You Can’t Market Your Way Out of a Dull Community - Day 7

Your activity calendar says a lot more about your community than you think.
(And no! Bingo three times a week doesn’t count as personalized.)

If families visit and see empty chairs, disengaged residents, or the same calendar that hasn’t changed in months...they’re gone.

Because let’s be honest, you can’t market your way out of a dull experience.

So... what’s the cost of a disengaged resident?
👉 Low morale
👉 Faster decline
👉 Negative reviews
👉 And worst of all—families who regret choosing you.

A thoughtful, personalized activity program isn’t just for entertainment.
It’s your quiet powerhouse for referrals, reviews, and retention.

In this episode, we’ll talk about how to reframe your programming as a strategy, not just a schedule.  Let's talk about what it really takes to create engagement that builds occupancy.

If you’ve ever:

• Wondered why your activities aren’t increasing referrals or retention
• Felt like your engagement strategy is just filling time
• Struggled to get residents to actually participate
• Wanted to highlight your community culture without feeling salesy...

This one’s for you.

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Tag me in a screenshot or selfie of you listening to the podcast, and let me know the name of your community—I’d love to give you a shoutout in an upcoming episode!

Transcript

Tiffany: 0:00

/Uh huh. Welcome to Start With Occupancy, the podcast for senior living owners, operators, and sales professionals./Hi, I'm Tiffany, marketing strategist and former corporate baddie who got tired of producing results for wall street and wanted to make a change on main street./I provide quick tips, idea nuggets, and case studies to help you with proven sales, marketing, and business development strategies along with leadership concepts so that you can inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes for the aging, their families and your teams./I'm committed to equipping you with the tools, the knowledge and resources that you need to excel in your business./With over 12 years of experience working inside senior living companies, large and small, I've developed a deep passion for advocating for the aging adult and those who care for them, all while driving business growth./So whether you're already in the senior care industry or maybe you would like to be, if your mission is to serve them, my mission is to serve you./Join me as we unravel the strategies and tactics that drive success in your business while making a difference in someone's life./The goal is to touch, guide, and impact the lives of 10 families per month!/Are you with me? It's time to be inspired, gain practical tips and own your future./Well, hello. We are now on day seven of the All Things Senior Living, um, series that we're doing is, uh, 21 days in the series. And what's happened here is, You know, I just had covid. Can you believe that I'm trying to do this where it can come out every single day and what do I get is Covid. I am just like, you know what? It's either, and I keep saying that it is God, are you trying to tell me something? But soon as I think he is and somebody's like, I love what you're doing. And so it goes, it goes round and round. And so all I can say is the challenges of life. It is what it is. Listen, you guys, I am so glad you have stuck by me during this time. I am so grateful for you. Thank you. Um, this podcast is definitely, in my heart to do. I wish I could just work faster. That is the only thing about all of this that I am just like, oh my God, can I not work any faster? And technology is just. It's just me kicking my butt when it comes to this, but yet I know how to make a, a AI voice agent to answer your phone. It is just weird. It was like, the things I know and, and the things I have challenges with is just, to me is stupid, but whatever. What I'm trying to do is plow through the series. Um, and the goal was always to have it 20- 25 minutes for each segment so I can give you what you need, give you practical tips, have you, you know, go through it and, and then, and then punch out, right? And none of it has ever happened in any of the series. As, as always, I go over, so this time I didn't write as many notes. I'm hoping to get through this within, um, a 30 minute timeframe, so by the time I do editing, it'll be back down to the 25 minutes. But I want to hear from you. Let me know. Do you wish for it to be longer and more detailed, or do you wish for it to be shorter, nuggets and moving forward, fast, furious pace. And as always, I would love for you to subscribe to the podcast. I would also love for you to, DM me a screenshot of you listening to the podcast. You can do it of yourself selfie shot. Tell me the name of your community that you work with or that you own, and I would love to have the opportunity to shout you out on the podcast. What we're talking about is personalized activity programs that resonate with prospective residents. The whole point of this series is to give you a, a snapshot of all things senior living. It is specifically designed for those who are new into the industry, whether you are opening up your own place, or you're coming in as someone to work for a big box community or a corporate location. I call it corporate locations rather than big box. But since I've been, made aware of the residential world, you guys apparently call it big box. When I think big box, I think 300 or more units, at least 180 units, that's to me big box because that's what we call it. An assisted living or an independent living or whatever have you. So, um, it is really interesting how words are used. What we're talking about again is personalized activity programs. And, this is so important because there are, two things that the actual resident looks forward to when they move into a community. Number one is the activities, and number two is food. Those things makes residents happy. Um, family members worry about more care and communication to them about their loved one and also, family members are concerned about the happiness and wellbeing of their loved one while they live with you. So you have to understand and always remember, and I've said this on the last episode, um, that you have two individuals that you're serving in this type of business. It's very different than a lot of businesses because most businesses you have, you, you have the customer, right? Or you have your client. Rarely do you have a business where you have the actual client, and that client is the actual person you're serving. But then, also their loved one, their, their family member is also a client that you're serving. It's a different dynamic Let's go through what is an activity program. Different places call it different things. Um, resident enrichment, um, activities, socialization. These are all words that float around. Um, but It's what residents do when they live with you. At the end of the day, that's what it is. What do you have for them to do besides sitting in front of a television, and eating. And so one of the things that. Is always a challenge is making sure that the activities are not generic and that they serve your residents. One of the things that I find is a challenge in the corporate locations is not that there's not a way to personalize these activities, but it's the willingness to do it. Meaning this, what is most convenient for that Activity Director? Depending on the activity director, they are really into what they're doing and a lot of times they will make it personalized. Where I worked as a community liaison or sales manager inside of community, I had some Activity Directors, that was absolutely phenomenal. But as a regional, been to many other communities where I have seen, Um, unwillingness to go deeper and to dig deeper into who the residents were and to create a program that was really, um, beneficial. So one of the things that we're gonna do is go through that. The first thing is, making sure that it's not generic, but it is tailored to the, um, specifics of who your residents are. So families and residents want to feel like the activities that you create, the programs that you create for their loved ones aren't generic and is tailored to their specific needs because everybody have their own thing when they move in with you, who they were before they became who they are now, and they're always the same person. So I think it's, it's up to us to recognize who they are, um, and to find what makes them light up. At the end of the day, that has always been my goal is finding out what makes my new residents come in, light up. What have they stopped doing that they loved doing that I can assist them in going back to um, or what is it that they love doing already that we can continue. And this is so important when it comes to the move in because when you start asking those questions, if you go back to a few episodes, we have the five keys. Um, and one of those five keys is their legacy. And their legacy is learning all the things about them. It's either their legacy or their life story you know, depending on what, who you are and how you call it. But that is understanding who they are as a person. And then are we creating a program when they move in with us to honor who they are right now and the things that they like to do. And it sometimes it's, it's a delicate balance because you have so many different people, so many different personalities. Um, but usually you can find something that's core with everyone or you can break people up into smaller groups, even in a smaller home and have maybe two people who like crafts over here doing crafts. Then, you might have two people over here who love doing crossword puzzles and have their own little book club. Um, you can have two people over here who, really enjoys, trivia. Like you can create that environment no matter how big or how small you are. The key is understanding what it is that the residents like and who you have coming in. A thoughtful activity program shows families that their loved one's individuality is valued, but it shows residents that they're being heard and they're seen and that they are also valued. So I think as an operator owner of a senior care home, you have to, um, really embrace and understand that in every step of the way, your job and your goal is to make sure that the resident feels seen, heard and valued. Because that's one of the things as people get older, they struggle with that feeling. Um, but then when it comes to their family members, you want members to know that their person, meaning their mom, their dad, their uncle, their grandmother, their grandfather, whoever it is that they are advocating for is loved and valued and supported and cared for, and how do you care for people but by listening to the things that they love, the things that they like to do, and then you find ways to help make that happen for them. I'm gonna give you some examples. I had someone, and I don't know if I did some, an earlier episode, so if I do, I'm, I'm sorry if I'm repeating the same story, but there's all these different stories that float in my head. 14 years. I have tons, right? So there's someone, I couldn't even tell you his name. And anytime I talked about any of these people, by the way, I always change the names. So let's start there. I don't ever say what their actual names are, but I really don't remember their name because we never called them their name. We always called them,"Ma and Pa". Ma had dementia. Pa did not. He was the caretaker at home. When ma got to a certain level in her dementia, it was not safe for her to be at home with Pa, they moved into my community. If you ever seen the milk carton with the lady who's kind of short and pudgy with a round face, and then the guy who's tall and slender with the overalls, this is that couple, this is exactly what they look like. I mean, to the T. The thing is, is that their country folks, their words, not mine. And so. Pa was concerned. He knew that MA needed help and attention, and he understood that as much as he loved his wife, he knew that he couldn't do it anymore by himself. He did have that revelation, so they moved in together as a couple. She was able to stay in assisted living with him because they couldn't be separated based off of their dynamic with each other. And for most couples, that is. A lot of times the case, sometimes the couple would have to move into memory care because of her or his advancement. Other times they could stay in assisted living because the person with dementia was not a risk for exiting the community. Ma was not a risk because she just followed PA like a little puppy. She was so cute and so sweet, but Pa was concerned about moving in because whew. how's he gonna get his collard greens? Who's gonna grow his cucumbers? Oh, he, he had all these things and the family was like, this is gonna destroy my dad. He, you know, he's going to move here in the big city Jacksonville back then, and he's not gonna, he's not gonna enjoy his time. This is gonna be really, really hard for him. And so I had the idea, why can't we turn our courtyard, at least a portion of it. Take the flowers that we have and the beautiful things out and make that into a garden where all of our residents can en enjoy. They can all participate in flowering it and in planting and, and doing that. And, he can go out there and it could be an activity, um, that him and Ma could do together because that's what they were used to. My executive director said yes, and the Activity Director was like, yes. The Maintenance Director was like, really, guys? Okay, I can do this. We got him, to agree to it. And so he got the lawn guys, to move those things over in terms of the flowers and the other plants, and we had the soil treated. We made sure that there was a ability to have water through the irrigation He wanted to water it himself. But we did make sure that on those days he wasn't feeling good or anything, the plants was still get taken care of. And, we planted a little garden and he loved it. Him and her would walk, go to breakfast, come back, they would go to their little garden. I mean, it was amazing. So that is a way of creating a thoughtful activity that is very specialized to the person who's moving in and figuring out how it would interact with the other residents and getting the other residents on board. Um, I have tons of other stories. I wanna say this activities should never be just a schedule filler. You're not just throwing things in there just so people can be busy. You're not throwing things in there just so you can check a box um, you're not just there just to have it so it can look good for a family and then in the end, the person is just sitting there watching, Wheel Of Fortune and the Price Is Right and Jeopardy. We are here to really impact lives. And how do you impact lives when they're just sitting there? We all have a business to run. We all do that, and I understand that, but this is a part of the business. I will say that your programming for activities is the window into your community soul. I really do feel like that. Um, there are some communities I follow on their Facebook page. And when you have an active and engaged community, what happens is that you get the highlight and show that, and there will be family members who will check your community if they call you and they're gonna look at your Facebook page to see what you have posted. They will also check the reviews. So your presence on social isn't just for your marketing. I mean, it's also your branding. Meaning, when people go to your Facebook page, what do they see and what is their glimpse and window into what your community is like? Like, I just recently saw someone who said, well, we had our Facebook page for years, And it hasn't generated any business for so for us, so we are not going to be posting on it. And I thought, oh my God, big mistake. You misunderstood the whole reason for having a Facebook page or any social media page. And then when I looked back and I was looking at all their postings, it was always pictures of the place empty and them saying that they have availability. That is never a part of what your Facebook is for people knowing that you have three beds open, which number one, that's wrong lingo number two, that's not marketing. Um, number three, it doesn't show what a thriving community looks like when you just show empty rooms, um, or the outside of your community. If you don't have a social media strategy, then that's what you need so that you can understand how to draw number one, people in and then that you're able to utilize social to highlight what you're doing and the culture of your community. So that when you do have people who, request more information about your community, you can give them that link and you can say, see what we've done here. See what we've done there. See what we did in February. Look, this is what we do for our residents, for their birthdays. It is a documentation of who you are as a community. I want to make sure that we understand that. We wanna make sure that we create an atmosphere of love and support and care, but also of enjoyment, fun and entertainment, um, for our residents. So here's the framework. How do you do this? How do you make it more personalized? Number one is that you assess. A part of your discovery is assessing what the needs of the person is, right? But you should be assessing not just healthcare needs, you should be assessing what their emotional needs are. You should be assessing what their mental needs are. You should be assessing, um, their, um, nutritional needs. It is not just mom is having problems, cooking. It shouldn't just be mom is falling all the time. It shouldn't just be that mom is getting a little bit forgetful. You, need to make sure that you're also looking at, was mom married, what did mom do for a living? Um, what are mom's hobbies? What does she like? What is her typical day like? What are the things that she used to do that she enjoyed that she's no longer doing. Was she a social person? Was she a craft person? That's a part of the assessment. You want to make sure that you do that and how you do that is by giving the family when they have made that decision, okay, we want to choose you, a survey. There's many different ways you can do this. You can do it through. an iPad, with a questionnaire. You can do it through a, a form or a document that is, linked to your website that they fill out. Assess what their needs are to uncover what the hobbies and what the passions are of the person. So that is the A portion of it. The C portion of it is called Create, and this is where after the assessment, you get the information and then you create programs that is going to stimulate them mentally that's going to help them emotionally. That will also, help them with their creativity The other thing is spiritually. What is their spiritual leanings were before they moved into your community, and how can you help that continue? Um, is that a Bible study? Is that a, a book club with Christian authors? Is that a sing time singing old gospel hymns? Is that people coming to your community and playing, music? Like there's all these different things and you should be looking at the whole man. I went to a college and they always talked about educating the whole man, mind, body, and spirit. And when you are setting up your community, you should be thinking about the same thing, mind, body, and spirit. Okay, So you, how do you create these activities? You design them based on who they are. There's trivia, there's memory boxes that people love, where they get to go down memory lane. There is martini making I had a resident who drank Jack Daniels every single night. Just one drink. Small. But she knew the history of Jack Daniels and she knew, all the stuff like, and that was her thing. Right. You know what I'm saying? I've had residents who really, loved cooking. They really loved cooking and they didn't cook anymore. So having, cooking demonstrations and having them doing little things, even at the table and preparing meals. Um. I always tease my mom. Her thing is always going to be folding clothes. I don't know what it is with my mom and doing laundry. My mom loves folding clothes and she knows this. Like we go on a cruise and my mom on the night before the last day is like, welp, we're gonna do laundry. And I'm thinking, I am on a cruise, ma'am. I am not doing laundry. She's like, well. I'll do the laundry then, and so she'll get my clothes, she'll get my son's clothes, and this woman will do laundry on the last day of a cruise because she wants to have clean clothes when she gets home. When I tell you she loves laundry, she really does love laundry. I don't even have words people like chili, cook-off where they do tasting, um, all sorts of stuff. You can do so much, but it also needs to be in terms of who your residents are. And one thing I would always tell my families when I worked at this community where we had an amazing Activity Director, I would say, what you see today in terms of programming for our residents will be different maybe a year from now because we'll have new residents that come in and their interest is going to be very different and she will create activities based off of those people interests. And, bingo should not be your go-to for everything. Please do not let it be your go-to for everything. The other part of that is the T. So our framework is called the ACT method because you want to be active in these residents' lives and you want to help them to become active. So there's the ACT, how about that? Um, but testing, you wanna pilot new programs with small groups and adjust it based on the feedback. Sometimes If you have all women, you can have a ladies group do the nails. You can have massages, you can have massage therapists come in. These are all little things that makes a difference. It can be the Red Hat Society coming in. There's so many things. Never limit yourself. Look at what is popular going on around you that people love. With AI, you can come up with ideas for you through Chat GPT is the one I would probably utilize for something like that as opposed to some of the others because I think it will be a little bit more in depth, um, compared to, let's say, Gemini or, or a copilot. Um, I don't use Claude or Perplexity, so I don't know about those two. But, I do know Chat GPT will give you a really good plan. So the key is, is to gather the information, create it, and then create your own custom GPT that can create activities for you. If you need, more information about how to do that, I am going to have a class about it. It's going be integrated in my bootcamp. But. You know, learning these things is so important because it's going to help you become a better owner and operator. The one thing I will say when it comes to those surveys that always bothered me working in corporate is for memory care, we gave them what they, we call their life story. And it was usually a multi-page booklet about their life. The thing is, it was always kept in memory care, for the staff to interact. So they knew about the people. They also did what they call life boxes. So outside of everybody's apartment in memory care, they had a box that had the person's picture. And it was more for the resident to recognize, this is my, my room compared to all the other rooms. So if you do run a memory care community, these are some of the things that you might want to think about doing. Um, but I never understood why it wasn't the same in assisted living. Because at the end of the day, when you have assisted living, you, you still have people who are helping them with showers, who's giving meds, who's, you know, interacting in the dining room and none of the staff would know anything about the person, because the Activity Director would meet with the person one-on-one, the resident, and would get the information. But, it was kept with the Activity Director. And, I was like, what a disservice. I think we're missing a really, um, vital piece of how to make this community that much more interesting and that much more vibrant, um, and get everybody on board and involved and excited to learn more about the residents. I always felt like that was missing. So that's something that you could do in your community. When you get these interest forms, these surveys, to share it with your staff. What is, something that's interesting that might interest the staff to learn more about. Um, and are you hiring curious staff? Are you hiring staff that's really interested in what they're doing? Because if they are, they're interested in people and learning about their residents, you know, so this was always something that I thought was a missed opportunity in the, the bigger boxes. If you want to know more about what a legacy box is and how to do that, please, like always you can DM me. And then all my lives that I'm going to be starting, I'm going to answer questions that I receive. called Mentor Moments, and it'll be on YouTube. But in those mentor moments. I will be able to, talk to you guys and answer your questions. So I figured that would be the easiest way because if you have a question, chances are somebody else does too. Um, but these are just some of the high level ideas. Um, let's see how close I am to my 25 minutes, and I'm at 36 already. Let me know if this helped you at all in understanding, um, number one. The importance of having a really thoughtful activity program in your community and why it's important. Uh, number two is that the program is going to help your families see that their loved ones are valued because you took the time to create one just for them or for group of them, um, that have the same interest. Families really love that. Um, and then understanding that your activity schedule is not just a filler. It's not just you throwing spaghetti at the wall, but as you really being very intentional. And, then utilizing the assessment, creating the program, and testing that program with your residents is the formulation for crafting a real personalized program that is going to help your residents become engaged. Because at the end of the day, they're supposed to thrive with you. While people are getting older, it doesn't mean that they have to decline. And that means cognitively. The body is going to do what the body's going to do. But there's no reason why somebody moves in with you and then because they're with you and there's no activity, there's no stimulation mentally, there's nothing for them to do, and you're not walking them around, moving them that they are now declining faster than they were at home. This is again, a part of owning a senior care home. Right. Um, so while people do have natural aging, I have known people to live in a community for 10 years, for 11 years in memory care, 11 years maybe. I think she was even 12 in memory care. Um, again, it was a really good memory care, though. They were very engaged and they were very good. You have, things that happen with people because everyone's different. Everyone's not gonna be with you for 10 years. That's not going to happen. But you still want to make sure that you are giving people options, choices and that you are doing the best work for an aging adult and their caregiving adult family member. That is what I have today. I will finish up, the series day by day. I hope that we'll have some for you to binge off of over the next few days as you go into the Memorial Day weekend. If you haven't listened to the old ones starting off on day one, go back, six episodes and that's where it starts. Maybe seven actually, because I think I have a bonus episode in there. And just, just go through it and hopefully all of this will help you as you are in the process of opening your community. But then also if you've just opened and you want to grow your community and you want to know how to do that. But then If you have a community now and you're just needing a restart, a refresher, this will be very helpful to you. Alright, well I thank you so much for your time. I value your time. And, um, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and also do not forget to. Let me know if any of this was helpful. If you have more questions, DM me. I answer my DMs and you can reach me at Tiffany Hill Allen on Instagram. Um, also Start With Occupancy on Instagram and then Start With Occupancy is also on Facebook as a Facebook page. By the way, I also have to Start With Occupancy on YouTube. There is no excuse. There is no excuse. You can reach me if you want to. So let me know the questions and I will figure out a way to integrate that into my content. Alright you guys, hope you have a wonderful day.