by Diane Masson | Mar 23, 2014
What Diane Is Reading
Success in sales coming from a good attitude. Negative news sells newspapers and TV commercials. News commentators get paid to glamorize fear and a collapsing world. Overcome this fear by turning off the news and feeding your brain with positive thoughts and energy.
- What book(s) are you currently reading?
- How often do you read?
- Is there a certain time of day that works best for you?
- Do you read one chapter a day or multiple chapters?
It seems like there are readers and nonreaders in the world. Do you have a friend who is always starting or finishing a great book? Hint: I bet they are more positive than your friends who don’t read regularly.
These are my current go to books for working in senior living:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie. I have read this classic about five times, just finished it with one sales team and currently on part two, chapter one with another team. This is one of the greatest books ever.
“Live Your Life Like It Matters,” by Scott V. Black. This book has sparked ideas for me to create team sales meetings and most recently an entire marketing retreat. I just finished this book and the last two chapters are due for a team review in the next two weeks.
“The Sales Bible,” by Jeffrey Gitomer. I have read this great book twice, just selected it for our book review at two Continuing Care Retirement Communities and chapter one is due next week.
“How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success Through Selling,” by Frank Bettger. Another classic that I have read several times, currently assigned this to a successful senior living sales person to pull them out of rut and chapter one is due next week.
“Ego vs EQ,” by Jen Shirkani. I am really excited about this new book to improve myself and grow, just finished chapter one last night.
“Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” By Diane Masson (me). I just used excerpts from “Chapter 10 – Internal Customers – No need to worry about them, right? Wrong!” for a concierge/receptionist training. It is the best book for training new sales team members and can help all communities increase their occupancy.
Current personal books:
“The Better Part, A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer,” by John Bartunek, LC, THD. This is my daily bible reading with outstanding reflections.
“Los Angeles, San Diego and Southern California,” by Lonely Planet. This is a resource I use to travel through Southern California, since I have lived here less than two years. We are going to L.A. tomorrow for a Lakers game and wanted to learn what else that my husband and I could explore.
“The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything – A Spirituality for Real Life,” by James Martin, SJ. A friend gave me this book for Christmas and I have been slowly absorbing the recommendations for simplifying my life for the past three months. This book has really helped me.
“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” by Jamie Ford. Another friend let me borrow this book and I want to start it this weekend.
Typically I read my daily bible reflection daily, several chapters a week from my other personal books and one chapter a week from each of my books for work.
Would you be willing to share your current reading list or favorite books?
Please share your successes, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Mar 16, 2014
Do They Feel Harshly Criticized?
“Critique” and “evaluate” are two simple words but often misconstrued by the receiver.
In a recent team meeting, one department head described how one of her staff cries every time she tries to critique her. This makes it very difficult for this supervisor to work with her employee. The senior living team brainstormed together. Another department head said that it really should be called “evaluating performance” of the staff member and not critiquing.
It is the responsibility of supervisors in senior living communities to continually evaluate his or her residents and document everything (particularly in skilled nursing care, assisted living and memory care). It sounds so simple, yet when a supervisor starts evaluating the caregiver providing the care to the resident…it can be misinterpreted as harsh criticism.
Hopefully, supervisors continually critique themselves and try to improve their own coaching skills. How is a supervisor approaching an employee to administer an evaluation or yearly review? Everyone has different personalities and some supervisor’s direct approach can be confrontational to another personality type. Our marketing team just read, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie. It is an excellent book on how to interact with other employees. Evaluations should be capitalized on as a teaching opportunity, so the evaluated employee can continually improve.
Can you share how you evaluate your senior living employees? How do you handle an employee who reacts negatively and turns the performance improvement plan into a personal attack on them?
Please share your successes, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Mar 9, 2014
My Mom With Bird
My mom is 91 years old and has vascular dementia. She has slowly declined over the last nine years. Through my research, I can assume she is in one of the last two stages of dementia (there are seven). My mom has been in skilled nursing care for the last 9½ months and needs 100% assistance. The last thing that she could do on her own was feed herself.
Now she has dramatically declined in the last month and even needs assistance with eating. She is still a good eater, but does not have the cognition to eat on her own. It is too much work for her. Her short-term memory seems like it has decreased to about one-second.
Antipsychotic medications have reduced the amount and the intensity of her delusions, anxiety, crying and irritability. There have been medications added, increased and decreased in the last four months. It has been a balancing act to try to improve the quality of her emotions and cognition without having her become lethargic.
Now my mom’s memory loss has affected her ability to walk. At the last care conference meeting, we discussed the quality of her life and whether it is a good idea to try to make someone walk or not. It takes constant encouragement to get her walking and she keeps trying to sit down. I have advocated for the caregivers to keep trying to walk her daily. They never make her, but lots of encouragement can produce a walk to breakfast or lunch. By dinnertime, my mom’s Sundowners Syndrome with anxiety and crying make it impossible to walk her.
My mother seems confused and miserable when she walks and just wants to sit down. I want to try to decide in the next week, if I should just let advocacy regarding walking stop all together. In my opinion walking seems so important because it gets her circulation going and her memory seems to clear up. When the walking officially stops, the memory will for sure get worse. Maybe I just need to accept my mom is in the final stage of dementia and have her enjoy what she can…like playing with the new bird at the community.
Please share your successes, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Mar 2, 2014
They Moved And Placed Everything Except The Cat!
Easiest move ever? Yes!!! It was a picture perfect move thanks to a senior friendly company called Helping Hands in California. They literally pulled out their smart phones and snapped “before pictures.” Then in the new home each mover referenced their smart phones to recreate a room, a bookcase or any area that had knick-knacks. Moving a Lifetime of Memories (Part 1) is about my decision to hire a senior moving company.
An army of men arrived at 9:00 AM and the move went so fast. The same person that packed up the kitchen unpacked and organized the kitchen in our new home. This one fact alone was awesome and took tremendous stress off of me. The same mover that packed up the bathroom reorganized it in the new bathroom. It was amazing.
Here is the completion level of each room on the day of the move:
- The kitchen is 100% done (just need to buy groceries and we are ready to cook).
- Living room is 100% done (including pictures on the wall).
- Dining room is 100% done (including pictures on the wall).
- The master bath is 100% done (everything is in it’s place).
- Office/music room is 95% done (books on the book shelves, pictures hung and still need to rightsize the closets a bit more).
- Coat and towel closet are 100% done.
- Master bedroom is 90% done (still need to reorganize the clothes hanging in the closet, buy two lamps and figure out what pictures to hang).
- Second bathroom is 0% done (only two boxes to unpack, because our two cats were crated in this room during the move).
- The garage is 50% done (all the garage stuff is in the garage, but we could not have the team of men put everything away because the garage was too dirty).
Our biggest move challenges?
- Downsizing in general, so I focused on rightsizing. It was easier to stomach rightsizing. It is an attitude.
- Arriving the day of the move to find a dirty garage with stuff left from the previous owner.
- Realizing our master bedroom has zero light.
The good news is that I loved Helping Hands, because instead of months to settle into my home, I am already settled. It should just take a couple of days to go buy lamps and then clean and organize the garage.
I highly recommend this senior moving company and this type of service for seniors moving into retirement communities. Yes, it does cost more than two man and a truck, but it can literally take the stress away from moving.
Please share your successes, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Feb 23, 2014
Eight months ago, I shared the journey of moving my mom 1000 miles to live in a skilled nursing community near me. Now, here is my journey of walking in a prospective senior resident’s shoes and moving – TODAY!
What’s it like for a senior to move 30, 40 or 50 years worth of memories? Is it unsettling, heart wrenching, stressful and terrifying for a senior? My husband and I are moving today after living in a beautiful home for only two years and it feels disruptive, daunting and time consuming.
Who likes moving? It’s anticipating or dreading that I will have temporarily or permanent lost items for months. Plus it can take months to settle in, hang pictures on the wall and start to feel like OUR home.
Most people do not like change. It ‘s easier to just stay where you are and keep the status quo.
Well, since we have to move, I decided to try a new method that we recommend to our clients at a Continuing Care Retirement Community called Freedom Village. I hired a senior moving company, who will literally take our pictures off the wall, pack all our belongings, move us, unpack everything and put the pictures back up on the walls. If we recommend this service to clients, why not see what it is really like ourselves?
Maybe it won’t be as daunting and time consuming as when my husband and I used to hire two men and a truck?
It will be a two-day move. The senior moving company called Helping Hands will take about three hours to pack us up on the first day and the next day they will move all our belongings and unpack us.
Next week, I will share the rest of the story in part two and we will see how easy or painful moving day is and how long it took to settle into our new home.
Please share your successes, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
