Gary Castillo and Leslie Streeter

Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast with Paul Casey

A fun fact about Gary is that his 10 year old doesn’t ever think he sleeps because he only sees him when he is awake and Leslie can’t go to sleep if there are dishes in the sink! Leslies journey began with working in advertisement and marketing with newspapers for 15 years right out of college. After leaving that career she took a position at a marketing innovation consultant agency where she was able to blend strategic thinking and creative thinking. When she was working on a campaign for Kellogg for new waffles she felt like her creativity and skills may be better used somewhere else. That’s when she got the call from Gary to join him at Chaplaincy. She felt right at home and was grateful to be there helping people in need and not having to come up with new versions of waffles! Gary followed the traditional path of accounting background, accounting and finance, finance analyst, all the way up to business development but there was always a feeling that something was missing. He enjoyed the work and did the work well. His paths crossed with an entrepreneur who bought and sold businesses over the years. His latest venture was hospice. At the time Gary knew nothing about hospice and that is when he was told that hospice is about bringing dignity and peace to the end of a life. They needed a finance person, so he decided to join the team. When he came on board they had 8 or 9 and before they knew it they had acquired 15-20. He moved from finance/ accounting to operations. Chaplaincy does a great job at serving the community with programs and palliative care. Leslie’s advice to listeners who are thinking about making a change or shift in their career is ask yourself what is the worse thing that can happen if I stay or if I make the change. Also, listen to your gut. Lynn Dickerson was a very influential person in Leslie’s life when she was with the Medesto Newspaper. What she loved most about her was that she was very firm but fair. She had high expectations and she help her accountable. Christopher Turner, who is no longer with us, also had a wonderful presence that impacted her about being present and in the moment. He also taught Leslie about overcoming fear. Gary’s mother has been a tremendous influence for him. She had a pretty tough road and her story shows perseverance. Growing up looking at her story has made him who he is today. Professionally, John Graham, a high-level executive asked him one day how much time he spends critically thinking. He has thought about that question many times over the course of his career. Leslie finds that in order to be productive she needs to carve out uninterrupted time and use a lot of self-talk to keep herself focused. She prioritizes her weekly projects into smaller chunks to stay on target, otherwise she can find herself getting very overwhelmed. She also learned to leave margin for the unexpected things that come up. Gary works best in increments. He gets the first 5 things done first, takes a break, then coaches his son, spends time with him, rests, works out, works more, sleeps and then starts all over again.

Chaplaincy is highly regulated, so the vision is to be sure that they are exceeding the regulations and expectations. Forward thinking as to what is going to happen on the horizon. 85% of what they do is paid for by medicare, so looking at where medicare is going for the agency reimbursement and quality standards. Making sure they are always staying one step ahead. They focus on 6 drivers and then plan their 3 to 5 year goals under those drivers. This last year they conducted a SWOT Analysis and they used that to find themes and help them generate goals. Chaplaincy programs & goals are congruent with the community. In order to keep growing as a leader, Leslie’s advice is to keep learning, growing, stretching. Gary’s advice is to be curious, ask a lot of questions, be resilient to failure and spend time critically thinking.