In this episode, we talk to Amanda Barton, the Publisher of Senior's Blue Book.
We discuss the Symposium that she is hosting to learn how to manage aging well. This Symposium is an incredible resource for people of all ages to help plan not only their own future but the for their parents, grandparents, spouses, and other loved ones who need guidance as they age.
To learn more about one of the three symposium events throughout Southwest Florida or to RSVP for the event call 239-776-7353
or you can email abarton@seniorsbluebook.com
http://seniorsbluebook.com
Also you can reach Amanda at 813-731-6069
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Homes
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
In this episode, we talk to Amanda Barton, the Publisher of Senior's Blue Book.
We discuss the Symposium that she is hosting to learn how to manage aging well. This Symposium is an incredible resource for people of all ages to help plan not only their own future but the for their parents, grandparents, spouses, and other loved ones who need guidance as they age.
To learn more about one of the three symposium events throughout Southwest Florida or to RSVP for the event call 239-776-7353
or you can email abarton@seniorsbluebook.com
http://seniorsbluebook.com
Also you can reach Amanda at 813-731-6069
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Homes
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
Welcome to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast with your host Mary Mouritsen and the team at Barefoot Bungalow
:Realty. Good morning and welcome to our next episode of Live Your Best Life Barefoot. I'm here with Ruth today, Good morning, morning. How are you? Good, how are you? Good. So today's market minute is just a quick one. I wanted to throw out there. They're I was reading a report on interest rates and they're actually talking about holding t hem down for a little bit longer. So if you're looking to refinance or get a new house, call us up. Yeah, now's the time it's t o they're actually gonna hold' em over for a little while longer. Who knows how long, but that's good news. So that's great. That's really good. Yeah. So, well,
Speaker 3:Today I'm excited for our guest. Yes, we are gonna have Amanda Barton from the Seniors Blue
Speaker 4:Book.
Speaker 3:Hi, Amanda, how are you today? Hi,
Speaker 4:I'm great. Ruth and Mary. How are you? So good. Good.
Speaker 2:It's good to have you
Speaker 4:On. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 3:So Amanda, why don't you tell the people that are listening about what you do to, for seniors?
Speaker 4:Yes, absolutely. So as Mary and Ruth mentioned, my name's Amanda Barton, I'm the publisher of Seniors Blue Book, which is a free resource guide that can be picked up at CVS and Walgreens back in the pharmacy section. We've actually been publishing this comprehensive resource guide for 30 years here in the Lee and Collier area. And essentially it is a, I call it the yellow pages for aging well, but it's not to be used just for crisis care. The Seniors Blue Book has resources in it for anyone that is aging, resources for aging, a place elder law attorneys, financial advisors, ophthalmologists, audiologists, really any category for folks that are, are gonna age, pretty much that means all of us. Yeah. So my background though, a little bit about me, I, my very first job in senior living was, in the community that my great-grandmother lived in, in the Sun City Center area here in Southwest Florida. So I'm sure most of our local viewer are probably familiar with that community. But I worked with that company. It was discovery senior living for a little over a decade and loved every minute of it. And couldn't imagine not working with seniors. So when this opportunity presented itself, it was a perfect fit because I was used to being able to help a small circle of seniors. And now the world was my oyster. I mean, I could really go out and help as many seniors as possible here in Southwest Florida. So super excited to be a part of this and definitely have found my forever home with Seniors Blue Book.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. It is amazing. It is a great resource. I, it is a huge, this demographic still really values that paper. Yeah. hold, hold it in their hand and bookmark and earmark things.
Speaker 4:So I use it for that y eah, e xactly.
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 3:It's well, you brought some to our office, so I was thumbing through it the other day and I, I was like, so, so many advertising advertisers in there and so much information. It's a little overwhelming for me a little
Speaker 4:Bit. Yeah, it can be. And I'm, I will tell you, that's why on the very front cover, we have that referral guide, a referral phone number and nothing makes me more excited t hat getting a phone call from a senior that is lost, a nd needs help navigating through this incredibly, d ifficult maze of aging well. So I love getting those phone calls. I highly encourage anyone to, you know, just give us a call if they have questions, but the front half of the book is alphabetically ordered. So it's pretty, you know, user friendly if, if you know how to use it. So I'l l te ll you how to use it. Yeah exactly. Yeah. So the first half, if you look it gives you the categories such as audiology, elder law, financial advisors, and the back half of the book is where you have comparison grids. There are so many options for senior housing, home care and medical care home healthcare options. This allows you to really compare all of the companies that are here in Southwest Florida, apples to apples. I always use the example, if a senior living community doesn't accept pets, they're scratched off my list, cuz I'm bringing my puppies with me. Exactly. But other folks may need medicaid for example. And if the community doesn't accept Medicaid, they're not gonna be eligible to, you know, go into that community. For an example, and then home care, if they have minimum hours, they may be scratched off the list. And that's where you find that information is back in the comparison grids. And then of course, if you're looking for a specific company, the ad index is very user friendly as well. It will let you know what page the ad is on. If you're trying to look up a specific company and find their phone number.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I was gonna talk to you about the, so I see you have a symposium coming up and it's for Navigating the Senior Years. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4:Oh yes. It would be my pleasure. So this is kind of the super bowl for Seniors Blue Book. It is our big hoorah and essentially what it is, it's an all day discussion. It's education and it's vendor fair, it's an opportunity for the aging population, their caregivers and adult children to come to an all day event where they can ask an open forum questions. So we have several different panels, you know, aging in place, Medicare, Medicaid, planning for retirement, t he different senior living options that are available. So you can discover the differences between independent living, assisted living, memory care, y ou know, equity ownership, CRCs versus rental CRCs versus, you know, an AB C c ontract because there's so many different options that are available and you just simply to d o n't k n ow w h at y ou don't kn ow. So this is an opportunity for you to get, y ou know, a cliff no tes v ersion, picture of everything for aging well.
:But you also have access to all of those people that are speaking on the panel, as well as a variety of different h ealthcare vendors, you know, screening, healthcare, screening options and things o f, of that nature too. So it really is gonna be an amazing event and we're actually hosting three of them this year. We have one in Naples on January the 19th, it's at the S t. John Evangelist Catholic Church, right in North Naples. On February the 16th. We actually have one in Fort Myers a t the S aint Cecilia Catholic Church in Fort Myers in Marian Hall. And then our third and final one here in Lee and Collier County is at Cape Christian on March 9th. And all three of these events are from 9AM to 3:00 P M and you come at 9 and you have a free continental breakfast and you visit w ith the vendors. And then around 10 or 10 30, we'll start with the panels, and then we'll break for lunch. It'll be a beautiful lunch available for you as well. U m, and you visit with the vendors again, and then we have our final panels and, u m, and then we have a ton of door prizes, a ton of door prizes to give a way. So it's gonna be a fun, u m, very, very informative all day educational event.
Speaker 2:How do they sign up for this?
Speaker 4:So they can actually register by calling our referral line phone number, which is(239) 776-7353.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. That's great. And then, is there an online space that those tech s avvy seniors can go to?
Speaker 4:Well, we do send out a digital newsletter each month that would have a link to RSVP. I would tell you to visit our website, but we actually created, because this is such a big event. We actually created a separate website for registering. So let me just share with you. You can email me to get put on our newsletter that has not only our events, but the events that are going on here in Southwest Florida, which is an amazing opportunity to have everything in one spot. So you c an email me at abarton@seniorsbluebook.com. So that's abarton@seniors with t he S b lue book.com.
Speaker 2:Perfect. That's great information. And what a great resource it is. Yeah. Amanda, do you have any tips for our Southwest residents in, in
Speaker 4:Your field? Yes. Knowledge is power. You need to educate yourself today for the resources that you, your loved ones, a neighbor may need tomorrow. When people tell me that they're too young to pick up a Senior's Blue Book, I laugh at them and say, I'm not even too young to pick up a Senior's Blue Book. I have an aging grandmother. I have aging parents. These are resources that we all need to know. Nothing brings me more pleasure than watching someone's eyes light up when they learn something new, Even my 27 year old assistant is learning things that she needs to do to make sure her retirement is secure. And she's very new and green to the area. So it's been an amazing experience, even watching her learn the things that she's learning. So, I mean, just everyone needs to be a part of this. We're all gonna age it's, it's inevitable. There's only two things in life.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Well, we are all in the position at one point to help relatives with their aging process.
Speaker 4:And I think that a lot of people that, you know, they've gone through this with a grandparent or a parent and they don't wanna be a burden. So they've learned what they need to do, or they've learned that they really need to know more. So it's, it's been a pleasure watching the younger demographic come to these presentations. You know, I do monthly presentations on a smaller scale called SBB University and we do those at the local, YMCA down in Marco Island. I do a monthly one at St. John Catholic Church. I do one at Lake Kennedy Senior Center in Cape Coral. And we really do have a younger demographic coming to these that, that really they've been through it. And they always say, gosh, I wish I would've known this wh en y ou kn ow, my, my grandmother was going through it, or I wish I would've known this when my mom was going through it. So, you know, it's been an amazing experience to be able to help these people deal with the next chapter of their lives in a way that's not gonna be so stressful.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What a great resource it is. Yeah. Thank you so much. That's great information. We also like to throw a personal tip out there. You've been in Southwest Florida for a while. Is there's something personal that you think that everybody should know about where to go, what to do anything?
Speaker 4:Oh man. Well, there's so much to do. That's kind of a tough one. It's more a, it's more of trying to decide what to do. Um,
Speaker 2:When you have people come, what do you what's first thing you take them to, to the
Speaker 4:Beach.
Speaker 2:Need to have vitamin C
Speaker 4:Yes, absolutely. I mean, there's kayaking, there's paddle board. There's so many different, beautiful things to do right here in Southwest Florida. I can't imagine living anywhere else. In fact, I did try, I'm originally from Georgia, if you can't tell, and I moved back to Georgia to, to be the rescue, when my grandmother developed dementia and we were going through t he, the process of transitioning her into assisted living, eventually memory care. And I only lasted eight months ladies, I m iss Florida so much.
Speaker 2:Stay in Southwest Florida don't leave.
Speaker 4:Yes, don't leave. You will regret it. It was miserably cold and that's just in Georgia. So yeah, a lot of these snowbirds that are coming from, you know, Massachusetts, Maine and, you know, Wisconsin, you're not gonna be happy back up there.
Speaker 2:It's true. That's true. It is paradise
Speaker 4:Certainly is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Amanda, for all of your knowledge and coming on and sharing it with us and our listeners. We really appreciate it. Thank you
Speaker 4:So much for having me and I do I hope to hear from anyone that has any questions. That's probably my favorite part of the job is, is speaking with seniors. Nothing brings me more pleasure than helping somebody navigate through a situation that could potentially become a, you know, a crisis. I I'd like to be ahead of the game. So if you have questions, please feel free to call that referral line or my personal cell phone. I don't mind giving that out. It's area code 8 1 3 7 3 1 6 0 6 9.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Amanda, you do such great work. I'm so excited for the, the show to get out so that people can hear it and to help us seniors, because there's a lot of resources out there for'em that people don't realize.
Speaker 2:Yeah,
Speaker 4:Absolutely. You don't know what you don't know. So definitely do. If I can leave you with one thing, it's preplan, preplan, preplan, educate yourself and preplan.
Speaker 2:That's really great advice. It is yeah. Make the, the next chapter more enjoyable
Speaker 4:And, and it will help your family and the long run too, because if you don't preplan, they're the ones that are left with it. So the biggest Christmas gift you can give your family this year is to get your estate documents, your funeral arrangements, as uncomfortable as these conversations are, it's what needs to happen. So that is the best gift you can give your family.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, that is good advice. Really good advice.
Speaker 3:Well, that was a great talk. Thanks Amanda. Thank we. Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2:Yes. Thank
Speaker 4:You so much, ladies for having me. I appreciate it so
Speaker 2:Much. Thank you. Thanks for everyone for listening. Um, and thank you for your continued support. If there is anything that you would like us to research and bring on the show we'd to hear from you, you can reach out to us at info@barefootbunorealty.com or our phone number is(239) 350-5535. And as always remember to Live Your Best Life
Speaker 1:Barefoot. Thank you for listening to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot Podcast, sponsored by Barefoot Bungalow Realty to learn more about Barefoot Bungalow Realty, go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5