Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Jay Montenegro.
Jay Jay, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I went to Huntley High School, there I was a Football player, Wresting and Tennis player. Half way through my junior year, my sister said I peaked in high school and that I would never get into college so she told me to go do something else but sports so I signed up for Student Council since she was involved. My first year as Junior the executive representative quit and I thought hey maybe I should do it to bolster my college resume. I had a blast with it leading the junior class and being in executive meetings so much so that I ran for executive president of the high school with only 1 year of experience. I won by beating out the more qualified candidates with my speech that I would represent the entire student body from the nerds to the jocks. In college, I never thought about joining a fraternity until an opportunity came up where I could be the founding father of a fraternity and I joined up and created a fraternity that is now one of the biggest at UIC and is on its way to hosting its first lupus awareness walk generating interest all over Chicago. Academically at UIC, I never applied for their prestigious honors college but they sent me an invitation anyways and I decided to just apply and see if I got in my sophomore year. I got accepted and my very first meeting, I met a senior who had occupational therapy friends in which is what I wanted to do at the time. I ended up meeting them at an applied health sciences college meeting in which I was recruited to be in the student council and just like high school changes were made and by my junior year, I was the president of the applied health sciences student council with this time less than 1 year of experience. The reason why I start my story with this is because I quickly realized after, that even though I’m not very assertive or have a type A personality leadership, opportunities find me and when most people falter or feel like it’s too big for them, I take advantage and jump on the opportunities. After college and grooming my fraternity to over 50 members and more proudly a fraternity that graduates very successful brothers such as nurses, engineers, pre-med, dentist, etc. I went on to graduate from UIC in Kinesiology with honors and a minor in psychology then attended a top graduate school in my field of occupation therapy (Rush University). After graduate school, I took on my first job as a Home Health Therapist at first wanting to do it part time with a full-time hospital job but I felt more free and creative as a therapist in the home health field so I committed to in full time. After a year of working, however, I felt really trapped for some reason. I loved my job, made a 6 figure income, but yet I wasn’t satisfied and my girlfriend started worrying as I started to feel lost for the first time in my life when finally, I thought I should be the happiest because I was making the money I thought I always dreamed of and the job I worked so hard to have. My girlfriend bought a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad and when she left it lying around one day in the apartment as I was sulking, I picked it up and started reading it and instantly fell in love not really with the real estate but the viewpoints the other Robert Kiosawki was talking about meaning that employees are slaves to their job and that you are truly not rich until you have passive income. I was totally mind blown and I read the book start to end in one sitting then re-read it then bought books and fell in love with those and even attended wealth from seminars and rich dad poor dad programs. Again, I felt like I had a purpose again and so it leads me to investing all my money even after just working for 1 year into commercial properties. Then a work opportunity came up at my home health where I could possibly start my own health care business which was hospice. At first, I was deterred because of what it was but when I went to a seminar and got trained on it.
I completely fell in love with how they cared for people in a different light. I then put the idea that hey I have commercial properties now why not put my hospice in it and because I have an occupational therapy background, I found how it could really be involved in more in the hospice field. So I decided to start my own hospice company with the plan to make it a therapeutic driven hospice lead by an OT like myself and I would put the company in the commercial space I bought. Lot easier said than done because about 6 months into the process, in 2016, I invested nearly >150k into the company and didn’t realize that getting a hospice medicare accredit was the 2nd most regulated fields in the nation to nuclear power plants. I went through hell working 75 hour weeks managing people with no experience and with no extensive work acumen in the field to get all the pieces in place to pass accreditation. I pulled favors, I learned on the go to learn the different frameworks and manage people utilizing numbers managing not only my practice patient’s wishes but getting them and their doctors to sign up for a startup hospice and managing employees which is not the easiest job. I was sued by employees, got caught up in personal court issues of them as well and was doubted every step of the way even by my father and sister at times in which they said I might be in way over my head and that I had no idea what I was doing. I even failed my first attempt in the accreditation process and my body started to eventually give up on me as I went through so much pressure. I got a stomach ulcer from all the stress at the ripe age of 25 years old. At the end of the day, though we passed in my second attempt, I still remember driving the surveyor around for 7 hours in my car in excruciating pain from the stomach ulcer but trusted no one else but me to show her my business and how passionate I was. I passed this year and since then the work never stopped, it actually increased but the stress started to decline as I got more experience. I started to get very comfortable as my new role CEO. What used to worry and keep me up at night doesn’t even flinch me. I developed even more of a confidence and am still as motivated as ever to keep growing not only my business but myself as I still consistency come to work shops of all kinds, attend my real estate group meeting, listen to podcasts, read books and even get myself ready for the next endeavor even though I still have a way to go with this current one. I never wanted to be lost again. I feel like I have a purpose and it keeps finding me and I feel like it’s my job to keep growing and planning for the next thing in my life whether its financial, business, family, personal growth, giving back to the community. I think of life now as truly a journey and not a destination. The destination is just my plan but the journey is where I really see my success come to fruition.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been smooth ride what so ever but that’s where the fun comes in. I didn’t realize that I was starting a company that is the 2nd most regulated field in the nation. 1st being nuclear power plants. We also failed our first attempt at getting medicare accredited which was a huge blow to our overall financial plan and moral at the time as our small team diligently worked on the extremely detailed accreditation process. Every struggle was definitely a learning experience though especially when it came to dealing with the day to day operations and management of employees. Every day, I learned how to manage people and my emotional stress to the point now it seems easier most days.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I run Meridian Palliative and Hospice Care Services. We take care of people when they are terminally ill to transition as pain free and symptom free as possible. We provide nursing, therapy, physician, CNA, pharmacy, equipment, social and spiritual services to a client that is in need. I am most proud of our small team as we come to work every day ready to go above and beyond for patient care and work on being efficient and innovative in the way we provide comfort care to our patients. My vision with this company is to make it a therapy driven one where we focus on occupational and holistic therapy to attack pain management.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Our city is definitely a good city for this as every metropolitan city should have great hospice services.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4 N Deerpoint Dr., Hainesville, IL 60030
- Website: http://www.meridianphcs.com/
- Phone: 8475437550
- Email: meridianphc@gmail.com
- Facebook: @meridianphc
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