Marketing Mysteries Solved!
37 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsAre you a senior living executive looking to solve a complex marketing mystery or challenge? In this gripping podcast, you will gain tools to uncover the marketing problems killing your organization fastest, strategies that will focus you on the right clues, rather than distractions, and evidence of much more lasting marketing solutions. Real executives like you are engaged in active listening and strategic thinking to solve real marketing mysteries with facts and data. Guests include senior living executives in sales and marketing as well as select sales and marketing consultants to their organizations. Gain clarity on how you can increase ROI, generate higher quality leads and sustain long-term success. Immerse yourself in the suspense, sleuthing and satisfying endings to solve your marketing mysteries! Voiceover: Robin O'Donovan, Artwork: Stephanie Vecchiarelli, Audio Editing and Mastering: Wendy O'Donovan Phillips, Molly Waters, Melinda Gisbert, Copyediting: Evan Franklin. Your host Wendy O’Donovan Phillips is CEO of the senior living marketing agency Big Buzz, www.bigbuzzinc.com. She is the author of two marketing books available on Amazon and her firm consistently exceeds $1 million in annual revenues, which only 1% of women-owned businesses achieve, by applying the marketing solutions you will learn in this podcast. She is one of 1.5% of U.S. marketing agency owners to have sat on the Forbes Agency Council. She has dedicated her career to solving complex marketing mysteries.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
The Automation Mystery
March 29, 2024 14:00 - 35 minutes - 24.1 MBThe Automation Mystery Marketing automation isn’t really about the mechanization of communications, it’s about helping as many families as your community possibly can. There are two universal truths in marketing, says my guest in this episode, Sean Leonard, CEO of ActiveDEMAND: 1) We have too much information; and, 2) Everyone needs help. With that in mind, our jobs become making marketing better, infusing it with the creativity, inspiration and sense of trustworthiness that helps older ad...
The Proper Use of AI Mystery
December 01, 2023 18:00 - 36 minutes - 25 MBIn this episode, Jenni Bost, Vice President of Marketing with Radiant Senior Living, and I unpack together the proper use of AI in marketing. The story starts with technology preceding artificial intelligence. She and I both believe in first gathering survey and analytic data to identify the types of marketing that have the biggest impact on sales. This data offers guideposts as to where to focus efforts. We discuss how the right marketing automation and CRM software can further strengthen r...
The Sales Leadership Mystery
August 09, 2023 06:00 - 38 minutes - 26.6 MBToo much management, not enough leadership. That’s what my guest, Shane Ness, Regional Director of Sales at MBK Senior Living, and I believe is the root cause of low occupancies from a sales perspective. In this episode, Shane and I explore the real secret to building trust and relationships with the sales team, a two-day “Tour Development Sales Training” he swears by for improving census fast and ways to connect person to person, heart to heart, rather than getting swept up in the busy-ness...
The Heart Work Mystery
July 12, 2023 15:00 - 30 minutes - 20.8 MBMy guest in this episode is Niki O’Brien, Director of Sales and Marketing with Legend Senior Living and winner of 2016 Argentum Sales and Marketing Director of the Year. Niki loves solving problems with her team and is an expert on revenue growth, maintaining the highest level of occupancy and developing and executing sales strategies. In this episode, Niki and I explore sales strategy as framed “Heart Work,” a mainstay of Legend Senior Living’s culture. We discuss how strategy is different ...
The Involvement Mystery
June 06, 2023 15:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBAfter families make the decision to move an elder into a senior care community, there is a natural feeling of disconnection opposed with a deep desire for involvement. My guest in this episode is Doug Wilcox, CEO of How’s Mom, an app provided by senior care centers to help families communicate with care staff and keep up to date on loved ones in senior care. Doug and I discuss how technology can make involvement easier, care more well-rounded and families more connected. We also discuss how ...
The Industry Revolution Mystery
April 27, 2023 16:00 - 37 minutes - 26.1 MBIf we just shared our secrets and set and worked toward the right industry benchmarks, there are enough aged adults in the U.S. to get every operator in the nation to 100% occupancy. This is the philosophy of my guest in this episode, Cassie Tweten, Chief Sales Officer with Arrow Senior Living Management. Together, she and I explore seven challenges facing senior living sales teams now, we focus on the one challenge we deem “the shark closest to the boat,” and we envision a new future for se...
The Referral Agency Mystery
April 03, 2023 20:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBAre your communities addicted to referral agencies? In this episode, my guest Angie Hildebrandt from 31-location Our House Senior Living unpacks why the industry is glued to referral agencies, what it’s costing senior care organizations like yours and steps to take to stop using them in favor of nurture marketing that earns higher and steadier returns. She laments that her company was once investing six figures with multiple referral agencies, only to find the returns were far lower than the...
The Image Mystery
March 07, 2023 00:00 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MBMy guest in this episode is Tom Sanders, the mastermind behind Senior Stock Photos, a stock photography company that provides stock photos of seniors over the age of 55. What I love most about Tom’s work is that he creates authentic senior stock photos that truly celebrate aging – none of that run-of-the-mill stuff. Together, we uncover why stock photos from big box outfitters don’t connect: the photographer must have a connection with their subject, and it is that connection that shines thr...
The Engagement Mystery
February 06, 2023 22:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBSome folks are just naturally curious, creative and engaging, and Rachel Hill Creative Director for Senior Living Foresight, is one of them. In fact, Rachel is one of my favorite creatives in the senior living industry. She’s a writer, she’s a blogger, she’s a videographer, she’s a podcaster, she’s an influencer. In this episode, she and I talk about the importance of curiosity in sales and marketing, insider tips on off-the-charts social media marketing engagement and even our least favorit...
The Inputs Mystery
December 21, 2022 15:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBSales and marketing outcomes are directly impacted by inputs. What inputs are mission critical? In this episode, my guests say critical inputs include research to uncover true messaging from brand to values and beyond, mutual respect for everyone on the internal and external team, dedicated and structured inter-team communications and repetition, repetition, repetition. I talk with Lisa Detweiler, VP of Sales and Marketing, and Jodie Roberts, Director of Marketing, both with Senior Services ...
The Crazytown Mystery
September 30, 2022 06:00 - 33 minutes - 23.4 MBYou are tired. Your clients need too much from you. You are short staffed. You’re ready to quit and go work at Starbucks. My guest in this episode, Brenda Abdilla, lets us go there in our minds. Then she offers practical experience and concrete tools and strategies to come back better than ever. Brenda serves up neurological data on how the human brain processes, recovers and sets the future self in motion. We go deep on why we’re all in crazytown right now and step-by-step ways we can get b...
The Thinking Mystery
September 01, 2022 06:00 - 40 minutes - 28 MBDo you feel exhausted? Stressed about work and life? Like you are working harder with less fulfillment than ever? You are not alone, and there is a solution. Certified leadership coach, Sarah Ciavarri, PCC, CDTLF, CDWF-C, M.Div., joins me in this episode to discuss her book Finding Our Way the Truth: Seven Lies Leaders Believe and How to Let Go of Them. She unpacks with me the seventh lie: “I’m Responsible for it All.” We explore what’s real in that statement for senior care leaders, where i...
The Thinking Mystery
September 01, 2022 06:00 - 40 minutes - 28 MBDo you feel exhausted? Stressed about work and life? Like you are working harder with less fulfillment than ever? You are not alone, and there is a solution. Certified leadership coach, Sarah Ciavarri, PCC, CDTLF, CDWF-C, M.Div., joins me in this episode to discuss her book Finding Our Way the Truth: Seven Lies Leaders Believe and How to Let Go of Them. She unpacks with me the seventh lie: “I’m Responsible for it All.” We explore what’s real in that statement for senior care leaders, where i...
The Passion Mystery
August 01, 2022 06:00 - 36 minutes - 25 MBWhat if there was a senior living brand that was powered by pixie dust and sprinkled good juju for everyone it touched? It’s not that silly a notion, actually. My guest Christy Van Der WestHuizen is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at MBK Senior Living, where they practice yoi shigoto, which translates from Japanese to “the good work.” This means hiring good people and being good to those people so they can in turn be good to those they serve. So simple, yet so magical. Christy and I di...
The Empathy Mystery
July 01, 2022 06:00 - 37 minutes - 25.5 MBThe Empathy Mystery Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Brené Brown writes in Atlas of the Heart, “If research is going to serve people, it has to reflect their experiences.” What if marketing analytics and digital efforts are only half the picture? What about the people we serve, what about their experiences? How can we collect data qualifying those experiences, acknowledge the ambivalence felt by the folks we serve and inspire them to confidently take...
The Phoenix Rising Mystery
June 01, 2022 06:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBMy dear friend and guest in this episode, Dawn Abbott, lost her business partner, husband and father of her three kids in a catastrophic boating accident. A few years later, the live events company she and her late husband had built to a multi-million-dollar business suddenly vanished in the financial crisis of 2020. 98% of revenue, the entire team – gone. And yet, she would get back to what she refers to as a “high-energy place” doing what she loves. Even more, she now works with teams of u...
The Deep Work Mystery
May 02, 2022 06:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MBWhen was the last time you immersed yourself in the deep work, losing track of time as you engage your creative mind? My guest in this episode is Larry Williams, Director of Sales and Marketing at L&R. He and his team understand that “every day you battle villains that want to steal your time and destroy your brand in a cruel myriad of ways: an unending stream of one-off marketing requests, printer and production confusion, lack of templates, waiting on IT resources that may never come.” As ...
The Deep Work Mystery
May 02, 2022 06:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MBWhen was the last time you immersed yourself in the deep work, losing track of time as you engage your creative mind? My guest in this episode is Larry Williams, Director of Sales and Marketing at L&R. He and his team understand that “every day you battle villains that want to steal your time and destroy your brand in a cruel myriad of ways: an unending stream of one-off marketing requests, printer and production confusion, lack of templates, waiting on IT resources that may never come.” As ...
The Inside Job Mystery
April 01, 2022 06:00 - 32 minutes - 22.2 MBOften, we think external circumstances must change before things can get better: numbers are low because we are in a recession, census is low because of a pandemic, new leads dipped because of encroaching competition. My guest in this episode, Kristen Reyes-Tarsiuk of CRISTA Ministries demonstrates that in the most trying times, lasting marketing and sales solutions for pervasive issues are an inside job. As a result of empowering her team to overcome any obstacle regardless of circumstances...
The Wabi-Sabi Mystery
March 11, 2022 00:00 - 25 minutes - 17.7 MBThe Japanese term wabi-sabi refers to the concept of accepting imperfection in design and life. Few people I know embrace wabi-sabi in sales and marketing like guest in this episode, my friend Steve Moran. Steve is founder of Senior Living Foresight, a thought leadership incubator that publishes 5-10 articles weekly to help senior living leaders excel. He and his team challenge existing assumptions and tackle hard issues, and, he admits, sometimes even make people mad. He and I discuss how t...
The Wabi-Sabi Mystery
March 11, 2022 00:00 - 25 minutes - 17.7 MBThe Japanese term wabi-sabi refers to the concept of accepting imperfection in design and life. Few people I know embrace wabi-sabi in sales and marketing like guest in this episode, my friend Steve Moran. Steve is founder of Senior Living Foresight, a thought leadership incubator that publishes 5-10 articles weekly to help senior living leaders excel. He and his team challenge existing assumptions and tackle hard issues, and, he admits, sometimes even make people mad. He and I discuss how t...
The Sales Mystery
February 07, 2022 16:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBHow to close more move-ins without being “salesy”? What are key questions to really get families and future residents talking? How best to align sales and marketing teams for best overall results? My guest Mandi Grimes is a true maven of sales for senior living communities, leading sales teams for some of the biggest names in the industry: Senior Star, Brookdale and J&M Family Management. Mandi is an expert on sales training and best practices, lead generation and successful conversion tacti...
The Social Mystery
December 01, 2021 16:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBWhat if there is a natural fluidity to connecting with people on the web just as in real life? In this episode, my guest Dr. Seth Hall describes his family’s generations-long commitment to forming genuine bonds with patients, team members and all people that flow into his practice. He embodies what it means to be social online, demonstrating that it’s less about platforms, clicks and shares and more about authenticity and consistency. We also the discuss the loneliness dentists and doctors c...
The Social Mystery
December 01, 2021 16:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBWhat if there is a natural fluidity to connecting with people on the web just as in real life? In this episode, my guest Dr. Seth Hall describes his family’s generations-long commitment to forming genuine bonds with patients, team members and all people that flow into his practice. He embodies what it means to be social online, demonstrating that it’s less about platforms, clicks and shares and more about authenticity and consistency. We also the discuss the loneliness dentists and doctors c...
The Cold Case Mystery
October 23, 2021 00:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MBHow do you rebrand and rename a 60-plus location organization while preserving 40 years of existing brand equity then update dozens of collateral pieces – all in less than 9 months? One step at a time. My guest Missy Day has 24-plus years of experience leading corporate marketing initiatives for billion-dollar corporations, and I have been rebranding organizations like this one for 20-plus years – yet at one point in this case, Missy and I were both stopped cold. Not one of the brand names u...
The Cold Case Mystery
October 23, 2021 00:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MBHow do you rebrand and rename a 60-plus location organization while preserving 40 years of existing brand equity then update dozens of collateral pieces – all in less than 9 months? One step at a time. My guest Missy Day has 24-plus years of experience leading corporate marketing initiatives for billion-dollar corporations, and I have been rebranding organizations like this one for 20-plus years – yet at one point in this case, Missy and I were both stopped cold. Not one of the brand names u...
The Vision Mystery
October 13, 2021 20:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBHealthcare marketing is plagued by low-level tactical thinking. This same mindset leaks into personal lives, too, with folks settling for the status quo. Especially in the most trying times, extraordinary organizations lead with vision to paint a clear picture of the future and inspire sound marketing as well as operational and financial decisions. This demands that leaders be clear and focused in their life's work. In this episode, Wendy talks with her long-time friend and mentor Dr. Brett ...
The Identity Mystery
September 09, 2021 00:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MBToo often dental and medical practices get lost in a sea of sameness when it comes to marketing. How does a practice set itself apart from the competition? A smart detective goes deep in understanding the identities of everyone involved. In this case, it’s prudent to document the practice’s true identity and gain a deep understanding of who each of the practice’s direct competitors are. Figuring it out on one’s own can lead to myopic thinking. In fact, it matters less what the dentist or doc...
The Identity Mystery
September 09, 2021 00:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MBToo often dental and medical practices get lost in a sea of sameness when it comes to marketing. How does a practice set itself apart from the competition? A smart detective goes deep in understanding the identities of everyone involved. In this case, it’s prudent to document the practice’s true identity and gain a deep understanding of who each of the practice’s direct competitors are. Figuring it out on one’s own can lead to myopic thinking. In fact, it matters less what the dentist or doc...
The People or Process Mystery
August 25, 2021 20:00 - 30 minutes - 21 MBIn complex cases, detectives rarely work alone. They collaborate with other experts to add up all the clues – think photographs, fingerprints and receipts pinned to cork board with yarn connecting them. This visual gives the whole sleuth team a bigger picture and often leads to solved mysteries. In this episode my guest Alex Lopez and I discuss how working together to map out marketing processes, destinations and goals can unify the team and set the right course for long-term success. Too of...
The People or Process Mystery
August 25, 2021 20:00 - 30 minutes - 21 MBIn complex cases, detectives rarely work alone. They collaborate with other experts to add up all the clues – think photographs, fingerprints and receipts pinned to cork board with yarn connecting them. This visual gives the whole sleuth team a bigger picture and often leads to solved mysteries. In this episode my guest Alex Lopez and I discuss how working together to map out marketing processes, destinations and goals can unify the team and set the right course for long-term success. Too of...
The Connection Mystery
June 22, 2021 06:00 - 39 minutes - 27 MBThe digital marketing trend lured this dentist in private practice into thinking SEO alone would be the secret to his marketing success. When new patient traffic plateaued, he was ready to diversify his marketing plan for more sustainable results, but was at a loss as to how to accurately accomplish that. Too often, he points out in our interview, dental practices throw darts in the dark to find the right marketing mix, and he was falling victim to that flawed method, too. By listening to hi...
The Connection Mystery
June 22, 2021 06:00 - 39 minutes - 27 MBThe digital marketing trend lured this dentist in private practice into thinking SEO alone would be the secret to his marketing success. When new patient traffic plateaued, he was ready to diversify his marketing plan for more sustainable results, but was at a loss as to how to accurately accomplish that. Too often, he points out in our interview, dental practices throw darts in the dark to find the right marketing mix, and he was falling victim to that flawed method, too. By listening to hi...
The Grinding Halt Mystery
May 25, 2021 14:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBThis marketing mystery was so confounding it had my heart drop to my toes. It was no mystery what caused business to come to a grinding halt – that was alarmingly clear – but how to crack the case and get sales back on track seemed at first baffling. In the years leading up to this catastrophic event, my guests in this episode pragmatically laid the foundation for what would become a swift resolution. In the end, they successfully faced the most incredible sales and marketing challenge of t...
The Grinding Halt Mystery
May 25, 2021 14:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBThis marketing mystery was so confounding it had my heart drop to my toes. It was no mystery what caused business to come to a grinding halt – that was alarmingly clear – but how to crack the case and get sales back on track seemed at first baffling. In the years leading up to this catastrophic event, my guests in this episode pragmatically laid the foundation for what would become a swift resolution. In the end, they successfully faced the most incredible sales and marketing challenge of t...
The Listening Mystery
April 30, 2021 16:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBThe lure of digital marketing as a panacea for all marketing mysteries had an executive of a senior living organization running down a dark hole, chasing unqualified leads. With further investigation, he found a big break in the case: listen first then broadcast the right message across digital outlets and far beyond. How can you use listening to focus marketing efforts? How can you uncover the real opportunity now in marketing rather than going down a dark hole? In this episode, you will le...
Welcome to Marketing Mysteries Solved!
April 29, 2021 21:00 - 9 minutes - 6.42 MBIntroducing Marketing Mysteries Solved, a podcast where we talk to dentists, doctors and leaders in senior living, medical organizations, healthcare systems and hospitals about real-life marketing challenges and how to crack each case. Their stories are full of clues and suspects, but only one real culprit. Together, we get down to the bottom of what's really happening and how to solve the mystery, always offering insights listeners can put into practice on their own for stronger marketing r...