Episode 2:3 Keesey Hayward on How to Appeal to a New Generation of Older Adults

Keesey Hayward’s message is that senior living is suffering from an identity crisis. Listen to his argument that confusing labels and negative stereotypes limit industry potential. His new website RetirementResorts.com celebrates a new category of senior living community—a culture of wellness with healthy lifestyle options for the body, mind, and spirit.

About Keesey

Keesey Hayward has 30 years of sales and marketing experience in life planned communities. As CEO and President of and Senior Hospitality and RetirementResorts.com, his focus has been misperceptions about retirement community living, and about the industry itself. Earlier this year his company Senior Hospitality International introduced a solution to the misperception problem among Seniors: by recognizing and certifying a new "category" of great communities labeled Retirement Resorts for their ability to provide Retirement Living at its Healthiest®.

Keesey spent his formative years in South Africa as one of five boys born to missionary parents. After college in Wheaton, IL he discovered and immersed himself in the rapidly growing Senior Hospitality industry and has devoted the last three decades serving Seniors and Senior-oriented communities from coast to coast. He has served in a variety of roles within the Senior Hospitality profession: as Sales Counselor, Marketing & Sales Director, Sales Specialist, Trainer & Coach, Marketing & Sales Consultant, Business Owner, Author, Conference Speaker, and also as a 10-year Board Member of Shell Point (Fort Myers, FL), one of the country's largest Retirement Resorts. For more information, see www.RetirementResorts.com and www.SeniorHospitality.com.

Key Takeaways

• CCRC, Life Care Community, and Life Plan Community are industry terms that do not accurately reflect the most enticing attributes.
• The industry’s biggest challenge is finding employees to serve senior living communities. The industry must rid itself of the “nursing home” image to attract innovators and a new generation of leaders.
• There is a clear parallel between the hospitality industry and senior living. Senior living is a branch of the hospitality industry with a healthcare component. (The root word of hospitality is hospital).