Joshua Lichtenstein’s Journey to Accessible Care

Dylan Silver (00:01.349)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show I have Josh Lichtenstein. Josh is the CEO of Rapport LLC and offers services for people with developmental and intellectual mental illness, behavioral health, dual diagnosis. Josh, welcome to the show.

Josh (00:22.03)
I’m happy to be here.

Dylan Silver (00:26.317)
Absolutely. Before we dive into your journey here, I’ve seen lots of sun over there. I’m in beautiful Texas. Where are you based out of?

Josh (00:36.462)
I’m in West Phnom

Dylan Silver (00:40.891)
Man, I tell people this all the time. South Florida, specifically Fort Lauderdale, is probably my favorite area of the country. Who knows, I may be moving there soon. How long have you been in South Florida?

Josh (00:53.901)
1993.

Dylan Silver (00:56.827)
93. Are you from Florida originally?

Josh (00:59.799)
Born and raised in Brooklyn,

I want

Dylan Silver (01:04.592)
Yeah.

Josh (01:07.125)
and I was raised in Brooklyn.

Dylan Silver (01:10.297)
Okay. we, I’m actually from New Jersey. And so if you know the Caldwells, yeah, if you know the Caldwells, I’m from Essex County, which is near Hoboken, Newark area. And so, I just have so much love and, and, and, I would love to, move to South Florida, that, that Fort Lauderdale area, but let’s, let’s pivot a bit.

Josh (01:14.828)
I’m going upstairs.

Dylan Silver (01:38.553)
yeah, I’m in Texas now. I tell people, Josh, I miss the Italian food more than anything. Here in Texas, we’ll have lines outside of Olive Garden. But yeah, we’ll have lines outside of Olive Garden. let’s talk about how you got involved in what you’re doing right now and your plans for your business. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Josh (02:13.003)
degree in psychology and I became a teacher in New York City school system and I taught for 10 years in New York and then the last snowstorm did me in, I left New York. I couldn’t take the snow anymore so I moved down to Florida and I did not go back into education down here because it was different from New York so I was really

interested in that. So I ran group homes for people with disabilities and behavioral issues and behavioral disorders and Down syndrome and mental illness and I did that for about seven to eight years. I mean, in that time also I was raising a family as a single father at same time. So I did that and became a single parent. Then I left the group home.

And I went back, I started doing social work. And I’ve been doing social work since 2000.

Josh (03:21.578)
making sure that they’re, because some of them are independent, semi-independent, they support living by myself. They go to a day program, they earn money. Every two weeks they get a paycheck. It teaches them skills to eventually get a part-time job in the community and be more involved with the community and…

to learn how to pay bills and go food shopping and I would teach him money management of going to a grocery store and say, okay, well this is five dollars and this item is three dollars. Which would you rather, which would you should have bought if it’s cheaper? Because they would decide to pick the three dollar item. Also, assist my clients with getting community-based services.

like food stamps, first-care disability, Medicaid, I do community activities with them. I take them to shows, take them to street fairs and fairs down in Florida. We go swimming on the weekends sometimes, it depends on the weather. I make sure that they’re safe all the time.

And we discuss about abuse, that if they know what abuse is about, and about neglect and…

and all the disabilities, all the abuses that go out in the world right now of neglect and physical abuse and mental abuse and exploitation. That’s a big thing in the community I work with, that they are exploited because all people think that, okay, they have disabilities, that they don’t know what they really want to do or they can do this and that other thing, but that’s exploitation towards them.

Josh (05:25.32)
that we, but we don’t want that, so we teach them about exploitation. So I’ve been doing that for the last 20 years, and then I decided one day, I said, oh, I should do this myself and make my own money, instead of paying someone else a salary. So I opened an LLC down here in Florida, and it’s called Rapport, Inc. I’m sorry, Rapport LLC.

It’s located here in South Florida and Central Florida near up in the Daytona Beach area up in all that area like Palm Coast Daytona Beach Ormond Beach pump all of that area also So we will be so we will do in tri-county. So we’ll be in Palm Beach County and Volusia County serving adult adults children with disabilities

Yep.

Dylan Silver (06:23.259)
And so is this something that you’re already operating on some level or is it set to open here soon?

Josh (06:30.856)
I am doing it a little bit on the side for myself, but it is opening by the summer, by June or July.

Dylan Silver (06:45.819)
Fantastic fantastic, so I’m imagining you’ve got the location Set up and

Josh (06:48.987)
Well, location will be everywhere, all through Palm Beach County, Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, all the way from St. Lucie County to Broward County. And there’s no set area. My office will continue to be in Palm Beach County. But I will travel from Broward.

and I will be also doing

interacting with Belushi County also during a week also.

Dylan Silver (07:34.043)
Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about the shift from being an employee to now business owner and how that went for you. In my background, I went from working in the auto industry to then working as a wholesaler and to now being a real estate agent. So it’s very much dependent all on what I’m able to do. have…

you know as a new agent you have your yourself and your broker and that’s pretty much it so I’m curious to get what your perspective has been on going from working for others to now working for yourself.

Josh (08:11.576)
Give me more.

freedom to be more with my family and my son and it gives me more freedom to, you know, be more out there in the world with my family. being who I am and the people who know me in the counties I’ll be working in, am very, they are always asking me all these years, why don’t you do stuff? Why don’t you do stuff?

Dylan Silver (08:18.875)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (08:44.312)
And I always said, no, no. So one day I woke up and had a mind-blowing experience, which was, maybe you should do it yourself. And I decided, mail in to do it. Open an LLC for myself, and here I am.

Dylan Silver (09:04.187)
And so when you were deciding to do that, I’m assuming just like any of us, there were some obstacles that you had to overcome along the way. You mentioned that you have an office that you’re going to be driving out to folks all throughout that area over there. What were some of the obstacles and challenges that you had to overcome?

Josh (09:13.048)
Yes.

Josh (09:19.747)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (09:24.856)
licensing in the state of where I live in Florida and Just getting more of my name out as a business owner myself now to say you know instead of me working for this company, know, I will have my own LLC and if you here’s my flyer and here’s my brochure and here’s my business card and to get my name out there more that’s why I

Dylan Silver (09:36.603)
Yeah.

Josh (09:54.435)
requested to be on your podcast to say, you know, I own now an LLC for the same population I’ve been working for over 30, 45 years. And now they hopefully will be there. Some of them that I’ve been talking to is very happy that I’m on my own now and and they would come and they will be jumping on board soon with me as a client.

Dylan Silver (10:24.559)
This is a real estate podcast, so I do want to touch on some real estate topics here. Being in that South Florida, Fort Lauderdale area, Miami area, some of the most beautiful, also some of the most costly real estate in the country. I’m curious to get your perspective, Josh, on…

Josh (10:41.411)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (10:44.955)
behavioral health, mental health services. In many cases, people are now doing this type of thing virtually, remotely, but you also have, of course, still brick and mortar. You have places that people can go into that may have multiple.

people under one roof and then you also may have an individual in an office or in a shared office of some space. For clinicians that are down there in the Fort Lauderdale area, I’m imagining that you, and that area in general, I’m imagining that there’s a fair mix of everything. What’s your perspective on all the different ways that people have access to these types of well-being services?

Josh (11:29.194)
Yes, we are in 2020.

barrier towards people with disabilities and to say, you know, we don’t want to deal with that population in my office or my doctor’s office. So there’s a lot of, and like if you my client from your dentist, there’s only one dentist in the whole state of Palm Beach County, actually in Martin County up in Stewart, Florida. And we would have to, we have to drive up there and there should be more.

doctors and dentist officers that should accept our population and offer their services medically, mental health, and because there’s not a lot of mental health facilities and doctor officers and dentists and other clinician officers that accepts our population. And for us to get our word out, we…

Dylan Silver (12:27.931)
Sure.

Josh (12:31.827)
bring our clients to them and say they have the right, just like myself or you, to have medical attention. And by that, under the American Disability Act, they do have to follow that, which is to protect my population that work with people with to get the care that they need.

Dylan Silver (13:03.543)
Okay, so pivoting a bit here, Josh.

I would like to talk about what your perspective is on the most effective means of care and also the best way for people to help the most amount of people. if I’m let’s say in that space and I do want to help people whether it’s from a mental health issue or substance or anything along these lines, right? I’m imagining that the nature of having an office makes it so that your time is effectively limited to the people that can physically get

to you. But also you have you have the cost of the office itself, right? So that’s an overhead expense. As a as an investor, and then also as a business owner, where do you what do you mean?

Dylan Silver (14:00.335)
We lost them.

Dylan Silver (14:19.503)
All right, we’re back. No, that’s okay. I was saying as an investor and also as a business owner, I’m thinking about what’s the way that people can help the most people while also having an efficiently running business. So are you more favorable towards the clinicians working out of their own office space? What do you think about the virtual healthcare as well? What’s your perspective on the different ways that people can get behavioral health services?

Josh (14:20.811)
I’m sorry about that.

Josh (14:50.005)
For behavioral health and mental health, it’s more important to be face to face with that person and face to face with the clinician.

and having a brick and mortar, then just to be, you know, me going to the house just in case if they can’t get there. But it is more important to be face to face at a clinician’s office than virtual. But we did learn how to be virtual during COVID. So a lot of my clients were having a hard time with that.

And that’s how during COVID, they gained a lot of more issues with being isolated by themselves, can’t go out in the community. So in my world, it’s more important to be face to face with a clinician or a caretaker like myself or a social worker like myself than just to be

left alone and being on virtual. So it’s more important for my people to go and face the person being involved with them face to face.

Dylan Silver (16:15.803)
So when I think of that area, I think of just how incredible that area is, the physical beauty of that area. You also have tremendous real estate in that area, businesses. have so many young people who are very passionate about what they do and entrepreneurial. And I’m curious, when we think about behavioral health services, I’ve seen, of course, some of the applications that have come out. And now I’m talking with you, I’m able to get a better perspective. But the kind of telehealth, teledoc,

type of things where you’re able to have a virtual appointment. But I also think that there’s a lot of possible innovation in this space even still. And there’s still some degree of stigma in this space as well. And so I’m curious, as a clinician yourself and as a business owner yourself, where do you see the innovation that’s happening maybe in the next six months to a year, year and a half in the industry?

Josh (17:13.531)
We came a long way since COVID that…

Josh (17:24.839)
COVID they they and it shows that they still need interaction face to face but they are my population as a fact they are that their exception more than just you know going to the doctor’s office room and being virtual with with a staff person there to support them.

Dylan Silver (17:49.498)
Yeah.

Josh (17:50.413)
And there should be more doctors’ offices and more facilities like my own out there to help our people to succeed in life and have less mental health issues out here.

Dylan Silver (18:06.371)
Yeah, you know, I’ve seen what I would describe, and I’m sure you can have a much higher level perspective than this, but this is just my ignorance, but also my life experience that we tend to…

to deal a lot with issues when we’re isolated. And so just having that community, that connection for many people can help tremendously, right? And so the value of an in-person behavioral health visit is able to alleviate some of that strain of doing things so isolated and so alone. At the same point in time, I do realize that

you know, the cost of these offices, specifically where you’re at in South Florida, so expensive. And then to have to work around people’s schedules and rescheduling, it can be very, very, very tricky. And so…

you know, I’m just spitballing here, but I’m thinking if there was a way where someone could kind of combine both the best of those both worlds where there would be a virtual component, but also maybe some type of in person component, whether it was with the clinician themselves or if it was some type of community atmosphere where it would benefit everybody without having to tie up so much time from the clinician. I’m just thinking as a non medical person, you know, what are some ways where this industry is really ripe for innovation? And I think

there’s so many. I also think, you know, of course still battling stigma in many ways, but I think for the younger generation we’re beginning to see more and more acceptance and more of an open mind when it comes to, we have to really, you know, be in charge of our well-being.

Josh (19:52.929)
Yeah, there’s, we are always looking, people in my field, in our community, are always looking for people who want to invest on us, who want to open a house or an office building that say, you have an organ, LLC like myself, and offer different,

you know, services besides mine, you know, maybe learning a skill or teaching them money management or teaching them how to go about driving. Some of my clients wanted, are dying to learn how to which will never happen unless they, and they want to learn how to get married. But.

There should be more people like investors and real estate agents from real estate people that they should open their businesses to say, okay, here’s a house. Why don’t we just open it up to your people, your community, and say, why don’t we open up a day program? Because there’s very limited day programs down here, actually all over the world, that…

either they’re closed down due to abuse or due to what they’re supposed to be doing every month of reporting and doing paperwork and all that. So there’s a need for other facilities like my own day programs to teach them how to succeed in life in any aspect of life.

working, being more inclusive in the community, being accepted in our community. that’s what a lot of my businesses like myself are looking for investors to say, hey, how can we help you as a LLC, a nonprofit, an incorporation?

Josh (22:07.739)
that works with people with disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and all aspects of life that I work with. And we don’t find them. They either want to do it as an investment to rent it out, and that’s why our rents down here are astronomical down here in Florida. And since COVID, people from the North came down here and bought all the properties and

Dylan Silver (22:26.469)
Sure.

Josh (22:37.009)
building up more office buildings to open whatever and there should be more investors to say why don’t we give back to our people that need help not just to make money out of it and put it on our pocket.

Dylan Silver (22:56.443)
Yeah, I couldn’t agree any more with you. It’s tough because, you know, we have our markets, so someone has to own the building, someone’s got to operate it, but we also need these services. And so it’s finding that way to have it be an effective business while also providing great service to people. I think, you know,

As an outsider, think one of the best ways to do it is to have owner-operators, to have individual clinicians who maybe come together, but also could do it individually and be business owners and investors. And I encourage that not just in the medical, but in every field. I say for folks who have a W-2 job and are also looking at other realms that they should very enthusiastically and passionately pursue

pursue that entrepreneurial drive because you’re not gonna replace your income overnight. If you’re in a regular, I shouldn’t say regular, but if you’re in a W-2 job and you wanna become a real estate investor, you gotta start with that first deal. So…

Josh (24:06.082)
You have to look in your backyard and see who needs help and then you know, want to become rich. Help, help.

Dylan Silver (24:10.06)
Exactly.

Josh we are we are coming up on time here. No, it’s okay. We are coming up on time here Where can folks go to get a hold of you Josh?

Josh (24:21.167)
They can email me at lichtensteenj597 at gmail.com or they can call me directly at 718-600-2398.

Dylan Silver (24:44.697)
Alright, Josh, thank you so much for hopping on the show here. I appreciate you giving us some great value. Absolutely.

Josh (24:44.708)
More so on Amos, yeah.

Josh (24:50.564)
Well thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.