Kerri Ann Ronquist
Kerri Ann Ronquist is the owner of All About You Placement and Senior Resources. She is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate, a Certified Placement and Referral Specialist, a Certified Dementia and Alzheimer’s Practitioner, and a Certified Senior Advisor®. Her early career with seniors included helping build a hospice company from the ground up and working for home health agencies and mobile physician groups to reach underserved communities.
To honor her late father, Kerri Ann founded All About You in order to support, advocate for and educate those who “don’t know what they don’t know” within the medical, senior care, and resources arena without any restraints.
A proud graduate of Gilbert Leadership Class 27, she remains a dedicated, enthusiastic, and active participant in her community. She is married to her best friend, and together they have two sons, two daughters, a smart, strong, and sassy 5-year-old granddaughter, and two fur babies.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know? This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments. An event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert. Are you ready for this one? I am so excited. How excited are you? I'm too excited. Probably.
There's a lot of excitement over here. So let's talk about who we have here with us today. Alright, this guest moved from New Jersey to Arizona at the age of seven and then to Gilbert and Junior High where she raised her own family eventually and built her business today. She is married to her best friend and to together they have two sons, two daughters, and a smart, strong and sassy, five year old granddaughter and two fur babies. She is a graduate of Gilbert leadership class 27 she remains a dedicated, enthusiastic and active participant in her community.
Please welcome carryin Rock West. Welcome welcome, Welcome. We're glad to have you here. There's a lot of synergy between you and Sarah and I'm noticing this. So this is going to be interesting conversation. I will try to behave myself, but let's go, let's start with something. We call rapid fire. Would you rather find your dream job or win the lottery dream job. What is your guilty pleasure? Wine? Wine? Excellent. Would you rather host a party for all of your friends or enjoy a dinner for two party for all my friends.
Yeah, I didn't write this question but what's on your nightstand? Oh, a whole bunch of stuff, lotions and lip gloss and pictures and all sorts of things. Books that I haven't read? Excellent, fill in the blank. Success is peace. What song makes you smile mary J. Blige's family affair. No more drama. Are you more cautious or bold? I think people would say that I'm bold but I'm really cautious inside. What is your favorite rainy day activity? Just being with my family? Just watching tv with the kids.
You don't get to do that very often. Just movies being together gives me permission to not have to worry about what I have to do outside of the house. What's one thing you're grateful for my family? Last one glass half empty or half full? It depends on the day. Yeah. See that's a fair answer. Yeah, I wish I could say full all the time, but I think that's more human. Yeah. Do you ever feel like your business is stuck? It's time to get traction and move it forward.
Call Chris, spear your business coach and certified us implementer will help you use the entrepreneurial operating system to get traction and achieve your vision call Chris today at (480) 848 3037. That's 4808483037. Alright, so I warmed on. He needs to be a little nervous because we are in the presence of an italian and an Irishman all in one package. So afraid about saying a bad word. All right, let's talk about family and your roots and where it all started. Yeah. Where'd it start? Sounds like New Jersey. Huh? It did. It started with a 100% Italian and a 100% Irish uh, dad and Italian mom and a really amazing passionate, loving, cool, crazy family that I just grew up knowing that passion is about yelling and loving and hugging and fighting and making up and it just, it was great, awesome. Yeah.
And you got here in Arizona and seven what you guys were? No, it was actually my great uncle, my, my little uncle joe and my aunt Joyce. They came out here on a golf trip and I'm so thankful because most people in New Jersey would go to florida and we tried florida but it was miserable and nothing against florida. But um, it wasn't like Arizona. So they moved out here and then we all followed, which was great and my dad and mom just wanted sunshine for us all the time And New Jersey is beautiful, but you have the snow and just was a, they just thought it would be a better way of life for us.
And so where did you end up before Gilbert? So we moved to phoenix like the central corridor because that was kind of where, you know when you came out to Arizona phoenix was the hub to go. So went there and then my parents decided that that the city wasn't for them. So they moved to our Chandler and that was kind of the way that they did. They would go to the outskirts and that's how we ended up in Gilbert. Yeah, way out in Gilbert. Which I was so not happy about being in high school.
And they moved us to the middle of nowhere, Which is what I thought at the time it was, it was I know, I know we used to sit, we moved to the islands and we used to sit in our backyard and see that big bank of America building that was all lit up in blue that everybody was all upset about. We could see it from our backyard. Those were the days of valley video and island pizza and cruising. Fiesta mall. Mm hmm. That was the mall. Yeah, that was it.
Talk about your journey through school. What was it like in Gilbert for junior high at least because that's where you started. Right? Yeah. Well, no, we, I actually wasn't at pal junior high for a couple of months because of the way that they drew the lines. It was so strange. Like our street went to pal and everybody else went to Rhodes. So I went there for a couple months and then my parents were like, that's it, we're just going to test you out and get ready for high school because at that time Dobson High School was where I went and it started at ninth grade And that was insane because that high school, we came in there and every class was more than 1200 students at least.
So we started as a freshman class and then they decided they couldn't have four years there anymore. So then we were sophomores and we were kind of the freshman again because there was no freshman. But yeah, Dobson was at that time was just massive, massive tons of kids. That's interesting. And so then from there, what happened, where did you go, what'd you do? What's next? What's next? Just a whole bunch of life? Yeah, just a whole bunch of life. Um You know, I'm just one of those people where I learned life by experiencing it, so there's a lot of stuff that went on between now and where I'm at, but I'm just, I'm thankful for all my experiences, all the people that I've met, everything that I've been through, I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything, you know?
Um So I know you have a heart for service now, has that always been the case? What happened like your first career, what did that look like for you and and how did that get you, where you are today? Well, I wanted to, I went to college to be in psychology um and that was truly what I wanted to do but then I kind of went into the restaurant industry um because it's like with psychology you can't really do anything until you go further than just college.
Um And really I mean a big chunk of my life at, I have two boys um and my oldest is 21 and um he was diagnosed with autism at one um and so that really in my career just kind of halted everything and it needed to um and I was in the restaurant industry and they had built a new restaurant and it was slated to be mine as a managing partner and they gave me the time off when I was pregnant and when my son was six months old I went back to do the meeting to get back started again and that drive there was awful because it was that balance of look at, I'm about to go into this massive part of my professional career where things will just be everything that I've worked towards, but then I have this baby at home that I know something's not right.
Um So the conversation went from welcome back to, I'm not coming back and um he had to be my full time job and so that was it, that was the end of mom professional career and um he became my full time job, so he was diagnosed at one and um then my son Torrey came and about 3. 5 years later and it was like here we go again. So having two little men that um, we're on the spectrum at that time. It wasn't like it is now, it wasn't the, everybody knows and the one in 100 it was still kind of the rain man thing and I had you know doctors and um professional people asking me what meds my boys were going to be on or um, you know where I was going to put them and I was like, you know, I don't know what you're talking about.
No meds, I'm not putting them anywhere except in my house and they're going to live in the world like everybody else does and we're just going to get through this. So it was a journey that was really all I've done up until going into healthcare um was them. And what do you, you look back now and and you learn so much along the way about yourself and about autism and your boys. What if you were to speak to yourself, go back in time and have that conversation with yourself, what would you say?
I would say, hang on because where they are now I never thought they would be and um I'm so freaking proud of them. You know they, I wish that people in the world saw the world the way people with autism see it. It is so simple and beautiful. It is, we know each other and we're friends and if I see you, I'm going to say hi and we're friends like that's it. That's it. There's no gray and people in the world live in the muck of the gray and it's what stresses me out, what stress people out.
Um, and for them, it's just super simple and it's beautiful and you know, they slowed me down. My life was pretty big and pretty. You know, you just get going in life and you get on that road and you're going and you're earning money and you're getting houses and cars and going on vacations and doing all these things and life just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and my boys just slammed me back down to earth because my oldest didn't call me mom and meet it and mean it until he was about five and it was the best thing I ever heard.
And it just made me go back to how I was raised is that the little things mean so much and they taught me that and they teach me that even now every day. So I'm just, I would tell that person just hang on because everything you're going through is going to be worth it and whatever that life is going to be, it's gonna be because you raise your kids and you have these expectations, you have all these mommies and daddies around saying what kids should be doing and when you have a kid with autism, it's just about what are they doing and what are we going to do next?
And just really appreciating every moment that they are in in your journey to raise them until learn. Was there someone who um inspired you or helped to motivate you? You know, my family was amazingly supportive, my mom and my dad and they just were really supportive of learning because again, at that time it was scary. We didn't know, you know, it wasn't like it is now, but what, you know, I will say they did their spirits who they were, it just when they would give me a little, it would make me go, they can do more.
And so every day we got up and plowed through whatever we had to get through, they just like, okay, they can do it, so what can we do now? Yeah. And you know, to look at who they are now and what they're doing now, I'm so proud of them, They're the best things I've ever done in my whole life or will ever do. So you have two daughters, I do there. Yes, yes, I do that journey where they come in here. Yeah. So my husband who I have now, this is it, I don't know how to say it.
So brian um when I re met brian, we went to high school together, but we didn't hang out together in high school, we knew who each other was, we had common friends, but he was um spirited and experiencing life all through high school and um I get, I had a big six ft six irish dad and a little five ft two italian mom who scared me more, so I didn't participate in the things that he and my friends were doing. Um but about 10 years ago we, we found each other um and he became a part of our lives and uh he has two daughters and it was wonderful because honestly, for him and I, if if he had a boy or I had a girl that just would not have worked out, you know, it's just the blend would have not worked out the way that we are as a family, but um he's been amazing for my boys, he's, I mean I'll never forget, he took us camping and we had never been camping um and my boys are out there running around with axes and I'm about ready to lose it because I'm like, what are you doing?
He's like, let them be boys and they're chopping wood and he made a comment to me about some part of their body is dropping now because they're boys and I won't say that and he was very proud and they were very proud and you know, he's just been that person to them and so the girls for me, you know, it was great to have sisters for the boys now and to have, you know that bossy, wonderful loving essence that came into our house, but it was different for me because now I have girls in the house and I'm like, what the heck is happening in our house?
You know, I got teenage girls, I'm not used to girls, but this was like, so there was a lot of phone calls to my mom saying, okay, how do I get through this? So now we are a big blended family and we didn't get married for a while and the kids came to us and finally said that's it, it's time to get married. Like my boys again being very literal, my youngest was like, I don't feel comfortable calling him dad and I want to, but until you get married it's not going to happen, so you guys need to get married.
So we did great, get a grand baby. She's amazing. Yeah. All the things that people say about grand babies are true. Yeah, okay, so we've talked about brian and so you said he was wild and I know you didn't say he's wild spirited in high school, but I feel like that continues. Um but talk a little bit about, there's a pivotal moment in your life where you decided to go into healthcare and and specifically serving people um in the way that you do now. So I just like you to share a little bit about that story and how you got Yeah. Yeah.
Well all about health care. It started um Yeah, so um the pivotal moment was my dad passing and kind of like what I wrote on that paper that we were, it's like when I look and think about that moment, um like I said, I I was sitting the night that my dad died, my sister and mom and I went back to her house and she lived at the island still. Um and I just, I sat on the steps looking at the lake and the sun was rising and um I sat and I saw cars and people leaving and getting ready to to go to work and do their day and I remember sitting there being so angry and so upset, like how are they just going about their day.
Don't they know what just happened? Like, don't they really, like how does life it was the moment where I was like, you know what life just does go on. But as a person, everything that you feel is, it's unexplainable. It's just really unexplainable. So I think that was the moment where I was like, you know what, what just happened happened, but um I need to know why I need to know how I needed to find a way to make some peace with it. And I think everybody's journey, when someone passes is different and all the things that you do and all the ways that you express it, and there was a lot that happened between then and where I am now, but I'm just a I'm a woo woo person, I guess.
I'm just a believer in the fact that that road will, you will find it, you just open your heart to it and it will come and it hasn't been easy. I mean during that time I did go through a divorce and it was okay, what do I, what am I going to do now? Because I've just really been a mom for so long, which is great and wonderful and my boys are amazing and um but now I have to get out there. So going into hospice was kind of that first step and that was really scary because hospice deals with what death, you know?
Um but once I got into it, it was um it became such a big part of my heart and helping families and I kind of went through that part of maybe settling some things with my dad's death and what had happened being in hospice, understanding that um when I sit with families and their loved one is dying, it's like I learned that respect for death in the way it's the two things that all of us share birth and death, that's it, you know, like really truly those, that's what it, so if someone were to ask you to sit at the birth of their child, you'd be so honored, you'd be like, oh my gosh, this is awesome.
Um and I started to learn and got to that space with people passing that, you know, to sit with them and to be with them during that time was a huge honor, and then it just kind of moved from there, that isn't where I thought I would stay, but it just moved from there and when I look at my dad passing and the things that happened and the stuff that we learned in the in the the things that my family and I all of us individually went through with that passing, really, the biggest thing that always came to mind was I wish we would have known what we know now and that, that knowing not knowing what you should know, or having somebody there to help you through that process, just was sitting in my gut and and as I was going through the different things that I did until I got into the all about you space, um I just realized that I wanted to truly go through these journeys with people and not be in a position where I couldn't say freely what I wanted to say or help them or just go through the process in whatever way they needed to, so, having somebody else pay me to be in that sphere just wasn't going to work because it just wasn't So moving into knowing that at some point, I had reached that capacity of what I was able to do with people is where I was like, okay, I have to I have to do something on my own, and what I've learned from you.
And um, in part, out of my own need was we planned for uh, death. Well, you know, our, in our families, we have those conversations, hopefully, even though they're difficult to have what we don't plan for is when care is needed, um, for an extended period of time and what and how we face that, especially as and you say this all the time, the standards generation, so many of us are caring for parents and Children, right? Well, we try to write. Um, and so for me, there were there was just a lot of um, education and you brought a lot of resource to me that I just didn't even know existed, and in those moments when you're, especially when you're faced with having to care for someone unexpectedly, um there's a feeling of desperation and you don't know where to turn, you have no idea what to do.
Um, and having someone like you, it's literally like having an angel, I mean, I know that you see this as your life's work. Um, but the relief and grace that you bring to the people that you serve is there's there's really no words for that. Well, I'm honored, you know, I just look and I tell people all the time, I'm honored to walk their journeys with them and I take that really seriously. I mean, you know all about you and what we've become over these years because it was just me until May of last year and since May of last year to now there's now six of us and now I'm an employer and now I have a team and we're growing a team and everything.
I wanted this to be to hold people accountable, to hold ourselves accountable, the trainings, the certifications that I've gone through all the things that I've done and everything that we've built as a team. I want to bring two families and walk through those, those journeys with them. You know, it's like I love seniors. I love, I love people period. Um but I just feel like we need to honor all ages of life and so just because somebody needs help doesn't mean that that's the end. You know, and there's so much in health care and so much confusion about what resources are there and honestly what my team and I do to help people, most people when we're done with them or we're done with the majority of what we're helping them with with resources with placement with whatever it is that they need, um they say we didn't have any clue that anybody like you ever existed.
So I kind of look at us is like the bridge between what families don't know and what they need and the resources that are out there and we're the bridge to help them through that and honored to do that. And, and um you know, I get to work with a group of people, seniors that they tell me stories and share things with me that people will never share again. You know, the seniors that I work with, what they went through in their lives are things that we won't see we didn't go through.
Um and I just want to honor them too. Because just because you get older and you need help, it doesn't mean you're closer to the end. It's like just the next chapter of your life and it's about living. And so even if you need extra things, I mean I know when I was going through things with my sons, I needed a lot of help. It didn't mean I was lacking or ending anything. It just means I need help to get to where I want to be. So we can all live our best lives. Yeah.
And so for me, the other resource that you provided was actually helping through helping us through hard conversations. And um, it wasn't just, here's a list of resources and here's where you should go, but you walked us through it and that's there's no, you can't put a price tag on that. Thank you. I'm honored. I mean I look at it and I think, you know my my dad was my person. You know, my mom and my dad are the center of who I am. Um and my mom and I have a different relationship and you know, my dad and I just got each other and without even saying anything and to have that person removed from the earth has been difficult for all of us.
And um I look and I think you know what if he is not here, then I want to do something to honor his wife, his love, his grandkids, us all those things. So every day that I get to work with families and help them know what they don't know, walk through those journeys with them. They tell me intimate, private things. These are tough moments that they're bringing me a stranger into and trusting in me. That's a lot. And it means the world to me and at the end, if I can leave them with some peace um with resources and their seniors are in safety or getting doing well, then I feel like I just kind of said, there you go, Daddy, like, you know, like I'm I'm doing this because of him and and I want to have that legacy.
I don't want his death to be the legacy. I want the things that my family and I are doing, the things that I'm doing to be paul Kerr McGee's legacy. That's cool. Here's a question for you trying to unpack something because I'm looking at the notes with what you do now and the experiences you go through. One of things you have down here is your biggest fear is losing someone I love and them not knowing what they mean to me and that I appreciate and love them unpack that for me.
Um well, just what happened to him, We, there was so much left unsaid when all of us know this, I mean when you lose somebody and when you lose somebody, there's no do overs. Like the biggest thing that I struggled with was he is really not coming back. Like this is really how life is going to be. And I didn't, my mom, like we all didn't get to say goodbye, we didn't get to say now in our family, like we hug and love on, I mean, my friends know I I'm a hugger and the lover and I try as much as I can to tell the people that mean what they mean to me, that they mean that much to me, um as much as I can, not because I'm flaming out, but I don't know, I just want people to understand that.
And so that fear is there as I just um I want people to understand what they mean to me and how they've impacted my life. And so I try to live letting them know that all the time because we didn't get to do that with him and and you know, it isn't that people in our family didn't pass before him, but that was a huge, significant person in my life, that I realized that you cannot do it over again now. So in the work you do, you actually have some really fun stories about some seniors to in honor of Ben, the senior in the room.
I would love it if you do you have any fun stories you want to share with us, you know, I just, yeah, I mean, I love the honoree ones and I love the ones that just, you know, the ones that are the hell no, I'm never moving or I don't need you or whatever. Um, yeah, I mean, we get, we get to deal with some really cool people and, you know, seniors are in a space where they say exactly what they want to say and do what they want to do and um, you know, I was a part of a couple getting together and I thought that was really cool and um, you know, I, you know, I don't have any specific stories and so, but what I can tell you is that, um, when my seniors get back into life again, because some, at some point a lot of them have a health issue or maybe their spouse passes and they kind of start to decline and feel like, okay, I'm older, I'm changing and what is my life going to be, and then it starts to decline and I love when we kind of revive them and they get back into life again and then you see them at happy hours and you see them laughing and you see them having drinks and dancing and you know, being sassy and doing things that they've never done before that fills my heart there.
Partiers, they are, they are, they are, and especially for the boys, the boys have good numbers when they move into senior living because there's more girls than boys. So you've got some good, that's awesome kudos to you on all the success you've had, what's next for you? Maybe professionally, maybe personally, what do you see in the horizon? You look out over that lake in the sunrise, What are you seeing now? Just continuing to move forward? Like I said, I mean all of this growth has just happened over the last year and a half and I'm so excited, I love that I have this amazing team that I tell people I have the best HR director in heaven because he is literally bringing me these amazing women to join my team and help families and I love seeing them grow and develop and it just is like I love, I'm excited for where we're headed, you know, I really feel like I have a lot of years left to, to grow this and and and I want our team to make a difference in a positive difference.
So that's really exciting to me. So just, you know, hanging on, I'm leaning into everything that scares me. Like today you're doing great. You know, I'm leaning into all this stuff because it's experiences, it's going to help me, it's going to help me grow and try and be a better leader and grow that I'm excited for, you know what my boys and my daughters and my grand babies and my family have ahead of us and and and through this, I am learning re learning again to um take moments and Not be able to recite to you the last book I read because literally I have 20 books that are on audible and I've started all of them and haven't finished any of them.
I think that's actually very common. Yeah. So I'm just trying to be present in moments like this, or when I'm sitting on the phone with my son or when I'm having dinner with my my husband or with my family, I'm just really relearning that that is good for me. So I'm really leaning into making sure that as all of life is moving forward that I'm just being present, you have a whole tribe of people who are walking alongside you and rooting you on and have your back.
Thank you. I feel that I'm really appreciative of it and I hope that other people feel that about me. I hope other people feel that that I'm, cheering them on because I'm so appreciative of all the people that are just surrounding me to move all of us forward. Absolutely, well, thank you for being present with us today. Absolutely. We love the story, love the journey and I'm sure everybody online and listening has love this as well. So if you want to get more of these shows and I want to hear more of these great stories, join our tribe, join our podcast, listening every time we have these and thanks for being here today.
Thank you, guiding growth conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it.
We'd love to hear from you, reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection
