Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Jason Acquisto's Senior Living Leadership: Balancing Occupancy Goals with Human Dignity

Transcript

Jason Acquisto's Senior Living Leadership: Balancing Occupancy Goals with Human Dignity · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Jason Aquisto, director of sales and marketing
0:20
at Bickford Senior Living. They are a family owned provider
0:24
of assisted living, independent living, and memory care services
0:28
that helps seniors live happier, healthier lives.
0:31
Jason is also an accomplished marketing consultant, voice
0:35
talent and podcaster with experience working at various
0:39
companies over the years. Under his leadership, Beckford
0:42
champions a personalized approach that has earned
0:45
industry recognition for compassionate care.
0:48
His responsibilities include guiding families through
0:51
essential care decisions, promoting personalized service,
0:54
and supporting A-Team dedicated to senior well-being.
0:58
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:01
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:04
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:08
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:11
bottom line. Imagine being able to give your
1:14
senior living employees free access to doctors, therapists,
1:18
and prescription medications. And here's the fun part, the
1:21
program actually puts more money into your employees pockets and
1:25
the companies too. One recent client was able to
1:28
increase net profits by $900 per employee per year.
1:33
Results vary for each company and some organizations may not
1:36
be eligible. To find out if your company
1:38
qualifies, contact us today at AD back benefits.com.
1:42
All right, back to our guest today, Family Advocate of
1:44
Bickford Senior Living, Jason, thanks for making the time to
1:47
Share your story today. Hey, thanks for the opportunity.
1:50
It's a pleasure to be here. Jason, did I get the
1:53
pronunciation of your last name even close?
1:56
You got a very common pronunciation, so it's Aquisto.
2:01
Aquisto. Yeah, so, you know, long ago I
2:05
gave up the the the burden of trying to make sure everyone got
2:09
it right because it's not their problem.
2:11
And so I will answer to a lot properly.
2:14
It should be said Aquisto, but I can see that you also bear that
2:18
burden. Probably have to spell that name
2:21
for a lot of people. And so yeah, no problem.
2:25
It's a shared pain that we have, but I'm glad that we got it
2:27
right. Jason Acquisto OK, so before we
2:31
talk about what Drury and Bickford, tell us about what
2:34
drew you into the marketing field decades ago.
2:37
Yeah, So what drew me in was that I was, I mean, we all love
2:42
advertising in some way as kids and watching TV and different
2:46
things. I always loved it.
2:49
What happened, though, is that, you know, I was AI was a DJ.
2:54
My first job out of college was in radio as a copywriter.
2:58
And then I said, hey, I can be a DJ and it's and well, let's do
3:01
that. And I loved being a DJI, love
3:04
being on the radio and I still love that, that whole medium.
3:10
But what I started to get into was the the competitive nature
3:14
of radio, my station against the one across town.
3:17
And I read a book called Positioning by Reason Trout.
3:21
And it was this book that a lot of my colleagues in radio were
3:26
were were just they were bananas over this book.
3:28
You got to see it because it tells how our station is
3:33
different than the other positioning.
3:35
Oh, OK, so I read this book from a radio perspective and I
3:41
realized that we're competing against the brand of another
3:45
radio station. Oh, we're we're a country music
3:48
station. Oh, but we're hot country.
3:50
Oh, I see branding, positioning. And that lit something in me.
3:55
And then when I decided to go off the air and go into radio
4:00
sales, that was an outgrowth of the same thing that I'm now
4:04
selling that brand. Here's how we're different.
4:07
Here are the people we are reaching as opposed to the other
4:11
brand. We're we're a new alternative
4:14
rock, not classic rock. So the the nuances of the the
4:18
medium of radio is what really hit me in the beginning about
4:23
advertising. And from there I went into the
4:28
ad agency world for much the same reason that I began to
4:31
think this is kind of what makes the world go round.
4:34
That's why they have radio. That's why they have DJ's.
4:38
That's why I got to be a cool guy on the radio talking over
4:42
music, because of business, because of.
4:46
Selling. People were selling ads.
4:48
We're selling ads, we're selling ourselves, we're selling our
4:52
brand to people who want to identify with us.
4:54
So it all coalesced in the ad agency world.
4:59
And so that was the beginning of my romance with advertising and
5:02
marketing. OK.
5:05
And so how do you get from there into senior living?
5:10
So it doesn't happen overnight. It took a took a journey, right?
5:13
But it's a great journey and I love it because I did the
5:18
advertising agency thing and I was good at it and I really
5:23
loved it. I loved being the account
5:25
executive, being the client advocate, you know, with the
5:29
creative team. I'm not the creative, but I'm
5:31
the, I'm the keeper of the brand for my, for my client.
5:35
And I loved being a problem solver and doing those things.
5:38
So the seed of, of being a problem solver was, was planted
5:42
there. I liked having the good
5:43
outcomes, being a guide to letting the client figure things
5:49
out and then, you know, deflecting the credit to them,
5:53
even if it was me and my team. So all those things they fed me
5:57
professionally. I moved into digital marketing
6:01
and did different things in terms of, you know, voice over
6:06
and podcasting and digital marketing and just, you know, I
6:09
mean, a combination of those throughout my career.
6:12
And then I actually did marketing for, for a food
6:15
company kind of on the brand side as opposed to the agency
6:19
side going to work for, for the brand of a food company.
6:23
And the whole time I was enjoying it and I identified
6:27
myself that way. And I said I do marketing.
6:31
You know, we all tell ourselves a story about who we are.
6:35
I'm I'm a dad, I'm a husband. I am this in my community, but
6:39
my job is this. I'm a media guy, I'm a marketing
6:44
guy. Well, at about age 50 or
6:49
whereabouts, you know, a different kind of thought
6:54
started to, you know, become more my daily mantra of what am
6:59
I giving back? Who I am depends not just on my
7:03
job and who I show up as in the world, but what difference can I
7:08
make? What can I do with the skills
7:11
that I have that can actually give something back and make
7:16
some people's lives better? Now, we all do things in our
7:20
lives and we kind of compartmentalize,
7:23
compartmentalize those as as charity or giving back.
7:27
And that's great. We all do that.
7:28
But I wanted my daily life to be something that caused positive
7:34
change for people. OK, Yeah.
7:37
So a different reason to get out of bed every morning.
7:40
And it's one thing to, hey, I've got to make a living for myself
7:42
and my family, that's great. But if I can do that in a way
7:46
that's also helping other people doing good in the general world,
7:50
that's what you're looking for. Exactly.
7:53
So what I did was I began to look for jobs in marketing that
7:58
were along those lines. And I applied and interviewed
8:01
for several different, you know, very good organizations that I
8:05
identified with food banks and, and groups that were, that were
8:13
adjacent to, to faith communities and different,
8:16
different things that were all good fit.
8:19
But it didn't synchronize until I saw, you know, the listing for
8:26
for a job that was sales and marketing director for senior
8:30
living. And I talked to my wife about
8:33
this and it just, it just made sense to me.
8:37
I also had started to think about some of the skills that I
8:40
had been intentionally developing professionally,
8:44
active listening, empathy, things that we all are working
8:49
on these days, and started to think that maybe this is
8:54
something I can do. I came in for the interview and
8:59
here I am. And that was just a year and a
9:01
half ago that I made that jump, but I feel completely at home in
9:05
this business. What is it you think that they
9:08
saw in you, Bickford, when they hired you?
9:12
Guy with a lot of marketing experience over the years.
9:15
Nothing in the senior living realm.
9:19
I think the empathy is, is a big part of that.
9:24
So I remember talking about it after I had been hired and some
9:30
question along those lines. And and he said it's because of
9:35
the way you seemed to really want to make a difference and
9:38
have that understanding of people's situation and wanted to
9:45
listen. And he said you also did a good
9:47
job listening in the interview, which, you know, you want to
9:51
talk about yourself, you want to do the show, right.
9:56
So listening is hard. And it is probably the the
10:01
biggest tool that that we use in what I do every day.
10:07
So I think that was a big part of what they saw in me.
10:11
OK, so tell us about. Bickford Bickford Senior Living
10:16
is assisted living and memory care and it started in 1990 in a
10:22
town called Olathe, KS suburb of Kansas City.
10:26
And it started when Judy EB noticed that her mother Mary
10:32
Bickford started to have dementia.
10:35
OK 1990 we knew somewhat, but they weren't where we are now in
10:41
terms of assisted living and memory care.
10:44
So she looked for a place that could help her mother and could
10:48
could maybe be a place where she could live.
10:51
Long story short, they did not find a place that was good
10:54
enough for Mary Bickford. So they made one that was the
10:59
very first Bickford Senior Living and it was for senior
11:03
adults that were starting to experience memory loss,
11:06
cognitive challenges, dementia, Alzheimer's.
11:10
So Fast forward from there through the 90s and 2000s and
11:16
Bickford has over 50 locations in the Midwest, Illinois,
11:21
Michigan, Indiana, a couple in Virginia, and our newest
11:27
location in Brentwood, TN. So we're all still owned and
11:31
operated by the Bickford slash EB family.
11:36
And I'm really happy to tell people that because it means a
11:40
lot that the original vision of this family for their mother is
11:45
still passed through and carried through.
11:48
Her grandson, Mary Bickford's grandson is our CEO today.
11:53
So. OK.
11:54
Yeah, it's a great story. Part of the intro, we called you
11:59
family advocate, which is not the typical title that is
12:02
associated with somebody in a sales and marketing room.
12:06
How does that fit? So same question I had when I
12:09
came in for the interview, what's a family advocate?
12:11
Because the ad said sales and marketing and I got all that
12:15
experience. Well, what it really means is
12:19
that we are here to, to come alongside and be an advocate for
12:23
the family. Because when I have
12:27
conversations every day with my, my, my primary role is to meet
12:32
with families about their loved one, their family member who is,
12:37
you know, starting to need a place to live, could be
12:39
dementia, It could just be senior living.
12:42
And that family needs a solution.
12:45
It's not just the person that, that my mother, my father, my
12:49
grandmother, It's a, it's for the whole family.
12:52
So we're coming alongside the entire family there to be an
12:56
advocate for the next best thing for them, the right solution for
13:01
them, because we will take care of their loved one.
13:04
We will care for them, give them a great, wonderful, happy,
13:10
healthy life. But we're also going to help
13:13
their family to clock out from being their caregiver and to
13:17
return to being a family member, loved one, the husband, the
13:22
daughter, and to not have to bear that burden of caring for
13:27
them. So we're advocating for the
13:28
family for things that they need and that they deserve and they
13:33
don't know how to get. They walk in our doors and they
13:37
need knowledge. They don't know what they don't
13:40
know. So I'm here to listen and to be
13:44
an advocate for the whole family.
13:47
As you came into Bickford those first few weeks, the first
13:50
couple of months, what was the biggest change you had to get
13:53
used to? What was the thing that
13:54
surprised you the most? It felt, it felt wild.
14:00
It was very surprising. I didn't know, you know, I'm not
14:03
from the medical field. I'm not from the caregiving, you
14:08
know, background. So there was a lot of, I mean,
14:12
I'm not shocked and I'm easily, I'm not easily, you know,
14:15
bothered by anything. But there's a lot that even I
14:21
couldn't prepare you now to say, OK, well, here's the things to
14:24
look for. It's just something different
14:26
every day. And we all have jobs that say no
14:29
day is the same. But man, you know, my wife
14:34
always tells me you should write a book.
14:36
OK, what I wasn't prepared for are the the humans behind these
14:42
stories. They're amusing anecdotes.
14:45
They are all some funny, some heart wrenching, some just very
14:53
profoundly personal. But the people behind these
14:57
stories, that's what I'm here for.
14:59
And I wasn't prepared to be that deeply invested.
15:04
OK, I think if if you think about what I got into, I should
15:09
have been ready. Hey, I'm a good listener and
15:11
this is a critical time in people's lives.
15:13
Did I not think I'd be attached to people?
15:16
But I'm glad. I'm glad it's that I wasn't
15:19
maybe ready for the depth, but I'm I'm.
15:23
And when you say you weren't ready for the depth, was there
15:25
just a lot of human emotion there that you were like, wow,
15:29
I'm not used to this selling, you know, radio ads or whatever
15:32
you've done before? Yeah, exactly.
15:35
And so although I have done some some counseling, some lay
15:40
counseling on the side and, you know, gone through those kinds
15:45
of things as an everyday job, as like a never ending human drama,
15:52
talking with a family in the morning about their loved one in
15:56
the afternoon about a completely different family and their
16:00
situation. Yeah, it's exactly like you
16:03
said. This is not a commodity, but
16:06
that balance between being accountable to Bickford's
16:10
company's sales goals, I mean, this is what we do, right?
16:13
We have metrics that we have to fulfill and my job is to help to
16:18
fill our building by using those those sales tools and at the
16:22
same time balance that with the human aspect.
16:26
So not selling radio ads, not selling widgets, but absolutely
16:32
listening and keeping your eye on the ball sales wise but never
16:37
losing perspective. So you obviously had a lot to
16:41
learn as you were coming into a very new environment.
16:44
But I'm sure at the same time you had a lot of ideas like, oh,
16:47
I, I need to understand the landscape here, but I've already
16:51
got my own ways. I'm going to put my fingerprints
16:53
on this. What were some of the, call it,
16:55
two or three big ideas that you had right away coming in?
16:58
Yeah, so two or three big ideas that that I wanted to do were to
17:04
bring, you know, as simple as it sounds, I'm always reminded that
17:09
not everyone knows kind of the, the, the basics of, of
17:12
marketing. And so, you know, I've done a
17:16
lot of social media I can do, I'm a content creator and I can
17:19
do that pretty easily. It's second nature to, to make
17:23
fun little videos, right? To, to be a regular voice on, on
17:29
our social platforms. So not that Bickford wasn't
17:33
doing Facebook and and LinkedIn, but to really take it to another
17:38
level in terms of the, the quality of the content and to
17:42
bring the, bring the brand into focus.
17:45
So all the the years of championing my client's brand in
17:50
the agency world helped me to understand how to kind of be
17:57
that voice in our leadership meetings about focusing the
18:02
brand, really becoming a laser focus.
18:05
Not all things to all people, but to get us out there in the
18:09
right channels in the right way. Just tightening things up,
18:13
making short form videos, using TikTok, using Instagram, using
18:19
YouTube. I've joked that I wish that I
18:23
could do that all day because that really that really feeds me
18:27
professionally. But then I'm reminded that
18:32
that's not really necessary to do that all day.
18:35
We're not trying to win the social media war, but to do that
18:39
strategically in a way that that reaches the people that we need
18:43
to reach in those ways. So social media was a big thing.
18:47
The other thing that I am hoping to to implement, I've been with
18:52
Bigford about a year and a half. I told myself that I'd that I'd
18:56
go through a year and then really put some effort behind a
19:01
podcast for the company. OK, so I've got a couple of
19:05
podcast that I do separate from Bickford that I just am a
19:09
podcast hobby. And I've just been kind of
19:13
collecting thoughts and planning, talking to folks about
19:16
how we can make this something that is beneficial, that speaks
19:20
to the Bickford mission, but that doesn't detract from what
19:24
I'm supposed to be doing and and doesn't use the wrong voice.
19:29
But that comes alongside the big Ford brand.
19:31
So after a year's worth of absorbing that brand and living
19:37
that that kind of mission and having success in the first, the
19:42
first order of business was to start to fill our building.
19:45
And so we've done a good job of that.
19:49
And so now I want to take our effort into new things like a
19:53
podcast. So ask me what?
19:55
Ideas do you have what? What do you think the the theme,
19:58
the tone? Like who are the guests?
20:00
What are you talking about? Yeah, conversations super UN
20:07
unscripted, which is some guideposts along the way, not
20:10
unlike what we're doing. And this is a great example of a
20:13
podcast that covers different industries, but talks people
20:17
through helps people to express what they do.
20:20
So what I might do for this would be maybe it's a generic
20:24
senior living podcast. You know, what's next for your
20:26
for your loved one. This week's guest is someone
20:31
talking about long term care insurance, how to make sure your
20:36
parents have that. What's the value of that?
20:39
There might be one that's about dementia specific care and how
20:43
to tips and tricks, lighthearted but also informative.
20:47
So there's a balance there between being academic because
20:51
there's a ton of good information out there.
20:54
But this would be bite sized and it would be also casual enough
20:59
to where it wouldn't need to be, you know, taken as like a class
21:05
or anything academic. Maybe there's something about
21:07
Hospice, Maybe there's something about activities.
21:12
A lot of people, again, don't know what we don't know.
21:16
And our generation is shifting from raising our children who
21:22
are now grown up into caring for our older parents as seniors who
21:28
now need our help and leadership to care for them in new and
21:32
different ways. So that whole mind shift is what
21:37
I'm really good at relating to people from because I've gone
21:39
through that myself. So yeah, that would be kind of
21:44
the overarching theme for that podcast is people just like us.
21:50
You know, it strikes me that you've got specific challenges
21:54
in what you do. The first one that comes to mind
21:57
is you're sort of selling to two different audiences, right?
22:03
Like in one way, you're selling to the person who will
22:06
ultimately be receiving your care, and you're also selling to
22:11
the person or the people that are their loved ones that are
22:15
helping to make the decisions for them.
22:18
How do you approach those two different types of messaging?
22:22
Yeah, great question. Sometimes it's not both of those
22:27
in the room because sometimes son or daughter is looking for a
22:32
place and mom or dad is somewhere else and they're just
22:35
doing that leg work to kind of find a place and that that
22:39
conversation with mom or dad will come afterwards.
22:42
Sometimes, like just yesterday had a tour of our place that
22:48
was, hey, I'm looking for myself.
22:50
It'll be a few months, but I'm looking for myself and I brought
22:54
my son and daughter with me. So those are each challenging in
22:59
their own ways, but like you, like you point out in the room
23:04
at the table, I'm talking to son and daughter and mom or dad over
23:10
here. So it is challenging.
23:13
What I like to do is to address each one and to make sure that
23:18
any time you're speaking to a group, you like to address each
23:20
person individually. And I like to also make sure
23:24
that we all know that we are here for the well-being of the
23:29
resident, the resident being the person who will who will live
23:32
here. So of course, part of that could
23:36
be the cognitive state of things.
23:38
I mean, mom or dad might have, you know, some challenges in
23:41
that way and we might know about that and there might be separate
23:45
conversations. Every situation, every family is
23:50
unique and has a different kind of methodology, if you will, of
23:55
going about, well, mom's going to not want to live here, so can
23:59
we have lunch? And then you and I'll go talk
24:01
over here and we're able to come alongside the family and figure
24:06
out what's going to be the not just a path of least resistance,
24:09
but the most anxiety lowering, temperature lowering tactic.
24:15
And we don't have to do it all at once.
24:18
So all those things kind of come into play there.
24:22
But to to make sure that we know we are not using our own
24:27
timeline, we are not using our own expectation, but that this
24:32
first hour of conversation is about what's happening with the
24:37
family. Tell me about what's going on.
24:39
What's your typical day? What would you like to do?
24:41
A lot of times it'll take just a simple form of talking to the
24:47
daughter's son who are power of attorney.
24:49
But then turning to the, to the one that's going to move here,
24:52
just say, what, what do you think?
24:55
What would you like to do? How would you like to live here?
24:57
What are they right about this? And to really empower them, you
25:01
want to involve them, absolutely involve them.
25:04
Make sure they know that this is really about them.
25:09
And a lot of times the the decision maker or the
25:13
influencer, the son or daughter, to no fault of their own, they
25:18
forget to, to, to go through the, the, you know, the parent,
25:24
the resident on that whole line of questioning.
25:26
So yeah. Jason, are you responsible for
25:30
sales and marketing at one specific location or for the
25:34
entire company? This location, so this location
25:38
is called Bickford of Carmel. Carmel is a suburb outside of
25:42
Indianapolis and we're on the north side, it's suburban
25:47
Indianapolis. We also have a location on the
25:50
other side of town, Southside Greenwood.
25:53
And then we are connected to a division.
25:56
I mentioned we have over 50 locations the the 10, the the 10
26:04
total branches that are Northern Illinois and Indiana.
26:08
We're a division and we all are very connected.
26:12
We have a couple of of conference calls every week and
26:17
share information, we share strategy, we bounce ideas off
26:21
each other. So I have a counterpart in
26:23
Greenwood, I have a counterpart in eight other Illinois
26:28
locations that I can call text any time of day that we share
26:33
the same job description and encourage each other everyday.
26:39
So this is my role. I drive the sales and marketing
26:42
occupancy here in Carmel. And then we also have, as you'd
26:46
imagine, we have a, the, the overall sales team nationwide,
26:52
you know, gets together and shares a lot.
26:54
We're very connected and that helps.
26:58
Can you explain what the higher path senior health model is and
27:03
how you use that to help communicate the benefits of
27:06
Bickford? Yeah.
27:08
So as you might imagine, senior living takes all forms.
27:12
You can run, you know, drive down the street out here and
27:15
you'll see 15 or 20 before you get a couple miles.
27:18
They're everywhere. And the reason is the population
27:22
is increasing in that in that demographic.
27:25
But there's also a different flavor of each back to that
27:27
positioning idea. There's a different kind for
27:30
every, every preference. A lot of places will be what we
27:35
call occupancy driven or more of a real estate solution, more of
27:40
a, you know, a hospitality situation.
27:44
They want you to come and live here.
27:46
They're more independent or some assisted living and they have
27:49
wonderful amenities and, you know, a movie theater and, you
27:54
know, they'll have an indoor exercise room and all these
27:58
different things. And that's fine.
28:00
That's great. We are focused more on the full
28:04
picture, a holistic view of how to care for loved ones, The
28:10
senior higher path model as opposed to the downward spiral,
28:15
OK, Higher path brings all the different things we can do,
28:20
social, mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical
28:26
and clinical, OK, Because all the places up and down the
28:29
street, they'll make sure the place is heated, has a roof over
28:33
your head, you get 3 meals a day and all the right pills and TV
28:36
is connected. But we're going to go beyond
28:39
that to do a healthcare solution with actual metrics that are
28:45
really, it's really working. We'll have a happiness
28:49
coordinator that is going to be our activities director.
28:52
We'll have spiritual faith-based services that come in on a
28:57
regular basis right here to our community.
28:59
We're going to have a nutritionist and a bread basket,
29:02
which is our dining that's going to be all scratch made food in
29:07
our kitchen. And then mental health services,
29:11
rehabilitation and therapy services.
29:14
So all of those services come alongside each other to be the
29:19
higher path. We call the higher path
29:21
happiest, healthiest, longest life.
29:24
Now, in one way, it Harkins back to the way we used to just say
29:29
things in a in a cute advertising slogan.
29:32
I get that and I can appreciate that.
29:34
But then you start looking at the metrics.
29:37
We, Bickford as a whole, are seeing big decreases in number
29:42
of emergency room visits from our residents across the
29:47
Midwest, all of our branches. It's working that we see less,
29:54
less falls, less accidents, less visits to the ER.
29:59
And also the our happiness scores have increased and
30:03
they're living longer, they're staying with us longer.
30:06
So all those things are great to hear, they sound wonderful, but
30:10
when it comes down to it, show me the numbers and that's what
30:14
it is. So when I'm talking to a family,
30:17
I like to present the higher path as something that is an
30:22
active participation in the health and Wellness of your
30:27
loved one. Can you describe more in
30:31
practical terms? What does that look like?
30:33
The higher path? How?
30:34
What is it that you're doing that you're able to extend
30:38
lifespan? That you're reducing falls,
30:40
Reducing ER visits? Yeah.
30:42
So we put together higher path success stories, OK.
30:47
And what that means to each of our locations, each branch of
30:51
Bickford is that we're able to highlight a resident who might
30:55
have come to us with certain challenges.
30:59
And through time, through the higher path tactics, we are able
31:05
to redirect and to find the baseline for them that is
31:10
successful for their integration with, you know, socially with
31:14
everyone and physically that they are consistent and that
31:19
their behavior is consistent. And because we also have
31:26
cognitive challenges here in our community with a memory care
31:31
emphasis. So we want to make sure that
31:33
they're all well adjusted. So an example might be a
31:36
resident who came to us about six months ago and had some
31:41
behaviors, OK, and was acting out with those behaviors.
31:46
We knew that there were probably some some questions about is he
31:51
on the right medication and is he being spoken to and and have
32:00
the chance to be to have proper therapy and not just, you know,
32:06
shuffled along through the system.
32:08
So we looked at extensively. This person is having behaviors,
32:13
antisocial, disruptive, not violent, but but certainly not
32:18
appropriate. So we took a look at the
32:20
medication, his history, the place that he had come from
32:24
prior to here, which was a a rehab facility.
32:27
And so we took all of these things into consideration.
32:29
We got what we call a medication holiday, which is kind of Ground
32:35
Zero getting back to the the nothing and starting from
32:39
scratch in terms of what medication.
32:42
Also, we got him involved with some therapy and got some as
32:48
they got some. We took an interest in his life
32:52
emotionally and spiritually and had a counselor on both of those
32:56
sides come in and speak with this individual.
33:00
And again, this is not just intervening and saying here's an
33:03
antidote. Take this talk with this person,
33:05
but to each week, every few days, have an active
33:11
conversation. Here's what we're doing.
33:13
Leadership in the building, myself, our director of health
33:17
and Wellness, our executive director and those other
33:22
branches that were connected to, to say Mr. Resident is having a
33:26
problem with this. Here's what we're doing.
33:28
Here are the interventions we're doing and we put together a care
33:34
plan. Everyone has a care plan, but
33:37
his was specific to the mission of let's get him on the higher
33:41
path because he is he is off on a different journey right now.
33:46
So it might not be a short fix, a quick fix and it might be in
33:54
segments right now. I feel like he is in phase one
33:57
of that, you know, normalizing journey, if you will.
34:01
So this resident now he is living, he, he's living here and
34:07
thriving socially. His appetite is good, his, his
34:12
his speech is good, his energy level and his temperament is
34:16
very good. Part of that is medication.
34:19
We believe in medicine, but we believe in that human aspect as
34:23
well. So.
34:25
Yeah, how, how many beds do you have there, Jason?
34:28
We have 58 the total. Beds.
34:31
Yeah. And so obviously everybody's
34:34
going for 100% occupancy, but what do you consider sort of
34:37
your target rate? So when I got here, I'm proud of
34:41
this because our team has done a great job this past year.
34:44
When I came in a year and a half ago, we were in a tough spot.
34:47
We were in the 60s and 60% range and because of having someone in
34:55
my role and the others, I want to be very clear, not just me,
35:00
but because of others that are working with me, we've been able
35:03
to get it up in the 90s. So the 90s is a good place to
35:06
be. OK.
35:08
Yeah, it's good. What do you think is the biggest
35:10
lever that you've pulled to affect that growth?
35:13
Is it the social media? Like how have you gotten more
35:16
folks in there? The biggest advantage that I
35:22
have is the way that I'm able to give a tour with families and to
35:27
listen and to earn their trust. And I don't say that lightly.
35:31
I've reflect on this a lot. I reflect a lot on how am I
35:36
doing in this role, what my real job is.
35:39
And my job is not to make cute videos and to make us, you know,
35:44
available on Facebook. My job is to be a source of
35:48
trust that when somebody comes in to Bickford to give them a
35:53
realistic but honest, genuine experience.
35:58
And I do believe that that's the reason that I'm here.
36:03
So all the years that I was able to earn trust and be successful
36:08
in sales because I've been to the sales training, you've
36:11
probably been it with this sales training is nonsense except for
36:15
earning trust. OK, so parlaying that into this
36:22
role is the the best thing because I'm telling you the
36:26
truth family and this is what will happen here.
36:29
So that's the the reason I believe that we've had success.
36:36
How do you see? Or maybe.
36:38
How do you hope? Jason, that your role there
36:41
evolves in the next 12 to 18 months.
36:44
Yeah, I'd love to do more of the marketing things because that I
36:47
like that the the tangible, you know, marketing, like I said,
36:52
podcast is my next thing I want to do that I want to continue to
36:57
be to be social media is great. I'd like to elevate what we do
37:04
in this community. So getting involved with some of
37:07
the networking groups, there are wonderful groups and it's a
37:13
another thing I wasn't ready for when I came in.
37:16
There's a subculture of people doing my job and it's a
37:20
professional networking group that you'd have no idea exists,
37:24
but it makes sense. We all need to share
37:27
information. I belong to a couple of those
37:30
groups and I'd like to, to elevate what we're doing into
37:34
the community by partnering with some of those folks, getting us
37:39
out into the conversation into more of, of, of life here in in
37:44
Hamilton County, Indiana and, and bring that name.
37:49
I think it has. We have a good reputation, but
37:52
I'd like to, you know, just keep, keep making sure that's
37:55
that's a high level of excellence that's associated
37:59
with Bickford. You know, Jason, nobody gets to
38:03
where they are without overcoming some hardships.
38:07
What's a big challenge in your life that you had to overcome
38:11
and what did you learn going through it?
38:17
So Anthony, it, it's great to be personal and I love the fact
38:22
that in today's world, we can drop pretense and we could be
38:25
vulnerable. So thanks for asking that.
38:29
I did not grow up with a father figure in my life and I I am
38:38
proud of the way that I've that I've been able to compensate for
38:43
that. Now, I don't believe that a
38:46
person must have a mother, father and, and, and, and
38:49
necessarily to to be successful. There are many different kinds
38:53
of families. Families look different and
38:56
that's all very valid for me. That was something that I had to
39:01
overcome and still and working to make sense of different ways
39:07
that it affected me. And so the, the, the one thing
39:13
that helped me the most is to realize that I'm a, I'm my own
39:19
person. There is not a, a way that, that
39:25
any of any of those issues or kind of, you know, deficiencies
39:31
or things I didn't get. There's, there's no quick fix
39:34
for that. You got to do that work, but you
39:37
also cannot find your own value in in someone else.
39:41
So going through that, that work, kind of digging in the
39:46
soul and figuring out how do I find a, a reflection of my true
39:51
self and to do that spiritual work and that professional work.
39:56
Again, it all kind of ties together because the way I
40:00
alluded to earlier, the way we see ourselves, it can be.
40:04
The role we play in our family or the role professionally.
40:08
So to see all those things has been a big part of my journey as
40:14
as understanding myself as a man now and being being OK with
40:22
that. Being more than OK embracing and
40:24
leaning into the person that I was truly meant to be and not
40:29
just saying, hey, you know what? My dad never taught me this.
40:33
That's over, that's yesterday. This is who I am.
40:37
I'm comfortable with that and I'm happy.
40:41
Jason, what was the biggest thing you had to adjust to?
40:46
Not having a father figure in your life growing up.
40:49
How did it affect you in the most impactful way?
41:01
You know, I wished I'd had someone to teach me the things,
41:05
you know, that, that, that, that dads taught kids.
41:09
And so I think that I had a wonderful family life and I want
41:16
to be clear on that. And A and a, a healthy family
41:22
upbringing in terms of people caring for me.
41:26
But the, the things that bothered me that I missed out on
41:29
were that, you know, just how to do this or that, how to always,
41:34
you know, my, my father didn't teach me to drive.
41:36
My mother did little things like that.
41:39
And when we're honest, my friends and I all had weird
41:46
experiences growing up. But my particular thing was that
41:51
I always just thought, yeah, I wish I would have had that
41:54
experience with my dad didn't get, you know, he he was not
41:57
taking me to a baseball game or coming to my games or, or
42:01
teaching me, you know, about money until later.
42:05
And so I'll qualify this and say, which was a great joy to
42:09
get reconnected with my father later.
42:12
I wish the things that he taught me when I was 1822 years old, I
42:18
wish I would have learned those earlier.
42:19
That was kind of, yeah, that was a thing.
42:23
And as you've been on this path of self discovery and healing,
42:28
what's been most helpful to you? Is there books?
42:33
Are there friends that you've leaned on?
42:35
Therapists that have kind of walked you through this process?
42:39
Yeah, I think all those things when I first read the the book
42:44
The Road Less Travelled and I think the first words of that
42:47
book, Our life is difficult. And I just, it spoke to me
42:51
unlike anything isn't, you know, freshman in college just trying
42:55
to figure some things out and you start understanding these
42:59
truths. These are very basic things, but
43:01
I hadn't had kind of some of that framework in there that
43:05
like, oh, this is how you start to understand yourself and where
43:11
you belong. So that book, several other
43:15
books, you know, Man's Search for Meaning that you know, what
43:18
you give back to life is how you're measured, not what life
43:21
owes you. And then my spiritual life has
43:26
been a big, big part of my overall, I guess, self
43:31
actualization, being being raised a certain way in a
43:35
certain belief system and realizing later that was not a
43:40
great fit for me. Deconstructing that and then
43:43
reconstructing it in the way that makes sense for me in my
43:48
belief system and and practice now is a great fit.
43:52
I also have a tight circle of friends.
43:56
I reflect often on being both an extrovert and an introvert
44:03
because I can work the room like nobody's business.
44:07
But I need time alone. I, I need to be filled up.
44:11
I need like, you know, I, I will need some time this weekend to,
44:17
to put gas back in the tank. And that includes mostly being,
44:21
being by myself, but then also those conversations with trusted
44:27
friends that I'm still, you know, best friends with my, my 3
44:31
buddies from high school. And I'm grateful for that
44:33
because we keep each other in check.
44:36
We keep each other real. And so those relationships and
44:42
my family, my family is super important to me.
44:45
The one I grew up in, not the one I made later, close to my
44:49
brothers, close to my mom. And even though, you know, we
44:54
talked about my father and, and those dynamics of it, I'm super
45:00
close with my brothers because I believe in a lot of ways we've
45:03
been on a similar journey. And that's been a lot easier as
45:09
we've gotten older because it was awkward and strange to like
45:15
be growing up that way and, and not and not really acknowledge
45:20
it. But we are a close family.
45:24
And then the family I have now, my wife and my son, who's 22 and
45:30
his name's Anthony. He's a great guy.
45:33
Has to be with that name. There's no other way, right?
45:36
Jason, would you like to say more about your spiritual
45:40
beliefs now and how they fit you and support you better?
45:45
Well, love wins the the end of the day.
45:48
Love wins, period. And there are only two things
45:51
that are important in life and one of them is to love God and
45:55
love your neighbor. And I won't hear anything else.
45:58
That's, that's it. I, I won't be the guy that needs
46:02
to pontificate about my own journey, but I will be the one
46:07
that says I will absolutely bank on love every day of the week
46:13
until I die. And that's going to be that.
46:16
That will not change because any belief system that you have
46:21
starts and ends with that. And we're all in the same
46:24
journey, whether we recognize it or not, whether we believe that
46:29
that this is the way or this is the way, at the end of the day,
46:34
love will have the final say. And so, yeah, I think that's my
46:38
that's my mantra. And, you know, it's my job to
46:42
to, to show that love to people around me.
46:46
That's it. Jason, what is your superpower?
46:52
Empathy, listening. Yeah.
46:56
And I will share this that it was, I did not discover that on
47:04
my own. My wife encouraged me because
47:07
she noticed how I would act with people.
47:11
And so I think you'd make a good Stephen Minister.
47:16
A Stephen Minister is an ordained but still layperson in
47:22
the Christian Church. It goes across denominations.
47:24
It's a Methodist, Presbyterian. Steven was the first apostle or
47:30
sorry was was the first lay person in the New Testament to
47:35
help people and to be like what we know now as a counselor.
47:39
So he was not an apostle in the way we think about ordained and
47:43
on high and giving orders, but more like coming alongside
47:47
someone. So this organization is called
47:49
Steven Ministry, and I went through months of training,
47:54
active listening, sitting with someone, not offering solutions.
48:01
My wife suggested, why don't you do that?
48:03
You'd be really good at that. I'm not comfortable with that.
48:06
I don't think that's it's too much to do.
48:09
It was exactly what I should have done.
48:11
So a few years ago I went through the course of Stephen
48:14
Ministry and it taught me how to keep from feeling like I had to
48:20
be the one to fill the room with talking.
48:25
But then I can sit and be comfortable in silence and
48:28
listen to someone else tell me what's happening with them and
48:32
affirm that without solving it. That's got to be hard.
48:39
I mean, humans are kind of natural problem solvers, right?
48:44
I mean, you're telling me a problem.
48:45
That must be because you want me to offer up a solution.
48:48
That's what we all think. We all think the reason you were
48:51
talking about a problem is that you want me to help you solve
48:55
it. But that's false because really
48:58
the a lot of times what people want is just someone to hear
49:04
them. They just want to express it.
49:06
They want someone to affirm it. So what I try to do in all my
49:11
relationships and what I think, what I think I do pretty well is
49:17
to affirm everything before before I respond to it.
49:23
Sometimes you can affirm that with eye contact and and and
49:29
quiet listening, sometimes to repeat it back and sometimes to,
49:35
to be OK. Yeah, that must really be hard,
49:40
full stop. Right.
49:42
So those those habits are hard to work in, but once you start
49:50
and develop that muscle, you know it, it gets easier.
49:55
So that's, that's what my superpower is.
49:58
I. Love it.
50:00
Any daily habits or practices that you engage in that help get
50:04
your day started or keep you on track?
50:08
So I'm a believer in deep breathing and mindfulness in a,
50:14
in a, you know, I'm not going to be daily yoga and daily
50:19
meditation, but I believe in those and I do meditate.
50:22
What I like to do is practice stillness and quiet.
50:26
So I used to be all about the music in the car and the podcast
50:31
in the car and things. But what I've learned to do is
50:34
to be present in the moment and to do things deliberately and to
50:38
make time, make time for deep breathing.
50:44
It's so simple, but it really centers you.
50:47
You get the good air and, and take the time to count off and
50:52
and it just clears your mind. So I'm going to be doing that
50:59
daily activity and I'm going to have my coffee.
51:02
I'm going to have the right amount of coffee, which is all
51:06
of it. So yeah, that's my routine.
51:10
Jason, I've just got one more question for you today.
51:13
But before I ask it, I want to do three things.
51:15
First of all, if you want to get in touch with the company we've
51:19
been talking about today, just go to bickfordseniorliving.com.
51:23
And Jason has given us permission to give out his work
51:28
e-mail address. If you want to reach out to him
51:30
directly, talk about anything, it's Jason Aquisto at Bickford
51:34
Senior Living. Sorry,
51:36
jason.aquisto@bickfordseniorliving.com. And Aquisto is spelled ACQ
51:43
UISTO, and we'll put that in the show notes for folks, but those
51:49
are ways that you can reach out to him.
51:51
Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to
51:54
benefits that won't hurt them financially and carries a
51:57
financial upside for the company, reach out to us at Add
52:00
Back benefits.com. And finally, if you'll take just
52:03
a moment and leave us a comment or review on your favorite
52:06
podcast app, we will be forever grateful to you.
52:09
So last question for you, Jason, a year from now, you and I
52:13
reconnect and you are celebrating something big.
52:16
What is that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from
52:20
today? That we are at 100% occupancy
52:25
and have been for a few months so that we're sitting on top of
52:28
that mountain of 100% full, got a waiting list and it is
52:34
thriving in the ways that it should be.
52:36
So I will qualify that the only reason we're here is not to get
52:42
100%. That's just heads in beds.
52:44
But I will say that we are thriving with having the highest
52:51
path, goals accomplished, happiest, healthiest, longest,
52:55
so that when you look at those stories, you'll see residents
52:59
who live here who are healthy and who are living their best
53:03
life and that their families are happy.
53:05
But we would love to have that 100% capacity.
53:08
That's my goal. So mark that down.
53:11
All right, noted. We'll check back in to see how
53:14
it's going. Jason Acquisto from Bickford
53:16
Senior Living. I want to be the first to thank
53:18
you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
53:21
I really appreciate. It thank you so much for the
53:23
opportunity. I I loved meeting you and I
53:26
really appreciate being able to share on this platform.
53:28
So thanks for having me. Folks, that's a wrap on another
53:32
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
53:34
Thanks for learning with us today.