Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Woodbrey.
Michelle, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My sister and I had a unique upbringing. Our father was a nursing home Administrator and our mother was the physical therapist at his facility. They started dating, fell in love, got married and had the two of us. We did not go to daycare or nursery school, we went to the nursing home. I learned how to walk helping push wheelchairs while my mom did physical therapy of the residents. We helped in the activities department and with things like setting the dining room. We continued to volunteer throughout our school years including college.
Growing up around the elderly gave us a view of the world that few people in our generation have, a wisdom beyond our years is what our dad called it. When I was 10, there was a gentleman I used to visit every day and spend time talking to. He was 108. This means that he was born only 5 years after the end of the Civil War. Hearing his stories, and those of all of the other people we got to know and care for, had a profound impact on Alyson and I. My first paid job was as an activities assistant and Alyson’s was as a dietary aide.
I went to college for Recreation and Leisure Services and became an Activities Director in an assisted living. I loved my work and I had a lot of growth opportunities within that field. Over the years, I had seen so many people blossom and thrive when they had moved-in reluctantly or even with complete resistance. I had seen people who were so depressed about leaving their homes but they had been lonely and bored without any interaction. So after they settled in, they realized that there was so much more to life and they had been missing out. So many people said to me, “I wish I had done this sooner.” Someone once told me I helped open a new chapter to a book she thought was ending.
After exploring some other positions on the operations side of assisted living management, I stepped into the role of Sales and Marketing Director. This was a perfect opportunity for me to work with families who were considering assisted living to help them make the decision of when the right time for them might be. My sister became a Certified Nurse’s Assistant and had different experiences but which also led her to become a sales and marketing director for an assisted living. We both worked in communities in states on the West Coast from California to Washington.
As much as we both enjoyed that role, we often felt as though there were times that the communities we worked for were not the right fit for a family who was touring but our job was to convince them that it was. This was limiting and frustrating.
About 11 years ago, our father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and I knew that I would be moving home to Massachusetts soon. I found a position as the marketing director for an assisted living in Plymouth and quickly realized that some things were different here, primarily the lack of senior living referral services. Out west, there were both online and local free referral agencies that would offer guidance to seniors and their families to pick an assisted living. In Massachusetts, at that time only the online variety existed.
I convinced my sister to move back to Massachusetts in 2011 and start Massachusetts’ first senior living referral agency, Perfect Placement Solutions. After about a year, things hadn’t taken off as well as we had hoped, our message was just not quite sticking and our name was difficult to remember. People just kept referring to our company as, “those two sisters who do the assisted living referrals.” We re-branded and became 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors.
We worked on our messaging and spent a lot of time meeting with elder law attorneys, social workers, discharge planners, hospitals, financial planners, etc. informing them that we are available to help families understand the differences in the care options in their area. And, at no cost to the families. We were well-received and began expanding the territory we were able to service by hiring another Senior Living Advisor.
We initially covered From Quincy to Plymouth and then expanded to include Dedham and the Neponset Valley as well as Newton and Metro-West. We now have full-time Senior Living Advisors for Cape Cod & the Islands, Plymouth and Vicinity, Neponset Valley, Boston/Metro-West and on the North Shore.
All of our Advisors are have tremendous experience working in the senior living industry and become Certified Senior Advisors (CSA)® and Certified Dementia Practitioners (CDP)® within their first year.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In some ways, things have been easy. For example, we always knew with quite a bit of certainty how to offer our services. We knew we would be different from any other senior living referral provider offering services in Massachusetts in that we would partner with all assisted living providers in good standing with The Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) regardless of a contractual agreement for compensation.
We knew that by doing the right thing for each client we serve, even if it means we will not get paid, it will come back to benefit us anyways. And it has. There are numerous clients who moved into assisted living communities that will not pay for referrals or who needed nursing home levels of care and even years later have recommended us to their friends and co-workers who have benefited from our services and we were compensated.
So many of our referrals now are from word of mouth. Also, by consistently doing the right thing, most of the assisted living communities that were not interested in contractually partnering with us have since come to us to enter into a formal partnership. We have contracts with the vast majority of assisted living providers in Eastern Massachusetts and still continue to objectively guide our clients to even those communities that do not pay us.
We knew how we would be able to guide people without expressing our opinions to interfere with their decisions. What we think isn’t necessarily relevant for what is right for their loved one. We guide people in a particular direction based upon their care needs, budget, location and social preferences and we help them ask the questions that will lead them to make the best decision. Our clients are informed and feel like they have “a friend in the industry.”
What has been difficult has been introducing the senior living referral business model to Massachusetts since prior to us, there were only some hybrid home care companies offering free assisted living placement and online referral providers. Getting our message out to referring professionals and leading them to see the value in what we offer to families has taken longer than we anticipated. Many people refer directly to assisted living communities, doctors, social workers, therapists, etc. and they have good intentions.
Unfortunately, most of them refer based on location as the primary factor when that is, in fact, the variable that is most flexible. We help move people from one assisted living to another all the time. They moved into the nice place down the street, the one with the very nice Marketing Director and the lovely chandelier in the foyer only to learn that when their care needs have gotten too high or they have run out of money, they need to move out.
By keeping a close eye changes within each assisted living community, pricing, staff turnover, level of care offerings, availability, etc. and by on focusing first on care needs and budget, we are able to find the best fit for people even though it may be a little outside of their location preference. But, our clients are less likely to have to move out of their chosen community unexpectedly, if at all.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are Massachusetts’ largest and most experienced senior living referral service. Our dedicated team of Advisors have decades of experience in the senior living industry. When someone chooses to work with 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors they receive objective, expert guidance, and direction at no cost to them. Our unique approach provides a customized plan supported by a local team of seasoned professionals.
Happily, seniors are living longer than ever before but aging can also present unique challenges. Anticipating issues such as limited mobility, medication errors, poor nutrition, social isolation and memory loss while recognizing the benefits of a lifestyle change before a crisis occurs can actually result in a much happier and healthier time of life.
Our commitment to you is simple. We provide the information people need when they need it the most. Our tagline is: The right senior living decision is an informed one.
2 Sisters Senior Living Advisors works with all providers who are in good standing with the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. Our Advisors work closely with each client to determine a personalized plan. We are Certified Senior Advisors (CSA)® and Certified Dementia Practitioners (CDP)® who have dedicated our careers to serving and working with the aging population.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to continue to expand at a steady pace to offer our services across all of Massachusetts and possibly into Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.2Sisters-sla.com
- Phone: 617-701-7007
- Email: info@2Sisters-sla.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2SistersSeniorLivingAdvisors/
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