October 5, 2025 • 56 mins
Behind every title is a person, with a story worth hearing. In this inaugural episode of The Meritage Project, host Phil Lord sits down with Solera’s Founder & CEO, Adam Kaplan. Through authentic conversation, Adam reflects on the life experiences and lessons that shaped him — both personally and professionally.
This opening conversation sets the tone for the project itself: an ongoing journey to share the voices and stories of those at the heart of senior living — the people.
Blending voices. Creating legacy. This is The Meritage Project.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Welcome to the MeritageProject, a podcast by Solera Senior
Living.
At its heart, Senior Living isabout people, residents, community
teams, family members,industry leaders.
Behind every title is a personwith a story worth hearing.
(00:28):
Through authenticconversations with our host, Celera's
coo, Phil Lord, we'll explorethe voices, stories and perspectives
that together create theexceptional blend that defines our
senior living communities.
Blending voices, creating legacy.
This is the Meritage Project.
(00:54):
Excited to be here today.
It's always been a dream ofmine and Solera's as we continue
to grow and provide differentinsights to the industry.
Our goal is to remove thethought behind strategy and AI integration
and really get to know theindividuals who make life in our
(01:14):
communities possible.
No better way to start thatand launch that than talk to the
man himself.
Solaris founder and CEO Adam Kaplan.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
Yeah.
So excited to be here.
This feels natural.
He's my guy, we're friendly,we do this together.
It's exciting.
So.
So, yeah.
And I think it's healthy foreverybody to truly understand Adam
(01:35):
as an individual, Adam as afather, Adam as a child, and everything
that motivates and pushes Adamto be and move him to.
To do all of the great thingsfor our organization that he does.
So would.
Would love to start Adam withjust you telling us about, you know,
where you grew up, what kindof kid you were, what you did for
fun.
So I grew up in Chicago.
(01:57):
I had two parents, mom and dadand a sister.
And my dad, my dad was anentrepreneur, came.
Came from Nothing, Brooklyn,N.Y. grew up without a dad, was raised
by his mom with a sister in astudio apartment.
And my mom's from.
From Chicago and grew up in abigger family, three siblings, and
(02:19):
had different, different upbringings.
My dad was, Was very, veryinfluential in the way that I was,
that I was raised.
And he's a very passionateindividual and shared a lot of those.
Those passions with me early on.
One of those was a love for.
A love for golf.
And that started very, veryearly and is something that continues
(02:41):
today, something that I, youknow, I'm proud to share with with
my kids.
I was out actually in thelast, like, few weeks.
I played like five times with, with.
With mostly with Brooks, alittle bit with Blake, too.
Played nine holes.
Was real fun to be able toshare that.
That's something that I, Ilove and share that with them.
But I played, I playedcompetitive golf growing up and I
(03:04):
played.
I also, my.
But the other sport that, thatI, That I had a love for was skiing,
which Actually, I feel like,you know, when I'm on podcasts, I
talk about my dad a lot justbecause, you know, it's, it's kind
of natural for me to, to talkabout him because he, he had so much
influence over the, who I amas a professional.
But my mom actually probablyhad, you know, more influence over
(03:26):
who, who I am in terms a lotof like, my values and what I stand
for, what I care about.
But she loved Colorado.
Actually, she loved the mountains.
So my mom sent me to camp.
I went to camp for three yearsin Estes Park, Colorado as an outdoors
camp.
Hiked, horseback ride, rockclimb, whitewater raft.
(03:47):
It was a great, greatexperience and she loved Colorado
a lot.
And so we'd come out in thewinters and we'd go skiing.
So my other sport that I, thatI had a passion for was, was skiing.
And that was, that was reallyfrom my mom because she just loved
being in the mountains.
And I, I, I grew up where, youknow, my dad, because he grew up
without a dad, he, he reallymentored me from, from the early
(04:10):
days and he wanted me tosucceed him.
And he, he would take me to,to properties with them.
He, he'd take me to the, thebreakers at Edgewater beach, the
breakers at Golf Mill.
We'd go on the weekends andyou know, we would, we'd walk right
into the kitchen.
I'd make mini donuts, pass emout to the residents, talk to the
(04:31):
residents, get to know the residents.
But you know, I, I spent a lotof time in the communities.
I'd celebrate my.
We did Passover at theBreakers a number of times.
It was, it was pretty muchsecond nature for me when I do community
service for school.
I did it at the breakers and,and, and then I ultimately, you know,
(04:52):
interned at the breakers whenI was in, when I was in high school,
going into college, my first,my first job in sales was, was at
the breakers with, with DavidSmith and, and then I'd go to conferences
with them.
I went to Asha in high school.
I'd go on business trips withmy dad.
He'd be looking atacquisitions, opening development
projects and he exposed me to everything.
(05:16):
And you know, he, he'd coachme before I was ready to be coached,
to prepare me for, for whatwas ahead.
And my dad actually had thisdream as a kid to go to Cornell and,
and go to the hotel school,but they didn't have the means.
So he ended up going to PrattInstitute and actually studying hospitality.
And then going into hiscareer, he worked in contract food
(05:38):
service.
So when I was a kid, he, youknow, aspired for me to be able to
do something that he wanted,but he couldn't afford.
And so ultimately applied toCornell, Went to Cornell, was in
the hotel school.
And it was amazing.
Absolutely incredible,incredible experience for me.
(05:59):
Still very, very active in thehotel school today.
You know, I actually teach acouple of the seniors housing courses.
One in the summer, one iscoming up here in October.
And, you know, a lot of thatis just the influence from my dad
in the early days.
I love that.
So here, dad and mom both veryinfluential on you.
(06:20):
A lot of the values you carrytoday came from mom.
Anybody else growing up thatwas really instrumental in shaping
your values in the individualyou are today.
And even when you were younger.
Yeah, it's a great question.
I actually only had one grandparent.
Her name was Jane.
Called her Nana, and that wasmy mom's mom.
And I was lucky that of allthe grandkids, I was the closest
(06:43):
to her.
And that was because she.
She had dementia.
And so when she had dementia,I was.
It was a time when a lot ofthe other grandkids, either they
were inaccessible, they livedin other states, or they were just.
They were kind of too young toget to know her.
But I was lucky.
I got to.
I got to know her really well,and I'd go.
She lived in Southside Chicago.
She lived in one of thesuburbs, so Homewood, Flossmoor.
(07:06):
And I'd sleep over at her house.
And my mom, before health wasa thing, my.
There was no such thing as,like, a Whole Foods.
Yeah, she would buy, like,organic foods.
And, like, our house was like, we.
We.
We didn't have sodas.
We didn't have desserts.
Except my mom love ice cream.
She passed that down to me, too.
But pretty much very, veryhealthy household.
Except my.
(07:26):
My Nana, she didn't know whathealth was.
And she had Wonder Bread.
And so she would make me sandwiches.
Turkey sandwiches withmayonnaise on Wonder Bread.
I mean, that is just.
It's just.
We just know how unhealthythat is today.
But it was so.
It was so good.
She made me, like, boiled hotdogs and, like.
(07:47):
Yeah, turkey sandwiches onWonder Bread.
And she was a smoker.
She smoked and she drank,like, scotch and whiskeys.
And I. I don't know why.
Like, it was, like, in the80s, but I realized smoking was a
pretty bad habit.
So I would.
Every time I would go to herhouse, I would steal her cigarettes,
and I would.
(08:08):
She lived in this bigdevelopment, and I would literally
go And I would throw hercigarettes out.
Like, I would, I would walklike, like for 10 minutes just to
like find the place and throwit out.
And then I'd come back andthen she would, it wouldn't take
very long.
It would take minutes, matterof minutes.
And she's like, where are my cigarettes?
And she would make me walkwith her to go retrieve the cigarettes
(08:32):
and bring them back to her place.
So you know, you, you asked meabout values she, that, you know,
I just share some of that.
Cause like we, we had a, anamazing connection.
She, she was, was great to mebut she, she wasn't concerned with
her image.
She wasn't trying to besomeone that she wasn't.
(08:54):
She was just very authenticand she lived a very, very simple,
simple life, but a happy life.
And I think that, you know,it's, it's a, it's quite of a, a
different reality from likehow I grew up where.
And a dad who had nothing wassuper ambitious.
You know, his first project, Isay 476 units senior living wasn't
(09:19):
a thing.
There was no such thing.
He built a 476 unitindependent living project and his
second project was 275 units.
So you know, he, he was, hewas a visionary and he, he, he thought
big and he, he executed and hewanted my mom, my sister and I to
(09:41):
have everything.
He didn't, that was, that was,that was at the core for him is he
wanted us to have all thethings that, you know, he, he, he
wanted as a kid but couldn't.
And then you look at mygrandmother and she, you know, lived
in like a small town home andagain, you know, she has turkey sandwiches,
I wonder bread and smokecigarettes and drink scotch.
(10:02):
And she, she wasn't aspiringto like, you know, join a country
club or you know, travel andstay at you know, five star hotels
in Europe.
She just, she knew what sheliked, she knew the people she liked
and that's what gave her joy.
And so I think that that isimportant perspective to have, no
(10:27):
matter what stage of lifeyou're in is what really matters
at the end of the day.
Yeah, a hundred percentincredible story.
I, you know, funny enough, andI think I've shared this with you,
but I can remember in 2015,Phil Lord was a senior living puppy
early in my career and Istepped, I walked into the home office
(10:47):
of Senior Lifestyle in Chicagoand sat across from you and was so
captivated by the true professional.
However thankful to me I have,I've had the opportunity to get to
Know, Adam the human and Adamthe individuals that have been shaped
by all of these individuals.
And the stories really, reallyresonate with me.
Back to, you know, thebreakers at Edgewater beach where
(11:09):
you were making the donutholes and pass them to the residents.
But I had never heard thestory of your nana and you spending
time there.
And truly incredible toreflect on and see, you know, the.
The way in which she shapedyou and your values.
Any other stories or.
Or times that stuck with you from.
From a young age where youwere, you.
(11:30):
You.
You think shaped who you are today.
I don't know why I'm going toshare this, but it.
It just popped in my head.
It's a little bit.
It's a little bit of adeviation from.
From that.
But, you know, I, I.
Something that, like, I, Ireally haven't shared, and I don't.
I don't know if I've shared itwith you, but most people don't know.
This is.
I grew up and my parents lovedmusicals, so I would go to.
(11:54):
I'd go to New York and I was lucky.
And we.
We.
We probably went once a yearand we would see the.
The top musicals.
I remember, like, Tommy wasone of my favorites when I was a
kid, and they took me to everything.
I mean, we saw it whether itwas Chicago or.
Or.
Or New York.
And my mom collectedplaybills, and I, I just remember.
(12:15):
I remember that because.
Because, like, a lot of.
I would get to experience thiswith her, but, like, my dad and my
mom would go and see shows andshe would always bring back the playbills
and she would tell me aboutit, or it could have been before
my time.
And.
And she always, like, sharedlike this, like, just the, the.
Even today, like, when Italked to my mom and dad, just went
to New York and like, they.
(12:36):
They saw a bunch of shows,and, like, she was just telling me
about it, and, like, this islike, it's just such a passion of
hers.
And I, I'm.
I, like, I'm.
Elise and I, we took the kidslast year to New York for the first
time.
Was like, something.
I was like one of those, like,bucket list items for me, which I
actually, like, document.
Somebody told me one timethey're like, put your bucket list
(12:58):
in, document it, and, like,check off when you achieve it.
This was, like, probably fouryears ago.
It was like a hard time inCovid or just getting beat down,
fatigued.
And, like, I was like, yeah, Ishould do that.
I should do that.
So I put it.
Put it down.
That was one of my items.
I was able to check that off.
But it's, it's very fun tohave a.
It's very fun to have a bucketlist to put it down and like to aspire
(13:21):
for it.
So we, we took the kids, wesaw Ann Juliet.
Amazing musical, incredible.
The songs are all like BritneySpears and NSYNC and Backstreet Boys
and the kids, just all ofthem, but the boys, Sienna, like,
they just loved it.
They lit up.
They were dancing.
So anyway, when I built ModenaReserve at Kensington, which was
(13:43):
actually the first, a lot ofpeople don't know, it's first development
project at Solera that wesigned up.
So identified the opportunityin November 2016, started the company
in April 16, November 2016, Imet the McCaffrey team and we started
looking at opportunities inD.C. and Kensington was one that
they presented us with and weended up pursuing it.
(14:04):
And, you know, it's just toshow you, like, how much hard work
there is to identify a projectultimately to develop it and to open
it.
You know, we.
We didn't actually open thedoors of independent living till
December of 2021 and thenMarch of 2022, as you know well for
assisted living and memory care.
So a lot of hard work toultimately see the fruits of the
(14:27):
labor.
But one of the things we didis we have a wall in the multipurpose
room at the building and ithas Playbills.
And it was something that,that I asked the designer to do.
I said I would love it if youcould take Playbills and you could
(14:47):
frame them and you could putthem on the wall in the multipurpose
room.
And it was a kind of a.
Without getting into too muchof it.
You know, it was a difficulttime for me personally on the, on
that front, because I had leftmy family business and I was a successor
to the business as, you know.
And, you know, it.
(15:08):
It created some friction forme with my parents.
It felt like, you know, Ithink abandonment to them, to my
dad, because he built it andyou know, his legacy, part of his
legacy was me succeeding him.
And he shared that and he did,you know, he gave me the opportunity.
He, as I said, he mentored mefrom day one.
(15:29):
And it just wasn't the rightpath for me, you know, And I think
senior, I always say thatsenior lifestyle's better off and
they have great leadership.
They're in a good position today.
And this was the journey for me.
I had it in my blood, in myDNA, like I was just meant to do.
I needed to step out of mydad's shadow and to be my own person
(15:50):
and to build something.
And as much as his legacy, it,you know, I, as much as I wanted
to carry it on and build onit, he already has.
He's the pioneer in the industry.
He doesn't need me to do that.
His legacy is already, youknow, set in stone.
So, you know, I, I, there's, Idon't like, like branding like, you
(16:13):
know, Marriott, you walk intoa Marriott and they have a picture
of Bill Marriott.
And I don't, you know, there'snothing that says like Kaplan, you
know, in any of our branding.
And I don't want to make itabout me.
I want to make it somethingmuch bigger than that.
Something that we alltogether, build together, that we,
that we are all a part of,that we all own and something that
(16:37):
we, every day, we all work tomake it better.
And this was a little detail.
And then there's a lot ofthose throughout.
I think the organization, youknow, I did, I haven't really shared.
It's not like there's a plaquethat says this is like in honor of
my mom, but it's somethinglike every time it's, it's Modena
Reservoir of Kensington is oneof my favorite communities, you know,
(16:59):
and it's something every time,like I walk through that area.
Like, I'm just really proud ofthat little subtle detail.
So, yeah, that's just a littlebit of story that about my upbringing
loved.
You know, I still actuallylove musicals today, and I got that
from my, my mom.
I love that my, my wife Amandaand middle son Maddox actually were
(17:23):
just in New York City threeweeks ago.
They saw and Juliet Constant.
The, the, the, the soundtrackis blasting throughout my house since
then.
The best.
But yeah, really relatable songs.
Incredible.
And you know, my Maddox isjust recounting like what was happening
in the story when thatparticular song comes on.
But I think he wants to be onBroadway as a result.
(17:45):
So I love that.
I don't know why, when we werekids, like, you were embarrassed
to say that you liked likeBackstreet Boys are in sync or written
Spears, but now it's like in vogue.
I can't figure that out.
But I'm glad, I'm glad to seethat, like, you can just like be
honest about it and be like,this is good music and it's catchy
and it's, it's fun.
Little do you know, Adam, thatin 11th grade my walk up song when
(18:07):
I came up to bat in highschool was Tearing up my heart by.
NSync I, I, I'm, you knowwhat, if anything comes with this
podcast, it's that I learnedthat about you.
I mean, that is, that is oneof the best details.
You're, you know what though?
There is, you know who myfavorite walkout song is of all the
players.
Do you know, take a guess.
(18:30):
Ohtani.
Ohtani.
I did know that you sharedthat with me.
Do you know what he walks up to?
Yeah, you, we talked about itin Boston.
I know.
I, I might, I, I might have,I, I don't know if I told you correctly,
who, but it's Michael Buble.
Michael Buble.
I think I might have saidFrank Sinatra.
I think, I think I thought itwas Frank Sinatra at first, but it's
(18:51):
actually, you know, they soundthe same.
Yeah, but it is Michael Bubleand I just love that Shohei Ohtani,
the best baseball player thisgeneration, walks up to, to Michael
Buble, and people just go crazy.
I love it.
Love Michael Buble too.
Amazing.
Cool.
Switching gears a little bitoff of your childhood today.
What fuels Adam Kaplan?
(19:11):
What, what pushes you to getout of bed and, you know, and crush
senior housing every single day?
Well, I mean, I'm pushed toget out of bed by my morning workouts.
So this morning I did, I didyoga, I did a little core power C2
at 5:45.
And then yesterday and the daybefore I did some strike training
at a, at a place called Vikingin Denver.
(19:34):
You know, I, I, I, I do.
That's kind of, I'm saying itkind of tongue in cheek, but, you
know, I have learned over, youknow, the last 21 plus years how
important it is to prioritizeyour self care.
I don't think it's somethingthat's talked about enough.
One of my biggest passions is,is mental health.
And there's still, you know,it's breaking down, but there's still
(19:55):
a stigma around it.
I think people are stillafraid to, you know, talk about it,
whether it, in, you know, itaffects themselves, whether it's,
you know, impacts peoplearound them.
But, you know, I, I believeone of the best ways to take care
of your mental health is, isthrough, is through diet, through
(20:15):
fitness, through sleep, andthrough community.
And, and so, you know, Ilearned a lot about myself leaving
a family business and thechallenge, you know, that I had in,
you know, coming to thatdecision ultimately, you know, building
up the courage to share withmy dad that I, that I was gonna,
that I was gonna go in adifferent direction than starting
(20:37):
solera you know, operating asenior living company through, through
Covid.
Very tumultuous time.
And it's, it, it was, it wastaxing, you know, and, and it led
me to, you know, a panicattack in 2022 when I was on the
road and you know, had to callan ambulance and, and was in an ER
cardiac unit at Tufts Medical.
And you know, I, I talked to adoctor, my general, and he was like,
(21:01):
you know, just, I'll subscribeyou Xanax and you'll, you'll take
it with you on the road andprobably, you know, prevent anything
like that from happening.
And I started, I startedinvesting in, you know, in my health.
I started listening to AndrewHuberman, one of my favorite podcasters,
Huberman Labs.
I started listening to PeterAttia and, and, and just reading
books on like longevity.
And I read a book called Brain Energy.
(21:21):
Caitlin's read it too, andit's about, you know, treating mental
health through diet.
I shared it with her, I saidit was a passion of mine and, and,
and so she, she, she's a big,much bigger reader than I am and,
and, and she read it and wewas good because be able to talk
about it with somebody.
But I, but I took a lot ofwhat I learned there and I, I, I
changed my, my dietary habitsand I really started to, you know,
(21:45):
to, to proactively invest in,in, in my health so I could be at
my best.
I, you know, I could have moreenergy, I could have greater mental
clarity and I could keep mystress levels more in control despite
my ambitions.
So, you know, that puts me ina position to be as successful as
(22:08):
I can be at this stage of lifewith having, you know, three kids,
a 12 year old, a 10 year old,a 7 year old.
As you know, very well,fortunately, I have two boys and
one girl.
You have three boys, that'slike having a significantly, I mean,
it's just a lot harder.
Thankfully, you know, I thinkI got the girl at the end so that
(22:29):
it was a little bit moremanageable for me.
But you know, health issomething I really focus on.
I really focus on continual learning.
So, you know, books andpodcasts, I just, you know, one of
the books I read this summerthat oddly, as much as I love to
read, I never read was SteveJobs by Walter Isaacson.
(22:51):
One of the best, if not thebest book I've ever read, really
helped me with my perspectiveon thinking bigger, thinking about
the customer experience.
And he didn't do focus groups.
He walked in the shoes of thecustomer and thought about what they
(23:11):
wanted even before they wereable to articulate it.
And obviously ste Jobs, I meanpeople forget like the guy revolutionized
so many industries.
You know, people just think itwas, it was the iPhone, I mean it
was, it was itunes, it was,you know, it was music, it was Apple
music, it was the, the tv,Apple tv.
(23:34):
He was incredible, you know,and he also Pixar and you know, he
changed the movie industry andis one of the greatest creative minds
of all time.
And reading that reallyinspired me.
So for me, Phil, you know alot of people are, especially in
senior living operations,they're pretty, I want to say focus
(23:56):
on day to day blocking andtackling and even people who I've
worked with in my career sofar, you know, I've worked in operations
now for 18 plus years and youknow, a lot of operators that I respect,
they're really good at the dayto day tactics but they don't spend
(24:17):
a lot of time on strategy,they don't spend a lot of time on
innovation.
And there's a lot of reasonsfor that.
I think part of the reason isjust the way the industry is capitalized
as capitalizes a real estate industry.
And, and so real estateinvestors are, whether they're investing
in a development project or anacquisition, they have a certain
(24:38):
type of return and they'relooking for a return and they need
that to be on a certain riskadjusted basis.
And so they might notnecessarily be seeking like an extra
2% if you can do X, Y, Z, theywant you to execute on the business
plan without bringing in,introducing additional risk.
(24:58):
But for me, honestly likethat, that, that just doesn't get
me fired up.
I don't think it gets many people.
It's Solera fired up.
And so you know, when I leftsenior lifestyle and I, I launched
Solera, it was, you know, tobe the best, to be the best in every
market we operate.
And you know, I, I, I will saylike I've, I've sat at so many dinners
(25:20):
with the, the pioneers of theindustry and I've listened to them
and so many times I said, youknow, I would never live in one of
my communities.
And I was like, how's this possible?
I mean like Bill Marriottwould never say like I, I, I would
never stay at a Marriott, I'mgonna stay at a Four Seasons only
like, or I'm gonna stay at anAirbnb, I guess, you know, Danny
(25:44):
Meyer, you know, he's notgonna be like, I'm not gonna, you
know, eat it Shake Shack, youknow, or Levin Madison, you know,
I'm gonna go, you know, eatat, you know, another restaurant,
tours, or I'm only gonna, youknow, dine at home, for example,
or have a personal chef.
Like, it didn't make sense to me.
(26:05):
And I heard it over and overand over.
Like, all these pioneers thatare building and operating, they're
like, I'm gonna live at homewhen I need care.
And I'm like, that's broken.
That is broken.
It's a wrong mindset.
So we need to flip the mindset.
Instead of creating placeswhere people have to live when they
(26:25):
have no other options, createplaces where people want to live
or aspire to live or aspirefor their loved ones to live.
That's what the underlyinggoal and ambition was day one with
Solera.
And that's still the goaltoday is, you know, how do you, how
do you help people who arelater in life, you know, our, our
(26:50):
average age is in the mid-80s,you know, who have worked their whole
life to, you know, raise afamily, to provide for their family.
And how do you make it so thattheir final years are not forgotten?
How do you make it so thattheir final years have meaning and
(27:11):
have purpose?
That's a much higher calling.
That's a much different typeof ambition than I think a lot of
the traditional senior livingminds have set out to execute on.
And it's much harder.
But that's every day what getsme going, Phil.
I mean, that.
That's, you know, it's like,yes, what we did yesterday, like,
(27:35):
we, we, we should recognizeour successes, we should celebrate
our successes, but we shouldevery day reinvent ourselves.
We should every day strive formore, strive to do something better,
strive to do something bigger.
And, you know, this, this,this generation, this demographic
(27:58):
deserves that.
And I don't think there'sanyone better than senior living
to deliver on that and toreally move the needle and to elevate
the way we serve this demographic.
And, and you think abouthealthcare, and healthcare is, is
a sick care system in theUnited States.
(28:19):
It's a.
It.
That's what it is.
Yeah, you're sick.
You, you know, you have some,you know, chronic disease.
And we'll, we'll, we'll treatthat, you know, and, oh, here's the
drugs that you should take.
And that, that's where wespend all the money.
And, you know, people, whenthey, when they need those services,
they're, they're, they'reusing insurance, private insurance,
(28:40):
they're using Medicare,they're using Medicaid.
Okay.
So it's not a consumer driven product.
Senior living is one of themost successful consumer driven products
in healthcare.
And I, and, and I, I didn'tactually come up with this.
Somebody else did.
I heard it once, I think Iread it on LinkedIn and it resonated
with me.
(29:01):
Senior living is one of themost successful consumer driven products
ever in healthcare because ourresidents, our families pay privately.
They're, they're, they're notfunding the cost of independent living
and assisted living and memorycare through Medicaid and through
Medicare.
(29:21):
Typically, yes, there are somepercentage, not enough, some percentage
of assisted living in mammarycommunities that accept Medicaid
in this country.
But most people are paying privately.
And so we, as an industry,because people are paying privately,
have to understand ourconsumer so well.
(29:42):
We gotta understand theresident, we have to understand their
kids and what's important tothem and what they want.
And we have to evolve whatwe're doing to meet their needs.
And right now we're goingthrough a huge transition because
we're going from the silent generation.
And we all know the silentgeneration, they were just happy
to be alive.
They didn't think they weregoing to make it to 85.
(30:04):
And in that generation, theydidn't want to spend money on themselves.
Meat and potatoes.
This next generation, the babyboomer generation, totally different.
They expected to be alive.
Not only do they expect to bealive, they expect to live well.
And if we're still operatingwith that old context of, you know,
(30:26):
the people moving in here, youknow, they're at end of life and
we're, you know, we're gonna,we're gonna continue to provide the
same product that we did overthe last 30 plus years.
We're gonna fail as an industry.
We have to evolve.
And so Solera to me stands forsomething much bigger.
(30:49):
And I take pride and I'menergized by the fact that we are
an organization that seeks tosee around the corner, build for
where we're going, build forthe future, build something better.
And that's what I'm passionate about.
I don't even know how tofollow that up.
(31:11):
I think we heard everythingpersonal to you that drives you to
make Celera great.
And theoretically, I myselfhave been elevated as a professional
and as an individual as a result.
Truth be told, I've never reada, a book cover to cover until I
met Adam Kaplan and was encouraged.
Now I've listened to manybooks cover to cover.
(31:34):
I too did read the book BrainEnergy or listen, as I should say,
As a result of you.
And since February of thisyear, I've adapted to a keto diet.
I think it's been great for mymental health.
And now I'm back in the gym,crushing it.
And so look forward to joiningyou tomorrow for the full body routine.
And, you know, it's.
It's pretty remarkable to hearall of the things that push you to
(31:57):
get out of bed and fuel you tobe your best every day and how you
cast those on your team aswell, because I've picked up so many
great healthy habits from youthat have made me a better professional
for Solera as well.
And all of the things you saidthat fuel you.
Right.
Like, I've.
I became distressed by anindustry that had fallen flat with
(32:17):
zero innovation.
And I say this over and overand over again, but you truly provided
me a platform and Celera towhere I feel like I am making not
only change for our teams andour communities, but for the industry.
And we will walk intocommunities 10 years from now and
say they do that because wedid that at Celera.
And that's truly because ofeverything we've heard today thus
(32:41):
far about you, the individual,and what's fueled you getting a little
bit more vulnerable now.
We've talked a lot about,like, the stories and those who've
moved you and motivated you.
Any failures or personalchallenges that you've learned from
and have supported theindividual you are today.
Boy, there's a lot of failures.
(33:03):
I'd say, first off, like, alot of people think.
They look at, like, my resumeand they think, oh, we went to Cornell,
we went to Kellogg, must be,like, you know, very academic.
And I was not.
So school didn't come easy for me.
You know, team sports didn'tcome easy for me.
I had to work really, reallyhard because I didn't have natural
(33:26):
gifts.
And I think the positive ofthat, for anyone that, like, hears
that if this resonates withyou, is that if you aspire to overcome,
you will build a work ethicthat will be your greatest advantage.
So, you know that I learnedearly on through failure, through
(33:48):
disappointment, and, you know,it's horrible.
And you're, you know, and Isee it as.
It's hard as a parent, youknow, you see this with your kids
and their struggles, andwhether that struggles, you know,
academically, whether itstruggles socially, whether it's
struggles athletically, youknow, you.
You.
You start to.
I, at least for me, I askedmyself, like, is, was that me?
(34:08):
And, you know, you want thebest for your kids.
You don't want to see them struggle.
But you, you also, when youhave a moment of clarity and awareness,
you realize like, okay, well,with those struggles came strength.
So that's something else I'llstart with.
I, when I was at SeniorLifestyle and I went, you know, I
went from Merrill lynch and itwas very much like Merrill lynch
(34:31):
is, you know, it was afinance, finance setting.
So it was like, if you're thefirst one in and you're the last
one out, you're probably goingto be pretty successful.
So you can, you can kind ofuse brute force.
I, I, I knew I wasn't thesmartest, so I would, I, when I started
Merrill, I read every credit memo.
These credit memos were like30, 40 pages and I just read them
all.
And then like you, you, you,you, you were supposed to attend
(34:55):
credit committee when you werepresenting something that was one
of your deals and they allowedyou to attend, you know, just to
learn.
And, and I would attend.
And my, one of my earlymentors, Kevin McMean, who ran the,
the group at Merrill, he waslike, look, if you've done, if you
finish your work, you finishwhat you need to finish, like you
can come in my office andlisten to any call.
(35:16):
And so like I took advantageof that type of stuff to learn.
Then when I, when I startedSenior Lifestyle, you know, and I
went from capital over to ops,it was a very big wake up call for
me.
Look, in hindsight, like Imade a lot of mistakes, a lot of
miscalculations, a lot ofthings that I wish I, a lot of things
I wish I knew at the time thatI know today.
(35:38):
One of the things was I usedto take and I see this so much with
so many people that I surroundmyself with that I see that have
a lot of potential is whenyou're early in your career and you're
working your way up and you'revery driven, it's very easy to take
(35:59):
things personally.
I took a lot of things personally.
There was a lot of times thatI was fired up like going to like
Kevin Benima's office.
Kevin was COO at SeniorLifestyle and I really learned a
lot about operations from him.
He, we were so different.
We're very, Kevin's BillCharter Senior Living, you know,
(36:19):
really great entrepreneur.
It's amazing what he'saccomplished, especially, you know,
given that I've known him for,for so many years.
But he taught me about reading people.
He, he was a firefighter, youknow, and I'm, I'm not, not in you
looked at me, but he was afirefighter in the operational sense,
in the sense that, like, whenthere was an issue, like, he would
(36:40):
deploy all the resources andwe would extinguish that fire in
me.
My mind is much more process oriented.
So I was like, well, whatcaused the fire?
Like, let's go identifyKevin's like, let's put the fire
out first.
So, like, I learned that youneeded both, like, you need both
the, like that execution andyou need the process.
I learned that from him.
But, you know, he let me vent.
(37:01):
He would let me come in hisoffice and shut the door, and I would
just.
I'd be so fired up.
And he just let me, you know,speak what was on my mind.
And he listened.
He was genuine.
He was, he was empathetic.
He, He.
He wanted me to.
He genuine.
I think he really wanted me tosucceed and, and he wanted to be
part of my growth.
And one of the things thatKevin said, it's probably like, you
(37:22):
know, we worked together foreight years, and it was probably
seven years.
And he's like, look, I knowwhere your ambitions are.
You want to go the next level.
You should hire an executive coach.
So I was like, yeah, I lovethat idea.
So I reached out toNorthwestern and I asked them who
they recommended.
I hired someone named Linda Balkan.
My first experience withexecutive coaching was with her,
(37:43):
and it was an amazing, amazingexperience for me personally.
And one of the things that wedid was we did these, these.
It was called Hogan's PersonalAssessment that we did.
We did three 60s and we didstakeholder interviews where she
interviewed.
She interviewed like, youknow, people that I reported to,
people that were my peers andpeople that reported to me, and then
(38:06):
people.
A couple people that wereexternal to organization.
It was like 36 pages.
And then she highlighted allthe themes, all the themes there.
And we sat down.
It was a pretty grueling four hours.
I remember it was maybe sixhours or something going through
it.
And, you know, especially forsomeone that's, you know, very driven,
takes things personally, Ilearned a few things about myself.
So you.
You built what's called a.
(38:27):
It was a.
It was, it was a personalbalance sheet.
So it was like your strengths,your weaknesses and your strengths
overused.
And I learned some things.
Even though I consideredmyself self aware and self reflective,
I did learn some things about myself.
And one of the things that Ithought about myself was I thought
I was a pretty good communicator.
And I actually learned thatwhile people said communication was
(38:49):
a strength, they also said itwas a weakness.
So they said the quality of mycommunication was a strength, but
that the frequency of mycommunication was a weakness.
And I, I, I, I, I reflected onthat and I, I realized that like,
as somebody who's very, verydriven, I, I, and, and a self starter,
(39:10):
I don't need a lot of like, direction.
So I don't need somebody likechecking in on me routinely.
I, I, I go get it.
And even for people who I, whoI would hire, they're still looking
for you to, you know, check inon them and you're, they're still
looking for you.
Whether, you know, we, we allhave different styles and how you
(39:31):
do that.
And I've kind of adapted mystyle over time, but like, you know,
proactively making that callto somebody, proactively shooting
them a text and, you know,leveling up the amount that you communicate
so that it's not kind of likebubbling up and then you're sitting
down with somebody after 30days and like, they've got this list
that they, that they've, youknow, built up and it's like, you
(39:55):
know, it's, it's, they're,they're just, there's so much release
that it's kind of like it's,it's not the best way to support
your team, support peoplearound you.
So I learned through thatprocess that like, you know, I just
wasn't a proactive enough communicator.
I wasn't anticipating as wellas I could have when people around
(40:20):
me needed me to pick up thephone or reach out, you know, through,
through text.
I love text.
So that was something Ilearned about myself.
And then, you know, when Istarted solera in, in 16, I, you
know, I worked in corporatefor 12 years.
And you know, some peoplemight be like, corporate.
(40:42):
What's he talking about?
You know, Merrill is obviously corporate.
We know that's corporate.
Senior Lifestyle had 20,000 units.
When I left, it was corporateand I left and it was just me.
It was just me.
I had to go find an office space.
I worked at a WeWork initiallyin river north in Chicago.
You have to set up your cellphone plan.
(41:03):
I mean, insurance.
I mean, there's just so muchthat you're doing to like, so your
operation LLCs.
And there's something Ihaven't really shared actually, because
it is a strength of mine today.
But like, I wasn't the mostpersistent individual because I had
worked in corporate and I, Ikind of like at the time I would
(41:28):
say like, if I called somebodyand they didn't call me back.
And I wanted, you know, it waslike, oh, you know, they didn't call
me back, you know, must not beimportant to them.
If it's not important to them,I'll move on to something else.
You cannot do that as an entrepreneur.
And because the lights aregonna go off so the phones aren't
ringing, the best relationshipof yours, you know, they, they're,
(41:51):
they're kind of waiting foryou to get started.
And, and so I had to build newrelationships and I, you know, I
would read constantly like whowas active, I'd read all the senior
housing publications, all thecommercial real estate publications.
Who was active, what brokerswere active, what equity investors
were active, what, whatlenders were active, what developers
(42:12):
and just connecting with everybody.
I mean I was connecting witharchitects and general contractors
and insurance brokers and justmeeting with people over coffee.
I was hustling, I was hustlingand I, I learned that quickly, I
learned it quickly that itwasn't innate for me.
I would say I, I kind of likewas respectful.
(42:35):
That was something like Ithink I probably had as a value before.
And then I realized that likejust cuz someone doesn't call you
back, just as someone doesn'taccept your LinkedIn request, just
cause someone doesn't respondor it doesn't mean that they don't
want to meet with you, itdoesn't mean that you're not important
(42:57):
to them.
It just means that you haven'tdone a good job yet of educating
that individual of the valuethat you can provide.
So you know, I learned very,very quickly that I needed to become
much more persistent and thatpersistence was a attribute of successful
(43:17):
entrepreneurs and that if Iwas going to reach the type of success
that I needed, I needed tochange a little bit about myself
and that that would besomething that I would need to figure
out very, very quickly.
I would say lastly because I,I touch on a lot of business, I'd
say like, you know, in termsof like how I've evolved as a business
(43:38):
person.
I grew up and in a, in a very,very close, very close family and
I, I, my, my, everybody, itwas one of the values in my family
as a kid was loyalty and if,if somebody mistreated anybody, they
were out.
(43:58):
And I think one of the biggestlearnings that I have had since I,
especially since I met my wife Elise.
And I don't know, I don'talways talk about Elise in these
conversations either, butshe's had a, actually a very profound
influence on who I am is Elisehelped me understand the importance
of, of not being so hard on people.
(44:21):
And this is probably one ofthe greatest lessons I've had in
my life because I saw a lot offalling outs when I was a kid and
that I learned that whenpeople do something and it, or just
your feelings, when, you know,you feel like they could have acted
differently, it's not always intentional.
(44:43):
People have a lot going on.
They have a lot going on, youknow, what's apparent to people on
the outside.
But there's so much we don't know.
Everybody, we're all dealingwith things personally, and those
personal things amplify atcertain different times and they
affect how we show up withother people.
And so to give people graceand to give people the benefit of
(45:06):
the doubt has really helped mein my relationships.
And if you're like listeningto this and this is resonating with
you, I think there's one morething I want you to hear, which is,
you know, something that, thatI've really benefited from is that
the person that benefits themost is yourself, because you're
not carrying this around.
(45:26):
And I, I, I've had, you know,in the past, before Elise had falling
outs with friends.
It's amazing.
Five years go by and you'relike, what was it even about?
But it hurts you.
And, and I think that this hashelped me personally a lot of, and
I've, and this is carriedthrough in like, relationship with
family, with friends, but inbusiness and trying to contextualize
(45:48):
things and not taking thingsso personally, just having different
perspective on things andtrying to give people a little bit
of grace.
Of course, you know, we, we,we know how important, you know,
you know how important and,and, and people who, who are part
of Solera know me well, knowhow important my values are.
So, you know, there areboundaries, of course, you know,
that you cannot cross.
(46:09):
But, you know, if they don'tcross those boundaries again, I think
giving people grace, benefitof the doubt is very, very healthy.
And I think it makes you ahappier person, more fulfilled and
is probably one of the biggestlearnings that I've had.
I had zero intention of wherethis conversation was going to go.
And theoretically, I just satback and, you know, the leader you
(46:32):
are to me and the way you havecoached me and every one of our team
members to understand the truereflection from you in the moments
of clarity of how you gotthere, truly incredible.
So I appreciate you beingvulnerable and sharing that it's
not always easy to, to, toshare the failures and challenges,
but to See the way in whichthey shaped you as the leader and
(46:55):
the organization in which youlead and your family for that matter.
Really exciting and trulythought provoking for me.
We've talked about your earlyupbringing, who you were.
We've lived in the now.
You know what has whatpersonal traits and have.
Have helped you to define andbuild Solara, be a father and be
(47:17):
a friend.
20 years from now, not AdamKaplan, the CEO, but Adam Kaplan.
What are you doing 20 yearsfrom now?
So I'll be 63.
Hopefully I'll be in very goodhealth because you know, I seem to
be on that.
Yeah, so are you.
So we're on a good tra.
I. I will say that myrelationship with my kids, my kids
(47:39):
will be so, you know, kidswill be 30, 32 and 30 and 27.
You know, hopefully I'll havevery special close relationships
with each of them and theirsignificant others.
I love to do.
I'm so, I don't know, usuallysomebody gives me questions filled
in give me questions.
(48:00):
So I'm usually have some timeto like think a little bit before.
This is truly.
There's.
There's no prep done here.
So One of the books that I,that I read maybe like 12 years ago,
it's called the five lovelanguages, is actually amazing book
for anyone.
It's the easiest book.
It's the.
Is the.
It's the fastest read ever andit is truly one of the most profound
(48:24):
books ever.
But my love language is.
Is experiences and I love totake the kids to do things one on
one with me.
So Brooks, this summer at his.
As his 10th birthday I tookhim to LA, you know, went to.
Went to see the.
The Dodgers and Yankees wereCubs fans.
(48:45):
But the opportunity to seeShohei and judge on the same field,
that was.
That was truly like epic.
So we did that and it was whatan amazing, amazing weekend.
Blake last weekend Cubs werein town.
So we got to see you know,Cubs, Rockies, just him and I and
you know, you wanted to go anhour and a half early before the,
you know, when they opened upthe gates to go try to get autographs.
(49:06):
And so you know he did thatand stayed after.
He actually got one of thereally odd story but he got one of
the, the release.
Very persistent.
He's naturally persistent.
He got one of the, the.
The relief pitchers autographsafter the game.
And Sienna and I you know, wewill go just like the two of us,
(49:27):
we'll go to dinner.
You know, she, she loves,she's just very easy.
But you know, anywhere I Wantto go?
She'll, she's, she's game togo with me, but, you know, to be
able to continue with that asthey get older, to, to have those
special experiences with thekids, and again, they're, they're
significant others.
(49:47):
I love to travel.
I've been fortunate.
I've traveled a lot of placesoutside of the US this summer was
the first, first trip, though,I took in.
Well, I, I, I took basicallythe first trip I took with a lease
since our honeymoon, so 13 years.
We went to Italy.
It was amazing.
And I love traveling abroadbecause for anyone doing hospitality,
(50:08):
it just helps you think bigger.
They do hospitality so muchbetter in Europe and in Asia than
we do here in the US and sogives you a lot of inspiration.
Helps you, you know, clearyour mind.
Being out in nature, you know,on the ocean, being able to, you
know, read a book withclarity, so.
And spend special time withsomebody you love.
(50:29):
So that was absolutely amazing.
Trip wouldn't have beenpossible without the best team, too.
It was the first time I coulddo it in nine and a half years because
I knew the team was so strongand had my back and would thrive
and flourish without me.
So, you know, being able totravel, continue to travel to places.
(50:50):
Japan is on my bucket list.
It's number one for me.
I want to go to one of thosesushi restaurants in the subway station
with eight seats, you know,and sit at the bar.
Stacy's husband is there todayon a work trip, studying to make
and elevate his sushirestaurant to be the best.
So wait until he comes backand feeds you the information.
(51:11):
Oh, you should get.
I'm loving that.
Oh, that's exactly.
That's awesome.
Jiro's not on his list.
No, no.
Oh, there's now places thathave surpassed.
That's right.
Oh, yeah.
I still would go, you know,he's the OG he's the OG So, you know,
Japan is on the bucket list.
Gotta, gotta hit that.
So excited to, to, to be ableto travel.
I love golf.
(51:32):
So, you know, golf has gottabe, you know, part of the, part of
the routine.
And, and then I, I would sayjust kind of like something that
I'm.
Super passion.
That's been a passion of minefor my whole career is, Is, you know,
mentorship and, you know, I'dlove to be able to, at that stage
of my life, to be able tomentor entrepreneurs, to be able
(51:57):
to share, you know, what I'velearned and some of the scars and
the war stories and be able tohelp people to reach their goals.
That would be.
That would be extremelyfulfilling for me if, you know, I
could keep my mind sharp.
I could.
I could keep my mind engaged.
I love, you know, as I said, Ilove continual learning.
(52:18):
I love to read.
I love podcasts.
I love talking to smart people.
I love thinking big.
I love thinking strategically.
And to be able to play a rolewith, you know, that next generation
that is shaping, you know, ourfuture, play a small role.
I will never forget the peoplethat have been there for me, that
have mentored me, and I've hadso many.
(52:40):
Some people know, you know,they're like, you know, more of like
your.
Your, you know, maybe theirexecutive coach, maybe they're a
professor, maybe they're a parent.
I'm in ypo.
I've had a great forum.
It's been one of the mosttransformative experiences of my
life, is going through that.
So there's like, kind offormal structures, but then there's
(53:00):
informal.
There's, you know, just peoplethat, like, you work with.
There's people that you, You.
You are friends with that, youknow, you get to spend time with
and have deep, meaningful conversations.
And so to be able to pay itforward, be a part of helping people
(53:20):
in the future at that stage,you know, that would be something
that would, I, I believe today would.
Would get me very fired up andexcited to be a part of.
It's awesome.
Adam, I sit across from you asthe elevated senior housing puppy
who was captivated by you in2015 as.
(53:41):
As you know, I look at you asa mentor, but most importantly, I
look at you as a friend.
Now, I have appreciated therelationship we've grown, but sitting
here today and spending thistime together to truly get to know
the individual who has createdthe organization and become the founder
and CEO, truly incredible.
Thank you so much for takingtime with me today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour values and those who motivate
(54:04):
you, your family, and becomingreally vulnerable with us.
And I think our listeners aretruly going to appreciate that.
I look forward to.
To.
To next time.
And interviewing moreentrepreneurs and team members and
residents and families as wejourney on a quest to get to know
the individual behind our business.
(54:25):
That's awesome.
Thanks, Phil.
Appreciate you.
Appreciate you having me.
And I know this is.
This is early days here withour podcasting.
And, you know, one thing I've.
I've actually said is that,you know, I look, I love podcasts,
right?
And I have some of my favorites.
The founders is amazing.
You know, Huberman Labs is amazing.
(54:47):
I've listened to many, manyepisodes of all in Invest like the
best there there there's somany good ones and one thing that
surprised me is like there'sreally been no platform where we've
shined a light in a positiveway on the senior demographic.
(55:07):
That is a missed opportunitysocietally because there's so much
to share here, so much to learn.
And so I, I, I hope that wecan be a catalyst for that.
And I, I hope that there aremore people that see this opportunity
(55:27):
and invest in elevating andcreating awareness for this demographic
and people working in aroundthe senior population.
One step at a time, my friend.
If we encourage somebody withone resident story, one family story,
and we know everybody will becaptivated by your story.
(55:48):
Again, thanks so much.
Amazing time today.
Thanks.
This has been the MeritageProject, a podcast by Celera Senior
Living.
These stories don't end here.
They live on in ourcommunities every day.
Follow and subscribe for a newepisode the first Monday of each
(56:10):
month as we get continueblending voices and creating legacy.
Welcome to the MeritageProject, a podcast by Solera Senior
Living.
At its heart, Senior Living isabout people, residents, community
teams, family members,industry leaders.
Behind every title is a personwith a story worth hearing.
(00:28):
Through authenticconversations with our host, Celera's
coo, Phil Lord, we'll explorethe voices, stories and perspectives
that together create theexceptional blend that defines our
senior living communities.
Blending voices, creating legacy.
This is the Meritage Project.
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Excited to be here today.
It's always been a dream ofmine and Solera's as we continue
to grow and provide differentinsights to the industry.
Our goal is to remove thethought behind strategy and AI integration
and really get to know theindividuals who make life in our
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communities possible.
No better way to start thatand launch that than talk to the
man himself.
Solaris founder and CEO Adam Kaplan.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
Yeah.
So excited to be here.
This feels natural.
He's my guy, we're friendly,we do this together.
It's exciting.
So.
So, yeah.
And I think it's healthy foreverybody to truly understand Adam
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as an individual, Adam as afather, Adam as a child, and everything
that motivates and pushes Adamto be and move him to.
To do all of the great thingsfor our organization that he does.
So would.
Would love to start Adam withjust you telling us about, you know,
where you grew up, what kindof kid you were, what you did for
fun.
So I grew up in Chicago.
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I had two parents, mom and dadand a sister.
And my dad, my dad was anentrepreneur, came.
Came from Nothing, Brooklyn,N.Y. grew up without a dad, was raised
by his mom with a sister in astudio apartment.
And my mom's from.
From Chicago and grew up in abigger family, three siblings, and
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had different, different upbringings.
My dad was, Was very, veryinfluential in the way that I was,
that I was raised.
And he's a very passionateindividual and shared a lot of those.
Those passions with me early on.
One of those was a love for.
A love for golf.
And that started very, veryearly and is something that continues
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today, something that I, youknow, I'm proud to share with with
my kids.
I was out actually in thelast, like, few weeks.
I played like five times with, with.
With mostly with Brooks, alittle bit with Blake, too.
Played nine holes.
Was real fun to be able toshare that.
That's something that I, Ilove and share that with them.
But I played, I playedcompetitive golf growing up and I
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played.
I also, my.
But the other sport that, thatI, That I had a love for was skiing,
which Actually, I feel like,you know, when I'm on podcasts, I
talk about my dad a lot justbecause, you know, it's, it's kind
of natural for me to, to talkabout him because he, he had so much
influence over the, who I amas a professional.
But my mom actually probablyhad, you know, more influence over
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who, who I am in terms a lotof like, my values and what I stand
for, what I care about.
But she loved Colorado.
Actually, she loved the mountains.
So my mom sent me to camp.
I went to camp for three yearsin Estes Park, Colorado as an outdoors
camp.
Hiked, horseback ride, rockclimb, whitewater raft.
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It was a great, greatexperience and she loved Colorado
a lot.
And so we'd come out in thewinters and we'd go skiing.
So my other sport that I, thatI had a passion for was, was skiing.
And that was, that was reallyfrom my mom because she just loved
being in the mountains.
And I, I, I grew up where, youknow, my dad, because he grew up
without a dad, he, he reallymentored me from, from the early
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days and he wanted me tosucceed him.
And he, he would take me to,to properties with them.
He, he'd take me to the, thebreakers at Edgewater beach, the
breakers at Golf Mill.
We'd go on the weekends andyou know, we would, we'd walk right
into the kitchen.
I'd make mini donuts, pass emout to the residents, talk to the
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residents, get to know the residents.
But you know, I, I spent a lotof time in the communities.
I'd celebrate my.
We did Passover at theBreakers a number of times.
It was, it was pretty muchsecond nature for me when I do community
service for school.
I did it at the breakers and,and, and then I ultimately, you know,
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interned at the breakers whenI was in, when I was in high school,
going into college, my first,my first job in sales was, was at
the breakers with, with DavidSmith and, and then I'd go to conferences
with them.
I went to Asha in high school.
I'd go on business trips withmy dad.
He'd be looking atacquisitions, opening development
projects and he exposed me to everything.
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And you know, he, he'd coachme before I was ready to be coached,
to prepare me for, for whatwas ahead.
And my dad actually had thisdream as a kid to go to Cornell and,
and go to the hotel school,but they didn't have the means.
So he ended up going to PrattInstitute and actually studying hospitality.
And then going into hiscareer, he worked in contract food
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service.
So when I was a kid, he, youknow, aspired for me to be able to
do something that he wanted,but he couldn't afford.
And so ultimately applied toCornell, Went to Cornell, was in
the hotel school.
And it was amazing.
Absolutely incredible,incredible experience for me.
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Still very, very active in thehotel school today.
You know, I actually teach acouple of the seniors housing courses.
One in the summer, one iscoming up here in October.
And, you know, a lot of thatis just the influence from my dad
in the early days.
I love that.
So here, dad and mom both veryinfluential on you.
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A lot of the values you carrytoday came from mom.
Anybody else growing up thatwas really instrumental in shaping
your values in the individualyou are today.
And even when you were younger.
Yeah, it's a great question.
I actually only had one grandparent.
Her name was Jane.
Called her Nana, and that wasmy mom's mom.
And I was lucky that of allthe grandkids, I was the closest
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to her.
And that was because she.
She had dementia.
And so when she had dementia,I was.
It was a time when a lot ofthe other grandkids, either they
were inaccessible, they livedin other states, or they were just.
They were kind of too young toget to know her.
But I was lucky.
I got to.
I got to know her really well,and I'd go.
She lived in Southside Chicago.
She lived in one of thesuburbs, so Homewood, Flossmoor.
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And I'd sleep over at her house.
And my mom, before health wasa thing, my.
There was no such thing as,like, a Whole Foods.
Yeah, she would buy, like,organic foods.
And, like, our house was like, we.
We.
We didn't have sodas.
We didn't have desserts.
Except my mom love ice cream.
She passed that down to me, too.
But pretty much very, veryhealthy household.
Except my.
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My Nana, she didn't know whathealth was.
And she had Wonder Bread.
And so she would make me sandwiches.
Turkey sandwiches withmayonnaise on Wonder Bread.
I mean, that is just.
It's just.
We just know how unhealthythat is today.
But it was so.
It was so good.
She made me, like, boiled hotdogs and, like.
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Yeah, turkey sandwiches onWonder Bread.
And she was a smoker.
She smoked and she drank,like, scotch and whiskeys.
And I. I don't know why.
Like, it was, like, in the80s, but I realized smoking was a
pretty bad habit.
So I would.
Every time I would go to herhouse, I would steal her cigarettes,
and I would.
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She lived in this bigdevelopment, and I would literally
go And I would throw hercigarettes out.
Like, I would, I would walklike, like for 10 minutes just to
like find the place and throwit out.
And then I'd come back andthen she would, it wouldn't take
very long.
It would take minutes, matterof minutes.
And she's like, where are my cigarettes?
And she would make me walkwith her to go retrieve the cigarettes
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and bring them back to her place.
So you know, you, you asked meabout values she, that, you know,
I just share some of that.
Cause like we, we had a, anamazing connection.
She, she was, was great to mebut she, she wasn't concerned with
her image.
She wasn't trying to besomeone that she wasn't.
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She was just very authenticand she lived a very, very simple,
simple life, but a happy life.
And I think that, you know,it's, it's a, it's quite of a, a
different reality from likehow I grew up where.
And a dad who had nothing wassuper ambitious.
You know, his first project, Isay 476 units senior living wasn't
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a thing.
There was no such thing.
He built a 476 unitindependent living project and his
second project was 275 units.
So you know, he, he was, hewas a visionary and he, he, he thought
big and he, he executed and hewanted my mom, my sister and I to
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have everything.
He didn't, that was, that was,that was at the core for him is he
wanted us to have all thethings that, you know, he, he, he
wanted as a kid but couldn't.
And then you look at mygrandmother and she, you know, lived
in like a small town home andagain, you know, she has turkey sandwiches,
I wonder bread and smokecigarettes and drink scotch.
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And she, she wasn't aspiringto like, you know, join a country
club or you know, travel andstay at you know, five star hotels
in Europe.
She just, she knew what sheliked, she knew the people she liked
and that's what gave her joy.
And so I think that that isimportant perspective to have, no
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matter what stage of lifeyou're in is what really matters
at the end of the day.
Yeah, a hundred percentincredible story.
I, you know, funny enough, andI think I've shared this with you,
but I can remember in 2015,Phil Lord was a senior living puppy
early in my career and Istepped, I walked into the home office
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of Senior Lifestyle in Chicagoand sat across from you and was so
captivated by the true professional.
However thankful to me I have,I've had the opportunity to get to
Know, Adam the human and Adamthe individuals that have been shaped
by all of these individuals.
And the stories really, reallyresonate with me.
Back to, you know, thebreakers at Edgewater beach where
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you were making the donutholes and pass them to the residents.
But I had never heard thestory of your nana and you spending
time there.
And truly incredible toreflect on and see, you know, the.
The way in which she shapedyou and your values.
Any other stories or.
Or times that stuck with you from.
From a young age where youwere, you.
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You.
You think shaped who you are today.
I don't know why I'm going toshare this, but it.
It just popped in my head.
It's a little bit.
It's a little bit of adeviation from.
From that.
But, you know, I, I.
Something that, like, I, Ireally haven't shared, and I don't.
I don't know if I've shared itwith you, but most people don't know.
This is.
I grew up and my parents lovedmusicals, so I would go to.
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I'd go to New York and I was lucky.
And we.
We.
We probably went once a yearand we would see the.
The top musicals.
I remember, like, Tommy wasone of my favorites when I was a
kid, and they took me to everything.
I mean, we saw it whether itwas Chicago or.
Or.
Or New York.
And my mom collectedplaybills, and I, I just remember.
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I remember that because.
Because, like, a lot of.
I would get to experience thiswith her, but, like, my dad and my
mom would go and see shows andshe would always bring back the playbills
and she would tell me aboutit, or it could have been before
my time.
And.
And she always, like, sharedlike this, like, just the, the.
Even today, like, when Italked to my mom and dad, just went
to New York and like, they.
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They saw a bunch of shows,and, like, she was just telling me
about it, and, like, this islike, it's just such a passion of
hers.
And I, I'm.
I, like, I'm.
Elise and I, we took the kidslast year to New York for the first
time.
Was like, something.
I was like one of those, like,bucket list items for me, which I
actually, like, document.
Somebody told me one timethey're like, put your bucket list
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in, document it, and, like,check off when you achieve it.
This was, like, probably fouryears ago.
It was like a hard time inCovid or just getting beat down,
fatigued.
And, like, I was like, yeah, Ishould do that.
I should do that.
So I put it.
Put it down.
That was one of my items.
I was able to check that off.
But it's, it's very fun tohave a.
It's very fun to have a bucketlist to put it down and like to aspire
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for it.
So we, we took the kids, wesaw Ann Juliet.
Amazing musical, incredible.
The songs are all like BritneySpears and NSYNC and Backstreet Boys
and the kids, just all ofthem, but the boys, Sienna, like,
they just loved it.
They lit up.
They were dancing.
So anyway, when I built ModenaReserve at Kensington, which was
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actually the first, a lot ofpeople don't know, it's first development
project at Solera that wesigned up.
So identified the opportunityin November 2016, started the company
in April 16, November 2016, Imet the McCaffrey team and we started
looking at opportunities inD.C. and Kensington was one that
they presented us with and weended up pursuing it.
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And, you know, it's just toshow you, like, how much hard work
there is to identify a projectultimately to develop it and to open
it.
You know, we.
We didn't actually open thedoors of independent living till
December of 2021 and thenMarch of 2022, as you know well for
assisted living and memory care.
So a lot of hard work toultimately see the fruits of the
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labor.
But one of the things we didis we have a wall in the multipurpose
room at the building and ithas Playbills.
And it was something that,that I asked the designer to do.
I said I would love it if youcould take Playbills and you could
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frame them and you could putthem on the wall in the multipurpose
room.
And it was a kind of a.
Without getting into too muchof it.
You know, it was a difficulttime for me personally on the, on
that front, because I had leftmy family business and I was a successor
to the business as, you know.
And, you know, it.
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It created some friction forme with my parents.
It felt like, you know, Ithink abandonment to them, to my
dad, because he built it andyou know, his legacy, part of his
legacy was me succeeding him.
And he shared that and he did,you know, he gave me the opportunity.
He, as I said, he mentored mefrom day one.
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And it just wasn't the rightpath for me, you know, And I think
senior, I always say thatsenior lifestyle's better off and
they have great leadership.
They're in a good position today.
And this was the journey for me.
I had it in my blood, in myDNA, like I was just meant to do.
I needed to step out of mydad's shadow and to be my own person
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and to build something.
And as much as his legacy, it,you know, I, as much as I wanted
to carry it on and build onit, he already has.
He's the pioneer in the industry.
He doesn't need me to do that.
His legacy is already, youknow, set in stone.
So, you know, I, I, there's, Idon't like, like branding like, you
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know, Marriott, you walk intoa Marriott and they have a picture
of Bill Marriott.
And I don't, you know, there'snothing that says like Kaplan, you
know, in any of our branding.
And I don't want to make itabout me.
I want to make it somethingmuch bigger than that.
Something that we alltogether, build together, that we,
that we are all a part of,that we all own and something that
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we, every day, we all work tomake it better.
And this was a little detail.
And then there's a lot ofthose throughout.
I think the organization, youknow, I did, I haven't really shared.
It's not like there's a plaquethat says this is like in honor of
my mom, but it's somethinglike every time it's, it's Modena
Reservoir of Kensington is oneof my favorite communities, you know,
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and it's something every time,like I walk through that area.
Like, I'm just really proud ofthat little subtle detail.
So, yeah, that's just a littlebit of story that about my upbringing
loved.
You know, I still actuallylove musicals today, and I got that
from my, my mom.
I love that my, my wife Amandaand middle son Maddox actually were
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just in New York City threeweeks ago.
They saw and Juliet Constant.
The, the, the, the soundtrackis blasting throughout my house since
then.
The best.
But yeah, really relatable songs.
Incredible.
And you know, my Maddox isjust recounting like what was happening
in the story when thatparticular song comes on.
But I think he wants to be onBroadway as a result.
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So I love that.
I don't know why, when we werekids, like, you were embarrassed
to say that you liked likeBackstreet Boys are in sync or written
Spears, but now it's like in vogue.
I can't figure that out.
But I'm glad, I'm glad to seethat, like, you can just like be
honest about it and be like,this is good music and it's catchy
and it's, it's fun.
Little do you know, Adam, thatin 11th grade my walk up song when
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I came up to bat in highschool was Tearing up my heart by.
NSync I, I, I'm, you knowwhat, if anything comes with this
podcast, it's that I learnedthat about you.
I mean, that is, that is oneof the best details.
You're, you know what though?
There is, you know who myfavorite walkout song is of all the
players.
Do you know, take a guess.
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Ohtani.
Ohtani.
I did know that you sharedthat with me.
Do you know what he walks up to?
Yeah, you, we talked about itin Boston.
I know.
I, I might, I, I might have,I, I don't know if I told you correctly,
who, but it's Michael Buble.
Michael Buble.
I think I might have saidFrank Sinatra.
I think, I think I thought itwas Frank Sinatra at first, but it's
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actually, you know, they soundthe same.
Yeah, but it is Michael Bubleand I just love that Shohei Ohtani,
the best baseball player thisgeneration, walks up to, to Michael
Buble, and people just go crazy.
I love it.
Love Michael Buble too.
Amazing.
Cool.
Switching gears a little bitoff of your childhood today.
What fuels Adam Kaplan?
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What, what pushes you to getout of bed and, you know, and crush
senior housing every single day?
Well, I mean, I'm pushed toget out of bed by my morning workouts.
So this morning I did, I didyoga, I did a little core power C2
at 5:45.
And then yesterday and the daybefore I did some strike training
at a, at a place called Vikingin Denver.
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You know, I, I, I, I do.
That's kind of, I'm saying itkind of tongue in cheek, but, you
know, I have learned over, youknow, the last 21 plus years how
important it is to prioritizeyour self care.
I don't think it's somethingthat's talked about enough.
One of my biggest passions is,is mental health.
And there's still, you know,it's breaking down, but there's still
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a stigma around it.
I think people are stillafraid to, you know, talk about it,
whether it, in, you know, itaffects themselves, whether it's,
you know, impacts peoplearound them.
But, you know, I, I believeone of the best ways to take care
of your mental health is, isthrough, is through diet, through
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fitness, through sleep, andthrough community.
And, and so, you know, Ilearned a lot about myself leaving
a family business and thechallenge, you know, that I had in,
you know, coming to thatdecision ultimately, you know, building
up the courage to share withmy dad that I, that I was gonna,
that I was gonna go in adifferent direction than starting
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solera you know, operating asenior living company through, through
Covid.
Very tumultuous time.
And it's, it, it was, it wastaxing, you know, and, and it led
me to, you know, a panicattack in 2022 when I was on the
road and you know, had to callan ambulance and, and was in an ER
cardiac unit at Tufts Medical.
And you know, I, I talked to adoctor, my general, and he was like,
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you know, just, I'll subscribeyou Xanax and you'll, you'll take
it with you on the road andprobably, you know, prevent anything
like that from happening.
And I started, I startedinvesting in, you know, in my health.
I started listening to AndrewHuberman, one of my favorite podcasters,
Huberman Labs.
I started listening to PeterAttia and, and, and just reading
books on like longevity.
And I read a book called Brain Energy.
(21:21):
Caitlin's read it too, andit's about, you know, treating mental
health through diet.
I shared it with her, I saidit was a passion of mine and, and,
and so she, she, she's a big,much bigger reader than I am and,
and, and she read it and wewas good because be able to talk
about it with somebody.
But I, but I took a lot ofwhat I learned there and I, I, I
changed my, my dietary habitsand I really started to, you know,
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to, to proactively invest in,in, in my health so I could be at
my best.
I, you know, I could have moreenergy, I could have greater mental
clarity and I could keep mystress levels more in control despite
my ambitions.
So, you know, that puts me ina position to be as successful as
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I can be at this stage of lifewith having, you know, three kids,
a 12 year old, a 10 year old,a 7 year old.
As you know, very well,fortunately, I have two boys and
one girl.
You have three boys, that'slike having a significantly, I mean,
it's just a lot harder.
Thankfully, you know, I thinkI got the girl at the end so that
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it was a little bit moremanageable for me.
But you know, health issomething I really focus on.
I really focus on continual learning.
So, you know, books andpodcasts, I just, you know, one of
the books I read this summerthat oddly, as much as I love to
read, I never read was SteveJobs by Walter Isaacson.
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One of the best, if not thebest book I've ever read, really
helped me with my perspectiveon thinking bigger, thinking about
the customer experience.
And he didn't do focus groups.
He walked in the shoes of thecustomer and thought about what they
(23:11):
wanted even before they wereable to articulate it.
And obviously ste Jobs, I meanpeople forget like the guy revolutionized
so many industries.
You know, people just think itwas, it was the iPhone, I mean it
was, it was itunes, it was,you know, it was music, it was Apple
music, it was the, the tv,Apple tv.
(23:34):
He was incredible, you know,and he also Pixar and you know, he
changed the movie industry andis one of the greatest creative minds
of all time.
And reading that reallyinspired me.
So for me, Phil, you know alot of people are, especially in
senior living operations,they're pretty, I want to say focus
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on day to day blocking andtackling and even people who I've
worked with in my career sofar, you know, I've worked in operations
now for 18 plus years and youknow, a lot of operators that I respect,
they're really good at the dayto day tactics but they don't spend
(24:17):
a lot of time on strategy,they don't spend a lot of time on
innovation.
And there's a lot of reasonsfor that.
I think part of the reason isjust the way the industry is capitalized
as capitalizes a real estate industry.
And, and so real estateinvestors are, whether they're investing
in a development project or anacquisition, they have a certain
(24:38):
type of return and they'relooking for a return and they need
that to be on a certain riskadjusted basis.
And so they might notnecessarily be seeking like an extra
2% if you can do X, Y, Z, theywant you to execute on the business
plan without bringing in,introducing additional risk.
(24:58):
But for me, honestly likethat, that, that just doesn't get
me fired up.
I don't think it gets many people.
It's Solera fired up.
And so you know, when I leftsenior lifestyle and I, I launched
Solera, it was, you know, tobe the best, to be the best in every
market we operate.
And you know, I, I, I will saylike I've, I've sat at so many dinners
(25:20):
with the, the pioneers of theindustry and I've listened to them
and so many times I said, youknow, I would never live in one of
my communities.
And I was like, how's this possible?
I mean like Bill Marriottwould never say like I, I, I would
never stay at a Marriott, I'mgonna stay at a Four Seasons only
like, or I'm gonna stay at anAirbnb, I guess, you know, Danny
(25:44):
Meyer, you know, he's notgonna be like, I'm not gonna, you
know, eat it Shake Shack, youknow, or Levin Madison, you know,
I'm gonna go, you know, eatat, you know, another restaurant,
tours, or I'm only gonna, youknow, dine at home, for example,
or have a personal chef.
Like, it didn't make sense to me.
(26:05):
And I heard it over and overand over.
Like, all these pioneers thatare building and operating, they're
like, I'm gonna live at homewhen I need care.
And I'm like, that's broken.
That is broken.
It's a wrong mindset.
So we need to flip the mindset.
Instead of creating placeswhere people have to live when they
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have no other options, createplaces where people want to live
or aspire to live or aspirefor their loved ones to live.
That's what the underlyinggoal and ambition was day one with
Solera.
And that's still the goaltoday is, you know, how do you, how
do you help people who arelater in life, you know, our, our
(26:50):
average age is in the mid-80s,you know, who have worked their whole
life to, you know, raise afamily, to provide for their family.
And how do you make it so thattheir final years are not forgotten?
How do you make it so thattheir final years have meaning and
(27:11):
have purpose?
That's a much higher calling.
That's a much different typeof ambition than I think a lot of
the traditional senior livingminds have set out to execute on.
And it's much harder.
But that's every day what getsme going, Phil.
I mean, that.
That's, you know, it's like,yes, what we did yesterday, like,
(27:35):
we, we, we should recognizeour successes, we should celebrate
our successes, but we shouldevery day reinvent ourselves.
We should every day strive formore, strive to do something better,
strive to do something bigger.
And, you know, this, this,this generation, this demographic
(27:58):
deserves that.
And I don't think there'sanyone better than senior living
to deliver on that and toreally move the needle and to elevate
the way we serve this demographic.
And, and you think abouthealthcare, and healthcare is, is
a sick care system in theUnited States.
(28:19):
It's a.
It.
That's what it is.
Yeah, you're sick.
You, you know, you have some,you know, chronic disease.
And we'll, we'll, we'll treatthat, you know, and, oh, here's the
drugs that you should take.
And that, that's where wespend all the money.
And, you know, people, whenthey, when they need those services,
they're, they're, they'reusing insurance, private insurance,
(28:40):
they're using Medicare,they're using Medicaid.
Okay.
So it's not a consumer driven product.
Senior living is one of themost successful consumer driven products
in healthcare.
And I, and, and I, I didn'tactually come up with this.
Somebody else did.
I heard it once, I think Iread it on LinkedIn and it resonated
with me.
(29:01):
Senior living is one of themost successful consumer driven products
ever in healthcare because ourresidents, our families pay privately.
They're, they're, they're notfunding the cost of independent living
and assisted living and memorycare through Medicaid and through
Medicare.
(29:21):
Typically, yes, there are somepercentage, not enough, some percentage
of assisted living in mammarycommunities that accept Medicaid
in this country.
But most people are paying privately.
And so we, as an industry,because people are paying privately,
have to understand ourconsumer so well.
(29:42):
We gotta understand theresident, we have to understand their
kids and what's important tothem and what they want.
And we have to evolve whatwe're doing to meet their needs.
And right now we're goingthrough a huge transition because
we're going from the silent generation.
And we all know the silentgeneration, they were just happy
to be alive.
They didn't think they weregoing to make it to 85.
(30:04):
And in that generation, theydidn't want to spend money on themselves.
Meat and potatoes.
This next generation, the babyboomer generation, totally different.
They expected to be alive.
Not only do they expect to bealive, they expect to live well.
And if we're still operatingwith that old context of, you know,
(30:26):
the people moving in here, youknow, they're at end of life and
we're, you know, we're gonna,we're gonna continue to provide the
same product that we did overthe last 30 plus years.
We're gonna fail as an industry.
We have to evolve.
And so Solera to me stands forsomething much bigger.
(30:49):
And I take pride and I'menergized by the fact that we are
an organization that seeks tosee around the corner, build for
where we're going, build forthe future, build something better.
And that's what I'm passionate about.
I don't even know how tofollow that up.
(31:11):
I think we heard everythingpersonal to you that drives you to
make Celera great.
And theoretically, I myselfhave been elevated as a professional
and as an individual as a result.
Truth be told, I've never reada, a book cover to cover until I
met Adam Kaplan and was encouraged.
Now I've listened to manybooks cover to cover.
(31:34):
I too did read the book BrainEnergy or listen, as I should say,
As a result of you.
And since February of thisyear, I've adapted to a keto diet.
I think it's been great for mymental health.
And now I'm back in the gym,crushing it.
And so look forward to joiningyou tomorrow for the full body routine.
And, you know, it's.
It's pretty remarkable to hearall of the things that push you to
(31:57):
get out of bed and fuel you tobe your best every day and how you
cast those on your team aswell, because I've picked up so many
great healthy habits from youthat have made me a better professional
for Solera as well.
And all of the things you saidthat fuel you.
Right.
Like, I've.
I became distressed by anindustry that had fallen flat with
(32:17):
zero innovation.
And I say this over and overand over again, but you truly provided
me a platform and Celera towhere I feel like I am making not
only change for our teams andour communities, but for the industry.
And we will walk intocommunities 10 years from now and
say they do that because wedid that at Celera.
And that's truly because ofeverything we've heard today thus
(32:41):
far about you, the individual,and what's fueled you getting a little
bit more vulnerable now.
We've talked a lot about,like, the stories and those who've
moved you and motivated you.
Any failures or personalchallenges that you've learned from
and have supported theindividual you are today.
Boy, there's a lot of failures.
(33:03):
I'd say, first off, like, alot of people think.
They look at, like, my resumeand they think, oh, we went to Cornell,
we went to Kellogg, must be,like, you know, very academic.
And I was not.
So school didn't come easy for me.
You know, team sports didn'tcome easy for me.
I had to work really, reallyhard because I didn't have natural
(33:26):
gifts.
And I think the positive ofthat, for anyone that, like, hears
that if this resonates withyou, is that if you aspire to overcome,
you will build a work ethicthat will be your greatest advantage.
So, you know that I learnedearly on through failure, through
(33:48):
disappointment, and, you know,it's horrible.
And you're, you know, and Isee it as.
It's hard as a parent, youknow, you see this with your kids
and their struggles, andwhether that struggles, you know,
academically, whether itstruggles socially, whether it's
struggles athletically, youknow, you.
You.
You start to.
I, at least for me, I askedmyself, like, is, was that me?
(34:08):
And, you know, you want thebest for your kids.
You don't want to see them struggle.
But you, you also, when youhave a moment of clarity and awareness,
you realize like, okay, well,with those struggles came strength.
So that's something else I'llstart with.
I, when I was at SeniorLifestyle and I went, you know, I
went from Merrill lynch and itwas very much like Merrill lynch
(34:31):
is, you know, it was afinance, finance setting.
So it was like, if you're thefirst one in and you're the last
one out, you're probably goingto be pretty successful.
So you can, you can kind ofuse brute force.
I, I, I knew I wasn't thesmartest, so I would, I, when I started
Merrill, I read every credit memo.
These credit memos were like30, 40 pages and I just read them
all.
And then like you, you, you,you, you were supposed to attend
(34:55):
credit committee when you werepresenting something that was one
of your deals and they allowedyou to attend, you know, just to
learn.
And, and I would attend.
And my, one of my earlymentors, Kevin McMean, who ran the,
the group at Merrill, he waslike, look, if you've done, if you
finish your work, you finishwhat you need to finish, like you
can come in my office andlisten to any call.
(35:16):
And so like I took advantageof that type of stuff to learn.
Then when I, when I startedSenior Lifestyle, you know, and I
went from capital over to ops,it was a very big wake up call for
me.
Look, in hindsight, like Imade a lot of mistakes, a lot of
miscalculations, a lot ofthings that I wish I, a lot of things
I wish I knew at the time thatI know today.
(35:38):
One of the things was I usedto take and I see this so much with
so many people that I surroundmyself with that I see that have
a lot of potential is whenyou're early in your career and you're
working your way up and you'revery driven, it's very easy to take
(35:59):
things personally.
I took a lot of things personally.
There was a lot of times thatI was fired up like going to like
Kevin Benima's office.
Kevin was COO at SeniorLifestyle and I really learned a
lot about operations from him.
He, we were so different.
We're very, Kevin's BillCharter Senior Living, you know,
(36:19):
really great entrepreneur.
It's amazing what he'saccomplished, especially, you know,
given that I've known him for,for so many years.
But he taught me about reading people.
He, he was a firefighter, youknow, and I'm, I'm not, not in you
looked at me, but he was afirefighter in the operational sense,
in the sense that, like, whenthere was an issue, like, he would
(36:40):
deploy all the resources andwe would extinguish that fire in
me.
My mind is much more process oriented.
So I was like, well, whatcaused the fire?
Like, let's go identifyKevin's like, let's put the fire
out first.
So, like, I learned that youneeded both, like, you need both
the, like that execution andyou need the process.
I learned that from him.
But, you know, he let me vent.
(37:01):
He would let me come in hisoffice and shut the door, and I would
just.
I'd be so fired up.
And he just let me, you know,speak what was on my mind.
And he listened.
He was genuine.
He was, he was empathetic.
He, He.
He wanted me to.
He genuine.
I think he really wanted me tosucceed and, and he wanted to be
part of my growth.
And one of the things thatKevin said, it's probably like, you
(37:22):
know, we worked together foreight years, and it was probably
seven years.
And he's like, look, I knowwhere your ambitions are.
You want to go the next level.
You should hire an executive coach.
So I was like, yeah, I lovethat idea.
So I reached out toNorthwestern and I asked them who
they recommended.
I hired someone named Linda Balkan.
My first experience withexecutive coaching was with her,
(37:43):
and it was an amazing, amazingexperience for me personally.
And one of the things that wedid was we did these, these.
It was called Hogan's PersonalAssessment that we did.
We did three 60s and we didstakeholder interviews where she
interviewed.
She interviewed like, youknow, people that I reported to,
people that were my peers andpeople that reported to me, and then
(38:06):
people.
A couple people that wereexternal to organization.
It was like 36 pages.
And then she highlighted allthe themes, all the themes there.
And we sat down.
It was a pretty grueling four hours.
I remember it was maybe sixhours or something going through
it.
And, you know, especially forsomeone that's, you know, very driven,
takes things personally, Ilearned a few things about myself.
So you.
You built what's called a.
(38:27):
It was a.
It was, it was a personalbalance sheet.
So it was like your strengths,your weaknesses and your strengths
overused.
And I learned some things.
Even though I consideredmyself self aware and self reflective,
I did learn some things about myself.
And one of the things that Ithought about myself was I thought
I was a pretty good communicator.
And I actually learned thatwhile people said communication was
(38:49):
a strength, they also said itwas a weakness.
So they said the quality of mycommunication was a strength, but
that the frequency of mycommunication was a weakness.
And I, I, I, I, I reflected onthat and I, I realized that like,
as somebody who's very, verydriven, I, I, and, and a self starter,
(39:10):
I don't need a lot of like, direction.
So I don't need somebody likechecking in on me routinely.
I, I, I go get it.
And even for people who I, whoI would hire, they're still looking
for you to, you know, check inon them and you're, they're still
looking for you.
Whether, you know, we, we allhave different styles and how you
(39:31):
do that.
And I've kind of adapted mystyle over time, but like, you know,
proactively making that callto somebody, proactively shooting
them a text and, you know,leveling up the amount that you communicate
so that it's not kind of likebubbling up and then you're sitting
down with somebody after 30days and like, they've got this list
that they, that they've, youknow, built up and it's like, you
(39:55):
know, it's, it's, they're,they're just, there's so much release
that it's kind of like it's,it's not the best way to support
your team, support peoplearound you.
So I learned through thatprocess that like, you know, I just
wasn't a proactive enough communicator.
I wasn't anticipating as wellas I could have when people around
(40:20):
me needed me to pick up thephone or reach out, you know, through,
through text.
I love text.
So that was something Ilearned about myself.
And then, you know, when Istarted solera in, in 16, I, you
know, I worked in corporatefor 12 years.
And you know, some peoplemight be like, corporate.
(40:42):
What's he talking about?
You know, Merrill is obviously corporate.
We know that's corporate.
Senior Lifestyle had 20,000 units.
When I left, it was corporateand I left and it was just me.
It was just me.
I had to go find an office space.
I worked at a WeWork initiallyin river north in Chicago.
You have to set up your cellphone plan.
(41:03):
I mean, insurance.
I mean, there's just so muchthat you're doing to like, so your
operation LLCs.
And there's something Ihaven't really shared actually, because
it is a strength of mine today.
But like, I wasn't the mostpersistent individual because I had
worked in corporate and I, Ikind of like at the time I would
(41:28):
say like, if I called somebodyand they didn't call me back.
And I wanted, you know, it waslike, oh, you know, they didn't call
me back, you know, must not beimportant to them.
If it's not important to them,I'll move on to something else.
You cannot do that as an entrepreneur.
And because the lights aregonna go off so the phones aren't
ringing, the best relationshipof yours, you know, they, they're,
(41:51):
they're kind of waiting foryou to get started.
And, and so I had to build newrelationships and I, you know, I
would read constantly like whowas active, I'd read all the senior
housing publications, all thecommercial real estate publications.
Who was active, what brokerswere active, what equity investors
were active, what, whatlenders were active, what developers
(42:12):
and just connecting with everybody.
I mean I was connecting witharchitects and general contractors
and insurance brokers and justmeeting with people over coffee.
I was hustling, I was hustlingand I, I learned that quickly, I
learned it quickly that itwasn't innate for me.
I would say I, I kind of likewas respectful.
(42:35):
That was something like Ithink I probably had as a value before.
And then I realized that likejust cuz someone doesn't call you
back, just as someone doesn'taccept your LinkedIn request, just
cause someone doesn't respondor it doesn't mean that they don't
want to meet with you, itdoesn't mean that you're not important
(42:57):
to them.
It just means that you haven'tdone a good job yet of educating
that individual of the valuethat you can provide.
So you know, I learned very,very quickly that I needed to become
much more persistent and thatpersistence was a attribute of successful
(43:17):
entrepreneurs and that if Iwas going to reach the type of success
that I needed, I needed tochange a little bit about myself
and that that would besomething that I would need to figure
out very, very quickly.
I would say lastly because I,I touch on a lot of business, I'd
say like, you know, in termsof like how I've evolved as a business
(43:38):
person.
I grew up and in a, in a very,very close, very close family and
I, I, my, my, everybody, itwas one of the values in my family
as a kid was loyalty and if,if somebody mistreated anybody, they
were out.
(43:58):
And I think one of the biggestlearnings that I have had since I,
especially since I met my wife Elise.
And I don't know, I don'talways talk about Elise in these
conversations either, butshe's had a, actually a very profound
influence on who I am is Elisehelped me understand the importance
of, of not being so hard on people.
(44:21):
And this is probably one ofthe greatest lessons I've had in
my life because I saw a lot offalling outs when I was a kid and
that I learned that whenpeople do something and it, or just
your feelings, when, you know,you feel like they could have acted
differently, it's not always intentional.
(44:43):
People have a lot going on.
They have a lot going on, youknow, what's apparent to people on
the outside.
But there's so much we don't know.
Everybody, we're all dealingwith things personally, and those
personal things amplify atcertain different times and they
affect how we show up withother people.
And so to give people graceand to give people the benefit of
(45:06):
the doubt has really helped mein my relationships.
And if you're like listeningto this and this is resonating with
you, I think there's one morething I want you to hear, which is,
you know, something that, thatI've really benefited from is that
the person that benefits themost is yourself, because you're
not carrying this around.
(45:26):
And I, I, I've had, you know,in the past, before Elise had falling
outs with friends.
It's amazing.
Five years go by and you'relike, what was it even about?
But it hurts you.
And, and I think that this hashelped me personally a lot of, and
I've, and this is carriedthrough in like, relationship with
family, with friends, but inbusiness and trying to contextualize
(45:48):
things and not taking thingsso personally, just having different
perspective on things andtrying to give people a little bit
of grace.
Of course, you know, we, we,we know how important, you know,
you know how important and,and, and people who, who are part
of Solera know me well, knowhow important my values are.
So, you know, there areboundaries, of course, you know,
that you cannot cross.
(46:09):
But, you know, if they don'tcross those boundaries again, I think
giving people grace, benefitof the doubt is very, very healthy.
And I think it makes you ahappier person, more fulfilled and
is probably one of the biggestlearnings that I've had.
I had zero intention of wherethis conversation was going to go.
And theoretically, I just satback and, you know, the leader you
(46:32):
are to me and the way you havecoached me and every one of our team
members to understand the truereflection from you in the moments
of clarity of how you gotthere, truly incredible.
So I appreciate you beingvulnerable and sharing that it's
not always easy to, to, toshare the failures and challenges,
but to See the way in whichthey shaped you as the leader and
(46:55):
the organization in which youlead and your family for that matter.
Really exciting and trulythought provoking for me.
We've talked about your earlyupbringing, who you were.
We've lived in the now.
You know what has whatpersonal traits and have.
Have helped you to define andbuild Solara, be a father and be
(47:17):
a friend.
20 years from now, not AdamKaplan, the CEO, but Adam Kaplan.
What are you doing 20 yearsfrom now?
So I'll be 63.
Hopefully I'll be in very goodhealth because you know, I seem to
be on that.
Yeah, so are you.
So we're on a good tra.
I. I will say that myrelationship with my kids, my kids
(47:39):
will be so, you know, kidswill be 30, 32 and 30 and 27.
You know, hopefully I'll havevery special close relationships
with each of them and theirsignificant others.
I love to do.
I'm so, I don't know, usuallysomebody gives me questions filled
in give me questions.
(48:00):
So I'm usually have some timeto like think a little bit before.
This is truly.
There's.
There's no prep done here.
So One of the books that I,that I read maybe like 12 years ago,
it's called the five lovelanguages, is actually amazing book
for anyone.
It's the easiest book.
It's the.
Is the.
It's the fastest read ever andit is truly one of the most profound
(48:24):
books ever.
But my love language is.
Is experiences and I love totake the kids to do things one on
one with me.
So Brooks, this summer at his.
As his 10th birthday I tookhim to LA, you know, went to.
Went to see the.
The Dodgers and Yankees wereCubs fans.
(48:45):
But the opportunity to seeShohei and judge on the same field,
that was.
That was truly like epic.
So we did that and it was whatan amazing, amazing weekend.
Blake last weekend Cubs werein town.
So we got to see you know,Cubs, Rockies, just him and I and
you know, you wanted to go anhour and a half early before the,
you know, when they opened upthe gates to go try to get autographs.
(49:06):
And so you know he did thatand stayed after.
He actually got one of thereally odd story but he got one of
the, the release.
Very persistent.
He's naturally persistent.
He got one of the, the.
The relief pitchers autographsafter the game.
And Sienna and I you know, wewill go just like the two of us,
(49:27):
we'll go to dinner.
You know, she, she loves,she's just very easy.
But you know, anywhere I Wantto go?
She'll, she's, she's game togo with me, but, you know, to be
able to continue with that asthey get older, to, to have those
special experiences with thekids, and again, they're, they're
significant others.
(49:47):
I love to travel.
I've been fortunate.
I've traveled a lot of placesoutside of the US this summer was
the first, first trip, though,I took in.
Well, I, I, I took basicallythe first trip I took with a lease
since our honeymoon, so 13 years.
We went to Italy.
It was amazing.
And I love traveling abroadbecause for anyone doing hospitality,
(50:08):
it just helps you think bigger.
They do hospitality so muchbetter in Europe and in Asia than
we do here in the US and sogives you a lot of inspiration.
Helps you, you know, clearyour mind.
Being out in nature, you know,on the ocean, being able to, you
know, read a book withclarity, so.
And spend special time withsomebody you love.
(50:29):
So that was absolutely amazing.
Trip wouldn't have beenpossible without the best team, too.
It was the first time I coulddo it in nine and a half years because
I knew the team was so strongand had my back and would thrive
and flourish without me.
So, you know, being able totravel, continue to travel to places.
(50:50):
Japan is on my bucket list.
It's number one for me.
I want to go to one of thosesushi restaurants in the subway station
with eight seats, you know,and sit at the bar.
Stacy's husband is there todayon a work trip, studying to make
and elevate his sushirestaurant to be the best.
So wait until he comes backand feeds you the information.
(51:11):
Oh, you should get.
I'm loving that.
Oh, that's exactly.
That's awesome.
Jiro's not on his list.
No, no.
Oh, there's now places thathave surpassed.
That's right.
Oh, yeah.
I still would go, you know,he's the OG he's the OG So, you know,
Japan is on the bucket list.
Gotta, gotta hit that.
So excited to, to, to be ableto travel.
I love golf.
(51:32):
So, you know, golf has gottabe, you know, part of the, part of
the routine.
And, and then I, I would sayjust kind of like something that
I'm.
Super passion.
That's been a passion of minefor my whole career is, Is, you know,
mentorship and, you know, I'dlove to be able to, at that stage
of my life, to be able tomentor entrepreneurs, to be able
(51:57):
to share, you know, what I'velearned and some of the scars and
the war stories and be able tohelp people to reach their goals.
That would be.
That would be extremelyfulfilling for me if, you know, I
could keep my mind sharp.
I could.
I could keep my mind engaged.
I love, you know, as I said, Ilove continual learning.
(52:18):
I love to read.
I love podcasts.
I love talking to smart people.
I love thinking big.
I love thinking strategically.
And to be able to play a rolewith, you know, that next generation
that is shaping, you know, ourfuture, play a small role.
I will never forget the peoplethat have been there for me, that
have mentored me, and I've hadso many.
(52:40):
Some people know, you know,they're like, you know, more of like
your.
Your, you know, maybe theirexecutive coach, maybe they're a
professor, maybe they're a parent.
I'm in ypo.
I've had a great forum.
It's been one of the mosttransformative experiences of my
life, is going through that.
So there's like, kind offormal structures, but then there's
(53:00):
informal.
There's, you know, just peoplethat, like, you work with.
There's people that you, You.
You are friends with that, youknow, you get to spend time with
and have deep, meaningful conversations.
And so to be able to pay itforward, be a part of helping people
(53:20):
in the future at that stage,you know, that would be something
that would, I, I believe today would.
Would get me very fired up andexcited to be a part of.
It's awesome.
Adam, I sit across from you asthe elevated senior housing puppy
who was captivated by you in2015 as.
(53:41):
As you know, I look at you asa mentor, but most importantly, I
look at you as a friend.
Now, I have appreciated therelationship we've grown, but sitting
here today and spending thistime together to truly get to know
the individual who has createdthe organization and become the founder
and CEO, truly incredible.
Thank you so much for takingtime with me today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour values and those who motivate
(54:04):
you, your family, and becomingreally vulnerable with us.
And I think our listeners aretruly going to appreciate that.
I look forward to.
To.
To next time.
And interviewing moreentrepreneurs and team members and
residents and families as wejourney on a quest to get to know
the individual behind our business.
(54:25):
That's awesome.
Thanks, Phil.
Appreciate you.
Appreciate you having me.
And I know this is.
This is early days here withour podcasting.
And, you know, one thing I've.
I've actually said is that,you know, I look, I love podcasts,
right?
And I have some of my favorites.
The founders is amazing.
You know, Huberman Labs is amazing.
(54:47):
I've listened to many, manyepisodes of all in Invest like the
best there there there's somany good ones and one thing that
surprised me is like there'sreally been no platform where we've
shined a light in a positiveway on the senior demographic.
(55:07):
That is a missed opportunitysocietally because there's so much
to share here, so much to learn.
And so I, I, I hope that wecan be a catalyst for that.
And I, I hope that there aremore people that see this opportunity
(55:27):
and invest in elevating andcreating awareness for this demographic
and people working in aroundthe senior population.
One step at a time, my friend.
If we encourage somebody withone resident story, one family story,
and we know everybody will becaptivated by your story.
(55:48):
Again, thanks so much.
Amazing time today.
Thanks.
This has been the MeritageProject, a podcast by Celera Senior
Living.
These stories don't end here.
They live on in ourcommunities every day.
Follow and subscribe for a newepisode the first Monday of each
(56:10):
month as we get continueblending voices and creating legacy.
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