Senior Care Academy
Senior Care Academy is a podcast dedicated to providing valuable information and expert advice on navigating the world of senior care for both senior care providers, and families with aging parents. Hosted by industry professionals, each episode covers a wide range of topics including healthcare options, legal considerations, financial planning, and emotional support for caregivers. If you are a healthcare provider, have aging parents, or are a senior adult, this podcast is for you! Tune in to gain valuable insights and resources to help you make informed decisions and provide the best care for your loved ones.
Senior Care Academy
Rising Through the Ranks: David Egbert's Journey from Receptionist to Senior Living Executive
Ever wondered how a career in senior care can evolve from entry-level positions to executive leadership? Join us as David Egbert, the VP of Senior Living Operations at Western States Lodging and Management, shares his incredible journey. From his humble beginnings as a nighttime receptionist to a key player in senior living operations, David's story is fueled by a passion for caregiving and a deep connection with seniors. Influenced by his education in gerontology and early experiences with people with disabilities, David reveals how his dedication has shaped his path and led to significant opportunities within Legacy Retirement Communities.
How have senior living communities adapted their marketing strategies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic? David discusses the pivotal shift towards digital marketing and the creation of quick response teams to handle online inquiries effectively. Learn about the innovative "Legacy Love" referral program that encourages residents to invite their friends and family, boosting occupancy rates. David also shares creative solutions like combining smaller apartments into larger units to meet the growing demand for independent living spaces, demonstrating the industry's resilience and adaptability in challenging times.
What sets exceptional senior living communities apart? David offers insights into the importance of aligning hiring processes with company values to ensure employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. Discover how themed weekly activities, such as dressing up as iconic characters, can significantly lift resident morale and break away from traditional senior living stereotypes. David also delves into the future of senior living, highlighting the integration of smart home technology and the evolving needs of the baby boomer generation. Tune in to hear about the unique culture at Legacy Senior Housing, where personal touch and meaningful connections are at the heart of their mission.
Thanks for tuning in. Welcome to the Senior Care Academy, the podcast for anyone in the aging adult industry who wants to make the biggest impact on their clients or residents. I'm your host, Caleb Richardson, the CEO at Helperly. Our guest today is David Egbert. Dave is the VP of Senior Living Operations at Western States Lodging and Management and Development. With two decades of experience in the healthcare field, starting his career in 2005 as a direct care staff member, Dave held numerous leadership roles, including marketing director, assisted living manager and executive director. One of the most impressive feats, in my opinion, as executive director is the increased occupancy from 50% to nearly 100% in a 265 apartment senior living community, and he also led that community through COVID-19 staffing challenges, all while achieving the best of state. His passion for quality care and strong background in leadership, team management and budget management have driven his success. Known for his optimism and energy, Dave has significantly improved occupancy rates and earned industry accolades. Welcome, Dave.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you very much. That was a great introduction. I couldn't have written it better myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I admire you a lot, what you've been able to do. I always like to kind of talk about you first before we jump into opinions, kind of where are you from? How did that grow you into the person you are today? I think a lot of the people that work in the senior care space or the senior living space they're just special good people. So I'd love to hear a little bit about you.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yeah, I, you know it's. It's kind of interesting. I think it all started back when I got home from a church service service mission. It was a two year long church service mission and I had to face the decision of going back to school or just going back to work and I thought, you know, I think school is the right way to go. It's hard to afford that kind of a situation. So I the first job that came available to me was actually in the in the sector of taking care of people with disabilities, so it was more in that area and I found a job at a group home that had tuition reimbursement and that's why I took the job. And it was yeah.
Speaker 2:And I showed up for the first day of work and I saw what I had to do and I thought I don't know if I can do this kind of personal care. I'd never done it before. It kind of scared me, but then I fell in love with it super quickly and it just resonated with me. It was just part and I was so interested in it to the point where I got a side job.
Speaker 2:So a second job took me through college as a nighttime receptionist at the legacy house of South Jordan in South Jordan, utah, and this worked in the evenings, worked the front desk, and there was a resident there that had served in general Patton's army in Europe and talked about the battle of bulge and these experiences and I thought this is awesome, yeah, yeah, and it just really connected with me and at that point I made a shift and transition towards senior care. That's really what skyrocketed it from. There was really just a recognizing I loved caregiving and B that I love seniors and it just made sense and that's what kind of started my career path clear back then and I love it. I love what I do and I love having the interactions with these awesome seniors who have made an impact on our livelihood today and I think it's great that I can give back to them and so that's kind of what I keep as my core focus as I do my job every day.
Speaker 1:So when you were at the University of Utah, what was it about gerontology that piqued your interest? I think that's unique A lot of people. There's so many stigmas around aging that getting interested in something like that is unique.
Speaker 2:The true answer is it's a bit selfish. I just recognize that there's going to be job security. There's always going to be a need for someone like me. You know is taking care of seniors, and there are going to be more and more of them. So that was honestly kind of the first level of interest.
Speaker 2:But I think, second, beyond that, I just I had, maybe because I had really good relationships with my grandparents and really loved the time I got to spend with them and saw how, how much joy could bring into those people's lives. I think that's again, for me it's what really kind of enriches my life is to be able to bring joy to someone, and so I recognize that I could do that. It connected with who I was, but also I recognize that I could actually directly do that in this line of service, and so I think it was a little bit selfish at first, thinking I'm going to have a job, but then it's also about you know, okay, I can make a direct impact every day. It's not just a desk job, it's something that can really make an impact on people.
Speaker 1:I love that, and so can you describe your journey from a direct caregiver a front desk receptionist and you've stayed with Legacy your entire career. I feel like that is impressive, that you went from direct care all the way up to the VP of operations within this large company. So could you describe that journey? What do you think were the key steps to get you, each of these promotions, to be able to lead the entire assisted living sector?
Speaker 2:Yeah, such a good question, I think, because again, I was working as that receptionist for a while with the caregiving experience from the group home, so I had kind of both those merged at one from the group home, so I had kind of both those merged at one. I think. You know, honestly, I really feel super grateful to the legacy retirement communities for this company because they took a big chance on me. So I got my first break when I transitioned from being a receptionist, when they took a chance on me opening a building as a marketer, and that I think showed a lot of trust and loyalty from the company's part to trust in me and my ability to take on a very big task of filling up a memory care community in Taylorsville. And so I think partially why I've been so loyal is because I feel so grateful, because they took that chance on me then and relatively unknown, new in the industry, no marketing experience I think they recognized that there were tools that would be in place to help me succeed. But that was the first big jump. Everything else from there has been a little bit more natural. But I think what came from that first job was that I was able to show commitment, show energy, show enthusiasm, show productivity. We were able to fill that memory care building and keep it full for a while before I made my next transition, and so I think for me, I feel that I've been able to continue to progress because it comes with a strong work ethic.
Speaker 2:You have to have that in senior care. You have to be super committed. But then, second, I think you have to have the right personality for it. You have to be able to connect with people, you have to be able to really resolve issues and you have to also be one that truly loves what you do, and I think that's recognizable and shows that there's potential for growth right. And so from that there's an opening at our Layton community for the assisted living manager role, which again I had been a manager before at a group home, but for five or six employees, not for 70 CNAs, and so it was quite a stretch, but again another leap of faith that I took, but also on the part of the company trusting me with overseeing the care for 90 plus residents and overseeing the management of 70 plus staff.
Speaker 2:That was a big jump for me, but they put me in that position and that was the crucible position that really helped to launch my leadership skills and my ability to really show that I could run, be trusted with the whole building. It was a larger community in Layton and I just have responsibilities for the assisted living part, not the rehab, not the overall building. So I had an executive director I reported to. So it was a great stepping stone position.
Speaker 2:It was hard, you know, managing people is hard, but I again I wouldn't be where I was today without that job and I I loved it and I found at that point it's like I'm so committed to this job and I loved it and I found at that point it's like I'm so committed to this career. And from there it's been a rehab administrator of that building, then executive director of that building and then at our sugar house community and then from there jumped to the vice president role. So very, very lucky and very fortuitous and timing was really good. But I think, like I mentioned before, you know, having the right heart for it, having the right work ethic having the right overall commitment and loyalty pays off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I've definitely recognized your work ethic and commitment. Like when I met you, when you were an executive director, you had been working like at least 60 hours a week. And you're like, yeah, I had to come in yesterday, on Sunday, to do CNA work. Like it takes a lot to get the accolades and that progress. Going On that journey. There's a few points I'd love to touch on. The first is when you got that first marketing position, how were you able to get that memory care building full and maintaining? Are there any key metrics or things that you implemented to make it so you could fulfill or fill a building on your first marketing job ever? That's incredible.
Speaker 2:You know and that's a good question and I think for me it was I was so ambitious and so wanting to prove myself. It also had lots of energy because I was fresh out of college. You know that I think I was very willing to take a lot of chances and a lot of risks and just put myself out there. I didn't have any inhibitions and so I think it was a building relationships within my company but also with the community at large, potential referral sources, vendors, home health agencies. I really wasn't afraid to put myself out there and connect with people and to build that relationship and then also just really showing my desire to be part of the building, to be part of the overall operations, really committing to that and, more importantly, the families of the residents that were coming in, establishing those connections, those relationships. And as a marketer, again, you're selling the brand of the company but, more importantly, the care in the, in the building, and if that's not being met well, I felt like my integrity was on the line, right, or my honesty, if you will. So I I committed to making sure that, as we're growing as an operation, that we were fulfilling the promises I was making as a marketer in the care delivery, in the overall feel of the community, and just tried really hard to create a lively, vibrant, energetic community. And honestly, it was all memory care and my apprehension at first was, wow, am I going to be able to connect with these residents? And I found a huge passion and love for memory care and I think that showed true to the residents and their families and so therefore that helped us to maintain a high level of occupancy for that community.
Speaker 2:So it was slow at first but, like I said, making sure to make those strong commitments to just putting myself out there trying new things.
Speaker 2:A couple of examples specifically, there was a memory care community in Bountiful that was closing. I heard about it pretty early and I zoomed straight there at the same day that I heard it and I made a connection with the administrator and even though it was a little bit of a distance, Bountiful to Taylorsville that connection helped us to gain some, you know, move-ins from that experience. And then, secondly, I knew that I needed to create some big community connection and so I came into contact with a vendor who owns a lot of World War II memorabilia and I hired him to come in and host a big memorabilia exhibition, if you will went out to the community, brought tons of people into the building and it was a huge event and a huge success and we saw lots of activity after that point. So, putting yourself out there, hitting the pavement, working hard and showing commitment to your existing residents and just creating a community, and that's probably where I learned how important it is to create energy and life in the community you're serving in, and that makes things work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've felt that part of what we do is an in-home care side and when you're out selling and getting new clients or residents, if you can't fulfill on the back end, you do kind of feel like your integrity is a little bit at stake. You're like we have to make sure we have excellent service. Now, all these years later, from your initial marketing role and as the VP over 20 plus communities, because the effective marketing strategies shifted at all, are they pretty similar where you do these big community events, like you mentioned, the World War II, or is it shifting more digital? What strategies have you noticed across all the communities?
Speaker 2:Oh, great question. You know what and that's what's tricky is, as an operator for so many years, I've had to really learn things, maybe a little bit later than I've actually needed to. But that being said, covid happened and that shifted the way that we do everything, and that includes the way that we do marketing. I mean, we shifted from a point where, you know, having a giant building sign and people driving by the community was our biggest referral source, or, you know, our residents referring people directly. It shifted during COVID to where more and more people were finding out about the communities just through online searches, right, and so our digital marketing efforts have had to grow exponentially. In fact, recently our company has had to really shift towards what we call a quick response team, in that people would inquire online that's where we get our volume and it would take a few days for our marketers in the communities to get back with those inquiries. Well, at that point, as we know, they've either found another place to go or they've moved on. We know they've either found another place to go or they've moved on, and so we've had to build that internally to grow our ability to respond super quickly to these inquiries online, and that all has happened since COVID just because there's been the need for it. So, absolutely, our marketing efforts have shifted a lot. We still have to be part of the community and still make those events and those still pay off for sure. However, we've had to learn that, as this new world has hit us, whether we like it or not, we have to adjust to it, and that includes creating a way to make personal connections with our inquiries, even though it's through the digital form at first, and then building on that. But absolutely part of that is still having huge community events and whatnot. We want to be part of the community.
Speaker 2:Our property in Bountiful they hosted an Easter egg event. I can't remember the exact number, but it's massive. They had thousands upon thousands of Easter eggs.
Speaker 2:And the entire community seems to come out for it and they have a huge field. It's over in about 6.2 seconds, but still it's a great draw right. So we still commit to those because we want to be part of the communities we serve in.
Speaker 1:Is there a way, when you do big community events something that I've found that can be frustrating sometimes you put a lot of effort into these community events and then 6.2 seconds, all the Easter eggs are gone and then you don't have any contact information to be able to nurture. Is there anything that you're doing right now to kind of be able to do that nurturing, or is it mostly just like a branding tool that you're using?
Speaker 2:It serves two purposes.
Speaker 2:That's a part of it, but beyond that we've really tried to put forward the friends and family referral component.
Speaker 2:We call it Legacy Love and again Legacy to Heart Communities, and we love our referrals from our residents.
Speaker 2:That's kind of how we coined it.
Speaker 2:And so through Legacy Love, the goal is for each community to have each month eight friends and family referrals that are placed, which means we host recreation, hosts an event, they sponsor a fun community event of some sort, whether it's a kind of a standard community event we have every single week or a larger, say Easter egg type of event, and then the marketing team supports it too.
Speaker 2:So it's led by recreation supported by marketing, and so we really can use that as a forum for marketing to, hey, reach out to their top prospects and say we have this great event, come see it. Or pushing for our residents to say, hey, bring your family or friends or bring your loved ones out here who maybe know people that would like to live here, go see what life is like at our legacy property, and we'd love to have those referrals come in. And if so, of course we have certain perks in place for the residents to refer their families and friends to live there and we see that we see some of our communities very successful at using those community events as a forum to invite people that they know to be part of our legacy family.
Speaker 1:I like that a lot. Even your residents inviting kids and grandkids. The spouse or the in-laws might not be living somewhere, so even that is an opportunity. I think that's awesome. Everyone has grandparents, you know, and so that's the component.
Speaker 2:We've learned that and we've seen that the legacy village of Sugar House that I most recently ran as the operator, the executive director we had a lot of connections like that where we had a daughter of a resident whose in-laws then moved in but then their neighbors moved in. We saw a lot of that connection and so, again, so important for operations to be running as soundly as possible with the energy and enthusiasm to make it so. People want to have their loved ones being there right. They're proud of where they live and they want people to come live there with them.
Speaker 1:Speaking of legacy of Sugarhouse going from 50 to 100% in a community 265, a a bit of my brain yeah.
Speaker 1:The industry attrition rate is like 50%. So to get from 132-ish to 265-ish, that means you'd have to. Every year you're already losing 50. So you'd had you had to, over that time, be able to keep those 50 and then also add on another 130 residents. Was it mostly marketing? Were the things that you did that kind of increased the retention or even maybe lowered the move-in age to try to Because that's a feat to overcome the average attrition rate in assisted livings?
Speaker 2:It's so true. There are so many different methods. An example of that originally I said 265 is burning in my brain. 268 was the number actually but we recognized that people that were younger and that wanted to move to an independent living wanted larger apartment spaces. Well, we were out of our two bedroom inventory so we had to be creative with that and we found three situations where we could combine a one bedroom and a studio apartment, take out the wall in between and do some remodeling a bit and convert those to larger two bedrooms.
Speaker 2:So, we did that, sold three apartments and really were able to do so at a very. We were able to keep the pricing of the studio and business living combined and not lose money on it because people wanted that space. So we had to think about our population. We were serving what they wanted and deliver that. Second to that, I think we had a goal every month of a net. I think it was if it wasn't net eight, it was net six. So we had to grow by six each month. Despite the attrition it was a heavy goal. A lot went into that too. I mean it's a great location and it has a great, great accessibility. We tapped into the Park City market. Lots of families brought their loved ones into town and then they moved them into our community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right off of IAD exactly. So that helped a lot too. But really I think it's about just creating that brand and creating that culture, and that community is unique in that, compared to other communities in Utah especially that are a pretty homogeneous mixture of individuals, it brought a lot of folks from out of state and a lot of different religions, ethnicities, and so it was kind of the go-to place for if you wanted to have some some level of diversity that the amount that Utah can provide for us. But so we kind of use that to our advantage too and made sure that we were very, very open to all. You know we made sure to do church drives to all different types of denominations, for example. We could host them, yeah. So knowing your population, knowing the market and our marketers were spectacular. They obviously made very, very good connections from the get-go and I never once heard anything detrimental about our sales team that we had in place. So thank heavens for having them in the right place.
Speaker 2:And then we had to deal with operations along the way and really make sure we were sound, that we were making the right decisions, making sure we had the right food operations.
Speaker 2:That was always a struggle, and so getting the right people in place for that, and so definite struggle points to get to that point, some roadblocks along the way and we weren't always perfect, but I think, lastly, it's about creating a sales focus for your entire property. It can't just be the salespeople, or even just the leadership team with the salespeople. It has to be every housekeeper, every CNA, every recreation staff and we. We really built that culture and talked about it a lot and had everyone on the same common goal and our occupancy growth. We compared to scaling Mount Everest and talked about the metrics each month and said, hey, if everyone who contributes to this we're going to give some kind of perks, incentives, bonus. We wanted to create that culture as a community, so all hands are on deck and we had a lot of employees 200 plus and so it's hard to get that to happen, but that helped to definitely create that sales culture.
Speaker 1:I'd love to get your insight on creating a culture and then also specifically a sales culture, because assisted living, I think, is really unique. In that one building, like you said, you have 200 employees. A lot of companies never get to like 100 employees regular or different industry companies and you have in one building, 200 staff. So how did you get alignment? What kind of leadership things did you learn throughout growing to your current position?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think, you think you know no matter what you do, not everyone's always going to be aligned with you and so you have to work the process with those individuals, and I say 200 and maybe 40 were super PRN. We tried to run a very PRN culture where people could go to school and then just pick up shifts where they wanted to, which is pseudo, you know, predating the big push for agency staffing, of course, right, we had our own pseudo agency, if you will, beforehand because we just knew that that was a need in the area, because it's right, by the University of Utah and Westminster College and folks couldn't commit to full schedule. So we tried to be very flexible with that schedule at first. But no, I think it was just, it was consistently having that be our focus, Every, all staff meeting, every department meeting and, just again, building that culture of you know, if you can, if you connect with our tours and you recognize how important this is, we're gonna, we're gonna give you the recognition that you deserve for it.
Speaker 2:So that's what it was all about is consistency, I think. To get you know, and if staff weren't on board with that, we had to make hard decisions sometimes and and work the personal improvement process with those individuals Some caught on, some didn't, and that's okay, that's normal, and we just have to act boldly too. You know, we have to make the right decision for for what's best for our community, and I was worried about that when I first started in the businesses. I think I'm a nice guy.
Speaker 2:Maybe some might not think so but I think so and it was hard for me to feel or to recognize that I can be one who has to go forward with those tough decisions. But when you're when it's about taking care of seniors and you're focused on that, and if people aren't doing that, it's easy to make the right decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, having those core values align all of the decision-making. Like you said, caring about the people that you're serving is, if they don't, then not an easy conversation but an easy decision. With hiring like that volume of people, how do you hire successfully? To try to like minimize those difficult conversations with people that aren't the right fit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it's. We had to really educate our department heads who did the hiring on, you know, hire around our, like you mentioned mission, culture and values. Make sure you're asking those questions in the interview process and make sure that they know, a, we're going to live by them and, b, that they're committing to them consistent onboarding process. And so you, you, you onboard, say once a week, and you really teach those again upon onboarding. It's not just here's your paperwork, get started. It's like we're committing to you, now you're going to commit to us, so so let's, let's onboard you well as as well as we possibly can.
Speaker 2:Of course, everyone has different learning capabilities, of course, but but that's part of that process. And then, which we weren't perfect at, but I think it's a part of while orientation, that we're doing frequent check-ins and making sure that there's a strong connection with the department heads and there's a level of trust that's between both the employee and the employer at that point and then, going from that point, I think we did pretty well with turnover in that regard and it feels like our onboarding was a lot more clean Now. That being said, people learn sometimes fairly quickly that they don't love senior care or health care in general. Yeah, an example we had a pre-med student who on his first day on the job you know, during covid was wearing a mask had to do his first personal care in the in the restroom and threw up in his mask and I may be in the wrong career, caught me off guard. So, my god, yes, we got a pre-med student.
Speaker 1:He's gonna be awesome hard working and the gag reflex is what ultimately affected his employment with us, you don't know sometimes so yeah, it can be a game very not judged great I don't even know, yeah, yeah not for everybody, but it's so funny that some people it doesn't even fit.
Speaker 2:It's, yeah, it's. So it's a little bit of a trial and error, and sometimes people don't know for themselves how tricky it's going to be until they get on the floor working at you know. So, yeah, I like that a lot I have with that experience.
Speaker 1:It's similar. It's on topic a little bit, but I feel like Legacy, you guys have a great operational excellence in what you're doing. And those resident referrals and things like that, is there a way that you are able to I like to call them bright spots like highlight bright spots within residents to get their feedback, to get them to send a referral? Send a referral because living in an apartment and assisted living, the days, just like any living environment, the days just feel similar versus like a bright spot. A resident has an excellent experience. You, you capture that and turn it into a resident referral. Is there something you're doing to do that right now?
Speaker 2:I'd say two things, and it stems from what our culture is as a company, but I'll give the example of during COVID, when, especially, people were very stuck with the same routine of being stuck in their apartments. It's meal deliveries and it's no activity. It was terrible, and so we had to work around that. And, again, led by our culture and I'll share that with you in a second but we created a time to go room to room every week and had a different theme where, say one week, we went room to room delivering candy and we dressed up as willy wonka and the uncle I kid you not and so and I think the residents each week are like what is gonna happen?
Speaker 2:this week what's the next week's surprise? You know. So that was an example. The next week it was indiana jones and we gave out dirt cups with, you know, gummy worms.
Speaker 2:If we're archaeologists and had indiana jones, music playing and decorated a whole cart. So it was fun for us to kind of get creative, but fun for the residents to anticipate something every week despite the quarantine period we were living in, right, and so I think about that and how it was, about creating those moments of bright spots for our residents, like you said you coined the word bright spots there and that's driven by our company culture, which is the personal touch, culture which is creating loving and meaningful connections with people we serve. Now, that's not just residents as employees as well, but in this case, for the residents to know that we truly are going to make these loving and meaningful connections, whether it's dressed up as Willy Wonka or if it's delivering a specific meal to a resident that they had always wanted but we never could fully deliver, you know, say, for example, yeah, so that would be kind of what. What we focus on is driven by that, that culture, mentality.
Speaker 1:That's just so clever and smart. I think that there's a lot of misconceptions, and one of them around senior living is that it is like monotonous, or it's what senior living was 40 years ago, kind of, you know, like a step below or above a hospital. Are there any other misconceptions that you would like to address? I think that was one where it's like this is a way fun environment. You made it creative and exciting every single week or every day almost, for your residents. Are there any other things that you could clear up? If you'd like or wish you could.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's a misconception out there that if you go to senior living, it's just the last chapter of folks lives, which again chronologically, potentially, however, so much of life yet to be experienced, and I think a perfect example of that is bingo, bible study and birthday parties. I mean that's good stuff.
Speaker 2:You need that, but if you're, stuck in just that kind of boxed in view on engagement and day-to-day activities, then you're going to be stuck and then, yeah, it's going to be the same old humdrum. But I think to break out of that mold we again, recreationally, would do every single August would be cruise month at our community and we do an entire week focus on traveling to a different country. And I think what was so fun about that was, yes, you like to be goofy and have fun, that's great. But for me it was awesome to connect residents with a culture or an experience they never experienced before and never thought they would experience. So we did Japan week, for example, and we brought in sushi and provided sushi to residents and they're like I don't like fish, I don't want to eat that, I'd never had it before. It's like let's give it a try, let's try one that's not fishy, it's not as fishy as sushi could be.
Speaker 2:And so we found that they've experienced things for the first time, 95 years old. They're like wow, this is new, this is exciting. I can still do new and exciting at 95, right? So I think that's something that always has driven and motivated me to is what, what kind of experiences can we provide to show that this is not just the last winter phase, it's this is there's still a lot of spring and summer left in these residents and what they can give back and I think, recognizing that you know it doesn't need to be, you don't don't have to wait till you're 95 to come into community. Come when you're, come earlier and enjoy just that kind of a lifestyle where you have a strong social component. Maybe make life easier by providing the services that you have and you know what. You can still be active, lively, healthy. We saw residents that would go skiing on the weekends at sugar house. So you know we tried to really spin the fact that come in earlier and enjoy life more is the idea that we try to create.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that a lot. That's a good advice for anybody doing engagement at assisted living. You can say think B to the fourth power beyond bingo, bible study and birthday parties.
Speaker 2:Go beyond. I like that fourth B a lot.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Are there any things that you see over the next few decades within the senior living sector that are opportunities for innovation and positive changes that you think will be coming down the line?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is something I might be a little bit behind the eight ball on, I think, but we are seeing that I mentioned job security when I first was looking into the job and that's because of the baby boomers were then retiring. Well, they're retiring at 65 ish. They're not entering the retirement living sector at that point. Well, that's 20 years ago I hate to date myself, but that's been a few years and now at this point, those boomers are entering this world and so. So now we're going to see that silver tsunami hit the senior living industry, right, and and so. But they come with them higher aptitude, potentially of techno lot, wow, technological. There we go, technological skills and aptitude, right, and so I don't even have speaking skills, evidently, but that's one thing that they'll come with. And so we thinking about okay, are we going to have to have more of a smart home type of feel in our communities? That's one thing that I'm thinking about is it's it's going to have more of a smart home type of feel in our communities? That's one thing that I'm thinking about is it's going to be more animatronic and you're going to have voice activated things.
Speaker 2:We need to consider that as an industry in general, about taking care of that population who's been more exposed to that, and I think that that's one element. Another area is going to be they're going to be more well-traveled, probably coming from more of a higher palette than just one standard restaurant. We need to consider growing that and have various dining options that do expand it to save the sushi and the steak and lobster dinners as opposed to what we consider maybe more standard. So a couple of areas where we're going to be more progressive and think about the, the silver tsunami as it's coming to us now, but who've had that different experience than maybe our typical standard population has for the past 20 years and be up before that right. So, yeah, I think, thinking ahead of what that, what the future is, and I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited to see how that continues to evolve yeah, are there technologies right now that are being used in senior living communities that you think either will expand or get phased out, like they might be old, older technologies?
Speaker 2:that's a good question. I think. I hate to say it, but we're gonna probably start to see. It sounds crazy, but I've seen it robots in our dining rooms, where these little, these you know ambulatory serving robots come out and bring food out to residents or they order on a screen. On these robots, they go back. That's coming. I've seen them at trade shows and I've seen, I've heard, operators talking about them as well. You know, we talked about some of the troubles of human labor. Well, robots, you just got to plug them in and make sure. That's all you do.
Speaker 1:So you know. So I think there's exactly.
Speaker 2:So I think that's coming and it's kind of freaking me out. Same thing with even so, I hate to say that it sounds weird to say robots are going to start running our senior living communities, but there's going to be a component of that. Um, yeah, like I said, smart apartments is going to be one where you can, you know, embed, say, you know, alexa, turn on cnn and then it's gonna be able to do that and you can.
Speaker 2:They have that already, but but I think as we that's, that's more families or the seven residents not not automatically provided, but that might be something that we need to really consider in the near future. So yeah some, some elements like that, I think, and then, of course, technology to support recreation, and all of that is another piece that we'll start to see a lot more of.
Speaker 1:I have a last few questions. The first one is what legacy would you hope to leave personally on the senior living industry?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. I think just that. I think my personality type is, and I've done those various personality tests and one word that always pops out for me is enthusiasm. And I think I would want to leave behind the fact that there's so much fun and excitement in senior care, which is so maybe atypical to what you'd consider. In that and during the depths of COVID maybe I didn't consider that all the time. You know it's like this is terrible, you know, but bringing enthusiasm to even that.
Speaker 2:I remember one tricky point when we had a breakout in our memory care. I remember my aim was to as I worked every day in that memory care to get them through that. It's like I've got to still create life for these people. So I made sure that we had the Hallmark channel on. We were still leading exercise classes and we were still pushing through that because there's still things to. We should be excited every day to get out of bed and bringing that to our seniors and have that be my maybe my lasting impact. I remember a lot of staff afterwards said Dave, I loved when you'd work back here, cause we always knew which room you were in, cause you left the Hallmark channel on for those.
Speaker 1:You know, for example.
Speaker 2:So I'm like that's a little bit of a legacy. They remembered my commitment to bring that enthusiasm to it, so I think that would probably be. It is that there's so much to celebrate and so much to be excited about, and at any phase of life, and so I want to leave that probably behind. For my residents is that, yay, celebrate, be excited.
Speaker 1:I love that. Something that you said was like there's always always have something to get out of bed for I think is awesome, absolutely. Can you share some tips for senior living professionals that are looking to advance in their career?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good question. I would say find your why right. That's the Simon Sinek principle, like why are you doing this and hopefully it's for the right reasons and that really drives you. And when you find that, why? Find maybe what you want to leave behind, like you had asked earlier, commit to that every day and be consistent. So, finding your why, being consistent with that and keep showing up, keep coming with energy and loyalty to your brand and to your residents and find ways to connect with people, because you can be great at the numbers and great behind the desk and that's super important.
Speaker 2:I actually had to learn that as a secondary byproduct. I think my more natural ability is to connect with the people and so I've had to learn that. But maybe the skill of connecting and the skill of creating that joy for people is maybe more of a difficult thing for people. So I think try to work on that skill and refine that a little bit will help along the way.
Speaker 2:And then lastly, of course, make sure that you have the right mentors that can teach you how to lead the business and lead the operation and manage staff and do the HR components to that. That's important too, and you need good mentors. So gravitate towards good mentors to help educate you and help culture you in those skills. If you're in a position right now where you don't have leadership, ask for opportunities from your directors or from your colleagues who could help you with that experience and have them lead you. I've had great mentors along the way. I still, to this day, stay in connection with those mentors because I'm so appreciative for them and what they taught me, and I think that's very, very valuable.
Speaker 1:I agree 100% what makes Legacy Senior Housing unique and special and who should reach out to move in.
Speaker 2:Again, I believe in our company culture, our mission, culture and values, all three. Mission is serving you like family. We're going to do our absolute best to to to serve the ones we love the most. Right, and and we value our residents so much and I think that that's the mission we live by and that's our guiding point. Right, and we want to make sure we're providing our personal touch. Culture we want to create those loving and meaningful connections. So we're driven by our mission, culture and values. And again, we have 12 communities in Utah and then four other states at the moment and so, if anything, golly, as a starting point, they can reach out to me and I can connect them to where they need to go. I'm happy to be that springboard and landing place because I believe in it and I, again, have been committed to it for my whole working professional career as of now and plan to for forever more. So it shows my level of commitment to it so I could be the contact person. We'll find you a good place.
Speaker 1:Sweet For people interested in learning more, so they go to the website. How do they reach out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, our website's a great springboard. Legacyretirecom is a great place to go to. Each property has their own specific website as well, and so yeah, but when we're located in South Jordan, utah, western States, lodging is our parent company name and Legacy Retirement Communities is one of the business lines within that company.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I've loved having you on, dave. I appreciate all of your insights and your experience is phenomenal. I think you're well on your way of leaving the legacy that you want to on the industry, so thank you so much for taking some time today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you for your question and thank you for what you do. I agree, I think you have that desire and that ability to leave that impact behind too, and I think you're doing it. So thank you.