
17.1K
Downloads
170
Episodes
Don‘t sell yourself short. Find ways to optimize sales, improve customer experience, differentiate yourself in a competitive senior living, active adult, 55+ living market. Hear what your prospects, residents, influencers have to say. Learn from sales experts both in and out of the senior living business. Elevate sales processes, shorten sales cycle, become one of the top 10% in a growing industry. With staffing becoming as much of a concern as occupancy, guests who specialize in attracting talent, identifying talent, hiring, onboarding and retention will also be featured. Grow Your Occupancy podcast offers everything from sales coaching, the psychology of sales, the buying cycle, the complexity of the emotional sale, informative discussions, and casual, fun conversations. The senior living and active adult markets continue to explode. Are you ready to GROW?
Episodes

Nov 17, 2025
Nov 17, 2025
36 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Jesse Tillman Pitts.
Jesse is not only a Regional Director at Angels Senior Living, but is also Founder of Aravine Consulting, author of "Living With Purpose: The TILLMAN Framework for Activities in Senior Living", and a two-time Latin Grammy nominated drummer and producer.
Jesse talks about the impact of resident engagement programs on occupancy, and shares some data about this area of opportunity in senior living.
You can find Jesse's book in paperback on Amazon: https://a.co/d/8VlVXMi
Thank you Yardi for sponsoring this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Oct 20, 2025
Oct 20, 2025
37 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Russ Papia, President of Prosper Life Care.
Russ shares his passion for making a positive impact on the lives of his residents and team members and what he did to support a new sales director and leadership team to grow occupancy more than 20 basis points in a year!
Thank you Yardi for sponsoring this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Oct 13, 2025
Oct 13, 2025
28 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talked with Justin Harden, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Phoenix Senior Living, and Kristine Schrudder, Senior Consultant at Yardi, about using a tech stack in senior living sales and marketing.
Justin and Kristine explain what a tech stack is, the efficiencies of using one system for all platforms from a tech perspective, and how much time it saves senior living operators. Justin talks specifically about how much added sales time their teams have by using a tech stack, the simplicity of reporting, and Kristine shares her insights into the data that can be accessed to inform decision-making.
Thank you Yardi for sponsoring this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Oct 6, 2025
Oct 6, 2025
27 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Heather Dampier, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Advena Living.
Heather started her position at the beginning of this summer and since then has traveled 800 miles on the road visiting all of her communities. She shares her first impressions, what she learned from her time on the road, and gives some great advice about outreach.
This episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast is sponsored by Yardi.

Sep 29, 2025
Sep 29, 2025
33 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Paula Rathgaber-Gomez, Chief Experience Officer of Sequoia Living, about not only the resident experience, but the prospect experience too.
Sequoia Living continuously seeks to learn what their residents and prospects want to craft and enhance their experience at Sequoia's communities. The result? At any given time, the portfolio is at or near 100% occupancy.
Thank you Yardi for generously sponsoring this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Sep 16, 2025
Sep 16, 2025
26 min
(Re)Solving the Occupancy Puzzle - A Senior Living Regional, Sales, & Executive Director Playbook is the fully revised and updated 3rd edition of the industry favorite.
In this special edition of the Grow Your Occupancy Podcast, author Julie Podewitz takes a deep dive into chapter 7: what to do when you have enough leads, but your conversions are low.
Order your copy today on Amazon!

Sep 8, 2025
Sep 8, 2025
40 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Kevin Yax, Sales & Marketing Director at Brookdale Garden Grove, an assisted living and memory care community in Orange County, California.
Kevin is relatively new to senior living, but he has achieved remarkable success in a short amount of time. In just a little over a year in his position he netted 47 units to reach 100% occupancy. That is an average of right around a net of four a month!
What is he doing to get these outcomes? Watch and find out!
This episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast is sponsored by Yardi.

Aug 19, 2025
Aug 19, 2025
28 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Kjersten Joachim, Executive Director of Sales & Marketing of Dow Rummel Village.
Dow Rummel Village is a very large senior living community in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, offering an entry fee model for independent living and a rental model for assisted living and memory care.
The community consistently meets and exceeds 95% occupancy - with a long waitlist - and has been like this for over eight years.
So how do they do it? Check out this episode of the Grow Your Occupancy Podcast to find out!
Thank you Yardi for generously sponsoring the Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Aug 12, 2025
Aug 12, 2025
27 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Joshua Bentley, Senior Regional Vice President of Sales and Marketing at The Aspenwood Company.
The Aspenwood Company is a client of Grow Your Occupancy and their Remote Sales Specialist (RSS) service. Joshua shares his initial skepticism that RSS would be a robotic technology that fails to capture the essence of the human touch needed in the industry, and how he was ultimately sold on the professionalism and sales mastery of the specialists that provide this unique service.
Thank you Yardi for sponsoring this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast.

Aug 4, 2025
Aug 4, 2025
38 min
Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, recently talked with Mike Miller, President and CEO of Primo Solutions, LLC, about his insights into the senior living industry.
Since founding Primo Solutions 18 years ago, Mike and his team have conducted over 100,000 mystery shops and counting, giving him a unique perspective on what the industry can do better.
