Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patricia McCreary. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Patricia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Growing up I spent a lot of time with my Grandmother Margaret. She loved and took care of me with unconditional love and sensitivity. Then there came a time in her life that she needed the same form me. She was declining with Alzheimer’s Dementia: I was clueless. I thought I needed to do everything for her because she was forgetting how to do for herself. Things like cooking, cleaning, and general everyday life situation things I thought I needed to do. Then she got to a point where I was unable to help her. I felt so HELPLESS, I failed her in my own mind. Hence, Margaret’s Place! I learned all I could about not just Alzheimer’s or Dementia, I learned about CARE GIVING! So my mission was and is to give the best to the people I care for! This includes all that my Beautiful Grandmother gave to me; I encourage all that are around me at Margaret’s Place. We have young disabled participants, we have older declining participants and we have participants who are not disabled or declining, who just need to be a part of a community of hope. At home they just sit there, alone, lonely and doing nothing they are capable of doing. Here at Margaret’s Place we show the participants that they are still capable, sometimes, of still moving around, that they can still have fun, be in a community where they FIT in and are useful and can still be productive. So, Grandma Margaret is the story behind my mission. She loved me through life and made me know I could do anything, I want all who I come in contact with to know that they can too!
Patricia, 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?
Life’s lessons motivated me to become an entrepreneur, a business owner, a caregiver. I am driven to provide a caregiver business by my experiences with my beloved Grandmother Margaret who needed me to help her through her life situation and I was clueless. I endeavor to help others with similar goals to become business owners because I’ve been so blessed with a community of people who were willing and excited to help me. I love community participation. Without a community of help we may never reach our goals.
I am an Experienced Small Business Owner with over 21 years of demonstrated small business start-up and business operations experience. Strong commitment and history of working in the community with a passion for helping others to advance. Skilled in community building, entrepreneurship education, coaching, and youth generational wealth building. Advocate for the senior and disabled communities and wealth building. Expert in business building, leadership training, business coaching and process development.
Core Competencies
Relationship development
Project organization
Planning and coordination
Business Builder
Problem resolution
Business operations
Business Scaling
Business
Experience
Business Coach/Mentor
Missouri Small Business Development Center at UMKC
Growth360 Small Business Summer Cohort
Pat’s Power Hour LLC – Kansas City June 2022 – August 2022
Worked with MO SBDC as a Mentor to their Growth360 class.
Facilitated Power Hours with my assigned mentee to help them successful navigate the growth stage of their business
Facilitated a SWOT analysis workshop
Facilitated Leadership assessment workshop
Gave expert business advice during classes
Aid my mentees in the development of their growth presentations.
Assisted my mentees in navigating the Growth360 platform
s Coaching
Founder/CEO
Pat’s Power Hour LLC – June 2022 to Current
Business Coach | Mentor | Advocate
Business coach to small business owners to aid in the start up, growth, maturity, scale and or decline of their business
Offers “Power Hour” sessions to help entrepreneurs work through pain points and growth strategies.
Teach business owners how to effectively use a SWOT analysis to work through all decision making successfully.
Teach business owners the importance of being a Leader in their business
Specializes in training business owners to be
Founder
Utopia – Kansas City 2021 to present
Leading the startup and launch of Utopia by providing business development, creation of operational procedures, workflow planning, projections and all other startup needs.
Creating the plan/model that will aid in the redesign of the geriatric and disable care industry.
How’d you meet your business partner?
When I was in high school I was defiantly an outcast. While my now partner was not at all. We were not friends and honestly I didn’t favor her at all because she was mean and still had so many more friends then me. While even though I was nice I did not. My freshman year in high school I ran track and my best friend was a guy named David. Now David was the most popular kid in school and was friends with everyone. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t his best friend, but he was nice to me and always included me. We went on a state track meet in Jeff City and while the seniors were playing dunk the freshman in the hotel pool, David was found dead and I was the person that discovered him at the bottom of the pool, in the deep end. This was devastating to me. He was my only friend. I gave up hope and lost my faith in God. Shereese was David’s girlfriend at the time and saw me crying in class as she knew I was the one to find him in the bottom of the pool. She came and talked to me and as I told her that I gave up on God, she restored my faith by telling me that everything happens for a reason. She was kind and our conversation kept going. We found that we had so much in common and became best friends from that point on. We did everything together, we wrote poetry together and performed many of our poems together as spoken word artists.
Patricia
I started Margaret’s Place as a promise to my Grandmother, Margaret Brown. I vowed to establish a place where the aging and differently-abled could live full and purposeful lives. I promised that the established location would be safe, sanitary, and overflowing with vigor and engaging activities. Additionally, I understand that the aging population is growing exponentially and that the established health care system will not be able to meet the needs of the 65 and older and/ or differently-abled. My goal is to establish an even larger facility beyond Margaret’s Place as the gold standard for senior services. It will be called Utopia Point. Utopia Point will be a full-service, residential care establishment community, where a larger number of aging and differently-abled persons can receive health care-related services and live self-driven lifestyles.
Shereese
Originally I was in the banking industry. I spent 14 years going from one department to the next “cleaning house”. My role was in management and I would reevaluate the procedures and make them more efficient and successful. At any point in time I could have up to 30 plus people reporting to me. Peace for Your Pieces was born out of my work with the staff and my desire to do more for the people under my charge. I took their life struggles very seriously not only because it affected their work but also because they were human beings who needed help. At one point in time 5 people out of my 30 direct reports attempted or threatened suicide. It was then that I knew I was meant for a different type of work. My calling was to help others live a healthy balanced life while creating the daily peace that we all desire. So I left my steady 9 to 5 and became my own first client! I got certified to be an Integrative Wellness Life coach and I left a very lucrative career to finally do what I was born to do. I am proud to join the army of caring human beings who love to put more into the lives of others. I continue to add to my skills through continued education.
Why we decided to become partners in creating this change
We’ve been best friends for 26 years. Our personal relationship is tried and true. There is no doubt in it. Utopia Point is not the first time we worked together. We worked at a bank together in our teens and we worked in Margaret’s Place together in our 30’s. At a very young age we planned to raise our children together, they would go to the same schools, we would live next door to each other and we would be friends forever! We did all of those things, the next logical step was truly working together as partners! We finally decided to take that step because we realized that we both naturally had a deep love and passion for uplifting and helping people. We were paralleled in our desire to make real changes in the world, not just for the future generations but in our current lifetime. We leaned on each other, we supported each other, we provided each other with honest useful feedback, and we both trusted each other to do what is best for our individual businesses. It was then that we realized we were working towards similar goals from opposite ends. It only made sense to merge and double our efforts so we could reach our destination faster and with more joy and efficiency. Our partnership is a spin off of our friendship. It is honest, transparent, forgiving, trusting and fueled by love.
We specialize in all peoples wellness through our person centered Life Plans and the redesign of the geriatric and disabled care industry.
Utopia Point 1.0 is a physical manifestation of an idea that one can age gracefully while living their best life, if they choose to. Founder Patricia McCreary and Co-Founder Shereese Hameed-Muhammad have married their life purpose to provide something unique. Patricia provides her knowledge and love of elite complete care giving to the senior and disabled care community while Shereese provides her passion for balance and peace in one’s life through holistic wellness. Together they focus on the complete process with the betterment of the individual as the end goal. Built from a place of love and compassion for people, it’s no doubt that Utopia 1.0 on 3501 Woodland will be a beacon of light in the Ivanhoe neighborhood and Jackson County.
While we know that there are other community oriented businesses such as these, we believe that there are many people who cannot afford state of the art facilities. We aspire to have a community for all no matter the situation one’s life dealt to them.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
During this journey we have had to make many sacrifices. My husband and I have a blended family of 6 children. With all the money involved in opening a business we were homeless for a minute. We lived at Margaret’s place and had to roll up the air mattresses every morning and hid them. We had to get food stamps so we could feed the children; they wanted Niki shoes, but, we had to get them what we could. The children ages were from teens to toddler. We made due. We are not millionaires, but now we have a decent place to stay and can afford some of the shoes and eating. The children are 19 down to 9 now and are able to help out sometimes when needed and I feel are knowledgeable of the struggles they face if they want to own a business. One son is a budding culinary artist who aspires to own first his own food truck business and maybe a restaurant some day. We are thankful for our struggle. It has given us the power to give to our participants and the joy of giving.
Contact Info:
- Website: margaret’splacekc.com
- Instagram: @margaret’splacekc
- Facebook: MargaretsPlaceKC & MPWellnessCenter
- Twitter: @margaret’splace1
Image Credits
ScaleUpKC