We recently connected with Patricia McCreary and have shared our conversation below.
Patricia , thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I started one business after another since I was 19 years old. I wasn’t exactly sure of my purpose but one thing I was sure of was that I was a hustler and could make magic happen when it comes to business growth. Throughout these years most of my journey was a solo one. I took on all of the responsibilities of the projects and business ventures because I was not aware of any other way. I knew if I did it, things would get done. It wasn’t until I was 2 or 3 years into my current entrepreneurial journey (Margaret’s Place Adult Recreation and Wellness Center) that a priceless opportunity fell into my lap. I found myself working closely with my oldest friend who owns a wellness company. Her name is Shereese and the company is called Peace For Your Pieces Integrative Wellness. We worked so well together building programs that aligned beautifully with both of our company missions that we decided to take it a step further and became legal partners creating the amazing company Utopia Point. Utopia Point marries the best of elder care with a unique whole person wellness mentality. The collaboration has created unparalleled excellence in the senior and disabled care community. How did I overcome or avoid burnout? I stopped doing everything myself and I found a like minded person that shares my passion in their own unique way and who understands business. Together we built a team of supersmart people who “are good at what they do” to help us reach our goals faster and avoid burnout. Going forward I continue to build on that mindset and partnering is a core belief in my business growth plans. I reserve the right to learn and get smarter. One thing I know now is that having a team of well rounded experts to lend their wisdom and skills is the smartest way to grow a company. I know what I am great at and what I am not so I lean on my team to support our goals and let them shine where they shine.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Patricia McCreary I am the founder and CEO of Margaret’s Place Adult Recreation and Wellness Center located at 3501 Woodland Ave, where family welcomes you home and we breathe life back into the retired and disabled community. I started Margaret’s Place after being unsuccessful finding an “Adult Day Care” for my grandmother Margaret who suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s. I am a mother, a wife, motivational speaker, a business mentor/coach,and an advocate for my community; youth and the senior and disabled community. I wanted to share my story in hopes to inspire someone to keep pushing through their struggles. I have been self-employed since the age of 19, which brought tons of challenges to my life, way of living and credit as I had to do what I had to do to survive and pay bills. In 2015 my family of 8 were homeless for a year and a half in an effort to build Margaret’s Place. My credit score was low and we were turned down many times for bank loans. However, hearing no just motivated us to push harder. My husband and I used ALL of our personal savings to start Margaret’s Place and we never looked back.
Our dream to build Margaret’s Place was an overwhelming success. We survived Covid and look forward to celebrating our 9 year anniversary in July of 2024. We are currently working on a new venture through a partnership with Peace For Your Pieces Integrative Wellness called Utopia Point. It is a collaboration of eldercare done right and true health and wellness for the whole person. It is an environment of services that includes an Adult day care, assisted/independent living model homes, traveling nurse residents, a tea house, community gardening, healthy living recreational space, a bath house and a Coworking Wellness Center that houses eastern and western medicinal practitioners. We’ve already broken ground and our timeline to completion is full steam ahead. We are on our way to upgrading the eldercare/disabled industry. We have created intellectual property over the past 9 years that are a few steps above the state minimums. Our big vision is to pair that intellectual property with our duplicatable proof of concept model Utopia Point to show the US how to do Senior and disabled care the right way. With real love being the root of everything we do, we focus on helping the individual create a “Life Plan” that helps them design the life they want and we match them with a life coach and wellness practitioners to make it all come to life, while supporting them the whole way through. We specialize in the redesign of the senior and disabled care community so that we can all be excited to age gracefully and independently without our children having to take care of us.
The moral of this story is to NEVER GIVE UP. I grew up in the ghettos of KC in a very broken home where I was abused daily. I was supposed to be a statistic and I was never expected to make it. I have struggled through so many trials and dead ends. However, I never took no for an answer and no matter how hard things got, no matter how bad I wanted to just quit, I kept pushing. I was determined to make this world better for my children. I am determined to create generational wealth for my children so they don’t have to work as hard as me. I am determined to redesign the senior and disabled care industry so that I can relax one day and be loved and cared for in a high quality space that was built for me in my golden years!!! I am determined to leave this world better than it was when I arrived here.
Today I am happy and living my best life. I have good credit, travel often with my family and I spoil myself with self care including mani pedis and a 2 hour massage monthly. The sky has no limits when you set your mind to do what you want. It will be hard, so hard at times that you will just want to give up. However remember this; all that you put into the lives of others comes back into your own. So sow good seeds and water them well and you will have all your heart’s desires. Keep pushing and praying and you will get to the finish line one day. Lean on your creator and family when you are ready to give up and find that one thing worth fighting for. For me the love I have for my family and the need I feel to make it a little easier for my children kept me going.
When I look back at this journey I smile because I made it through and I survived. More than anything I am proud of myself because my family is SUPER proud of me. Every setback is a set up for a blessing and I am super excited to see what blessings come from my future setbacks. I’m grateful for the new found ability to believe in myself and to be a superhero to so many around me. My prayers are that you look into the mirror today and see God in yourself. With hopes that, that will spark a new fire in your will to KEEP PUSHING through your temporary struggles!!!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three important qualities/skills that were most impactful in my journey are integrity, passion, and the ability to learn from mistakes all while improving processes. When living in your purpose, the race is not to the swift, but to those who can endure to the end. How you fare at the end of that journey truly depends on how much you truly learned along the way. I am also a forever student! I didn’t go to college as it was not for me. However over the last decade I have taken countless classes on specific skills that I wanted to improve on in my personal and business life. I am a better CEO, leader, coach, boss, mother, wife and overall person because I have decided to never stop learning. I pour into myself and all those I come in contact with. I live by one simple motto “All that you put into the lives of others comes back into your own. The good and the bad! So sow good seeds and water them well.”
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We are definitely looking to partner and collaborate with other like minded organizations and individuals. As I stated earlier in this interview, partnering is one of the smartest moves I’ve made as an entrepreneur. Currently, the Margaret’s Place and Peace For Your Pieces expansion into Utopia Point is requiring sponsors and donations for a multitude of projects that range from large to small. For example, we would love for a hardware company to donate building supplies like concrete, flooring, sheet rock etc. Or a window company to come install windows in our wellness center. Maybe there is a landscaping company that helps a small business or non-profit annual with their projects and could help us address the curb appeal and plant fruit trees for our community to enjoy. We would also love some of the big corporations like Homedepot, Lowes, Target, Walmart, Humana and others to aid us in our efforts in building an all inclusive health and wellness space for our community. We would also be extremely grateful for smaller donations and services that will inch the project closer to our goal of opening. We are growing our waiting list for the Wellness Center practitioners and would like to ensure we are offering a plethora of services to the community; acupuncture, chiropractor, doctor, herbalist, sound therapy, healthy food pantry service, psychologist, social worker/resource, mental health support services, Rieki, nutritionist, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The list goes on. If there is a company or individual that is providing a service and they would like to use our space as an opportunity to give back to the community we would love to partner with that type of group. We are believers in the village mentality. We truly believe that if we all work together towards a common goal the impact will be catastrophic, making the world a much better place. We are grateful in advance for anyone who steps up and helps us bring our vision to fruition while aiding us in making Kansas City the hub for how to do senior and disabled care the right way. Including a plan to help the caregivers and families that care for this special population as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MargaretsPlaceKC.com
- Instagram: margaretsplacekc
- Facebook: MargaretsPlaceKC
- Linkedin: patriciamccreary
- Twitter: @margaretsplace1
- Youtube: @margaretsplacellc
