How One Woman’s Personal Caregiving Journey Sparked a National Wellness Mission
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters Milken Conference Series episode, Adam Torres interviews Menna Olvera, Founder of Prepare to Care(give). Menna shares her powerful story of turning personal caregiving challenges into a structured wellness and education platform. From functional medicine coaching to hands-on palliative care, she’s empowering families with tools, conversations, and support—so they can show up fully for loved ones, without losing themselves in the process.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I have on the show Mena Vera, and she is the founder of Prepare to Care Mena.
Welcome to the show. Hi, Adam. Thank you for having me. It’s such a pleasure. All right, so I mean, it’s great to have you on the show on Fity listening. Just so you know, this is part of our Milken Global Conference coverage series where we cover some of the participants that were at the Milken Global Conference.
The attendees, the VIPs, you name it. We’re, we’re, we’re doing interviews with them all. So this is again, a part of that series and it’s coming out great. I’ll tell you right off the bat, man because in my opinion, I mean, Milken conference, one of my favorite conferences of the year I do not miss it.
I plan my schedule around it. How about you? Is it, have you been to a conference before? Is this the first time, or, well, how was your experience? Yeah, so this was actually my first time. I was able to come as a speaker and I was also a practitioner in the wellness Garden, and it was a humbling, and at the same time, invigorating experience.
Mm-hmm. What does that mean? You gotta go further on that one. Humbly and InVigor. What does that mean? Yeah, right. Well, you’re, humbled because you see these people making big changes in the world and having big conversations. Mm-hmm. And when you are in the wellness garden at the conference you kind of get to see a more vulnerable side to people because they’re on your table and you’re, doing hands-on work with them, breathing, meditation, you know, integrating essential oils and.
So it’s, humbling that you get to, for myself as the practitioner to be able to offer that service, right? Mm-hmm. And then as a speaker, it was invigorating because I was in such. New and great company and was inspired by all the conversations going on just in the, topic of health and wellness and awareness of everything from, you know, sleep and nutrition to caregiving, to self-care.
So that part of it, and financial health actually. So it, it all just kind of becomes a holistic, invigorating experience, if that makes any sense. Wow. It does, and I have a confession to make. I did not go to the Wellness Garden. I was working and doing interviews and just running around doing, and I, I don’t even know how I missed it.
I was like, I was there now. I was there every day. Can you believe that? Oh my God. Yeah. Next time I heard there were puppies or like, I don’t even know. There was all kinds of stuff I heard. Am I wrong? No you’re not. So they do, they they work with a adoption agency and they bring puppies in at the end of the day.
And so again, humbling, right? Like these people making big changes, having big conversations in the world, and you see them with puppies just like so soft. If that makes any sense. Like the hardness of the face starts to melt, the color of the cheeks come back because you know, being around a puppy might soften.
you a little bit. Take a moment to just take in what’s in front of you, man. Well I could have used it ’cause there was a lot going on and it was busy. It was busy in a good way, but geez. Yes. You’ll have to come definitely. Next year. Next year. It’s on. All right. Game on. Well let’s let’s switch it up a bit.
I do wanna get into what you’re doing over at Prepare to Care. So maybe start by telling us a little bit more about what inspired the program. Sure. So as a practitioner, I, was a yoga teacher first, and then went through the Urbans and integrative therapy program, which was founded by Donna, Karen, the designer, along with her partners, Rodney Yee and Colleen Sedman, who are in the wellness world.
And this program was really. The foundation for prepared to caregiver for me because it offered me an opportunity to integrate multiple modalities and work with patients work with nurses and doctors, work with children work with the elderly in a way that was being of service, right?
Mm-hmm. And so during this time, my mom got sick. And I was faced for the first time with her mortality that I never had really considered, because at the time I was in my thirties and my life was thriving. And you kind of get caught off guard like, whoa, they’re vulnerable. Mm-hmm. And so through my experiences with her and.
Then I furthered my education with functional medicine coaching and just really listening to my clients and listening to the conversation happening around me. You really got to see that people aren’t prepared to care, let alone to care give. Mm-hmm. Right. So we’re, so busy in our lives, and then when that accident happens, or that congestive heart failure happens, or fill in the blank.
You’re thrown off kilter and maybe you have, you know, a husband and you have children and you live far away and you’re trying to navigate it and you dunno what to do. The resources are scattered and according to some of the research, by 2034, there’s gonna be more adults in the world than there are children, right?
And so people in my parents. And I’m grateful for that because they’re not suffering anymore. And I’m grateful that I got to be there on such a level of presence that I, after they passed, I didn’t have guilt because I had done everything I had prepared with them. We had had these hard conversations.
And so I got to take that and put it in a program form where I can coach people through their journey as they embark on it or if they wanna get ahead of it. Mm-hmm. Right. Because then when it happens, you’re not scrambling to find their passwords, their insurance cards. Did they have Medicaid? You, you know, you go from this emotional swing of, I’m worried, are they gonna be okay to practical application of like, well, I need to pay their bills and I need to, you know.
Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so prepared to caregiver really came out of my own, chaos. And from that I was able to create clarity through the program. Wow. Like creating it. tell me about the vision of like, where you’re at and where you like, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of executives, a lot of individuals on this line, and where we’re big dreamers, right?
We wanna make a difference. Like what, what do you envision for this? The big vision for prepared to care is to get it on a national to international level where it’s something that’s offered to people of all walks of life financially. I think that. I’m a minority, so I’ve watched it in my own family.
The struggles of caregiving, taking care of your loved one, trying to hold your job, you, you’re just paying your bills. The statistics show that, you know, the number of people that are caregiving are holding down jobs and, and financially struggling. And I know that there are. Some programs that are being offered where you can get paid to care for your loved one.
Mm-hmm. But these are the conversations and the resources that we really wanna share with people. And, and also let people know that you’re not alone. Like you would be amazed if, if you said something, the person standing next to you at the grocery store might be in the same exact position, right?
Mm-hmm. And so you start to create a community of conversation and clarity so that. you’re able to be there for your loved one and yourself. Mm-hmm. Otherwise you get lost. Right? Like the, sometimes they say the, at least with my parents, if I look at them just as an elderly couple, oftentimes the person that is not sick and who is the caretaker of their spouse, oftentimes that person could become the first one to go.
Hmm. That’s what happened in our case. Like my dad went first and none of us were prepared for that one. Right. So it really like on a, when I say professional level, I just mean like on a level of like, how can I use this experience to help someone else? Wow. It just really inspired me to be like, okay, let’s really examine how we can prepare people and self care at the same time so we don’t lose ourselves in the process.
Mm-hmm. Wow. So where does the organization stand today? Like, what are you looking for? Like, how can people get involved? How can they help? Yeah, so prepared to Caregiver is gonna launch its first program, coaching program, six week program in the fall. So if you wanna learn more about that, you can let me know if you want.
Private, I do private coaching. I also do hands-on palliative care, so I sometimes will come in and work with a patient and the family members to navigate. Whatever’s happening at that time. Whether it’s they, are they ready for hospice, are they not? So even just, you know, if you’re looking for someone to help you navigate that, I’m, your gal.
I can talk with you and, and coach you through that process. But if you are just looking for something for more information, you know, reach out to me, check out my website and, and email me. I’m so, I love this conversation. I just, compassionate care is really important to, to, to be able to be present for your loved one and yourself.
Mm-hmm. Well, man this has been really a learning experience, having you on and appreciate you coming on and sharing not only your experience, but how others can get involved and also help. And speaking to the audience, if this is your first time listening to the show or connecting we’re a daily show.
Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, new stories, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey. So if you haven’t hit that subscribe or follow button, I highly encourage, hit that, subscribe or follow button. And MENA, thanks again for coming on the show.
Oh, Adam, it was such a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
