Grow Your Occupancy

Is your senior living community situated in a very competitive market? What can you do to make your community stand out from the competition? Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Sasha Davis, COO of Model55, and Allison Page, VP of Sales and Marketing at Thrive Senior Living, about making the most of your community's differentiating factors – and how custom-furnishe...

We're back with part 6 of our most popular topic – senior living sales specialists share what they're doing to get occupancy growth results in their senior living communities! Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, is joined by Jessi Barton from The Lodge at Stephens Lake in Jasper, GA, and a panel of Grow Your Occupancy's Senior Sales Specialists: Susan Braley, Heidi Benard, Je...

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, takes a look back at 2024 – both personally and professionally – and shares her mindset to learn and grow, from not only the highlights but also the mistakes and challenges.

It's very common in senior living sales to see a push from management to increase occupancy at the end of the month. All too often, the result is a shift from sales activities that are proactive to ones that are reactive. Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, takes a closer look at the phenomenon of the month-end sales push and offers tips that result in better overall outcomes...

As we close out the year, Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, shares her insights on senior living sales and marketing for 2024.

Whether you're selling senior living or just about any other service, the fundamentals of sales and great salesmanship that yield results are very similar. Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Wallie Garrett, Sales Consultant at Two Sisters Maid to Clean, about the sales skills she uses when selling home cleaning services that result in sales success.

A lot of senior living operators have been seeking to cut out senior living lead aggregators from the occupancy equation lately. Some have been successful in doing so, and you can be too! Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Jenni Bost, Vice President of Marketing at Radiant Senior Living, about how they not only got rid of lead aggregators but are organically ranki...

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Greg Anderson, Managing Director of Northbridge Advisory Services, about the highlights of 2024 and the challenges he sees with owner/operator misalignment.

At Primrose Retirement Communities, trust is a key piece of the culture that has allowed for the success and growth of the company.   Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with BJ Schaefbauer, President of Primrose Retirement Communities, about recruiting the right people who are genuine, get along, and align with the culture of trust, to join the Primrose family.

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,...

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 al...

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 Po...

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...

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 G...

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 fo...

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 ab...

Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Sara Robertson, CEO of The Arbors and Ivy Senior Living Residential Communities. Sara tells about their transformation from not being "numbers people" to using data to make decisions, and how it has impacted revenue and sales. Sara also shares her thoughts about women in senior leadership roles in the industry, her journey up thr...

Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Michael Morris, CEO and Founder of Willow Ridge Senior Living. At age 15, Michael first caught the senior living “bug” as a dining room server. Years later, he and his wife invested their life savings to open a senior living community. Fast forward to today when he and his wife now own and operate ten communities. Mike shares his p...

Julie Podewitz, Founder & CEO of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Mona Hilton, Founder of sales and marketing automation software Advantage Anywhere. Mona shared how the right technology can increase your senior living sales teams' productivity, lower costs, and improve sales outcomes.

It's the "nature vs. nurture" argument: are successful salespeople born with their talents as part of their nature, or do their talents require nurturing through training and coaching to bloom? Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy talks with Dan Fantasia, President of Treeline, Inc. about this question. Plus, Dan explains the importance of matching a top candidate with a company...

Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, and Sherrie Bebell, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Columbia Pacific Advisors, LLC, are back for part 2 of their conversation about Sherrie's strategies for overcoming sales challenges in senior living communities.

Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Sherrie Bebell, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Columbia Pacific Advisors, LLC. In this first part, Sherrie shares her winning strategies for overcoming sales challenges in senior living communities.

Dani Merlino, COO of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with The Ridge Senior Living's Marti Milligan, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Diane Macheers, Vice President of Corporate Communications. Marti and Diane discuss The Ridge Senior Living's boots on the ground approach to leadership, and give an update on their strategic plan initiative to eliminate paid referral sources (hint: it's worki...