Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Alisa Elliot. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dr. Alisa , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

I have two goals and that is to provide personal care service for the aging and disability community and to bring workplace inclusiveness for young to middled aged adults with a disability. I work on these goals daily through my personal assistant business, Chrysalis Spectrum, and my foundation, Chrysalis Spectrum Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to teach administrative assistant job skills to young and middled aged adults with a disability by encouraging interpersonal relationships, job stability, and to teach a job skill that is typically outside of the service industry that can be done remotely or in person.

Dr. Alisa , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Dr. Alisa Elliot is a special needs sibling and an advocate for vulnerable populations with a robust professional background in nonprofits and businesses that assist individuals who are disable or aging. She has worked with families in their home for over 25 years, created annual events for Autism Awareness, and published articles 6 Tips for Finding a Good Caregiver, 5 Things Parents Should Know Before Moving Their Child into a Group Home, and 5 Things Siblings of Adults with Developmental Disabilities Should Know. Dr. Elliot also created a life skills course about transitioning to living on your own and published research on voluntary turnover in the nonprofit sector. Dr. Elliot is the owner of Chrysalis Spectrum and Chrysalis Spectrum Foundation.

https://themighty.com/u/alisa-elliot/
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/10713/

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a special needs sibling growing up in a single parent household I understood the importance of respite care needs for all caretakers. Having a big heart and realizing how many parents are underserved is what made to want to go into the field and to be beacon of light even though I knew the pay was going to be minimal. I started my journey while being a provider for a client, Andrew, who is a self advocate for Autism. It was working with him that I found a gap in the market for providing quality caregiver service for high functioning individuals with a disability. Andrew’s provider agency was great at making the connection between staff and the person needing care but didn’t have a strategy for caregivers to follow. It was working with Andrew that I decided I could create a model to fill the gap. I discussed this model with one of the workers who I thought was senior in the company. The worker agreed to help with my model but I quickly found out that they didn’t have that type of authority and the executive director terminated my contract. I was hurt by the situation but found a way to push through and finished created the company that I desired. At that time I could no longer work with Andrew but years later we reconnected and he now worked as a volunteer for my company for 3 years. The start of building Chrysalis Spectrum came with exhausting paperwork, limited hours, volunteering (because it took 6 months to land my first paying client), and pure resilience. As of today, Chrysalis Spectrum has been around 5 years, has a 5 star rating, has helped over 70 families throughout Houston with respite service, and contracted with over 65 minority workers in Houston paying them the top rates in the state of Texas for their contribution.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn is that it is okay to increase your rates. When I started the company I was focus on affordable care and figured that many of the other companies were too top heavy in management and needed to contribute more to those who were laying the foundation for the business. I assumed those senior managers were the primary reason for the company’s money woes. I later found out that the company’s were charging a decent rate and you can not be operational if you don’t have the cash flow. It is great to have a giving heart and want to provide services at a lower cost but it should not be at the expense of going under and losing everything you have created to stay afloat. It took a couple of years for me to process the rates that I had to charge clients to keep my doors open. I have learned that people don’t respect free and those who haggle your price are not worth the heartache.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ChrysalisSpectrum.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dralisaelliot
• Other: www.ChrysalisSpectrumFoundation.com