4 Reasons College Football and Senior Living Are Almost Identical
This time of year always generates a feeling that makes the hair on my arms stand up and chill bumps emerge and the reason: Football Season.
Memories begin to flow in from my high school and college playing days into my days of coaching for the Georgia Bulldogs. While 2019 will be another year where I will be spending my time building relationships in senior living rather than breaking down film of our next opponent Between the Hedges, I cannot help but think how many similarities I have seen between College Football and Senior Living.
1. 52-Year-Old Mother or Daughter?
You would never think that Kirby Smart and a Senior Living Sales & Marketing Director have the same target market when it comes to selling and recruiting… but they do! In my days of coaching, recruiting the 45-year-old mother of the 17 year-old recruit was probably more
important than actually recruiting the player! Questions like, “How are you going to take care of my baby?” and “Can you promise my son he will get to play right away and get the number he wants?” were questions we answered daily. These would ensure their son would sign with our school!
Senior Living communities are talking to the same 45 to 60-year-old daughter who are essentially asking the same questions about her mom and dad. “How are you going to take care of my mom?” or “My mom only likes to eat at this time and watch this TV show. Can you promise she will get to do that?”
For all successful senior living sales & marketing directors out there, have you ever thought that your talents could translate to coaching college football?
2. It’s not always about the X’s and O’s
A wise coach once told me, “It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.” In other words, you can come up with the best strategies in the world, but if you don’t have the coaches and players to execute those strategies, the results will not be positive.
The same idea is true in senior living. From going to dozens of conferences over the years, I have heard all kinds of strategies and thoughts on subjects like marketing a community, retaining staff, increasing occupancy, increasing length of stay, etc. and so many of them are brilliant. However, I believe if you start at the core with finding the right people and helping them grow as a person, there are many different strategies you could implement, execute, and “win” with.
As a mentor of mine from Thrive Senior Living told me, “When what the business needs and is looking for aligns with what moves a person’s heart, then you know it’s a great match.”
Find those people whose hearts come alive with what your business needs!
3. Amenities are Growing with Competition
Every year, ESPN has a new story of a college going through a $50 million-dollar renovation and adding a bunch of amenities that are more about painting a picture in a recruit’s mind than what reality really is. For example, Clemson recently added a bowling alley and a slide in their football facilities just in case a player didn’t want to walk down the steps. What 17-year-old kid wouldn’t want to slide down a slide instead of walking down steps! My guess is that the actual players at Clemson will rarely use that slide, but it paints a picture of the “dream” school in the recruit’s mind.
When I go to senior living communities, it is amazing how similar this concept is. Each new construction has 1-up’d every other community in the area with their furniture, dining, workout equipment, etc. Personally, I can’t wait to see what a senior living community looks like when I’m ready to move into one in 60 years!
When you can find an amenity that can be used to both sell the dream AND actually be used, then the magic happens! (This is my one It’s Never 2 Late recommendation… message me if you’re interested in this magic.)
4. Rivalries Happen!
There are certain people, teams, or companies that will get your competitive juices flowing just a bit more than others on a normal day. This spirit doesn’t necessarily mean you do not like the opposition, it simply means you would like to beat them more than others.
Many times, it is the overlapping interests that fuels a rivalry. Recruiting the same players, proximity of the schools, and unpredictable, highly competitive games on an equal playing field year after year are fuel to the fire for some of the best rivalries in college football. Georgia-Florida, Auburn-Alabama, Texas-Oklahoma, Michigan-Ohio State all have these traits in common.
I’ve learned in my few years as a vendor visiting different senior living communities that these same types of rivalries exist in senior living, and the funny thing is it’s for the same reasons as College Football rivalries! Recruiting the same people, communities within a mile of one another, and similar-type communities all make for a fun, competitive rivalry!
Competition is healthy. It motivates you to go the extra mile, think out of the box, try something new, and most importantly, it helps get your competitive juices flowing!
Who is that for you?
. . .
College Football season brings an excitement (especially the South) that is hard to explain. You almost need to experience a live game for yourself to be able to fully grasp the passion and impact it can have on a community. I believe the same to be true for a senior living community. I try to explain to my peers all the time about how rewarding it is to be able to listen to a 90-year-old tell stories, share wisdom, and maybe even tell you how pretty you are, but most of my peers don’t seem to believe me. However, maybe like college football, you have to experience it for yourself to fully grasp how impactful it can be.
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