Michele Magner Helps Navigate the Caregiving Journey
After serving as the primary caregiver for several family members through the phases of aging to end-of-life, Michele Magner knew she had found her life’s calling and life’s work. She just didn’t know her Inspired Caring suite of educational resources—online programs, remote coaching, podcasts, newsletters, and presentations—would meet such a need in the market that it would become a booming business with a growing list of clients, business partners, and national speaking opportunities.
“There is just this thing about older people that make them easy for me to connect with in a way that’s hard to describe,” said Magner, pointing to an ”Old people are cool” sticker on her phone. “I haven’t lived anywhere near the life they have, and their backgrounds are so rich and interesting. When I’m looking at a senior, I feel like I can see the best and vibrant version of them. I just see them.”
That connection crystalized for Magner when she cared for her two grandmothers over a 10-year period through the difficult stages of no longer driving, medical care and financial decisions, and moving out of their homes into assisted living communities. The latter journey into new living arrangements played a significant role in her future direction. “Helping them through all of that, I knew I wanted to work in senior living,” said Magner, who lived in Kansas City at the time. “I knew I wanted to work with seniors, and I felt very connected to the people who were in assisted living with my grandmothers.”
Fast-forward to Magner moving to husband Todd’s stomping grounds in the Papillion-LaVista area with their three children, and an impending dementia diagnosis for her mother-in-law. That was soon complicated with her father-in-law’s kidney cancer diagnosis, which impacted his ability to care for his wife. With her interest in senior caregiving, Magner had been working at a small memory care building in Omaha and became a Certified Dementia Practitioner.
“I’m one of those people who, when you realize something isn’t going well or is wrong, I want to learn more about it and understand it better, then share about it to help others,” she said. “And I quickly became very curious why people the same age were in such different conditions. Two people are 75 years old, why are they aging so differently? That opened a whole other world of discovery for me.”
Magner turned her thirst for knowledge into a Master’s certification in Gerontology, and she will complete the full Master’s from the University of Nebraska-Omaha this summer—with a PhD in Gerontology to follow. She began to realize through her educational path the breadth and depth of knowledge and insight into aging and senior care that professionals can access. But the masses of caregivers have little to no exposure to the wealth of information or the opportunity to learn while in the middle of dire circumstances with their loved ones. “All of us in senior living know these tricks of the trade in the long-term care ecosystem,” Magner said, “and I had a heart to share those with caregivers who are going through what I went through.”
In 2022, Magner launched the Inspired Caring podcast, which now has over 180 episodes of caregiver coaching, strategy and tips, and expert guest interviews with more wisdom and business resources. As the support group facilitator in the memory care and then the dementia education leader in the skilled nursing home where she worked, Magner would hear—and often interrupt—conversations between loved ones and the residents living with dementia. “I was constantly jumping up to intervene because what was coming through was a lot of frustration and anger with their older loved one,” she said. “And of course, it was fear and sadness coming to the surface. So, I would redirect the conversation and try to lighten things up.”
Those experiences helped Magner realize that the focus of the senior care system is the older adult—which is vital—but “who is the safety net for the families?,” she added. “They are having to make intense, emotional big decisions. When we are caregiving for someone, our ability to self-assess and rightly assess the situation is compromised. When we’re so in the weeds, it’s hard to realize how advanced things are and how challenging things have gotten.”
Thus, the Inspired Caring online programs were born, with the goal of “helping anybody—I really want to help everybody—at any point in the caregiving journey,” Magner said. Among many valuable nuggets of wisdom for caregivers, Magner’s online courses and remote coaching sessions detail the Five Phases of Caregiving and the Three Pillars of Caregiving: Curiosity, Communication, and Compassion.
The 10-12 live sessions or for-purchase online programs also cover expectation management, knowing your values, and setting boundaries. The Illuminating Senior Living course covers “everything you never wanted to know about senior living, but really need to know” such as, knowing when it’s time to move, explaining the various levels of care, choosing the right senior living option, resources to leverage, and navigating conversations around the common objections. A third course, Inspired Gratitude, provides 21 days of prompts to reflect on what you’re grateful for during a trying time. “One of my biggest worries is that people wait too long to make decisions for their loved ones,” Magner added. “I genuinely believe that when we wait to make a decision for our aging seniors, it impacts the quality and quantity of their life.”
Inspired Caring resources have proven so valuable that senior living communities such as Legato Living franchises around the U.S., Cedarwood Assisted Living in Fairbury, Nebraska, The Brant in Gretna, Nebraska, and The Greens in St. Augustine, Florida, are subscribing to Magner’s programs as annual memberships and providing them free to families. Other business partners such as Nikki Wulff with Assisted Living Locators of Greater Omaha automatically provide Inspired Caring programs to support family members.
Magner’s goal by the end of 2025 is to have 75 partner companies—senior living communities, estate planners, home care companies, senior advisors, financial planners—as members. “Partners like these are baking the resources into their culture, because they know how important it is to support families,” she said. “They are seeing the value in providing this information about senior care and about how to take care of yourself as a caregiver, so they can more effectively communicate as a family and get on the same page with the older adult.”
All this activity is confirming for Magner that she chose the perfect life pursuit to help meet the needs of caregiving families. “It’s so satisfying and fulfilling to know that daughter had even one great conversation with her mom and left it not feeling defeated or depleted,” Magner said. “I think people should know that it doesn’t have to be this hard; it can get easier. With the right tools and resources, you can show up how you want to show up. You can be the version of you that you want to be in this role, and then rest your head on the pillow at night knowing, ‘I did the best I could today.’”
