My [Professional] Story

I decided I wanted to be a "psychologist" in sixth grade. I even bought a Psychology book, with my meager allowance, in order to study psychology. I remember thinking that if I could figure out how people thought and behaved I'd be able to find a way to make people like me. I never wavered in my vision; I earned my BS in Psychology and MA in Developmental/Child Psychology, and took my first job, as a case manger, helping kids in foster care. After just three years on the job the exiting Director of a foster care agency recommended me for his job, and the board followed his recommendation. After serving in leadership at that agency (The Bair Foundation) for over ten years I made the very youthful mistake of thinking I knew more than the founder and was shocked, believe it or not, to find myself looking for a job. Which I did in in another part of the country--starting a new agency (Caring Family Network). Which I did, successfully, but soon ran into the same problem again--this time with the board--and once again, found myself looking for a job. This time, however, I was smart enough to realize that if I used my own money, I'd have a better shot at calling the shots. Which I did and was blessed to found and develop one of the largest foster-adopt agencies (For Children's Sake) in the state as well as another state.

 After ten years or so, I became restless again, and again felt too big for my britches. My rationale was: If I can start one company this successfully, I should be able to parlay those skills into a developing a multitude of agencies. So, I resigned my position as CEO and, in partnership with two other businessmen, started a management company, (Legacy, Inc.) which would provide all the business services to the agencies I had founded and developed. During the first year of business, agencies that wanted to start up or needed our services to help them turn around found us via word of mouth, and the new company, Legacy, Inc., assumed a different face than originally intended--one of serving a wide variety of agencies in more of a supportive role than a management role. This new purpose was sealed when a year after resigning from my former responsibilities at For Children's Sake to start Legacy, Inc., the Texas operation of For Children's Sake was closed by licensing because of what licensing considered too much non-compliance with standards. I was devastated, as you can imagine, by the irony of having an agency I had founded and developed closed, when in fact, it was one of Legacy's main directives to prevent this very type of calamity. 

My esteem, having been compromised, I no longer wielded the same influence over one of my partners had had heretofore enjoyed, and we grew increasingly at odds with each other until, finally, I felt obliged to exercise the power I still had and terminated his employment. Following this decision, a series of unfortunate events and actions brought Legacy, Inc.--of which I eventually became 100% owner--to its knees. During all this upheaval, we continued, at Legacy, Inc., to develop a software package, intended to integrate into efficient workflow, the policies and procedures required for an agency to maintain compliance and, in addition, garner the data required to analyze an agency's outcomes and track improvements. Therefore, I and the staff, who were still dedicated to the vision of Legacy, Inc., decided that Legacy, Inc. should maintain ownership of the software, and we would start over with a new company (Rock Solid Foundation, LLC) that would lease the software from Legacy, Inc. and utilize its capacity and potential to enable our dedicated people to continue to streamline processes.

Since the inception of Legacy, Inc., we have served close to 100 agencies across a number of states. Many of these agencies would not, in my opinion, be in existence today had we not been enlisted to help them get started or solve issues that would most likely have resulted in closure. We have helped agencies create new systems for compliance (upon recognition that they were on the brink of closure by licensing entities), reorganize for profitability (upon recognition that the business model was not working and cash was expiring), submit approved licensing/contracting applications (after failing on previous attempts), and provided systems of operation that have helped numerous others avoid crises of operation. Our software--"CaseBook"--has become an invaluable foundation upon which to build these systems of management.

As we look to the future, we hope to spread the word that if an agency does not have a solid system in place for management of its tasks on the road to realizing its vision/mission, our experiences--"good" and "bad"--can be a boon to an agency that is willing to make the improvements we can bring to bear.