September 8, 2025 • 20 mins
Author’s Note: Because Brandon Bronaugh and I discussed serious topics related to mental health on the podcast, if you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, please visit the Mental Health Hotline website or call 9-8-8.
It is a privilege to welcome Brandon Bronaugh to The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast.
For the last 10 years, Brandon has been known as a fixer for people buried alive by extreme hoarding. He is one of the resident experts on the hit A&E and Netflix streaming show, Hoarders. Both on camera and off, Brandon and his team of more than 200 experts are called in to help when families and loved ones are at the end of their rope because of the extreme hoarder in their lives. He is the first person in America to create a company that tackles hoarding holistically, bringing in mental health experts, clean-up crews, realtors, construction, location placement experts, and healthcare companies to tackle the issue from all angles. He doesn’t just help hoarders. He rescues families.
In addition to rescuing hoarders on TV, Brandon Bronaugh has helped rescue more than 8,000 hoarders across the U.S., bringing peace, comfort, and support to countless others. He and his team of experts handle everything from extreme hoarding, home neglect, and disrepair to trauma and mental health challenges, physical health issues, displaced individuals and families, and elder transitions, managing basic and complex cleanouts, full property acquisitions, relocations, and counseling.
On this edition of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Brandon Bronaugh spoke about starting his company, Life Cycle Transitions, how he joined the A&E and Netflix series, and his most memorable moments on Hoarders.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
It is a privilege to welcome Brandon Bronaugh to The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast.
For the last 10 years, Brandon has been known as a fixer for people buried alive by extreme hoarding. He is one of the resident experts on the hit A&E and Netflix streaming show, Hoarders. Both on camera and off, Brandon and his team of more than 200 experts are called in to help when families and loved ones are at the end of their rope because of the extreme hoarder in their lives. He is the first person in America to create a company that tackles hoarding holistically, bringing in mental health experts, clean-up crews, realtors, construction, location placement experts, and healthcare companies to tackle the issue from all angles. He doesn’t just help hoarders. He rescues families.
In addition to rescuing hoarders on TV, Brandon Bronaugh has helped rescue more than 8,000 hoarders across the U.S., bringing peace, comfort, and support to countless others. He and his team of experts handle everything from extreme hoarding, home neglect, and disrepair to trauma and mental health challenges, physical health issues, displaced individuals and families, and elder transitions, managing basic and complex cleanouts, full property acquisitions, relocations, and counseling.
On this edition of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Brandon Bronaugh spoke about starting his company, Life Cycle Transitions, how he joined the A&E and Netflix series, and his most memorable moments on Hoarders.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of the
Jakes Take with Jacob Asar podcast. I'm your host, Jacob Aishar,
the chief contriveruser and writer of jakesak dot com, a
pop culture entertainment news website. If you're watching us any
to please give us thumbs up. If you're listening to
our audio platform, please download this episode and more episodes.
I'm thrilled to welcome our latest guest. He is the
(00:38):
live transition expert. He's also the CEO of life Cycle
Transitions and you can see him on any networks. Horriders
please help me welcome Brandon Brown and on to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Thank you for having me, Jacob, I really appreciate being
here him.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Brandon, thank you so much for dating time your schedule
to talk with me today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Pleasures online.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Alrighty, So when did you get because I always think
with live transition as always mental health. So when did
you get interested in that in metal health, in life
transit and lifestyles transition. How did involve a desire to
pursue a career in the field.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, it's an interesting, interesting question.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We started out as a property preservation company working with
Fanny May and hud and taking distressed properties and getting
them into the convenience condition. And as we were doing that,
we noticed that there was or not there was an
abundancy of services that we often required in helping clients
being able to get these homes in order. And we
(01:43):
be figured, hey, why don't we do a one stop
shop offer renovations, repairs, clean up service, landscaping and you know,
help people that are going through you know, various transitions. However,
you know, you touch everything that touches you. We were
thinking of the home, but in actuality, we didn't. We
(02:04):
had no idea what was going on emotionally inside of
these four walls. So over over a period of time,
we began to realize that people, you know, adjust to
change in you know, different ways. You know, some people
you know, when you know, we will go into the
homes for the banks in order to reakeep, and we're
talking about during the housing crisis. We noticed that there
were a lot of people who would ignore communication from
(02:25):
the banks and we would have to go in and unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Change the lots.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And it was a very very sad time to have
to you know, obviously vict some people because they just
didn't communicate with the banks for years in some cases
or months at that point, others would vandalize the home
and in some cases, you know, we realized that there
were some people that when we would go into the home, UH,
they would leave all they left in the middle of
the night. The police would have to come over because
(02:50):
we were coming in to change lots and empty out
what we thought would be uh an empty house. Unfortunately,
they in the middle of the night because of the
shame or in beare they just packed up the clothes
on their back, left their all of their clothes in
the closet, left their dog behind the furniture, and you know,
just you know, left in the middle of the night.
(03:11):
So we began to realize, you know what all these
different people dealt with all these different situations of stress.
You know what if there was a company that focused
on helping people adjust to change and transitioning both mentally,
physically and emotionally. And that's when we began to come
up with this concept of how do people deal with change,
what do they typically do, and how we can come
up with a service that's full spectrum holistically at helping
(03:33):
them mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And that's important with and that's incredible that you've done that.
And I bet you face a lot of tough times,
not just with the housing prices but also with COVID
as well. Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Absolutely, We've been through two recessions, a housing crisis in
a pandemic. So one thing we know about people is
One thing we know about change is people and how
they adjust to it. We see and we've kept a
library of case studies on various situations where people are distress.
What do they do? How do they do it? And
(04:07):
what did they? What did they how? How do they
react in their home? The pandemic was a very interesting
case because you know a lot of people were, you know,
sort of bunkering down together. Things that you were able
to run away from or avoid sort of caught up
with you.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And it was a very unusual set of events that
were occurring during the pandemic that I don't think the
world was prepared for.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I definitely think back to my small apartment in New
York City and like and how like, because the thing
is my mindset the time is like I'm not letting
a thousand dollars out of my out of my out
of my bank account go missing because of it, because
of rent. I am not going to do that because
I'm not here. I'd rather be there. And yeah, was
(04:50):
it a memorable Oh yeah, Did I take off my family? Absolutely?
I did, like at the end, But the end I
was able to when when New York reopened phase four,
I was able to go home and see my family
and then made the decision to eventually move out of
New York.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
No. No, And it was tough decisions across the world.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, people were really trying to figure out, you know,
what they didn't know about themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, the isolation.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
The mental healths were you know, exasperated because people couldn't
sort of escape, you.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Know, doing the shuffle of a normal week.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Most people can, you know, take their kids to practice,
they can have their normal routines at their gym, they can.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Go to work, they can work all these hours. But
when the pandemic happened, everything came from the center and
most of these things converged head on and people really
had to come to grips with their demons in a
different way.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And especially and this is perfectly case showcase on Hoarders,
which is definitely a haunting and touched mentally touched her
to watch. So how were you when did you first
hear about Orders?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well, you know, ironically, I've always heard of hoarders, but like,
for instance, if a person's in law enforcement or they
they work in the legal system, you know they're not
gonna watch Law and Order, or if they're a police
officer or whatever, they don't watch cop shows because it's
too much like work. So for me, actually, when the
show Orders would come on, I would never watch it
(06:15):
because it was it was too traumatizing for me because
it was an everyday occurrence for me, and I would
hear that same It's funny, I would hear the same
thing even to this day. When people find out was
on the show, they would immediately say, I can't watch
that show because you know, it gives me, it triggers me.
Or in most cases, people watch the show and they
immediately want to go home and clean their house. So
(06:38):
for me, when the opportunity presented itself, I went into it,
you know, begrudgingly. To be honest, I was a little
apprehensive about it. But when I did it, it was
the best thing that I've ever done because I was
able to really look at it. Learn a lot from
you know, our therapists that are on the show, you know,
doctor Zolin, doctor Tolan, doctor Zazia, all of these the
(07:00):
visuals were so instrumental in reshaping my perspective of what
the mental health aspect of hoarding gets.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And which is amazing because sporting can be do there
can be a lot because I know that I love
to pord my comic book or comic books or like
no or books or anything. But the thing is, what
goes through your mind goes through a mindset before you
even tape.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Right, I mean, yeah, I mean the what goes through
my mind is obviously I'm reading the storylines.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I want to figure out get familiar with the clients
that are on the show, figure out their their backstory,
some of their you know, psychological hurdles, you know what
emotional uh tor, I mean what what are they dealing with?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Emotional?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You know, in terms of you know, what's going to
be a trigger, what areas of the house are likely
going to be the more the most difficult to deal with.
And then when I go into it, it's the same
way I go into clients. Now, I go into it
with kid gloves, because you never know how our client's
going to We've had clients that we've worked with, even
aside from the show, that seem perfectly fine and ready
to go and very up being optimistic. But then you
(08:07):
touch that one item when you go into that specific room,
and maybe it's a room of a child or something
that may have passed away, or maybe it was a
room of a late spouse that you know passed away,
or maybe it's the clothing of someone that unfortunately passed away,
and everything changes and you now have to take a
different approach to get to the finish line.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And it's always and I think that's real, and I
think going through that and like basically like going through
my step, and like when I when I was leaving
my family home, I made sure to say, Okay, can
I leave this? Can I can I take this with me?
I'm not touching this like all like my scout uniform
high school stuff that got me egles cut in my
(08:49):
high school varsity jacket. I'm not care taking it with me.
I wanted to make sure i'd stay with stays with me. However,
I know how emotional I can get with those words.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, I mean that's normal. I mean, the thing about
what we have done is we've come full spectrum. We've
evolved as a company understanding you know, the behavioralisms and
what goes into hoarding is bigger than the sum of
its parts. And when you when the outset world looks
at hoarding, they look at people that are you know,
and they judge and they say, ah, these people are
you know, a gluttoness or they're lazy, or they just
(09:21):
they don't know how to get rid of things. But
when I look at hoarding, I look at a lot
of the root calls, a lot of the past traumas
things that prompt them to be and do what they do.
And from from our perspective, you know, as a transition company,
the reason why we call ourselves a transition company is
we have to look at everything in five or seven
different angles. We have to look at it financially, mentally, emotionally.
(09:43):
We also have to look at it physically in terms
of limitations. You know, what are their health like, what
are their finances like? Because when the when the illness
is taking charge and it's really taking a control of
irrational decisions, we have to be the sound that we
have to be a sound mind making sound decision on
their behalf to reinforce logical choices so that we can
(10:04):
make the necessary moves when we need to. I know, Jacob,
you want to keep this collection of items, but do
you really have the space for this. You told me
before you were having some financial difficulty. Wouldn't it make
more sense to sell some of these items so that
you can afford to be able to stay in the apartment.
But in a lot of cases, the irrational aspect of
their mindset has taken charge to the point where they
(10:27):
have only two couches in their entire living room and
guess who's sleeping on the floor, and guess who's holding
the couch, Those magazines, those collectibles, because people have traded
off square footage and living space for basically turning their
entire living environment into a warehouse.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And we now come in and say this.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Is you know, we have to reinforce This kitchen is
designed to cook, this bathroom is designed.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
To take a bath, this bed is for you to sleep.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And you know, because they're rationale over a period of time,
as it began to umulate over days and weeks and
months and years, you know it's no no longer making
the right to judgments for them down the pike.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And it definitely sounds like I would love to learn.
I would love to learn from my audi describe my
audience the process that you and your team goes through
when you're working on quarters.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, when we're working on hoarders, I mean, the first
thing we want to do is we want to go
we tour the house to get familiar with some of
the most emotional areas of the home. A lot of
the projects, you know, it's dense. You know, we don't
have a lot of moving space or functioning space to
turn and basically function.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So what we want to do is clear some of
these areas.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
We want to delegate a specific area in the home
as sort of like a staging so that we can
break everything down into three categories, which is what we
do with life cycle transitions, which is breaking things down
from keep donating discard. So in some cases where you've
got like a thousand square foot home or a fifteen
hundred square foot home, rather you know you're you might
be doing this in front lawn because you don't have
(12:01):
a garage, you don't have a basement anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And that's definitely shocking to hear to hear that, like
thinking of like a basement gone, a living room gone,
that's just a lot and like I like the key
discard and everything, and so like the thing is that's
really good. Like I always make sure to sell my
books when I'm done with them. I always try to
make sure to give that give some of my stuff
(12:25):
to my to my family and also my friends.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Swell.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So it's definitely. So what what were some of the
most memorable moments on Quarters? Like, I know there's a
lot of nbas that can't we can't legal matters, but
do you have any memorable moments without going and charging
through those.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, I mean we've had We've had quite a few
memorable moments.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I think the one moment that stands out the most
is the moment when we had a couple that couldn't
find their wedding ring and you know, I had been
looking for this wedding ring for a number of years
and we actually found the wedding ring. On the show,
you know, there's episodes where you know, we did the
largest hoarde in the history of the show, which was
(13:09):
I think it was twenty seven or twenty six twenty
yard dumpsters that we removed from this fifteen hundred square
foot home. You know, so it's you know, the show
is so exciting. There's a lot of things that the
viewers that are watching don't get a chance unfortunately to see.
But the dynamic between the family and the and the
(13:30):
person who's dealing with the hoarding situation, you can just
see how tumultuous.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
The relationship is.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
But as we start recovering rooms, you know, families begin
to feel that they can someday have Christmas dinner, they
can someday have Thanksgiving in these homes. And to see that,
to see the family reunite in a way that they do,
you know, touches my heart.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It definitely touches to a lot of people starts as well.
One question I would love to ask is, I think
a lot of my audience know people in their lives
who are struggling with hoardings. So if you have people
who are struggling, So if you had some shit loved
ones and tips for those loved ones and friends to
(14:11):
use who are struggling when they're approaching people who are
struggling with their ordering addiction, what what are some advice?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Well, the biggest advice I think is to tell them
to be compassionate, don't try to be a therapist, don't
try to be an expert like myself for people who
do this.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
We got seventeen twenty plus years in this, in this
in this industry doing what we.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Do, and no one to two situations will ever be alike.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You know, when clients call over the phone and they
ask questions like how much is the cost to do
this or how much does it cost to do that,
we don't have a reference on what's going on in
their home. I mean, there's a project, but then there's
the emotional and mental aspect of the client that takes
an eight hour day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
In that eight hour day.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You may only get two hours of productivity because the
client's going through everything or having a difficult time letting
go of anything, where you're not as productive. So when
it comes to giving advice to people who are dealing
with this, understand the one, it's a mental health it's
a mental health illness. Two, they may or may not
even consider themselves a hoarder. I mean just because you
(15:20):
and I can look at a situation physically and be
able to say that's hoarded, they don't see it that way,
they're oblivious to it. You know, they don't see the
kitchen or the bathroom being in, you know, engulf with items.
So you have to give them some patience. You have
to get a professional involved. Don't try to do it
on your own. Don't send them on the vacation or
(15:42):
cruise ship and then go into their home and empty
their house out. That's the worst thing you can do.
You have to take the necessary steps, the baby steps,
in order to get them the appropriate assistance that they're
going to need, you know, life cycle. We offer a
transition evaluation assessment where we can work with the client,
the loved one, will have one of our mental health
(16:02):
professionals speak with them, dissect the issue, take the necessary
baby steps that are required in order to get to
the root of the problem.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We may talk to a client for.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
At least a couple of weeks, maybe a month before
we even step foot in the home, and it's that
kind of pilling away the onion naturally and organically that
gets the job done. We also have a transition care
plan where in a lot of cases, most customers, we
realize after seventeen years can't do forty years of accumulation
in six, seven or eight days, but they can do
(16:33):
forty years of accumulation over four or five or six months.
So we are able to do one session a week,
one session every other week with skilled technicians and our
therapists to really slowly but surely get to the finish line.
And I think that's been a turning point where life
Cycle versus any company that's out there, is that we
have customized our services so that we can be one
on one with our clients and really give them the
(16:55):
care that they need throughout the entire process.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And I would love to hear what goes your mind
once the client reaches the finish line.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Well, for us as the technicians, that's in the home
in the trenches, you know, taking pounds and pounds of
accumulated things. You got cobwebs, you got spiders, you got mice,
and all sorts of things that are slamming against you
all day for weeks and days. You know, there's a
sense of pride and exhilaration, you know, to get to
(17:25):
the finished line. But over the past seventeen years, we
would look at the client and they would just sort
of be, you know, stonefaced, they because they're still in shock.
I mean that's when we we would realize that you know,
nothing we can do in terms of removing things is
going to be the end.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Doss say all. It has to be full spectrum. You
have to be able to help the client physically, mentally, emotionally,
to offer the adequate support to bring down the high
recent and vision rate that often is associated with hoarding.
Most hoarding, sixty percent of them go back to hoarding.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That's why our transition care program is so sequential to
making sure that we work with them routinely over a
period of time.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
That's amazing. That's amazing. So last question I have is
why shouldn't my audience consider using life cycle transitions.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, if you're looking for a company that's going to
care about you as an individual, that's going to customize
a plan and not tell you we have a gold,
bronze or a platinum package, but that truly understands the
mental health and the disease and the illness and the
trauma that goes into it and offers a judgment free
safe place for you to be able to heal, but
also can get down and dirty and raise those sleeves
(18:36):
ups and actually get work done and make sure that
you don't throw good money at bad money and waste
good effort on poor results. And life Cycle is the
company because when it's more than a change, it's a
transition and that's what we're the experts.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
At alrighty, So where can my audience connect with you
on social media? Where can you learn more information about
life cycle transitions? And finally, where can you watch on borders?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Okay, you can check us out on any to watch
the show episode orders. You can also go on Netflix, Netflix,
and you can check out some of the older episodes
as well. We do have a couple of places you
can find and you can check out some of our
footage on YouTube under the Life Transition Expert. You can
go into ig and Instagram and you can check out
the life Transition Expert as well, and you can follow
(19:24):
us get all of our blogs and our content. We're
consistently putting out blogs every week, so if you really
want to get access to some of those blogs, I
strongly recommend you going to the website at life Cycle
transitions dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Awesome, and guys, if you miss an episode of the
j Star podcast, visit our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,
ihead radio spot up by and spreaker Jakes Shirt j
A c b E l y A c h j
A R. And are you on social media because I'm
on social media too, Facebook, Instagram, Thread, Twitter and YouTube.
(19:58):
Jacbla shirt jac b E l y A c h
A R. Want to find out what's going on with
America Scott Talent, one of my takes on music, will
visit our blah blah. Sorry, oh, Jake says Shake dot com.
Let's getting Jakes, That'shake dot com. And I'm proud to
say that the The Jacob is Our Podcast is a
twenty twenty five American Business Award winning show. I want
to thank entire American Business Awards judging Committee for awarding
(20:21):
us the Silver and the fst Talk Show and Interview
category in a podcast vision. Brandon, thank you so much
for the time on your schedule to talk to us.
I learned a lot about today, and I hope all
of my audience taught learned a lot from you as well.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Thanks Jake, it was such a pleasure to be on
the show.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
You're so welcome. Guys, Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time. Tab
A Gray one, everybody
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Good, god Bye,
Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of the
Jakes Take with Jacob Asar podcast. I'm your host, Jacob Aishar,
the chief contriveruser and writer of jakesak dot com, a
pop culture entertainment news website. If you're watching us any
to please give us thumbs up. If you're listening to
our audio platform, please download this episode and more episodes.
I'm thrilled to welcome our latest guest. He is the
(00:38):
live transition expert. He's also the CEO of life Cycle
Transitions and you can see him on any networks. Horriders
please help me welcome Brandon Brown and on to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Thank you for having me, Jacob, I really appreciate being
here him.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Brandon, thank you so much for dating time your schedule
to talk with me today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Pleasures online.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Alrighty, So when did you get because I always think
with live transition as always mental health. So when did
you get interested in that in metal health, in life
transit and lifestyles transition. How did involve a desire to
pursue a career in the field.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, it's an interesting, interesting question.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We started out as a property preservation company working with
Fanny May and hud and taking distressed properties and getting
them into the convenience condition. And as we were doing that,
we noticed that there was or not there was an
abundancy of services that we often required in helping clients
being able to get these homes in order. And we
(01:43):
be figured, hey, why don't we do a one stop
shop offer renovations, repairs, clean up service, landscaping and you know,
help people that are going through you know, various transitions. However,
you know, you touch everything that touches you. We were
thinking of the home, but in actuality, we didn't. We
(02:04):
had no idea what was going on emotionally inside of
these four walls. So over over a period of time,
we began to realize that people, you know, adjust to
change in you know, different ways. You know, some people
you know, when you know, we will go into the
homes for the banks in order to reakeep, and we're
talking about during the housing crisis. We noticed that there
were a lot of people who would ignore communication from
(02:25):
the banks and we would have to go in and unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Change the lots.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And it was a very very sad time to have
to you know, obviously vict some people because they just
didn't communicate with the banks for years in some cases
or months at that point, others would vandalize the home
and in some cases, you know, we realized that there
were some people that when we would go into the home, UH,
they would leave all they left in the middle of
the night. The police would have to come over because
(02:50):
we were coming in to change lots and empty out
what we thought would be uh an empty house. Unfortunately,
they in the middle of the night because of the
shame or in beare they just packed up the clothes
on their back, left their all of their clothes in
the closet, left their dog behind the furniture, and you know,
just you know, left in the middle of the night.
(03:11):
So we began to realize, you know what all these
different people dealt with all these different situations of stress.
You know what if there was a company that focused
on helping people adjust to change and transitioning both mentally,
physically and emotionally. And that's when we began to come
up with this concept of how do people deal with change,
what do they typically do, and how we can come
up with a service that's full spectrum holistically at helping
(03:33):
them mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And that's important with and that's incredible that you've done that.
And I bet you face a lot of tough times,
not just with the housing prices but also with COVID
as well. Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Absolutely, We've been through two recessions, a housing crisis in
a pandemic. So one thing we know about people is
One thing we know about change is people and how
they adjust to it. We see and we've kept a
library of case studies on various situations where people are distress.
What do they do? How do they do it? And
(04:07):
what did they? What did they how? How do they
react in their home? The pandemic was a very interesting
case because you know a lot of people were, you know,
sort of bunkering down together. Things that you were able
to run away from or avoid sort of caught up
with you.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And it was a very unusual set of events that
were occurring during the pandemic that I don't think the
world was prepared for.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I definitely think back to my small apartment in New
York City and like and how like, because the thing
is my mindset the time is like I'm not letting
a thousand dollars out of my out of my out
of my bank account go missing because of it, because
of rent. I am not going to do that because
I'm not here. I'd rather be there. And yeah, was
(04:50):
it a memorable Oh yeah, Did I take off my family? Absolutely?
I did, like at the end, But the end I
was able to when when New York reopened phase four,
I was able to go home and see my family
and then made the decision to eventually move out of
New York.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
No. No, And it was tough decisions across the world.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, people were really trying to figure out, you know,
what they didn't know about themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, the isolation.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
The mental healths were you know, exasperated because people couldn't
sort of escape, you.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Know, doing the shuffle of a normal week.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Most people can, you know, take their kids to practice,
they can have their normal routines at their gym, they can.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Go to work, they can work all these hours. But
when the pandemic happened, everything came from the center and
most of these things converged head on and people really
had to come to grips with their demons in a
different way.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And especially and this is perfectly case showcase on Hoarders,
which is definitely a haunting and touched mentally touched her
to watch. So how were you when did you first
hear about Orders?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well, you know, ironically, I've always heard of hoarders, but like,
for instance, if a person's in law enforcement or they
they work in the legal system, you know they're not
gonna watch Law and Order, or if they're a police
officer or whatever, they don't watch cop shows because it's
too much like work. So for me, actually, when the
show Orders would come on, I would never watch it
(06:15):
because it was it was too traumatizing for me because
it was an everyday occurrence for me, and I would
hear that same It's funny, I would hear the same
thing even to this day. When people find out was
on the show, they would immediately say, I can't watch
that show because you know, it gives me, it triggers me.
Or in most cases, people watch the show and they
immediately want to go home and clean their house. So
(06:38):
for me, when the opportunity presented itself, I went into it,
you know, begrudgingly. To be honest, I was a little
apprehensive about it. But when I did it, it was
the best thing that I've ever done because I was
able to really look at it. Learn a lot from
you know, our therapists that are on the show, you know,
doctor Zolin, doctor Tolan, doctor Zazia, all of these the
(07:00):
visuals were so instrumental in reshaping my perspective of what
the mental health aspect of hoarding gets.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And which is amazing because sporting can be do there
can be a lot because I know that I love
to pord my comic book or comic books or like
no or books or anything. But the thing is, what
goes through your mind goes through a mindset before you
even tape.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Right, I mean, yeah, I mean the what goes through
my mind is obviously I'm reading the storylines.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I want to figure out get familiar with the clients
that are on the show, figure out their their backstory,
some of their you know, psychological hurdles, you know what
emotional uh tor, I mean what what are they dealing with?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Emotional?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You know, in terms of you know, what's going to
be a trigger, what areas of the house are likely
going to be the more the most difficult to deal with.
And then when I go into it, it's the same
way I go into clients. Now, I go into it
with kid gloves, because you never know how our client's
going to We've had clients that we've worked with, even
aside from the show, that seem perfectly fine and ready
to go and very up being optimistic. But then you
(08:07):
touch that one item when you go into that specific room,
and maybe it's a room of a child or something
that may have passed away, or maybe it was a
room of a late spouse that you know passed away,
or maybe it's the clothing of someone that unfortunately passed away,
and everything changes and you now have to take a
different approach to get to the finish line.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And it's always and I think that's real, and I
think going through that and like basically like going through
my step, and like when I when I was leaving
my family home, I made sure to say, Okay, can
I leave this? Can I can I take this with me?
I'm not touching this like all like my scout uniform
high school stuff that got me egles cut in my
(08:49):
high school varsity jacket. I'm not care taking it with me.
I wanted to make sure i'd stay with stays with me. However,
I know how emotional I can get with those words.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, I mean that's normal. I mean, the thing about
what we have done is we've come full spectrum. We've
evolved as a company understanding you know, the behavioralisms and
what goes into hoarding is bigger than the sum of
its parts. And when you when the outset world looks
at hoarding, they look at people that are you know,
and they judge and they say, ah, these people are
you know, a gluttoness or they're lazy, or they just
(09:21):
they don't know how to get rid of things. But
when I look at hoarding, I look at a lot
of the root calls, a lot of the past traumas
things that prompt them to be and do what they do.
And from from our perspective, you know, as a transition company,
the reason why we call ourselves a transition company is
we have to look at everything in five or seven
different angles. We have to look at it financially, mentally, emotionally.
(09:43):
We also have to look at it physically in terms
of limitations. You know, what are their health like, what
are their finances like? Because when the when the illness
is taking charge and it's really taking a control of
irrational decisions, we have to be the sound that we
have to be a sound mind making sound decision on
their behalf to reinforce logical choices so that we can
(10:04):
make the necessary moves when we need to. I know, Jacob,
you want to keep this collection of items, but do
you really have the space for this. You told me
before you were having some financial difficulty. Wouldn't it make
more sense to sell some of these items so that
you can afford to be able to stay in the apartment.
But in a lot of cases, the irrational aspect of
their mindset has taken charge to the point where they
(10:27):
have only two couches in their entire living room and
guess who's sleeping on the floor, and guess who's holding
the couch, Those magazines, those collectibles, because people have traded
off square footage and living space for basically turning their
entire living environment into a warehouse.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And we now come in and say this.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Is you know, we have to reinforce This kitchen is
designed to cook, this bathroom is designed.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
To take a bath, this bed is for you to sleep.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And you know, because they're rationale over a period of time,
as it began to umulate over days and weeks and
months and years, you know it's no no longer making
the right to judgments for them down the pike.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And it definitely sounds like I would love to learn.
I would love to learn from my audi describe my
audience the process that you and your team goes through
when you're working on quarters.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, when we're working on hoarders, I mean, the first
thing we want to do is we want to go
we tour the house to get familiar with some of
the most emotional areas of the home. A lot of
the projects, you know, it's dense. You know, we don't
have a lot of moving space or functioning space to
turn and basically function.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So what we want to do is clear some of
these areas.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
We want to delegate a specific area in the home
as sort of like a staging so that we can
break everything down into three categories, which is what we
do with life cycle transitions, which is breaking things down
from keep donating discard. So in some cases where you've
got like a thousand square foot home or a fifteen
hundred square foot home, rather you know you're you might
be doing this in front lawn because you don't have
(12:01):
a garage, you don't have a basement anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And that's definitely shocking to hear to hear that, like
thinking of like a basement gone, a living room gone,
that's just a lot and like I like the key
discard and everything, and so like the thing is that's
really good. Like I always make sure to sell my
books when I'm done with them. I always try to
make sure to give that give some of my stuff
(12:25):
to my to my family and also my friends.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Swell.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So it's definitely. So what what were some of the
most memorable moments on Quarters? Like, I know there's a
lot of nbas that can't we can't legal matters, but
do you have any memorable moments without going and charging
through those.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, I mean we've had We've had quite a few
memorable moments.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I think the one moment that stands out the most
is the moment when we had a couple that couldn't
find their wedding ring and you know, I had been
looking for this wedding ring for a number of years
and we actually found the wedding ring. On the show,
you know, there's episodes where you know, we did the
largest hoarde in the history of the show, which was
(13:09):
I think it was twenty seven or twenty six twenty
yard dumpsters that we removed from this fifteen hundred square
foot home. You know, so it's you know, the show
is so exciting. There's a lot of things that the
viewers that are watching don't get a chance unfortunately to see.
But the dynamic between the family and the and the
(13:30):
person who's dealing with the hoarding situation, you can just
see how tumultuous.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
The relationship is.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
But as we start recovering rooms, you know, families begin
to feel that they can someday have Christmas dinner, they
can someday have Thanksgiving in these homes. And to see that,
to see the family reunite in a way that they do,
you know, touches my heart.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It definitely touches to a lot of people starts as well.
One question I would love to ask is, I think
a lot of my audience know people in their lives
who are struggling with hoardings. So if you have people
who are struggling, So if you had some shit loved
ones and tips for those loved ones and friends to
(14:11):
use who are struggling when they're approaching people who are
struggling with their ordering addiction, what what are some advice?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Well, the biggest advice I think is to tell them
to be compassionate, don't try to be a therapist, don't
try to be an expert like myself for people who
do this.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
We got seventeen twenty plus years in this, in this
in this industry doing what we.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Do, and no one to two situations will ever be alike.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You know, when clients call over the phone and they
ask questions like how much is the cost to do
this or how much does it cost to do that,
we don't have a reference on what's going on in
their home. I mean, there's a project, but then there's
the emotional and mental aspect of the client that takes
an eight hour day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
In that eight hour day.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You may only get two hours of productivity because the
client's going through everything or having a difficult time letting
go of anything, where you're not as productive. So when
it comes to giving advice to people who are dealing
with this, understand the one, it's a mental health it's
a mental health illness. Two, they may or may not
even consider themselves a hoarder. I mean just because you
(15:20):
and I can look at a situation physically and be
able to say that's hoarded, they don't see it that way,
they're oblivious to it. You know, they don't see the
kitchen or the bathroom being in, you know, engulf with items.
So you have to give them some patience. You have
to get a professional involved. Don't try to do it
on your own. Don't send them on the vacation or
(15:42):
cruise ship and then go into their home and empty
their house out. That's the worst thing you can do.
You have to take the necessary steps, the baby steps,
in order to get them the appropriate assistance that they're
going to need, you know, life cycle. We offer a
transition evaluation assessment where we can work with the client,
the loved one, will have one of our mental health
(16:02):
professionals speak with them, dissect the issue, take the necessary
baby steps that are required in order to get to
the root of the problem.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We may talk to a client for.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
At least a couple of weeks, maybe a month before
we even step foot in the home, and it's that
kind of pilling away the onion naturally and organically that
gets the job done. We also have a transition care
plan where in a lot of cases, most customers, we
realize after seventeen years can't do forty years of accumulation
in six, seven or eight days, but they can do
(16:33):
forty years of accumulation over four or five or six months.
So we are able to do one session a week,
one session every other week with skilled technicians and our
therapists to really slowly but surely get to the finish line.
And I think that's been a turning point where life
Cycle versus any company that's out there, is that we
have customized our services so that we can be one
on one with our clients and really give them the
(16:55):
care that they need throughout the entire process.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And I would love to hear what goes your mind
once the client reaches the finish line.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Well, for us as the technicians, that's in the home
in the trenches, you know, taking pounds and pounds of
accumulated things. You got cobwebs, you got spiders, you got mice,
and all sorts of things that are slamming against you
all day for weeks and days. You know, there's a
sense of pride and exhilaration, you know, to get to
(17:25):
the finished line. But over the past seventeen years, we
would look at the client and they would just sort
of be, you know, stonefaced, they because they're still in shock.
I mean that's when we we would realize that you know,
nothing we can do in terms of removing things is
going to be the end.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Doss say all. It has to be full spectrum. You
have to be able to help the client physically, mentally, emotionally,
to offer the adequate support to bring down the high
recent and vision rate that often is associated with hoarding.
Most hoarding, sixty percent of them go back to hoarding.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That's why our transition care program is so sequential to
making sure that we work with them routinely over a
period of time.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
That's amazing. That's amazing. So last question I have is
why shouldn't my audience consider using life cycle transitions.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, if you're looking for a company that's going to
care about you as an individual, that's going to customize
a plan and not tell you we have a gold,
bronze or a platinum package, but that truly understands the
mental health and the disease and the illness and the
trauma that goes into it and offers a judgment free
safe place for you to be able to heal, but
also can get down and dirty and raise those sleeves
(18:36):
ups and actually get work done and make sure that
you don't throw good money at bad money and waste
good effort on poor results. And life Cycle is the
company because when it's more than a change, it's a
transition and that's what we're the experts.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
At alrighty, So where can my audience connect with you
on social media? Where can you learn more information about
life cycle transitions? And finally, where can you watch on borders?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Okay, you can check us out on any to watch
the show episode orders. You can also go on Netflix, Netflix,
and you can check out some of the older episodes
as well. We do have a couple of places you
can find and you can check out some of our
footage on YouTube under the Life Transition Expert. You can
go into ig and Instagram and you can check out
the life Transition Expert as well, and you can follow
(19:24):
us get all of our blogs and our content. We're
consistently putting out blogs every week, so if you really
want to get access to some of those blogs, I
strongly recommend you going to the website at life Cycle
transitions dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Awesome, and guys, if you miss an episode of the
j Star podcast, visit our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,
ihead radio spot up by and spreaker Jakes Shirt j
A c b E l y A c h j
A R. And are you on social media because I'm
on social media too, Facebook, Instagram, Thread, Twitter and YouTube.
(19:58):
Jacbla shirt jac b E l y A c h
A R. Want to find out what's going on with
America Scott Talent, one of my takes on music, will
visit our blah blah. Sorry, oh, Jake says Shake dot com.
Let's getting Jakes, That'shake dot com. And I'm proud to
say that the The Jacob is Our Podcast is a
twenty twenty five American Business Award winning show. I want
to thank entire American Business Awards judging Committee for awarding
(20:21):
us the Silver and the fst Talk Show and Interview
category in a podcast vision. Brandon, thank you so much
for the time on your schedule to talk to us.
I learned a lot about today, and I hope all
of my audience taught learned a lot from you as well.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Thanks Jake, it was such a pleasure to be on
the show.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
You're so welcome. Guys, Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time. Tab
A Gray one, everybody
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Good, god Bye,
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