It’s a Season 7 recap with BTG founders Josh Crisp, Lucas McCurdy and executive producer Sara Mitchell. They break down tips for new individuals entering the industry, the hot topic in 2024 of “culture,” plus a forecast of topics, episodes, and themes coming in 2025.

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Produced by Solinity Marketing

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Intro

Welcome to season seven of Bridge The Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. Powered by sponsors Accushield, Aline, NIC MAP Vision, Procare HR, Sage, Hamilton CapTel, Service Master, The Bridge Group Construction and Solinity. Produced by Solinity Marketing.

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00:35 - 01:11

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap Podcast. The senior living podcast with Josh and Lucas and drumroll Sara. Sara Mitchell, our wonderful producer, is joining us today for our year end show. I hope everybody had a great Christmas and is really excited about a Happy New Year. We love this time of year and at this time of year, we always think back to all the wonderful things and the places that we have gone in 2024. And so, anticipating the great things and the great people and the friends that we'll see in 2025. So great year so far.

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01:11 - 01:19

Sara Mitchell

It has been. I'm so excited to be here. I have listened to 100% of the BTG episodes.

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01:19:01 - 00:01:20:03

Lucas McCurdy

Very sorry Sara.

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01:20 - 00:01:30

Sara Mitchell

So it's fun to be on this side of the camera this time and to have this wrap-up of the year. It’s hard to believe that we’re headed into season eight of Bridge the Gap.

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01:30 - 01:37

Lucas McCurdy

Oh my gosh. Eight, eight. And you know, Josh, you and I look the same as season one. We have not aged.

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01:37 - 01:40

Josh Crisp

Wow. Yeah. Yeah I haven't changed a bit.

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01:40 - 01:55

Sara Mitchell

You know, some things have changed though because I did, formerly, always ask you guys to wear, you know, reindeer, elf, Christmas hats and things like that for our Christmas episode.

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01:55 - 01:57

Lucas McCurdy

We got away with this one. We got out of it. We got out of it.

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01:57 - 02:03

Josh Crisp

Yeah. We've had some pretty interesting costumes through the years. Yeah, it's been fun. 

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02:03 - 03:05

Lucas McCurdy

What's incredible is, coming into season eight, it's a bit surreal. And it's actually really fun. So I was at a senior living community where we were finishing up a renovation. And, the executive director said, hey, I just saw your podcast on Facebook. And I said, oh, cool. That's really great, I appreciate that. And he said, I really like that. Did you just start that? And I said, well, about seven years ago we did start that. And that's just, I don't know, it's really fun to hear when people are still finding out about Bridge the Gap in what we think is kind of a small industry. There's still so many people that could really benefit from the educational content and the thought leadership from Bridge the Gap, because we have over 500 episodes. on the platform of Bridge the Gap, talking about a variety of different topics. And it's been an absolute joy to labor at this together.

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03:05 - 03:45

Josh Crisp

Well, and I think it also speaks to the growth of our industry. There's still a lot of people that are just now starting to even hear about senior living. It's coming to the forefront of society because of the aging population. And people are looking for solutions. And like what? How are we going to care for people? Senior living is not necessarily an extremely new business, but a lot of young professionals are for the first time hearing about it, and they're coming into the industry and they're looking for resources. And what an awesome opportunity and privilege we have, really every week to be able to provide some great guests and thought leadership to everyone. It's awesome.

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03:45 - 04:36

Sara Mitchell

You know what's really interesting? And we hear this a lot in feedback. And people will email or, not call in because we're not a call in show, but they'll email in and say, it's almost like this giant library of topics to where people, whether you're a vendor, an operator or provider, or a supporter of the industry, you can pick an episode and send it to someone who's interested in a topic, not as a brand push, but really just as a thought leadership, which is what you do.

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Josh and Lucas decided to start this podcast off of brand thought leadership, to take the conversations that were happening at these giant national conferences and give that information to anyone who's interested. And I think even today, we're still hearing that that is exactly what's happening with these episodes. And so that's one thing I think that you two should be really proud of, and just the incredible people and topics that we've had on the shows.

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04:36 - 05:33

Lucas McCurdy

Well, I appreciate that. It reminds me back to the very beginning, where the three of us were really just getting to know one another. and Josh, you had brought Sara in for your Pedal for Pat Pedal for Alzheimer's event. Sara has, you know, people may or may not know you have a deep background in sports and journalism, and we're making a transition into that.

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And just learning about senior housing, you know, 7 or 8 years ago. and we really collectively had this desire and need to want to bring content that was freely accessed. we would go to the conferences and have these great engagements and all of this thought leadership, but not everybody is able to attend. It's very expensive to take time out. And so many people at the community level are really not able to do that. And so it's been kind of our honor and our privilege to take these great conversations, memorialize them in podcast form and video form, and then put them on to our network for people to freely hear.

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05:33 - 05:55

Sara Mitchell

This might be an interesting topic. I've heard the story many times, but you guys met at a conference for the first time, and the podcast network was built off of your personal LinkedIn connections. Will you maybe think back to that original connection and then relay that to today? What is the importance of networking connections, friendships?

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05:55 - 06:15

Lucas McCurdy

You never know what could happen out of it. And, you know, I, I think it was this building, maybe it was in Nashville, at an Argentum conference just prior to. I had reached out to you, Josh, on LinkedIn. I saw your LinkedIn page. I thought, oh, man, how do I not know this guy? I need to know this guy.

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06:15 - 06:19

Josh Crisp

He's so good looking. He said, yeah, I know, that's what everybody said.

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06:19 - 07:42

Lucas McCurdy

I regret that day for the rest of my life. Not. and I reached out to you. Hey, let's, you know, let's meet up for coffee or something, and, you quickly responded and, and, we met up and, just had, the first of very many great conversations, and just stayed in touch and, you know, the, the conference scene, which is really the lifeblood of the communication arm for Bridge the Gap is that these conversations are generated at the conferences.

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It's really an important thing in our industry. So many connections, so many relationships are made at these conferences. I'm sure it's similar to other industries, but it's really special in senior housing because it's such good people. And that's really been the driving force behind my passion around senior housing is because of the people in this industry. I'm constantly blown away by the quality of people that are doing this work, and it also brings good quality vendor partners as well, which is the category I'm personally proud to be in. it's just this industry, the phonies don't stick around. These are genuine people that really care about this industry. And, the networking aspect of connecting, on LinkedIn and then also at the conferences has been a career driver for me and so many other people. It's super important.

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07:42 - 08:50

Josh Crisp

Well, and, you know, it's interesting any time we kind of, in retrospect think back to where it all began. I love having these times because, it's really amazing how far our industry has come, what all we've come through, there's some very difficult times, but when we think back to eight years ago, there was not even any podcast in our industry. That was really the whole reason we looked around and thought, oh gosh, there's not one. We didn't necessarily know how to do it. Thank God we had Sara. Right. And, has been with us every step of the way. But it's been fun to see the evolution of even digital communication in general. And now, you know, if we walked through this, any, any show that we go to, we would not be the only podcast anymore. And people have asked us, is that, like, threatening to you or whatever? Like, no, that was the whole part. And so it's fun to see all the different shows, all the different podcasts and people taking the industry and elevating it and getting the message out, and that's what we need to do more of.

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08:50 - 09:18

Sara Mitchell

I think some of the personal connections that we have, brought to the table with Bridge the Gap, and certainly there's a lot of new people in the industry. Can you think of 1 or 2 things or examples that you would give, perhaps someone just entering the industry or trying to do, you know, dig their name in and, and make connections? What is one tip or piece of advice that you would give someone entering the industry about how this is a relationship driven industry

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09:18 - 10:39

Lucas McCurdy

Binge listen to Bridge the Gap. and I have these conversations with people in sales for products or services in the industry, set up phone calls with me to discuss this. And a lot of and this is really what they say, not what I say is they say, hey, I've been listening to Bridge the Gap. I'm new to the industry, trying to present and sell and market a product or service and Bridge the Gap has really helped me understand the lingo, the names, the people.

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And you know, it's just a huge library if you want to quickly get up to speed on the industry, just, spend some time on btgvoice.com and listen to these episodes. You'll get caught up quickly. and then, secondly, it's it's show up, and thirdly, it's follow up, when you spend the time and you invest in being curious and understanding, have a genuine desire to understand what operators  and caregivers and people that are, doing the heavy lifting in the hard work of managing and running and operating these communities. You will make the right relationships. People will bring you in and you will have success if you have a great product, a great service that's needed and, you're a good person, it's going to work.

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10:39 - 11:38

Josh Crisp

Yeah, I would agree with that. And, following this is a relational business. How many people that we have seen very successful people come from other verticals? And, they all say the same thing. They're like, wow, you know, these people really care about what they do. So I think the more genuineness that you bring, in truly making an effort to build relationships with the amazing partners and providers in the industry, the further you're going to go. And it's been fun to see, particularly young people, that have never been exposed to senior living. They get their feet wet, they come in and they fall in love with it. And to see, I can think of a dozen people that were really young when they came into the industry. And to see their careers blossom and the things that they're doing, and those are now becoming the leaders. And, so it's a lot of fun. It's a great place to go. Almost any skill set you have can be applied to senior living.

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11:38 - 12:08

Sara Mitchell

For anyone who has followed along with the hot topics from season seven, you know that one of those was culture. We talked a lot about team culture in the year of 2024. Josh, maybe from your perspective as owner operator, developer, what is one of those topics or themes or takeaways that we've talked about this season, about building a strong culture in your community, in your operations, your teams, even if it applies to the vendor side of the business?

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12:08 - 13:59

Josh Crisp

Well, there's definitely, common themes among everybody that has companies that are, what I would classify and be classified as great company culture. And I think, you know, too often we just overthink it. It's things that maybe were common sense at one point, maybe not so common anymore, but just treating people like you'd want to be treated.

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And so often, I think we get the cart ahead of the horse, particularly in senior living operations, because we are so focused on the product and the service that we're providing and, making the resident in the family comfortable, happy and coordinating care, which is obviously the focus. But we forget to invest in our team and to equip them with the tools, the resources and just the affirmation. And because it's hard work, the daily grind of caring for someone, at that level, it is again, it's totally a relational business. So I always tell people, you know, if you really boil it down to it, all of us are here on some level to care for older adults physically, emotionally, spiritually with all of our various programs and community offerings.

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But how much more meaningful will that be if we invest that first into our team members physically, emotionally, and spiritually? So that out of that abundance we call it around solidity, fill in the love tanks. And so out of that abundance, it immediately flows back into every service that has been provided. We've heard it from, our partners that have great companies that have a long term ten years, that they just really treat people the way that they would want to be treated, which sounds super simple, but it's not always easy to keep that on the forefront of your mind when you're in the grind of the daily activities.

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13:59 - 14:50

Sara Mitchell

That's all right. And for anyone who wants to seek out those specific episodes to dive more into that, there's a search button on BG voice.com, so you can go in and type in any of these keywords, and we try to make it really easy to find, really great conversations that are easy in that library. You know, Lucas, another thing that we talk about just among the three of us in, in the production text chain is, the travel that we do.

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You know, there's a lot of people in our industry who can empathize with being on the road quite a bit. Even with Bridge the Gap in and outside of BTG, there's your personal business on the construction side of the industry. Maybe you talk for a moment about that balance. What is some advice or, lessons that you've learned over the past, seasons and, keeping that balance and work and family and all the other things that you do in check.

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14:50 - 16:57

Lucas McCurdy

Yeah, I think, I'm blessed and fortunate to have found a career that I'm extremely passionate about. And this is a great creative outlet. The Bridge, the Gap platform is really a cool outlet to be able to experience. And, you know, I joke that I get a master's degree in senior housing just by sitting here and listening to all these great thought leaders and guests that we have. But when you find a career that you love, it just doesn't feel like work. and, you know, doing hundreds of episodes, a new episode every single week for years, as we all have pitched in to do. You can't do that without being really passionate about it and enjoying it. And then on my day job, you know, going in and transforming older buildings into new, safe, beautiful and vibrant buildings that will never get old to me, that will never, become something that is not satisfying.

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And I love being a part of those transformations. And, those types of projects are complicated, even just going into a community and repainting it, which seems like, it's just we're just going to go in and paint, it's not a big deal. Well, the population that live there, this is their home. They're, you know, it's not an empty building. This is not a retail plaza. They're not selling jeans or burgers. This is a place where people are living, and, And I tell my teams, you know, for some of these residents, this might be their last week here. We don't know. And, I, we don't want their last week to be a disruptive, chaotic, you know, mess ridden construction disaster. We need to approach our projects with dignity, and provide that level of dignity, care and respect to the staff and the residents that are living here, all with the goal in mind of creating this beautiful, vibrant and safe place for them to thrive. It's been a lot of fun.

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16:57 - 17:47

Josh Crisp

People don't realize, oftentimes, you know, that we do have day jobs. Bridge the gap is, I think we've, I know for me, I oftentimes get asked like, Josh, what do you do? Are you a full time podcaster? Because, people sometimes don't realize how much work they put into making it possible that you and I can even do this and have other jobs that actually fund all of this, and it wouldn't be possible without our partners, without a lot of teams. I've heard this so many times from you, Lucas, that the average podcast is around seven episodes now. We're hundreds. Never missed a Monday episode in what is it, seven years? So, a big thank you to all the partners and, the teams behind that make us able to show up and do this, provide this information to the listeners. It's really rewarding.

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17:47 - 17:55

Sara Mitchell

In season eight, we are on track to hit 600 episodes on the network.

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17:55 - 17:57

Josh Crisp

Wow. That's kind of crazy to think about.

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17:58 - 18:56

Lucas McCurdy

That is amazing. And the hundreds of thousands of downloads we have will probably be approaching 600,000 downloads, in season eight. And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. because all of that content, as people that have followed us for years, it's not just an audio podcast, we're on YouTube, every episode, literally every episode that we've ever done is in video format.

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It's on YouTube. and then all of that great content is then curated and sourced and then put into bite sized pieces on all the social media platforms where our impressions are in the millions. and, our videos are hundreds of thousands of downloads, which is really phenomenal and a great testament to the great work that we've all done, especially Sara as our producer, for so many years, since day one, the three of us have always been together and, you know, laboring, together to make this special.

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18:56 - 19:49

Sara Mitchell

There's a lot of people that are, all hands in, all hands on deck for BTG, including our ambassador program. So we have some incredible people who have rallied around this industry of senior living, and they're waving the big flag. And so those unique individuals are, helping with the marketing, the promotion, the thought leadership, the investment, the time, the the thoughts, that they have and contributing that to the network.

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So that's a phenomenal group of individuals. And so certainly meet those people online. And you can find them at big voice.com. You know, I think as we look into 2025, which is hard to believe that that is just around the corner, there's a lot of places that we will go. There's a lot of people that will speak with and a lot of conversations to be had in season eight. What are some of those interesting topics or people or destinations that we can tell the listeners that we're headed to?

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19:49 - 21:38

Josh Crisp

Well, you know, I almost call it our conference event tour. That's where, you know, our baseline is the major industry events we always try to get to. Yeah. Our listeners will, if you're able to attend or if you end up listening to our shows or viewing them on YouTube, whatever you may do, they're going to see us next. They're going to see us at ASHAs. LeadingAge, a lot of the big shows. But it's also an opportunity, you know, a lot of people don't know this, but our partners or, other individuals, can even have us out to your community. We do mastermind events. so you'll be seeing some of those sometimes if you see something that looks like a lot of really fun people having a great time together. Sometimes that's our mastermind. Events or events that bridge the gaps. We've done our VIP ignite events in the past, and I have a feeling we're going to be bringing those back one of these years soon. It's a heavy lift for the production team.

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We have so much time doing that. But we still have a waiting list building for people that want to get part, to be part of those events. So it promises that season eight is going to be a very fun year. And, you know, outside of just the regular content, our listeners, if you haven't been part of the ambassador program or met our ambassadors, we have the most amazing group of representatives for our industry that are so passionate. They've come alongside The  Bridge the Gap Network. and it's been fun to see so many, people, very high level professional people, as well as brand new people into the industry come and get plugged into that network and then watch them flourish just by feeding off of one another, sharing contacts and sharing information, education that influences each other and betters the industry.

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21:38 - 22:40

Lucas McCurdy

Yes, so much fun. And, we'll have a year full of great conversations. I think one of the things that I'd like to add to season eight is more on the design side, architecture, and construction. I think that's going to be a big topic in 2025. really go back and listen to some of the, data drops that we did with NIC MAP Vision and a consistent theme that has come up is the lack of units, the lack of communities that there is going to be after we have had this kind of pause and halt in development, for a couple of years now, and the demographic boom that is coming into this space. And so architecture, design, construction, I think, are going to be a really big topic as that starts to really ramp back up in our space. And I think that that would be something for Bridge the Gap to cover more of in 2025.

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22:40 - 23:24

Sara Mitchell

I love it. And from a marketing perspective, you know, one of the topics that we're talking about a lot right now with our clients is the unique and custom strategies that it requires. If an operator has active adult, independent living, assisted living, memory care, or the continuum, targeting those audiences requires a unique strategy. And so I think even having the topics of Active Adult and what that looks like from a marketing perspective, online, digitally printed materials, even photos and content, I think video shoots are going to go through the roof. Hopefully in 2025, because there are so many great stories to tell. And so having residents, having team members, having that culture and a video component and, allowing those people to tell the stories of the communities I think will be really important into this new year.

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23:24 - 24:30

Josh Crisp

Well, and I'm excited. I mean, I guess I can say this, but I'm excited for our listeners to continue to get more content that's not just from Josh and Lucas on the Monday show. You know, Sara, your team, produces amazing content. On a regular basis for providers, not only partners to the industry, but the actual developer, owner operators, and their communities. And there are a ton of great podcasts. That you all produce from the ground up to make it easy for people to take that wealth of information in that content, that they have that intellectual property and provide that as a resource, as a free resource. And so, you know, Lucas and I really want Bridge the Gap to bridge those communication gaps in that information education gap. And so our listeners will be able to search for even more shows, from other companies, other providers, other vendor partners that will be easy to find just by going to btgvoice.com. And that's an exciting thing that we'll be seeing in the years to come.

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24:30 - 24:51

Sara Mitchell

Lots of content is on deck for 2025. One question that we have the privilege of asking a couple of times a year at special events and get-togethers is if we were together in one year, what would we celebrate about what has happened? So let me pose that to you. In one year, what are we celebrating?

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24:51 - 26:02

Lucas McCurdy

Putting me on the spot here. I think we would be celebrating yet another great, successful year of thought leadership and episodes. Yes, that would definitely be something that we would celebrate together. I think another thing that we would celebrate is our continued effort to bring people on to the mission of Bridge the Gap. That's what our ambassadors do. That's what our thought leaders do. That's what people that contribute to the network do. I think also our email campaign, I would love to see that grow. We have one of the highest engaged open rates on our weekly newsletter that I've ever seen on any platform, and that's really fun. And then I would also love to see even a higher engagement on our LinkedIn platform, which is our highest engaged platform. Great conversations happening there, very high engagement. So I think growing those, continuing to foster those is something that we would celebrate.

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26:02 - 27:31

Josh Crisp

Well, I guess it's on me. You know, so I'm going to say not necessarily specific to Bridge the Gap, but our industry again, we talked about it a lot. We've been through a lot of challenges in the last few years, and we have endured. And I think we've come out stronger on the other side. The compression and pressure that we've gone through is kind of like what it takes to form that diamond.

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And, the pros that have been here through the difficulty, I'm going to celebrate with them some wins in the next year. We are seeing census rise as an industry. and so many of the innovative ideas, products and services and people, that's where we shine the brightest is when, challenges are faced, whether it's a, an individual solution, that we have or a tough resident care situation, being a partner to a family, in, in caring for their most valuable asset, which is their loved one. We are going to lead in age. And, so, I am excited that Bridge the Gap is just simply a platform to share the love stories of the industry. And, do what we set out to do in the beginning, which was also to help shape the and change the perception of aging and how we care for older adults as they age. And so, I'll raise a glass to that, maybe with a little champagne in it at the end of the year, and maybe even at one of our mastermind events with some of our providers that are listening.

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27:31 - 27:42

Sara Mitchell

I love it. Well, this has been so fun. Thanks for letting me sit in the center seat here. We've done this throughout the year and headed into season eight. It's really exciting. And what a way to wrap up the year.

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27:42 - 28:00

Lucas McCurdy

Yeah. to our listeners, if you want to hear more of Sara in 2025, seats are reluctant. host. She loves being behind the scenes and doing all that, that hard work. But if you want to hear more of Sara, this coming season eight, let us know. Let's see if we can make that happen. We're going to need your help to get her on the program more, but,

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28:00 - 28:03

Sara Mitchell

I love that. Well, we'll see if that remains in the show.

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28:03 - 28:07

Lucas McCurdy

Okay. All right. Yeah, don't edit that out.

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28:07 - 28:10

Sara Mitchell

I love it. No, this has been fun. I guess I'll let you do the honors to close this out here.

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28:10 - 28:28

Lucas McCurdy

Another great season, a great year again. Hope you had a wonderful and merry Christmas with your family and friends. And I hope you have a wonderful, Happy New Year. Celebrate with us at btgvoice.com. Thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge the Gap.

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Outro

Thanks for listening to Bridge the Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at btgvoice.com.

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