Grow Your Occupancy

In March of 2024, The Aspenwood Company experienced a perfect storm of portfolio growth, expanding their footprint 63% in a single month through the addition of a number of properties.

Despite the many distractions at the home office that onboarding the new communities brought, their existing portfolio grew occupancy in that same timeframe.

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Heather Tussing, President, and Eric Varin, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, of The Aspenwood Company about their secrets to occupancy growth in their existing communities while the company was in a period of tremendous portfolio growth.

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, welcomes back Brooke Saxon-Spencer, Vice President of Marketing at Claiborne Senior Living.

The last time Julie and Brooke talked, Brooke shared how Claiborne make the cutting-edge marketing move of eliminating virtually all paper from their marketing department.

In this episode, Brooke shares Claiborne's decision 2 years ago to shut off all lead aggregators, and what the company is seeing as a result.

If you're considering saying no to senior living lead aggregators, here's some advice on what to do and how to prepare for the change.

Senior living communities generate a lot of data in the course of their marketing activities to attract leads. How that data is used – or isn't used – can make a big difference in sales and occupancy success.

At Primrose Retirement Communities, the marketing team pulls the data together to tell a story, and the sales leadership uses that story to influence the behavior of the sales teams.

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, is back with Jessi Weldon, EVP of Sales & Marketing, and Brandon Christiansen, Director of Marketing, from Primrose Retirement Communities. They share how they use their senior living marketing data to tell a story that can be used to influence their sales team's behavior to improve outcomes.

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Staci Lynn, Chief Operating Officer of Wickshire Senior Living, about Wickshire's focus on external business development in its sales strategy.

External business development has had a tremendously positive impact on occupancy in Wickshire's senior living communities. Watch to find out more about this winning sales strategy!

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Chad Carnes, COO of YMP Senior Living and Shelli Webster, Sales Specialist at Grow Your Occupancy, about YMP's entry into the southeast Florida senior living market.

Chad shares his tips for competing against much larger and more established senior living providers including tailoring your efforts for the local area and focusing on the 3 Ps: Product, Pricing, and People.

Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with senior living provider Merrill Gardens' Amanda Warren, VP of Marketing, and Corneil Vacirca, VP of Sales.

They share the advantages of the collaboration between their different sales and marketing roles, how they use data to inform their sales and marketing strategy and decisions, and when to close out a lead in the database.

Senior living prospects and their family members often face a variety of emotional and logistical challenges that can prevent them from moving forward with a senior living decision. Vetting movers and real estate agents, downsizing possessions and furnishings, preparing to sell their home, and actually moving are tops on the list of challenges.

In this podcast, Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Maureen Longoria, CEO and Co-founder of LivNow Relocation, about some recent AARP survey results from seniors considering senior living, the challenges they're facing, and why finding solutions can help you convert more prospects to move-ins.

It's a hot topic in senior living sales: saying no to costly paid referral sources for leads.

But how do you do it?

In this podcast, Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Cindy Robinson, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Capri Senior Communities, about their decision to stop using lead aggregators six years ago, how they did it, and how it's paid off for them.

Seniors and their family members look to senior living communities for guidance and information to help them make the choice of where to live.

While most senior living community websites provide the basic details like services, amenities, floor plans, and levels of care, what the prospects really want is for every aspect of the senior living experience to be demystified. Compelling storytelling about real people's experiences in senior living is vital to meet this want.

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Dan Hutson, VP of Marketing at Priya Living, a senior living marketing thought leader and early proponent of content marketing, about how we can be a resource of help and knowledge for seniors and their families considering senior living.