Get to know Chad Jones, owner of Your Choice Senior Care in Mobile, as he shares his journey from a small town in Texas to running a senior care franchise. In this episode, Chad talks about his background, including his high school and college experiences, and how a life-changing injury inspired him to help others. He discusses the hard work and dedication required to build his business from the ground up, the challenges he faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the emotional rewards of providing care for families. Learn about Chad's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, his favorite books, and the personal experiences that drive his passion for senior care. Join us for an insightful conversation with a business owner who truly cares about his community.

Transcript:

Chad Jones: My name is Chad Jones. I'm the owner of Your Choice Senior Care here in Mobile. It's a, it's a franchise.

Marcus Neto: Chad and I have known each other for a number of years. He was one of the founding members of the BNI group that we started a couple of years ago. Before COVID.

Chad Jones: Yeah, before COVID. Golly. That was like six years ago. 2017, 2018.

Marcus Neto: Oh my gosh. I didn't realize it was that long ago. So, um, and we haven't had the podcast, so Yeah. How excited. Long sit down and, you know, talk to you a little bit about your business. So, but um, thank you for being here.

Marcus Neto: Wow. Glad to be here. Yes. I. To get started, uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Like where are you from? Where'd you go to high school, college, are you married? You know, some of the backstory.

Chad Jones: Sure. Uh, so I'm from, I'm a fifth generation Texan. Okay. So, uh, I grew up in a little town called Blessing Texas.

Chad Jones: Uh, my dad was a high school football coach, so we kind of. About every three years, you know, a high school football goes, go, the board members get mad at you and you gotta meet. So we, we, uh, traveled around about three different cities and ended up in my high school career place called Tide Haven, which is in, in Elate in Texas, which is about an hour southwest of Houston down high, the middle of in right, right by the coast.

Chad Jones: Um, so in, it's about, as I'd say, it's kind of mobile esque, the same kind of humidity, same heat,

Marcus Neto: really,

Chad Jones: all that stuff. Yeah.

Marcus Neto: So. Well, that would make sense being on the coast. 'cause I would've thought it would've been a drier for some reason.

Chad Jones: I don't know. It weren't as far inland. Houston. I lived in Houston after I graduated college.

Chad Jones: That was hot.

Marcus Neto: Yeah, that's a different kind of, yeah, that's a different kind of heat.

Chad Jones: So did you know, did that, uh, played six sports in high school? I was a little bitty two A school. I was one of those crazy guys that just wanted to do everything. So football, basketball, baseball, track, power lifting, cross country.

Chad Jones: Did one act, play, did scouts. Uh, so pretty much kept busy all the time. You were an Eagle Scout? I am an Eagle Scout, yes. Very good. And, um, that was high school. That was high school. And then, uh, went over to Texas a and m from, so my principal in elementary school was a badass Marine. I graduated from Texas a and m, right?

Chad Jones: And from the day I met him, he was best friends with my dad day. I met him, you're going to Texas a m, we're going to Texas a m in kindergarten. Me and two other dudes made a pact that we were going to Texas A and two of us ended up come hell or high water. Two of us ended up going, the other one ended up.

Chad Jones: Going, playing football somewhere. So we, we gave 'em a pass. Yeah. Uh, but that's kind of where I knew where I was always gonna go. And then at a and m, I joined the Corps of Cadets, which is the ROTC program. Yeah. That's at a and m. And learn lots of things about, you know, leadership and learning how to be yourself and how to help others, and, which has definitely helped me in my

Marcus Neto: career these days.

Marcus Neto: Well, I mean, certainly as in the Boy Scouts with the Eagle Scout, you know, I mean, you're gonna learn all kinds of stuff there as well, so. But, um, so you went to Texas a and m Correct. Met my wife there. What did you, what did

Chad Jones: you Uh, so graduated with a kinesiology degree. Okay. With a, a minor in business with an emphasis in sports management.

Chad Jones: So. My one and you were new using that in no way shape No, you're

Marcus Neto: fine.

Chad Jones: Shape or form whatsoever. I did say I'm using my kinesia degree a little bit. Little bit because it's a little health, health related, but no, so I had a really cool internship before I graduated. I got to work for a Tri-Star Productions Incorporated, which is a, uh, memorabilia company.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Chad Jones: So I got to travel during, for the, so the summer before I graduated, I gotta travel all over the country. Went to Chicago, uh, went to Dallas, uh, San Francisco. And we, they had huge autograph shows. Got to take Pete Rose to the airport. Oh, wow. Got to meet Bo Jackson. Got to take a really cool picture of Ryan Sandberg, uh, when he won, uh, when he got in the Hall of Fame that year.

Chad Jones: Him and, uh, Wade Boggs. Uh, but they go, they offered me a job after my internship and it was $23,000. Yeah. And I was like, sorry, I'm going to the oil and gas industry. Yeah. So started in the oil and gas, uh, gas industry. Right. Right. After that. Uh, well, and then got, got married. So actually I got married before I graduated college.

Chad Jones: Oh, wow. That's not, I mean, not typical, but No. 'cause yeah, so my internship was in Houston.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Chad Jones: So we're like, well, we're gonna get married. We're not gonna live in two different apartments. Of course, Houston. So we got married before I started my internship. Yeah. Very. And they got And you've been married for how long?

Chad Jones: 20 years. 20 years. Yeah. They, congratulations. May a fifth, 2005.

Marcus Neto: Wow. Golly. I guess that is, yeah, that is 40 years ago. 'cause I just don't think of the two thousands as being that long driven.

Marcus Neto: You old? No, I met, I was just at

Chad Jones: uh, UPS and there was about five kids and they were all born in 2005. They were all, you know, 20 years old and I was like, yeah, it's

Marcus Neto: wild.

Marcus Neto: So you've uh, spent some time I would imagine sports management type stuff, like what you were describing with memorabilia and whatnot. There are so many people that want to go into it, that the starting salaries are really low, but you, you prove yourself and you know the money's. Yeah. I

Chad Jones: looked at, you know, going to work for the Astros or going to work for the Texans, but again, they're like, there's yeah.

Chad Jones: Dime a dozen starting at the bottom. Yeah. Working your way up and. Did you play football or sports in, so I did club, I did club baseball, played for the core team. Uh, so we got to, I got to play in Cal Field, not Cal Field, the Olson field a couple times and got to travel around the state of Texas, play other college team.

Chad Jones: So yeah, had a good time with that. Yeah. That's really cool.

Marcus Neto: Well take us back to your first job. 'cause I can imagine growing up in a small town in Texas that, you know, it was probably pretty interesting. And do you find that there were any lessons from that job that you still kind of carry with you? You wanna go first job?

Marcus Neto: First job ever? First job. First job, yeah.

Chad Jones: So my dad, you know, I said he was the coach. He ended up, uh, working his way up, working his butt off to get it where he was. So he ended up becoming the superintendent. He, he would hire kids during the summer to work at the school. So my first job was actually working at the school, painting classrooms, mowing the grass.

Chad Jones: Changing out ballast and light bulbs. Yeah. Uh, so, and then they had, it was a con consolidated school. So there was an elementary in this town, elementary in that town, a junior high over here and a high school here. So like me mowing one summer you'd start at one, one school and by the time you finished, the grass was already high enough to start again, so that that whole summer you're just mowing.

Chad Jones: Just mowing, mowing grass. Which said you were a great shading. Well, no, they had, uh, oh, it was a riding, yeah, a riding mower and stuff. But the weeding was miserable. Yeah. So the funny thing about my dad, my dad is very efficient in his money, which is, which is a good thing. But my dad always bought, uh, like weed eaters that plugged in Yeah.

Chad Jones: And stuff. And then when I, my first weeder that I bought, I bought the fanciest weed eater that I could find an echo, like $500. He goes, why are you buying that expensive weeder? I said, I said, dad, I've been using your crappy weeder my whole life. I don't, I don't, I have, have the experience using the crappy weeder.

Chad Jones: I'm not using a a, I'm buying the

Marcus Neto: best weeder I could find. So right. Was it, did you find it? That it was that much because, oh my God, I, I have this love-hate relationship and this is a total off topic, uh, tangent, but I have this love, hate, hate relationship with small engines. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Marcus Neto: Like they just, the carburetors come up and all that other stuff. And I wonder if he was buying the electric ones. Not

Chad Jones: probably so. I mean, he, that's probably a one way to look at it, but every time I use it, it would freaking come unplugged or cord would get stuck on a bush. I'm so ready. So over this. But then, you know, working at school.

Chad Jones: They taught me how to clean the carburetor and do all that stuff. Okay. Well, you know, so I understand how to do that kind of small engine type stuff. I

Marcus Neto: wish that of all the classes, 'cause you know, when we, I think we're probably about the same age. 44. Okay. Well, I'm a little bit older than the 51, but you know, they, we had to take all these classes from home, Mac mm-hmm.

Marcus Neto: To, you know, um, you know, like photography. So we did like black and white, you know, all that stuff. Right. I wish that I had taken some sort of small engine repair because I, I didn't, I don't know that it was even offered. I think they had shop. Yeah. But I don't know that it was like small engine repair probably wasn't offered.

Marcus Neto: But I, because the one thing that I've always had issues with is, you know, small engines and actually I've just gone battery powered with all my stuff now, and I just absolutely love it. Like weed eaters and stuff like that, that are battery powered, hands down, the best thing. I mean, that's the best thing about YouTube these days.

Marcus Neto: I mean.

Chad Jones: Could fix anything. That's true. Yeah. A little bit of a, you just search the, in the, the model that thing and say, how do you fix

Marcus Neto: this? And there's Ted is true. That is true. Well, um, what were some of the lessons that you took from that though? So, I mean, was it, you know, you

Chad Jones: know, you got the normal stuff, you know, show up on time, you know, work your butt off.

Chad Jones: 'cause there's always somebody watching. Yeah. Uh. And like you said, I started as the mowing, but then you're working up. So I ended up going, starting as lawn mower, and then I did painting, and then I was doing electrical. So over four years of working for my dad, you know, the harder you work, the more responsibility you're gonna, they're gonna give you.

Marcus Neto: Yeah, no, that's cool. I just, you know, the reason why I ask that is because, you know, workforce development is something that we focus on a lot and I, I think that sometimes we forget. Just how far we've come in business, just like we do with our kids. Right? Yeah. We forget like, oh, they have to learn these things and they may even have to learn 'em the hard way.

Marcus Neto: Yes. Right? And so it's just kind of a reminder of like, Hey, when I, when I was 13, 14 years old or whatever, you know, I had to go and do this thing and I learned, you know, these lessons. But, um, now I know you've been kind of your own business owner for a while and doing some other things, but with, uh, your health.

Marcus Neto: Um, when did you get started and how did you get started? With my current business? Yeah. Uh, so

Chad Jones: your voice signed? Yep. So in, it was COVID, so I was working for Northwestern Mutual doing disability and, uh, insurance and learned a lot through that. And we can get back to that story of how I got into that, but, uh, I, you know, one of my clients or potential clients was like, got got to know 'em.

Chad Jones: Just building air Network, that's the biggest thing. Build your network, figure out who you know, what, you know, what they know. And he came up to me and said. Hey, I'm about to sell the mobile market. I wasn't looking, I'm about to sell. The mobile market would be, I think you'd be good at it. Would this be something that you would be interested in?

Chad Jones: In doing so, him and I, my wife, sat down, had a conversation, ran the numbers, and it, it's kind of a no brainer. Um, and we're like, so November of 2020 decided to buy the, buy the franchise and started doing all the training, and then for the first year. It was, it was rough. I was pretty much doing everything by myself.

Chad Jones: Keeping, keeping costs low. Yeah. Uh, I was, when caregivers call out, I was taking shifts. Um, and so I had to learn the business from, from the ground up.

Marcus Neto: And because I know you haven't been in the healthcare industry before, I mean, I've imagine that's been a pretty big, how have you found that?

Chad Jones: So I would say, uh, you know, it's not.

Chad Jones: Healthcare per se. It's just caring for people. Yeah, that's true. Uh, so what we do is I'm a CNA, which is a certified nursery student. So I took that test well, but I did not know that.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Chad Jones: It's, it's just about making sure you're paying attention to people, you're caring for 'em, you, you just have to act like you.

Chad Jones: They're you're grandma or grandpa and you're in their house and you're making sure they don't fall. They take their meds, they're eating. They're making sure they have clean clothes, they make sure they have, uh, clean, uh, bedding and making sure their house is not a com complete disaster. Uh, and just loving on 'em really companionship.

Chad Jones: And that's the big thing about this business.

Marcus Neto: Yeah, it's, you know, I've been thinking about this, um, a lot lately is just like, um, obviously it's wonderful that as a business owner you can step in and provide that, you know, service, but it's just. Interesting to me. How much of like family care, you know, is not handled by the family anymore.

Marcus Neto: You know, and I know it's, I, I'm not casting judgment. The world just kind of demands it, you know? And a really, I mean,

Chad Jones: think about it, a hundred years ago, everybody lived on the same piece of property. You had three generations in one household. You, and now you have three generations that are spread over three states or more, more international sometimes.

Chad Jones: And then what's funny is, you know, you always got that firstborn. I've noticed a lot of firstborn takes care of most of the stuff. Yeah. And usually the firstborn are very intelligent. They usually have a white collar job. Yeah. They're usually outta state for some reason. I don't know about, that's something maybe mobile we can talk with spare later and get the help.

Chad Jones: I just getting more white collar, collar jobs to get 'em back in there. But, uh, yeah, most of 'em are in town and the people that live less than a mile from their, from their family.

Marcus Neto: I ain't doing anything. Interesting. Yeah, it's really kind of a, you know, it's a sad state of affairs. 'cause you know, we, I don't know.

Marcus Neto: I've got aging, you know, parents and I can't imagine, you know, like I can't imagine what that's gonna be like when it gets to the point where they need care. 'cause I'm, I can't Yeah. Do that. You know what I mean? Like, I have, and I, I guess I've been hearing a lot of late, a lot lately about, you know, your forties and your fifties.

Marcus Neto: Mostly your forties, they say, are some of your stre stre more stressful time because your kids are getting, you know, older and are demanding a lot of attention, but also you're reaching the pinnacle in your career and your parents are all aging all at the same time. That's why they

Chad Jones: call us the sandwich generation.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Chad Jones: Yeah. And it's taking care of both kids and our parents at the same time. Yeah. It's rough, you know? But I, and I would say, you know, kind of another reason why I decided to do this is, you know, 10 years ago I ended up breaking my back snow skin. So Christmas day went on, skied all day, had a great time.

Chad Jones: You know that last run, the last run, they let, let's just take one more, let's, let's do one more hold. My beard ended up just hitting a bad bump and it threw my skis out for me, underneath me. It came down, ended up breaking my T 10 and T 12 verte vertebrae. They had to, uh, take me down in an ambulance from Winter Park, which is in Colorado, down to Denver, uh, medical.

Chad Jones: And that emergency room was just crazy. You know, I was out, they drugged me up in my out. But yeah, my wife, Sarah, bless her heart, stayed with me 24 hours until I even got her room. Uh, and she was just saying it was gunshot after gunshot, after gunshot. And I was just sitting there, there, the broken back, waiting for me to get a spot.

Chad Jones: Uh, but you know, I laid in bed for almost a year without, without anything. And then my wife was working her job and having to help. Me, you know? Yeah. Feed me, not change me, get to the, get to the shower, all that stuff. Yeah. And so that's one thing that I remember personally where I wanna put that passion into this, into this business.

Chad Jones: Yeah. Um, so I know how my wife felt as the caregiver, and I know how I felt as the patient. And so I believe what we do the best of is we try to take that caregiver role off the plate of the family so they can become actually family again. Right. And then I watched my mom take care of my grandma. My grandma had to live with my mom in blessing, which is in the middle of nowhere, middle of nowhere, Texas.

Chad Jones: There wasn't any other companies like this, so my mom had to give my grandma a shot every four hours, 24 hours a day. For probably, I think a year. It could have been 18 months, but I know it was at least a year. And just to see how that drained my mom and drained that relationship. 'cause there was always something to do.

Chad Jones: It wasn't, it wasn't that loving, that laughing, that good time you got to spend with your, with your mom.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Chad Jones: Uh, it had to be, Hey, we gotta get this done. We gotta get this done. And you, I saw it take a toll. So those two experiences, one reason why I try to do our, the best we can at, at, with our business,

Marcus Neto: with most powerful stuff, then, I mean.

Marcus Neto: Really somebody that's had experience with that is gonna have a way more understanding mind when it comes to those kind. I, I don't, I don't have any experience with it just yet, you know, and, uh, you know, I've, I've never been laid up like that, that I can remember. And I, you know, my dad's had a couple of, you know, issues, but, you know, nothing that, uh, I was super involved in.

Marcus Neto: And so, um, yeah, I can't even imagine. That's awesome. Um. Do you remember? And after you, uh, got started, do you remember the first time that, you know, there was, you had an impact or that you, um, I don't know, you, maybe it was, um, a win in the sense that like at the end of the year you, you know, had hired some employees and had finally made a profit or something like that?

Marcus Neto: Like, do you remember the first time where you thought, Hey, maybe there might be something to this? I tell you, my first

Chad Jones: emotional win was probably within the first six months of doing this business. Uh, we had a lady out in Wilmer, she was at, so she was at Sebe and I, and kind of how the world works at Sebe.

Chad Jones: She was in memory care. If you start acting up too much and they, the Sebe staff can't handle you, they give you a 30 day notice. No ma'am, and they say you have 30 days to vacate the property. A lot of people don't understand that. They think we're gonna put 'em in there and they're gonna stay there until they pass away, which is is not the case most of the time.

Chad Jones: Sometimes it is, but not most cases, especially if at the end of dementia they start getting riled up. So they gave her a 30 day notice and this guy out in Wilmar, Wilmer had her in a little mother-in-law suite and we were taking care of her 24 7. Uh, I had to go work a lot of shifts 'cause again, it was still the beginning, so I Nobody wanted to drive.

Chad Jones: Yeah, yeah. To Wilmer to do a shift. So I was going out there, just getting to know her, getting to know the family. But you know, the first couple weeks you could see the stress level. 'cause they didn't know what they were gonna do. They were like, well, we weren't expecting this. We didn't know this was gonna happen.

Chad Jones: We don't know what we were gonna do. And we got to come in there and start taking care of her, start, you know, making sure that she was taken care of and then they were able to go to work. They were able to go take care of stuff. But then when they came back. You could see that stress level drop. And once you start hearing 'em laughing, oh, that's cool.

Chad Jones: You're, you start seeing them as a family again and again, taking that caregiver role off of them. Yeah. And then in your heart, you're just like, that's why we're here. That's cool. That is, that's really cool, man. And then I'd say, you know, positively and money wise, you know, I, for two, you know, two or three years, I did a lot of stuff.

Chad Jones: Ended up hiring one person, she did an amazing job, and then ended up hiring a second person. Now I get to do the fun stuff. Like they've taken all the crazy stuff off my plate with the, you know, the, the billing and the scheduling and talking with, uh, all the employees that have a flat tire 10 seconds before their shift or, you know, babysitter calls out, which things happen, life happens.

Chad Jones: So we're able to figure that out. But. I, I, I've taken that off my plate. So now I get to go have great conversations with people and say, Hey, this is what we do. This is how we can help you.

Marcus Neto: Yeah. And

Chad Jones: get to do that around the community and be more part of the community to show that we care and we love about their family.

Marcus Neto: No, that's really cool. Now, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them?

Chad Jones: I'd say. One of my favorite quotes is, was by Patton, and he just says, you just gotta go. You just gotta do it. Like you have a business idea. Figure it out as you go. The, there's more plans in life that don't get done because they overthink it versus, I

Marcus Neto: was actually the, you know, was, I'm sorry to interrupt there.

Marcus Neto: Uh. I was looking at something last night and there was an image, there was like a post on Instagram or something. There was an image that like really hit me kind of hard. And one of the pictures, it was a multi picture, you know, post. And one of the pictures was of, um, a ladder that was posted up against a wall.

Marcus Neto: And all the rungs were all jacked up. And then there was another one and it only had two or three rungs. They were on the bottom, but they were perfectly straight. And it was something to the effect of, you know, perfection. It doesn't beat, you know, just go, you gotta just go. You're gonna learn,

Chad Jones: you're gonna learn way better on the, on the job than you are planning and Googling and, and tragedy t and what you, what you can do.

Chad Jones: Yeah.

Marcus Neto: There's so many different aspects that you don't even know that are gonna side swipe you when you start a business. I mean, you know, you can't prepare. It's like having kids just gotta kind of do it. So, um, what motivates you to work hard on your business?

Chad Jones: Again, kind of what I was saying, you know, making sure those families are taken care of.

Chad Jones: Make sure that they become part of your family. Yeah. Making sure that they're taken care of and they get to become family again. I, and I, that's kind of that theme that I keep repeating, but it's, that's blind to it.

Marcus Neto: No, that's amazing. No. Um, are there any books, podcasts, people or organizations, and just pick one.

Marcus Neto: You don't have to do a wall.

Chad Jones: So I'd say my favorite book that changed my life is called Kaizen. Okay. Um, so it's called a small step, uh, meaning that you don't have to come up with the big idea today. 'cause when you do that, you're completely stressed. You don't, you can't think straight. But if you start thinking and breaking it down by into little itty bitty steps, you can come up with good ideas.

Chad Jones: So, like an example is, Hey, how can we change the world? Let's try to come up with a big thousand, big idea. Yeah. How about, let's start with picking up this little piece of trash right here, right? Hey, let's say hello to somebody. Let's say, Hey, you did a great job. Those little bitty things are gonna build up over time and be, then it could change the world.

Chad Jones: You're not gonna come up with that big idea in the first five. In the first five. Yeah. It's like

Marcus Neto: butterfly effects.

Chad Jones: Yeah. So it talks about Toyota. It. So it's a Japanese saying Kaizen. Mm-hmm. So it talks about how Toyota started with this little bitty company and all they did was try to change one thing and make it better.

Chad Jones: Over time. They tried to actually bring it to Chevrolet and Ford and Chevrolet and Ford said, no, we don't wanna mess with it. Yeah. But it's, it's completely changed my world. So I'm always looking. For little, little things, and that's probably why I drive you crazy on text messages. Not at all. I'm like, Hey, let's do this.

Chad Jones: Let's, let's do that, let's do that because I just kind of, yeah. Uh, another quote that I've always liked was Ben Affleck and um, uh, what's the other guy's name? What's his friend's name? Oh, uh, Damon. Yeah. Matt Damon. Uh, Ben Affleck always told Matt Damon, he said, don't judge me on my bad ideas. Only judge me on my good ideas, but I might have a thousand bad ideas.

Chad Jones: Yeah. To my one. Good idea.

Marcus Neto: No, and and it is very true. So like, you know, and I've said this, uh, plenty of times, but like, one of the things that we love doing is just kind of sitting around and thinking through like different scenarios or business ideas or whatever. And, um, I don't know. It's just, it's fun, you know, and I, I tell people like, you know, there's no shame in having bad ideas.

Marcus Neto: The shame is in not, not having any ideas, right. Also not trying something, you know what I mean? Like, um, 'cause there's no, there's no failure in like, trying an idea, not having it come out. The failure is not, is not trying to even do it. Like, oh, I had that idea and didn't anything with

Marcus Neto: it. Yeah.

Marcus Neto: That's where the regret comes in.

Marcus Neto: The regret, regret doesn't come in and unless it's something really stupid, you know, like, Hey, I'm gonna go wrestle a pig or something like that. But if he, if it's a business idea, like, you know, oftentimes it's, you know. There's almost nothing that's not recoverable. And I'm speaking from, from experience, you know what I mean?

Marcus Neto: Like, uh, there's, you know, there are certainly gonna be things that, you know, uh, that will be thrown at you that you're not prepared for. But I mean, like, it's, uh, it's definitely, I don't know, it goes back to that whole, like, you're never gonna be prepared for it. So just, just go.

Marcus Neto: Yeah.

Marcus Neto: So, um, how do you like to unwind?

Marcus Neto: Uh.

Chad Jones: Man. So pre breaking back, I loved to play baseball. I played in a wood bat league in town. I was a, uh, over 25 league and I'd go out there and just What position did you play? Uh, pitcher and outfield. Okay. And then sometimes first carrying shoulder issues from the pitches between Now I do, I do, but uh, that was probably my favorite thing.

Chad Jones: I miss it every day. I wish I could go out there and play.

Marcus Neto: So can you do, are you still limited quite a bit on any with your back?

Chad Jones: Uh, just try not to push it like I could probably, I'm not supposed to run 'cause they don't want any up and down pressure on the spine, so I have to walk a lot these days. So I can't do not supposed to do sprints, not supposed to do anything.

Chad Jones: Heavy squats, dead lifts. I can't imagine anything like that. So as long as I'm not compressing the spine, I can pretty much do most things. So I was playing a lot of golf before I broke my back and I've just kind of now started getting into it again. Uh, 'cause I feel like I'm just, I miss it. I miss being, I miss outside.

Chad Jones: I miss being outside. Yeah, I get it. First crazy thing for me, mowing for five years, you'd think I'd hate grass, but my, I just love being outdoors in nature. And that's the same thing with scouts, like hiking. And, uh, you know, teaching my kid how to camp and, and hike and all that kind of stuff. And so that's my, that's my wind down.

Chad Jones: But the problem is you just don't get to do it enough. There's always something going on. There's always a dance recital, which I love going to, there's always, uh, a scout meeting, which I love going to, but, you know, to actually wind down, it's definitely harder these days than

Marcus Neto: for sure. You're kind of in the eye of the storm.

Marcus Neto: Yeah. You know, I mean, that'll, that'll change, you know? For sure. I think the danger is not having those interests and then, you know, finding yourself with extra time. Like, I mean, you know, when the kids get older and time gets a little bit more plentiful, you know, that's when people start kind of losing their minds.

Marcus Neto: Like, what am I, what do I do now? I don't have any hobbies, don't have any, you know, like nothing to do. You don't have any friends 'cause you poured yourself into your kids so much. You know what I mean? Like, so anyway, um, I've got 12 rapid fire questions. Okay. Okay. I'm just gonna ask them. No, you know, so favorite type of music.

Marcus Neto: I like, uh, nineties, 2000 hip hop. There you go. What's your favorite type of food?

Chad Jones: Italian favorite restaurant in lower Alabama? Uh, Chuck's fish is probably my go-to. And then, uh, Reyes is across the, across the bay. 'cause he went from Chuck's to Yeah. And opened up his own restaurant. So those are probably my two go-to right now.

Chad Jones: Yeah, those are very

Marcus Neto: good

Chad Jones: choices.

Marcus Neto: Um,

Chad Jones: favorite city outside of mobile. Oh man. So Sarah and I, we just got done. I'll guess go wrap it so I can't go tell the story, but, uh, ill pr Prague. Okay. Uh, Budapest, uh, um, what's another one? Just Europe, I, uh, I mean Europe cities. Yeah. Had European cities. City. You went to travel to.

Chad Jones: We have yet to visit.

Marcus Neto: Uh, I'd really love to go to Tokyo. I'd, I'd say that's bucket list. Nice. What comes to mind when I say guilty pleasure? Whataburger.

Marcus Neto: The sigh before that answer. Yeah, makes that answer. Like what budget

Marcus Neto: turn in was a

Marcus Neto: burger. Dogs, cats are none of the above,

Chad Jones: man. I used to be a dog, got rapid fire. I used to be a dog person. I'm kind of nothing at the moment. Okay.

Marcus Neto: And then summer or winter.

Marcus Neto: These are things that we don't think about all that often, you know, see, but, but I have deep questions. I have deep

Chad Jones: answers for all these not rapid fire questions I had, I loved winter before I broke my back. Right. And I'd rather be up north in the snow and stuff. Now I'm like, okay, I'm a, I'm, I'm kind of a, technically a beach guy right now, or a late guy.

Chad Jones: Yeah. Yeah. Which we could talk about that with Big Creek Lake driving me nuts. But.

Marcus Neto: Favorite movie or TV show?

Chad Jones: Uh, river runs through it. Uh, legend

Marcus Neto: of the Fall, Brad Pitt movies like, cool. Uh, favorite holiday besides, don't say Christmas or Thanksgiving. Yeah,

Chad Jones: well, so Halloween 'cause my daughter's birthday's on Halloween.

Chad Jones: Very cool. I like that one. Yeah. It's one of our favorites too. But I, but I really don't like holidays 'cause I broke my back on Christmas. I broke my kneecap on 4th of July. So I'm kind of have a hate, love handle. Yeah. With holidays. Holidays coming and you go

Marcus Neto: put a rubber suit on. Correct. So, uh, favorite color, uh, blue.

Marcus Neto: Favorite cereal? Don't eat cereal. What, what are you most thankful for that's not ripe and fire?

Chad Jones: I'm most thankful for my parents. I, uh, I mean, I was thinking about the end of the day, uh, there's such a blessing in my life where. They were educators. My dad worked his butt off to become superintendent, but no matter what I wanted to do, they made sure I was able to, to do it.

Chad Jones: Yeah. You know, back then not making much money. They, they got me in the baseball, they got me into football. They got me in the scouts by, so my scout troop was actually in a different town than I was living at. 'cause again, my dad coaches, he was coaching in one town where I started scouts, and then he moved to another town, became the principal.

Chad Jones: My scout troop was still. It was about 20 miles away. My parents would drive me to the next town over to make sure I finished my, yeah, my scalp stuff. So a lot of, you know, a lot sacrifices, sacrifices from 'em, the, and even today, they, they live 10 hours away. If I call 'em, if I called them right now and like, Hey, I need y'all's help, they would get in the car in 15 minutes and head this way.

Marcus Neto: Man. I mean, that, that's, um, I. You are an extremely lucky individual. Mm-hmm. Fair? Yeah. I mean, in today's day and age, I mean, you have to know, like, I mean, there are a lot of kids that don't, and I'm not saying that I'm one of those, but there are a lot of kids that don't feel that way about, you know, their parents.

Marcus Neto: They don't have that kinda relationship and a lot of parents that don't behave that, you know, in such a way that it should be expected of them, that they would behave like, like that. And so I try to take that and make

Chad Jones: sure I'm doing that with my kids. Yeah.

Marcus Neto: Yeah. Same. I mean, I, you know. I've got grown boys now, so they don't need me as much, but it's, you know, it's always nice when, um, when you get a call from 'em and you know, they still need, you know, their dad, right?

Marcus Neto: I mean, as parents we still wanna be useful, you know, so, um, tell people where they can find you.

Chad Jones: So we can, you can find me online, uh, mobile dot your choice senior care.com. Uh, we have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram page. Uh, same thing. Your choice, senior care, uh, mobile. Um, right now we currently have two offices.

Chad Jones: One in the Brookside Independent Living Facility, which is at Cottage Hill and Cody. And then we have another one inside the building of Sebe, which is also a, uh,

Marcus Neto: community for the elderly. Very good. And, um, I wanna thank you again for coming on the podcast. To wrap up any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share?

Marcus Neto: As, as nervous, I was, I, I really, I really enjoyed it. Everybody always gets nervous when they sit down, but then after you, I mean, you find it's just like speaking your heart.

Marcus Neto: I mean, anything.

Marcus Neto: That's all it is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, 'cause if I don't, if you're listening to this and you've, if you've wondered, I don't tell anybody the questions.

Marcus Neto: No. Now granted, if they do their homework, they can go back and find, you know, their questions are always somewhat similar. But I, I do that on purpose because I don't want people to prepare. 'cause when they prepare for this, it doesn't come across the same way. Like, it's not the, the same answer. And so, you know, you, in all honesty, you had texted me and said, Hey, like, yeah, what do I, you, what do I need to prepare for?

Marcus Neto: And I was like, donkey, because it'll make you, make you sound like you know, really bad. And I, um, but anyway, I just appreciate your flexibleness, you know, with. Or you being flexible with, you know, with that, because I know it's not easy to come in here and, you know, I mean, we've got lights and cameras and you know, microphones and stuff like that.

Marcus Neto: I've definitely

Chad Jones: never been media trained. I can tell you that much.

Marcus Neto: That makes two of us. Don't put a camera in front of

Chad Jones: me,

Marcus Neto: you

Chad Jones: time.

Marcus Neto: Um, Chad, well I appreciate your willingness to come with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur man. It's been great talking with you.

Chad Jones: I enjoyed it, man.

Chad Jones: I appreciate you having me out. Yeah. Awesome.

Marcus Neto: We're out.