Real Talk about Relationships, Real Estate and Regulations inside Senior Living

Real Talk about Relationships, Real Estate and Regulations inside Senior Living

In this episode, the host dives into the three core aspects of senior living: relationships, real estate, and regulations. Erin explores the importance of balancing these elements to ensure the success of a senior living community. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, Erin emphasizes the critical role that relationships play in enhancing occupancy rates and building trust. Erin also highlights the real estate lens of senior living, explaining the concept of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and their impact on the industry. Additionally, Erin discusses the often-overlooked importance of regulatory compliance and offers practical advice for leaders to navigate these components successfully.

00:00 Introduction: The Three R's of Senior Living
00:45 Personal Journey: From Naivety to Realization
03:07 Understanding Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
05:05 The Corporate Lens: Real Estate and Relationships
06:22 The Importance of Relationships in Real Estate
07:40 Regulations: A Key Component of Senior Living
09:07 Balancing the Three R's for Leadership Success
11:32 Real Estate Perspective: Corporate and Community Views
18:03 Building Relationships: The Heart of Senior Living
28:28 Navigating Regulations: Lessons and Reflections
36:14 Conclusion: Embracing the Three R's for Sustainable Success

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Transcript

Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone): 0:35

Senior living a relationship business or real estate business. Ask most community leaders and they'll say relationships. Ask a good number of corporate representatives and they'll tell you the higher that you climb, the more the conversation is about real estate. And let's not forget regulations because without compliance, none of this works. So, what's the truth? The best leaders understand how to balance all 3 and in this episode, we're going to dive into the 3 hours of senior living relationships, real estate and regulations, what they mean, why they matter and how your ability to navigate them will define your success as a leader. Let's get into it. I I hate to admit to you that the majority of my career, I never thought of senior living as a real estate thing. Company, profession, and when I say majority, I mean, the, like, all of it. I, I, I mean, I think my head was in the sand, I was naive, I cannot explain to you why I didn't connect the dots to that. I think I just was so purpose driven and people centered and loved to gamify things and win games. That going into a community that was underperforming, which was all 4 of my opportunities as a manager inside senior living and increasing occupancy to the point where we were making money, you know, turning a reputation around turning customer service percentages. Around all of these were just such big goals for me that I didn't understand another group of people were looking at it from a real estate perspective. 100 percent to me, 100 percent occupied community was more about. Perfection, a Super Bowl experience, winning the Super Bowl kind of thing, like climbing the mountain, it was never about anything other than filling a community with people to serve. I just didn't get the, I did not get the memo, and no one explicitly that I can remember said to me, Erin, assisted living is more of a real estate business more than anything else. Because everything to me is relationship. It's purpose driven, people centered, and they have a huge problem to solve, and that is how to take care of their loved one, and I have a solution for them. That's really what it was for me. That's it. Changing people's lives, adding value, problem solving, getting my dopamine hits for the day. That was it. So As I walked into this podcasting journey and on to LinkedIn, I realized something very quickly. I didn't understand what everybody was talking about from a thought leadership perspective from a CEO level from, you know, what a REIT was an R. E. I. T. I didn't know what that was. And if you don't know what that is, it is a real estate investment trust. So, it's a company that buys and manages income generating properties are similar to mutual funds and allowing people to invest in real estate without having to buy. Or manage properties. So these real estate investment trusts buy and manage properties like office buildings, apartments, Senior living, shopping centers, and hotels. They generate income from rent, capital gains, and mortgage interest. REITs distribute at least 90 percent of their income to investors as dividends. And that you can buy REITs through a brokerage account or similar stocks. These are the people that are funding REITs. These are the groups that are funding the majority of senior living and when I say majority, it's probably not majority. I don't know all the numbers. I know that there's individual owners. I know that there's big. You know, for there's big companies that are publicly traded, I'm not going to get into all those details because that's not my expertise. But what I'm saying is a huge chunk of the people who. have the power and the money in senior living come from REITs, real estate investment trusts. So they are the ones that are coming in, investing in apartments like senior living, and pulling the financial strings. This is where the pressure is coming from, okay? The real estate, the corporate lens of their investors wanting Dividends wanting the return on investment very quickly at each community. Man, that's a shock. I didn't realize it. I am a relationship truther inside Senior Living. The heart of a community is the leadership. It's the people that run it. It's the, the, the, the foundation which is your front line. Right? Like, to me, that is what senior living is, and the added bonus is that we get to be paid for it, people get to make money, and that residents get to be served and cared for appropriately. But really, the overarching theme of senior living is that it's a real estate business. And if it's a real estate business, and it is, Then the conversations that are had at community level and at a higher level have different themes running through them, especially if you're purpose driven people centered talking to people who are number driven spreadsheet driven, you know, percentage of profit driven. Relationships and the touchy feely stuff get in the way, but the wise leaders in the corporate offices understand that relationships are what drives success in real estate. Let's face it. Do you want to use a real estate agent that cannot connect with you and you do not have a relationship that you do not trust? No, I want a real estate agent who's going to listen to what I want, who's going to try to find it, and who's not going to give up until they find it. Period. And they're going to fight for me to get the best deal. That's what I want in my real estate agent. Not someone who all they care about are the numbers. And what I want doesn't matter and they're going to show me a bunch of houses that I don't want. So there's a difference. Relationships matter. Any real estate agent will tell you that networking, relationship, being in the right place at the right time, and actually finding the perfect house for their customers, for their clients, is what gets them referrals and keeps them consistent in their house selling month over month. So, that was a huge, huge eye opening experience for me, kind of stepping out from a community centered perspective. Now, I always knew that regulations were a huge part of my job. Well, always is a strong word, because when I first became an executive director at a very large corporation, whom I love dearly, I will always have loyalty to this particular company. But As a new executive director, regulations in the state of Alabama was not discussed. I went and got my license, but I came back and it was all about what this corporation needed me to do based on their policies and procedures. And let me tell you something, I drank the Kool Aid, I was all in, and I did what I was told to do. I didn't realize that Alabama's regulations were different than the policies and procedures of the company. Thank you. In fact, when the state called and wanted to talk to me about state reportables and investigations, I never really even called them back, because I was never told that they were important. Which is really, really sad. And not something I'm very proud of. And I probably set that community up for a really bad survey after I left. But it wasn't my fault, because I was 28 years old, I was so happy to be an executive director, and I just didn't did what the company told me to do. I was drinking the Kool Aid and I don't know if they knew how different the state regs were versus what the company's policies were. I don't know. But you don't know until, you know, and all you can do is do better when, you know, right? And I'm telling you that the 3 R's inside senior living, the big picture that defines your leadership inside of a community is relationships, real estate and regulations. And one of the best things as a leader that you can know if you're new, seasoned, in your first three years is understanding that You have five stakeholders, which one prioritizes relationships, real estate, and regulations. Some of them prioritize both equally and this is the key that you need to be a successful Sustainable senior living leader inside of a community and grow within Your corporation if that's what you want to do. I recently did a LinkedIn poll And I asked my followers Which R is most important relationship real estate or regulations and a high number of industry leaders that participated in the poll and they, and they range from vendors that support senior living communities throughout the country, CEOs and vice presidents, lots of community level leaders. So there was a big range of people who. You know, actually answer the question. And it was almost unanimous. It was about 95 percent of people understood that this business was a relationship business. Two people out of 55 chose that it was a relationship business. Real estate business and I believe one or two people chose that it was regulations, but they didn't understand the industry They were just participating in the poll, which I appreciate and I think that's a powerful testament because I'm not sure the higher we get up in those REITs or CEOs that we lose the ability to understand that if you want to have success And increase those numbers quickly and dramatically. It starts with relationships in every aspect, but mastery at senior living leadership comes from understanding that success is the art of balancing all 3 perspectives. and we're going to dive into those perspectives. So when we talk about real estate, which I like to think the real estate perspective is through the corporate lens, although there are many senior living leaders inside the community that probably understand that it's a real estate business and look at it from an apartment selling perspective or even a house selling perspective. if you're one of those super happy for you, If you are like me And you didn't quite get the memo. Here's the memo. Let's talk about it. You know, when we talk about occupancy rates and property values and financial reviews and revenue and all these other type of conversations, we realize that's a real estate lens. That we're talking through when we have to give our projection numbers, how many in how many out they want to know, are we going to grow? Are we going to stay flat? Or are we going to slide backwards because they have to send these projections up to this group of investors that are looking at this from a real estate perspective. Occupancy rates matter, right? The property value of your community matters to them because this is all part of their investment. You see the people in the community, they see the numbers on a spreadsheet and now that's 2 different perspectives. Isn't it? But what you have to remember is that real estate success is built on relationships. I'm going to say that several, several times. So you can have that in your mind. And so you can use that if you need to in different times inside of your community. If occupancy is low. It's not about the building per se. It could be about the relationships inside and the perceptions of people on the outside. Because the truth is, happy residence equals stronger reputation, which equals a higher occupancy. So, Relationships matter, right? If your current residents don't trust you, don't trust the leadership, don't feel comfortable in the care that they're receiving, don't feel comfortable in referring people to this community, or can find zero connection to leadership, your occupancy is going to be low. And on the flip side, if a bunch of people are moving out, then there's a reason. And you've got to figure that out so you can then stop the bleed and start working on how to build that connection in those relationships because happy residence equals stronger reputation equals higher occupancy. At the community level, you can't treat the community like an apartment complex. You have to treat the community like it's a relationship business. Selling service, solving problems, using your resident's story to inspire other families who are going through the same thing, right? If you're a community leader feeling disconnected from the corporate perspective, I want you to remember this. Your ability to create relationships directly impacts the real estate numbers that corporate tracks. So, you need to build a bridge between the relationships and the real estate by focusing on retention, engagement, and satisfaction. That makes real estate relationship driven. Right? When we focus on retention, engagement, and satisfaction, that's people centered, purpose driven, you're going to see your occupancy increase. You cannot expect more people to come in when the current people you are serving are not happy. They don't trust you. Right? You got to take care of what you have first so you can grow because when you move people in and your current residents Aren't happy they're not gonna stay or they're gonna see it on a tour, right? so Just like you would not want to have an open house with a house that isn't clean or organized You know, you're not going to Attract the right buyers for that house. You want to make sure you put the best face forward. So you can attract the right people to your community. And when you understand the story behind your community, you can start attracting people that would benefit from the services that you offer. But the people who are managing you from a corporate standpoint, pretty much looking at that stuff so they can drive the numbers up on a spreadsheet. Although some of them care, Mhm. Right. Some of them do care about the residents, but the higher up you get, the more it is spreadsheet driven, dividend driven. And when am I going to see the return on my investment? So I recently was at a conference, Georgia, senior living conference, and this whole concept of real estate. Awareness really hit home for me when there was a CEO on stage. His name is bear and he said, you're only going to grow within this profession, the senior living profession, when you understand that the real estate side of the business. And let me tell you, I was standing there and I was like, it's so true. It's so true. And how many of us take the fact that it's a real estate business and don't even do anything with it? Don't understand it. Don't try to dive into it because of a purpose driven, people centered, relationship perspective, but they're interconnected. And I, I firmly believe that it was hard to be a successful real estate agent without making relationships. First in your priority list, and that's what we can do as purpose driven people centered leaders, right? makes engagement and retention and Satisfaction a priority so we can drive the numbers up because happy residents equals stronger reputation Which equals higher occupancy which makes all the real estate folks very very happy So, let's talk about relationships, which is my expertise inside senior living. I believe relationships are the heart of senior living. And to me, the core idea is the best senior living communities are not defined by amenities, but by the relationships inside them, period. What are the relationships that we have to focus on as senior living communities? You have five key stakeholders, five of them. I like to call them our five bosses, but we know that the only real boss we have is with the, corporate office, corporate leadership, but there are lots of other influences and those are our residents, our families, our associates. Our corporate leadership and the regulatory agencies. Now, I believe there's a 6th one. And if you want my honest opinion, vendors can influence, your leadership, the residents experience and your marketing. if you're not careful in a. In a positive or negative way, if you're not careful, it's really important that your vendors see the consistency and your happy residents and your leadership and the vision of your community, just like your residents and your frontline team do. So, when you're aware that the key relationships that you need to focus on are residents, families, associates, corporate leadership, and regulatory agencies, and don't forget about the vendors, you can understand where your focus needs to go and who needs what from you, right? So, residents. Residents are at the heart of everything that we do, right? Their satisfaction and well, being are your top priorities because let's just face it. Everything else, every other key stakeholder, the residents. Are the string that ties every key stakeholder together. So they're the heart of your community. They're the beat. They're the everything that we do. The reason why we are in existence is to serve those residents, right? The families trust you are there to care for their loved ones. Their confidence in you directly impacts your community's reputation. Do they trust you? Can they trust you? Will they trust you? And, Do they refer, right? Your associates are how you serve your residents. Your associates are your greatest asset. And often your biggest challenge, right? A motivated, well supported team, will drive quick success inside of your community. I think the future of senior living and what will set apart this senior living from the one down the street will be the relationships that are inside the community. It's not about the amenities. You know, there's a lot of people who hate elevators. So, a community, two communities that I worked at had an elevator. I wasn't for everybody, right? I could have had the biggest chandeliers, the most home like feeling, the most modern picturesque community, but because a resident didn't like the elevators, they wouldn't move in. I once worked at a community that had three floors. You know how many times somebody told me they weren't gonna live on the third floor? Now, I know that some of you are listening and you're in these big Big cities and you've got 10 floors. Well, here where I'm from, we don't have that and so a third floor apartment scared a lot of people and therefore did not move in because we couldn't overcome the fact that, they were scared of living on the third floor, So, the relationships and the stories that you tell that attract the right people to your community is really, really important. Because that is how you get the ones that benefit from your community into your community. And the associates, the relationship the associates have with the residents, the relationships the associates have with the management team, the management team's relationships with the, with the leadership, with the executive director and with the families. All of that is very, very important. Your relationship with the corporate leadership is important because you understand their perspective, they understand yours, and you're figuring out how to balance, real estate relationships and regulatory with them. And that's important. If you know that's what you have to do, then you actually get to do it. And then you have the regulatory agencies, which honestly play a huge role in reputation and success of a community. And your understanding of what is required of you, your boundaries, your limitations, the residents that we can serve and that we cannot serve, and helping create a plan for those you can't, is really, really important. a good relationship with the regulations, will help leadership sustainability be less stressful and anxious. Because, why fight regulations when you're never going to win? As a leader inside the community, instead you should just communicate what your boundaries are, and why they're there. And everybody understands limitations, and everybody understands what next steps can be. The safety, the relationship of the residents. And the boundaries of the regulations is really, really important. Some reflecting questions that I have had recently is, are we equipping leaders to build and nurture relationships? Or are we just telling them, these are our policies and procedures, this is our current occupancy, this is where we need you to be in six months. Are we actively strengthening the trust with our stakeholders? If we're not making relationships and teaching people how to build relationships and what types of relationships each stakeholder needs, then how can we build trust? We're not giving new leaders roadmaps into understanding that we need to work on trust because trust is the common thread with every stakeholder. They want us, they want to be able to trust us to care for the residents. Regulatory needs us to care for the residents within the boundaries that they have created. Corporate leadership needs us to care for all the residents. Associates need to have a good relationship with their role in caring for the residents, and the leadership's role in caring for the residents. And families and residents want you to care for them. They want to trust you. They want to have peace when they move in and they walk around and leave. These are the perspectives that we need to be giving our team members inside the community and our leaders on how we can grow occupancy quickly because relationships is the area to focus on for a quick occupancy growth spurt because we have to care for what we have so we can care for the, for the many residents they're going to follow. I have always said this, that sales is service, and leadership is sales. Because we have to sell the vision. We have to convince people that we see you, we see your problems, and we're the solution. And here's why we're the solution, and here's how we do it, and here are the results that we have. Leaders have to sell the vision of why people want to work outside their comfort zone, work smarter, not harder, to work according to the policies and procedures because people want to do what they want to do. It's not necessarily people coming into work and choosing or even understanding all the rules and choosing to do them because we're all affected by one thing or another. It's about inspiring and influencing them. And helping them understand the power and contribution that they have to change people's lives. leadership is sales sales is service. We're helping people solve a problem and when relationships are good, real estate and regulations are good as well. So, 1 of my top professional tips. In making relationships and trust grow inside your community. Is to invest in your presence being seen, heard and felt inside the community, to attend meetings, be intentional with your time and what you're talking about and to make trust building, which is listening and acting on feedback a priority and to create a culture of accountability and transparency and vulnerability inside of your community. Yes, we're in an occupancy of 50 percent and it's hard and we're building this back up because I see the potential in you because I see this community fully occupied with a bunch of residents that are thriving inside of this community because of you and the work that you're capable of. That's what I see and we have to start today with learning how you contribute and why you are so important. Because we're the best, and in order to be the best, we have to start today, Your presence matters inside of a community. When you want to build relationships and a culture and trust building, people have to see you. They have to see you doing the right things. All the time, and look at the core values inside of your community and see what those look like for you, write those down. What do those core values look like for you and your company and how can you be a walking billboard for them? And do they align with your values as well? Operationalizing your values through your presence, that's how you build culture and it's really, really important that you understand that. Let's talk about regulations. Now, folks, the often the often overlooked connection. Right now, I have worked in Alabama, 1 of the most regulated states with large companies. Nonprofit companies, companies that were smaller that grew into bigger companies, and there is a common thread in my career, which is these companies did not take Alabama's regs very seriously. and, again, at the beginning of my executive director career, I didn't either, but then I. I started to work inside of a memory care community, a 64 apartment memory care community that was in complete devastation because of a awful survey and was taken over by a management company, the occupancy was almost at 50%, and the plan of correction, I swear to you, was close to a thousand pages. I don't know, it was probably more like a hundred, but it felt like a thousand. And I learned very quickly how important Alabama regulations were. I was, thrown into a boot camp of regulatory compliance, which was the hardest six months of my life, and I am so thankful for that time, although in the moment I was not very thankful. So many times I heard the complaints because Alabama's regs are very, very strict when it comes to memory care. And assisted living when it comes to cognition in general. You know, that we don't allow residents to age in place, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's true. Alabama makes it very difficult for memory care residents to stay in memory care for a long time. But being aware of your limitations and communicating them early on and throughout a progressive decline, which happens with people who are diagnosed with dementia, or with people who are living with dementia, is important. It's a, it's a conversation. It's, it's constantly with relationships are our goal. Then being able to talk openly about the boundaries of what we can and cannot do allows people to trust you. It allows people to understand what you can and cannot do, and that's really big. A lot of my experience with people from corporate perspectives or reeling from bad surveys is that regulations feel like an obstacle, that they're too restrictive, that they're cold, that they're impersonal. And to some degree, I agree with that, because in Alabama our memory care residents have to be able to walk or self propel in a wheelchair, and I struggle with that. Because our residents in memory care, you know, if they can't walk or self propel in a wheelchair and they still benefit from our programming and our engagement and our community, it's sad to see them go. But when you see communities that just have a complete disregard for regulations and keep residents that they can't take care of, you understand that regulations are boundaries. And it's unfortunate that one apple, you know, one rotten apple will spoil the entire bushel of apples, gallon of apples, whatever it is, right? Carton of apples. Like, I, that is a truth that is a hard truth in life, but It's important that if we are people centered, purpose driven, that we have a positive relationship with our boundaries. With our regulations. It's, it's just that important and the more that we communicate what we can and cannot do on the front end of occupancy and throughout the different care plan meetings that we have, the better that it is, but it's always best with a relationship centered perspective to say, we want your family member here as long as possible. We want to care for them and we want to do what we can. Do within our own power to keep them here as long as possible. And so here is why We're going to be doing these things this way because ignoring regulations erodes trust and honestly, it creates so much stress for you as a leader that it's almost impossible to Stay the best version of yourself for your team if we ignore regulations It's going to come back to get us every time Every time. So embrace the regulations, learn them, understand what's expected from you, and then gain some clarity on that. Ask questions, find a mentor, because the more you know, the more clear you are, the more prepared you are, the more confident you are. You build and confidence is huge in regards to building relationships, trust, and influence within your community. So the biggest mindset shift that I had from being a new executive director and not caring about the regs at all to then being put in a position of a community that was going through a huge plan of correction was regulations are guidelines. Not Roblox. And to some people they are roadblocks, and that's a different perspective than I have. And honestly, I spent a lot of my career defending my position on regulations, and my reputation inside the state, and the vision that I had for, for my leadership in, in, in my career. Because I saw it as a guideline, as a boundary and not a roadblock, because I was able to have tough conversations with families and say, this is what we can and cannot do. And in a big memory care, maybe a smaller memory care can handle, what is currently going on with your loved one. Right? I mean, it's not just, we can't do this, that's it, now you have to find something else. It is, here's why we can't do this and let's talk about solving some of these problems for you. It's how you use the relationship of boundaries that's really, really important. So instead of how do I get around this, which is certainly something I've thought about, Ask yourself, how can I use this? To improve my operations, my relationships, my communication, my training style. How can I use the boundaries that I have to help me be better rather than to prevent me from my success? It's really stop blaming and start using what you've got, No more blame, only solutions oriented. Radical accountability, So, reframe regulations as just part of the mission. Not just compliance. It's really, really important. You can incorporate your regulations and your policies and procedures. You know, every tour you have in, in the residency agreement signing and at every care plan meeting. Just reminding people that we have rules that we have to follow. And my, my job is to follow those rules. Right? The biggest leadership lessons that I want you to take away from this podcast episode from this episode is if we don't balance real estate relationships and regulations, we're not going to be able to serve the people that we want to serve. We're not going to be able to impact the lives of people who need us, right? Who need us to help them, to care for their loved ones, to change their perspective in life and to give them joy when they thought they may not have any socialization engagement security These are the things that we give our Residents that we serve and so it's important for us to realize we have to balance it. We have to balance relationships real estate and regulations so embrace Relationships as the foundation because that is the core Relationships are the core to a successful senior living community. Relationships with your residents, their families, associates, corporate leadership, and regulatory, representatives when they come in, and also your vendors. Embrace those relationships. Make your presence known and felt inside the community. Acknowledge that real estate is the business model, right? I mean, It just is. And that's okay. Relationships make real estate successful, And respect regulations as the structure that protects trust and reputation, Everyone wants to move into a community that they can trust and that has great scores. So make that regulation piece a reputation building, trust building piece. boundary component of your leadership and of your senior living journey. We as leaders must align our relationship with real estate relationships and regulatory compliance to create long term sustainable success inside of our community. Want to ask you which R do you feel like that you need to strengthen most in your leadership? Which are, are you really, really good at? awareness is always the first step to growth. And if you want to grow and become better, focus on what your strength is and what your weakness is, and maybe some areas that you can focus in those on those weaknesses to, to get better. Maybe it's your relationship with the regs. I know that it was for me, right? And real estate, for all that matters. I hope this episode helps you put maybe some struggles that you're having in perspective that you understand, oh, that's why they're coming down on me so hard, or I just didn't understand the regs in a way that I understand them now due to this plan of correction, I mean, growth happens when we open our mind to the different perspectives and we lean in with curiosity and say, okay, I will tell you the greatest learning lesson ever was that community that had that horrific survey that, that earned them a 57. And The aftermath, the complete and utter overhaul that community had was the biggest learning lesson of my life. No, I was not the leader when they had that survey, but I was the leader having to implement the entire plan of correction of that community. And my relationship with the regulations. Became healthy, fearful, and connected after that. So failure can be your greatest growth tool, but don't let the shame and the guilt keep you stuck. Release it and allow the grace and the mercy of growing and the discomfort of growing be your motivating factor of continuing the growth. Because the goal is to grow and to master your skill and to grow occupancy through, regulation, compliance and relationship, people centered, purpose driven leadership. So, I hope this helps. I, I know that I would have needed this as a new leader and maybe as a perspective of somebody who's currently struggling and needs help. Different scenarios inside of a community. And if this helps and you know somebody who wants to be a leader, or who is struggling, give them this episode. And if you have a few minutes, leave me a review, or reach out to me on LinkedIn, because I would love to hear your feedback about this. It's important. You are why I do this. So I appreciate it very much. And as always, aspire for more for you.