Provider Webinar: Get more clients - cracking the code for NDIS Providers
Such an amazing treat to listen to the insights of:
David Dinca, Ignite Healthcare on Social Media for NDIS Providers
Nathan Lack, Eternal Disability Care on building relationships with Support Coordinators
Karen Lorenzon, The Pink-haired Lady on Networking in the NDIS space, and
Anna Hoellering, Too Much Club on what Participants are actually looking for in a new provider.
Together with our expert special guest panel, we stepped through
The power of social media for NDIS businesses
How to create meaningful relationships with Support Coordinators
Networking within the NDIS sector
What Participants are looking for in new providers
Check out the video to catch up 🦾
Want extra support along your NDIS journey? Join Kinora.
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Again, hello everyone.
Welcome to today's Kinora provider focused webinar.
Get more clients cracking the code for NDIS providers.
Today is not your average NDIS marketing sales pitch, and we're not promoting anyone particular tactical process.
Instead, Konora is bringing together some of the industry's most experienced voices to share their insights and build a better sector together.
My name's Yvette.
You may know me and my colleague Erin, who might appear up in her little box in a second.
Who is Manning the chat today?
We are coaches.
We're within the kinora community.
Just a few housekeeping points before we get going.
This is the first of our Members only webinar, so thank you for joining the Kenora community to be here today.
We think that access to a vast library of resources, professional development, webinars and a constructive values driven community of over 16,000 participants, families and service providers is something worth being part of. Today's session will be recorded and sent out to all who've registered before the week's.
End.
If you look to the top of your screen, you'll see a chat button.
Please click on that now.
This is where you can introduce yourself.
Share comments and ask questions as we go to each of the speakers.
Erin will be monitoring the chat, responding to as many as she can as we go along before bringing the questions to our speakers at the end of each section. If you need close captioning today, you can turn that on by clicking more at the top of your screen.
Then select language and speech and finally turn on live caption.
And before we start today, I would like to make an acknowledgment of country.
In the spirit of reconciliation, kinora acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.
We acknowledge the culture, diversity, knowledge and experiences of First Nations people and celebrate their contributions, particularly those living with disabilities, their families, carers and those dedicated to supporting people with disabilities.
All right, getting into today's session.
Today's been designed to provide multiple perspectives on the one struggle that so many providers seem to have.
Where to find people who need their services? But this struggle struggle doesn't happen in vacuum, and it would be ignorant of me to not acknowledge the massive strain on providers right now in other areas of the IS.
One specific one. Just this week, the release of the pricing arrangements and price limits guide and all of its potential snowball effects.
Across the board, I'll ask some of the guests today.
Their take on the price guide before we launch into their specific insights on this topic today.
And I just want to introduce our special guests today. We.
Yeah, yeah, we enjoyed by David Inga who, if you don't already know of him via his LinkedIn contributions, you soon will.
David is the founder and director at Ignite Healthcare, a physio by trade and fierce advocate for people with disabilities, and those who work to support them.
We also have Karen Lorenson, also known as the Pink Haired Lady who is the neuro affirming founder and chief hype queen of Connect Fest.
And today's expert on the power of networking in the NDIS space.
We have Nathan Lack, who is the operations manager at eternal Disability Care, who has been kicking around the disability sector since before it was officially the NDIS. His sector wide experience in managing complex NDIS needs from individual to businesswide, is pretty unmatched and he's always looking for ways.
For things to be better for everyone.
And we will be rounding it out.
Anna is the CEO of the too much club, a social support network founding out of her founded out of her own need as a neurodivergent woman to find a safe, inclusive space to be her most authentic self. Anna is here today in her capacity as an Ndas partic.
And provider to give insight into what participants are truly looking for in a provider.
Alright.
Before we hear from experts, let's set the stage for.
Why is my thing not working out?
Let me get rid of the slides.
We'll set the stage for.
How the sector is right now.
Which is.
The situation is the sector's been growing rapidly in its decade of existence.
So much so that it's gone well beyond the government projections of need.
And while that might sound like an absolute gold mine of opportunity, the reality is there are just as many new providers entering the space, and that the actual gold are actually Australians living with disability.
Here in lies the challenge in how to stand out and attract the right clients who need your services.
That's exactly what we are here to talk about today.
Hi.
So first up we are using.
We are talking about using social media to be visible and what to do when people are actually looking.
David Dinca, who is a physio, founder, CEO and LinkedIn voice.
He's a prolific poster who's done an incredible job of growing his audience and network on social media.
But today, we're actually curious on how that's actually translated to business for David and Ignite Healthcare.
David, there you are.
Thank you for making yourself available today, especially considering all your campaign work following the pricing arrangements and price limits guide release this week.
Did you want to briefly talk about that before we get into your insights on the topic of today?
David Dinca 7:10
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me today.
Ive appreciate it.
So for those of you who who don't know what's going on.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 7:14
Pleasure.
David Dinca 7:19
Obviously there's been widespread uproar around the the pricing limits, announcements basically being unviable for for most businesses. And when that happens.
The people that suffer is in the businesses. First, it's the participants, and particularly those in in rural, regional and then marketplaces.
So it's now or never is a little bit of a campaign that we put together with a coalition of providers to make some noise, realizing that actually peak bodies working in isolation of their own list of demands seem to not necessarily be working in that more of a.
Unified Movement is required in order to focus on our common goals, and I think our common goals are very, very simple.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 7:57
Approach.
David Dinca 8:02
For, we want to unite around pricing, fair pricing, CPI indexing.
Or services across the sector.
It's not enough for myself as an allied health care business owner to focus on an allied health around Physio occupational therapy.
My concerns should be just as much about my neighbor support coordinators, play managers, frontline workers, as I am about what we provide.
Genuinely, I believe that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 8:29
Because at the end of the day, who it will benefit so.
David Dinca 8:33
Yeah, I genuinely believe that in order to represent what our needs are, we need to present your needs and we have to be unified in this.
So that's our first demand behind this. Got this coalition of providers as second demand is to cut and this has a big impact particularly on all therapy supports in the Community is is to restore full and fair travel in order to provide fair accessibility and inclusion to people.
In the community and again to not absolutely decimate thin markets in regional rural areas of Australia and even just markets on the fringes of metropolitan.
Cities around the nation.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 9:09
Yeah.
David Dinca 9:11
That's actually sincerely an issue.
And our third issue that we really want to focus on is bringing in genuine consultation from the sector.
Now they've been talking about bringing in Akba, which is effectively Ackbar, which is effectively an independent pricing authority since 2022 and every year they've had to do it, they've and they don't do it and they continue to run their own dodging models that Don.
Work internally.
That has put all of us into a spin.
We want to bring in fair, fair consultation with the sector and that being through by HAKPA and then finally.
Most people that you would know in this sector it's it's quite a female gender dominant and you know naturally we find that that the most caring of all humans make their way through to this sector and a majority of those who are going to be affected by by.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 9:55
Coming in.
David Dinca 10:09
By these recommendations.
And beyond, the participants are going to be the female workforce.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 10:12
Will be women.
David Dinca 10:14
So there are 4 demands.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 10:15
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
David Dinca 10:16
We've got a petition. I'm going to drop it in there. Yvette, if you wouldn't mind. I'm going to leave it in the chat here.
It's now or never. Com au.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 10:23
Yep.
David Dinca 10:25
It really is the case.
There's a sense of urgency.
We've got to bring it.
We've got two weeks before, effectively the 1st of July when it can be absolute mayhem.
We owe it to ourselves.
We owe it first and foremost to the participants, so.
That's it.
Hopefully that gives a good summary of what we're doing and why we need everyone's help.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 10:40
Amazing.
I mean, you don't ask for much, David.
Seriously, like not.
Not a lot going on right now, but it's a really great the the campaign this week and obviously have been seeing a lot of discussion and sharing of the petition and all of the the talking points that you've just been talking about via LinkedIn, like LinkedIn is obvious.
David Dinca 10:47
Yet.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 11:03
Awash with this discussion at the moment, so obviously.
You've been active in that space.
For quite a while, prior to this week, obviously it's just now a very useful channel for this particular message.
David Dinca 11:15
Darling.
Mm hmm.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 11:18
So how long have you been active on social media and how has that changed over time?
David Dinca 11:20
So yeah, so I can.
I can tell you before I started ignite Healthcare, I didn't have social media at all.
I didn't have Facebook.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 11:28
Yep.
David Dinca 11:29
Didn't have Instagram, didn't have anything and you might look at me and go oh, that's nonsense, because the center of attention or I like to be loud or whatever, I promise you. Well, I appreciate that. But I never had social media whatsoever.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 11:36
You're natural, yeah.
David Dinca 11:42
I was pushed towards it by people.
Internally in their business, realizing that actually you can't sell a secret.
And if you really care about the things that you're doing, that's all well and good, but people need to be able to know about it.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 11:54
Yes.
David Dinca 11:55
So that's when I first introduced to social media because of ignite healthcare and recognizing it's the best way to sell, sell one of the best kept secrets, which is amazing care.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 12:06
Yes.
David Dinca 12:07
About two and half years ago, I had a little bit of an epiphany where I felt, and I still think it's the case that LinkedIn in particular has a ton of first move opportunity for people to utilize that platform.
Form to grow business where previously it's been on the Facebook. So it's been on the Instagrams etc.
I genuinely believe LinkedIn is the place to do that, to kick in doors, to meet decision makers, to meet.
The consumer, who increasingly is find themselves on the professional network more and more, that was the vision two years ago.
I felt that if I began being myself on there, I mean being like everybody else.
Not taking the marketing advice from traditional marketing, the kind of marketing that you get you get from studying at a university and doing a degree, etc.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 12:56
OK.
David Dinca 12:58
It's being yourself being more than just interesting, but showing a genuine interest in the work that you do, showing that you care about the work that other people do, and slowly and steadily have grown my presence to the degree where on the in the last month.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 13:05
Mute.
David Dinca 13:15
I think I took a screenshot here just to kind of paint the picture.
To yourselves about what's what's possible, and the fact that there still is a ton of first move the potential.
In the last month.
My personal LinkedIn has reached around half a million people on the home page.
And about 70,000 individual accounts.
So we're talking about targeted accounts, the people that make what my business is a reality.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 13:46
Yeah, they're in the effector and all of the linkages there.
David Dinca 13:48
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 13:50
So what you're saying is you're originally.
David Dinca 13:50
Yeah, totally.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 13:54
Pushed very heavily by your your work.
Saying that this is something that's necessary, and then about two years ago that changed to you realizing that this was a powerful platform for you to showcase yourself and your business.
David Dinca 14:08
1000%.
So I think tradition, traditional marketing starts with the business where you kind of go where ignite healthcare and this is my page and we have immediate capacity for this or that it we have these services.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:10
Yeah.
David Dinca 14:21
What we're finding is that that's ineffective in today's marketplace, especially if you want to stand out.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:26
Yeah.
David Dinca 14:26
I think what we're finding is that personal brands, people are far more authentic.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:30
Yeah, people connect with people, yeah.
David Dinca 14:33
People connected people and their statistics out there where?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:35
Yeah.
David Dinca 14:37
Well, first of all.
In order to kind of convert someone to potential lead, somebody who wants to use your services that you really believe in, they need to get to know you and build relationship with you and over several re engagement and touch points.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:42
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
David Dinca 14:50
So I think what the role is is sales happen in sevens.
So someone needs to be able to have heard of you or learn about you or see you pop up seven different times to really buy into whatever division is that you're trying to.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 14:55
Yeah.
I'm sure that number changes all the time, but it's a lot of other a lot of other touch points for sure, yeah.
David Dinca 15:05
Yeah, just as an idea.
Yeah, a a ton but, but if you want to give that as an idea, that's a good baseline.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 15:09
So.
David Dinca 15:11
But please continue with it.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 15:11
Yes, sorry, I was just.
So are you.
Are you completely rogue, David, or do you actually invest some time into strategy in terms of how you engage in social media?
Like, is that a cons is concerted and intentional thing for you to sit down and figure out how I'm going to use social media.
David Dinca 15:27
Yeah.
Puddling so as as the the founder of Ignite.
We've agreed that our best marketing strategy is to not be business versus person first.
People first show casing the the advocacy that that, that I do.
My team does providing value to people without trying to to be transactional, giving in order to receive.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 15:57
Yeah.
David Dinca 15:58
And then downstream of all of that?
Is the growth of of our business.
So it starts with David Dinca.
It starts with.
Key people within our team, we hold webinars, we provide free free value to the because we actually care about what we care about.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 16:15
Yeah.
David Dinca 16:15
And I'll give you an example.
This is how intentional it is, we.
We have webinars in place where we retarget and also target new coordinators who are very important.
And referring to our services to provide that value every four to six weeks, our last webinar we had 250 people register for it.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 16:31
Mm hmm.
David Dinca 16:38
Most of them were coordinators, decision makers, to kind of determine where our departments going to receive their care and and there's always that exactly.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 16:45
Yeah, yeah.
So they the jerk thing that you don't see.
David Dinca 16:50
So that's been our focus and how we use LinkedIn and I'd encourage.
Everybody to provide genuine value in order to receive.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 16:58
Yeah.
David Dinca 16:59
More than the output or value you received from the the market.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 17:05
So with those sorts of initiatives, David, have you seen direct impact to ignites, I guess for one of a better term bottom line or like do you see direct flow on in the business from that? Yeah.
David Dinca 17:15
And we as a business as a business, we almost exclusively do this.
We don't do search engine optimization.
We don't do Google paid ads.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 17:23
That's a big call, yeah.
David Dinca 17:24
We don't do any. We don't do any paid advertisement guys, OK?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 17:27
Mm hmm.
David Dinca 17:29
And.
We are never short of of the referral.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 17:35
Yep.
David Dinca 17:35
We've never felt better in selling our message because it's not.
A sales call.
We're providing value and that has the same outcome in that a day while also feeling good while doing what we're doing.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 17:44
Mm hmm.
David Dinca 17:48
Nobody likes to be selling vacuum cleaners.
Door to door knocking or what have you.
This is our way to feel really great about getting the word out there and actually getting the work in from doing that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 18:02
Yeah, it's amazing.
So what would be your advice to providers looking to use social media as a low cost option for building their business?
David Dinca 18:13
Ahmad boss, what providers is to play the long game and and if you're looking for instant gratification, you're not going to get it.
But I think if you're willing to commit here today, the delay of gratification is wild.
Today, all of the efforts were I probably have shared stories, vulnerability pitches have put things out there. Adjusted, optimize the messaging of the last two years and put my my posts out there.
Probably a 1500 times.
Last three years and today I find that my influence in order to to advocate for my business, for the sector and for myself, is unrivaled.
And it's been this long term game and the delay gratification has been incredible.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 19:01
Yeah, that's amazing.
In terms of when you say you optimise and and and retarget. So what can you take us through a brief?
Say, if you're sitting down in front of LinkedIn today, like, what would be your process in terms of figuring out what what's working for you and and how you're going to repackage something and put it back out there?
David Dinca 19:19
Mm hmm.
Yeah. So I'm understanding the data.
It's it's a lot of this is trans.
It isn't luck.
It isn't just saying what sticks is an element of of putting out enough volume where you can kind of see what the market responds to, like a a sono radar pinging. You know you're put another poison, ping, ping ping up.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 19:30
Hmm.
David Dinca 19:43
This is the direction we're moving in.
So there's an element of that, but the reality is you need to be able to review the data.
So I regularly review what I've posted.
What's worked?
What has got engagement?
What hasn't had engagement, and it's an ever evolving issue.
So I will then tailor my next messaging based on what's worked for previous messaging and then when that doesn't work I then revert to my sign up again and see where I should go again.
But the reality is the market will tell you what they want.
Like they will tell you too many people, we try to sell them on.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 20:16
Yeah, totally.
David Dinca 20:19
On what they need and try to force them into our box.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 20:21
Mm hmm.
David Dinca 20:22
Now it is.
You've got to create one that fits theirs.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 20:24
They'll tell you what resonates for sure.
David Dinca 20:26
Your homepage will tell you what they need.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 20:28
Yeah.
David Dinca 20:28
Your homepage I scroll.
You know, I if I'm on the toilet, I'm scrolling on LinkedIn. I'm having breakfast, I'm on LinkedIn.
OK, a mentor of mine to me. If you can do two things at once, do it. So I try to always do to have my finger on the pulse.
And that dictates what I do next.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 20:45
Yes. Amazing. So as many data points as possible be vulnerable and put yourself out there and with value.
Offer value from from the get go, yeah.
David Dinca 20:53
With value PPE, people can smell inauthenticity.
Through the screen. OK, they can tell when you're not being yourself when you're putting on an act, be yourself.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:01
Yeah, most definitely.
David Dinca 21:06
For me it's a little bit wild. If I was to be in my name is David Dinca and today I that doesn't work.
For me it doesn't.
I speak quick. I'm loud.
I'm a little bit inappropriate and there might be polarizing, but I'd rather have it being a polarizing a message.
Because at least that tells me half of the of the people are willing to.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:24
Pre qualification.
David Dinca 21:24
Put the trigger on me.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:25
Yeah, totally. Exactly. Amazing.
Thank you so much David for your insights.
David Dinca 21:29
You're welcome.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:30
We will move on to our next guest.
Oh, sorry. Do we have any questions in the chat for David before we move on to Nathan, Erin, are we good?
Erin Kraitzer 21:39
No, no questions in the chat, but I just wanted to say very quickly I read something the other day that 100% just made me think of what you were saying, David.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:40
Yep, cool.
We'll hold it through that.
Erin Kraitzer 21:46
Like when is the last time you actually interacted with a brand on any type of social media?
Never just people.
So yeah, love it. Thanks, David.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:54
Yes. Thanks Ivy.
David Dinca 21:56
You're welcome.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 21:58
Alright, we are moving on to our next amazing guest today to understand the breadth of a support coordinators role and how to bring value to their massive task.
We are very fortunate to hear from Nathan Lack the national operations manager at Eternal Disability Care. As I said, well over a decade of experience in the disability sector, starting out as a support worker back in 2012 when the 1st.
When the NDIS first came into play.
And now is managing all of the moving parts for all of the different people.
Nathan is, as David is known for.
Nathan is known for his straight up and direct approach to doing things and is a staunch advocate for sector wide innovation that benefits disabled Australians today. While he is not a support coordinator himself, he'll be speaking on the role of support coordinators in creating linkages between providers and.
Participants and how providers can optimize this.
Nathan, my immense gratitude for being here today.
Did you want to speak on the state of the price guide at the moment before you jump in today's session?
Nathan Lack 23:08
Look, you know, being around since the trial site and as you said, the OG had some.
It's a weird name to hear, but you know, I think of, like, weird shows like Geordie Shore when I hear OG and things like that.
I think really externally weird to it. You got. The thing is with the price guide is well you know it's not reflective and has never been reflective of care.
It's been reflective of budget and I think the biggest problem about.
And you opened up with it is, you know, the core amount of people on the plant, you know, on NDIS.
Is quite significant.
From an injuries perspective, do I have a opinion on it?
I've got always got an opinion on something.
Me and David share work.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 23:49
Question yeah.
Nathan Lack 23:50
Me and David share words here and there as well and but look, the idea of the industry is, you know, one thing I've learned from being in an operational role, owning my own business and other things as well is you've got to actually, you've got to understand it.
Financially, to understand business, especially in the core side of things.
I'll be honest with you, 90% of people don't understand the finances.
They they understand the practicality but not the finances.
Where a lot of the time, you know and you know, Speaking of support coordination, I actually feel more sorry for them because they've got such a very big role, you know, six years with obviously an, you know, an outcome for them. But also we haven't rejected as well.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 24:29
Huge.
Nathan Lack 24:35
From a baseline model, what a coordinator should be educated wise as well.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 24:39
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 24:40
You know, like physiotherapy needs a degree.
You know psycho. They all need degrees, but for me, you know, support coordination in the early terms for nuis there was.
A certificate for case management. The role that was generally rolled out through the health and things like that. We don't see that anymore.
We don't see that level of ability, no it doesn't.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 25:03
Does it still exist?
Nathan Lack 25:05
So the TIF actually depleted the course as well.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 25:06
No. Yeah, yeah.
Nathan Lack 25:08
So over time we've seen.
Minute of people coming. Yeah, minute of people coming in and not have been able to understand roles and scopes.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 25:13
Expectations, yeah.
Nathan Lack 25:20
I believe the call for you know a lot more support coordinators is sometimes overstretched.
I think people should be educated more. I think a lot of clients could be educated more about looking after themselves.
I do believe we've grown in disability in higher numbers because we've disabled a lot more people in our community.
And I do believe that this scheme actually wasn't built for psychosocial when it.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 25:38
Remove that capacity.
Nathan Lack 25:44
Based that back in 2016, to put it onto the scheme and now we've got an again, an unqualified industry now.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 25:47
Mm hmm.
Nathan Lack 25:50
So we're saying that, you know, a significant burnout rate through coordinators to try to understand psychosocial because it is very complex.
So yeah, I I from an operational point it takes a lot to understand the business. You know marketing like what Dave is, is incredible, but it's only a percentage of what he does. You know he didn't talk about what he does as a business owner and and things.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 26:08
It is no. Yeah.
Nathan Lack 26:11
Like that so.
But that's a percentage.
It's your brand.
Your brand is is as good as you know the old saying.
Actions speak louder than words, so you can brand it.
People can see you, but if you're not delivering, then you're not going to get the coordinators as well. They're going to look at you and go well, that's the first person last person you're going to see.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 26:30
Yes.
Nathan Lack 26:31
So yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 26:32
OK so.
Where do you think providers go wrong when it comes to developing relationships with support coordinators or like we were talking about trust or doing what you say you do? Like how?
How do you start that ball rolling?
Nathan Lack 26:52
Look, I'll be honest with you. I think the the world we live in at the moment, you know, we call it the networking world.
It's a very sales pitchy world at the moment.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 26:58
OK.
Nathan Lack 27:00
It's AI feel sorry.
Coordinators are so inundated they're trying to make ends meet, they actually don't get out enough anymore that you know, back in the early piece, you know, coordinators would go to these events that have more conversations.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 27:08
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 27:13
There'd be more things, you know, Karen's very known to host a lot of those back in the day where you would have room full of 70 people.
You know, and they would want to just grow and grow and grow and grow.
Over the years, you know, not just in because, you know, I oversee the nation, we're seeing a depletion of coordinators attending events, attending, ready, steady connects, all these different things that are very viable for them to understand businesses.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 27:37
Yep.
Nathan Lack 27:39
But So what we're saying is now.
A very common fact to getting their books, you've got to show them you're doing a good job.
And once you've got that opportunity, that's when you start doing it because again, they'll speak to their friends. I'll speak to other.
Because they don't have the time to reflect on a Google search anymore, they're going to trust people that they know that they can trust.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 28:00
Yeah.
Yep.
Nathan Lack 28:03
Business growth isn't just about.
Now providing them the quality it's, you know, quality that their client is supported, but they do that for everyone.
I think the biggest thing about an operation where I speak from operations without having a good team without having good staff and people that are being looked after from a staff perspective.
You know the data wouldn't get back to the coordinator.
Everything wouldn't flow, so we need to look after the fundamentals is staffing to get to the coordinators. So the coordinator has trust.
Coordination is not.
Is probably one of the most untrusted in places at the moment for for them, because they can't trust a lot of providers.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 28:42
MMM.
Nathan Lack 28:43
That's a reality. What? Their focus.
Their focus on they'll go and they get Perse.
People get thrown in the hospitals. They watch all these situations and then they're they're the real representation of the clients.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 28:50
Yes.
Nathan Lack 28:54
So yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 28:55
Yes. So it kind of sounds like in terms of when you're dealing with a client, you do that to your most optimal ability and then extend your network to other providers and other community organizations to help you support your clients. And then through those linkages, support coordinators will.
Nathan Lack 29:03
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 29:16
Hear that social proof from other people?
So you don't even really necessarily need to speak to support coordinators directly, because they'll hear it from someone else.
Nathan Lack 29:19
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 29:25
And that will be their their best referral is that they're hearing from someone else that you're doing a good job.
Nathan Lack 29:32
The best marketing is your staff.
That's the number one thing.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 29:34
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 29:35
You know the best marketing for anyone you know? I've always said you can spend money, you know, investing into a business developer. This is how I coach businesses.
A lot of the time.
Or you can spend that money on your staff, because if you look after your staff, they're the banner that they're going to talk about your company. They're going to talk about the clients and how they look after them as much as we talk from a manager, don't they?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 29:47
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 29:56
Confidentiality. They they're going to be the ones that do that and then that goes up through the Grapevine and it goes to.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 29:57
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 30:01
As many coordinators at the moment, obviously that are struggling that it actually helps them.
That's gonna help them feel comfortable.
OK.
I'm gonna go to this organization and I feel supported that they look after their Staffs and my clients going to be looked after.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 30:17
Yeah. Amazing.
So kind of similar in a similar light and I know you've just alluded to it before in terms of just how support grenaders are so stretched at the moment, they just don't get out into the real world very often.
Is there?
Is there a need for providers to understand this workload workflow for support coordinators and how do they get an insight into the challenges that they're dealing with? Or is it just a general assumption that they're just not going to be able to get FaceTime with them?
Or even e-mail from people like what sort of expectations should people have when trying to build those relationships?
Nathan Lack 30:51
Well.
A lot of the time you're looking at a provider.
They're going to get more hours in coordinator and I think this is the thing. You know, most people are based on so many hours a year.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 31:01
Thank you.
Nathan Lack 31:02
You know, when it comes to coordination, it's very specific.
You know you're in a specific category. We've got a specific funding.
So any provider or every provider should do their best to maintain the the information they need for their clients.
So it's not always the support coordinator, it's not always one person's role to chase everything for an example.
You know someone is having behaviors of concern.
This is a really common issue in the industry, but that client hasn't got actual, you know, behaviour therapy.
So what the the you know, you always hear managers or you know, staff going? Oh, let's get some funding, let's do this.
But there's no funding there.
So put all this pressure on the coordinator to do, you know, spend all their plan to try to get this funding but not actually building up, OK.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 31:45
Mm.
Nathan Lack 31:46
We'll help you get all the data. We'll do all the legwork for you, and then we can actually take that time constraint from.
So you're not gonna burn through your funding?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 31:54
June.
Nathan Lack 31:55
See the biggest problem at the moment is providers are lazy, and that's a reality.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:01
They're just doing the one thing that's in front of them as opposed to being a holistic supporter of the the whole person, yeah.
Nathan Lack 32:04
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, David said it right.
You know, this petition is saying it right.
We're one.
We're a community.
We need to work together.
That doesn't matter if it's for a proper voice or it's for a general client.
We should be mapping it out for everyone.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:22
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 32:23
You know we are hired to do that job now.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:27
Mm hmm.
Nathan Lack 32:28
How do we get there?
Is with all of us as a community, and that means if we know that the coordinator is running out of funds, but we've got ability to Chuck an hour or two in here in the core support to get things and data allocated to send it, then as PROV.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:32
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 32:41
We need to do that. You know, there's been many times I've watched, you know, amazing providers out there supporting people.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:43
Yep.
Nathan Lack 32:48
In a, you know complex situation, losing funding.
Being losing money.
We're not collecting the data to help out the quarter.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 32:56
And they're the ones that are on the frontline that have all of this experience and knowledge.
So like, it's immensely helpful for them to be sending it back up the line for sure.
Nathan Lack 33:01
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 33:06
Yeah, so a bit more accountability and.
Extending their their services more fully to support people, yeah.
Nathan Lack 33:15
Yeah, regulatory reporting, you know, so actually at the moment and I think it's now become official.
So you know, for example, of eternal disability care, you know the structure we try to utilize is very similar to what we would progress is every three months the coordinator should be reporting to the nduis around what's happening for the work challenges.
So every three months we do the exact same. So that coordinator can go actually with a story.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 33:40
Yeah, yeah.
Nathan Lack 33:40
Not ring.
Everyone waste more hours, waste more time.
So it's it's about developing.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 33:44
They're they're ready to go.
Nathan Lack 33:45
Resources making their life work lighter and then they get 12 months of funding. What's working, working with that client to actually get an actual outcome?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 33:55
Yeah. Amazing.
Nathan Lack 33:56
Yeah.
MMM.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 33:57
Yeah. So did you have any final points in terms of building relationships with these key people or is it less of importance at the moment?
Nathan Lack 34:09
Look, I'll be honest with you.
Just be authentic. I think the number one thing that message we just heard in the first thing is authenticity.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:12
Yeah.
Meeting.
Nathan Lack 34:17
One thing you know is great about LinkedIn is voice. One thing bad about LinkedIn is people just being ChatGPT. They're not being their voice. They're not being a presentation.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:25
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 34:26
They're not being, you know, a message.
They're not being authentic and people like authenticity, so just always remember, if you you know, if you're a business owner, you're aceo you're.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:34
Yes.
Nathan Lack 34:39
National manager, do what you say.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:42
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 34:44
Don't I know this? I'm going to use some language here, but don't don't half ******** something like that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:45
I promise.
Nathan Lack 34:48
It's just it's a reality.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:49
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 34:50
Stop doing that.
Just if you're doing it, gonna do it. Do it.
So say what you you know, what is it?
Don't over promise and under deliver.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 34:58
Yes. Under promise. Over deliver. Do all the things you say you're going to do.
Amazing. Thank you, Nathan.
Absolute gold Nuggets in there. Erin, do we have any questions for Nathan while he's here or are we able to move on?
Nathan Lack 35:04
Thank you.
Erin Kraitzer 35:12
No questions, but David put something in the chat that I'm just going to read out because it is spot on.
Want that? SC referral?
Don't expect them to stop everything just because you have capacity.
Instead, give them time back in their day.
Make your intake process simple.
Be the help they need.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 35:27
Yep. Amazing.
Erin Kraitzer 35:27
Spot on.
Nathan Lack 35:28
And I'm just going to add this too, if you're a sole provider and you're trying to get the coordinators stop using the word vacancy.
It's disgusting.
I've got a vacancy for you that you need to be filled.
That language has to go.
We have a house. If you're suitable for that house, great.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 35:41
Yeah.
Nathan Lack 35:44
If you're not great, but don't use the word vacancy because it's not a motel.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 35:50
Nothing exactly.
It's a home in in in development.
Amazing. Thank you, Nathan.
We are powering through this absolute gold Nuggets in in the conversation today. We are now moving on to Karen AKA The Pink Haired Lady. The self-described Neurodivergent networking Unicorn. Karen is the founder of Connect Fest and the Connect Society. Turning the tables on in her words St.
And boring expose and networking events and creating a space for conversations, collaborations and real NDIS provider connections.
Karen, thank you so much for being here today.
Always a pleasure to to see your rainbow self in the screen.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 36:29
Thank you for having me.
Definitely got the rainbow going on with the hair.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 36:39
I just want to get straight down to the the Nuggets with you.
How can providers figure out what events or opportunities cause?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 36:43
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 36:47
We've just said expose and being out in the public.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 36:50
Mm hmm.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 36:51
All of the options are there.
But how do providers figure out what opportunities are worth it for them?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 36:57
I I kind of think I was thinking about it when you asked me that question.
I was like, OK.
I was thinking that, you know, to me it's like looking on people's social media. Like there's lots of services, lots of people are doing networking events and like, oh, this is really cool. And this is how we do it. And I I've noticed, like, from when I.
First started it's.
You know it's gone quite. There's a lot of people doing things.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 37:20
There are options, yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 37:21
There's lots of options, but The thing is, are they worthy of your time? And I think it's realising OK when I'm looking on someone's social media like is, are they really like out there?
And supporting, you know the the, I guess the community they have built.
You know when they're putting it out there, but also just talking to people, I always get.
I always get told like Oh well, I asked about the pink haired lady and or heard about the pink haired lady and that's why you know, I've come to your event because you know we love it because of AB and C.
And I'm like, oh, that's amazing.
And that's kind of cool. People are talking about me in good ways, but it's it's nice to have that, I think also.
Talking to the the actual founder of whoever's put on the event and.
Kind of get a feel and go with your gut feeling. If that's not, I think sometimes people push themselves into networking events in like especially in like if you're neurodivergent as well, like going to an event that's maybe like not your cup of tea, you don't have to.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:18
MMM.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 38:19
Do that like it's actually like if if it makes you violently ill or so scared you ain't gonna do anything and you're just gonna be the most.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:27
Yes, you're you're not in a space that you want to be your best.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 38:29
Awk.
Yeah, it's gonna be really awkward.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:31
Yeah, for sure.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 38:32
So I think that it's about.
Being like true to yourself and figuring, OK is this, is this my vibe of people and I'm very big on that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:39
Yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 38:40
It's like go with the people that you wanna, you know, either support or be a part of and you really like the style of it.
But it's OK, we I even had a conversation with a lady once, and she's like, I actually just walked out of an event working event because it wasn't my style and I was like, it's OK, you know.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:48
Yep.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 38:57
It's not like in school that you're like, you have to stay there.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 38:59
You have to stay, yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 39:01
You can leave if that's not your your flow really.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 39:05
This this reminds me, I think.
I think in your last event that I was actually there, you brought up an example on how on LinkedIn, the concept of coffee chats, coffee and cake chats. We're getting Pooh poohed a little bit on social media. But I mean it's it's it's clearly a viable option if.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 39:19
Yeah, put a negative on there.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 39:24
Networking in Group situations is not something that you're comfortable with.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 39:24
Yeah.
Well.
Yeah. No, everybody.
And I think it's about like if you if you do it in a group setting or if you do it a one to one, you're all there for the right like you have.
You have to be in like you have a bit of a mission and the mission is just more like let's just talk. Let's just connect and it's not about going. Oh, I'm going to go this networking event. I'm going to get all these referrals because like, that's just.
Crazy. That's probably not going to happen.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 39:51
Yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 39:52
But like what?
It is.
You should kind of go into going oh, how many people I can connecting with?
Oh this.
Really awesome.
I do something cool.
They do something cool.
Let's meet up and actually just talk about what we're doing and feel like, do whatever.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:06
Make these functions.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:08
Yeah, and do what makes you feel the most comfortable?
I kind of feel like at the end of the day, it's like if you don't want to just because society wants you to do the things you know, you got to go to like, you know, people say you've got to do all these things. You don't actually have.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:11
Hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:22
I think you have the choice to kind of go.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:23
Mm hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:25
I don't have to go to, you know, like expose for instance.
They're very full on for me.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:30
Yep.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:31
I do one day are they're very expensive.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:31
And quite expensive.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:34
I also only ever go.
It's usually the big ones. My go for the full day and I do it, but then I can't talk to people for the next 5 days because I'm just really drained.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:41
Yeah. Yeah. Decompressing. Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:44
Yes, it's a lot.
So yeah, but that's a choice that I make.
But I don't if I don't have enough as a spoons, I ain't gonna push myself.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:52
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 40:52
To go and do it, but it's not going to be a bad thing if I don't go like the world's not gonna slide.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 40:56
No. So there there is clearly a networking opportunity and format and company and founders who are similarly values aligned with you and what you're trying to do.
So it's really just a matter of finding those people and the way I guess that you find those people is by doing the things but in measured doses obviously. So you have the.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 41:10
Ah.
It it's.
Yeah, yeah, it's finding what works for you at the end of the day and and having, like, you know, some people come to my events, they absolutely love it. And of course they come back and some people go oh, me, that's not my style of thing. It's no.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 41:21
Yeah.
OK.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 41:30
Hard feelings.
It's OK.
It just means that we're not the right people to be together.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 41:32
Yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 41:34
We are a selected group of people that just we do things a bit differently.
We're very big on giving, like I always believe, you know, whenever you're having a conversation.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 41:41
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 41:43
Can either add a networking event, or even at that coffee catch up.
It's like I always say to people and it's funny the look on people's faces and I go what can I do for you? And it looks like what?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 41:55
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 41:56
Like how can I help you?
They're looking at me like I'm asking a foreign question, but I'm just. I want to give.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 41:58
Well.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 42:02
So how can I help?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 42:02
You're setting a standard there, so and that's a good lead into this concept of return on investment. So for providers, because that's generally how a lot of people measure their marketing activities, like what is my return on investment for this activity.
So how do you suggest providers measure return investment for networking?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 42:20
I'm. I'm not a big fan of that word.
I just kind of because we are very much a human to human industry.
I feel like, you know, if we flipped it on the head of like, you know, I guess for a provider it's like as like my son he's he's autistic and he has adhdi wouldn't actually be going to the provider.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 42:28
Mm hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 42:40
So what's my return of investment for my son?
But saying that, I guess.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 42:44
I mean, fair question sometimes too, but.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 42:45
Yeah, it's kind of like, that's it.
It's a bit of a bugbear of mine, but.
I understand that in business you do need. I guess if you're gonna go to an event, you know you need to have.
I feel like like a lot of bdm's they go to it or even business owners.
You're like, cool. I've gone to the event.
What did I get out of it?
But The thing is, you shouldn't think about like. What can I get from it.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 43:04
Hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 43:07
Like give me. Give me give me.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 43:08
Mm hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 43:08
It should be like what can I give for this event?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 43:10
Hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 43:11
What kind of relations did I have?
I built my branding so like we were talking about before. Branding is so super important, so it's like.
You know you want to be known for like something that's in the industry. Like, I have a lot of people.
It's like, you know, this person's my go to mental health, nurse.
This is my go to person for this. So it's like you want to start to get known to people.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 43:33
You want to build up your own network of people, yeah?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 43:35
Yeah, they they want it because at the end of the day, it's like anything, if you if you want someone to talk about you when you're not in the room.
So like, if you're going to events, you want to have that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 43:44
Mm hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 43:47
So if you say you miss a meeting.
An event you've got someone else saying. Anna's the best.
She does this and and she does that and This is why she's really cool.
You want someone because you build that relationship.
You also got to think about, OK, the return investment is that OK? Did I?
Did I go in there?
And you know, and I know other people, they go to other events and they're like maybe say there's 30 people in there, you know, out of those ten, maybe 10 people, I really liked. And I feel like we clicked.
Have I actually gone and been able to organize a meeting?
With them and do that next step in the building of the relationship.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 44:21
Mm hmm.
So that's the return. Yeah. Building the actual relationship.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 44:23
So it's not.
Yeah, that's the return of investment. But yeah, because at the end of it, I that's what that's what networking is, is building relationships.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 44:28
I kind of feel like it's sorry, yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 44:32
It's not about going literally.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 44:33
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 44:35
I have the best conversations with people when like we talk for an hour and then like 10 minutes.
It's like the last 10 minutes and then I say something and I'm like, oh, so you're looking for this and we just kind of talk work stuff. And then we're like.
You know, maybe a referral comes out of our connection comes out of it and.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 44:48
Yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 44:49
Like you know, we spoke 15 minutes and 40 minutes about something, you know, random about dogs and cats and kids and Harry Potter.
Like it was just random stuff to then. Yeah, yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 44:59
But then the business gets done.
Yeah. It's also interesting. I think everyone's talked about leading with value. And you've also said leading with value as well.
And it feels like the more the wider your network is, the more value you have to offer when you meet new people, because you've met these amazing people that you've aligned with and know you've met them in real life. So you can confidently say this person is a.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 45:15
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 45:22
Good person.
You need a person here.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 45:23
I I feel like it's a big game of tag. That's what I play in most days.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 45:24
I've got this person so.
Yeah, totally professional tag, yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 45:29
It's like tag. You're it. And like I always say, like warm, warm introductions are the best.
So like what I do for a lot of people I know is like I send an e-mail and it has two bits of information, so it has about one about one person like and then about the other.
So you've kind of got this full information of going OK, cool. I know who this person is.
I know who I can talk to them, but also there's been a bit.
Seal of approval because like for me, I don't.
I don't refer everybody I meet because like, there's some people that wouldn't touch with the Tim for pot.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 45:58
Is it?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 46:01
That's just how I roll, because there's not.
There's some people that are not great people that I don't need to. I don't need to connect them.
But then there's also so many amazing providers out there that it's just like if it was really good. And I love the emails because I get, I get sent the e-mail threads of like, they're like, Oh my God, thank you so much.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 46:10
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 46:21
You know that you connect me with.
Person like we got to meet and we got to have and I love seeing that like transformation of the big gamer.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 46:23
Yeah.
Yeah. In real life, yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 46:29
Tag. It's the best.
It's the best game ever to play, really.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 46:34
All right, so playing professional tag is the name of the game, but.
How how are providers that you've seen in real life doing it playing not the right way?
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 46:48
I say.
Oh well, there's multiple ways. I actually spoke to a support coordinator.
I've spoken to a couple recently, one of them.
These are the things not to do.
Don't call up a support coordinator and say give me people.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 47:01
Hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 47:02
The lady literally hung up on that provider.
Then they emailed them and said, oh, something happened. Yeah, you got hung up on because you like, literally overtly aggressive or, like, stalking them, you know, like to.
I've had ones that unfortunately you know, they they waited outside.
About her car and was like, give me people.
She's like she's a little pocket rocket.
I swear she wanted.
I'm just getting in the car and she she drove off. But it like they've had to, like, lock down their, you know, their their offices and things like that because people will come in and just, you know, and I do understand where like, because everybody I guess on.
The socials they all say go speak to a support coord.
Inator.
Everybody knows someone. You know, your OTS, your allied health. They are there on the ground and they're doing work with the participants.
So they're going to have a conversation. Everybody has these little conversations.
I think it's just. Would you like to be kind of stalked and and you know?
Like bombarded and also you've got of, you know, I spoke to a support coordinator actually this morning and we she was so beautiful.
She said thank you so much for your time and I was like, no, thank you so much for your time.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:13
Yeah, 2121 Liz Network with others as you would like to be networked with yourself. Yep.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:13
Like we just had a. Yeah. And. And I think as well like don't come in, don't ever sell anything.
It's not.
That's not the industry.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:23
Yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:23
We are in what it is more about is going.
How can I help you?
I like when I spoke to the support I was like, I want to know what.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:28
Yep.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:31
What's your gym?
What makes you tick?
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:33
Move.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:33
Because then it helps me to know who I can actually connect him in with, which I have and was able to talk about that provider.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:36
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:40
On that conversation, but there was no selling, it was just.
Like I know someone cool that you would like a big back gamertag. That that's what it was.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 48:45
Yeah.
Joel wins and that builds the long term meaningful relationships within the industry, yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 48:48
But yeah, yeah, I think as well like having people like, you know who like myself or like some of the other guys here that have the experience, have those connections.
It's actually OK to ask people that you build connections with.
So for instance myself, like I'm, I'm moving and doing a lot of connection building in Melbourne and I connected with a lot of providers.
I actually connected with another.
Help that they I have a really good connection in the Gold Coast in Brisbane with and they connect me with all their Melbourne team yesterday and it was the best, you know, it was like I got set up like pretty much in a good way like they were.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:25
One day.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 49:26
Like they were like, she's amazing. And they're like, you know, then they were like, oh, we really like her.
It's like I've already got that seal of approval from someone I've worked with and that's what you want. It's like and it's OK to ask questions and ask for support. It's.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:32
Yes.
Yep.
Yes, extension network.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 49:40
You know it's I think finding people like myself in the industry.
That can help and who want to give.
It's like we are.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:48
Mm hmm.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 49:49
It's all about human to human. That's what this is.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:51
Yes.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 49:52
It's not.
We are selling that like people are not hot commodities at the end of the day, they are people.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:57
No.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 49:59
So it's like, don't I think my best piece of advice. Don't. Yeah. Don't come in is like, oh, how many people I can, you know, I want to connect with all those people and be very salesy.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 49:59
Mm hmm.
We're building relationships to support for people, yeah.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 50:10
It just won't fly in the industry. A lot of people will just be like.
I'm going to bounce. Yeah. No thanks.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 50:15
No, thank you.
Yep. Yeah. But thank you, Karen.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 50:22
Welcome.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 50:22
And clearly everyone needs to be out and about in their local community to meet everyone that is building a life around supporting other people 'cause I feel like there's a lot of us out there that are in the in the trenches for sure.
Pink-Haired Lady aka Karen 50:33
Oh, definitely. I think the more I think more, the more time that you go out there and talk to more people, more, more awareness of your brand and of who you actually are will get out there and more great things can happen if you give more.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 50:44
Yes.
Amazing. Thank you so much Kerryn.
All right.
Moving on to our last, oh, Erin, do we have questions?
Erin Kraitzer 50:55
No, we don't.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 50:56
Oh, sorry.
Erin Kraitzer 50:56
But I just popped up to say there's been so many comments just backing up 100%. What you said, Karen. You know people are not products.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 50:56
I'm so sorry.
Yes.
Erin Kraitzer 51:05
It's all about authenticity and giving value and helping others.
So yeah, I just wanted to drop that in. Thanks.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 51:09
Reiterate Dr. those points home.
Thank you.
Thank you, Erin.
All right. Our final speaker today.
We are very lucky to hear from Anna hollering.
I hope I've said that properly, Anna.
Anna brings a amazing Anna brings a unique and powerful perspective to today's panel as both a provider and NDIS participant. She is deeply passionate about neuro diversion advocacy, particularly for women, and uses her own lived experience woohoo to empower others traveling similar journeys.
Anna Hoellering 51:21
Yes.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 51:39
And has worked with too much club is a testament to the impact of lived experience in shaping more inclusive, person centred approaches to care.
And we are so excited to hear from her today.
Thank you for being here, Anna.
Really, really appreciate it. Thank you.
Anna Hoellering 51:51
Thank you.
No, no worries.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 51:54
Just straight off the bat, when you are choosing to work with a service provider, what what do you, what factors you consider to be most important to you?
Anna Hoellering 51:57
Mm hmm.
Yeah. So I think this kind of leads on well from what Karen was saying as well, but also I can only speak to my own experience.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 52:09
Mm hmm.
Anna Hoellering 52:12
I just want to preface it that goes without saying, but I just want to start off by saying, you know, disability looks different for everyone and speaking personally. So when people first meet me, they probably would be surprised that I need or have a support worker. But I.
Do and it's really specific to me in my own individual experience.
So when I'm speaking to a provider, it's really important that they're flexible.
And able to sort of look outside of the box.
Because for me know two people are the same, right?
And what works for the next person might not work for me.
And it's really important that they sort of see that instead of trying to slot me into services that they already have and already offer.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 52:53
Yep.
Anna Hoellering 52:54
I really appreciate when providers listen to me, hear my story and sort of can tailor their support in a way that's going to benefit me as much as possible.
Then sometimes that looks like, you know, maybe they can't provide that support for me, but they're able to network in the community with someone else who is, and I really appreciate that when I'm passed on to someone else instead of them trying to, you know, get keep me.
Or or keep me in their organization and it does stand out. Like exactly. And and, you know, maybe I'll go back to them another time if they actually think they might have a service that benefits me.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 53:16
Yeah.
As a lead for sure.
Anna Hoellering 53:26
But yeah, definitely stands out.
In that way.
I also just wanted to touch on as well like.
You know, many of us in the spectrum, you know, we've learned to mask just to get through, like interactions. And this goes to like support workers and stuff like that.
You know, it's a survival technique to sort of make sure that we look like we're OK even if we're not.
So what goes above and beyond is is people who have that neuro affirming trauma informed kind of approach and that knowledge?
So even if their awareness and that knowledge and that training so that.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 53:58
Awareness.
Yeah.
Anna Hoellering 54:02
If you know their client is presenting a certain way that they can see beyond the mask and provide that more tailored support and more caring support, I've had some, you know, providers be like oh, but you look so fine on that day like and and and like making.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 54:16
Yeah.
Making assumptions.
Anna Hoellering 54:20
Assumptions and also it makes me feel like they think I'm lying to them or trying to be deceitful.
But I think it's really important that people remember that.
No, I'm not lying to you.
It's just it's a survival instincts and it's almost impossible to drop it completely.
For most like autistic people.
So it's really important to have that knowledge.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 54:36
Yeah, most definitely.
Anna Hoellering 54:38
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 54:39
Can you walk me through the process that you would use to decide if someone is a good fit for you?
Anna Hoellering 54:47
Yeah. So I guess there's the initial meet and greet, but and like the marketing and stuff and that's all kind of important. But I think in that initial meet and greet like one of the most meaningful things that a provider can do is kind of let me speak.
So if we go to talk at the same time and then they kind of like stop and then kind of let me go ahead that really like tells me that they value what I have to say and you know as an autistic person and an autistic woman, espe.
I spent my whole life being interrupted, like talked over, not listened to.
So if a provider can like listen and instead of trying to put their pitchforward to me and tell me how great their company is to actually hear me and creating that space where I feel safe to actually like and for them to facilitate that conversation, it it makes.
Me feel like they're putting my needs first rather than their pitch.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 55:35
Yeah, that's amazing.
Just.
Would there be any say green or red flags in the lead up to actually sitting down and having a meet and greet?
Like what would automatically just disqualify a person from you ever sitting down in front of them for a cup of coffee, meet up or whatever.
Anna Hoellering 55:54
I think if they're just trying to get straight to like what funding do you have or like to me trying to get me to send my plan through immediately, that would probably be sort of a red flag.
To me, that they're just kind of trying to get and I understand that you need to and as a provider, I know it as well like you need to know what funding someone has.
But if it's just so focused on that, it doesn't make me feel like I'm a person. It makes me feel like I'm just a number.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 56:17
Yes, most definitely.
Anna Hoellering 56:18
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 56:19
Have you had any like aside from, say, people asking for plans or information that they don't necessarily need up front?
Have you had challenges with finding providers?
Anna Hoellering 56:31
Yes, definitely. I've had heaps of challenges I think.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 56:36
I mean, I know the answer to the question.
I'm just interested about your experience.
Anna Hoellering 56:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry, no, no, definitely I've had.
I've had a lot of issues and I think that sometimes you know they'll reach out to you and they'll be like we're available to help you and it's like, but what do you actually provide?
What do you actually do?
And they're so willing to kind of get you on board, but it's like, OK, but like, what do you do?
And that's when like those connections. And those people that I know in the community who've put people forward.
To me, comes in is so important because it's just so much more valuable to me to get that referral from my support coordinator or someone who else else is disabled in the community rather than just Googling it.
I don't think I've ever just Googled someone actually and just gone with a provider on Google.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 57:17
Yeah, that's it.
That's an interesting point for sure.
Anna Hoellering 57:20
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 57:22
All right, so say you've you've found a shortlist of people that you potentially might want to work with.
Do you have any like communication preferences when it comes to interacting with these new people and are there any sorts of information that they could provide you that you find especially helpful to help you make decisions?
Anna Hoellering 57:42
Yes, I just wanted to chat about one sort of major issue that I've had with a few providers and that is like the change in tone and effort after the initial like onboarding stage.
So at the like at the beginning, maybe many providers would be like, oh, caring, warm and engaging and and. But then once the services begin, that train shifts to something more colder, like transactional. And for someone to dig like that inconsistency in communication is really difficult to like.
Digest and a lot of us will think.
That we've done something wrong.
So that stress laid on top of the usual difficulty in, like interpreting social cues and stuff.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 58:17
True medium.
Anna Hoellering 58:21
It like will mean that we're maybe not going to advocate for our needs as much if we're already stressed about how the relationship is going.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 58:26
What did I do? If you have changed your behaviour? Yeah, like it's the participant takes it on board for sure, yeah.
Anna Hoellering 58:29
Yes.
Exactly. Yeah, definitely.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 58:35
Yeah.
Anna Hoellering 58:37
Yeah, making decisions more easily.
I guess I've already touched on the fact that a lot of my my providers have come through word of mouth and I definitely like. I'll vouch for that, that it's either friends or support.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 58:46
Yes.
Anna Hoellering 58:50
Like my support coordinator that I've had or or my support worker or other people with disabilities like in the community, like that's the most valuable way. And the only way to have actually gotten providers.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 59:02
Yeah, no Googling required. That's really interesting.
Anna Hoellering 59:07
Yeah, I mean, I guess like I have, it hasn't really eventuated, unfortunately, when I have done it that down that road, yeah.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 59:11
Yeah.
Yeah, I know that's really interesting.
Is there anything, anything else that you would like to say to providers that are looking to find their people?
Anna Hoellering 59:25
Like leaving a good impression on someone like that has really powerful ricochet effect, right?
Like it's like if someone's going to tell me about it and then I'm going to tell my friends about it and all my people that I know in the community about it.
So yeah, try to leave a good impression, I guess, and not a bad one, because that also will spread.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 59:43
Yeah, definitely. Amazing.
Thank you so much, Anna.
Anna Hoellering 59:47
That's right.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 59:47
Erin, any questions for for Anna in that session?
Erin Kraitzer 59:52
No, no questions, Anna.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 59:53
No.
Erin Kraitzer 59:53
But it was just so incredible seeing your perspective and how everyone else has said, you know, things along the same lines that just completely lines up with, you know, the other side of the coin.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:00:02
Mm hmm.
Erin Kraitzer 1:00:03
It's just, yeah, obviously that is the way to go, being authentic and giving value and not treating people like a source of funding really.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:00:10
Yeah, yeah.
Anna Hoellering 1:00:11
Yeah, definitely.
Erin Kraitzer 1:00:11
Yeah.
Anna Hoellering 1:00:12
Thank you.
Nathan Lack 1:00:13
But I just want to say I appreciate that you've shared your story.
It's a personal story, and you've shared that and, you know, takes in, you know, the world you live in takes courage to do that in general.
So want to thank you for that, because a lot of people know I'm, you know, I'm very introverted outside of this.
Run big companies, but I go straight to my chair when I'm home and I don't want anyone.
So, you know, we've all got and we we all experience different you know things in this world.
Anna Hoellering 1:00:34
Yeah, I understand that.
Nathan Lack 1:00:40
You know that, you know, it's nice to hear your personal story and how you it contributes in your world because there is many people that aren't, you know, work within our field that also get supports as well. At the same time and have come to this you know.
And that's what this industry is about is that cohesion not just between, you know, ability and, you know, disability, but to be a human race, as one and working towards a product.
That is meant to be for people.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:01:06
Yeah, most definitely.
Anna Hoellering 1:01:06
Absolutely. And if I can ever advocate for other women on the other people, you know, with disability, I will always take that opportunity.
So yeah, thank you.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:01:15
That's amazing.
Thank you so much, Anna.
Amazing. And we've actually come to the end of our prepared section of the webinar. So I just want to take the time.
Thank you.
Oh, sorry. David has a hand up.
David, what would you like to say? Ask.
David Dinca 1:01:35
Hang on.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:01:36
Yes. Yep.
David Dinca 1:01:37
Alright, yes, I'll be super super quick.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:01:39
Yep.
David Dinca 1:01:41
This was an excellent webinar.
Thank you for putting together Yvette and Kinora.
I love being a part of it.
But I also want to just kind of leave this on on a really great note as well.
Obviously I started with the.
It's now an ever.com au their campaign.
We started this very short notice roughly about four days ago and today literally just now we hit 25,000 signatures on the petition sector wide across all different service providers, participants, everybody sharing their stories.
We're getting noticed.
And I think that's a super exciting thing for everybody to hold on to.
There is hope.
Don't despair.
Hope breeds action and action more hope.
And then, therefore etc etc.
It's amazing.
Next step.
Let's get to 50,000 all of the nations gonna know what's going on.
The 25,000 registered providers.
Couple 100,000 providers overall.
Hundreds of thousands of workers in this field and 800,000 people roughly on the scheme. This means the world. Let's get it out there.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:02:35
Yeah.
David Dinca 1:02:36
We just hit 25,000, really excited.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:02:38
Well done.
That's amazing and positive change will benefit everyone.
So yeah, everyone's signature on the petition will have an impact, for sure.
Nathan Lack 1:02:48
Just to add to David, not just to add to that, but the also the other side of things is early intervention. We need to speak up massively in this field because this will be dropped in the coming you know months early intervention.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:02:48
Thank you, David.
Oh, sorry, yes.
Nathan Lack 1:03:02
I've got a son that is now being diagnosed myself and he will miss out on that bracket and I was told that directly by the early intervention specialist.
So what?
I want people to understand is the importance to. If you're going to make this one voice, make sure we make it very good for the people.
We support because we're the ones that we're the brunt every day, whether it's personal or not personal, because we do have our own personal things going on at home as well.
So yes, we need to fight for everyone's rights when it comes to this.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:03:29
Yeah.
Yep, most definitely.
David Dinca 1:03:34
But everyone's rights, please get on board if you haven't share it with everybody. Your mum, your WhatsApp groups, your Facebook groups, your company, your friends village, you.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:03:36
Yes.
David Dinca 1:03:43
You owe it to this man.
Right now, there's a sense of urgency because it's needed, like Nathan said, 45% of anyone with disabilities on the age of 14 and a significant chunk of those followed an intervention category.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:03:47
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
David Dinca 1:03:55
B loud.
Let's do it together.
Yvette Willison | Kinora.com.au 1:03:57
We'll send out the the link to the survey with the recording of today's session, as well as everyone. Everything else that we've spoken about today.
So even for those who have registered and didn't rock up today, the replay will be in their inboxes by the end of the week.
Everyone will have already signed the petition by the end of the week, I'm sure, but just in case it will be sent out as well.
Thank you again, David, Nathan.
Karen and Anna for your incredible insights.
Today I'm sure it was.
There were so many takeaways.
I'm going to be spending the rest of the week breaking all of those down.
Thank you everyone who who attended today.
We continue to do these.
To improve your experience as providers in the NGA space, we would love to hear your feedback on these sessions and what you would like to hear more about and who you would like to hear from.
I'm Yvette. That was Erin in the chat and have an amazing Wednesday.
Thanks all for being here. Thanks guys.
David Dinca 1:04:59
See everybody. Bye. Bye.
