By Steve Moran
What senior living needs more than anything …
Just now, I did a Google search for senior living news, and here is a summary of what I got in the order Google gave it to me:
- A story about a major senior living bankruptcy filing
- A story about a new high-end senior living development
- A story about towns that are safe for seniors to live in. Not senior living at all.
- A story of a resident dying in a senior living community (with no information about what happened, but the headline makes one think it was something bad).
- How some seniors in affordable housing are not getting air conditioning.
- Senior Housing Demand Reaches All-Time High; New Supply Lags
- A person found dead in a “senior living apartment complex fire” — not” really senior living, but age-restricted 55+ apartment.
- A story about decluttering that is not senior living-related at all.
- How seniors staying connected matters. This is a puff piece for a senior referral service.
- A story about a vet who moved into a senior living community and then had their monthly rate increased by several hundred percent.
The Worst
Some stories are completely misleading because they have nothing to do with senior living. A couple are industry news, and 5 are downright negative, though two of those are falsely identified as senior living.
And we wonder why people have such a negative impression of senior living. Worst of all, we do very little to tell positive stories about what we are doing.
If Only This
It was in this context that I came across the LinkedIn profile of Steven That Walmart Guy. He is crazy passionate about Walmart and his role working there. He makes these amazing videos that promote his company. Here is how he describes himself:
As the Front End Team Lead in Plano, Illinois, Store #1003, I have incorporated my role as Social Champion, encouraging revenue and building morale. I am passionate about my role and love my daily interaction with both associates and customers.
My years working at Walmart have changed my life and given me opportunities to grow in ways I did not anticipate. I have been fortunate to be allowed the flexibility to contribute ideas and implement ways for our store to grow.
I aim at advancing in my Social Media role in Walmart and pursue this ambition with optimism and a hard work ethic.
Who knows maybe I can be in a real Walmart TV Commercial. Anything is possible.
This level of passion is contagious and compelling.
Imagine having him, having someone like him, working in your senior living organization doing this kind of powerful story telling.
I just did a Google search for Walmart news, and here is a summary of what I got in the order Google gave it to me:
Walmart responds to Trump’s demand to “eat the tariffs”
Why Walmart decided to raise prices and risk Trump’s fury
Married Kohl’s CEO affair with a Walmart exec was retails dirty little secret
Reasons why people are boycotting Walmart again
**
There’s nothing about Steven the Walmart guy in the first several pages that I looked at. No doubt we can do a better job at telling the great stories of senior living and need people like Steve. But as compelling as his, and our, stories are, we do need more than that to get attention on Google and elsewhere.
We do need to do so much more. But I am also concerned that we need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. There are simply too many news stories about senior living doing real harm to residents. We explain them away by calling them “one offs” that can happen to anyone. Perhaps this is true but it might also be that for every one of these stories that gets reported there are 1,000 more that don’t get reported.
I am deathly afraid latter. I have too many conversations with people who are frustrated with the care a loved one got in senior living. These will never turn into news stories or anything. They are just frustrated. These are fixable errors. It should be the very first step.