Jason Acquisto’s Senior Living Leadership: Balancing Occupancy Goals with Human Dignity

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Jason Aquisto, director of sales and marketing at Bickford senior living. They are a family owned provider of assisted living, independent living and memory care services that helps seniors live happier, healthier lives.

Jason is also an accomplished marketing consultant, voice talent, and podcaster with experience working at various companies over the years. Under his leadership, Bickford champions a personalized approach that has earned industry recognition for compassionate care. His responsibilities include guiding families through essential care decisions, promoting personalized service, and supporting a team dedicated to senior wellbeing. Now, before we get into all that good stuff,

Today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. Imagine being able to give your senior living employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money into your employees’ pockets and the company’s too.

One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, family advocate of Bickford Senior Living, Jason. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Jason Acquisto (01:45)
Hey, thanks for the opportunity. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Anthony Codispoti (01:49)
Jason, did I get the pronunciation of your last name even close?

Jason Acquisto (01:53)
you got a very common pronunciation. So it’s a quisto, but yeah. So, you know, long ago I gave up the burden of trying to make sure everyone got it right because it’s not their problem. And so I will answer to a lot properly. should be said a quisto, but I can see that you also bear that burden. Probably have to spell that name for a lot of people. And so, yeah, no problem.

Anthony Codispoti (01:57)
Aquisto.

It’s a shared pain that we have, but I’m glad that we got it right. Jason Acquisto. Okay. So before we talk about what drew you into Bickford, tell us about what drew you into the marketing field decades ago.

Jason Acquisto (02:23)
It is. Yeah.

Yeah. So ⁓ what drew me in was that I was I we all love advertising in some way as kids and watching TV and different things. I always loved it. What happened, though, is that, ⁓ you know, I was ⁓ I was a DJ. My first job out of college was in radio as a copywriter. And then I said, hey, I can be a DJ. And well, let’s do that. And I loved being a DJ. I love being on the radio. And I still

love that whole medium. But what I started to get into was the competitive nature of radio, my station against the one across town. And I read a book called Positioning by Reeves and Trout. And it was this book that a lot of my colleagues in radio were just, they were bananas over this book. You gotta see it because it tells how our station is different than the other positioning.

⁓ OK. So I read this book from a radio perspective and I realized that we’re competing against the brand of another radio station. we’re we’re a country music station. but we’re hot country. ⁓ I see branding, positioning. And that lit something in me. And then when I decided to go off the air and go into radio sales, that was an outgrowth of.

the same thing that I’m now selling that brand. Here’s how we’re different. Here are the people we are reaching as opposed to the other brand. We’re a new alternative rock, not classic rock. So the nuances of the medium of radio is what really hit me in the beginning about advertising. And from there…

I went into the ad agency world for much the same reason, that I began to think this is kind of what makes the world go round. That’s why they have radio. That’s why they have DJs. That’s why I got to be a cool guy on the radio talking over music, because of business, because of selling things. We’re selling ads, we’re selling ourselves. We’re selling our brand to people who want to identify with us.

Anthony Codispoti (04:43)
People were selling ads that paid the bills.

Jason Acquisto (04:51)
it all coalesced in the ad agency world. And so that was the beginning of my romance with advertising and marketing.

Anthony Codispoti (05:00)
Okay, and so how do you get from there into senior living?

Jason Acquisto (05:06)
So it doesn’t happen overnight. took a journey, right? But it’s a great journey. And I love it because I did the advertising agency thing and I was good at it and I really loved it. I loved being the account executive, being the client advocate, you know, with the creative team. I’m not the creative, but I’m the keeper of the brand for my client.

And I loved being a problem solver and doing those things. So the seed of being a problem solver was was planted there. I liked having the good outcomes, ⁓ being a guide to letting the client figure things out and then, you know, deflecting the credit to them, even if it was me and my team. So all those things, they fed me professionally. I moved into digital marketing and did different things in terms of.

you know, voiceover and podcasting and digital marketing and just, you know, any combination of those throughout my career. And then I actually did marketing for for a food company, kind of on the brand side, as opposed to the agency side, going to work for for the brand of a food company. And the whole time I was enjoying it and I identified myself that way. And I said, I do marketing. You know, we all tell ourselves a story about who we are.

I’m a dad, I’m a husband, I am this in my community, but my job is this. I’m a media guy, I’m a marketing guy. Well, at about age 50 or thereabouts, you know, a different kind of started to, you know, become more my daily mantra of what am I giving back? Who I am.

depends not just on my job and who I show up as in the world, but what difference can I make? What can I do with the skills that I have that can actually give something back and make some people’s lives better? Now we all do things in our lives and we kind of compartmentalize those as charity or giving back.

Anthony Codispoti (07:13)
Hmm.

Jason Acquisto (07:23)
And that’s great. We all do that. But I wanted my daily life to be something that caused positive change for people. So different reasons.

Anthony Codispoti (07:33)
Yeah, different reason to get out of bed every morning. I mean, it’s one thing

to, hey, I’ve got to make a living for myself and my family. That’s great. But if I can do that in a way that’s also helping other people doing good in the general world, that’s what you were looking for.

Jason Acquisto (07:47)
Sure,

exactly. So what I did was I began to look for jobs in marketing that were along those lines. And I applied and interviewed for several different, you know, ⁓ very good organizations that I identified with, ⁓ food banks and ⁓ groups that were adjacent to faith communities and different things that were all good fit, but

It didn’t synchronize until I saw the listing for a job that was sales and marketing director for senior living. And I talked to my wife about this and it just made sense to me.

I also had started to think about some of the skills that I had been intentionally developing professionally, active listening, empathy, things that we all are working on these days and started to think that maybe this is something I can do. I came in for the interview and here I am. And that was just a year and a half ago that I made that jump. But I feel completely at home in this business.

Anthony Codispoti (08:58)
Okay.

What is it you think that they saw in you, Bickford, when they hired you? Guy with a lot of marketing experience over the years, nothing in the senior living realm.

Jason Acquisto (09:16)
I think the empathy is ⁓ is a big part of that. So I remember talking about it after I had been hired and some question along those lines. ⁓ And and he said, it’s because of the way you seemed to really want to make a difference and have that understanding. Of people’s situation and wanted to listen. And he said, you also did a good job listening in the interview.

which you wanna talk about yourself, you wanna do the show, right? ⁓ So listening is hard and it is probably the biggest tool that we use in what I do every day. So I think that was a big part of what they saw in me.

Anthony Codispoti (10:07)
Okay, so tell us about Bickford.

Jason Acquisto (10:10)
Bickford Senior Living is assisted living and memory care. And it started in 1990 in a town called Olathe, Kansas, suburb of Kansas City. And it started when Judy Eby noticed that her mother, Mary Bickford, started to have dementia. 1990, we knew somewhat, but they weren’t where we are now in terms of

assisted living and memory care. So she looked for a place that could help her mother and could maybe be a place where she could live. Long story short, they did not find a place that was good enough for Mary Bickford. So they made one. That was the very first Bickford Senior Living, and it was for senior adults that were starting to ⁓ experience memory loss, cognitive challenges, dementia, Alzheimer’s.

So fast forward from there ⁓ through the 90s and 2000s and Bickford has over 50 locations in the Midwest, Illinois, Michigan, ⁓ Indiana, a couple in Virginia and our newest location in Brentwood, Tennessee. So we’re all still owned and operated by the Bickford slash EB family.

I’m really happy to tell people that because it means a lot that the original vision of this family for their mother is still passed through and carried through. Her grandson, Mary Bickford’s grandson is our CEO today. So yeah, it’s a great story.

Anthony Codispoti (11:50)
Okay. You know, part

of the intro, we called you, ⁓ family advocate, which is not the typical title that is associated with somebody in a sales and marketing role. How does that fit?

Jason Acquisto (11:56)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So same question I had when I came in for the interview. What’s a family advocate? Because the ad said sales and marketing and I got all that experience. Well, what it really means is that we are here to to come alongside and be an advocate for the family. Because when I have conversations every day with ⁓ my primary role is to meet with families.

about their loved one, their family member who is starting to need a place to live. Could be dementia. It could just be senior living. And that family needs a solution. It’s not just the person, my mother, my father, my grandmother. It’s for the whole family. So we’re coming alongside the entire family there to be an advocate for the next best thing for them, the right solution for them because

we will take care of their loved one. We will care for them, give them a great, wonderful, happy, healthy life. But we’re also going to help their family to clock out from being their caregiver and to return to being a family member, loved one, the husband, the daughter, and to not have to bear that burden of caring for them. So we’re advocating for the family for

things that they need and that they deserve and they don’t know how to get. They walk in our doors and they need ⁓ knowledge. They don’t know what they don’t know. So I’m here to listen and to be an advocate for the whole family.

Anthony Codispoti (13:43)
As you came into Bickford, those first few weeks, the first couple of months, what was the biggest change you had to get used to? What was the thing that surprised you the most?

Jason Acquisto (13:54)
It felt, it felt wild. It was very surprising. I didn’t know. You know, I’m not from the medical field. I’m not from the caregiving, you know, background. So there was a lot of, I mean, I’m not shocked and I’m easily, I’m not easily, you know, bothered by anything, but there’s a lot that even I couldn’t prepare you now to say, okay, well, here’s the things to look for. It’s just something different every day.

And we all have jobs that say no day is the same. But man, ⁓ you know, my wife always tells me, you should write a book. Okay. What I wasn’t prepared for are the humans behind these stories. They’re amusing anecdotes. They are all some funny, some heart wrenching, some ⁓ just very profoundly personal.

but the people behind these stories. That’s what I’m here for. And I wasn’t prepared to be that deeply invested. Okay? I think if you think about what I got into, I should have been ready. Hey, I’m a good listener and this is a critical time in people’s lives. Did I not think I’d be attached to people? But I’m glad. I’m glad it’s that. I wasn’t maybe ready for the depth, but I’m here for it.

Anthony Codispoti (15:20)
And when you say you weren’t

ready for the depth, was there just a lot of human emotion there that you were like, wow, I’m not used to this selling, you know, radio ads or whatever you’ve done before.

Jason Acquisto (15:28)
Yeah,

yeah, exactly. And so although I have done some counseling, some lay counseling on the side or, you know, gone through those kinds of things as an everyday job, as like a never ending human drama, talking with a family in the morning about their loved one in the afternoon, about a completely different family and their situation.

Yeah, it’s exactly like you said. This is not a commodity, but that balance between being accountable to Bickford’s company sales goals. I mean, this is what we do, right? We have metrics that we have to fulfill. And my job is to help to fill our building by using those sales tools. And at the same time, balance that with the human aspect. So not selling radio ads, not selling widgets.

but absolutely listening and keeping your eye on the ball sales wise, but never losing perspective.

Anthony Codispoti (16:35)
So you obviously had a lot to learn as you were coming into a very new environment, but I’m sure at the same time you had a lot of ideas like, I need to understand the landscape here, but I’ve already got my own ways. I’m going to put my fingerprints on this. What were some of the call it two or three big ideas that you had right away coming in?

Jason Acquisto (16:43)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah, so two or three big ideas ⁓ that I wanted to do were to bring, know, as simple as it sounds, I’m always reminded that not everyone knows kind of the basics of marketing. And so, ⁓ you know, I’ve done a lot of social media. can do, I’m a content creator and I can do that pretty easily. It’s second nature to make fun little videos, right? To be a regular.

⁓ voice on our social platforms. So not that Bickford wasn’t doing Facebook and LinkedIn, but to really take it to another level in terms of the quality of the content and to bring the brand into focus. So all the years of championing my client’s brand in the agency world helped me to understand how to kind of

be that voice in our leadership meetings about focusing the brand, really becoming a laser focus, not all things to all people, but to get us out there in the right channels in the right way, and just tightening things up. Making short form videos, using TikTok, using Instagram, using YouTube. ⁓ I’ve joked that I wish that I could do that all day because that really

That really feeds me professionally. But then I’m reminded that that’s not really necessary to do that all day. We’re not trying to win the social media war, but to do that strategically in a way that that reaches the people that we need to reach in those ways. So social media was a big thing. The other thing that I am hoping to to implement, I’ve been with Bigfoot about a year and a half.

I told myself that I’d go through a year and then really put some effort behind a podcast for the company. Okay, so I’ve got a couple of podcasts that I do separate from Bigfoot that I just am a podcast hobby. And I’ve just been kind of collecting thoughts and planning, talking to folks about how we can make this something that is beneficial, that speaks to the Bigfoot mission, but that doesn’t detract.

from what I’m supposed to be doing and doesn’t use the wrong voice, but that comes alongside the Bickford brand. So after a year’s worth of absorbing that brand and living that kind of mission and having success, the first order of business was to start to fill our building. And so…

We’ve done a good job of that. And so now I want to take our effort into new things like a podcast. So ask me again next year.

Anthony Codispoti (19:51)
What ideas do you have?

What do you think the theme, the tone, like who are the guests? What are you talking about?

Jason Acquisto (19:58)
Yeah, conversations, ⁓ super unscripted, which is some guideposts along the way, not unlike what we’re doing. And this is a great example of a podcast that covers different industries, but talks people through, helps people to express what they do. So what I might do for this would be maybe it’s a generic senior living podcast. You know, what’s next for your for your loved one? This week’s guest.

is someone talking about ⁓ long-term care insurance, how to make sure your parents have that, what’s the value of that. There might be one that’s about ⁓ dementia specific care and how to tips and tricks, lighthearted, but also informative. So there’s a balance there between being academic, ⁓ because there’s a ton of good information out there, but this would be bite-sized and it would be.

also casual enough to where it wouldn’t need to be, you know, taken as like a class or anything academic. Maybe there’s something about hospice. Maybe there’s something about ⁓ activities. A lot of people, again, don’t know what we don’t know. And our generation is shifting from raising our children, who are now grown up, into caring for our older parents.

as seniors who now need our help and leadership to care for them in new and different ways. So that whole mind shift is what I’m really good at relating to people from because I’ve gone through that myself. So, yeah, that would be kind of the overarching ⁓ theme for that podcast is people just like us.

Anthony Codispoti (21:37)
Mm-hmm.

You know, it strikes me that you’ve got specific challenges in what you do. The first one that comes to mind is you’re sort of selling to two different audiences, right? Like in one way you’re selling to the person who will ultimately be receiving your care. And you’re also selling to the person or the people that are their loved ones that are helping to make the decisions for them. How do you approach.

Jason Acquisto (21:59)
Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (22:16)
those two different types of messaging.

Jason Acquisto (22:19)
Yeah, great question. Sometimes it’s not both of those in the room because sometimes ⁓ son or daughter is looking for a place and mom or dad is somewhere else and they’re just doing that legwork to kind of find a place and that that conversation with mom or dad will come afterwards. Sometimes like just ⁓ yesterday had a tour of our place that was, hey, I’m looking for myself.

It’ll be a few months, but I’m looking for myself and I brought my son and daughter with me. So those are each challenging in their own ways. But like you like you point out in the room at the table, I’m talking to son and daughter and mom or dad over here. So it is challenging. What I like to do is to address each one and to make sure.

that anytime you’re speaking to a group, you like to address each person individually. And I like to also make sure that we all know that we are here for the wellbeing of the resident. The resident being the person who will live here. So of course, part of that could be the cognitive state of things. mean, mom or dad might have some challenges in that way and we might know about that. And there might be separate conversations.

every situation, every family is unique and has a different kind of methodology, if you will, of going about, well, mom’s going to not want to live here. So can we have lunch? And then you and I will go talk over here. And we’re able to come alongside the family and figure out what’s going to be the not just a path of least resistance, but the most anxiety lowering temperature lowering tactic and.

We don’t have to do it all at once. So all those things kind of come into play there, but to make sure that we know we are not using our own timeline, we are not using our own expectation, but that this first hour of conversation is about what’s happening with the family. Tell me about what’s going on. What’s your typical day? What would you like to do? A lot of times it’ll take just a simple form of talking to

the daughter son who are power of attorney, but then turning to the one that’s gonna move here, just say, what do you think? What would you like to do? How would you like to live here? Are they right about this? And to really empower them, involve them, make sure they know that ⁓ this is really about them. And a lot of times the decision maker or the influencer, the son or daughter,

Anthony Codispoti (24:57)
Mm-hmm. You want to involve them?

Jason Acquisto (25:13)
to no fault of their own, they forget to ⁓ go through the parent, the resident on that whole line of questioning. So, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (25:25)
Jason, are you responsible for sales and marketing at one specific location or for the entire company?

Jason Acquisto (25:32)
This location. So this location is called Bickford of Carmel. Carmel is a suburb outside of Indianapolis and we’re on the north side. It’s suburban Indianapolis. We also have a location on the other side of town, south side, Greenwood. And then we are connected to a division. I mentioned we have over 50 locations. The 10, the 10,

branches that are Northern Illinois and Indiana. We’re a division and we all are very connected. We have a couple of of conference calls every week and share information. We share strategy. We bounce ideas off each other. So, I have a counterpart in Greenwood. I have a counterpart in eight other ⁓ Illinois locations that I can call.

text any time of day that we share the same job description and ⁓ encourage each other every day. So this is my role. I drive the sales and marketing occupancy here in Carmel. And then we also have, as you’d imagine, we have the overall sales team nationwide, know, gets together and shares a lot. We’re very connected and that helps. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (26:50)
Yeah.

Can you

explain what the higher path senior health model is and how you use that to help communicate the benefits of Bickford?

Jason Acquisto (26:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, so as you might imagine, senior living takes all forms. You can run, you know, drive down the street out here and you’ll see 15 or 20 before you get a couple of miles. They’re everywhere. And the reason is the population is increasing in that demographic. But there’s also a different flavor of each back to that positioning idea. There’s a different kind for every preference. A lot of places will be what we call

occupancy driven or more of a real estate solution, more of a, you know, ⁓ a hospitality situation. They want you to come and live here. They’re more independent or some assisted living. And they have wonderful amenities and a movie theater. And, ⁓ you know, they’ll have an indoor exercise room and all these different things. And that’s fine. That’s great. We are focused more on the full picture.

holistic view of how to care for loved ones. The senior higher path model, as opposed to the downward spiral. higher path brings all the different things we can do. Social, mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical and clinical. because all the places up and down the street,

Anthony Codispoti (28:13)
Hmm.

Jason Acquisto (28:27)
They’ll make sure that place is heated, has a roof over your head, you get three meals a day, and all the right pills and TV is connected. But we’re going to go beyond that to do a healthcare solution with actual metrics that are really, it’s really working. We’ll have a happiness coordinator that is going to be our activities director. We’ll have ⁓ spiritual faith-based services that come in on a regular basis right here to our community.

We’re going to have a nutritionist and a bread basket, which is our dining, that’s going to be all scratch made food in our kitchen. And then mental health services, rehabilitation and therapy services. So all of those services come alongside each other to be the higher path. We call the higher path happiest, healthiest, longest life. Now, in one way,

It harkens back to the way we used to just say things in an acute advertising slogan. I get that and I can appreciate that. But then you start looking at the metrics. We, Bickford as a whole, are seeing big decreases in number of emergency room visits from our residents across the Midwest, all of our branches. It’s working that we see less falls.

less accidents, less visits to the ER, and also our happiness scores have increased and they’re living longer. They’re staying with us longer. So all those things are great to hear. They sound wonderful, but when it comes down to it, show me the numbers and that’s what it is. So when I’m talking to a family, I like to present the higher path as something that is an active,

participation in the health and wellness of your loved one.

Anthony Codispoti (30:25)
Can you describe more in practical terms, what does that look like, the higher path? What is it that you’re doing that you’re able to extend lifespan, that you’re reducing falls, reducing ER visits?

Jason Acquisto (30:31)
Yeah

Yeah, so we put together higher path success stories, okay? And what that means to each of our locations, each branch of Bickford is that we’re able to highlight a resident who might have come to us with certain challenges. And through time, through the higher path tactics, we are able to redirect and to

find the baseline for them that is successful for their integration socially with everyone and physically that they are consistent and that their behavior is consistent. because we also have ⁓ cognitive challenges here in our community with a ⁓ memory care emphasis.

So we want to make sure that they’re all well adjusted. So an example might be a resident who came to us about six months ago and had some behaviors, OK, and was acting out with those behaviors. We knew that there were probably some some questions about is he on the right medication and is he being spoken to and have.

the chance to be to have proper therapy and not just, you know, shuffled along through the system. So we looked at extensively this person is having behaviors, antisocial, disruptive, ⁓ not violent, but certainly not appropriate. So we took a look at the medication, his history, the place that he had come from prior to here, which was a rehab facility. And so we took all of these things into consideration. We got

what we call a medication holiday, which is kind of ground zero, getting back to the nothing and starting from scratch in terms of what medication. Also, we got him involved with some therapy and got some, I say got some, we took.

an interest in his life emotionally and spiritually and had a counselor on both of those sides come in and speak with this individual. And again, this is not just intervening and saying, here’s an antidote, take this, talk with this person, but to each week, every few days have an active conversation. Here’s what we’re doing. Leadership in the building, myself, our director of health and wellness, our executive director, ⁓

and those other branches that we’re connected to, to say, Mr. Resident is having a problem with this. Here’s what we’re doing. Here are the interventions we’re doing. And we put together a care plan. Everyone has a care plan, but his was specific to the mission of let’s get him on the higher path because he is off on a different journey right now. So it might not be a short,

fix, a quick fix. And it might be in segments. Right now, I feel like he is in phase one of that, you know, normalizing journey, if you will. So this resident now, he is living, he’s living here and thriving socially. His appetite is good. His, his, his speech is good. His energy level and his temperament is very good. Part of that is medication. We believe in medication.

Anthony Codispoti (33:57)
Yeah.

That’s awesome.

Sure.

Jason Acquisto (34:17)
but we believe in that human aspect as well. So, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (34:21)
Yeah.

How many beds do you have there, Jason?

Jason Acquisto (34:24)
We have 58, 58 total. Yeah. And so.

Anthony Codispoti (34:27)
58 beds. And so

obviously everybody’s going for 100 % occupancy, but what do you consider sort of your target rate?

Jason Acquisto (34:35)
So when I got here, I’m proud of this because our team has done a great job this past year. When I came in a year and half ago, we were in a tough spot. We were in the 60s and 60 % range. ⁓ because of having someone in my role and the others, I want to be very clear, not just me, but because of others that are working with me, we’ve been able to get it up in the 90s. So the 90s is a good place to be. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (35:01)
that’s incredible.

Yeah. What do you think is the biggest lever that you’ve pulled to affect that growth? Is it the social media? Like, how have you gotten more folks in there?

Jason Acquisto (35:05)
It’s good to stay.

The biggest advantage that I have is the way that I’m able to give a tour with families and to listen and to earn their trust. And I don’t say that lightly. I reflect on this a lot. I reflect a lot on how am I doing in this role, what my real job is. And my job is not to make cute videos and to make us, you know, available on Facebook. My job is to be a source of trust.

that when somebody comes in to Bickford to give them a realistic but honest, genuine experience. And I do believe that that’s the reason that I’m here. So all the years that I was able to earn trust and be successful in sales, because I’ve been to the sales training, you’ve probably been with this sales training is nonsense except for earning trust. OK, so.

Parlaying that into this role is the best thing because I’m telling you the truth, family, and this is what will happen here. So that’s the reason I believe that we’ve had success.

Anthony Codispoti (36:32)
How do you see or maybe how do you hope Jason that your role there evolves in the next 12 to 18 months?

Jason Acquisto (36:40)
Yeah, I’d love to do more of the marketing things because that I like that the tangible, ⁓ you know, marketing, like I said, podcast is my next thing. ⁓ I want to do that. I want to continue to be ⁓ to be social media is great. I’d like to elevate what we do in this community. So getting involved with some of the networking groups, there are wonderful groups and it’s a

Another thing I wasn’t ready for when I came in, there’s a subculture of people doing my job and it’s a professional networking group that you’d have no idea exists, but it makes sense. We all need to share information. I belong to a couple of those groups and I’d like to elevate what we’re doing into the community by partnering with some of those folks, getting us out into the conversation, into more of a ⁓

of life here in Hamilton County, Indiana, and bring that name. ⁓ I think it has, we have a good reputation, but I’d like to just keep making sure that’s a high level of excellence that’s associated with Big

Anthony Codispoti (37:57)
You know, Jason, nobody gets to where they are without overcoming some hardships. What’s a big challenge in your life that you had to overcome and what did you learn going through it?

Jason Acquisto (37:59)
wasting time.

So Anthony, it’s great to be personal. And I love the fact that in today’s world, we can drop pretense and we can be vulnerable. So thanks for asking that. I did not ⁓ grow up with a father figure in my life. And I am ⁓ proud of the way that I’ve been able to compensate for that. Now.

I don’t believe that a person must have a mother, father, and necessarily to be successful. There are many different kinds of families. Families look different, and that’s all very valid. For me, that was something that I had to overcome and still, and working to make sense of different ways that it affected me. And so, the one thing that helped me the most

is to realize that I’m my own person. There is not a way that, any of those issues or kind of deficiencies or things I didn’t get, there’s no quick fix for that. You gotta do that work, but you also cannot find your own value in someone else. So going through that work.

kind of digging in the soul and figuring out how do I find a reflection of my true self? And to do that spiritual work and that professional work, again, it all kind of ties together because the way I alluded to earlier, the way we see ourselves, it can be the role we play in our family or the role professionally. So to see all those things has been a big part of my journey as

as understanding myself as a man now and being okay with that, being more than okay, embracing and leaning into the person that I was truly meant to be and not just saying, hey, you know what? My dad never taught me this. That’s over. That’s yesterday. This is who I am. I’m comfortable with that and I’m happy.

Anthony Codispoti (40:38)
Jason, what was the biggest thing you had to adjust to not having a father figure in your life growing up? How did it affect you in the most impactful way?

Jason Acquisto (40:56)
You know, I wished I’d had someone to teach me the things, you know, that dads taught kids. so ⁓ I think that I had a wonderful family life. And I want to be clear on that. ⁓ A healthy family upbringing in terms of ⁓ people caring for me.

But the things that bothered me that I missed out on were that, you know, just how to do this or that, how to always, you know, my father didn’t teach me to drive. My mother did. Little things like that. And when we’re honest, my friends and I all had weird experiences growing up. ⁓ But my particular thing was that I always just thought, darn it, I wish I would have had that experience with my dad.

didn’t get, you he was not taking me to a baseball game or coming to my games or teaching me, you know, about money until later. And so I’ll qualify this and say, ⁓ which was a great joy to get reconnected with my father later. I wish the things that he taught me when I was 18, 22 years old, I wish I would have learned those earlier. That was kind of, yeah, that was a thing.

Anthony Codispoti (42:20)
And as you’ve been on this path of self-discovery and healing, what’s been most helpful to you? Is there books? Are there friends that you’ve leaned on? ⁓ Therapists that have kind of walked you through this process?

Jason Acquisto (42:35)
Yeah, think all those things. When I first read the book, The Road Less Traveled, and I think the first words of that book are life is difficult. And I just it spoke to me unlike anything, know, freshmen in college just trying to figure some things out. And you start understanding these truths. These are very basic things. But I hadn’t had kind of some of that framework in there that like,

this is how you start to understand yourself and where you belong. So that book, several other books, you Man’s Search for Meaning, that, you know, what you give back to life is how you’re measured, not what life owes you. And then ⁓ my spiritual life has been a big, big part of my overall, I guess, self-actualization, being raised a certain way in a certain

belief system and realizing later that was not a great fit for me deconstructing that and then reconstructing it in the way that makes sense for me. ⁓ In my belief system and practice ⁓ now is a great fit. I also have a tight circle of friends. I reflect often on being both an extrovert and an introvert because I can work the room.

like nobody’s business, but I need time alone. I need to be filled up. need like, you know, I will need some time this weekend to put gas back in the tank. And that includes mostly being by myself, ⁓ but then also those conversations with trusted friends that I’m still.

you know, best friends with my three buddies from high school. And I’m grateful for that because we keep each other in check. We keep each other real. And so those relationships and my family, my family is super important to me. The one I grew up in, not the one I made later. Close to my brothers, close to my mom. And even though, you know, we talked about my father and those dynamics of it.

I’m super close with my brothers because I believe in a lot of ways we’ve been on a similar journey and ⁓ that’s been a lot easier as we’ve gotten older because it was awkward and strange to like be growing up that way and not and not really acknowledge it. But we are a close family and then the family I have now.

My wife and my son who’s 22 and his name’s Anthony. He’s a great guy. So yeah, exactly. Right.

Anthony Codispoti (45:30)
Has to be with that name, there’s no other way.

Jason, would you like to say more about your spiritual beliefs now and how they fit you and support you better?

Jason Acquisto (45:41)
Well, love wins, the end of the day love wins, period. And there are only two things that are important in life. And one of them is to love God and love your neighbor. And I won’t hear anything else. That’s it. I won’t ⁓ be the guy that needs to pontificate about my own journey, ⁓ but I will be the one that says, will absolutely ⁓ bank on love every day of the week.

until I die. And that’s going to be that will not change because any belief system that you have starts and ends with that. And we’re all on the same journey, whether we recognize it or not, whether we believe that ⁓ that this is the way or this is the way at the end of the day, love will have the final say. And so, ⁓ yeah, I think that’s my that’s my mantra. And, ⁓ you know, it’s my job to to

to show that love to people around me. That’s it.

Anthony Codispoti (46:44)
Jason, what is your superpower?

Jason Acquisto (46:49)
Empathy, listening. Yeah. And I will share this, that ⁓ it was, I did not discover that on my own. My wife encouraged me because she noticed how I would act with people and said, I think you’d make a good Stephen minister. A Stephen minister is an ordained but still lay person.

in the Christian church. It goes across denominations. It’s a Methodist Presbyterian. Stephen was the first apostle, ⁓ or sorry, was the first lay person in the New Testament to help people and to be like what we know now as a counselor. So he was not an apostle in the way we think about ordained and on high and giving orders, but more like coming alongside someone. So this organization is called Stephen Ministry.

and I went through months of training, active listening.

sitting with someone, not offering solutions. My wife suggested, why don’t you do that? You’d be really good at that. I’m not comfortable with that. I don’t think that’s, it’s too much to do. It was exactly what I should have done. So a few years ago, I went through the course of Steve in ministry and it taught me how to keep from feeling like I had to be the one to fill the room with talking.

Anthony Codispoti (48:08)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Acquisto (48:22)
but that I can sit and be comfortable in silence and listen to someone else tell me what’s happening with them and affirm that without solving it.

Anthony Codispoti (48:34)
That’s gotta be hard. mean, humans are kind of ⁓ natural problem solvers, right? I mean, you’re telling me a problem that must be because you want me to offer up a solution.

Jason Acquisto (48:41)
That’s what we are, yeah.

That’s what we all think. We all think the reason you’re talking about a problem is that you want me to help you solve it, but that’s false because really though a lot of times what people want is just someone to hear them. They just want to express it. They want someone to affirm it. So what I try to do in all my relationships and what I think

what I think I do pretty well is to affirm everything before before I respond to it. Sometimes you can affirm that with eye contact and and and quiet listening, sometimes to repeat it back and sometimes to to be OK, yeah, that must really be hard. Full stop, right? So those.

those habits are hard to work in. But once you start and develop that muscle, ⁓ you know, it gets easier. So that’s, that’s what my superpower is.

Anthony Codispoti (49:56)
Any daily habits or practices that you engage in that help get your day started or keep you on track?

Jason Acquisto (50:05)
So I’m a believer in ⁓ deep breathing and ⁓ mindfulness in a, ⁓ you know, I’m not going to be ⁓ daily yoga and daily meditation, but I believe in those and I do meditate. What I like to do is practice stillness and quiet. So I used to be all about the music in the car and the podcasts in the car and things, but what I’ve learned to do is to be present in the moment and to do things deliberately.

And to make time, make time for deep breathing. It’s so simple, but it really centers you. You get the good air in and take the time to count off and it just clears your mind. ⁓ So I’m gonna be ⁓ doing that daily activity and I’m gonna have my coffee. I’m gonna have the right amount of coffee, which is all of it. So yeah.

That’s my routine.

Anthony Codispoti (51:06)
⁓ Jason, I’ve just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three things. First of all, if you want to get in touch with the company we’ve been talking about today, just go to bickfordseniorliving.com. And Jason has given us ⁓ permission to give out his ⁓ work email address if you want to reach out to him directly, talk about anything. It’s Jason Akisto at bickford senior living. ⁓ Sorry, Jason dot Akisto at bickford senior.

Jason Acquisto (51:10)
Sure.

dot.

Anthony Codispoti (51:35)
And Akisto is spelled A-C-Q-U-I-S-T-O. And we’ll put that in the show notes for folks. ⁓ But those are ways that you can reach out to him. Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to benefits that won’t hurt them financially and carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us at addbackbenefits.com. And finally, if you’ll take just a moment and leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app,

Jason Acquisto (51:44)
Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (52:04)
we will be forever grateful to you. So last question for you, Jason, a year from now, you and I reconnect and you are celebrating something big. What is that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from today?

Jason Acquisto (52:18)
that we are at 100 % occupancy and have been for a few months. So that we’re sitting on top of that mountain of 100 % full, got a waiting list, and it is thriving in the ways that it should be. So I will qualify that. The only reason we’re here is not to get 100%. That’s just heads and beds. But I will say that we are thriving with having the highest

path, goals accomplished, happiest, healthiest, longest. So that when you look at those stories, you’ll see ⁓ residents who live here who are healthy and who are living their best life and that their families are happy. But we would love to have that 100 % capacity. That’s my goal. So mark that down.

Anthony Codispoti (53:08)
All right, noted. We’ll check back in to see how it’s going. Jason Acquisto from Bickford Senior Living. I wanna be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Jason Acquisto (53:18)
Yeah.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. ⁓ I loved meeting you and I really appreciate being able to share on this platform. So thanks for having

Anthony Codispoti (53:27)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.