinds of things where introducing yourself. And you’ve already got a group that does this, but where’s 3000 people in there now, and not everybody’s active, but having a professional who understands memory loss, understands how to enhance memory, how to work with things like this will be really nice, so [inaudible 00:08:15] group.

Rena Yudkowsky:

Yeah. Is that a Facebook group or it’s a?

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yeah, it’s a Facebook group. Yeah. And there are people from all over the world in there, Norway, Sweden. I don’t promote it, so I guess Facebook promotes it because it’s very active. And I’m sure everybody’s in a lot of other groups too, and they do a great job of encourage each other and supporting each other, and sometimes I can only read so much and I’m like, ugh.

Rena Yudkowsky:

I know. I know.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

It’s hard. It’s so hard.

Rena Yudkowsky:

I know. I know.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

But someone like you would be fabulous. You already do so much online, and so great. So awesome. Well, thank you for sharing all your marketing strategies, because I think people forget how powerful it can be to do a webinar. I know that in-person is always nice. I get it. But when someone can sit in their own living room on their laptop or their iPad and just relax, and they don’t have to worry about getting in the car, maybe it’s cold, maybe it’s hot, not to do anything, they just have to sit there and enjoy, either listen or interact, it’s really nice.

Rena Yudkowsky:

Yeah. Super convenient. It’s just super convenient.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

All right. What piece of advice would you give to other senior care providers out there, people who deal with seniors every day and help them?

Rena Yudkowsky:

Okay. Really just to keep providing services for those people that are isolated and depressed and understand the value of that. Because I’m seeing with all my work, whether it’s my webinars, my support groups, all the different things I do, there’s a terrible need, a real, real need to help with isolation, brain stimulation, physical stimulation. These are the things that are going to keep people young and we need to encourage and facilitate that. Unfortunately, COVID has been a disaster for everyone, but specifically for the seniors. They’re so isolated and so alone and very depressed. I’m coming across a lot of depression and anxiety, as I’m sure all the senior care professionals are, and we have a lot of work and we need to really reach out to people and really offer those services that will help people with that quality of life piece and with really combating the isolation and the depression, anxiety that unfortunately, the last two years have brought our way.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yeah, I would agree with you 100%. It’s very isolating. It’s scary for them, and it is very depressing. So the more we can get out there, whether it’s on a camera or in-person, hopefully in-person, and bring joy to someone’s day, it’s the little things. Even meals on wheels is a joy. And if that’s the only person they see all day, all week, it’s a joy to have that small 10-minute visit. So yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Tell us, this is my last question, It’s supposed to be the fun one, how do you like to celebrate?

And I mean maybe it’s a birthday, maybe it’s just in the back of your mind, you know you really helped someone today and you just know in your heart they feel much better than they did before they got on the phone with you, or before that workshop, how do you celebrate?

Rena Yudkowsky:

Oh, that’s such a good question, because sometimes I forget to. And that’s funny because I’m a memory coach. I forget to stop and celebrate. And it’s such a good point because I have a lot of successes, and sometimes just go on to the next thing and I don’t stop and say, “Rena, you just made a really big difference in someone’s life. You just really made someone feel better. You just really made someone believe in their abilities to remember better.” And so how do I celebrate? Sometimes I just stop and say it. Sometimes I’ll make a post on Facebook and say, “I’m just really happy that I was able to do X, Y, Z,” or, “That three-part webinar really helped a lot of people all over the world.” But it has to be conscious. I’m not always consciously of celebrating, so thank you for reminding me to do that.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yeah. I know. I think as we are kind of all caregivers in this business in some regard, and I think we forget to celebrate ourselves. And not in a look-at-me way, but just we forget to celebrate and just sit back a minute and say, “What I’m doing is making a difference. I’m so grateful for that.” So yeah, that’s always good. So thank you so much. And thank you for sharing with us. We will put all of your information with this video so that folks want to reach out, follow you on Facebook, join your groups, learn more where you’re presenting, they will be able to find you.

Rena Yudkowsky:

Amazing. Thank you so much.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Thank you.