Tips from Trestle: The Senior Living Food and Hospitality Podcast

How can senior living teams better support families through dementia? Aaron Fish talks with Dawn Platt, National Director of Memory Care at Discovery Senior Living and host of The Disappearing Mind. She has more than 30 years in dementia care and cared for her mother through vascular dementia.

In this episode:

• Why families resist a diagnosis, and why it matters

• 120+ types of dementia, and why not everything is dementia

• Ambiguous loss and how to reframe grief

• Sibling conflict and family dynamics

• Why every behavior is a voice

• The four stages of understanding

• Why one-size-fits-all memory care no longer works

Perfect for senior living operators, memory care directors, and hospitality and dining leaders.

And follow The Disappearing Mind Podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Follow Tips from Trestle on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. More at trestlehospitalityconcepts.com. Sponsored by WiseOx AI, Link Consulting , the Dining with Dementia Workshop, and the 100% Leader.

How does a senior living community build a brand families trust before they ever tour? Aaron Fish talks with Sara Mitchell, now COO and CMO of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, about branding, rebranding, and authentic marketing. Recorded live while Sara was president and co-founder of a senior living marketing agency, the episode covers Google reviews and SEO, boomers turning 80, tour-day hospitality, rebrand mistakes, recruiting, website and Facebook metrics, lead forms, consistent messaging, and resident ambassadors. A practical listen for senior living marketers, executive directors, sales teams, and operators.

Tips from Trestle is sponsored by: WiseOx AI, Link Consulting, Dining With Dementia, & The 100% Leader

What if a better end-of-life experience in senior living begins long before someone’s final days?

Aaron Fish sits down with Heather Holmes, co-founder of The Vibe, a nature-inspired dementia care home in Gretna, Nebraska. Heather brings experience in senior living, therapeutic recreation, and death doula work to a candid discussion about dementia care, family conversations, and the way communities support caregivers through grief.

They explore how The Vibe plans to use gardens, natural light, music, food, and a quieter daily rhythm to create a sense of home. Heather also explains why she wants teams to learn each person’s story early, talk openly about end-of-life wishes, and give families room to ask difficult questions.

The conversation ends with a practical challenge for senior living operators: get clear on what you believe about aging, caregiving, and death—then ask your team what they believe. A thoughtful listen for leaders in memory care, assisted living, hospitality, and family support.

TFT is sponsored by WiseOx AI, LINK Consulting, Dining With Dementia, & The 100% Leader

Why do capable senior living leaders become overwhelmed, reactive, and stuck answering every question?

In this episode of Tips from Trestle, Aaron Fish sits down with Jill Valdez, Founder and COO of Link Consulting, to explore one of senior living’s most pressing operational challenges: leadership clarity.

Jill explains why a strong caregiver, department head, or marketer is not automatically prepared to become an executive director—and what organizations must do to help emerging leaders succeed. Together, Aaron and Jill unpack how unclear roles, weak delegation, and inconsistent accountability affect team culture, employee engagement, resident satisfaction, family trust, occupancy, and financial performance.

You’ll hear practical strategies for:

• Delegating without losing control
• Setting clear decision-making guardrails
• Building accountability through standups, shift handoffs, and KPIs
• Developing department leaders instead of creating bottlenecks
• Connecting leadership behavior to resident experience
• Diagnosing the gap between today’s reality and a thriving community vision

A must-listen for executive directors, regional operators, owners, clinical leaders, hospitality professionals, and anyone building stronger senior living teams.

Can AI make senior living feel more personal, not less?

In this episode of Tips From Trestle, host Aaron Fish talks with Lance Bell, CEO and Chief AI Officer of ServingIntel, about how senior living communities are killing pen-and-paper workflows and building unified AI operating systems for dining, housekeeping, retail, and maintenance. Aaron and Lance explore how proactive AI check-ins let caregivers walk into a resident's room already knowing about her recent yoga class or an overcooked breakfast — turning small moments into major trust builders. They also cover in-room pre-ordering, voice-AI order taking, real-time AI satisfaction surveys, and how eliminating operational friction directly impacts NOI, staffing, and resident quality of life. A practical, candid conversation for senior living operators exploring AI, hospitality technology, and resident experience strategy. Learn more about ServingIntel at servingintel.com.

What happens when a two-time James Beard semifinalist brings restaurant systems into senior living dining? Host Aaron Fish sits down with Steven Cameron, VP of Culinary Experience at Trestle Hospitality Concepts, to break down the four complaints every dining room hears — and which ones are solvable with equipment and SOPs versus culture and training.

Steven shares the real story of clocking a 28-minute table greet, then using host stands, back waiters, server sections, and reservations to cut dinner service from two and a half hours to 52 minutes, with residents helping shape the change. They also cover point-of-sale systems senior living operators overlook, how to adapt fine dining structures for assisted living and memory care, and how a standardized catering program can become an unexpected revenue stream.

Connect with Steven at trestlehospitalityconcepts.com or [email protected].

Tips from Trestle is sponsored by: WiseOx AI, Dining with Dementia Workshop, and the 100% Leader.

Keywords: senior living dining, restaurant efficiency, hospitality leadership, point-of-sale systems, resident experience, dining room service, senior living operations, culinary leadership.

Falls are one of the biggest fears in memory care — but new research suggests the fix might be simpler than we think. Host Aaron Fish sits down with Deborah Rothschild, founder of ToughAgers LLC and creator of Debra Does Fitness, live from the Eden Alternative International Conference. Deborah unpacks a 9-week study comparing resistance training, aerobic exercise, and social visits in people with dementia — and reveals which approach actually improved cognition. She also explains the four types of memory that shape how you should coach a fitness session, why she borrows principles from her former career as a Montessori preschool teacher, and how music tied to someone's "sticky years" can unlock movement other cues can't reach. A practical, research-backed conversation for anyone building fall-prevention and wellness programming in senior living.Tips from Trestle is sponsored by:

• WiseOx: https://bit.ly/TFT_WiseOx
• Dining With Dementia: https://bit.ly/TFT_DwD
• 100% Leader: https://bit.ly/TFT_100

#TFT523 #SeniorLiving #DementiaCare #FallPrevention #MemoryCare #AgingWell #SeniorFitness #ToughAgers #EdenAlternative #HealthyAging #CaregiverTips #LongTermCare #BrainHealth #MontessoriMethod #IndependentLiving #ActivitiesDirector

When disaster strikes a senior living community, the immediate emergency is only the beginning.

Aaron Fish welcomes Claudine Ripert of Critical Control to discuss senior living disaster preparedness, property protection, resident relocation, insurance coverage, FEMA documentation, and the long tail of recovery. Claudine explains her Predict, Prepare, Recover framework and shares why leadership teams need clearer decision authority, stronger vendor relationships, regular insurance reviews, and better documentation before an event occurs.

This episode is essential listening for senior living executives, regional operators, executive directors, risk-management teams, and anyone responsible for protecting residents, teams, and community assets.

Tips from Trestle is sponsored by:

• WiseOx: https://bit.ly/TFT_WiseOx
• Dining With Dementia: https://bit.ly/TFT_DwD
• 100% Leader: https://bit.ly/TFT_100

#TFT523 #SeniorLiving #SeniorLivingLeadership #EmergencyPreparedness #DisasterRecovery #BusinessContinuity #RiskManagement #ResidentSafety #HealthcareLeadership #AssistedLiving #LongTermCare #SeniorCare #CrisisManagement #FEMA #DisasterResilience #OperationalExcellence

Are you sitting on untapped talent inside your own community? In this episode, Aaron Fish talks with Samantha Schreiber, Senior HR Manager at Floor & Decor and former HR Director at Phoenix Senior Living, about the critical difference between high-performing and high-potential employees in senior living. They break down the nine-box talent planning tool, explore why low effort is often a symptom of feeling undervalued rather than a personality flaw, and calculate the real cost of quiet quitting and turnover in food and hospitality roles. Plus: practical, budget-conscious recognition strategies that work even when raises aren't an option, and why employee engagement directly drives resident satisfaction. A must-listen for executive directors, administrators, and HR leaders in senior living.

Tips from Trestle is sponsored by:

• WiseOx: https://bit.ly/TFT_WiseOx
• Dining With Dementia: https://bit.ly/TFT_DwD
• 100% Leader: https://bit.ly/TFT_100

A crisis playbook isn't a binder you pull off a shelf — it's a discipline. In this episode, Aaron Fish sits down with Damon Thomas, Senior Vice President of Operations at Providence Senior Living and a 30-year senior living veteran, to break down how real leaders respond when things go wrong.

Damon shares the difference between predictable emergencies and unpredictable human-driven crises, introduces his HEAT framework, and explains why regulators respond to composure, not panic.

Whether you're an executive director, a regional leader, or anyone who's ever been the first call when something goes sideways, this episode gives you a real, usable playbook for staying calm, controlling the narrative, and leading through it.

In this episode:

• Why crisis playbooks are about sequence, not checklists

• The four crises leaders most often underestimate

• The HEAT framework for de-escalating any tense conversation

• How to communicate with regulators as partners, not adversaries

• Why silence creates rumors and oversharing creates liability

Follow Tips from Trestle for weekly conversations on senior living food, hospitality, and leadership. Learn more about Trestle Hospitality Concepts at www.trestlehospitalityconcepts.com.