by Lauren Yankoff, The Empowered Executive and Denise Brown, Caring Our Way
🎧 Work, Live, Care: The Triple Shift — Conversations where work, life, and caregiving collide. Hosted by Lauren Yankoff and Denise M. Brown, this podcast explores what it really takes to lead, care, and live — all at once. Each episode features real stories from everyday professionals carrying the “triple shift” of work, life, and caregiving. Because this isn’t about doing it all — it’s about not losing yourself along the way.
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11/15/2025
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June 15, 2026
<p>Episode 8: Long-Tenured Employees, Results-Only Work, and "Everybody Has a Story" — Inside a CEO's Caregiver-Friendly Culture</p><p><br></p><p>Bruce McIntyre has been a caregiver for over 20 years — first for his wife, who lives with a rare autoimmune disease, and now as a distance caregiver for two sets of aging parents. He's also been CEO of Oklahoma Parkinson Alliance for 11+ years, leading a team with remarkable tenure (7, 9, 11+ years) in a field known for burnout.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Bruce joins Lauren Yankoff and Denise Brown to share how he built a results-only culture, why "everybody has a story" is his core leadership philosophy, and a story about a broken FMLA process that will stay with you.</p><p><br></p><p>WHAT YOU'LL HEAR</p><p>— Bruce's "four shifts": spousal caregiving, distance caregiving for two generations of parents, his work as CEO/author/advocate, and intentional self-care</p><p>— The "55-day trade": how infusion therapy buys his wife 55 days of normal life for every 5 days of recovery</p><p>— Why distance caregiving doesn't mean being the absent one</p><p>— How results-only leadership creates flexibility without sacrificing accountability</p><p>— Why employee tenure may be the most honest measure of a caregiver-friendly culture</p><p>— The FMLA story that shows how broken systems compound a crisis</p><p>— What Gen Z is teaching workplaces about boundaries and hidden workload</p><p><br></p><p>ABOUT BRUCE MCINTYRE</p><p>CEO of Oklahoma Parkinson Alliance (3 offices, 10 staff, ~150 volunteers, ~90 programs statewide). Caregiver for his wife since 2004 (dermatomyositis). Author of 5 books, incl. Receiving Peace, Thrive Anyway, Graceful Transitions, Resilient Life, and Parkinson Positive. Wrote "A Prayer for Caregivers" (2007).</p><p><a href="www.brucemcintyre.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">brucemcintyre.com</a></p><p><br></p><p>FOR HR LEADERS & PEOPLE MANAGERS</p><p>— Measure results, not hours</p><p>— Build psychological safety, then prove it over time</p><p>— Fix the systems (FMLA, vendors, approvals) — not just the sentiment</p><p>— Watch the generational shift in workplace expectations</p><p>— Read employee tenure as a signal of whether flexibility is real</p><p><br></p><p>HOSTS</p><p>The Empowered Exec — Lauren Yankoff — <a href="www.theempoweredexec.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">theempoweredexec.com</a></p><p>Caring Our Way — Denise Brown — <a href="www.caringourway.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">caringourway.com</a></p><p><br></p><p>Share this episode with someone who's carrying a lot and could use some clarity.</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to The Triple Shift wherever you listen to podcasts.</p>
May 15, 2026
<p><strong>THE TRIPLE SHIFT | Episode 7</strong></p><p>What does it look like to leave a corporate career at Adidas and become the full-time CEO of your mother's care — managing a family trust, a caregiver team, rental properties, a doctoral dissertation in Jungian psychology, and a music career — while insisting on keeping your identity intact?</p><p>For Annatova Neches, it looks like a system.</p><p>In this episode of The Triple Shift, Annatova walks through what her triple shift — work, life, and care — looks like in practice: how she structured her role as a paid care manager employed by her mother's trust, why physical distance made her a better caregiver, what Jungian psychology taught her about showing up with dignity, and why she now defines success as a quiet afternoon with no emergency texts.</p><p>─────────────────────────TIMESTAMPS─────────────────────────00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro00:55 Her Triple Shift Setup03:24 Systems and Boundaries08:03 Keeping Life and Identity09:15 Jungian Lens on Care11:28 Trusting Intuition15:37 Getting Paid via Trust21:15 Leadership and Success Redefined29:46 Future Leadership Vision33:52 What Workplaces Should Do41:01 Album and Creative Therapy43:40 Connect and Closing44:22 Hosts Reflect and Wrap</p><p>─────────────────────────WHAT YOU'LL LEARN─────────────────────────</p><ul><li>How a family trust can legally employ a family caregiver — and what that model looks like</li><li>What it means to be the CEO of a caregiving operation</li><li>Why distance from a care recipient can be an act of love, not abandonment</li><li>How Jungian psychology deepened her empathy for her mother and herself</li><li>How she released an album and finished a dissertation while caregiving full time</li><li>What workplaces get wrong — and why acknowledgment is the baseline, not a perk</li><li>Why success now looks like a quiet afternoon with no emergency texts</li></ul><p>─────────────────────────ABOUT ANNATOVA NECHES─────────────────────────Artist, musician & PhD candidate in Jungian psychology. Former creative services project manager at Adidas. Full-time care manager for her mother Terry (Alzheimer's) since January 2022, employed by the family trust as co-trustee and fiduciary.</p><p>Website: annatova-neches.squarespace.comInstagram: @annatovanechesFacebook: facebook.com/annatovaLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annatova-nechesPantheon (latest album): open.spotify.com/album/4rrqz8AdQx1jmL3rbGDQqI</p><p>─────────────────────────FOR HR LEADERS─────────────────────────</p><ul><li>Acknowledge it first. Caregiving is still invisible in most workplaces — and that silence is a retention risk.</li><li>Caregiving seasons are long. Employees need sustained support, not just a week of compassionate leave.</li><li>Read career gaps as leadership development — not absence. Project management, crisis response, team coordination: these skills are directly transferable.</li><li>Don't conflate care manager with home health aide. The scope is vastly underestimated.</li><li>Performance continuity is the business case. An unacknowledged caregiving load puts performance, retention, and engagement at risk.</li></ul><p>─────────────────────────YOUR HOSTS─────────────────────────Lauren Yankoff — Founder, The Empowered Exec. Creator of Lead.Live.Care. for working caregivers.</p><p>Lauren@theempoweredexec.comtheempoweredexec.com</p><p>Denise Brown — Founder, Caring Our Way. Nationally recognized caregiving expert and author.</p><p>Denise@caringourway.comcaringourway.com</p><p></p>
April 15, 2026
<p>Work Live Care EP. 6What does it actually look like to run a business, care for a 75-year-old mother living with Parkinson's, check in on a 95-year-old grandmother, raise two young adult children — and do all of it while navigating your own breast cancer diagnosis and recovery?Nicole Townsend calls it the club sandwich generation. And she doesn't say it with a shrug — she says it with clarity, strategy, and an unflinching insistence that this is a workforce issue, not a personal one.In this episode of The Triple Shift, Nicole joins Lauren and Denise to share what her triple shift — how she works, how she lives, and how she cares — looks like day to day. She unpacks a December crisis that reshaped her understanding of what sustainability actually requires, and makes the case that workplaces measuring success by quantity are actively failing their best people.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhat the 'club sandwich generation' is — and why it's a more accurate frame than sandwich generation for women 45–55How Nicole navigated a December crisis when her mother fell and broke her hip — and what the decision to move her to assisted living really requiredWhy unsolicited judgment from outsiders is one of the most underacknowledged burdens of caregivingHow a breast cancer diagnosis in 2024 fundamentally reframed Nicole's definition of leadership and successWhat true flexibility at work actually means — and why saying the words without changing the deadlines doesn't countWhy quantity-as-success-metric is one of the most damaging defaults in workplace cultureHow Nicole redesigned her business model around one clear lane — and what that teaches us about sustainable caregiving and careerWhat it sounds like when a leader truly sees the whole person — and why that builds the kind of trust that retains talentHow caregiving needs to be elevated as a workforce and economic development issue — not a personal oneEpisode Timestamps00:00 Welcome to Triple Shift01:35 Meet Nicole Townsend03:02 Her Daily Triple Shift06:44 Mom’s Fall and Crisis10:38 Assisted Living Decision15:14 Redefining Leadership and Success17:46 Shifting Her Business Model21:15 What Workplaces Must Change27:33 Empathy in Action30:02 Finding Personal Sustainability33:14 Hosts Reflect and Wrap Up41:10 Final Outro and Next Steps<strong>About Nicole Townsend</strong>Founder of Experience Counts, a consultancy helping organizations build intentional, people-centered culturesAuthor of Just Be Real — a field guide for managers to make work count for employees and companiesCultural advisor, community leader, and neurodiversity advocate, inspired by family members on the autism spectrum and living with Parkinson'sPrimary caregiver for her mother (75, Parkinson's) and involved in the care of her grandmother (95)Breast cancer survivor — diagnosed 2024, double mastectomy December 2024, radiation 2025, final surgery October 2025President-elect (becoming President July 2026) of the National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Sacramento<strong>Resources & Guest Links:</strong>GUESTnicole@experiencecounts.usExperience Counts - <a href="https://experiencecounts.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">www.experiencecounts.us</a>Just Be Real by Nicole Townsend — <a href="https://a.co/d/0bjxn8GA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">sold at Amazon</a>National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO) — <a href="https://nawbo.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">nawbo.org</a><strong>Connect with Us:</strong>HOSTSThe Empowered Exec — Lauren Yankoff<a href="https://www.theempoweredexec.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">www.theempoweredexec.com</a> lauren@thempoweredexec.comCaring Our Way — Denise Brown<a href="https://join.caringourway.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">www.caringourway.com</a> denise@caringourway.comThe club sandwich generation is at work right now.Share this episode with one person who needs to hear it — a working caregiver, a people leader, or an entrepreneur trying to make it all sustainable.Subscribe to The Triple Shift wherever you listen to podcasts.</p>
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🎧 Work, Live, Care: The Triple Shift — Conversations where work, life, and caregiving collide.
Hosted by Lauren Yankoff and Denise M. Brown, this podcast explores what it really takes to lead, care, and live — all at once. Each episode features real stories from everyday professionals carrying the “triple shift” of work, life, and caregiving.
Because this isn’t about doing it all — it’s about not losing yourself along the way.
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