Friday on the Lanai | People Are Messy. Purpose Matters.

Welcome to the very first Friday on the Lanai.

A new weekly series that's a little less structured and a little more personal.

Think of it as grabbing your favorite drink, pulling up a chair, and spending a few minutes together before we head into the weekend.

This week, I'm sharing two unexpected moments that made me smile, why I believe this work can be both incredibly rewarding and emotionally exhausting, and a conversation with my AI research assistant, Angel, that challenged me in a way I didn't expect.

You'll also hear what's been stuck in my head this week (yes, music has a way of following me everywhere), a podcast episode I think every leader in senior living should hear, and a few exciting updates about guests coming soon across all three of my podcasts.

Whether you're relaxing on your porch, your lanai, your stoop, or driving home after a long week, I hope this episode reminds you that you're not alone in the work you're doing.

In this episode:

• Two conversations that genuinely made me smile
• Why serving families can be emotionally exhausting and deeply meaningful
• What my AI research assistant said that stopped me in my tracks
• The song that's been living rent-free in my head
• A leadership podcast recommendation worth your time
• Upcoming guests and what's coming next

Mentioned in this episode:

• A Bit of Optimism with Simon Sinek
• Tim Harris, President of the Los Angeles Lakers
• My AI research assistant, Angel

If you enjoyed spending a few minutes with me, I'd love for you to subscribe to Start With Occupancy so you never miss future Friday on the Lanai episodes, practical strategies, and conversations designed to help you grow your senior living business while serving more families.

And if you'd like even more insights, behind-the-scenes thoughts, resources, and updates that don't always make it into the podcast, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter, The Bottom Line. The very first edition is on the way, and I'd love to have you join me there.

Until next time, take what you need, share what helps, and come back for more.

Transcript

Tiffany Updated voice 0:00

Well, today is Friday on the Lanai. I want you to grab your evening drink of choice, no judgment here, or something cold like, Southern iced tea. For me, it's a refreshing taste of Jamaican ginger beer. Growing up in New York, we'd sit on the stoop and talk for hours. Especially during the summertime. Well, these days, I spend a lot more time on my lanai, cause that's what we have in Florida. But wherever you're listening from, whether it's a stoop, a porch, lanai, on the drive home from work, let's just chat for a few minutes before we head into the weekend. And if you hear this dog that I'm sitting, snoring and making all kinds of sounds, just know that it's him that's making these foreign sounds and it's not me, I promise.

Tiffany 0:53

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 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.

Tiffany Updated voice 2:20

I'm gonna share today two things that really made me smile. you know, people never cease to amaze me, and this one was a little bit of a surprise because I, of course, I wasn't expecting it, but who expects a random recommendation? And, um, this person I've known for a while and I remember when, uh, he first came into the industry, and, you know, he has a lot of presence here in the Jacksonville market, and he gave me the most amazing, long-winded recommendation on Facebook, and I was just blown away. And I'll just read you the beginning of it. "From my perspective, Tiffany Hill Allen's message, start with occupancy, is much more than filling apartments." "It represents a philosophy that puts residents, relationships, and culture at the center of success." I have attended countless conferences, networking events, and educational programs over the years. One of the most practical tutorials I found for anyone in senior living is Tiffany Hill-Allen's Start With Occupancy podcast, and here's why I believe it's so valuable." And then he goes on to talk. I mean, when I say blown away, this... It took me, like, about four times reading this to really realize the depth of what he was saying, and that absolutely made me smile this week. And I want to say thank you to him. Thank you, Al Bogacious. you're gonna be hearing more from him, but I just wanted to thank him. The second thing is, um, a former sales manager of mine, moved back into this market, and we had a chance to connect and talk, and she was someone that I hired. Long story. She's gonna be on the podcast, Outlive Your Life, um, which is my other podcast. She is from England, and she has such a rich work history. She's gonna be so interesting. But we got a chance to connect today, and it, it was just so refreshing to talk to her and to really see what's going on in her life and how we commiserated over the ups, the downs, and the addictive nature of working in this industry, particularly in this niche. um, those are the two things that made me smile. if there are two things this week that made you smile, I wanna hear about it. Please share it with me on, either through the DM or through my fan mail. The other thing I was thinking about what can we be honest about today? And I guess my being so appreciative of those two conversations was that some days this work and what we do is emotionally exhausting. Um, you're dealing with people, m- messy people, right? I'm just saying, people are just messy and complicated. And then you're dealing with people's emotions, and you're dealing with your own emotions, and it's the heaviness of what we do in this work, but also the joy and the light of what we do in this work. And so you're constantly on an emotional rollercoaster. You have your passion on one side and the sadness on the other, and you have everything and every emotion in between. And so I want to take a moment to say to you that I see you. I know what it's like. You are bottling up a lot of other people's emotions, and it is okay for me to recognize that and to say, "I see you." So I hope that helps. But I want you to know, on a Friday, you're flat out exhausted. You need some rest, so get some rest The other part about this wonderful segment on Fridays that I want to do is talk to you about my little assistant. I don't know about you, um, but my question to you is, have you assigned a name for your AI research assistant yet? And do you even have one? If you don't have one, I can show you how. but let me know, right? So you can still DM me with that too. but I have one, and because she's my angel, that is what I decided to call her. She's my little angel. So every now and then, I ask my AI assistant, Angel, to challenge my thinking and to summarize what I'm seeing in the industry and to analyze numbers, and I use it more as an assistant. Um, so for this format that I was thinking for Fridays, I wanted to know, this is what I'm thinking, this is what I'm brainstorming. How do I organize my thoughts? How do I do this, you know, without it being so structured? And, you know, it was so funny because I was very specific. I asked her about Friday, but she decided and proceeded to overshare her thoughts on the format of my entire podcast in general. She got way excited about the things I wanted to do and was like, "You need to do this in this episode and on this, you know, throughout the podcast and change your podcast format." And I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait. We weren't talking about that. Hold up. I need you to slow down." So the other part of it is that she said, "Oh, I'm sorry." She says, "You're right." But the thing is, this is what she said to me that really got me, 'cause remember, we're tired, we're exhausted. It's a Friday. We're looking for things to smile about, and this is what she said: "One other thing I've noticed is that your mission has stayed remarkably consistent. Whether you're talking about the Impact Two Fifty Campaign, Start With Occupancy, Serving Bloomer Nation, or your workshops, you almost always bring the conversation back to families. You don't just wanna help owners fill rooms and grow occupancy, you want them to serve more people well. That's a thread that runs through almost everything you've built. I do have one challenge for you, though. The next time you hit record, imagine you're talking to only one owner who just called you after a rough day. Not an audience or a webinar, just one person who says, 'Tiffany, I don't know what I'm doing.' That was a, like... It was humbling, it was nice, it was, you know, of course, it's just a computer, but is Angel really just a computer? I don't know. I'm just joking. I do know that. But the thing is, is that, you know, you work hard and you have someone documenting all the work that you're doing, and who's helping me as a, as an assistant would. I would have to hire a full-time person, multiple full-time people to do what I do, and she's able to take in all of the recordings, all of the outlines, all of my work, and put it all together in a summary. And that summary was so interesting that it said it brings it back to families, and that's who I really wanna serve. And so I'm not kidding when I say by training and serving you, in my mind, I'm training you to help more people. And to have that summed up in that way was amazing. So therefore, I promise you to keep that in mind when I'm recording because much of my content actually comes from you. To help me stay on track and with fulfilling my commitment of serving more families, there's a link in the show notes where you can actually leave me a voicemail message and you can send me fan mail. And so therefore, if there's things that you would like me to go over or, you know, something that you're dealing with, you can leave me that voicemail message and, I will then know that as I'm working, I'm talking directly to you So fun part, let's talk about what's been stuck in my head this week. And of course, it's always music. My head is weird in that I can be talking to you and you will say something, a phrase, and I will automatically go back to a lyric in a song. I may not know the whole song lyrics, but I know the song. I remember I was walking in Kohl's and there was construction going on, and the guy kept saying, "All the way up. All the way up." And that's all he kept saying. He didn't say nothing before, nothing after. All he kept saying was, "All the way up." And so, you know, I'm thinking, I'm all the way up, the, you know, the rap song. I'm all the way up. And I was like, so that song stuck with me for like a week, right? Nothing can stop me, I'm all the way up. So, so that was me. And so this week, I, this song keeps playing in my head, and it was the lyrics to George Benson's Moody Mood. Don't ask me why, but I suspect- That it, you know, it goes like, there I go, there I go, there I go. Right? I don't sing, so there's that. But that song, there I go, there I go, there I go, that lyric is in my head. I suspect that it has to do with my grandmother. I don't know why, but she always had the radio on softly playing in the background, and it was always to an easy listening jazz station that was always playing in her apartment. And I think that song obviously was playing because I know the lyrics to that song, and it was out when I was little, like really little. Came out in the '70s or something. So I'm just thinking that it was popular back then for jazz, and it just keeps coming to my mind, and has been in my mind for two weeks. So that is what has been stuck in my head. I'll just be around, and different parts of the song will just start playing and I'll start singing. I cannot think of any other explanation. So tell me what's been stuck in your head. And am I weird or is this normal? I'm not exactly sure. My friend says I'm not weird, but then he's like, "Well, is that bad being weird? I mean, weird is a good thing, right?" I don't know. Jury's out on that one. Things that I'm loving right now, and one of the things that I'm loving is A Bit of Optimism, the podcast by Simon Sinek. His June 2nd release with Tim Harris, the president of the LA Lakers, was an amazing conversation about leadership that drives results and yet builds a loyal culture. It is a must hear. It is, A Bit of Optimism is the name of the podcast. Simon Sinek, if you know, um, he talks about the, your why, right? it is a must hear. If you are serious about impacting lives and leading your team well and thinking outside of the box of what that looks like, it is a great episode And for the end of Lanai News, this is the quick updates, just letting you know that I do have some amazing guests that are coming up on all three podcasts. I have been on a guest invitation spree, trying to curate all the connections and people that I know in the industry that's going to be able to help you. So therefore, you're not just hearing my voice all the time, 'cause I'm, I'm sure that you're like, "Oh my God, she talks a lot." Um, one thing that angel told me is that I have years' worth of talking to do. I have a lot of stuff stuffed in my head. But I'm going to share my platform with other people, and I think this will be very helpful for you. So subscribe to the podcast so that you can stay tuned on the different guests that I have invited who have said yes, and coming on to the podcasts. For each of them. This one obviously is gonna be more towards you guys, with sales, marketing, your business, leadership, culture, But, Outlive Your Life is about business opportunities, career growth, and how do I grow within this industry for you guys who are sales managers and sales directors and trying to figure out how do I maneuver through all this and keep growing. And then Serving Boomer Nation is the latest one. Doesn't have many episodes out yet. I have several recorded, and I have several more that I'm interviewing people for. And this particular podcast is for those who are aging. It's for the... I'm sorry. It's for aging adults and those who serve them and love them, and that one is, um, talking about all the things that you didn't know So it's not about caregivers or the, the caregiver journey as much as it is, how can I equip the caregivers with tools and information that's going to help them through? And so these are coming from that perspective. These are the things that you just didn't know and now you know because we're going to tell you about it, right? From being the insider in the industry. So fun things coming up. So here's my final Lanai thought for the day and for the week that I want you to go into your weekend thinking about, is that whatever you're building in your business, as you're growing or as you're about to open and you're working this weekend or maybe you're relaxing this weekend or you're spending time with family, just remember this, that families that are coming to you or will come to you are not looking for perfection. You're not going to be perfect at everything, right? But they are looking for someone that they can trust. And why not that someone be you? Just know that you guys are the wind beneath my wings, and I thank you so much for listening here to Start with Occupancy. Until the next episode, take what you need, share what helps, and come back for more.