We were lucky to catch up with Nancy Treaster recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nancy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Nancy Treaster, CCC™
Co-Founder, The Caregiver’s Journey™

When I cracked the code on how to get my husband’s sleeping back on track early in his journey with dementia, I felt like a “new normal” was finally within reach. I am a retired software industry veteran who spent my professional life managing strategy for a publicly-traded, global company. I found myself in unfamiliar territory with my husband’s dementia diagnosis, and my usual techniques for quickly changing course and overcoming obstacles weren’t working. When I reconnected with my friend, veteran caregiver Sue Ryan, we lamented the lack of candid and practical advice for the day-to-day of caregiving for people living with dementia, and then we did what we do best – we created a solution.

Sue and I both have a lot of experience supporting loved ones with dementia. Sue with her grandmother, father and husband, me with my husband and his dad. Both of our early caregiving journeys were rough. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. We were frustrated. We struggled to find answers – and many of the ones we found were too high level.

Our focus with our venture, The Caregiver’s Journey, is to provide guidance for dementia family caregivers. The Caregiver’s Journey is a suite of resources positioned from the beginning to scale globally. These resources include our podcasts, blogs, social media, Sue’s caregiving-oriented books, an online course, coaching, workshops, and public speaking.

Our approach is straightforward, detailed and engaging. Our tips are practical, shared with stories from our real-life experiences. We tackle difficult topics head-on so caregivers can get right to the answers. We’re passionate about helping family caregivers and their care receivers have their best experience possible.

Nancy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Through The Caregiver’s Journey, I bring my business expertise, caregiving experience, and acquired knowledge as a Certified Caregiving Consultant to improving the lives of dementia caregivers with frank and actionable insights and advice – something there is not enough of in the marketplace. Through short and engaging podcasts, Sue and I map out solutions that dementia family caregivers are desperately seeking, in particular for uncomfortable topics like taking away the car keys, safety, and incontinence. In doing so we are also creating a sense of community that is so often hard for caregivers to find.

Prior to founding The Caregiver’s Journey, I spent 16 years as General Manager of Strategic Operations at Verint Systems, a leader in customer experience (CX) automation. I live in Atlanta with my husband, who lives at home with the support of his family and caregivers.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met Sue Ryan 35+ years ago. She was a wildly successful software sales person with a great reputation across our company. She lived in Chicago at the time and I lived in Atlanta where our corporate headquarter were. Eventually the company asked Sue to move to Atlanta and take a corporate role. As luck would have it, when she moved to Atlanta she became our neighbor.

Sue and my husband both enjoyed yard work and they quickly became friends as well. Over time we all went our separate ways and lost direct touch although kept up with each other through mutual friends. When caregiving for my husband who is living with dementia started to get complicated, one of those mutual friends asked had I talked to Sue recently? Did I know her husband had dementia? I did not. So I reconnected with my former neighbor and colleague and quickly found she was a great sounding board and a wealth of dementia caregiving information.

Sue had just published a book on dementia caregiving and was in the process of becoming quite the spokesperson for dementia family caregivers.

Several months ago Sue came to visit my husband and me. In conversation I mentioned my frustration over the lack of easy access to answers for what I believed were common day to day dementia caregiving challenges. Not everyone has a Sue to call. Sue agreed that it was way too hard and suggested we start a podcast. That snowballed into what is now The Caregiver’s Journey – a resource center/website for dementia family caregivers to find practical tips and listen to candid conversations created by two experienced caregivers who want others to learn faster and more easily than they did.

My oldest son, who happened to be at our house when Sue and I were having this discussion, is an audio engineer. He jumped in the conversation and agreed he recognized the frustration in getting to good information and said if we started a podcast he was happy to help. He is now our podcast editor and we rely on him for the quality of our podcast work. We both are grateful to have him on our team!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Four years ago, I was in the car driving my husband of 30 years to pick up a birthday cake for his mother. As we were driving to the bakery he asked me a very strange question. He said, “How do you like driving this car?” I said, “I like it.” He said, “Well she likes driving it a lot too.” That seemed like an odd thing to say but whatever, he has dementia. I couldn’t quite figure out who “she” was. Then he asked, “Where we were going?” And I replied, “We’re going to pick up a birthday cake for your mother and then we’re taking it to their house.” He then added, “You’re going to like my parents they’re really nice people.” And it was at that moment I realized he had no idea who I was.

What a life adjustment! In some caregiving journeys this only happens for a few moments at a time and in some like mine, it goes on for months or for the rest of your caregiving journey. It’s been four years, and I know my husband loves me, but I don’t know if he loves me as the person that’s been with him for the last four years, or his wife of the last 34 years.

I went through a grieving process for a couple of weeks then told myself that wasn’t helping anybody or anything. My husband needed me to be strong for both of us. I had to move into a bedroom upstairs since I was a “guest” at the house. I had to stop wearing my wedding ring because he kept asking me who lived upstairs with me and was I married to them. It just confused him. Insisting I was married to him just frustrated him further and caused him a lot of angst and confusion.

These are just a few of the adjustments I made so that he would accept me as a guest in his house and he was happy with the arrangement. I learned how to tell him “The truth he needed to hear”. I wanted him to feel comfortable, that I was there to help him, and everything was OK. I put on a smile and went about the business of being his caregiver.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecaregiversjourney.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecaregiversjourney/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCaregiversJourneys/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancytreaster
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecaregiversjourney