November 14, 2024 • 45 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin (00:00):
Howdy folks.
(00:00):
It's Erin Thompson again.
And we are in for a treat todaybecause I have with me Sherry
kitchens, the co founder ofsenior six and.
More importantly, maybe, thewinner of Matt Reiner's Leading
Age National video, where sherecreated Home Alone.
(00:22):
Sherri, thank you for beinghere, and we're going to have to
dive into the video first.
Tell me all about that video,because I was super impressed
with your commitment to the art.
Sherri (00:35):
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm really excited to behere.
Thanks so much.
The video started out assomething just supposed to be
really fun and it was really funto do.
Going through it, I'm like, whatwould be something that will
catch attention?
he initially put out that it wasjust supposed to be, I believe
it was an airport selfie and mycompetitive nature took over a
(00:57):
little bit and I said, I'm goingto up the selfie and do a quick
video.
so cue the night before I, infact, was not late for my
flight, thankfully.
but cue the night before Idecided to take a couple of
quick.
shots and I was in the bathroomand running around the house and
throwing luggage in while mykiddo looked at me and the dog
(01:17):
looked at me pretty perplexed.
and I was able to splice themtogether and find the home alone
music.
And it just, it felt perfect.
I feel like a lot of us knowthat movie so well, we're
getting ready to go into theholiday season.
and we've all probably felt thatway getting to a flight that you
might be, a little close on.
So it was just really fun and itwas great to meet Matt.
(01:37):
That was the first time that Ihad met him at leading age.
and I'm really thankful that Iwas picked as a winner.
it was such a fun thing to doand, just to have a chance to
have a conversation with himafter that.
I still have the a hundreddollars burning a hole in my
pocket.
So if anyone needs a cup ofcoffee, I'm told that it's
probably real.
not sure, but I'm told it'sprobably real.
Erin (01:58):
I was going to ask you if you spent the money,
Sherri (02:01):
you didn't spend
Erin (02:02):
the money.
Sherri (02:03):
I was, there was a kiddo in our neighborhood who was
selling hot cider the other day,and I did almost pawn it off on
him and ask for some change thatway, if it wasn't real, didn't
come back to me, but I did notdo that.
Erin (02:18):
I think, I know that a lot of people struggle with video
and first of all, I will say,I'm glad to know that you
weren't late because I thinkthere was some, the real, black
and white version of me waslike, wow, she was late and she
still made this video.
hello, gullible, naive Arian,I'm glad to know that you
(02:41):
weren't late.
but it takes a lot to be sillylike that on camera for the
world to see.
And did you feel silly and youworked through the discomfort?
Sherri (02:55):
I did, especially, I think as I was doing the shot,
we're gonna brushing my hair andtrying to put on eyeliner and.
it felt ridiculous, especiallyto be putting it out there for
LinkedIn.
It's supposed to be thisprofessional platform, but I
really just decided to go withit and break down some of those
walls and push through a littlebit of the discomfort.
(03:15):
I know some people have asked,like, how long it's taken.
It took to make the video.
I think if I had to really talkmore than.
The one little line that I didat the beginning where I said,
I'm late or I overslept, itprobably would have taken me a
lot longer because I would haveharped on all of the, and the,
and the times that, maybe itwasn't perfect.
But I'm getting there on some ofthose to, future videos.
(03:39):
It's hard.
It's hard to step outside yourcomfort zone.
Erin (03:42):
Yeah, I think it's a true, testament to leveraging your
leverage and that video is a wayto leverage, visibility and
people know who you are.
You got to meet somebody who youwanted to meet.
there's just so much that videocan do.
And it was great.
(04:03):
It was, I was super, superimpressed and I was so happy.
I was like, oh my gosh.
She took it to a whole notherlevel because I did do, I did
try to do an airport selfie onetime last year or earlier this
year, or maybe it was last year,and, I didn't understand
mirroring on a phone and hereplied back to me, got to work
(04:25):
on your mirroring, but I likeyour effort.
And I'm like, Oh, my God.
now I know what mirroring is ona phone.
Sherri (04:31):
Yeah.
I think it really, it takes alot to step outside your comfort
zone and put something outthere.
and I feel like those of peoplewho know me or who have worked
with me, I love to have fun,right?
In the right places, in theright context.
As long as we are meeting theneeds of our residents or
whatever it might be, we spend alot of time with the people that
(04:53):
we work with, and it's importantto have fun.
So I really enjoy doing, sillythings and trying to have that
lightheartedness and joke aroundin the right situations.
And I think sometimes when youare a social worker, and you
don't work in an thoseopportunities to jo that type of
(05:15):
back and of gave me theopportunit bit of my silly side
that isn't on display as much toexhibit that much anym Yeah, it
was great.
Erin (05:30):
I loved it.
And it's a lesson for us all ifyou're inside the community to
use the power of video toconnect with people.
It is very vitally important.
And you showed us that, but youmentioned that, what life is
like inside of a community.
So obviously you have founded,you're now an entrepreneur, a co
(05:51):
founder, but you have workedinside the industry.
So give us a little bit ofbackground.
Your background.
I think it has something to dowith kitchen in the culinary
world.
So tell us about you.
Sherri (06:03):
Yeah, long, long time ago, I went to culinary school
at the Culinary Institute ofAmerica in New York, had a
wonderful education there.
Then continued on to do some,business degree, got my MBA and,
it was grappling with what do Iwant to do with my education.
I love working, with food andwith people.
(06:24):
I knew I didn't necessarily wantto be a chef or a top chef or,
running, a restaurant quite likethat.
I was looking for something alittle bit different and someone
approached me about a job incontract dining, in senior
living.
And if I'm really honest, I wentinto those conversations with a
guard up that I didn't want tobe in senior living.
(06:45):
I had a recent LinkedIn postthat's got a lot of traction on
it where my title was seniorlivings where chefs go to die.
that's what my impression was,you were at the end of your
career, there was no fun.
There was no way to be creative.
And why would I, almost commitcareer suicide?
I hate to, and do that.
(07:05):
Why would I go into seniorliving?
conversations progressed and Iended up accepting the position
and moved into senior living,had no experience whatsoever.
And it was definitely trial byfire.
I've got senior living.
Some amazing stories, some crazystories that I was just not set
up for and working in the typeof environments that, you find
(07:27):
in senior living when you'reliving in working in someone's
home, was there for some timeand then went to work for a
really large provider.
1 of the top.
five, I think at the time,independent living organizations
where I oversaw their diningprogram for them.
and then went to a startup wherewe were mostly in assisted
(07:47):
living, but 120 communitiesoverseeing the whole entire
dining program for them, acrossthe country.
And I think the thing thatreally got me through all these
experiences was one I alwaysfelt like I had the ability to
make some really good impact onresidents and the staff members.
The stories always have justcaptured my heart, when I was
(08:10):
able to be in communities andinteracting with residents and
their families and thecaregivers, the stories that you
can pull from them and theexperiences that they have are
just.
Incredible.
There's no other industry whereyou're going to get that kind of
feedback and give and take.
And ultimately what I found wasthat I just, I fell in love with
(08:32):
senior living.
And, I've been here for quitesome time now.
I'm not going to, you guys canlook at my LinkedIn profile for
that.
I'm still 21, but, I think Ijust, I fell in love and, Over
the years, I've tried to figureout, how am I going to make an
impact?
How am I going to positivelyimpact residents and their
(08:54):
family members and the peoplewho are caring for them?
And it's just been a reallywonderful journey.
Erin (08:59):
Yeah, it, it really is a very impactful industry and I
think in ways the industry needsa lot of help and impacting.
The people who work in it,right?
and I feel like that's where thenext phase of your journey
happened with me with senior 6.
(09:20):
so I'm sure the entrepreneurialjourney came from problems that
you saw or solutions that youcreated.
take us, I'm interested to hearthe story to see how similar our
paths are.
Sherri (09:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
so senior six came out of,earlier this year, I decided to
go off on my own and initiallywas going to do a consultancy,
for senior living and with my cofounder, we went back and forth
and, Ultimately, through a lotof conversations, we landed on
senior 6 for a couple ofreasons.
1 senior 6, the 6 is I've gotyour back.
(09:59):
so we always want to go throughand want residents and their
family members and organizationsto feel like we've got their
back.
we realize that there are acouple of.
key people in that relationship.
So obviously the resident isreally important.
and eventually we hope to helpthem through the whole continuum
of senior living.
(10:19):
So even before they're in acommunity, we've got these large
aspirations to find ways toprovide support to them before
they're even thinking about it.
we know that their familymembers are really important.
A lot of times they're a bigpiece of the puzzle in how
residents are making theirdecisions, or sometimes their
family members are the onesmaking those decisions for them.
(10:39):
You also have your partnerships,vendor relationships, government
bodies, any academia, and thenalso you've got any regulatory
bodies, and they all make upthis sphere that is around a
resident who really is with themthrough this continuum of, what
we like to call inspiringgraceful aging.
(11:00):
So how do we take eachindividual and not tell them how
they have to age, but reallylet's just give them the tools
and the people caring for them,the tools to be able to inspire
graceful aging.
And that's really where we cameup with, senior six and what
we're really hoping to do andbreak down some of those walls
(11:21):
and barriers as people age intothe system.
Yeah,
Erin (11:26):
I like in well, even when I was in a community, I always
felt like I had 5 bosses.
I have 5 bosses, I would goaround asking other people.
How many bosses do you have, inother industries trying to make
this all make sense to me.
I have 5 bosses that I have tokeep happy.
All the time, and that is myresidents and their families,
(11:46):
the associates, the governingbody of the state, whether it's
the Department of Public Healthor Health and Human Services,
whatever it is for the state,and then the corporate office.
And eat all 5 of them could havevery different things they want
from you.
And as the executive director,you are the person who has to
(12:07):
try to figure out where thehappy medium is.
within all five of them.
And it's a very challenging roleand if you don't look at it from
that perspective you get lost.
In the sea of expectations, thatpeople have on you.
So
it's really important that someone does have your six,
(12:28):
right?
If someone does have your back,that someone is talking into you
and helping you realize, youcannot be something to someone
that you cannot be, and that is
Sherri (12:41):
Oh, go ahead.
Erin (12:42):
No, that's just the moral of the story, so you have to be
aware of that.
Sherri (12:47):
Yeah.
And I think, what I've seen.
And you can probably attest tothis and in your background and
really living in communitiesmuch more than I have, you are
competing with so manypriorities.
So 1 thing I've noticed, andI've heard stories, across.
Different people andorganizations and size, we're
(13:08):
all competing for the sameresources.
Every department has their own,initiatives that they're doing
or things that they're trying toaccomplish and really, you find
that everyone is working inthese silos, sales and dining
and operations and as much as wetry.
To cross pollinate the ideas andthe resources a lot of times,
(13:31):
that's just not happening andsenior living.
1 of the things we really wantto do is find ways to break down
those silos and make it easierfor people in the community to
get the resources they need andthen also excuse me also be able
to, have better crosspollination and understanding of
what's going on, because I thinka lot of times we're all doing
(13:54):
the best that we can.
We're all doing what we think isthe best for the resident, the
best for their families, butsometimes you're just running so
fast that you're not thinkingabout the person standing next
to you.
we're stretched so thin andgiven such limited resources,
we've got to rethink how we'redoing some of these things
because it's just notsustainable long term.
Erin (14:16):
Yeah, it really isn't.
It really isn't.
I, if it was, I would probablybe.
Still in a community, butbecause it wasn't sustainable
and I didn't have, an outlet tolearn, or I just had a
completely different mindsetabout things I, internally
eroded any opportunity to grow.
(14:39):
In the place that I was in, andthat's the mission, right?
Like the mission of consultantsor coaches or, senior 6 or
aspire for more with Erin isliterally about perspective
because it's not given enough,the perspective.
I say that from my angle, I'lllet you speak for senior 6, but
(15:02):
perspective is huge when weallow it.
To reframe our own perspective.
Yeah,
Sherri (15:10):
and I think it's so easy for perspectives of those around
you to also cloud your ownperspective or to, influence it
good, bad or otherwise.
and sometimes that can come fromthe organization and corporate,
or it can come from thedishwasher or a caregiver.
(15:32):
And, I think finding ways tobalance all of those and figure
out what your perspective is andhow it's going to serve.
You is key to that, and I thinkat the end of the day, we all
want to.
Do what's ultimately best forresidents.
I don't you don't come into thisindustry, because you come into
(15:52):
this industry because you wantto make a difference, right?
You come into this industrybecause you have a big heart.
You come into this industrybecause you think that you can
make a difference.
And I think sometimes thoseperspectives can quickly get
washed away when you're gotcompeting priorities and limited
resources.
And you feel like you're just.
Spinning your wheels.
(16:13):
and that's really where seniorsixes is leveraging to come in
to help people in thosesituations and organizations and
their situation.
Just break those barriers down.
Erin (16:22):
Yeah, feeling stuck is like the worst feeling in the
world.
yeah, it is.
It's awful.
Tony Robbins will say, if you'renot growing, you're dying, and
and that's really, out there andin very powerful statement, it
makes you stop and you think,but it's true.
Sherri (16:42):
It's very true.
It's very true.
that was earlier this year when,in the very early stages of by
becoming a co founder of seniorsix and the conversations with
my co founder, Scott Galant and,it was really a feeling of I'm
stuck.
I missed being in operations.
I missed being closer tocommunities and others who are
(17:04):
leading communities.
And, I think through thatFeeling of being stuck.
that's really where it propelledus into senior 6 and where we
find ourselves now, but it isit's so easy, in those
situations and crossroads,there's a couple of paths you
can take, and I think we've allhad different times where maybe
you took a not as productivepath or.
(17:26):
One that didn't suit you, butmaybe it felt like it suited you
at the time.
And, it's hard.
Those are really hard decisionsto make.
And I know our community leadersand people in communities,
caregivers, executive directors,kitchen staff, I think find
themselves in those types ofsituations all the time.
they just don't know what to do.
Erin (17:45):
Yeah.
How can we grow?
And I think that's like thequestion that I ask myself and
really the basis of My why is Ido believe when you feel stuck
or when you feel like this isgoing to be it that's when
companies or the personthemselves should invest in
(18:07):
themselves.
To find ways to grow, because ifyou feel like this is it, then
you're not looking for growthand that becomes problematic for
long term, visionaries andbecause it's the same
expectations month over month.
It's the same year over year.
(18:30):
it's the same pattern, but youdon't have a different lens to
look through to figure out wherethe growth is.
Then that's where resentment andthe negative energy comes in,
where companies really need tostart looking at themselves.
And saying to themselves, ifthis is going to be a forever, a
(18:51):
long term executive director,how do I pour into them?
So they will say in my communitylong term, it's consistency is
Sherri (19:00):
key consistency, especially at the community
level is just there's not if youget a good leader in there.
You can always walk into acommunity immediately and know
that it's running on cylindersthat things are just like
clockwork and the team is happy.
I think you walk into thosebuildings and you can just feel
(19:22):
it and everything else is anindicator of that.
Occupancy is turnovers down.
Resonant satisfaction is up, butsometimes we lose sight.
Of who's running that buildingand giving them the tools to be
successful.
a lot of times when we're inthere and looking at
organizations, you'll talk to anexecutive director and.
(19:42):
They have no clue how a kitchenshould run or, how do you even
go back into the kitchen and askthe right questions, or they
just haven't been given thetools to be successful.
And they're running amultimillion dollar building
with residents lives, and it'ssuch a short sighted thing, not
to invest in those people, togive them those tools, because
(20:05):
as soon as that turnover starts,I feel like the rest of it just
falls into place.
Other staff members go, residentsatisfaction decreases, sales
decreases.
It's, it all is very connected.
the people who are in there andrunning those departments are so
important and deserve theresources.
Yeah,
Erin (20:24):
I think senior living.
I guess you could say this formost professions, especially in
restaurants, which would beinteresting.
So to get your take on this,since the Culinary Institute of
America.
Is people leave because ofmanagers.
Certainly.
although I think there's anotherside to that question.
Another question to be asked inreference to that question, but
(20:47):
in senior living residents, thecustomers leave Because of
managers, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yet companies don't want toinvest in the people.
They just expect to hire theright people and the right
(21:07):
success will come along.
But, the wrong hire can cost youa lot of money.
Yeah.
And investing.
In people and they leave cancost you a lot of money as well.
Sherri (21:23):
Yeah.
think about the turmoil aresident and their family go
through 1 to make the initialdecision to move into a
community and then.
If they decide to move, that'shuge.
That runway is huge.
It's a lot of effort.
That's a lot of, there's just somuch that goes into those
decisions, right?
It's not easy.
(21:43):
A lot of coordination and a lotof times it can just be stopped
if you do pour your resources.
And I think none of us hireanyone.
And I'm guilty of doing it inearlier in my career, right?
Hiring someone not giving themthe resources and then they
leave or we have to manage themout because they're just not a
right fit culturally.
(22:04):
And I think as I've grown and,learned a lot more about
leadership, it's.
That's not really the case.
no one takes a job to go into itevery day and do it bad.
I don't wake up every day andgo, gosh, I want to go to work
and do a terrible job today.
like I, at least I hope not.
Maybe there are people, I don'tknow.
you always, especially in seniorliving, I feel like you have to
(22:26):
assume the best intent and inboth ways, I have to assume that
if someone's hiring me, they'regoing to give me their
resources, but we just lack somuch.
Support, at the community level.
And I don't think it's not fornot wanting to, I think
organizations just fall short onwhere the support is going to be
best utilized or the best way tosupport managers, and people who
(22:52):
are really in the operations dayin and day out, I know in
previous lives, I've probablymade, policies and procedures
that felt right from a certain.
Vantage point over all of thecommunities that just didn't
make sense at the communitylevel, and there's sometimes
that divide into anybody that'sout there.
(23:13):
I'm sorry.
we can talk about it at anothertime.
I don't know.
call me.
Let's talk.
because those were never madeto, cause harm to anyone, but
chances are, it could have, it'shard.
It's really hard.
Finding the right balance,
Erin (23:28):
we could really go into that communities are different.
You know what I mean?
each community is different andnot a policy and somewhere and
another state may not work inanother state.
And do you know what?
I understand now that I did notunderstand inside of a community
in times like this.
(23:49):
Yeah, I didn't understand scale.
I was, if you are a leaderinside of a community, your job
is to focus on your community.
Yeah.
And to be an expert in yourcommunity, I never was given the
perspective of what it was liketo think about 25 communities
(24:14):
or
50 communities or 100 communities.
yeah, what I did was advocatefor my community, sometimes with
a negative energy, and sometimeswith a really resentful energy,
and it's just it doesn't workhere.
Yeah, and so that is somethingthat I think is very important
(24:35):
for leaders who are listening isthe ability to balance.
Being an expert in in yourworld.
Yeah, you're the expert in andyour community and then
understanding the big pictureelement, which is having to
create a policy to scale 25 to100 communities
Sherri (24:58):
and that's where, a lot of leaders.
It's it is that it's the economyof scale, right?
How am I going to be able toleverage what we have 100
communities and how are we goingto.
Make sure that it is repeatable,right?
Especially a lot of theseorganizations are looking for
(25:19):
acquisitions and divestitures.
And how are we going to Rinseand repeat and make sure that
the success that we've seenpreviously is the same success
that we're going to see as we'regrowing and taking on new
communities.
And it's hard.
I think it's interesting becauseI feel like after the pandemic,
(25:40):
before the pandemic.
Really, we saw an expansion of alot of large players with a huge
national footprint, right?
there are hundreds ofcommunities.
It seemed like that scale waswhat a lot of the REITs and
ownership groups were goingtowards, and I feel like after
the pandemic and over the lastcouple of years, we're almost
(26:01):
seeing that shrinking takingplace and the REITs and
ownership groups are now reallydivesting back out to smaller
regional operators.
Because when we've got such ahuge reach, sometimes it's hard
to really create standards andpractices that make sense for
(26:22):
your small community in a ruralAlabama or Mississippi.
and then you always, there'salways going to be gray area.
But.
How do you put up guardrails forthem to be successful?
How do you put up, policies andprocedures that will keep
residents safe and, mitigatesome of that risk while still
(26:43):
giving people the autonomy torun their business?
finding that right balance isreally difficult.
and I think we always go back tothe really hard measurable KPIs,
right?
What's your occupancy?
What's your food cost?
What's your cost per turn?
But those really, the numbersdon't lie, but sometimes they
also don't tell the whole truthand that there's a whole lot of
(27:05):
other things going on thataren't accounted in some of
those numbers that might notmake sense for that community.
Erin (27:12):
Yeah, my husband makes a comment, and it totally I get
it.
It's everybody wants to see thebaby, but.
Very few want to hear about thelabor pains, you know, no,
you're going to hear about thelabor pains.
If you want to see the outcome,let's talk about how we got
here.
Sherri (27:30):
yeah, it's true.
It's true.
It's here's the baby.
Here's 100 percent occupancy.
Yeah.
If they don't want to see whathappens in the back end, or,
they don't want to also maybepeek under the covers to see how
they got there.
what rules did you break?
What policies didn't make sense?
And what happened to get youthere?
it's interesting.
That's a good analogy.
(27:51):
I like that one.
Erin (27:52):
it's funny, and it's because as we grow from being a
doer to a leader, no matter whatposition.
You're in like, if you even yougo from being a concierge to a
sales director, or if you gofrom being a culinary director
to an executive director, or ifyou go from an executive
director to a regional director,there's a mindset switch that
(28:15):
has to happen.
And the higher up you go, theless details people want.
Yeah, it becomes outcomeoriented.
And those are the different.
Languages that we speak insidesenior living.
Sherri (28:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
and it's sometimes really hard.
I think some of my mostchallenging interactions or when
people would come up andchallenge me the most, which I
always love that.
let's have a healthyconversation about it.
because I know when doing some.
Operations for dining, largescale, 100 communities and
(28:53):
people would get frustratedbecause I would say, this is our
standard for chicken breast.
This is the chicken breast weare going to use, and you walk
into a community and that diningservice director has like a
different truck.
That's not approved pulling upto the back.
Talk.
And your immediate likereactions, of course, maybe one
of them mini rage.
(29:14):
I'm not sure, I think.
You have to go through and talkthat a lot of times they don't
see some of the things that areon the back end.
Why did we choose that chickenbreast?
What are some of the benefits toit?
Why is it a part of the program?
And then I feel like a lot oftimes when I'd get in there and
then talk about other thingsthat mattered, it's If this
chicken breast gets recalled,how are we going to know, the
(29:37):
guy who just killed the chickena mile down the road isn't going
to notify us that, there's arecall on his chicken product.
And I think when you start totalk through, some of those
types of things, the light bulbgoes on for people and they
start to understand thedecisions that are made and why
I think we're just terrible.
Sometimes it really.
(29:57):
getting into some of thosedetails because we're running so
fast, and I think that goesacross all vertical, horizontal,
excuse me, and senior living.
We're all just running so fast,trying to do the best thing we
can for the residents that weforget why it's important to say
something to the dishwasherabout, that chicken breast or
whatever it might be.
That's
Erin (30:17):
a very valid point, because you think that managers
would know, executive directorsor culinary directors would know
why trucks need to be uniformedacross.
I had that struggle inside mycommunity.
and I'll be honest with you, itgoes back to the economies of
(30:38):
scale.
for me, I don't know if Inecessarily would have thought
about recalls.
And I don't think new colonydirectors are either.
And so to take the minute andexplain why consistency is
important does turn the lightbulb on.
And it does help.
(30:59):
The bigger picture helps fallingin line because.
No one wants to be a Stepfordwife.
We want a little bit of our ownauthenticity to come through.
And in my situation to get very,tactical, it didn't always have
what we needed, or it took toolong, or there were things to
(31:20):
it.
And so the other truck Wasbetter in our area.
so having those conversationsare important, but even more the
delivery of this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sherri (31:32):
Yeah.
and I've got some really greatreal world experiences, which
I'm not going to dive into hereon why some of that, there's
been times where I needed topinpoint something very minute
because the resident had justhad a.
A strawberry that had listeriaon it, and we needed to make a
decision or, I think that whenyou start to have those
(31:53):
conversations about how ittrickles down and because we
have such a vulnerablepopulation in our communities,
it's not the same as someonebeing out to dinner and who's
healthy in their 30s or 40s outto dinner with their loved ones,
right?
This is a really, our populationis at risk.
And if we give them a foodborneillness or something else, they
(32:16):
really do risk never coming backto the community.
We could put them into thehospital and they never get to
come home, either.
That's because they have to goto a higher level of care or,
other things could happen andthey pass.
and I think that once you startto break it down for people and
give them some of thoseexamples, it is a light bulb.
It's not because I don't wantyou to have the autonomy to do
(32:39):
whatever you want to do, butultimately, we got to keep our
residents safe and we got tokeep our staff safe.
I feel like to some degree, asI've.
had bigger and bigger jobs.
I've almost become one of thosewhere it's like, how do I make
sure that we keep everyone assafe as possible?
You'd ask me if I would everfeel that strongly about like
(33:02):
compliance.
Cause I hated compliance before,like when I was younger, I'm
like, Oh, the States.
And again, Oh, and it's funnybecause as I've grown into a
different leader now, I'm like,Oh, I understand.
Why some of this is importantand I never want to be the
reason why somebody doesn't getto come home, and I don't think
(33:23):
anyone in senior living wouldwant to be the reason someone
doesn't get to return back totheir home.
The reality, so I feel like I'vebecome more risk adverse.
and I'm just constantly tryingto find ways to keep people safe
is really at the core of what Ido.
And I never would have thoughtthat's how my, my trajection or
like my career path would havegone because I'm definitely not
(33:46):
that person in real life, but,it's how it changes when you
perspectives.
Erin (33:51):
Yeah, it really is.
It really is.
I hope that conversation reallydid help people because the
different perspectives comingfrom a non threatening way.
Yeah, really opens up dialoguethat can help people.
so thank you for diving intothat.
(34:11):
I like those types of mentoringconversations.
with senior 6, you have a lotof, I like how you call them
levers, different levers topull, which is fun.
Leverage is 1 of my new favoritewords.
And so levers is part of that.
what do you see as being thefuture?
(34:32):
your support that you offercompanies?
What's exciting to you the most?
Sherri (34:38):
There's a couple of things that really, excite me.
We've done a lot of work tobuild out a foundation where we
can go in and do assessments fororganizations and identify
different gaps, I have a veryDeep dining and hospitality,
knowledge base, but we've done alot to do it across all
functions because again, seniorsix, we've got your back.
(35:00):
We want to break down thosebarriers.
and we've got a maturity modelwhere we can really.
Pinpoint on this matrix whereorganizations are listen to what
they want to do, who they wantto be, what kind of things are
important to them and map themon that maturity model and then
provide them a list of resourcesand also some KPIs and some
(35:23):
tracking to let them know.
Hey, look, if we start to pullthis lever a little bit.
Look, what's going to happenhere.
if we move things this way, thisis going to change over here.
And I think as we start to putsome of this together and really
create a blueprint fororganizations.
One, it helps them to be moreforward thinking, helps them to
(35:44):
see what steps they need totake, what KPIs, what leading
lagging indicators are there forsuccess.
but I think the most importantpart of that is that we're also
giving them the tools to talk todownstream.
So we can talk to the, theownership groups and the
acquisition groups and who we'redivesting to, but we really also
want to give the tools to, howdo you talk to your community
(36:06):
leaders.
How do we set your executivedirector up for success?
How do we set your dishwasher upfor success?
And how do we put this alltogether for you in one cohesive
bubble that takes into accounteverybody in that community?
So those are some of the thingsthat we've got now that really
make a difference and that a lotof our clients have benefited
(36:27):
from, right?
some of the other things I thinkthat we've got to figure out in
senior living is technology.
Everyone's got their new shiny.
object that's going to help bethe silver bullet for success.
I think in senior living, we'rereally terrible at mapping that
out and to understand technologyas a differentiator.
But how do they all talk to eachother?
(36:49):
How do they interact?
I was recently at a conferenceand was surprised to hear a
conversation of someone who toldme that a facilities department
had gone through and.
Did an RFP and signed a contractfor, a POS system without even
consulting with the dining teamat all.
And those are the types of silosthat we really aim to break down
(37:14):
and give organizations, theability to see what that looks
like.
Cause in my mind, that, thatshould have never been something
that, dining wasn't a part of,or even housekeeping wasn't a
part of.
That should have been it.
Everyone was a part of thosetypes of decisions.
so we really want to find waysto set organizations up for
success.
(37:34):
But ultimately, it just comesback to the resident.
how do we set up communities tobetter care for residents and
their family members?
how do we inspire that gracefulaging?
Whatever it looks like for eachindividual.
Yeah,
Erin (37:49):
it sounds fascinating and I love how getting the 2 layers
to communicate to each other isreally important.
And then leading and laggingindicators.
for those who might not know,can you explain leading and
lagging indicators?
KPIs are our key performanceindicators.
What we're measured on and thenleading and lagging indicators
(38:12):
are.
Sherri (38:13):
So leading and lagging indicators are like pinpoints on
of activities, is a great way tosay it, the things that you can
do that will either one showsuccess or also show maybe a
failure or kind of a downwardside, and they can be really
simple things like, if you're inyour dining program and, do you
(38:36):
solicit feedback from residentsdaily?
No, we only do it weekly.
what we're able to do is go inand assess that.
Take a take our model and say,they're doing daily feedback or
they're doing quarterlyfeedback, whatever it is, right?
And that's going to let us knowwhere you fall on a success
matrix for getting residentfeedback.
(38:59):
so we've got this thing that wecall the community management
framework.
it's over 14, 000 leading andlagging indicators of.
six different levels of successinside of a senior living
community.
A lot of them repeat.
So that number soundsstaggering.
But, they all tie back to oursix eyes and who we're really
(39:20):
looking at inside of thecommunity and who we're trying
to really help.
so yeah, leading and laggingindicators are just really.
Almost tasks and activities thatyou do inside of a community
that either is going to make yousuccessful or not.
And it can be something assimple as your closing
checklist.
We all know a lot of communitieshave checklists.
(39:42):
Did you is the bathroom clean?
Is the walkway clean?
That's a leading and laggingindicator.
If your staff aren't doing thosechecklists, that could show a
problem.
But if they're consistentlydoing those tasks and checking
them off, that could be aleading indicator of something
good.
So really, we just take a lookat all those data points and
(40:03):
figure out where you are, andfigure out which ones are
important to the organization,too.
Erin (40:07):
The data will tell the story if we allow it to.
Sherri (40:11):
Yep.
Erin (40:12):
Yeah.
Sometimes we don't want to lookat the data.
Sherri (40:14):
Yeah.
Sometimes you just want to like,hide it.
No, let's not look at thatreport.
Hey, I think that goes back toour, how we started the
conversation though, right?
We all want to grow.
We don't want to be stagnant.
I think looking at the holes andthe stuff that you're trying to
sweep under the rug is just asimportant.
we need to really allow peoplein senior living to make
(40:37):
mistakes as long as it's not 1that negatively, it's not a huge
mistake.
We need to give people theautonomy to make mistakes and be
honest about it.
And.
And to be able to learn fromthose experiences, too.
I think that's one area where,we maybe stifle some of the
innovation because we're tooscared to let, to make a mistake
(40:58):
here in senior living.
I agree.
100%.
Erin (41:01):
You can look up Sherry on LinkedIn.
But if you do that, if you wantto see her Home Alone video,
which is worth the look up, youwant to make sure that you spell
Sherry with an I.
Not an E, not an IE, not a Y.
It is S H E R I.
And it's kitchens, which iscompletely par for the course
(41:25):
when you get a conversationstarter, right?
So are you an amazing cook?
Sherri (41:30):
I don't want to toot my own horn, but you went to
Erin (41:32):
the CIA,
Sherri (41:34):
such a wonderful experience there.
Also, they have started to domore in healthcare, which was
not, an avenue that was.
There when I was there.
It's good to see some of theseprograms, popping up in
different colleges and stuff.
But yeah, if you're in the NewEngland market, I will invite
anybody over for dinner andthrow down some good meals.
(41:54):
I'm pretty competitive to whenit comes like cooking
competitions.
So if you tell me there's like amystery basket or something,
I'll probably show up.
Erin (42:02):
Really?
you're that good.
Sometimes
Sherri (42:06):
I want all of them, but, I know how to throw down once in
a while.
Erin (42:10):
do you like to bake or is it like,
Sherri (42:13):
terrible baker?
Erin (42:14):
You're a terrible baker.
Sherri (42:15):
Yeah, I actually, In culinary school, we did have to
do baking and pastry and my cakewas terrible.
And I remember crying thinkingthat I was like, going to fail
baking and pastry because thecake was like, sideways and
fraught, the crumbs are all inthe frosting.
And I was like, this is I can'tbe a baker.
I can't do it.
(42:36):
I've developed a little bit ofappreciation for it now, but.
Yeah, I'm not a great baker.
That's funny.
Yeah,
Erin (42:45):
I don't love to cook.
I'm decent at it with the stuffthat I do over and over.
If I would probably say I liketo bake more than I like to
cook, but I cannot decorate.
Yeah, so
Sherri (42:56):
shout out to everyone who can do both like in the
people who decorate, although Ido feel like with a six year old
in the house, people ask me whatmy like, what's my cuisine or my
favorite recipe and it justfeels like this day.
It's like dinosaur chickennuggets and mac and cheese and
not even homemade mac and cheesebecause it can't be made.
(43:17):
Which just feels reallyterrible.
Erin (43:19):
Doesn't it?
It feels awful.
I don't understand why homemademac and cheese is subpar to
crust or shells and cheese.
I don't even understand.
I don't understand it.
Sherri (43:31):
No, I didn't think that's where my culinary degree
would lead me, but here we are.
Like, I'm just going to rollwith it.
It's a season of life right now.
if you need more cooking tips.
I'll tell you how to boil thewater.
I don't even have good cookingtips for Kraft macaroni and
cheese, but, or the dinosaurnuggets, I tried to make them
from scratch and.
it was so funny.
It was a no, I don't want these.
(43:52):
And so that's my specialty thesedays is a 56 year old.
Erin (43:58):
It's that's crazy.
That's great to know.
She is Sherry Kitchens, andshe's a graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America and sheputs.
Dinosaur chicken nuggets in theoven.
One chicken nugget at a time.
Just like the rest of us.
Sherri (44:14):
Yes.
Yes.
Or the air fryer.
Air fryer.
Air fryer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Erin (44:20):
That's funny.
She's the co founder of SeniorSix, and she and I may not be
saying this right, but she wantsto help all communities and
companies inside senior living,age gracefully or support
graceful aging,
Sherri (44:36):
inspiring, graceful aging.
That's what we're all about.
Yeah,
Erin (44:40):
and she's got your back.
She's got your 6.
that's important.
Thank you for being here andsharing your experience and your
goals for the future and lettingus all moms feel like we've been
seen and heard.
We appreciate that very much.
And if this episode has helpedyou share it with 1 or 2 other
people, because.
The more mentoring and the morewe talk about hard things like
(45:02):
this, the better we all will beso shared out and leave your
feedback and follow, subscribe,all the things to this podcast.
We appreciate you and alwaysaspire for more for you.
Howdy folks.
(00:00):
It's Erin Thompson again.
And we are in for a treat todaybecause I have with me Sherry
kitchens, the co founder ofsenior six and.
More importantly, maybe, thewinner of Matt Reiner's Leading
Age National video, where sherecreated Home Alone.
(00:22):
Sherri, thank you for beinghere, and we're going to have to
dive into the video first.
Tell me all about that video,because I was super impressed
with your commitment to the art.
Sherri (00:35):
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm really excited to behere.
Thanks so much.
The video started out assomething just supposed to be
really fun and it was really funto do.
Going through it, I'm like, whatwould be something that will
catch attention?
he initially put out that it wasjust supposed to be, I believe
it was an airport selfie and mycompetitive nature took over a
(00:57):
little bit and I said, I'm goingto up the selfie and do a quick
video.
so cue the night before I, infact, was not late for my
flight, thankfully.
but cue the night before Idecided to take a couple of
quick.
shots and I was in the bathroomand running around the house and
throwing luggage in while mykiddo looked at me and the dog
(01:17):
looked at me pretty perplexed.
and I was able to splice themtogether and find the home alone
music.
And it just, it felt perfect.
I feel like a lot of us knowthat movie so well, we're
getting ready to go into theholiday season.
and we've all probably felt thatway getting to a flight that you
might be, a little close on.
So it was just really fun and itwas great to meet Matt.
(01:37):
That was the first time that Ihad met him at leading age.
and I'm really thankful that Iwas picked as a winner.
it was such a fun thing to doand, just to have a chance to
have a conversation with himafter that.
I still have the a hundreddollars burning a hole in my
pocket.
So if anyone needs a cup ofcoffee, I'm told that it's
probably real.
not sure, but I'm told it'sprobably real.
Erin (01:58):
I was going to ask you if you spent the money,
Sherri (02:01):
you didn't spend
Erin (02:02):
the money.
Sherri (02:03):
I was, there was a kiddo in our neighborhood who was
selling hot cider the other day,and I did almost pawn it off on
him and ask for some change thatway, if it wasn't real, didn't
come back to me, but I did notdo that.
Erin (02:18):
I think, I know that a lot of people struggle with video
and first of all, I will say,I'm glad to know that you
weren't late because I thinkthere was some, the real, black
and white version of me waslike, wow, she was late and she
still made this video.
hello, gullible, naive Arian,I'm glad to know that you
(02:41):
weren't late.
but it takes a lot to be sillylike that on camera for the
world to see.
And did you feel silly and youworked through the discomfort?
Sherri (02:55):
I did, especially, I think as I was doing the shot,
we're gonna brushing my hair andtrying to put on eyeliner and.
it felt ridiculous, especiallyto be putting it out there for
LinkedIn.
It's supposed to be thisprofessional platform, but I
really just decided to go withit and break down some of those
walls and push through a littlebit of the discomfort.
(03:15):
I know some people have asked,like, how long it's taken.
It took to make the video.
I think if I had to really talkmore than.
The one little line that I didat the beginning where I said,
I'm late or I overslept, itprobably would have taken me a
lot longer because I would haveharped on all of the, and the,
and the times that, maybe itwasn't perfect.
But I'm getting there on some ofthose to, future videos.
(03:39):
It's hard.
It's hard to step outside yourcomfort zone.
Erin (03:42):
Yeah, I think it's a true, testament to leveraging your
leverage and that video is a wayto leverage, visibility and
people know who you are.
You got to meet somebody who youwanted to meet.
there's just so much that videocan do.
And it was great.
(04:03):
It was, I was super, superimpressed and I was so happy.
I was like, oh my gosh.
She took it to a whole notherlevel because I did do, I did
try to do an airport selfie onetime last year or earlier this
year, or maybe it was last year,and, I didn't understand
mirroring on a phone and hereplied back to me, got to work
(04:25):
on your mirroring, but I likeyour effort.
And I'm like, Oh, my God.
now I know what mirroring is ona phone.
Sherri (04:31):
Yeah.
I think it really, it takes alot to step outside your comfort
zone and put something outthere.
and I feel like those of peoplewho know me or who have worked
with me, I love to have fun,right?
In the right places, in theright context.
As long as we are meeting theneeds of our residents or
whatever it might be, we spend alot of time with the people that
(04:53):
we work with, and it's importantto have fun.
So I really enjoy doing, sillythings and trying to have that
lightheartedness and joke aroundin the right situations.
And I think sometimes when youare a social worker, and you
don't work in an thoseopportunities to jo that type of
(05:15):
back and of gave me theopportunit bit of my silly side
that isn't on display as much toexhibit that much anym Yeah, it
was great.
Erin (05:30):
I loved it.
And it's a lesson for us all ifyou're inside the community to
use the power of video toconnect with people.
It is very vitally important.
And you showed us that, but youmentioned that, what life is
like inside of a community.
So obviously you have founded,you're now an entrepreneur, a co
(05:51):
founder, but you have workedinside the industry.
So give us a little bit ofbackground.
Your background.
I think it has something to dowith kitchen in the culinary
world.
So tell us about you.
Sherri (06:03):
Yeah, long, long time ago, I went to culinary school
at the Culinary Institute ofAmerica in New York, had a
wonderful education there.
Then continued on to do some,business degree, got my MBA and,
it was grappling with what do Iwant to do with my education.
I love working, with food andwith people.
(06:24):
I knew I didn't necessarily wantto be a chef or a top chef or,
running, a restaurant quite likethat.
I was looking for something alittle bit different and someone
approached me about a job incontract dining, in senior
living.
And if I'm really honest, I wentinto those conversations with a
guard up that I didn't want tobe in senior living.
(06:45):
I had a recent LinkedIn postthat's got a lot of traction on
it where my title was seniorlivings where chefs go to die.
that's what my impression was,you were at the end of your
career, there was no fun.
There was no way to be creative.
And why would I, almost commitcareer suicide?
I hate to, and do that.
(07:05):
Why would I go into seniorliving?
conversations progressed and Iended up accepting the position
and moved into senior living,had no experience whatsoever.
And it was definitely trial byfire.
I've got senior living.
Some amazing stories, some crazystories that I was just not set
up for and working in the typeof environments that, you find
(07:27):
in senior living when you'reliving in working in someone's
home, was there for some timeand then went to work for a
really large provider.
1 of the top.
five, I think at the time,independent living organizations
where I oversaw their diningprogram for them.
and then went to a startup wherewe were mostly in assisted
(07:47):
living, but 120 communitiesoverseeing the whole entire
dining program for them, acrossthe country.
And I think the thing thatreally got me through all these
experiences was one I alwaysfelt like I had the ability to
make some really good impact onresidents and the staff members.
The stories always have justcaptured my heart, when I was
(08:10):
able to be in communities andinteracting with residents and
their families and thecaregivers, the stories that you
can pull from them and theexperiences that they have are
just.
Incredible.
There's no other industry whereyou're going to get that kind of
feedback and give and take.
And ultimately what I found wasthat I just, I fell in love with
(08:32):
senior living.
And, I've been here for quitesome time now.
I'm not going to, you guys canlook at my LinkedIn profile for
that.
I'm still 21, but, I think Ijust, I fell in love and, Over
the years, I've tried to figureout, how am I going to make an
impact?
How am I going to positivelyimpact residents and their
(08:54):
family members and the peoplewho are caring for them?
And it's just been a reallywonderful journey.
Erin (08:59):
Yeah, it, it really is a very impactful industry and I
think in ways the industry needsa lot of help and impacting.
The people who work in it,right?
and I feel like that's where thenext phase of your journey
happened with me with senior 6.
(09:20):
so I'm sure the entrepreneurialjourney came from problems that
you saw or solutions that youcreated.
take us, I'm interested to hearthe story to see how similar our
paths are.
Sherri (09:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
so senior six came out of,earlier this year, I decided to
go off on my own and initiallywas going to do a consultancy,
for senior living and with my cofounder, we went back and forth
and, Ultimately, through a lotof conversations, we landed on
senior 6 for a couple ofreasons.
1 senior 6, the 6 is I've gotyour back.
(09:59):
so we always want to go throughand want residents and their
family members and organizationsto feel like we've got their
back.
we realize that there are acouple of.
key people in that relationship.
So obviously the resident isreally important.
and eventually we hope to helpthem through the whole continuum
of senior living.
(10:19):
So even before they're in acommunity, we've got these large
aspirations to find ways toprovide support to them before
they're even thinking about it.
we know that their familymembers are really important.
A lot of times they're a bigpiece of the puzzle in how
residents are making theirdecisions, or sometimes their
family members are the onesmaking those decisions for them.
(10:39):
You also have your partnerships,vendor relationships, government
bodies, any academia, and thenalso you've got any regulatory
bodies, and they all make upthis sphere that is around a
resident who really is with themthrough this continuum of, what
we like to call inspiringgraceful aging.
(11:00):
So how do we take eachindividual and not tell them how
they have to age, but reallylet's just give them the tools
and the people caring for them,the tools to be able to inspire
graceful aging.
And that's really where we cameup with, senior six and what
we're really hoping to do andbreak down some of those walls
(11:21):
and barriers as people age intothe system.
Yeah,
Erin (11:26):
I like in well, even when I was in a community, I always
felt like I had 5 bosses.
I have 5 bosses, I would goaround asking other people.
How many bosses do you have, inother industries trying to make
this all make sense to me.
I have 5 bosses that I have tokeep happy.
All the time, and that is myresidents and their families,
(11:46):
the associates, the governingbody of the state, whether it's
the Department of Public Healthor Health and Human Services,
whatever it is for the state,and then the corporate office.
And eat all 5 of them could havevery different things they want
from you.
And as the executive director,you are the person who has to
(12:07):
try to figure out where thehappy medium is.
within all five of them.
And it's a very challenging roleand if you don't look at it from
that perspective you get lost.
In the sea of expectations, thatpeople have on you.
So
it's really important that someone does have your six,
(12:28):
right?
If someone does have your back,that someone is talking into you
and helping you realize, youcannot be something to someone
that you cannot be, and that is
Sherri (12:41):
Oh, go ahead.
Erin (12:42):
No, that's just the moral of the story, so you have to be
aware of that.
Sherri (12:47):
Yeah.
And I think, what I've seen.
And you can probably attest tothis and in your background and
really living in communitiesmuch more than I have, you are
competing with so manypriorities.
So 1 thing I've noticed, andI've heard stories, across.
Different people andorganizations and size, we're
(13:08):
all competing for the sameresources.
Every department has their own,initiatives that they're doing
or things that they're trying toaccomplish and really, you find
that everyone is working inthese silos, sales and dining
and operations and as much as wetry.
To cross pollinate the ideas andthe resources a lot of times,
(13:31):
that's just not happening andsenior living.
1 of the things we really wantto do is find ways to break down
those silos and make it easierfor people in the community to
get the resources they need andthen also excuse me also be able
to, have better crosspollination and understanding of
what's going on, because I thinka lot of times we're all doing
(13:54):
the best that we can.
We're all doing what we think isthe best for the resident, the
best for their families, butsometimes you're just running so
fast that you're not thinkingabout the person standing next
to you.
we're stretched so thin andgiven such limited resources,
we've got to rethink how we'redoing some of these things
because it's just notsustainable long term.
Erin (14:16):
Yeah, it really isn't.
It really isn't.
I, if it was, I would probablybe.
Still in a community, butbecause it wasn't sustainable
and I didn't have, an outlet tolearn, or I just had a
completely different mindsetabout things I, internally
eroded any opportunity to grow.
(14:39):
In the place that I was in, andthat's the mission, right?
Like the mission of consultantsor coaches or, senior 6 or
aspire for more with Erin isliterally about perspective
because it's not given enough,the perspective.
I say that from my angle, I'lllet you speak for senior 6, but
(15:02):
perspective is huge when weallow it.
To reframe our own perspective.
Yeah,
Sherri (15:10):
and I think it's so easy for perspectives of those around
you to also cloud your ownperspective or to, influence it
good, bad or otherwise.
and sometimes that can come fromthe organization and corporate,
or it can come from thedishwasher or a caregiver.
(15:32):
And, I think finding ways tobalance all of those and figure
out what your perspective is andhow it's going to serve.
You is key to that, and I thinkat the end of the day, we all
want to.
Do what's ultimately best forresidents.
I don't you don't come into thisindustry, because you come into
(15:52):
this industry because you wantto make a difference, right?
You come into this industrybecause you have a big heart.
You come into this industrybecause you think that you can
make a difference.
And I think sometimes thoseperspectives can quickly get
washed away when you're gotcompeting priorities and limited
resources.
And you feel like you're just.
Spinning your wheels.
(16:13):
and that's really where seniorsixes is leveraging to come in
to help people in thosesituations and organizations and
their situation.
Just break those barriers down.
Erin (16:22):
Yeah, feeling stuck is like the worst feeling in the
world.
yeah, it is.
It's awful.
Tony Robbins will say, if you'renot growing, you're dying, and
and that's really, out there andin very powerful statement, it
makes you stop and you think,but it's true.
Sherri (16:42):
It's very true.
It's very true.
that was earlier this year when,in the very early stages of by
becoming a co founder of seniorsix and the conversations with
my co founder, Scott Galant and,it was really a feeling of I'm
stuck.
I missed being in operations.
I missed being closer tocommunities and others who are
(17:04):
leading communities.
And, I think through thatFeeling of being stuck.
that's really where it propelledus into senior 6 and where we
find ourselves now, but it isit's so easy, in those
situations and crossroads,there's a couple of paths you
can take, and I think we've allhad different times where maybe
you took a not as productivepath or.
(17:26):
One that didn't suit you, butmaybe it felt like it suited you
at the time.
And, it's hard.
Those are really hard decisionsto make.
And I know our community leadersand people in communities,
caregivers, executive directors,kitchen staff, I think find
themselves in those types ofsituations all the time.
they just don't know what to do.
Erin (17:45):
Yeah.
How can we grow?
And I think that's like thequestion that I ask myself and
really the basis of My why is Ido believe when you feel stuck
or when you feel like this isgoing to be it that's when
companies or the personthemselves should invest in
(18:07):
themselves.
To find ways to grow, because ifyou feel like this is it, then
you're not looking for growthand that becomes problematic for
long term, visionaries andbecause it's the same
expectations month over month.
It's the same year over year.
(18:30):
it's the same pattern, but youdon't have a different lens to
look through to figure out wherethe growth is.
Then that's where resentment andthe negative energy comes in,
where companies really need tostart looking at themselves.
And saying to themselves, ifthis is going to be a forever, a
(18:51):
long term executive director,how do I pour into them?
So they will say in my communitylong term, it's consistency is
Sherri (19:00):
key consistency, especially at the community
level is just there's not if youget a good leader in there.
You can always walk into acommunity immediately and know
that it's running on cylindersthat things are just like
clockwork and the team is happy.
I think you walk into thosebuildings and you can just feel
(19:22):
it and everything else is anindicator of that.
Occupancy is turnovers down.
Resonant satisfaction is up, butsometimes we lose sight.
Of who's running that buildingand giving them the tools to be
successful.
a lot of times when we're inthere and looking at
organizations, you'll talk to anexecutive director and.
(19:42):
They have no clue how a kitchenshould run or, how do you even
go back into the kitchen and askthe right questions, or they
just haven't been given thetools to be successful.
And they're running amultimillion dollar building
with residents lives, and it'ssuch a short sighted thing, not
to invest in those people, togive them those tools, because
(20:05):
as soon as that turnover starts,I feel like the rest of it just
falls into place.
Other staff members go, residentsatisfaction decreases, sales
decreases.
It's, it all is very connected.
the people who are in there andrunning those departments are so
important and deserve theresources.
Yeah,
Erin (20:24):
I think senior living.
I guess you could say this formost professions, especially in
restaurants, which would beinteresting.
So to get your take on this,since the Culinary Institute of
America.
Is people leave because ofmanagers.
Certainly.
although I think there's anotherside to that question.
Another question to be asked inreference to that question, but
(20:47):
in senior living residents, thecustomers leave Because of
managers, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yet companies don't want toinvest in the people.
They just expect to hire theright people and the right
(21:07):
success will come along.
But, the wrong hire can cost youa lot of money.
Yeah.
And investing.
In people and they leave cancost you a lot of money as well.
Sherri (21:23):
Yeah.
think about the turmoil aresident and their family go
through 1 to make the initialdecision to move into a
community and then.
If they decide to move, that'shuge.
That runway is huge.
It's a lot of effort.
That's a lot of, there's just somuch that goes into those
decisions, right?
It's not easy.
(21:43):
A lot of coordination and a lotof times it can just be stopped
if you do pour your resources.
And I think none of us hireanyone.
And I'm guilty of doing it inearlier in my career, right?
Hiring someone not giving themthe resources and then they
leave or we have to manage themout because they're just not a
right fit culturally.
(22:04):
And I think as I've grown and,learned a lot more about
leadership, it's.
That's not really the case.
no one takes a job to go into itevery day and do it bad.
I don't wake up every day andgo, gosh, I want to go to work
and do a terrible job today.
like I, at least I hope not.
Maybe there are people, I don'tknow.
you always, especially in seniorliving, I feel like you have to
(22:26):
assume the best intent and inboth ways, I have to assume that
if someone's hiring me, they'regoing to give me their
resources, but we just lack somuch.
Support, at the community level.
And I don't think it's not fornot wanting to, I think
organizations just fall short onwhere the support is going to be
best utilized or the best way tosupport managers, and people who
(22:52):
are really in the operations dayin and day out, I know in
previous lives, I've probablymade, policies and procedures
that felt right from a certain.
Vantage point over all of thecommunities that just didn't
make sense at the communitylevel, and there's sometimes
that divide into anybody that'sout there.
(23:13):
I'm sorry.
we can talk about it at anothertime.
I don't know.
call me.
Let's talk.
because those were never madeto, cause harm to anyone, but
chances are, it could have, it'shard.
It's really hard.
Finding the right balance,
Erin (23:28):
we could really go into that communities are different.
You know what I mean?
each community is different andnot a policy and somewhere and
another state may not work inanother state.
And do you know what?
I understand now that I did notunderstand inside of a community
in times like this.
(23:49):
Yeah, I didn't understand scale.
I was, if you are a leaderinside of a community, your job
is to focus on your community.
Yeah.
And to be an expert in yourcommunity, I never was given the
perspective of what it was liketo think about 25 communities
(24:14):
or
50 communities or 100 communities.
yeah, what I did was advocatefor my community, sometimes with
a negative energy, and sometimeswith a really resentful energy,
and it's just it doesn't workhere.
Yeah, and so that is somethingthat I think is very important
(24:35):
for leaders who are listening isthe ability to balance.
Being an expert in in yourworld.
Yeah, you're the expert in andyour community and then
understanding the big pictureelement, which is having to
create a policy to scale 25 to100 communities
Sherri (24:58):
and that's where, a lot of leaders.
It's it is that it's the economyof scale, right?
How am I going to be able toleverage what we have 100
communities and how are we goingto.
Make sure that it is repeatable,right?
Especially a lot of theseorganizations are looking for
(25:19):
acquisitions and divestitures.
And how are we going to Rinseand repeat and make sure that
the success that we've seenpreviously is the same success
that we're going to see as we'regrowing and taking on new
communities.
And it's hard.
I think it's interesting becauseI feel like after the pandemic,
(25:40):
before the pandemic.
Really, we saw an expansion of alot of large players with a huge
national footprint, right?
there are hundreds ofcommunities.
It seemed like that scale waswhat a lot of the REITs and
ownership groups were goingtowards, and I feel like after
the pandemic and over the lastcouple of years, we're almost
(26:01):
seeing that shrinking takingplace and the REITs and
ownership groups are now reallydivesting back out to smaller
regional operators.
Because when we've got such ahuge reach, sometimes it's hard
to really create standards andpractices that make sense for
(26:22):
your small community in a ruralAlabama or Mississippi.
and then you always, there'salways going to be gray area.
But.
How do you put up guardrails forthem to be successful?
How do you put up, policies andprocedures that will keep
residents safe and, mitigatesome of that risk while still
(26:43):
giving people the autonomy torun their business?
finding that right balance isreally difficult.
and I think we always go back tothe really hard measurable KPIs,
right?
What's your occupancy?
What's your food cost?
What's your cost per turn?
But those really, the numbersdon't lie, but sometimes they
also don't tell the whole truthand that there's a whole lot of
(27:05):
other things going on thataren't accounted in some of
those numbers that might notmake sense for that community.
Erin (27:12):
Yeah, my husband makes a comment, and it totally I get
it.
It's everybody wants to see thebaby, but.
Very few want to hear about thelabor pains, you know, no,
you're going to hear about thelabor pains.
If you want to see the outcome,let's talk about how we got
here.
Sherri (27:30):
yeah, it's true.
It's true.
It's here's the baby.
Here's 100 percent occupancy.
Yeah.
If they don't want to see whathappens in the back end, or,
they don't want to also maybepeek under the covers to see how
they got there.
what rules did you break?
What policies didn't make sense?
And what happened to get youthere?
it's interesting.
That's a good analogy.
(27:51):
I like that one.
Erin (27:52):
it's funny, and it's because as we grow from being a
doer to a leader, no matter whatposition.
You're in like, if you even yougo from being a concierge to a
sales director, or if you gofrom being a culinary director
to an executive director, or ifyou go from an executive
director to a regional director,there's a mindset switch that
(28:15):
has to happen.
And the higher up you go, theless details people want.
Yeah, it becomes outcomeoriented.
And those are the different.
Languages that we speak insidesenior living.
Sherri (28:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
and it's sometimes really hard.
I think some of my mostchallenging interactions or when
people would come up andchallenge me the most, which I
always love that.
let's have a healthyconversation about it.
because I know when doing some.
Operations for dining, largescale, 100 communities and
(28:53):
people would get frustratedbecause I would say, this is our
standard for chicken breast.
This is the chicken breast weare going to use, and you walk
into a community and that diningservice director has like a
different truck.
That's not approved pulling upto the back.
Talk.
And your immediate likereactions, of course, maybe one
of them mini rage.
(29:14):
I'm not sure, I think.
You have to go through and talkthat a lot of times they don't
see some of the things that areon the back end.
Why did we choose that chickenbreast?
What are some of the benefits toit?
Why is it a part of the program?
And then I feel like a lot oftimes when I'd get in there and
then talk about other thingsthat mattered, it's If this
chicken breast gets recalled,how are we going to know, the
(29:37):
guy who just killed the chickena mile down the road isn't going
to notify us that, there's arecall on his chicken product.
And I think when you start totalk through, some of those
types of things, the light bulbgoes on for people and they
start to understand thedecisions that are made and why
I think we're just terrible.
Sometimes it really.
(29:57):
getting into some of thosedetails because we're running so
fast, and I think that goesacross all vertical, horizontal,
excuse me, and senior living.
We're all just running so fast,trying to do the best thing we
can for the residents that weforget why it's important to say
something to the dishwasherabout, that chicken breast or
whatever it might be.
That's
Erin (30:17):
a very valid point, because you think that managers
would know, executive directorsor culinary directors would know
why trucks need to be uniformedacross.
I had that struggle inside mycommunity.
and I'll be honest with you, itgoes back to the economies of
(30:38):
scale.
for me, I don't know if Inecessarily would have thought
about recalls.
And I don't think new colonydirectors are either.
And so to take the minute andexplain why consistency is
important does turn the lightbulb on.
And it does help.
(30:59):
The bigger picture helps fallingin line because.
No one wants to be a Stepfordwife.
We want a little bit of our ownauthenticity to come through.
And in my situation to get very,tactical, it didn't always have
what we needed, or it took toolong, or there were things to
(31:20):
it.
And so the other truck Wasbetter in our area.
so having those conversationsare important, but even more the
delivery of this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sherri (31:32):
Yeah.
and I've got some really greatreal world experiences, which
I'm not going to dive into hereon why some of that, there's
been times where I needed topinpoint something very minute
because the resident had justhad a.
A strawberry that had listeriaon it, and we needed to make a
decision or, I think that whenyou start to have those
(31:53):
conversations about how ittrickles down and because we
have such a vulnerablepopulation in our communities,
it's not the same as someonebeing out to dinner and who's
healthy in their 30s or 40s outto dinner with their loved ones,
right?
This is a really, our populationis at risk.
And if we give them a foodborneillness or something else, they
(32:16):
really do risk never coming backto the community.
We could put them into thehospital and they never get to
come home, either.
That's because they have to goto a higher level of care or,
other things could happen andthey pass.
and I think that once you startto break it down for people and
give them some of thoseexamples, it is a light bulb.
It's not because I don't wantyou to have the autonomy to do
(32:39):
whatever you want to do, butultimately, we got to keep our
residents safe and we got tokeep our staff safe.
I feel like to some degree, asI've.
had bigger and bigger jobs.
I've almost become one of thosewhere it's like, how do I make
sure that we keep everyone assafe as possible?
You'd ask me if I would everfeel that strongly about like
(33:02):
compliance.
Cause I hated compliance before,like when I was younger, I'm
like, Oh, the States.
And again, Oh, and it's funnybecause as I've grown into a
different leader now, I'm like,Oh, I understand.
Why some of this is importantand I never want to be the
reason why somebody doesn't getto come home, and I don't think
(33:23):
anyone in senior living wouldwant to be the reason someone
doesn't get to return back totheir home.
The reality, so I feel like I'vebecome more risk adverse.
and I'm just constantly tryingto find ways to keep people safe
is really at the core of what Ido.
And I never would have thoughtthat's how my, my trajection or
like my career path would havegone because I'm definitely not
(33:46):
that person in real life, but,it's how it changes when you
perspectives.
Erin (33:51):
Yeah, it really is.
It really is.
I hope that conversation reallydid help people because the
different perspectives comingfrom a non threatening way.
Yeah, really opens up dialoguethat can help people.
so thank you for diving intothat.
(34:11):
I like those types of mentoringconversations.
with senior 6, you have a lotof, I like how you call them
levers, different levers topull, which is fun.
Leverage is 1 of my new favoritewords.
And so levers is part of that.
what do you see as being thefuture?
(34:32):
your support that you offercompanies?
What's exciting to you the most?
Sherri (34:38):
There's a couple of things that really, excite me.
We've done a lot of work tobuild out a foundation where we
can go in and do assessments fororganizations and identify
different gaps, I have a veryDeep dining and hospitality,
knowledge base, but we've done alot to do it across all
functions because again, seniorsix, we've got your back.
(35:00):
We want to break down thosebarriers.
and we've got a maturity modelwhere we can really.
Pinpoint on this matrix whereorganizations are listen to what
they want to do, who they wantto be, what kind of things are
important to them and map themon that maturity model and then
provide them a list of resourcesand also some KPIs and some
(35:23):
tracking to let them know.
Hey, look, if we start to pullthis lever a little bit.
Look, what's going to happenhere.
if we move things this way, thisis going to change over here.
And I think as we start to putsome of this together and really
create a blueprint fororganizations.
One, it helps them to be moreforward thinking, helps them to
(35:44):
see what steps they need totake, what KPIs, what leading
lagging indicators are there forsuccess.
but I think the most importantpart of that is that we're also
giving them the tools to talk todownstream.
So we can talk to the, theownership groups and the
acquisition groups and who we'redivesting to, but we really also
want to give the tools to, howdo you talk to your community
(36:06):
leaders.
How do we set your executivedirector up for success?
How do we set your dishwasher upfor success?
And how do we put this alltogether for you in one cohesive
bubble that takes into accounteverybody in that community?
So those are some of the thingsthat we've got now that really
make a difference and that a lotof our clients have benefited
(36:27):
from, right?
some of the other things I thinkthat we've got to figure out in
senior living is technology.
Everyone's got their new shiny.
object that's going to help bethe silver bullet for success.
I think in senior living, we'rereally terrible at mapping that
out and to understand technologyas a differentiator.
But how do they all talk to eachother?
(36:49):
How do they interact?
I was recently at a conferenceand was surprised to hear a
conversation of someone who toldme that a facilities department
had gone through and.
Did an RFP and signed a contractfor, a POS system without even
consulting with the dining teamat all.
And those are the types of silosthat we really aim to break down
(37:14):
and give organizations, theability to see what that looks
like.
Cause in my mind, that, thatshould have never been something
that, dining wasn't a part of,or even housekeeping wasn't a
part of.
That should have been it.
Everyone was a part of thosetypes of decisions.
so we really want to find waysto set organizations up for
success.
(37:34):
But ultimately, it just comesback to the resident.
how do we set up communities tobetter care for residents and
their family members?
how do we inspire that gracefulaging?
Whatever it looks like for eachindividual.
Yeah,
Erin (37:49):
it sounds fascinating and I love how getting the 2 layers
to communicate to each other isreally important.
And then leading and laggingindicators.
for those who might not know,can you explain leading and
lagging indicators?
KPIs are our key performanceindicators.
What we're measured on and thenleading and lagging indicators
(38:12):
are.
Sherri (38:13):
So leading and lagging indicators are like pinpoints on
of activities, is a great way tosay it, the things that you can
do that will either one showsuccess or also show maybe a
failure or kind of a downwardside, and they can be really
simple things like, if you're inyour dining program and, do you
(38:36):
solicit feedback from residentsdaily?
No, we only do it weekly.
what we're able to do is go inand assess that.
Take a take our model and say,they're doing daily feedback or
they're doing quarterlyfeedback, whatever it is, right?
And that's going to let us knowwhere you fall on a success
matrix for getting residentfeedback.
(38:59):
so we've got this thing that wecall the community management
framework.
it's over 14, 000 leading andlagging indicators of.
six different levels of successinside of a senior living
community.
A lot of them repeat.
So that number soundsstaggering.
But, they all tie back to oursix eyes and who we're really
(39:20):
looking at inside of thecommunity and who we're trying
to really help.
so yeah, leading and laggingindicators are just really.
Almost tasks and activities thatyou do inside of a community
that either is going to make yousuccessful or not.
And it can be something assimple as your closing
checklist.
We all know a lot of communitieshave checklists.
(39:42):
Did you is the bathroom clean?
Is the walkway clean?
That's a leading and laggingindicator.
If your staff aren't doing thosechecklists, that could show a
problem.
But if they're consistentlydoing those tasks and checking
them off, that could be aleading indicator of something
good.
So really, we just take a lookat all those data points and
(40:03):
figure out where you are, andfigure out which ones are
important to the organization,too.
Erin (40:07):
The data will tell the story if we allow it to.
Sherri (40:11):
Yep.
Erin (40:12):
Yeah.
Sometimes we don't want to lookat the data.
Sherri (40:14):
Yeah.
Sometimes you just want to like,hide it.
No, let's not look at thatreport.
Hey, I think that goes back toour, how we started the
conversation though, right?
We all want to grow.
We don't want to be stagnant.
I think looking at the holes andthe stuff that you're trying to
sweep under the rug is just asimportant.
we need to really allow peoplein senior living to make
(40:37):
mistakes as long as it's not 1that negatively, it's not a huge
mistake.
We need to give people theautonomy to make mistakes and be
honest about it.
And.
And to be able to learn fromthose experiences, too.
I think that's one area where,we maybe stifle some of the
innovation because we're tooscared to let, to make a mistake
(40:58):
here in senior living.
I agree.
100%.
Erin (41:01):
You can look up Sherry on LinkedIn.
But if you do that, if you wantto see her Home Alone video,
which is worth the look up, youwant to make sure that you spell
Sherry with an I.
Not an E, not an IE, not a Y.
It is S H E R I.
And it's kitchens, which iscompletely par for the course
(41:25):
when you get a conversationstarter, right?
So are you an amazing cook?
Sherri (41:30):
I don't want to toot my own horn, but you went to
Erin (41:32):
the CIA,
Sherri (41:34):
such a wonderful experience there.
Also, they have started to domore in healthcare, which was
not, an avenue that was.
There when I was there.
It's good to see some of theseprograms, popping up in
different colleges and stuff.
But yeah, if you're in the NewEngland market, I will invite
anybody over for dinner andthrow down some good meals.
(41:54):
I'm pretty competitive to whenit comes like cooking
competitions.
So if you tell me there's like amystery basket or something,
I'll probably show up.
Erin (42:02):
Really?
you're that good.
Sometimes
Sherri (42:06):
I want all of them, but, I know how to throw down once in
a while.
Erin (42:10):
do you like to bake or is it like,
Sherri (42:13):
terrible baker?
Erin (42:14):
You're a terrible baker.
Sherri (42:15):
Yeah, I actually, In culinary school, we did have to
do baking and pastry and my cakewas terrible.
And I remember crying thinkingthat I was like, going to fail
baking and pastry because thecake was like, sideways and
fraught, the crumbs are all inthe frosting.
And I was like, this is I can'tbe a baker.
I can't do it.
(42:36):
I've developed a little bit ofappreciation for it now, but.
Yeah, I'm not a great baker.
That's funny.
Yeah,
Erin (42:45):
I don't love to cook.
I'm decent at it with the stuffthat I do over and over.
If I would probably say I liketo bake more than I like to
cook, but I cannot decorate.
Yeah, so
Sherri (42:56):
shout out to everyone who can do both like in the
people who decorate, although Ido feel like with a six year old
in the house, people ask me whatmy like, what's my cuisine or my
favorite recipe and it justfeels like this day.
It's like dinosaur chickennuggets and mac and cheese and
not even homemade mac and cheesebecause it can't be made.
(43:17):
Which just feels reallyterrible.
Erin (43:19):
Doesn't it?
It feels awful.
I don't understand why homemademac and cheese is subpar to
crust or shells and cheese.
I don't even understand.
I don't understand it.
Sherri (43:31):
No, I didn't think that's where my culinary degree
would lead me, but here we are.
Like, I'm just going to rollwith it.
It's a season of life right now.
if you need more cooking tips.
I'll tell you how to boil thewater.
I don't even have good cookingtips for Kraft macaroni and
cheese, but, or the dinosaurnuggets, I tried to make them
from scratch and.
it was so funny.
It was a no, I don't want these.
(43:52):
And so that's my specialty thesedays is a 56 year old.
Erin (43:58):
It's that's crazy.
That's great to know.
She is Sherry Kitchens, andshe's a graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America and sheputs.
Dinosaur chicken nuggets in theoven.
One chicken nugget at a time.
Just like the rest of us.
Sherri (44:14):
Yes.
Yes.
Or the air fryer.
Air fryer.
Air fryer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Erin (44:20):
That's funny.
She's the co founder of SeniorSix, and she and I may not be
saying this right, but she wantsto help all communities and
companies inside senior living,age gracefully or support
graceful aging,
Sherri (44:36):
inspiring, graceful aging.
That's what we're all about.
Yeah,
Erin (44:40):
and she's got your back.
She's got your 6.
that's important.
Thank you for being here andsharing your experience and your
goals for the future and lettingus all moms feel like we've been
seen and heard.
We appreciate that very much.
And if this episode has helpedyou share it with 1 or 2 other
people, because.
The more mentoring and the morewe talk about hard things like
(45:02):
this, the better we all will beso shared out and leave your
feedback and follow, subscribe,all the things to this podcast.
We appreciate you and alwaysaspire for more for you.
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