Introducing Changemakers 2023

Featuring Sevy Petras

By Natalie Mahn on May 16, 2023 in Senior Living

The annual Changemakers series has officially begun! This year is particularly exciting for us at Yardi, as it’s our fifth consecutive year as sponsor. The series celebrates the most innovative and dynamic leaders in the industry today — recognizing those who have created leaner operations, improved efficiency and transformed the way they do business. From technology and staffing to mergers and acquisitions, these Changemakers are taking risks and embracing innovation, and you get an inside look at their stories through exclusive interviews.

We’re proud to join Senior Housing News (SHN) in presenting the 2023 Changemakers class — a group of dynamic leaders who are breaking the status quo and driving positive change today. With that, meet the first Changemaker: Sevy Petras, CEO and co-founder of Priority Life Care.

Through her in-depth interview with SHN, Petras talks about her background in senior living and the ways she believes the industry is evolving. Enjoy the following snapshot before heading to her full interview (linked below):

Sevy Petras named 2023 Changemaker  

SHN: What are some ways you think senior living needs to change in the next five years?

Petras: I feel that senior housing right now is in a bit of an enlightenment period. We’ve been around for 40 years now. We’ve been around long enough to have a decent data set. The reason I feel that it’s enlightenment is because we’re really trying to utilize science and automation to figure out how we can take that data and really apply it to be forward-thinking and proactive. Now, whether it’s active adult, independent assisted living or in your individual home, the consumer or resident family members are able to decide where they want to have that care delivered to them. That is a swift change. Part of that comes as a result of the fact that our consumer is changing. Those boomers that we’ve been looking for, waiting, know is coming, the silver tsunami, it is truly, truly here. However, the goalpost has shifted. Now utilizing that data and being able to apply it that’s really where I think this enlightenment is coming at.

Back when the iPhone was invented, the problem with the internet was that we did not yet have the catalyst to make it easy to do those things. It wasn’t until 2006 when the iPhone came out, it was the catalyst for us to be able to harness all the power that the internet has. It was like a 10-year lag between all of this being invented and then having the device that made it easy to do it. I feel like we’re a little bit in the same place right now in senior housing, as we have all of these different things, all these new technologies coming out, all this data coming out, but we don’t have our iPhone to harness that information and to really be able to take it.

SHN: Changemakers tend to be risk-takers. Do you agree with that statement? How do you describe your own appetite for risk?

Petras: Sure. What’s the quote, well-behaved women rarely make history? I always think of that. I do think that changemakers are risk-takers. For myself, I’m not throwing caution to the wind risk-taker. I am what I would consider to be a calculated risk-taker. I’m a bit of a neurotic pre-planner. I’m going to run through every possible scenario that could ever come from taking whatever risk. Part of that is probably the banker in me. You can take the girl out of the bank, but you can’t take the banker out of the girl.

Everything is always weighted and calculated. There’s always a scenario where there could be failure, but in certain circumstances, I think given the DNA that I come from, my family, as a Petras and a small-town Midwestern girl, in some situations and scenarios, there’s just no room for failure. Success could look differently, and learning from failures is I think part of being a risk-taker and part of being a changemaker. Part of being a business owner. Part of being a participant in life, you’re going to have things that don’t work.

It means that when you learn from that, that’s where I think that you become a calculated risk-taker.

That comes from experience. It comes from failures. It comes from trying things that don’t work. I am a big proponent of having mentors and reaching out to people who have tried, failed, and succeeded before me. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I like to come up with better ways to make the wheel more efficient.

Read the full interview with SHN

To get more insights, read Sevy Petras’ full interview with SHN. And be sure to follow the Changemakers site to find all the newly-published interviews, released in batches! We’ll be sharing highlights from each interview here as well, as the series progresses.

If you’d like more information on Yardi and the senior living solutions we offer, reach out anytime.