The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit Future Leaders online.
Cassie Tweten, chief sales officer for Arrow Senior Living Management, has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Senior Housing News parent company Aging Media Network.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Tweten sat down with Senior News to talk about her career trajectory and the ways the industry is evolving due to market and regulatory forces and the COVID-19 pandemic.
What drew you to senior living?
Our CEO, Stephanie Harris is a family friend; I’ve actually known her since I was in middle school. When I was in college, I was looking for work over breaks and holidays, because I went to school for theater performance with the ultimate goal of being an actor. I was always looking for ways to like bank cash for when I moved out to LA, and so on my breaks, I would travel to wherever the company was at when it was in turnaround. I would live on site and bank money because I was a paid contractor. They would pay for my room and board. And I liked the consistent interaction with residents.
When I graduated from college, Arrow had a contract for a turnaround community in Vegas. So I moved out to Vegas with them and we worked on a portfolio of nine active adult and independent living companies, communities. I started in a call center, calling people and I liked generating interaction. I was there for a month, when they put me into a building. I loved the fast pace and the engagement.
I went back to Springfield Missouri with the expectation of still saving to go out to Hollywood. And Arrow called me – Stephanie knew I was always available in a pinch. I was called to an assisted living building they opened, asked if I would work, and they would bonus me if I could help to fill it up. I showed up and I was hooked. I gave up on acting, I signed on to the company. I said, “This is what I want to do for a living.” There was something about working with that older population and the effect we could have on their lives. I was like, “I have to do this for a living.” And I’ve been with them ever since.
What was it about assisted living that piqued your interest?
Our sales approach is all about building relationships. We spend 90 to 120 hours with people during the relationship building phase. These families are inviting you into their crises, looking to you for attention and support.
To be able to meet someone in a time of crisis and say, “We can figure this out,” I would never feel this way during an audition.
What is your biggest lesson learned during your career?
That I don’t know everything. As people, we really want decisions to be cut and dry. But there is a beauty operating in the gray. The industry is moving from a black-and-white model to more of an “in the grays” one, because the client and their wants and needs are changing.
I get excited every day knowing everything is not black and white, but knowing that we can solve problems.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of senior living, what would it be?
I would change how the industry is perceived. One thing we’re collectively fighting against is the perception of senior living as a nursing home. Let us help older adults understand that this isn’t the worst choice – that it can actually be a good choice.
I think we’re moving in that direction.
What do you foresee as being different about senior living heading into the near future?
We’re still dealing with Covid fatigue, but there is a resolve that comes with it, that’s going to make us feel more capable. It’s going to help us understand that we are problem solvers. I think that we are going to start looking for more problems we can solve not out of crisis, but out of proaction.
I also think that it’s important to be transparent with what a building is going through and what your staff is going through.
What quality must all future leaders possess?
Be prepared to learn. Every single leader in any group should be open to the idea that they don’t know everything. That will only make them strive to be better. I feel I learn something new every day; that only makes me stronger.
If you could give your younger self advice on your first day, what would it be and why?
Celebrate your mistakes, because that is where you will learn the most.
In a word, how would you describe the future of senior living?
Innovation.
The post Future Leader: Cassie Tweten, Chief Sales Officer, Arrow Senior Living Management appeared first on Senior Housing News.
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