Exploring Life & Business with Sarah Barker of Connect Our Elders and Senior Care Sales Solutions

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Barker.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Maine, specifically in Porter, Maine. My dad was a logger, and my mom owns her own cleaning business. We did not have much at all growing up, and while I didn’t realize what my parents were teaching me at the time, I now do. I undoubtedly learned the power of having a hard work ethic and having a big heart. Truly. My parents instilled in me the incredible trait of GRIT.

In 2000, I graduated high school and headed to Dahlonega, Georgia, to attend North Georgia Military College. I completed my first semester and decided to take off my second semester to go to Army basic training and AIT, as many cadets did. After graduating from basic training and military police school, I went back to North Georgia and made up for my semester away by enrolling in summer school.

I was assigned to the 178th Military Police Company out of Monroe, Georgia, as a cadet at North Georgia. Not long after 9/11 happened. I ended up spending six months at Ft. Benning, Georgia, providing security at the various gates around the post. I then deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for around 11 months. After this mission was done, I went back to the North Georgia Military for around thirty days until I was activated again.

This time I spent almost one year at Ft. Benning, Georgia doing garrison military police work. Additionally, I tried out for SRT and made the team. While at Ft. Benning this year I attended SRT school at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, and also attended Airborne school. I graduated as a non-commissioned officer honor graduate. Once this activation was complete, I again headed back to the North Georgia Military.

Not long after this, we were activated for the G8 Summit being held in Savannah, Georgia. Our mission was riot control. I was also activated for Hurricane Katrina with the 190th Military Police Company out of Kennesaw, Georgia. We were placed in the 9th ward, St. Bernard Parrish.

From there, I took on numerous full-time positions with the Army National Guard, one of which being the Battalion Career Counselor. Prior to my move to California in 2006, I worked full-time in the Joint Operations Center on Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia. Upon my move to Fresno, California, I did an inter-state transfer to the California Army National Guard and, in 2007, was activated for the Southern California wildfires.

In 2008 I decided to exit the Army National Guard to start a family. I missed the military a lot and felt I went through a bit of an identity crisis. I was productive but very much felt a void. It wasn’t until I received my first job in the senior care industry that the void began to feel somewhat filled.

In 2016, I decided to rejoin the Army National Guard in California. What this means is I’m considered a citizen solder. I have a full-time career, and I serve our great nation one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer. However, it is not uncommon for military police units to be activated, and 31B is my MOS.

In 2017, I was activated for the Northern California wildfires, and then in 2018, I was command-directed to deploy to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I left for GTMO in November 2018 and returned in August 2019. Once I returned from deployment, I went back to work.

Now, here’s a warm and fuzzy story… Back in 2003 while at Ft. Benning, Georgia I met my now husband, Wade Barker. He and I dated for a few months. He went on to do many, many deployments to the Middle East. We had no contact except for having connected on Facebook in 2008, but we didn’t communicate.

Sixteen years later, when I returned from my second time in GTMO, we reconnected. I called him one evening to talk because if you’ve ever been deployed before, it feels awfully quiet and almost eerie once you get home and aren’t surrounded by lots of people. This particular evening, my daughter was with her Dad/my ex-husband, and her wonderful step-mom.

On the phone, I said to Wade, “It’s so quiet. It feels lonely.” He, of course, said he understood; after all, he’d deployed so many times before on active duty. He said, “I’ll come visit you.” I said, “No, you won’t.” He literally booked a ticket while we were on the phone and, in two days, was in San Diego. And that’s it, folks. We’ve been together ever since. July will be four years married.

He is from Hendersonville, Tennessee, and owns his own business as well. Plus, his family is in Tennessee. We decided to create a life by design. At the time, I was working at a caregiving agency doing business development, as I’d done for years since 2012. My employer offered me a sales management role and even said I could spend one week per month in Tennessee while still doing my job. After much thought, I decided that if I was going to work as hard as I did, I needed to create my own business.

In March 2020, Wade and I decided to go ALL IN. Since March 2020, I’ve spent 50% every month in San Diego, California, because that is my amazing time with my amazing daughter and 50% in Tennessee. My ex-husband, his wife, my husband, and I all feel very fortunate to have such a cordial, healthy co-parenting dynamic. As part of creating our life by design, I decided to start my own business, Connect Our Elders.

Connect Our Elders believes that to appropriately care for our Nation’s Elders, it is not enough to just look at things in a compartmentalized manner as issues arise. We must be proactive in educating our Elders and their family members about adequate planning as far as finances, estate planning, trusts, etc.

In addition to letting them know proactively about all of the various levels of care on the continuum, how they work together, how each is paid for, as well as the community resources, technology solutions, and other benefits such as veterans benefits that exist. We feel strongly that direct-to-consumer education for the elders themselves and their inner circle, which encompasses family and advisors, needs to be drastically improved.

“Empowering Aging,” virtual events are one aspect of Connect Our Elders. We bring together various experts from the continuum of care alongside legal/financial professionals so as to educate and transparently paint a picture for people of why proactive planning in all areas of one’s life is crucial.

It wasn’t long after launching Connect Our Elders that I was asked if I’d ever be interested in doing some consulting work at an agency employer.

I asked him what he had in mind, and he wanted my help in hiring business developers, training them, and coaching them. I put some thought into it and decided I could accomplish it. I took military principles of how we train Soldiers to accomplish missions and combined these principles with senior care industry knowledge I’d collected since 2012 to design the training program. Thus, the Senior Care Sales Solutions Academy was born.

To date, there have been 21 Senior Care Sales Solutions Academies: 20 In-Person Academies and 1 Virtual Academy. Additionally, I have worked one-on-one weekly with 58 clients over the last two years, providing marketing, business development, sales strategy support, and accountability. Stay tuned for the announcement of additional educators and coaches!

I have spoken at several conferences. I am still an active Soldier in the Tennessee Army National Guard. As a matter of fact, I’m on my two-week annual training right now at Camp McCain, Mississippi. I was recently promoted and assigned to the 251st Military Police Company out of Savannah, Tennessee.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth ride, but that’s life. The sooner we accept that life is not smooth, the better off we are. There is liberation in accepting adversity because accepting it allows you to maintain a clear mind. Having a clear mind is absolutely crucial to be able to drive forward and succeed in any endeavor you set out to do.

I believe my biggest struggle in business ownership has been self-limiting beliefs and thoughts. I actually put my business on pause at one point because I started having thoughts and feelings that I didn’t know what I was doing.

When I relaunched in June 2022, I went in full force with a do-or-die mentality, and this made all the difference. There were many things I didn’t know, but guess what? I had confidence that I could learn anything and would. Mindset is everything!!!

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Connect Our Elders and Senior Care Sales Solutions?
Connect Our Elders believes that to appropriately care for our Nation’s Elders, it is not enough to just look at things in a compartmentalized manner as issues arise. We must be proactive in educating our Elders about adequate planning as far as finances, estate planning, trusts, etc.

In addition to letting them know proactively about all of the various levels of care on the continuum, how they work together, how each is paid for, as well as the community resources, technology solutions, and other benefits such as veterans benefits that exist. We feel strongly that direct-to-consumer education for the elders themselves and their inner circle, which encompasses family and advisors, needs to be drastically improved.

“Empowering Aging,” virtual events are one aspect of Connect Our Elders. We bring together various experts from the continuum of care alongside legal/financial professionals so as to educate and transparently paint a picture for people of why proactive planning in all areas of one’s life is crucial.

Connect Our Elders, in addition to believing so strongly in direct-to-consumer education, partners with home care agencies, care managers, and senior housing placement professionals (not direct to communities as we believe families deserve to have the on-ground experts facilitating tours to various communities and the on-ground placement professionals truly understand the differentiators of each community option), legal/financial professionals so as to help Elders and their inner circle navigate and get connected to experts in each area.

Simply providing a list of resources to these families is not adequate. It does nothing to reduce overwhelm. However, making a confident, professional, direct recommendation does. Families all across our Nation need us to lead!

Senior Care Sales Solutions: Redefining How Senior Care Professionals SERVE Referral Partners and Families through teaching the Senior Care Sales Solutions Academy and Connect Forward Training. Marketing, Business Development, and Sales education, training, and coaching in the home care industry, care management industry, and senior living advising industry.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Peace. Creating and leaving a legacy. Inspiring people, especially those who had a rough upbringing and experienced trauma.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.connectourelders.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.m.christ/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchristbarker
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConnectOurElders/videos
• Other: https://seniorcaresales.com/