October brings a lot of transitions.  Summer heat gives way to cool Fall temperatures and great color.  All students are back to school and baseball season reaches its peak, while football season is hitting its stride.  At New LifeStyles, we are always looking to transition to a higher level of value for our independent living, assisted living, dementia care providers and other important advertising partners.  In September, our mobile site was introduced, bringing more leads and traffic without an additional cost.  On the distribution side, new avenues of getting our guides into the hands of those looking for your community or home health and hospice service led to thousands of guides being sent out from our headquarters to complement those already in circulation.  It’s a great time to try New LifeStyles complete media solution or if you have been gone for a year or two, come back and see what new value you can utilize at the same low rate!  What else is going on around here?

-          Our web design team has been swamped, signing an average of 15 new clients per month over the last six months.  If you have a web site that needs to be updated, or if you need a new site, call us today for no upfront cost pricing and unique designs!

-          We have been partnering with many Senior Fairs across the country to increase distribution and awareness, while also developing a direct mail campaign.  Our investments in online marketing have resulted in increased quality and quantity of traffic

-          As we increase content and visibility, our blog, forum, mobile app and mobile site are finding increased usage, bringing in more leads and traffic for our advertisers.

October is the space reservation deadline for the following markets:

• Los Angeles – the largest distribution, a great value!
• New York Metro – another large distribution, excellent set of choices
• St. Louis – the fastest growing market, this guide has tripled in size over the last three years
• Orlando – a great market for leads, the Orlando guide is ordered as much as some of our large guides, which makes the leads a major value
• Chicago – one of New LifeStyles’ most popular guides, extensive distribution and great content.

New copies of our guide should be arriving for the following markets:

-          Nevada

-          Portland

-          Seattle Area

-          Connecticut/Rhode Island

For more information, contact us immediately!

 To get the latest information on our web design division.  Friend New LifeStyles on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.

Thanks for spending some time with our blog.  Call us!  We will be an effective part of your marketing campaign.

Purple has always been my favorite color.  Don’t know why, maybe I am a long, lost descendant of royalty (doubtful, although I am often referred to as a “royal pain in the $%#”).  As a kid I loved Grape Ape and grape Kool-aid.

Now, however, purple has a more important, sobering meaning in its representation of the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.  Today, being World Alzheimer’s Day is a great day to show your support for the families that deal with the ravages of this disease, the caregivers that give their last ounce of energy, day-in, day-out caring for the victims of the disease and the scientist racing to find a cure or at least new ways to delay the onset or cope better with the symptoms.

How can you show your support today AND going forward, as the reach of Alzheimer’s spreads, touching more people that you know and love?  Here are five easy ways:

 - Educate yourself on the disease

- Help a caregiver

- Volunteer

- Spread the word!

- Donate or raise money

(Thanks to Rita Altman, R.N., Vice President, Memory Care and Programming for Sunrise Senior Living for this list)

Unfortunately, while I was writing this, there were many new cases of Alzheimer’s diagnosed.  While very few of us can directly find a cure or method to better cope, we can support the victims, families and caregivers.  Take action today!  It can be as simple as spreading the word through social media, signing up for a fundraiser or taking dinner to a caregiver.

Thanks!  Doug

As we continue to bake to a nice golden brown here in Dallas, our friends on East Coast got a nasty visit from Irene over the weekend.  (Why Irene?  In a few years will the storms get names like Hunter, Taylor, Harper and Britney?)   It looks like advance preparation made it easier for many to get through it, but tragedy did strike, unfortunately.

I was able to read some of the news coming across on Twitter during and after the storm and it sounds like most senior communities made it through with little or no damage although many assisted living communities and nursing homes had to evacuate, which can cause extreme stress on residents and staff and logistical nightmares.  It was refreshing to see stories where almost all staff showed up for work and others covered for those who couldn’t make it in.  Even read one good story of a former ship captain, who as a resident formed a team to go around and make sure all windows were properly latched, as during the last storm leaks had occurred through the windows.

Were there any heroes at your community or in the surrounding community that went above and beyond during Irene?  Any good stories from your community?  We would love to have you share them with the visitors to this blog and recognize their efforts.  Once again, we at New LifeStyles hope that everything went as smooth as possible and things are back to normal quickly!

August is usually one of the slower months of the year in the U.S..  It’s a big vacation month, everyone catching their breath before the fall ramp-up.  That doesn’t seem to be the case this year. There are many issues with HUGE financial implications to all business and some large battles for nursing care providers and others in the health care industry.  All of this makes it very hard to keep the focus on the day-to-day, but it is crucial to keep advancing your service level, marketing your business and upgrading for your residents and customers.  We at New LifeStyles are doing everything we can to help:

• Next month, we will unveil a new mobile platform, giving potential residents, their families and caregivers more access to your community or business!
• We are launching new distribution initiatives, including direct mail in many of our coverage areas.
• Our digital guides have increased versatility, allowing the user to view them across many platforms.
• Our web saw gains in both quantity of visits and quality of those visits in the 2^nd quarter.
• If you are interested in knowing more about both the print and online advertising options at New LifeStyles, our interactive media kit  is on the web site.  After reviewing everything available, you can contact us for closing deadlines, rates, statistics and more. 
• Our web team has signed an average of 15 new sites in the last three months, unveiling some great new looks.  Our group can design a new site, perform full search engine optimization services and now they can set up your SOCIAL MEDIA presence.  Contact Luke Jansen for details.

August is the space reservation deadline for the following markets:

• Nevada – distribution expanding due to our local connections.
• Portland – many options in this beautiful area of the country.
• Seattle – demand is high in Washington for senior living and care
• Northern New England – be part of one of our fastest growing areas
• Connecticut/Rhode Island – Distribution and online traffic is extremely high in this population dense market
• Atlanta – one of New LifeStyles’ most popular guides, extensive distribution and great content.

New copies of our guide should be arriving for the following markets:

-          Dallas

-          Michigan

-          Alabama

-          Philadephia/ Eastern PA

-          Boston/E.Massachusetts

-          Austin/San Antonio

-          Louisville/Lexington

For more information, contact us immediately!

To get the lastest information, friend New LifeStyles on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.

Doug

Last weekend, I took a trip with my cousin to see baseball games in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, to cross two more stadiums off my list in a quest to see them all.  Pittsburgh’s PNC Park has the reputation of one of the best in baseball.  It did not disappoint.

The interesting thing is that I was sold on its greatness before I even entered the ballpark.  To get to the park, you cross the river on a great yellow bridge while being able to see right into the stadium.  The grounds are immaculate, with statues of Pirate greats around the outside.  The area around the stadium has great places to eat and drink and the outside of the stadium has great architecture.  The atmosphere is inviting and enthusiastic.

“I was sold on its greatness before I even entered the ballpark”.

Can potential residents and their families say that about your independent living, assisted living, nursing care or alzheimer’s community?  Take a test drive, from a mile away and see what your thoughts are as you approach.

Are the grounds well-landscaped with some color?  Is your property in good shape, showing no signs of aging.  Easy to find and read signage?  Is the parking lot clean, with an easy route to the front entrance.  Is your entrance easy to use and appealing to the eye?

If not, you may lose that potential resident before they enter your beautiful community which has great activities and a wonderful atmosphere.   They may have even turned around in the parking lot and decided this isn’t the right place for them.  I know for a fact that this happens.

In addition, make sure their first contact with the communities’ staff is warm, inviting and informative.  If they go into your tour already loaded with reasons why this is a great potential new place to live, you may already have won over a new addition to your family.

Take the time to shore up anything that takes away from your “walk-up appeal” and reap the benefits!

As part of the month long celebration of Older Americans, today is focused on Senior health and fitness.  I cannot commend enough those activity directors and employees that make sure the residents in their communities stay active.  You are doing a great thing that pays benefits to that person, their family and your community.   No matter what your age, staying active contributes to bettering all aspects of your life.  It has been proven that staying physically active improves your mental health.  If your community doesn’t do a good job of promoting activity, get involved!  No matter how minor the exercise, it is better then nothing and for those communities that are feeling the effects of the economy, you can do a lot of fun and healthy activities with very little equipment.

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As we continue to see an increasing demand for New LifeStyles’ guides to Senior Living and Care, we are faced with challenge of making sure that people that need the guide can find it and the people that don’t know the usefulness of the guide can stumble upon it.  What’s new in our distribution strategy?

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America is suffering through a terrible addiction epidemic, the smartphone.  Everywhere you look, people have their heads down, staring at the small screen or working the keyboard furiously.  Couples ignore each other at dinner, people walk straight into fountains and you have an excuse not to make eye contact on elevators.  They have become the adult pacifier.  Information or interactions that formerly could wait for hours, can’t wait for seconds.  Am I part of the epidemic, of course.

What I noticed last week in Orlando was the effect of the smartphone on a tradeshow.  It could eventually lead to the demise of the tradeshow.  Three reasons:

1)  Your potential clients that are walking through the show, with you hoping to catch their eye?  Too bad, they just walked right by, with their head down, looking at voicemails or a video of three Norwegian electricians doing cannonballs into a vat of chocolate pudding.  I saw this many times, somehow resisting the urge to trip them (attendees, not electricians)

2)  Attendance seems light, but registration is strong.  People are much more in touch, so they know when they have other obligations to attend to instead of going to the tradeshow.  People that were on their way may have gotten e-mails during the previous session.  So, instead of waiting, they feel the urgency to work on the issue now.

3)  Tradeshow personnel also are not engaging prospective clients as in years past.  You would always see rows of people standing on the edge of their booth, waiting for clients, talking to other vendors or passerbys.  Now, they are slumped over in chairs, using their phones for business or downloading video of two Norwegian plumbers making a functional vehicle out of sardine cans.  Looks terrible and if I am walking the show, I don’t stop, I keep walking, wondering why I bothered.

Those are my thoughts and observations.  Its an ugly trend that is hurting the ROI on tradeshows.   Would love to hear your views (and e-mail me any interesting video involving Norwegian skilled labor).  Cheers, Doug

Last week, New LifeStyles exhibited at the ALFA Annual Conference and Trade Show in Orlando.  I hope you were able to get to the show, as it is always a great opportunity to network with others in our industry, seek out new products or ideas and discuss trends that people are seeing.  Everyone sees things from different angles and it’s always interesting to hear the insight of others and take away ideas for the future of your own company.

For New LifeStyles, it was our first chance to present ourselves as New LifeStyles Media Solutions.  We had a new look to our exhibit and new products to discuss.  It was great being able to present our App, digital guide and web design and hosting services to the attendees.  Our exhibit grabbed the attention of people and seemed to draw in more eyes than normal.  We had been using the previous exhibit for a few years and it probably had lost some of its appeal.  If you have a tradeshow booth, keep it fresh and make sure it portrays what you are trying to get across in all of your marketing materials.

Tradeshows are a good way to gauge the status of an industry.  On the whole, it was positive, with a great supply of exhibitors, but traffic in the hall was a little light.  There was a photo opp with Christopher Knight, aka, Peter Brady, so many had their show made by that.  ALFA had a lot of good presentations and learning opportunities, making the event a valuable experience for many.  I will have more thoughts on tradeshows in general on Wednesday.

A constant debate has always seemed to rage in the business world:  How many meetings should a company have?  Of course, that is too broad of a question, since company-wide meetings are few and far between, while units and teams involved in specific projects might meet daily or even multiple times during the day when a deadline is near.

There are many facets to the pro and con debate about meetings:

-          Meetings are expensive.  People will point to all of the resources that are tied up in a meeting when they could be performing their regular duties.  True, but not as extreme as a literal view of tying the hours to 100% lost productivity.  In many companies, those involved in the meetings will get the same amount of work done, just stretching the day to meet deadlines and catch up.

-          If you meet too often, people tune you out.  This is one reason I tend to fall on the side of meeting less.  You always want to have fresh things to discuss, new topics and some experiences since last meeting  to fuel new thoughts.  If a regular meeting is held too often, de ja vu kicks in and the audience will be unfocused.

-          Don’t involve too many people, unless it is a brief informative meeting.  Smaller groups encourage better back and forth and sharing of ideas. 

-          Meetings are a breeding ground for ideas.  With many people working at home, in other locations and generally being on the go, getting the team together at the proper interval can turn into a great opportunity to learn from each other. 

-          Meetings are communication.  Other forms of communication work very well, but in a meeting you can get a better sense of acceptance and understanding.

-          If you are communicating important, detailed plans in meetings, make sure you provide this detail in written format.  Listening skills can be great, but an hour later things can get lost and a week later, you might find the same meeting happening again.

Just a few thoughts on meetings.  Overall, be flexible, don’t feel like meetings need to occur on a scheduled/regular basis.  If there is nothing to discuss, don’t meet.  Also, don’t be a slave to the clock.  If you end the meeting in 20 minutes, great, if it goes an hour, it was needed.  Keep meetings under an hour and a half, or take a break.  One more important thing – supplying good food helps most meetings succeed!  

What are your thoughts on meetings?  How often do you find yourself in a bad meeting.  Are the meetings interactive?  What steps do you take to encourage the sharing of ideas?  Appreciate your feedback, thanks, Doug