“Thank you Grow Your Occupancy team for supporting me through my journey here at Mountain Vista, especially over the past few weeks. We have moved the needle in occupancy in IL, AL and MC and it’s an EXCITING time for Mountain Vista! We couldn’t have done it without your team. FIVE STARS!!!”

“Dana Hills (Grow Your Occupancy Sales Specialist) is superb at what she does. Her approach to training, coupled with her real-life experiences makes her a formidable training partner and coach.”

“Our Remote Sales Specialist has been a game changer. Follow-ups happen consistently, assessments are booked faster, and our team can stay focused on delivering great care. We’ve seen a clear increase in new clients.”

“Julie and Lori V. have been instrumental in helping our team get focused and organized, they have assisted in the database and with leads incoming. They have shown the operational team the importance of being sales and occupancy focused which was crucial in getting the team to have the same shared visions and goals. The SWOT Analysis report was insightful, comprehensive, and provided us with specific action steps.”

“I love that there was no training involved. They came in and took over with minimal training.”

“When I started my career in senior living, Dana was responsible for ensuring that this new hire (me), who had no industry experience, be ready to jump in and sell on Day 1. Dana immediately understood what my experience brought to the table and pivoted her training immediately. We dove into details, role played situations, and discussed strategy. Dana shared with me the huge breadth of experience she had when working in the same role I was tasked with. Her style of communicating is perfect for coaching. Her enthusiasm and understanding of our industry makes learning from her easy and pleasurable. Dana is also very flexible, knows how to ‘roll with the punches’. If you need to onboard someone quickly or simply want to polish or to tighten up your teams, I’d highly recommend Dana.”

“Utilizing GROW’s onsite sales specialist was pivotal in the continuation of our sales process, ensuring continued speed to lead and enhancing the customer’s experience every step of the way while we recruited talent.”

“Grow Your Occupancy has supported our communities virtually and in person. The individuals who they have provided to us as a resource have jumped in with both feet and never missed a beat. They become a part of the team and bring a sales philosophy of nothing but excellence with them when they come. 
Occupancy growth has occurred through utilizing them to assist our communities. I am proud to give them the highest of recommendations – they truly deserve it!“

“It has been a productive initial 10 days with 5 new move ins I have secured, and possibly two more by Monday!”

Comments from CALA 2025 Spring Conference attendees who attended Dresden Leebron-Cincurak’s session:

“Very funny, informative and the speaker was amazing!”
“Amazing presentation!”
“Good ideas to encourage turning leads to move ins.”
“Great presentation. Reality of turning off the aggregator referrals.”
“Love the insights on volume”
“Very good presentation”
“Great presenter, good energy”
“Loved the outreach examples”

“Sales coaching has contributed to our overall move-in and occupancy growth. All metrics and conversions are tracked and we see a direct correlation between teams who lean into coaching and increased metrics across the board. If you can make one investment in your occupancy growth, choose sales coaching.”

“Great education, great information, friendly and easy to talk to for each session.”

“Working with Lori has been one of the most valuable experiences in my growth. She didn’t just teach me the skills I needed, she helped me see what I was capable of. She believed in me, pushed me to GROW, and showed me a version of myself I didn’t even know I could be. I’m really thankful for her support and guidance. It’s made such a big difference in both my work and my personal growth.”

“GROW is the perfect solutions to help fill in any gaps in team support. They were able to dive into our system, drive tours, and clean up any pending contacts.”

“We had Julie speak at our all-day training for the sales team. The training delivered tremendous value, and our team left with actionable items they can start using immediately. I highly recommend Julie and the Grow Your Occupancy team for all your training needs!”

“It is a sense of peace that comes over me when we engage with GYO’s VSS. We have grown our individual communities due to their efforts. I would highly recommend them for anyone who needs that extra support.”

“Dresden is an engaging and knowledgeable sales trainer.”

“My calls with Julie have been helpful, welcoming and relaxed. I feel comfortable talking through all situations and how I need help. After each session I feel ready to take on my day and help my Sales Directors.”

“Julie Podewitz has been an exceptional partner and advisor for Continental Senior Communities in the writing of our Sales Playbook.
 As a growing senior living organization seeking to define and establish our foundational sales processes, it was important to me that I found an agency that would help us to create “our way” for driving occupancy results and elevating our sales leaders. I found Julie to be a top-tier partner that created tailored solutions to meet our needs and that reflected our CSC culture and values.
 I highly recommend Grow Your Occupancy for any senior living organization seeking next level sales results and resources for growth.” 

“Grow Your Occupancy has proven to be an invaluable partner for Prosper Life Care to help coach and train our sales and marketing team. We had recently taken over a new community with a very capable sales director who was new to the role and lacked the coaching and guidance needed to feel confident in her abilities. We worked with Lori as our sales coach which has allowed our sales director to grow and find immediate success in her role.
The curriculum created by Grow Your Occupancy and Lori’s organized coaching methods were the catalyst for growth in my team.”

“Initially, we thought an onsite Sales Specialist would be the best option for an open sales position at one of our communities, however, we were truly impressed with occupancy growth & support the (Virtual) Sales Specialist Team was able to accomplish behind the scenes. They provided weekly updates of their efforts and worked in tandem with our onsite team to drive results.”

“Country Meadows Retirement Communities partnered with Grow Your Occupancy and Julie Podewitz and team to create a sales playbook and for training around the tools and process within. The playbook continues to evolve just as we do in sales. Thank you Julie! Highly recommend.”

“We decided to partner with Julie and Grow Your Occupancy to consolidate our sales resources into a single sales playbook that can be used in both a print and digital format.
One of our Core Values is Relentless Improvement, and this project allowed us to relentlessly improve the sales experience within our company. During this process, we were able to identify some resources that were missing and update our tools to be more reflective of the current selling environment.
If we had not partnered with Julie, this project would have been difficult to manage in-house, and it would have taken substantially more time from our Home Office team. Instead, Julie and her team were able to guide this process and assist us in developing a Sales Playbook that has changed the training experience for our team members. When our Sales team members have questions, they can easily navigate this resource and learn the systems that have been proven to work in senior living sales.
The feedback we received after this went life was overwhelmingly positive. Seasoned Sales Directors recognized the value that this would have for new team members and were also able to use it to brush up on some techniques or skills that they may have forgotten.
The playbook helps keep consistency in our sales trainings and systems across our 33 communities in 17 states.
I highly recommend partnering with GROW on a Sales Playbook. The Playbook is well worth the investment.”

(5-star Amazon customer review) “Wish I had this workbook when I started in Senior Living Sales! Julie Podewitz has an amazing technique and coaching style. This workbook did not disappoint. If you are starting out in senior living sales or a seasoned salesperson, this workbook has something for you. The worksheets are useful to create a solid workflow to gain successful outcomes. I appreciate the refreshers on verbiage to use for conversation starters and follow up calls. The motivational messages throughout the workbook are great reminders to stick the plan and not get discouraged. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn about senior living sales or brush up on those skills.”

“Village on the Park – Denton reached 100% occupancy in Assisted Living today… such a huge win and accomplishment!!
Each of you have been such a great support to us, so I wanted to also thank you for your part in this celebration.
I have no doubt more emails celebrating 100% occupancy will be coming across your inboxes for all our communities. Thank you again for your partnership and commitment to our success. We’re a pretty awesome team together and we’re so lucky to have you guys supporting us along the way.”

“Jessica has been so helpful, patient, and understanding in her role as Virtual Sales Specialist during our new acquisition. There have been a lot of obstacles for this team which has pulled their focus away from sales. She has been an asset when it comes to managing the past dues and current tasks in the database. She’s been understanding, has made things easier for us and has softened the blow of not having a Sales Director. All of this said, we are ridiculously grateful for her. THANK YOU! 😊”

“In just 5 hrs of coaching with Julie, I’m already 100% better. Looking forward to the next 100%!”

“GROW’s Virtual Sales Specialist has been extremely helpful when we have a vacant sales position. Melinda collaboratively worked with each community team to understand where she can help and made positive impact quickly. I would happily use GROW’s VSS again!”

“Lori (Grow Your Occupancy Virtual Sales Specialist) is so incredible to work with, honestly. Her communication is on point. She is very organized, and I have learned so much from her on how to manage a database. Her confidence and comfort with calling folks is something I aspire to match along with training my team to be at her level. I have really learned how to be confident and relaxed when making calls. I am forever grateful for Grow and having Lori on our team.”

“I wanted to let you know the Winnwood team watches your podcast and really enjoying it. Thank you for putting these resources available on your website!”

“For the last year, Vitality Living has been using GROW Your Occupancy to help us deeply evaluate the quality of our sales efforts. Thanks for their efforts we have the most comprehensive picture we could have of our community sales experiences we could have. Totally love it!”

“We are seeing amazing improvement on the digital side of things, increases in calls and downloads from our website popup. We are very pleased with all of your efforts!”

“We recently hired Grow Your Occupancy to do on-site mystery shop skill assessments. We have successfully partnered with them for other services and had great outcomes.
To say that they delivered would be an understatement. We are very pleased with what the Grow specialists uncovered. Reports were comprehensive, and they provided recommended takeaways to increase occupancy and the sales experience for our prospects. We plan to use them again for our mystery shopping.”

“Cady (Sales Specialist) has been amazing! Our team is very complimentary of her efforts – her level of communication and all she accomplished. In fact, Cady revived a lead we hadn’t reached in long time, he toured and is ready to move in. We are so grateful for her help!”

“We have had great success with the virtual sales specialists at Grow Your Occupancy. The impact to the communities has been amazing. All the leads in our databases are now getting the attention they deserve, tours are being scheduled and we are seeing a good ROI from using Grow Your Occupancy as a part of our sales strategy. I highly recommend Grow Your Occupancy!”

“Julie is a wealth of knowledge for our industry. My two takeaways (from her training) are the importance of the discovery process and offering more options as next steps. Not everyone is ready to deposit now. I’m learning more everyday the importance of personalized follow up.”

“We hired Grow Your Occupancy to do a sales leadership training workshop for our Executive Directors. Julie provided great role-playing exercises that drove engagement and raised the team’s overall sales acumen. After the training we had some Executive Directors commit to spending at least 3 hours a week on outreach. It definitely hit home.”

“GROW is an amazing organization. They provide exceptional service and value. We need a rather large number of mystery shops done in a very short timeframe. GROW got them done – beautifully – with time to spare. I cannot recommend them enough!”

“Juniper was so fortunate to have Julie Podewitz of Grow Your Occupancy join us for one of our monthly trainings. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Her content was spot on and compelling. We were particularly impressed by the focus on those mid-funnel, perhaps beyond ‘not ready yet’, but certainly stuck in the decision making process type leads. The detailed tactics, approaches, and even specific questions to begin to move these leads forward were incredibly helpful. Comments from our team were resoundingly positive. Thank you Julie for a terrific, quick-paced, and impactful training!”

“We’ve engaged Grow leadership and sales coaching services earlier this year and although we did not budget for it, we are definitely seeing an ROI from the investment and will be including it in 2024 budgets as we see the value of continued engagement.”

“I would recommend Grow Your Occupancy to anyone and everyone! The team at GROW cares about our prospects and our sales team. They understand their responsibility not only to us, their client, but to our industry. Integrity, honesty, respectfulness and great follow up–that’s how I describe the team at Grow!”

“My confidence and results grew during my coaching sessions with Julie. I went from 4 move ins monthly to 5 and then 7. I am more comfortable giving advice, creating the journey for the customer. It doesn’t feel salesy yet I’m achieving greater results. Do yourself a favor – invest in sales coaching!”

“My new ED shadowed on a tour, and part of her feedback was praise around listening, but also connecting in a way that the family knew I was listening…. all I could think was, “that’s training from Julie!”

“We engaged the Grow team to support our CRM transition. This was a huge project for us with many moving parts and decisions to make. Julie and her team supported us every step of the way in making the integration simple and successful. We implemented the recommended activity and conversion benchmarks. We also engaged them to create our own branded training guide which has been immensely helpful in supporting our teams.”

“Thank you so much for your amazing discovery you are doing with our prospects! I am always impressed with your emails and recommendations. You are such an amazing asset to the PSL communities you are representing!”

“We hired Julie and her team to conduct mystery shops for us. I had used other vendors before. The shops that I received were scored fairly and accurately. The best part of the shops was the constructive coaching to encourage the salespeople to try different techniques!  The salespeople accepted the feedback in a positive way using the coaching remarks to improve their performance. The audio was powerful and effective! What I particularly liked was the overall summary pointing out the high-level sales basics already in place, and then really helping with overall needs for the company. We will be using them again in 2nd quarter!”

“I did love the training and took lots of tools from it. I borrowed her phrasing about matching your heartbeat to a community. I used it on my Friday tour, a very very very tough tour (we won over Stonebrook Village and Harbor Chase)! He emailed back over the weekend and deposited on Monday and repeated back that phrase as why we chose us!”

“Using a virtual sales assistant for call outs, follow ups, and database cleanup has taken a huge burden off our sales teams’ shoulders. Removing this added stress allows them to focus on converting the highest probable leads by spending time developing deeper relationships with prospects.”

“Julie first trained with our teams almost 15 years ago. We immediately saw occupancy and revenue growth and have continued putting her sales practices into place through the years. Implementing proven sales systems is a critical component to support our portfolio growth and change.
We recently brought Julie and her team back to lead our strategic sales initiatives in a post-COVID landscape. Her tactical strategies are simple to implement, make sense to our teams, and keep us grounded in the every-day whirlwind of running senior living communities. I am also a huge fan of her book. I carry it with me and refer to it often. Everyone on my team has a copy!”

“Julie is a pro at what she does and an excellent resource for marketing ideas and approaches to the senior living industry. Her positive spirit and time-tested ideas can make a big impact on your sales. It is well worth your investment!”

“One Lincoln Park started using (Grow Your Occupancy) coaching services in 2010 when our “magic number” was 50. It is now 6! Julie has been instrumental in helping keep our sales team focused and motivated. Every coaching call makes us feel good about what we have accomplished and leaves us with greater clarity as to what we need to do. She has become very much a part of our team and I’m convinced, is one of the main reasons for our success.”

“I have worked with Julie Podewitz for over 5 years. Most recently, Julie has been providing coaching calls to my marketing team for a large independent living senior property. Our coaching calls with Julie have provided that extra push that resulted in record occupancy. We couldn’t be more happy to have finally reached our goals and are pleased to report that we now have an extensive wait list. Julie’s positive approach and attitude is motivating and her methods are tried and true. I am confident that if you are looking for a “coach” to fine tune the sales process, Julie is your go-to person!”

“During the 6 ½ years Julie worked with me (as Director of Operations and Vice President of Marketing) and our marketing teams, she is the one individual with the greatest impact on our collective success, growing to 95% company-wide census. As a coach and presenter, Julie has a direct but supportive approach and has successfully guided me and others on our teams to be better sales people, managers, and coaches ourselves. She has the ability to capture your attention and keep you engaged. As a coach, she infuses you with the belief you can do it and celebrates when you do!”

“The training I received from Julie had great impact on my professional growth. Through her coaching, I have been able to develop my skills of active listening, drilling down and closing!”

“Julie’s coaching resulted in my career advancement. Not only did I personally grow occupancy to 100% with a waitlist, but then was able to help others advance their occupancy as well. Julie has the ability to help people tap into their strengths. She is intuitive and gets to know the people she works with. I grew both professionally and personally and highly recommend her training and coaching. It’s more than worth your investment.”

“Julie Podewitz is the ultimate Sales and Marketing Professional. In the 18 years that I have been in sales, I have never worked with someone with such an innate ability to train others while giving them such a sense of pride in the career that they have chosen. Anyone who has the pleasure to learn from Julie should consider themselves extremely fortunate and soak up every bit of knowledge that she gives to them.”

“Julie inspired our group of owners, operators, and marketing/salespersons to use her brilliant tips to make the best use of leads and convert them to sales! Packed with wonderful, useful, and practical information that is easy to understand and implement.”

“Julie’s presentation resonated with our team members. She provided real-world examples and tools to differentiate themselves from the competition, accelerate the sales cycle and connect with prospective residents.”

“I have had the privilege of working with Julie Podewitz in various roles. As a mentor, Julie was able to share her sales expertise and coach me on all aspects of relationship selling and effectively leading sales teams. As a supervisor, Julie provided me with the tools, support and leadership that allowed me to do my job to the fullest. Julie is an expert in senior housing sales. She is passionate about ensuring customers are treated right and staff is engaged and excited to do their jobs. I have the upmost respect for Julie and know that whatever she does, she will do it at 110%!”

“Julie has a passion for helping others succeed. She helped me to think in ways I never did before and changed my techniques while staying true to my own style.”

“It is a true honor to have known Julie for several years. I have worked with Julie in several capacities and it is apparent that she is the best! I would consider Julie an absolute expert in the senior-living industry. She’s an extraordinary leader and motivator. Julie has a way of coaching you to exceed your goals not only by believing you can, but also by inspiring you to reach beyond your comfort zone in a positive way.
Julie makes you want to do better than your best. Working with her and having her support, knowledge and motivation means so much when facing all of the different nuances that come into play in senior living and sales. From getting more leads, to lead nurturing, tour planning, closing, and customer service, whatever your need is, Julie can help. I highly recommend her. She is remarkable.”

“Julie was my VP of Sales of my company and I quickly learned the massive amount of knowledge she had. She was amazing to work with for so many reasons. Not only was she extremely knowledgeable and intelligent, she was also extremely uplifting. She had a way of noticing your strengths and even pointing them out to you just in case you weren’t aware of them. She had a way of bringing the best out in you, so you could continue to push through when maybe it was a slow time of year. I truly admire and continue to build my relationship with her because you don’t always run across people that are genuine and true in helping you meet and exceed all your expectations.”

“Julie has an amazing gift that enables her to work with all types of marketing and sales personalities to help them discover their strengths and unique methods to improve their sales results. Julie has had a 100 percent success rate with helping to move multiple sales and marketing directors forward by helping them stay focused, set goals, and achieve a positive direct impact on their individual performance, while increasing community occupancy. Julie is one of the most caring, supportive, and effective executive sales mentor and coaching professionals I’ve met in my over 2 decades of working in retirement living. I consider her an invaluable business partner and a highly respected peer. She is the first person I call when a director has challenges or needs a refresh or new perspective. Most importantly the directors trust and value Julie’s approach and the effective tools she provides them, while being supportive and results driven. Julie is the real deal when it comes to connecting associates to better serve and help residents and families make a major lifestyle change. I’m most grateful to Julie and all her solutions-based ideas that she so willingly and ably shares.”

“Julie’s decades of deep senior living sales experience coupled with her passion for helping seniors and their families traverse the complex dynamic of where, when and how to move to senior living make her uniquely qualified to assess and fix senior living sales and personnel issues. Her love of teaching and sharing the discipline and her academic and empathetic approach to the process enable her to build teams, innovate, and adapt to a wide array of challenges that are likely to present themselves for any property trying to achieve or remain 100% occupied. Julie’s wisdom and ability to connect and build trust exemplifies leadership in the senior living sales space. She is beloved by residents and associates alike and most importantly, has fun every day doing what she loves.”

“Julie’s training was an excellent restart & refresh for our marketing team.  The straightforward & thought-provoking topics helped all of us think outside of the box with our communication and sales tactics.”

“We hired Julie to speak with our sales leaders. Julie is a rockstar and her knowledge of the senior living space and understanding of sales makes her insights actionable and thoughtful. In our first session, Julie provided great feedback that we included in our standard process immediately. Our team keeps asking when we will have her back or if we can just hire her!”

“… (Julie’s sales playbook) is the BEST I had ever seen! Julie Podewitz truly knows what needs to be done to generate sales and has incorporated these winning systems and processes into her Playbook. That sure makes life easier and more profitable!”

“From my perspective as an owner and investor, the investment in hiring Grow is a great return on capital because not only does the sales team get a proven playbook of success but the owners of the building are able to de-risk the transaction by securing topline revenue stability via consistent sales procedures.”

“Julie’s has been a top trainer and mentor for sales professionals with a wide variety of backgrounds. Her ability to mentor and connect with clients is a unique talent not often found. Julie’s coaching style is one of support with the right amount of constructive feedback. She gets results and constantly challenges her clients to the next level. Julie is extremely hands on in her training and breaks down the coaching so it’s manageable to learn and generates immediate results.”

“Julie is a nationally recognized senior living expert who combines strategy, industry knowledge, coaching, and passion to drive big wins for her clients. If you’re ready for amazing growth with proven results, hire her!”