Get Fired Up's Podcast

Cindy and Jaime had an incredible conversation with Molly Morris, Co-Founder of The Self-Direction Center. Molly shares how the center grew out of a national self-direction movement and launched as a community-owned nonprofit in 2025. She also talks about the research behind the model and her personal path into this work as the sibling of someone with a disability. Find out more about Molly and Th...

Cindy, founder of Community Horizons, sits down with Pam, Community's Business Relations Manager, to get real about the daily grind of working in housing assistance and self-directed care.  From confusing Medicaid cost-share increases and IRIS program frustrations to the challenges of hiring reliable staff and navigating subsidized housing waitlists.  Cindy and Pam share stories from the fiel...

Cindy and Jaime catch up after a short work week and get into it - the guilt of taking time off when clients are still out there struggling, the disappearing art of customer service, and the absurd hoops people have to jump through just to get approved for an apartment.  They also swap conference stories and start dreaming up their own job fair. Real talk from two people who do this work because t...

Cindy and Jaime are off this week, so we're taking it back to episode 1!  If you're new here or still don't understand what Self-Direction is, this episode is for you.  For more information, reach out to the team at Community Horizons to learn more: www.communityhorizonsllc.com.

After experiencing burnout in the healthcare field, Alejandra was ready for something different. What she found was a career in self-direction that completely changed her life. In this conversation, Alejandra shares her journey from working on the front lines of healthcare to becoming a support broker, the challenges facing the industry, and why collaboration, trust, and asking for help are more i...

Cindy and Jaime sit down with Ryan of Fiscal Assistance, Inc. to pull back the curtain on the world of fiscal agents, self-directed care, Medicaid, caregiver onboarding, payroll, and all the moving pieces families have to navigate. Ryan explains why the process can sometimes take weeks, where the biggest bottlenecks happen, how paperwork can create barriers for families and caregivers, and what ca...

Part 2 of 2. Jaime and Cindy talk about the scams targeting people searching for housing, the ridiculous hoops disabled and elderly renters get put through, and why "no address" shouldn't mean no housing. They also share the story of a member who told them exactly how this would end and why it's part of why they're starting a nonprofit. New episodes weekly. Learn more at c...

In Part 2, hosts Cindy and Jaime continue their conversation with guest Casey, going deeper into what it actually takes to professionalize direct care work. They pick up discussing the $250/$250 retention and referral bonus structure, why employers are hesitant to adopt universal training, and the vision for one standardized training system across all Home and Community-Based Service settings in W...

Part 1 of a two-part conversation between Cindy and Jamie about what it's actually like to work in caregiving and disability services right now. They get into burnout, the systems that make their jobs harder than they need to be, and what keeps them showing up anyway. Some laughs, some venting, and a few ideas for how things could actually get better. This one's unfiltered. Part 2 contin...

Cindy and Jamie of Community Horizons talk recruiting and retaining caregivers — from the decline of job boards to the surprising comeback of newspaper ads and TikTok, plus dress-code mishaps and spotting passion over polish in applicants. They're then joined by Casey from UW-Green Bay's CDCP (Certified Direct Care Professional) program, who explains how this free, self-paced certificati...

Another week, and more fired up than ever. This week, Jaime and Cindy dig into guardianship: the classes, the credit checks, and the court date that takes just ten minutes to decide someone's personhood and where good intentions can tip into infantilizing overreach. Then it's on to housing: the benefits cliff that punishes people for earning a raise, sketchy $25 application fees with zer...

In this episode, Jaime and Cindy dig into the recent Olmstead opinion and what it could signal for the future of home and community-based care. Building on conversations from earlier episodes, they trace the history of deinstitutionalization, share stories from the field on caregiving and transportation barriers, and talk honestly about what's at risk if the pendulum swings back toward instit...

In this episode, hosts Jamie and Cindy talk with self-advocate Ethel Quisler to talk about her journey into self-direction. From the friend who helped her navigate the system to the barriers she's faced along the way. Ethel shares candid stories about waitlists, fraud scrutiny, restrictive care practices, and the fight to be treated as the expert in her own life, plus her hopes for a more fle...

In this episode, we sit down with Heidi Jo Hanson of Fox Valley Autism. This is an honest, heartfelt conversation about what it really means to raise children on the spectrum. From early diagnosis moments and fighting to be believed, to caregiver burnout, sibling challenges, and celebrating the unexpected wins. This one is for every parent who has ever felt alone in this journey. We also talk abou...

Brett Everman moved out of his parents' home at 21 with 24-hour care needs and no roadmap. In this episode, Brett and his mom Kareen share their honest journey into self-direction: the failed care agencies, the grind of recruiting staff, the game-changing role of a support broker, and what life looks like five years later (spoiler: Monster Jam, a girlfriend of 8 years, and a very full social...

In this episode, Cookie talks candidly about growing up blind, attending what she calls "Braille jail" (a residential school for the blind), and the decades of guide dogs, technology, and hard-won independence that followed. She opens up about losing most of her hearing later in life, getting a cochlear implant, and what it's like to navigate websites, devices, and apps that were ne...

Ever wonder where the long-term care journey actually starts?  In this episode, Cindy and Jaime sit down with Linda from the Outagamie County Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) to break down what the ADRC does, who it serves, and why it's the first stop for anyone navigating services in Wisconsin.  From options counseling to functional screenings, eligibility requirements, Medicaid e...

This week, self-direction participant Katie Napiwocki shares her lifelong journey with self-direction.  From navigating agency-assigned caregivers as a college student to building her own care team as a graduate student and professional advocate. She opens up about the autonomy self-direction has given her, the very real challenges that remain, and why involving people with disabilities in policy...

Real talk this week — Medicaid funding uncertainty, the caregiver workforce shift that never recovered after COVID, and why so many families have never even seen their own self-direction budget. We also get into the language gap that blindsides families when kids age into adult long-term care, where HIPAA ends and confidentiality begins, and why self-determination might be the more important word...

If you've ever had to explain what a support broker is to someone at a doctor's appointment, you already know this episode. This week, we're talking about what we actually do and why "broker" is such a weird word for it. We get into the hiring process, what it looks like to help someone write a job post that sounds like them, the interviews that go great and the ones that...

We're Cindy and Jamie — both healthcare burnouts who somehow ended up building something better. In this episode, we're starting at the beginning: what self-direction actually is, why almost nobody understands it, and how we ended up here after years of 24/7 on-call chaos. We also get into the IRIS waiver changes coming in 2026 that could pull the safety net out from under thousands of W...