Podcasts about jenno

JENNO 02.03.25 | VISLA FM by VISLA

Koersklappers: Jenno Berckmoes, Stijn De Bock, Sigfrid EggersBekijk deze aflevering op YouTubeLive van in het wielercafé Poisson Pilote op Linkeroever! Jenno Berckmoes zat bijna mee in dé val in Dwars door Vlaanderen en reed een kletsnatte Ronde helemaal choco uit. Hij palaverdemet kersvers winnaar in Nieuwkerken-Waas Stijn De Bock en onze fan favourite Sigfrid Eggers. Koersklappen over die ene cruciale val, maar ook over de loodzware en allersnelste Ronde.En ook over La Route Adélie de Vitre, stroperig bloed, caffeïne, zwarte plekken, Lionel Taminiaux en het achterwiel van Krists Neilands.Steun Radio Stelvio

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 310: Investing In IntegrityIn this episode, Andrew Peek is joined by Beth Russell and Jen Barkan! Together, they discuss the motivation that comes with investing in your goal more heavily and how, through your investment, your passion is more noticeable to those around you, similarly to businesses investing in good marketing that earns loyalty from customers. Beth stresses the importance of having integrity in home building no matter how enticing it can be to cut corners and the three agree that magic happens when online sales and marketing are communicating and working together.Story Time (01:48)Andrew was impressed by the marketing of a local Greek cuisine restaurant.Beth brings up the importance of having integrity in the homebuilding process.Jen tells a story from a coaching session she had this week.The News (26:36)Must Read! GA4 Channels Function Differently than Universal Analytics (https://www.doyouconvert.com/blog/must-read-ga4-channels-function-differently-than-universal-analytics/)White House opens $45 billion in federal funds to developers to covert offices to homes (https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20231027198/white-house-opens-45-billion-in-federal-funds-to-developers-to-covert-offices-to-homes)Lender Will Split the Difference If You Give Up Your 3% Mortgage Rate (https://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/lender-will-split-the-difference-if-you-give-up-your-3-mortgage-rate/)Brokers prepare for changes after Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit verdict (https://www.housingwire.com/articles/brokers-prepare-for-changes-after-sitzer-burnett-commission-lawsuit-verdict/)Things We Love Things We Hate (50:13)Beth is loving the Reese's take 5 candy!Jen is enjoying the Starbucks holiday drinks that rolled out.Andrews favorite loves the very berry skittles bag mixed with starburst.Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunesFollow on SpotifyListen On StitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript:AndrewSo I'm trying to up my content game. So in front of me I have I'm looking at my web camera immediately. Behind the web camera is my Sony A7 three, which like maybe 5% of people like, know what that is? And I got like the lens which should be perfect for this distance to have everything behind me out of focus.AndrewThen I have like this monitor. I forget the name of it, like this other screen attached to it so I could see myself scramble, like walk behind my desk. But okay, this shot's good. And then I got this, like, crazy tripod thing that has one, two, three, four, five, like seven articulation points. So it could be like. Like this, like a claw to do it, but, like, it just looks like chaos behind my desk now.AndrewSo I'm still getting used to it, but I'm so excited. I did some test clips and my goal for this is to make content easy to create, which I've never been in. Like a consistent flow because it's like set up the camera, take down the camera, set.Jen You're going to start doing more video.AndrewMore video content like me, kind of talked about that people should do, like practice what you preach a little bit.BethWell, then send that setup my way!AndrewI will maybe know anything.Andrew$3,000 or so, but like it's been over the years. It's been over the years. We'll see. Is it worth it? I don't know. It kind of leads into my story time as far as like, is it worth it? Is it not worth it? So maybe we just I'll I'll go into story time. But first, let's get started. Welcome to episode 310.AndrewI am the self-proclaimed ad doctor with no formal education to call myself an ad doctor. And with me today is Beth Russell and Jenn the one and only barking woo! Who were here. Here. So, yeah, let's see. Yeah, I'm excited. I'll just continue with my story time. So content and trust is what is what I'm going for. So is it worth what I spent on my camera and equipment for content?AndrewFirst of all, I use it for other purposes. So and I've had it for a couple of years and over time I've built it up. So it wasn't like I just spent all this money on fancy camera and everything. Last night we were not in a mood to do any cooking, which really means I do. I do other cooking, make sure notes, listening.AndrewI do other cooking at the house. I'm like, I'm not cooking anything. I took Addy, our youngest, to Tumblr, and so I got home at like 7:30 a.m.. Like, it's getting late. Kids go to bed at eight because they're elementary and middle school. There we go. I'll order some food. So we went out to Uber Eats because I did not feel like driving.AndrewLike, Oh, let's try this little Greek place out that's like right around the corner. That's like my, my limit. Like, I want something close so the food is fresher, right?JenYeah. So does it take too long?AndrewYeah. And it's called you little. It's called Little Greek. I've never been there, but the reviews are good. But, like, you never know, Like, that could just be, like, friends, family. They're like, you know, guilted people into leaving reviews. So we get it. And every single thing is branded with their logo. Like, we got a First of all, how do you pronounce Giugiaro Euro?AndrewEuro?JenYeah, euro or.AndrewLike the euro, they're not really.JenAre Gyro.AndrewGyro.Jen003 is not right.AndrewIt's definitely regional. Right. But who knows. That's, that's funny. So that's what I ordered. That's what Lindsey ordered. Then we got some other things but it was the euro was wrapped in a branded like little. What's it like parchment paper, styrofoam. It came in branded the little wrap that goes around the napkins and forks branded. I'm like, Oh.AndrewSo immediately I'm like, I kind of trust these people already. I've never been to this place. Think about the opposite. What if it came in like a generic, the absolute cheapest to go container the cheapest paper, the cheapest. I'd be like, Ooh, with food. And maybe I'm weird with food safety, but I would have had this impression. Like, they probably cut corners somewhere.JenMm hmm. Yeah, they have attention to detail.AndrewIt's NATO.JenSo it's France.AndrewSuper important. All right, So I'm hoping quality, the better camera setup should give the impression that we, I, all of us, care just a little bit more. Yeah, because it's perfect. It's, you know, the audio is going to be ten out of ten the video, ten out ten all all these things. Is it necessary? I have no idea.AndrewProbably not, because we're not used to seeing every single person make content with a fancy set up. Usually it's phone, but you're good to go.JenThere is something to be said for there's some.AndrewSo like in Kevin if you're listening I'm request I'm just kidding.JenWell that there is I agree with you in that there's something to be said for the quality of the output starts with quality tools. Yeah you know I think about like my kids who are in sports and like my son coming to me saying, like, he needed, you know, for pitching. He needed the very best glove or the very best training weighted balls and I'd be like, whatever.JenHe's like, Yeah, but. And there's something with the perception of, Yeah, I'm investing in myself. And then the output of what I'm producing is going to be that much.AndrewThat I actually agreed. Maybe there's like a minimum threshold, so you don't need to go like all out, but like it needs to be like it hits this threshold where like, okay, everyone is like, all right, I trust it enough. So maybe the company last night, they didn't need everything to be branded, but maybe just like the wrap around the food, it's enough because I was colored.AndrewIt was like white and blue, which makes sense. Greek like it would be white and blue, but maybe not everything would have given the same feeling, but nothing certainly gives the opposite negative feeling. We're like, Ooh, like, I don't know, like, never been here before. It's not like they didn't didn't take that extra step. Maybe they're actually being lazy.AndrewSo it was a shock moment. I'm like, Oh, I just got like marketed.JenAnd I feel like I work out there when I, when I have like, the brand shoes on.AndrewYeah, I agree.BethWhatever it takes. The lemon versus the Amazon.AndrewOfficer.JenIf I had if I had Lululemon outfit Lululemon not Lily.AndrewYou're wearing like $600 worth of stuff AirPods.JenLike the, like the best workout.AndrewThis the best work.BethOf my life. I have a question. When you guys go places and they have those like fully branded items or like you go to a restaurant, they have those thick nice paper towels in the bathroom. Do you immediately go to like the dollar signs of how much all of that stuff costs? Because, you know, you know, like more than my money.AndrewI definitely think about that.BethI think about it all the time because I think like, okay, they've made so much money just buying the foam containers in bulk. Yeah. But to get the emblem or to get the stamp of their logo, the amount of money and time that they invest into doing that, I'm like, okay, they care and they're investing in it and they have the money, so they have to have the profit.BethSo they're making enough money, they're selling enough food, People must like them, boom.JenYep, Yeah, 100%.AndrewAnd maybe there's something like we feel like we it's like why apparel works for some companies and doesn't work for others. You buy apparel because it makes you feel like you belong to whatever that brand is. I think that I'm Mark at the summit. I forgot his last name from a thousand. What he talked about that was not not it was a Davidson Mark Super cool, dude.AndrewI think. Mark Right That's one the producer is I'm terrible last names but he's like you belong to this brand. Like why do you buy Nike versus New Balance Other There we go. Mark Davison Olivia's helping us out or why do you buy X, Y, Z bat versus another bat? Like I don't know, like you're part of the club type of deal.JenMy it's my husband won't only buy Nike. Yeah, it's like even to the point of like following certain sporting like athletes. Oh, they're under armor. Oh like they must not be that good. It's like.BethMaybe.JenA Nike branded athlete.AndrewI'm from Maryland, so your character's really sensitive about this.JenThis is I'm.AndrewNot sure what else is from Maryland.JenThis is not me. I'm saying. I'm saying my husband.BethI'm just giving.AndrewHim another Andrew.JenAnother Andrew?BethYeah, says Andrew's man.AndrewYeah, we got old Bay. We have. It's in there. It wasn't a cake show. And Maryland Cake.BethBoss. He was in Maryland. Yeah, he was.AndrewBoss Old Bay under armor and the Wire, I think was is. Oh, Cosmo.BethThanks for asking.AndrewYou're welcome. You're welcome. Okay. All done with my distractions. Beth or Jen, who wants to go next?BethWell, I have another story about details, if you will. So I'm going to coordinate.AndrewThis without even knowing.BethAnd we always end up doing this. Or we're just really good at transitions and we don't give ourselves enough credit. Maybe. Oh, but basically, I was having a conversation with someone in the industry yesterday working construction, and she was telling me why she left her previous builder and what was like the reason, like the catalyst to her just being like, okay, I'm done.BethAnd she was on site with one of her superiors, like I guess like an area construction manager type person. And I think she was the superintendent at the time essentially. And they were going through like their queue, so they were evaluating the home. And she pointed out some things and the the superiors response was, well, if they don't mention it, if they don't see it, then it's not actually a problem.BethAnd she was like.JenNope.BethI'm done. Like, I'm not going to be a part of this. This is not like I don't want my name attached to this type of builder or to this type of mindset. And I think it's just really interesting because it points to integrity, right? And the detail.JenOf what I was thinking.BethYeah.JenAnd like the definition of integrity.BethMhm. Exactly. And it's like she, she wasn't willing to compromise her integrity to be a part of it. And the details, the little small things that he didn't think were a big deal, they could eventually come back and bite you in the, in the years later. It could, it could cost the company a lot of money, It could cost the company their reputation.BethIt could cost him his job, her, her job, all of these things like you have to have integrity in your building, in your marketing, in your data collection, and how you do sales. Like if we lose our integrity, then there's a domino effect that could happen later on that could really cost us a lot more in the end.BethSo it was a cool little story and I was just like, Then you go, girl.AndrewYou go, you get it, you go, you get the A Who cares about that? Yeah. Especially on the home side. I mean, that's the product like we're building. Yeah, we're not I mean, I'm not building homes. She's building homes. You know, props to her. Like, that's the there will be someone living there 24 seven. Like they will find those things eventually.BethAnd I wish there were more people like her in in all areas. Right. Not just in construction but in in in marketing and sales and whatever. Because her response to it was, I don't want to be a part of the problem. I want to be a part of the solution. And if I can't make it better, then I don't want to be there and I or I don't want to be in this industry anymore.BethShe was like, I'll go like work at Chick-Fil-A, but you know, whatever it is, like, I feel like I'm making people happy.AndrewFor sure and not be on home. Inspectors tick tock reviewing like yet another. Have you all seen those yet another homebuilders? I'm being kind of like tick tock. The content goes viral because it's interesting. There's a story, there's tension. Right. That's more interesting than a perfectly made home. Right. Which one do you want to watch? The home that looks like it's falling over the one that's like, oh, like it's perfect.JenYeah. The train wreck.AndrewYeah. You're not sitting right? Yeah, the same. You're. What's that rubbernecking they're turning. They're like, okay, cool. You're like the accident essentially. So it's just it's just drama. What do you what do you got, Jenn?JenWell, I've got a lot to think about, but one thing that really stuck out that's super relevant right now is that I was talking with on a coaching call this week with an online sales specialist and we were looking at numbers and you know, just one thing to keep in mind, I think as we move into this next few months, you know, things are a little harder.JenPeople are looking at numbers and really scrutinizing everything. And so we were doing that together and just talking about lead to appointment specifically, hers had dropped from September to October.AndrewOkay?JenAnd I was like, okay, like, why do you think that is? And I was expecting she was going to say something like, Well, it's really harder right now. Like customers are being a little bit it's harder to get them to an appointment. That's what I was anticipating she was going to say. But what she said was she goes, I think it was me and I think it was my mindset.JenShe goes, I had kind of gone down this rabbit hole of watching a lot of media talk about interest rates and how the market is tough. And she said, I think that was affecting me and like I was projecting concerns I was having about the market on to the customers I was talking to. And so I sat back and I was like, that's really insightful of, of yourself, that you're self reflecting and you're realizing.JenAnd I said, Okay, this is what we're going to do. I said, Right now let's let's write down what are the pros of buying? Let's switch our brain. What are the pros of buying a new home right now? And so she start she was like, okay, she's like, you know, we have inventory. She's like, there's not a lot of other inventory on the market.JenAnd like, exactly. She's like, we have a warranty, we have a home warranty. It's a new home like. And I said, Exactly. I said to think about cost versus, you know, the cost of buying a new home versus the cost of a resale home where you might have a lot of other expenses that go into that. And she's like, Exactly.JenAnd I said, okay, what our. Oh, and I said, What else? She goes, Incentives. We have incentives. I said, Exactly.AndrewYeah, that's a good one.JenYeah. I said, You have incentives, you have a warranty. It's a brand new phone. You have inventory as it builders have, you know, the ability right now to provide those incentives that used homes don't have, you know, on the market. And so I said what are the cons? Okay, we've made our pros list, what are the cons? And she was like, well, I guess really the interest rate is the main thing.JenAnd I said, okay. And I said, But people don't buy interest rates, do they buy homes? So let's talk about how we can talk about that. And so we spent some time just kind of thinking about that. And really what it boils down to was the main thing is the affordability. You know, the affordability because in this particular online salespersons, market affordability is huge because there they sell to more entry level, you know, first time home buyers and that affordability is crucial.JenAnd so we spent some time talking about like for online sales specialist, they're not trying to convince somebody, you know, especially like a new home, a new first time buyer. It's like, I'm not going to sit there and try to convince them that it's affordable like that they should purchase. Right now is a good time to buy at an 8% interest rate and the affordability is going to be fine for them.JenBut what they need to focus on is let's do this, come out, take a look at how we build that way. When you're ready and you feel comfortable, you'll be able to determine if our builder is a good fit for you or not. And so I think online sales just has to have that perspective shift of there. So hung up on like, I got to get I got to sell, I got to get this person thinking that now they should buy when really let's just get them thinking about coming in and taking a look at our homes because hopefully they'll come in, they'll fall in love, they'll meet with that salesperson that's on site thatJencan show them how cost changes, what incentives they could work with to kind of help them to be more affordable. And so it was a really good exercise to kind of go through that. But how powerful I mean, what you guys agree like that mindset of like if you're sitting there thinking like, yeah, like doom and gloom that's going to project on to the people you're talking to.BethAbsolutely.AndrewYeah. Yeah. I think I just wrote this down. My brain is like getting excited from from everything you're saying I wrote. Is affordability an objection or is that just a reduction of market size? So that's like semantics, like objection being like, well, you know, like you guys have nine foot ceilings, they have ten foot ceilings. To me, that's objection.AndrewI'm not even in sales training, so tell me I'm wrong like all day long versus affordability is like if you cannot afford the home like it, that doesn't there is no objection. I guess you're not in market.JenBecause you feel like it's really an objection. It's not like.AndrewYou know, like work your finances a bit like, you know, like we like for this person, we have no debt. Our income is as such, like, here's what we qualify for. It's not that's not an objection. Like, you can't even think about it. But the objection is like to me, there's choice for an objection. So they're on the phone and they already been maybe they haven't been pre-qualified.AndrewThey're just brand new. Yeah, get them excited. Like, Hey, come on out like that. So much fun. Like, come see our communities talking to people we know. Just, you know, Halloween was, what, two days ago? Our Halloween experience with our kiddos compared to our friends who live in where we're at. Like we have very few new home communities Pinellas County, Saint Pete, Clearwater, like west of west of Tampa, very few new home communities.AndrewOur kids Halloween experience, I can guarantee, is 100 times better than those who live in a, quote, traditional community. That's like where it's just like sixth Avenue, 17th Avenue, whatever it is. And like for like there's no one doing like trick or treating. I'm like, Oh, come 2 hours, we got 70 houses, everyone is out, end of their driveway.AndrewYou don't have to knock on the door. Candy, candy, candy, candy. And we're used to it. And so it's fun. Or they go to I'll go to One Tree Oaks, which is they older, established community, one entrance in one instance out. So they're all going to these places that are communities like, wouldn't you want to live in a place like this?AndrewLike there's 20 kids on the block, like all these things that are if they can't afford it, like it makes them move like, okay, so we're $400 more per month or whatever it is. Like that's a lifestyle upgrade. But for a good reason. If you have kids, if you could even have that discussion. But there's there's more than just the numbers.AndrewI think people forget like there's more than just the dollar amount, like there's the value of community and and being around people. If you have kiddos or if you don't like.JenRight.AndrewGoing somewhere where like it's active.JenSo exactly So to that point it you know online sales can't you have to be careful about getting hung up on their job is to engage and to get somebody excited about the possibility of buying or building not to sell the home over the phone. That's legal for the salesperson. Leave that for the people that are trained to do that out on site.JenJust get them excited, have them think about what it would be like to live there, to trick or treat there in that community and get them out for informational sessions. You know, we I've said this like 20,000 times. We'll get the word appointment out of your your words, your vocabulary and start talking about we'd love to host you for a discovery tour.JenWe'd love to host you for an informational session and I'll be sure to let everybody know that you are just in the beginning stages of looking. They come out sales, get them excited. We see how they could be living in the home. And that's that's the shift. That's the mental shift that has to happen.BethYeah. And I think in any rocky market situation or when, you know, these doom and gloom conversations are kind of or thoughts are looming either in your brain or the people that you're talking to whose brain remember one core thing and they're calling you for a reason exactly how they get on the website.JenAll the interest rates.BethYeah, they had to be. They called.JenYou.BethYeah, exactly. And if you just remember that, it can help you get in that mindset of like, okay, they're calling me for a reason. They're interested in this market. Let's let's have a party, let's talk, let's make it fun and try to drag it out.AndrewYeah, I think pick up, pick up Starbucks on the way, like something out a little bit. Like I don't know if like to meet us would be a thing. And if you do this because it is the person's schedule. But like, if I don't have have kiddos like hey, I come by at 430 today or like schedule an appointment or like the kids are out.AndrewLike if you happen to be that familiar with like the schedule like and then they pull up in the street and they see like kids running around hours. I feel like most of our street, like we raise our kids like free, free range chickens. Like it's like, let them roam around, it's gated, they're out and everyone's got ring cameras all over the place.AndrewThere's usually like two or three parents out doing something in their yard and 15, 20 kids out. Now, if they're an older person with no kids and they don't want that, that'd be a terrible idea.JenDon't send them out to get. It's the.AndrewMinistry. No. Oh, goodness. What fun. Yeah, you're just kidding. Just getting them excited. Yeah. Yeah. Know any other stories? When you talk about anything else happen at all? Not on my end.JenWell, listen to. I could tell. I could tell you, Andrew, that today that we presented to our online sales academy.AndrewI love it.JenAnd I had fun presenting to our online sales Academy was because we wanted to do a session like a marketing 1 to 1 session for online sales.AndrewOkay.JenYou know, just yeah, that's needed. We well, we talked to all and I said, well, it's time. Like your job is to quantify what's happening. And like that said, well we were talking about earlier somebody is like yeah, I didn't really understand what that meant. Like, I hear like how important this is, but what does that even mean?JenSo like, but what? Yeah, I think everybody what you.BethI think it was really powerful. The conversation that you're referencing, Jen, is that she was like, I heard when I took this position that I would have to own my data and I'd have to I'd have to know my numbers, but I didn't know what that meant or the impact of actually doing that. And so what we did was painting a picture alongside Jesy and Amanda of what that meant from an organizational standpoint, going back to integrity, how important those numbers are and this like vital position that the online sales people have within maintaining that flow of the funnel and the kind of feedback and data and information and collaboration that can happen between marketingBethand online sales. And I think that's kind of where do you convert was routed from is that relationship between marketing, marketing and online sales? Because I feel like oftentimes we're seeing that marketing feels like a silo. They feel undervalued, unappreciated and like it's not as invested in. And then online sales can oftentimes feel the same where like, you know, sales gets all the glory and they're the ones writing the contracts and people aren't really sure what it is that they do or what it really means.BethAnd they feel like they can have more of an impact. And so we kind of talked through that and how the two departments can lean on one another and work together and find solace in the two of them collaborating and and and celebrating one another. So it was really fun. It was really, really.AndrewSound so positive.JenWell, you know.AndrewWhat? I'm stealing someone. Jen, Jesse, Amanda. For the marketer of marketing Academy sales.JenYes, Yes. Boom.AndrewAnd Beth, is Beth also do something like that. Gives me like 2 hours. So I eat some food, take a little break to the academy because we're like 16 hours of talk.JenAnd I share something that is very relevant.AndrewThis my horoscope.JenConversation would say, Yeah, listen to this Gemini. Every week I pull one of these random cards out. Okay, you guys notice I.AndrewNeed to know what it says.JenAnd, well, I'm going to read it to you. So this week's card is collaboration. Oh, okay. Let me read to you what it says. I take pride in my role as a good collaborator and look for opportunities to help support my colleagues ideas rather than dismiss them outright. I fill my meetings with yeses and ends and I celebrate the constructive power they have over Butz and or else, unless I work for a company that makes cigarets and boats, in which case bucks and orders would be Oh, never mind.JenOkay.AndrewThat's hilarious. I know why this reminds me of Elaine of Money Garment. I don't know why. It just seems like something she'd say so positively.JenYeah, Collaboration. I like it. But, you know, when Beth was talking, did you notice? And she was like.BethShe's dancing. I do it when I like to. Yeah, when things make me happy. I just like.AndrewChick-Fil-A and I get Chick fil A's sauce.JenSweet tea, you know?BethNo, no, sweetie.JenA collaboration between online sales, onsite sales, marketing. You know, it's an ecosystem. They all need to be collaborating, working together, and even just within teams, you know, collaborating like us, you know, like we collaborate, you know, we could easily live in our own silos between sales and online, I mean, marketing and online sales and whatever. But magic happens when you collaborate.AndrewThe magic.JenI love magical collaboration. Good.AndrewYeah, that's it for today. I'm just kidding. That's not it for today.JenAnd we are out.AndrewAnd on to the news. Here's a fun one. I'll let Jen take this first one I wrote a blog.BethPost.AndrewReady for. I'm just kidding. Wow. This is collaboration, in effect. No, we don't have to do that.JenDid you see.BethThat? I shared these and shared it.AndrewYou commented on a link and it was awesome.JenI read it.AndrewIt's good.JenI read it.AndrewAnd that's perfect collaboration. You at it? Did you.BethSee? No, that's not Gatorade, right.JenThat's my joke for. Oh, it's not is it is.AndrewG for the Gatorade? Is that you for something?JenSounds like it should be Gatorade. That's why I'm good. It's not Gatorade.AndrewAs a perfect blend of I.JenWill Electrolytes explain it. I read it, though, and I said that I am happy that you are on this team and that you can share these very insightful things with the world, very insightful.AndrewIt's very exciting to explain it. It's actually the opposite of exciting. It's yet another thing that Google has done to make G4 just a little more challenging. So for everyone listening previously in Universal Analytics, you can change the default channel grouping settings. So we're bringing all this data. We want to put it in nice organized buckets. You could change those settings with the default group of those buckets, channels and J for you can't do that.AndrewYou have to duplicate the default channel groupings and then you have your own custom one, whatever you want to call it, device C channel groupings like make it, make it a cool name or or best channel groupings. You know, put your, put your stamp on it and then you could change things. So it's like this extra step you have to do.AndrewIt's really not that big a deal. But for most of us you do have to change it a bit, especially if you previously had like a syndication channel. Now that's going to what they're calling unassigned. And ideally unassigned is as little as possible. We've seen some builders, it just explodes because they either have a misspelling in there and they're UTMB or there's something technical going on that like the data is not being interpreted correctly from Google Analytics.AndrewSo we need to own our data, We need to know our data, We need to be familiar and best friends with it. So if you're seen on a sign, essentially the symptom is if you see unassigned as a very big traffic source, chances are you need to check this article out and make the changes. Super quick and easy.AndrewI'd say 5 to 20 minutes depending on experience to get it done. Not a big deal.JenNot typical. So that's sometimes you have to do those things though, which was.AndrewYou know, kind.JenOf make it like you've got it. Yeah, you've got to sit down and focus on some, put on sprinkling some rap music and yes.AndrewSally Who? Kendrick Lamar. Yeah. Who else should we put on sexy record.JenLike, okay, so I'm like, you know, Notorious Tupac.AndrewOh, Tupac. There we go.JenOh, yeah. Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg.AndrewYeah. Eminem. He's not old school, actually. You think about it like, Oh, we're.BethOld.AndrewAndrew is getting a little aged, but all the young kids still like him. All these young'uns, you know, who knows who knows? Well, let's go on to the next one. Beth, you won't take this one. It's about big money from the White House.BethBig money. White House.AndrewStar.BethOpens $45 billion in federal funds to developers to convert offices to homes. So essentially what's going on is they are helping fund all of these offices that have at least 25% vacancy rate and providing some funds to developers and incentives to developers to convert said vacant offices into affordable, affordable renting homes for people. So that way, part of it is also like trying to keep the housing area local to where people are working.BethAnd so there's less fuel emissions and less commutes and, you know, things going on there. So there's some added benefits. But I'm curious of what you all think about this, because I fear, like what happens in like ten years.AndrewYeah.BethWhere how affordable are they is going to be? Are they going to maintain that affordability?AndrewYeah, I think that's terrible.JenI need to think about ten years from now.AndrewI don't know, ten years, ten years now we'll have a population issue. Like there's not enough.JenLike I mean, when I first read this article.AndrewB 44 so I'm good.JenAndrew. Andrew might be thinking about empty nesting and moving into one of these years.AndrewLet's see, our oldest will be 21. So there's that, our youngest will be 16.JenI don't know that when I, when I first read this, I thought it was positive, but I was I was thinking like one affordability. And I was also thinking about that. I have two young adults who are going to be wanting to move out on their own here soon. And I had recently visited DC when I was staying.JenI was in Georgetown and I was like, my son was born I thought was beautiful. Such a fun, cool place to live, but it's so expensive. Yep. And I was thinking, like, how cool it would be if I was a 20 something, you know, just out of college, young, professional. And I wanted to live in a Georgetown like area.JenAnd I saw this article and I was thinking, Oh, that would be really cool. MM So I was looking at it from that perspective.BethNo, I totally agree. And I think it's, it kind of circles back to what I did in Silver Spring, Maryland.JenWhere. Yes.BethYeah. Where they're taking their instead of doing X percentage for affordable housing or what is it called Section eight housing, they're expanding it a little bit further. And so they're making it like based off of the income that the person makes. And so there's more people that can afford to live there. So I think it depends on how it's defined and making sure that it's regulated in some sense.BethBut I do agree that it's a it's creative because having lived in the D.C. area, having lived in in other city, big cities, there are so many office buildings and office space that's just not being.JenVacant.BethSitting vacant. Yeah, not being used. And then also you have like the only things that are coming up are high end condos or high end townhomes that are harder to afford as a young couple. So I think there's a lot of value there. I'm curious to see how it goes. And I just hope that the the greedy developers at the top aren't taking advantage of it, but they do good things like, like why I.JenDid. Yeah.AndrewSo I'll be the counterargument just to be the counterargument. I think it's a terrible I think it's a terrible idea. And I'm more so because of, well, can we have housing in that building based off of regulation, city, county, whatever. Like, well, that's a nightmare. Like, are we going to spend more, let's say like to build a brand new low square footage, one one, two, one, two, two.AndrewWhatever set up that is affordable. Is that actually cheaper than retrofitting a I'm just thinking like, what's the last big office I was in like couple of weeks ago? Like there's one bathroom down the hallway. Yeah. And now we need to have plumbing for, Oh, you.JenHave a bathroom?AndrewLike, is that how is it.BethYeah.AndrewEach unit based off of like, All right, the toilets here, we need X amount inches for this. Is this, is this why we need windows? We need what about fire? What about all these other things that are not typical at all for commercial compared to residential? What do we need to change this? I'm like, Oh, to use like what actually actually cost.JenMore land to build those types of things in less in a big city unless you convert.AndrewThat is true, but it's I guess I'm thinking if it's not worth the developer's money to retrofit remix their current vacancies, like they're not willing to invest it themselves, is this even enough money to make it profitable?BethYeah, I think this is like a losing game.AndrewLike the government started money at it and they're spending 300 K for something that will cost 200 K or I'll bring it like it's a negative r y that way, that way that's the reason I was doing it. Maybe. I don't know. I'm sure it's circumstances building to building, it's location to location, but like, oh geez, like should have could have this been a we're actually sending 45 billion to build homes that have to be in this price range.AndrewSo they'll be outside they won't be downtown like I compared us to to the UK. I think I had like 25% vacancy versus 8% in Europe. I've never been to Europe. So hear me out on this neither. But transit and all those things are significantly better and you're closer. So maybe 8% is not because there's anything wrong with our commercial property, but like it's all these other factors that make their vacancy lower.AndrewThey would have been better too. I'm thinking about like some of the products that some of the builders are coming out with that are like six to like 1100 square feet, much smaller. Like how many more homes can they build for that that are truly affordable, That won't be rentals, that will build equity over time for people that are that would be long term renters, and then their lives are actually improved because they're building equity over five, ten years.BethYeah, Yeah. I think.AndrewMaybe they're doing.JenIt depends on them. I think it depends on the market, the town. Yeah, the.AndrewGreed.JenThe vetting like.BethBut yeah, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered to make this truly successful and impactful. So I think that's where it's like, it sounds great.JenSo yeah, like, yeah, I think a.AndrewBig be place a bet on this and be like, okay, what's the you probably walk by Jen when you're in DC, What is the government group that like essentially audits the government itself, you know, like I forget the name of it, but like tenure. So now when this is done, they'll be like, well, we spent 45 billion, 22 billion was fraud because you just apply for this like the, like the payroll tax and loans, like all these people abusing the program.AndrewLike, hmm, this kind of has the potential for that like years of money grab here's this and then the timelines on it. I'm just being so I took the negative approach on this one.JenLike I like it when.AndrewI was in it.JenNo, no, no.AndrewInteresting. Who knows? We'll find out. I don't even know if this is approved or if it's just an idea that they're pushed through. We'll find out. Well, interesting.JenYeah. Push on Friday to.AndrewHelp on a to me, a definite positive is the one from the truth about mortgage dot com. So that's that's a fun site there but there's this lender and which city where they end.JenEssentially they're going out.AndrewThere Yeah and Glenville New York based trust Co bank has come up with a novel concept to get homeowners moving again literally so they're essentially splitting the mortgage rate if you have a 3% rate and then you are approved for 7% for a meeting in the middle and that's your new mortgage rate. So they're trying to get do you have to have the mortgage already with them?AndrewYes, I think you do. So So this is a very limited.BethPool, a very limited group.AndrewYou're trading you're good rate because they don't make any money on it, sort of lower yield, lower return. And they are swapping it for a higher one. They kind of leave out, though, to shoot holes in their data. They didn't talk about the higher cost of the home. So you bought the home at 400 K at 3%. Your new home you want to move up to is now 655 and a half.AndrewSo like, I don't know, big difference. I think if you have to move in you're able to finance with them like this is a great thing.JenBut I like their their image on the the article blowout sale plans. I mean that's that's a fun 20 to 50% off.AndrewI mean yeah, kind of 50% off each in the middle.BethI think it's creative and I think they're kind of taking a page on a builder's, you know, out of our books, know what we're doing. But like you said, it's extremely limited. And I think what it would be more interesting to me if they were able to do that for people who are relocating. So like if a big national team could do this or like people who actually sell their mortgages and you never know who your mortgage is going to because that they talked about that like they actually hold on to their mortgage, they don't sell them all.BethSo like it would have been lovely if we could have maybe sold a house and then gotten a lower rate than what we did because we had to move. We didn't have an option. So I think it's interesting. There's some legs there. I'm curious to see if other people follow suit or if this is if this is just a one and done type scenario, especially.AndrewRegarding like we refiled with rocket mortgage because they were like amazing salespeople, like ten out of ten they cost me like Tinsley is 20, 20, 21. Like we closed in 2021. I was yeah, we bought our home in 28. So we went from like four down to we're one of the people on here that would like, why would we ever get rid of our mortgage right by Rocket has the they came out with a 1% payment plan product which is pretty cool.AndrewAnd then you get a grant. So I like Rocket's approach because then it's for almost anybody. But it'd be interesting if Rocket follow suit because they're the whole nation they have a lot of people like, Hey Andrew, I get an email from them considering moving well we'll meet in the middle. Rates are at seven but you could be at here and that affects a lot of people.AndrewSo I mean.JenI really do. It makes me excited that people are continue going to try to get creative on how to make it more affordable to buy a home like that. And positive.BethDefinitely. And I think from a consumer standpoint, it tells us that, like, things aren't always black and white and they seem like there is some great of things that can occur right behind the scenes that we just aren't used to or don't know about because we're not like well versed in this, which I think ties into the next article.BethThe next why I want my popcorn. It's been a very interesting week in the real estate world.AndrewOh yeah, it's been fun. What's interesting is it's not really mainstream as far as like I call my dad about it. He's an attorney. So I guess first let's talk about what we're talking about. So this is from housing Viacom, although you could go almost anywhere and just type in Missouri and air losses and it pulls up everything.AndrewBut brokers prepare for changes after the Spitzer slash burn it commission lawsuit verdict. Well, that's that's a lot. Who wants to explain this? Probably better than I can.BethThere's two parts of this lawsuit that I think are digestible to people. Right? There we go. There's the one side that is saying like, hey, 6% is isn't a standard. It's not a requirement. Right. But we have been told within the industry and consumers have been told that 6% is the standard and the required amount.JenIt's like the wait, what's that Mandela fact like, where are you just there's been something in existence that you just Yeah.BethLike the chef's.AndrewLike he's like 20% to buy a house. A lot of people think you need to.BethSent down exactly.JenLike this is you don't need to wait this is the standard when that was never really.BethThere's nothing. I mean, down in LA they would have to pay 6%.JenYeah.AndrewOr like even use a real estate agent or realtor the realtors, the registered name with NPR.JenNow, you know, I was a I was a realtor. I worked for a brokerage. Yeah, but that was what was always it's just like that always existed. Like that was the.BethSo everyone believed it to be true. So that's one side. And then the other side, which is the meat of this lawsuit in general, is the fact that sellers were paying buyer agent commissions. So they were essentially their argument was that like we are paying for someone to negotiate against us. And so one of the verdict or one of the plaintiffs I'm sorry, her situation that she laid out was like we said, we're paying 6%.BethRight. But when all was said and done in our actual net, whatever might be our net profit, there we go, our net profits that we made from the sale of our home, it was actually 20% that went to agents commissions, and half of which is, you know, I think that in that instance it might have been actually to specifically the buyer.BethBut it's it's crazy because they were just like that. We shouldn't have to pay like they are choosing to use this realtor. They picked their realtor. The realtor works for them, not for us, and we are paying them. So those two side things, which then, you know, is a domino effect of other lawsuits now are happening and they've already filed another one.BethThe plaintiff attorney has already filed another one. And then you have the things that's happening that we talked about before with like Redfin saying we're not going to pay by our don't commission all the stuff.AndrewOh, yeah. So they're are found guilty of collusion. And there's all these things, you know, collusion being let me have the definition secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to cheat or deceive others. So that sounds so that's.JenSuch a.AndrewGuilty word, right?JenSo you're like, I'm blowing when you actually stop and think about this for a second, like, yeah, what you were just saying. But as like, if I'm listing my house and I'm paying a 6% fee, yeah, half of that is going to pay for the buyer's agent, which you're right is negotiate is the I'm paying somebody to negotiate against me or like represent somebody else in this transaction like at a lower price I think about.JenYeah, like, that's crazy. But like literally have never I will admit I have never thought about it in that way.BethQuestioned it because it's just been part of the process. Right.JenYeah, I.AndrewThink I think for you're watching like The Sopranos or, or one of those shows and like you put in the accents of these like Italian guys, it's like, Hey, you want to sell your house? Okay, cool, cool, cool. Here's what's going to work. And you put I'm not going to try to mimic the accents, but like the guys coming up to you and he's like, Please do it.AndrewDon't do it. Like, you know, if you like, know not to do it. What's funny is, like Carson, our oldest, his best friend, parents Dad is from Sicily, and as his crazy accent is hilarious, but you, they would be like, Hey, you pay me where it's like 6%, 3%, You know, half of that money. Go to this guy over here.AndrewYou're like, way, way like, I'm paying Like that guy hates me. He's trying to steal my washer and dryer and, like, the appliances and, like, all this other stuff, and they want to take it down $50,000 on the price I'm gonna pay that guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's just how it works. You know, if you don't do it, we're not going to sell your home.AndrewWe're not done talking about your home rather than a list. Your home. Actually, you can't even list your home because you have to put in something on the MLS. I think that's so there's all this evidence that's like, like, supports this collusion and you're like, wow. But the verdict was 1.35 million just for the Missouri case, which was which 100 something thousand homes.AndrewNow, I don't know where this money coming from or who goes to, but that was just Missouri. You should add $2 billion for all the other states. Is there like over $1,000,000,000,000 in like money that could be a verdict potentially? I have no idea. I don't.JenKnow. Pull your power.AndrewPlay popcorn out.BethBut I got my Taylor Swift popcorn yet.AndrewThe notorious robber now at the summit and he talked about this in depth if you want like I think he's the best with following all this in the details. That's great. Robert Hahn Yeah superintelligent he does have I don't say bias because that sounds accusatory, but he is building a product that has the that's like the solution. After all, this settles right.AndrewSo there is you know, there is that there but I still think everything is saying seems very even in it's it's factual and he's referencing links and it's it's really one of the.BethFirst people to really put it out there like.AndrewYeah, he blew it.BethAnd he's been in this supermarket a long time and has worked alongside MLS for a long time. So it's really fascinating.JenTotally.AndrewYeah, it's going to be really interesting. But most people I know about, I touch my I as I started to talk to my dad, he's an attorney.JenAnd.AndrewSo he and I'm like, Have you seen this case? He's like, No, tell me about it. He's like, Hmm.JenI'm going to call some of my interesting my old friends.AndrewLike, how do you feel about this? Of course, realtors, like, like, I just assume they're like, this is garbage. It's, you know, a bunch of what I hope.JenI'm going to find out. I'm going to all my peoples and report back.AndrewFor a change.BethTo need to talk to some of my friends that are realtors. Because, like, it's not that realtors are bad people or sketchy people. If you saw the market, it's a it's just been the it in.JenThe.BethWay exactly It's been like no way. This is the way agents sometimes are working harder than some of the seller agents Oh percent of cases. And so like there are handling a lot of are people.JenAround and see and homes.BethAnd the reality is and the other solution is that it comes out of pocket of the buyer which makes affordability even harder because now they have to pay agent commissions or agent rate that they never had to pay before, would they. And would they.AndrewAnd could they finance that? Yeah, not finance it. It's really like part of it's like the money's never really seen. And I think that's how it's worked for so long. I guess that's how the money comes out of here. And the buyer is like, okay, cool. But if you're like, Hey, for me to buy this home with with you, I negotiate.AndrewHere's here's a value I provide, It's going to be $6,000 and I want you paid initial fee now 2000. And then once we put a contract on home, another 2000, then once we close, that's another 2000. If you don't pay, there's a lean against your home and I could foreclose against you. Right. Wouldn't that be. I think that's how it works.AndrewWouldn't it be like that's my God. It's like if you have a roof, they put it in and you get your home until like the balance is paid or any major house house project. And you go, Well, well, and I have to pay cash. Like I, I have 6000 from a down payment or 16 or 60 like have to take some of that away to pay you.AndrewWhat if I don't use a buyer's agent. Well, like.BethMan.AndrewThat's. Yeah, get the popcorn out. That is definitely the popcorn.BethThis has been a great prop for today's call.AndrewWhat kind of popcorn? By the way, did you make it yourself?BethI'm so with my favorite popcorn, I'm boring. So I did, like. I know. I'm sorry. I'm really boring. I don't like overly butter or, like, overly salty, so like I do. I don't remember which brand it is, but it's like the natural one. Just like natural.JenYeah.BethOriginal or whatever. I don't know. It's a brown box.AndrewI like the purple bag. Which one is that one? Boom chicka pop.BethOh, my. Like if I.JenHad to pick a pop cause.BethIt's not pre pop I popped it.AndrewBoom chick. What is that. What is the popcorn. I need to know. People are like this time.BethYou're right.AndrewYeah. Boom chicka pop and salty kettle kettle corn. It's like four bucks. But once you open the bag and it like the whole thing right there.BethYeah. Especially kettle corn because it could lose its crisp like it's like.AndrewSo it's an air fryer just getting don't do that. Sounds like a terrible idea. Well that's it for the news this week current favorites and or your least favorite what you hate. Hate is a strong word but I really, really really don't like it. Whatever it may be.BethI'm going to be nice today. I'm not going to go negative. I'm going to stay positive.AndrewOkay.BethAnd stay along me eating one second.AndrewThat's a sweet cut, by the way, To the top right there.BethTaylor. Yeah, I got to go with my Taylor Swift Cup. I took my daughter to see it, but yeah, I'm eating all the candy. So we talked today on the on our marketing call, our internal marketing call about how good the Reese's Take five candies are. Like, I'm not a chocolate person. I usually go towards the fruity stuff like a starburst or some Skittles.BethOh yeah. Like those are jam.AndrewPut us together.BethOh lovely. It's like a party, But I am upset. They're like, crack the reasons take five they're so good and I can't stop eating them so well.JenOne of my favorite things was seeing your pictures of your family Halloween costumes. We were on point.AndrewYou were hook. Your family was hook themed.JenWith the pretty legit Think you're.AndrewNext year I need a I'll make them I'll do a theme so.JenAll guys need it yeah Andrew I want to get like.AndrewThat and like, I'll.JenJust address my dogs. I think next year.BethThey were adorable. My kids were like, all in. Like, if you saw the video I post on Instagram, Kellan was like, fighting my like, my name.00:51:34:18 - 00:51:35:23JenWas so cute.BethMike had, like, sweet eyebrow. I drew eyebrows on him. I mean, it was you guys got to check out. Maybe we'll put a picture in.AndrewSo take five, take five. Reese's. I swear I've had one of those. But then they had a while other, like we're putting pretzels in here in the Reese's.JenWe're putting those.AndrewChips in here that will that one's like it's own separate thing versus irises with like one extra ingredient, you know?BethI gotcha. No.JenYeah, Yeah. My favorite thing, I'm going to be that person today. Starbucks has their holiday drinks.BethOh, would you get.JenThe premium mocha? Okay, my favorite holiday. Interesting. So my son brought me one today, and I'm.BethYes, I love Sam.JenI know Sam. And I.AndrewAm.BethI am also super fan of Sam.JenYeah, that's right. Sam dressed up as in Olympia.AndrewThe pictures were awesome. Speak at his builder.BethI did see that picture. That was awesome.AndrewYeah. For the chocolate factory. Let's see my favorite. I'll go. Well, I got two things. One I've been addicted to, so I like energy drinks. There's people that like them and the people that don't like them. Like it's definitely there's no in between. Right. I wish they would make these caffeine free is my wish. I think they're missing out on a market or having like a low calf.00:52:56:20 - 00:53:12:11AndrewThis is only like 160 or 140 milligrams for this one flavor. So here's the thing. I was just thinking about how dumb someone is. That monster. Monster. You're dumb. What flavors as I've been drinking this on the podcast.00:53:12:13 - 00:53:15:06JenIt looks like some kind of great it's part.AndrewWhy is the logo not this way for when I drink it and you see it like what it is? Oh, right. Why are they. Why am I looking at the little bit you see like the nutrition facts and like the warning label do not exceed more than five of these a day or something like that. They Yeah, the purple, the ultraviolet, ten out of ten and anything great flavor has been been great but I'll go the candy theme as far as my true favorite the I think is very very the purple bag of Skittles.JenOmega.AndrewMixed with Starburst. Take a starburst Skittles in the middle, Another stronger together.JenOh, okay.AndrewThat's the party in your mouth right there.BethThat is really good. I know it's weird. Is that Starburst? Starburst came out with their, like, Starburst minis, which are basically like, cut down smaller. They're not good.AndrewThey're not good. It's wrong.BethI don't know. They taste like waxy. I don't know what it is.AndrewThere's less moisture in it, if that's even a word. They're less moist, like they're.JenActually dry. Oh, how I feel about that word.AndrewDon't say that word. That's a word. There's a whole bunch of words. What's it? There's more of these from the summer. So sign up for the fabulous for the summit. If you want to know more about Arctic Words now, there's much more reasons. We'll be in Chicago next year. It will be freezing water. Amazing.BethAnd it's my favorite one.AndrewRight by the being like we're like being out on the river. There's so much good food right there. Remember the popcorn? Like, I know this is like touristy stuff. People from Chicago, Jackie Lipinski is like, Oh my gosh, you people are so embarrassing. It's like, like, I and Key West. But the popcorn, you get them all mixed together, other flavors.AndrewOh, my gosh. It's so good on that.BethI'm starved, Pumped.AndrewI'm pumped. Let's go. And it's October. It's our latest summit, I think, ever. Maybe usually it's like September or October. Okay. We're going back to late.JenLike mid October.AndrewAnd I was in Dallas. In Texas.JenYeah, yeah, Dallas.AndrewSo Chicago. Yeah. It'll be. Yes, I know. Get on that list. Well, let's see that is it for this week. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to become a member for free Converse all access Community app for homebuilders and developers. Watch behind the scenes video from the podcast. Frequent exclusive postings, super exclusive and analysis from the DBC team, access to private hangouts and more.BethSo bye.JenBye.AndrewBye. The post Ep 310: Investing In Integrity appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 306: The Girls ClubIn this episode, the ladies take over! Beth Russell is joined by Jen Barkan and Julie Jarnagin and together the three share their Summit recaps as well as how they are dealing with the post-Summit blues. They discuss the passion and excitement that comes with attending a content rich seminar, but also the realities of what that looks like when you go home. They talk about the importance of not being afraid to be vulnerable and admit when you don't know something. The three dive into the hot topics including Redfin's announcement to leave NAR and share their thoughts on the situation.Story Time (01:57)Beth shares her feelings on experiencing the Summit as a DYC employee and not attendee.Julie Shares how being able to communicate data and answering questions and providing info to leaders from other departments is sometimes like a second language.Jen's son, Sam, has a new plan which is “Acclimate, Accelerate, then Dominate.”The News (27:00)Redfin is Leaving NAR (https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-is-leaving-nar/)Mutiny inside NAR as staffers call for resignations of top executives (https://www.inman.com/2023/09/19/mutiny-inside-nar-as-staffers-call-for-resignations-of-top-executives/)Climate Change Pushes Up Home Insurance Premiums (https://www.redfin.com/news/climate-change-pushes-up-home-insurance-premiums/)Why Your Starbucks Wait Is So Long (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-09-20/starbucks-spends-billions-to-slash-wait-times-with-faster-orders?leadSource=uverify%20wall)Resumed Student Loan Payments Shake Up The Housing Market (https://www.probuilder.com/resumed-student-loan-payments-shake-housing-market)Things We Love Things We Hate (51:21)Julie is loving the newest season of "The Great British Baking Show"Jen is enjoying the tv show "Suits"Beth's new house feels like a tree house and she is in love with it.Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunesFollow on SpotifyListen On StitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript:BethWelcome to the Girls Club.JenOh, my gosh. I did not even realize that it was Girls Club until about an hour ago when I was on a call with Kevin. And bless his heart, he was just slowly fading because he's not feeling well. And I said, Man, are you going to be able to be on the podcast? And he goes, I'm not on the podcast today.JenAnd I said, What? And I said, I guess I'll just be with Andrew. And he goes, Nope, not Andrew either. And I was like, What? I was like, Oh. And he's like, Yeah, it's Beth and Julie. And I was like, Yes.JulieLadies podcast.JenIt's fun. Taking over. We're taking over control.BethNo offense to the boys, but we are so excited.JenYes!BethIs going to be a lot of fun. I can already tell.JenOh, my gosh.JulieYeah, and the first post-summit podcast too. So we got to do it on a fun one.JenOh, my gosh.BethSo, I mean, we're we're going to have a good time. It's going to be, as Jen would say, electric.JenAnd it's going to be like.JulieElectric. Definitely.BethAll right. Well, let's get started. Welcome to episode 306. I am Beth Russell. And with me today is Julie Jernigan and the online sales extraordinaire, Jen Barkin.JenOh, I like it. Yes.BethYou always need like that big tie up because you're just so like, okay, the energy is just I don't want to say electric again, but I can't help it.JenI think my next tattoo needs to be a lightning bolt or something like I do.BethBut you. I need to get matching ones.JenSam. Yes, Sam needs to get one that says dominate. And I need to get a lay up. Yeah. Oh, no. This is the latest. This is the latest Sam thing. So, yeah, he. You know, he's working on site at Chesapeake House, and they.BethLove him and.JenLove him. Yes. And I was. I was, like, trying to, like, coach him on something or whatever. And I'm sure they love that and, like, trying to coach them on their on site process. But he goes, Mama, here's the deal. I got to get acclimated first. Then I accelerate and then I dominate. And I'm like, okay. I was like, I can get behind that.JenYou're going to get acclimated, right? Get your bearings. Then you're going to accelerate. Then you're going to dominate. And I was like, okay, he's going to be a motivational speaker.JulieSo that.BethWas like.JenWriting it down. Like, All right, here we go.BethShe starts structuring her nest.JenTold you for the content. Yes. Thank you very much. That is.BethAmazing. I love him. I feel like we need to start recruiting for Sam.JenAlready telling you.BethIn the next like 5 to 10 years, he's just going to he's going to do great.JenWell, he already is. He already told me he's he's got his sights set on NAHB, Rookie salesperson of the Year. So let's put that out there in the universe. He's like, Yeah, I'm going to be there at IBS. So. Lisa Parrish, Sam Bargain, putting it out there. Salesperson of the Year.BethThat is awesome. He is. That is the energy we all need right now. And I feel like it is an energy that a lot of us have post summit. So as Julie mentioned, this is our first recording post summit and I'm kind of excited that it's us and.JenWe don't have Kevin in the industry. We can like.BethReally talk about it and how it went. Not that we wouldn't want them here as well, but I feel like it's like a little bit more fun with our personalities right now. But it is my first time as a team member and not as an attendee working for the builder. So it was like a mixed bag of emotions.BethI feel like afterwards.JenLike, what do you mean?JulieThere's definitely like a you get home and you have this like and I don't know if it's like really like really relieved that it's over or if it's like sadness because you have this big built up. So there's kind of a little funk. But I mean, it's good because you loved it and it was amazing. Yeah, I feel like I need to sleep for like two days to still, like, get back into my group.JenWe're going to.BethDive right into story time with this one because so like I said, mixed bag. And I think it's just like what Julie said. It's a mixture of like, Oh.JenMan's.BethIt's time. That was like a lot of socializing and I never socialize. I'm always in this cave by myself. And then it's sad also because like, this is the one time year that we in the daily routine would get together. So it's so great seeing people and meeting people for the first time in person that I haven't met before.BethBut then I like couldn't help but reflect on my time as an attendee and that emotion that a lot of the attendees are probably feeling of. Part of it is like, Oh my gosh, I suck at my job. So many people are better at this than me. There are so many creative people, but I'm also like loving that I feel that way because if you didn't feel that way, you wouldn't be like you wouldn't have that fire to go out there and do something different and implement something new and apply a lot of the things that all of the wonderful presenters were talking about at these various sessions.BethAnd so, like, I remember having that fire of like I am ready to hit the ground running and I want to do this and I want to do this, and I have so many ideas. But then I also remember when reality hit and like you get back to the daily grind and how quickly it starts to burn out and I don't want to say burn out because that sounds like super negative, but like it diminishes that flame starts to diminish, right?BethAnd so I think on art, like Maya now as a do you convert person and a coach that has like direct impact on all of these people that were attending is like, now I feel that fire and a new way of helping their flame stay lit for longer.JenOh, I like it more. I mean.BethLike it's like we got to find new ways. We have to now.JenKeep them lit. Yeah.BethThe water bottle, that energy. Yeah.JenSo as you were talking, that's you know, I was thinking about that and I was thinking that, you know, any time you come from a conference or you have this notebook full of ideas right now, like, Oh my gosh, when I get back and I'm going to implement this and we see this a lot happen with our online sales academy, too.JenLike, you know, they come and they're just like sponges and they have their notebooks and they're like, yes, I'm going to go do all the things. MM And realistically you can't do all the things, right. Yeah. So I was thinking when you were talking like advice, you know, is summarize your notes like, so you've got this notebook full of stuff and it's like, go through and highlight the, this is where I'm going to start.JenAnd maybe you pick three things and you go, I'm going to tackle these three things over the course of the next 3 to 6 months or whatever, and then keep revisiting that notebook and it can be overwhelming, like trying to be like, Oh, I want to do this and this and this and this, and then you end up maybe not doing anything well, you know, as if you had like a couple of things that you really implemented well, then then that's maybe be it more successful.BethAnd I think it's about also don't make excuses about why you can't implement something like don't pick the three easiest things that you think you can do, like pick one that's challenging. And I had all the all the people in the marketing room shout, I am limitless on purpose because so many times we like put ourselves in a box and think, Well, I can't do that because of X, Y, Z, and I can't do that in my organization because we don't have this or I don't have this.BethAnd it's like, no, pick something that's a challenge and really hone in on it and try it and fail if you need to. But it, you know, like sometimes failing is just as good of an experience than actually being super successful on it.JulieAnd that's part of the magic of Summit, is those connections. You're there with other people who are passionate about it and you can talk to it. And so I think people need to remember to foster connections outside of something like Summit. So whether that's somebody you've met in a similar role for somewhere else, you have a zoom once a month to talk about challenges you had.JulieIf that means taking somebody on your team out to coffee, you know, once every two weeks to like talk through things and brainstorm like outside. I think fostering the connections is one way to kind of keep that.JenSpark.BethAbsolutely.JenLit. Hey, you got to get you got to get acclimated, you got to accelerate, you got to stay lit and you got to dominate, dominate. You're going to add that and the guy's never going to.JulieDo a podcast together again. They're going to say, we've lost control.BethYou know, the persona that Jen just took on was Love it. I hope everyone who's listening goes back and watches just that.JenThis is like recorded. Okay, So.JulieYou thought you were just hanging.JenOut.BethYou need to make one of your freestyle raps next. Actually, that puts all.JenThat in it. You know, I need to work on this. You're right.BethChallenge accepted. Julie, what do you got?JulieYeah, so I was talking to a builder yesterday. She is new in the role, but not new to home building. Super smart, working hard. And she came to me and said, I'm freaking out because everybody's on me. Like, not enough leads. Not enough leads. We don't have enough. Everything slow. And I was like, okay, let's look at the numbers.JulieAnd then when we pulled all the numbers, number wise, like things look good, you know, we are getting what we were when they felt like things are real. So we're just talking through like, let's take the data. How are we going to talk through the data with them? How are we going to ask a questions about like, why does this feel flow with this?JulieAnd she said something that I thought was really might resonate with other people. She said, it's like learning a language. She said when we talk about it, she was like, I understand it. I get it. When I'm at Summit and I'm learning these things, I'm like, Yes, But she said then, like leadership or sales or somebody comes to me with these things, with these questions and I have to talk about like, what we're doing is marketing.JulieShe's like, Then I can't just communicate it out to them. I can't take that and explain it. And so we just had this conversation about how that in itself is a skill. One thing is like understanding the numbers and knowing what you're doing and having a marketing strategy. That's a separate skill to then be able to take all that data and look at that information and then be able to communicate that back to other people in the organization.JulieAnd I said, That's just going to take practice and that's something you're actually going to have to work at. You're going to have to be in the data every day. You're going to have to start showing this to people and explaining things to people and getting that experience of how you talk about it and how to answer things.JulieSo that was interesting thinking about it like that as a language. She understands it, but she can't speak it yet. Know that's that's her challenge right now. And I think that's it is a harder skill than people realize. They just think they should be able to do it automatically. But it takes practice.BethThat is such good advice and link telling her to get out there and and try and talk to different audiences because how you translate it and how you tell that story of the data is going to be a little bit different based off of the audience that you're presenting it to. And so the more you do that, the more comfortable and confident that you'll be.BethAnd I think it translates in any any position, not just marketers translating data, but online salespeople overcoming objections on the phone, us as coaches, all three of us being coaches and like trying to get, you know, make an impact with different types of people and in different organizations like it, Give yourself some grace. Start from the foundation that you have, build upon that foundation and get practice.BethSo that way it just feels more comfortable and intuitive over time. But that grace is so important. And then advice you gave her so good.JenYou know, and into like as you were talking, I was thinking about so my daughter Mia just came home for fall break from school and I was asking her about her classes and she was like, Oh, I had this presentation. I had to stand up in front of people and I got to 96 and like, I didn't even have to really look at my notes.JenAnd I just felt so good about it. And I was like, Oh, you know, that's so great. Mia, why do you think? And she's like, Well, I really knew the material. And I said, Ding, ding, ding. Like, the more with knowledge comes confidence. Yes, the more that you study and you prepare and you learn it, the more confident you're going to feel about what you're talking about.JenAnd you don't even need it like it just comes authentically out of you, you know, to talk about that as coaches, you know, it's like, yeah, you don't even need to look at a script. Like you feel confident about the knowledge you can present it. So you're marketers. It's like, yeah, you have to put in the work to learn it and study it, right?JenBut it takes time and have some cheat sheet. Like if you're going to be presenting to leadership, like have your notes like because you get sidetracked and you forget what you're talking about and have your notes and your T sheets. Yeah.BethAnd focus on the things that will be most important to them. Like, you don't have to dig into the weeds, you don't have to be super technical and we don't have to let our entire nerdy like, nerd side show like, we can talk it in a little bit.JenLet your nerd flag fly. Yeah.BethTo an extent.JenTo an extent, Yes.JulieYes. Consider your audience for a show.JenHey, ladies, I'm just so happy at you all. Because sometimes Kevin and Andrew are on here, and I'm sitting here like, Okay, yeah, I had no idea what you're talking about. I'm over here in online sales land. Don't know. So they're doling out red flag five to high as what you're saying. Make sure that you're somewhat understandable by the normal people like me when we're coming.BethInto the first thing that I wasn't as strong at as a lot of the technical side of ads because I didn't have to do a lot of that at my builder. Oh, yeah. You know, so like when Andrew and Julie and Becca and Sarah were teaching me the things that I needed to rebuild my foundation on, I would be like, Okay, for Dummies, like, do this for Dummies.BethAnd oh, sister, we all have our strengths. We all have other things that we're good at. But not everyone. And my husband, I know he's listening. He always listens. He always says to me like, Oh.JenThat makes one of ours.JulieMine doesn't.JenEither, but I don't.JulieListen to his. So it's fair.JenWhere even semblance of like.BethWell, he has all this time on his drive in the morning. So he listens to our voices. But he always reminds me like, not everyone knows what you what you know, you know, it's not a natural. So, like, sometimes you have to dumb it down a little bit and pretend like you're writing Marketing for Dummies or things like that.BethAnd it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing because it also it brings us to keep going back to this foundation. It brings us back to our foundation and kind of helps us remember on the basics that we should be focusing on every right while.JenYeah, yeah. And I think it's okay to be vulnerable when you don't know something. So like, yes, I mean, this is yeah, this is about.BethThis is a big topic.JenAnd I think one.BethI think it's a really good topic for everyone listening, but especially leaders that are listening because I don't think and I, I think that's why so many people at Summit were so captivated by Rhonda and Elaina because they are high level within their organizations. But they and even Chris, you know, like not afraid to be vulnerable and let people in because it it opens up the door for other people to be vulnerable.BethAnd it doesn't mean that you have to be singing Kumbaya and like diving into your personal lives. It just means that you are unafraid to be authentically yourself, to be wrong, to fail, and to allow room for people to not know so they can ask the right questions so that you can actually get to the right answers.JenYeah, I know I've talked about this before, probably on the podcast, and I'm just going to say it again. Rene Brown talks about daring leadership versus armored leader in leadership. Armored leadership means you approach things with like, I know everything. Like I don't want to ever look vulnerable, Like I'm tough, tough, tough, right? Yeah. When you approach leadership in that way, you you're missing out on growth and opportunity, approaching it with a daring leadership mindset.JenYou know, I'll admit, like I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. But you know what? You and I are going to figure this out together. Yeah, I'm going to ask questions of you. You're going to teach me. I'm going to teach you, and we're going to tackle this together, you know? So I just encourage leaders like and even us, do you convert as coaches like and it's like sometimes you don't know the answer and it's okay to be like I was just on a call yesterday, totally stumped me.JenI was like, So I gave up my classic, you know, and those of you that know this. So this is the classic pivot objection is like, Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to take it back and talk about it with the team and we'll get back to you. But I don't know, calling in a lifeline.BethLike if you don't do that as a leader, then you are also preventing your own growth because you just stop learning.JenThat's what I mean. Exactly. You stop learning.JulieYeah. And your whole team is scared to admit when they don't know something, right? Because you look like you always have the answers and I'm going to look stupid. But if they know you're willing to do that, then they're willing to admit when, like, I don't know what that means. I'm just shaking, rattling, vibrating.JenAnd like, Yes, and that and I know exactly what you're talking about. Good for. Oh, okay. That's not Gatorade. Okay, cool. Got it. Yeah.BethNo, I think this is a this is the big topic as of recently. And I can't tell you actually how many times that somewhat summit it was brought up to me. And I don't know if either of you got the same of like people wanting more leadership help, whether it be at the marketing level or the sales and marketing level.BethAnd so it's something that, you know, I've been really brewing on and I'm trying to create a way for that fire to keep burning because I think it's really important that we continue training at that level and at that topic because it as we're learning from the stuff that's in the news this week that.JenSaid, Oh, we got into this, we got to talk to we got to talk about the news, I guess it's like, hey, we'll get there. But it.BethCan it can have a really big domino effect within an.JenOrganization. 100% agree with you on the online sales side. But leadership is a constant. Like just managing online sales team is completely different than managing an on site. So a completely different and so, you know, most sales leaders bandwidth is stretched. They're busy. They're putting out fires with on site stuff all the time. And if numbers look good, it's easy just to go, Hey, you go over their numbers like, fine, okay, check suite, everything's good.JenYeah, but what we know is that, yeah, the numbers look great because numbers look great right now, like as far as conversions go. But we have to look beyond that and we have to manage the program, manage the person, you know, beyond just the numbers. So there's definitely a space for more conversations around it.BethThough. I promise we'll get to the news, but I want to do a hot take if that's okay with you. Girl. Is that.JenYeah.BethThen. And Julie too. Who do you think should manage online sales within an organization?JenOh, well, I'll let Julie answer first and then I'll answer.JulieOh, gosh. To do a marketing marketing director, this would be my first answer. Okay. That's my experience. That's my experience. It started in marketing. Then it was director of sales and marketing was the same person. So I lean towards marketing, not sales.JenOkay, so I have J I have a not an exactly black and white answer. If it is a new program for your organization and you have to get sales buy in, like it's a complete culture shift when you're rolling this program out and sales could be a little bit resistant to it. Mm hmm. It works well to have a sales leader kind of overseeing because online sales is an extension of the sales team.JenThat's how you want to set that role up and position. And so if you have a sales leader over it that's really good at bridging the gap, then it works out better. I think in that situation. Ultimately, the bottom line though, is whoever is going to have the bandwidth, whoever understands the role, the best, who is going to hold them accountable, who is going to be the conduit between sales and marketing and online, which in a lot of cases it's marketing, right?JenWe talk about online sales being like the lovechild between marketing and sales. And so we see a lot of success too, with online sales reporting up to that marketing person. And that is kind of really good. But ultimately it comes down to there has to be communication between sales, marketing and online. If, if there's silos and it never works.BethYeah, no, I think that's a really good answer. And like originally I would isolate on Julie side too, based off of my own personal experience. Right?JulieAnd we're marketers because.JenYou, you, you manage, you manage the team and your marketing.BethSo and they came from sales to under the marketing umbrella in that room. But the reason why that worked to your point, Jen, is because I had the time and ability to understand their role within the organization and the impact which they had within the organization and our successes. And so it made sense for them to be under me within the marketing umbrella.BethRight. And I think that's what the same situation for Julie as well. I don't want to speak on her behalf, but I think that was that was similar for you guys. And so when it comes to online sales, I think, yeah, they could flourish under either, but it's just important that their voice is heard and recognized and appreciated within the organizations that they are fully supported by whomever it is that is leading them.BethBut it has to have the influence of marketing and sales either way.JulieAnd it's not like sells if a sell is if a sales person is going to be the leader, not a sales person, a sales leader is going to manage them. I think they have to understand how dramatically different those two roles are. They can't treat them like a on site salesperson just taking. It's a different it's a different role.JulieSo it has to be somebody who understands that those differences, I think.JenYeah.BethThat can be said for marketing, right? Because like if you have a sales leader in charge of marketing or leading the marketing person, whoever is doing the implementation of marketing, if you have, it's someone that doesn't understand marketing or doesn't recognize the difference between marketing and sales and how they should work together, not separately, then you're setting them up for failure as well.BethSo basically, if you're at the top, if you're in a leadership position in any organization, in any field, you have to take the time to understand what it is that your people do and their importance within the day in and day out operations and the success of the operation in order to be a successful leader at that level.JenAnd this goes back to what we were saying about daring and armored leadership. If you are a leader. Hill, you're like, I've never been an online sales specialist. I have no idea like the ins and outs, right? Because it's at a time like you weren't an online sales specialist and you manage them, right? Huh? Being a daring leader is now.JenI've never done this role. Teach me, you know, show me, show me your process. Show me what you do. Show me your reporting. Show me those and let's talk about it now. You don't have to come in and like, knowing everything or, you know, to me.BethBiggest question. Just be the expert.JenYeah, just ask questions.JulieYeah. I'll circle your ticket full circle.JenIn that manner.BethSo they should let us take over more of that.BethOkay. So I promise we will get to the news. So all of this does lead in to the hot topic of the week, which is Redfin's announcement via an open letter, if you will, on what was it Monday that they published this?JenIt was Monday.BethYeah. That they are leaving the National Association of Realtors and they really put it all out there, which I mean kudos because I love the, the honesty, I love the transparency.JenCurrency things.BethAnd I think, you know, we've had a couple internal conversations about this. But I think the the real interesting thing about this is to see what happens next, because they're the first ones to really say now, like regardless of how the semantics work behind the scenes and what might happen, what they can and can't do at different levels and in different regional areas, you know, where their hands might be a little cuffed, if you will.BethBut I think it's really interesting that they were the first ones to take it out there and say, we're not tolerating this anymore and something has to change.JulieAnd if you're not following this, the few reasons they gave for severing ties was one, the Association of Realtors policies requiring a fee for the buyer's agent on every listing. So and that meant like on redfin.com you couldn't list a for sale by owner. It would have to be someone associated and then also a pattern of alleged sexual harassment.JulieSo there were there were different levels to this. It wasn't just the policies that they're unhappy with, it was also some leadership issues as well. So it's a very layered, multifaceted issue that they're working through and they.JenRealtor Right. As a former member of and they are a no, I like it.JulieYeah. And it really it gets more complicated. It gets complicated because a lot of the MLS is, are tied to the local and state realtor association. So you have to be a member of the Association of Realtors to get access to the MLS. Yeah, well, the in air rules say that if they're not associating with that, none of their none of the people below them down stream, which would give them no access to MLS.JulieSo it's a very far reaching they've said this and there's different conversations about is this just symbolic or are they going to go fight every single, you know, different local chapter? I don't know if they're chapters, whatever they are, to get access to the MLS. So it's very much the first step. It's a big step and it makes a big statement in a very long process of how to untangle all of this that's been going on, how it's worked.JenIn pairs, then going, Hmm, there's been a ruckus around this for quite some time. So like you said, I'll be interesting to see kind of what happens next, like being the first ones to kind of publicly put it out there.BethSo, yeah, beautifully summarized. Really. That was.JenThat was.BethKudos, man. I know what.JenYou're talking about, Julie. Thank you.JulieHopefully it's all right. You'll go read the article and double check all the facts there.JenI read the links in the show notes.BethSo in our next piece of news is also related to the National Association of Man Hours.JenBecause.BethApparently there is I love this word mutiny inside the air. I get.JenMy popcorn.BethYeah, seriously, let me start popping in right now as staffers call for resignation of top executives. Now, this is more based around the sexual harassment claims that have occurred, as well as additional toxic workplace environment situations and cover ups and yeah, there's that's going to take a big bag of popcorn.JenYeah, I think we're just moving on from this.BethYeah, just I think I think it shows a little bit of the ripple effect right now. If Yeah, back up it's back in the news. Now they are they're saying it's only a small number of employee employees that issued this letter, but I think it's still a big step and I think it shows that people aren't going to, like I said earlier, tolerate it anymore and people are willing to put their name on the line in some cases and their job and their their careers to say even within their company with Redfin's case, to say that, okay, like something has to get something has to be done.BethSo let's see how it pans out.JulieYeah, I'm sure we'll be talking about this more.JenYeah. In the future.BethHopefully not as long as mortgage rates.JulieOh, gosh. No mortgage rate stories this week.JenNo, no, no.BethBut this next one, Julie has a good personal story associated with it. I know, I know. But yeah.JenSo I guess.JulieClimate change pushes up home insurance premiums. A recent study from policy genius found that quoted homeowners insurance premiums increased by 21% nationally from May 2022 to May 2023, and that Florida experienced the largest jump with premiums increasing by 35%. So I went and did the math. So I live in Louisiana, south Louisiana, just north of New Orleans, and everybody below Interstate 12, all their insurance premiums have gone crazy.JulieSo my insurance company, who we had homeowner's insurance for a year, went bankrupt. So I got a letter that said they're going bankrupt. You're about to not have homeowner's insurance. And here we found another quote for you, which nobody wants to give homeowner's insurance down here. And it the new quote they gave me was 174% higher than we were currently paying.JulieThis is in March. Oh, boy. Stressed out in March. And it was a great like an insurance company. I had never heard of. We don't even live in a flood plain or I mean, all of all of this area is probably the same. But we're not we're not required to have flood insurance.JenWhen I was there, what was the rate like? Why?JulieWell, they went bankrupt and just nobody wants to take on people in this area. They just say, no, thank you. Most homeowners in church, this is so the quote we got was from like a crazy sounding made up name insurance company. And when I talked to another agent, he said, oh, and I've heard that they asked you to sign over a power of attorney if you work with them.JulieI'm like, well, I'm not doing that. So they finally found me another one, and my premium went up 109%, which was better than the 174%. So when I read this article.JenI got a little.JulieBut how it affects not just my story, but just how it affects homeowners like that digs right into your budget for how much or how much money you have to pay for your monthly mortgage. I mean, it makes a big difference, especially Florida, Louisiana, I'm sure, areas of Texas. I don't know, John, if this affects you or. Yeah.JenWell, it does, because I am below sea level. Mm hmm.JulieFor right there with you. Think we're really close? Yeah.JenYeah. So you have requirements for flood insurance. Anybody that's buying a new home. So this is interesting. Right down. Down the way people that live directly on the river. Yeah. Norfolk, which is really low. If you buy a home over there, as of, I think maybe last year or the year before, you're required to raise it in order to get the insurance.JenSo you have to like so we see all these homes going up on like built stilts, basically, I don't know, like cinderblock foundations, like ten feet high. It's like the most bizarre thing. But it's like in order to get insurance you at that's the requirement is that you have to raise your house.JulieAnd what the article saying is people are now taking this into account when they're purchasing homes. You know, I mean, if I was buying another home, I would think about it like, can we get. But of course it affects school district and all sorts of things. But it does and it's something worth talking about. If you're in an area where the the home insurance premiums are more affordable than just a little bit down the road, I mean, it's things worth thinking about because this is what homebuyers are thinking about as well.JenYeah, I was.BethGonna say.JenUsing that as a Yeah, you're saying using that as a unique selling proposition of Yeah. Hey, compared to this.BethIt works because in your neighborhood alone aren't it a huge master planned community that we live in our side. We actually didn't know this until we were prepping to close, but we are required to have flood insurance and no one warned me how expensive it is.JenRight?BethOh, okay. But that being said, the other side of the neighborhood, there's a street that like when you're driving and it's first on your right hand side, Their biggest selling point is they don't require flood insurance over there. So when people lose their homes, they're like, not only are we in River Island, but oh, by the way, you don't need flood insurance here.BethAnd it's a huge selling point. So I feel like we need to marketers need to be paying attention to little nuances like that because it does affect affordability and it does affect the buyers decision making.JulieYeah, and you need to be listening to your home buyers for anything like that that they're talking about because if that matters to them, it needs to matter to you as well.JenAmen. Yeah.BethSpeaking of affordability and impact on that, we have resumed student loan payments, shake up the housing market from pro builder. Yeah.JenSo that alone gives me gives me stress.BethI can see out you're in you're wiggling a lot right now trying to shake it out.JenNow I have one with student loans, so.BethYeah. Yeah. I don't, I can't, I can't speak to this one personal experience because neither of us had student loans. We were very blessed to not have any. But basically, student loan payments are set to resume this month and that added expense is an unwelcome obstacle for already cost burden homebuyers. So I'm just another factor that we have to we have to consider when talking to our homeowners are soon to be homeowners of what they can realistically afford.BethBecause now what I liked about this one is they're talking about how consumers are essentially bundling their debt. And so they're looking at their debt as a whole number versus like something have been paid off here. They're, you know, and not individual numbers. Exactly. So they're looking at this as a holistic number. And so that payment is just adding to that whole number.BethAnd that's they're feeling that anxiety going into the purchase because it's not just the mortgage that they're considering. They're considering the student debt, they're considering the car payments that are through the roof right now. Our student.JenLoan monthly payment is.BethSo this article said it's.JenIn the artery filled day with something. I feel like I read something or it was like 203 or something in.JulieThis article says Typical monthly student loan payment being around $200.JenOkay. Yeah.JulieAnd the other thing that plays into we just talked to a builder today and we were talking about some different things different builders are doing and they were like, Yeah, but you have to understand our particular buyer, they don't have a 20% down payment and that's going to be an issue too, as all these things eat into people's budgets like that.JulieDown payment is more and more of an issue too. So as far reaching effects for us, I feel like.BethYeah, absolutely. It's really it's interesting that a lot of builders don't even know that about their buyer like courtesy your builder knowing that because sometimes they don't understand the nuances.JenLike.BethAnd I love that they're out there actively trying to learn like I get a lot of builders within our circle asking for a 30 minute call with me to learn about the military buyer and what that psyche is like and how they can help them in a different way. That's outside of some sort of incentive. And I love having those conversations because they are truly making an effort.BethAnd I think all of these articles and the realistic world that we're living in right now is pinpointing that we have to take that 1 to 1 approach and really know what our buyer's life is like and the obstacles that they have outside of just our day to day organization and the products that we have to offer them within our community, but really take the time to learn who they are and what their what their face.JenPersonalized incentives based on what's happening with that particular customer or buyer. So, oh, you have student loan debt. So should the builder pay their student loan? Well, that's a stretch.JulieBut this is Jen's take now.JenOh, pay.BethThat off for you.JenStudent loans are preventing you from getting into this house. What if we paid half of your student loan debt? I don't know. I'm just like.BethI mean, is it less than what they would pay some $10,000 and $10,000? So I'm.JenSaying like, you know, if you want to use that to pay to reduce your debt to income ratio, I don't know, like because from what I know, because I have a kid who has student loans, like the loan amount is, you know, it's spread to keep the loan to keep the monthly payment low. Right. Like paying this high interest rate, it's spread over a long period of time when really it might only be $20,000 that they owe.JenBut like in to make that an affordable payment. Right. They've got this crazy loan thing and whatever. So if if a builder could say, well, pay your loan off or we'll pay half your loan off, I don't know that when this happens.JulieJen, you're getting full credit for this. I love it. Let's get.JenIn.JulieSpecial love.JenIt's thrown.BethIt's a great example of like the amount of creativity that we have to have right now on a 1 to 1 basis. Like, yes, the conversations that I had with a builder recently about like, how can we help the military buyer or even just the reload buyer in general, Like take our situation as a case study. We lived in an Airbnb for two.JenMonths that.BethWas $5,000. Pay for their Airbnb for two months.JenYes, yes, we will help you with your moving costs, your relocation cost, whatever, will you know? Yes. Listen, when when I was in my former life, I mean, I worked for builders that would like, okay, like your homes, I can be ready for another six months longer than what we thought or whatever we'll pay for you for a long term rental.JenYeah, a furnished rental. Yeah. Like, you know, and I don't know, I just. I agree with you that there has to be more some creative solutions and to work with some of these people. Yeah.BethYeah, absolutely. And as marketers, like, we have the you have a voice in offering those solutions up like you have a voice and an impact. And don't be afraid to make those suggestions and say, Hey, I heard this creative idea or this other builder is doing this. Maybe this is something that we can implement. And I love that idea because people forget and builders forget that at the time of purchasing and moving a home, not only is it extremely stressful, but you are hemorrhaging money when you are purchasing a home, whether it be because you have to do an Airbnb or you have to pay the movers or have to tip them, you have toBethbuy the movers food, you have to get out of your lease early, you have to sell your home, you have to move across country and pay for hotels. You have to buy new furniture like you are hemorrhaging money left and right for whatever reason. And so the the different ways that you can relieve some of that burden.JenOff.BethIn creative ways that you can do that. I mean, let's see it happen.JenYou can you can tell that's just me, mood. I know this is I got it.JenYou got to get them food.BethAnd how many times have we moved.JenIn the guy to go buy toilet paper? I mean.BethYour food goes bad. You have to fight rid of all of your food in your in. Like, it's ridiculous. The little things that you don't think about.JenYou need to unpack.BethThese always turn into a therapy session for me. Okay.JenI love it. It's good. Oh, my gosh.BethOkay. Speaking of waiting, I'm. I'm moving right on this thing and waiting for a long time. Why is your Starbucks wait so long, Julie?JulieIt's because people are coming up with weirder and weirder drinks, more elaborate drink combinations.JenAs long as you got to wait for perfection.JulieSo this is from customization. Bloomberg And it says elaborate drinks and an almost endless array of combinations can slow baristas down. But a plan to hasten service has yet to materialize. So they're talking about how it's how Starbucks is struggling because there are so many There was like a crazy number in here. If I can find it for like just a latte, it adds up to more than 383 billion different possibilities of what you can make.JulieThe team had a lot of fun with this one. There was a lot of back and forth conversation about this.JenArticle.BethWe did, and while the different data that was pulled, I is really fun and I don't remember particularly if it was in this article or not, but we talked about it internally. But Starbucks had released that they that their customizations, their personalization of their product, if you will, increases their revenue by 1 billion. But on the contrary, their other data, which is the weight associated with creating said custom drinks, had lost them anywhere between three and 5 billion or something like that in additional revenue because people were leaving and they were losing.JenLike, I don't have time to wait.BethOh Jen, how does that relate to online sales?JenYeah, well, yeah, if, if you're not first or last. So yeah, listen, people, you know, go back to that that study both you and I were talking about, like the personalization study, bomb bomb had presented it last year at our summit and just talking about one customers expect. So that word to expect is very powerful here. As we're talking about this, customers expect personalized service.JenThey they want what they want. They want customization, they want personalization, and they want it quick. And so if we're not able to deliver that, we're going to lose case in point, like, yes, they're making money on their personalization, but they're losing more on people getting irritated and walking out the door. So when we talk about online sales, we got a staff up, we got a staff up in order to meet the demands, in order to provide a personalized service.JenSo Starbucks, you know, they're making changes. They're talking about getting different ice. It's like what they need to do. They need to staff up if they're going to be able to provide this level of service.JulieThe other place I've seen this in home building. So I've been I'm old. I've been in home building since before 2008. I started in 2005 Production Builder. And it's like this is what we build.JenWe started to.JulieHear.JenIs it? Yes.JulieHere's what we build. You can select from these two color palettes and people were fine with that and then 2008 hit and everything crashed. And we said, you can make whatever.JenYou want, hear all the.JulieSelections in the world. So like the pendulum swung the exact way. Then we started not being profitable on that and it was taking everybody forever to get through the system. There were way too many choices. It was overwhelming. Everybody. And we swung all the way the other way where at one point that Idol Homes stable, call me if I'm wrong on this, but at one time I told Homes somebody would say, I will buy that house if you will paint the front door.JulieI think once we painted a front door orange and we live in Norman with you and somebody is like, you have to paint the front door. And we would refuse. We would say, Nope, that's not our scope. If that door is orange, it's staying orange. So like, I think what's interesting, what I've seen in homebuilding is how in the selections world, like that pendulum goes dramatic either way.JenYep.JulieAnd I think where probably Starbucks suffers with they're so huge it's hard to quickly adapt to changes. So if there's a Tik Tok trend and this is from Olivia and Bryce, they had these this conversation on the Slack channel. They were talking about how all the sudden on Tik Tok people are talking about the cool new trend of this weird drink that had 42 different things in it.JulieYou know, it's hard. Then everybody goes and orders that like how do you do that among all the Starbucks in the world slows everything down. So yeah, we definitely see this. And I think the people who deal with it best probably are the people who are faster to adapt.BethYeah.JenYou think Absolutely set expectations a little differently at the beginning. And when you go to order and balance out, yeah, you set expectations and then you don't have an issue.JulieI mean, I think it's.BethAbout living and like we talked about this at our, at the summit for the on the marketing side, my session was on personalization and then taking ideas out of other industries that do it well. And the whole point is that it's somewhere in the middle, like you have to offer enough that you're meeting your buyers expectations of allowing customization or a personalized experience.BethBut you're also living in a world where you can still mass produce something, whether it be a shoe, M&Ms;, Starbucks drinks or homes. I going to say mass produce that in that regard, but, you know, produce a product in an efficient manner that can be delivered on time. So it's just living in that middle ground. And sometimes it doesn't have to be a huge thing, like a bajillion options for a custom drink.BethIt can be something a little bit dial back where the customer just needs to feel control. They need to feel like they had a part in the process. They got what they wanted. Their expectations were met and it's up to us to find what that middle ground is, that sweet spot so that we can work effectively or efficiently in this case to be successful.JenNow lessens. We've solved all the problems today.JulieSolve problems to solve.00:51:00:16 - 00:51:02:13JenSo fun, girls, we.JulieGot all we got to have a girls only podcast every now and again. We got a that's on the schedule.Jen100%.BethI'm down. Put it on. Olivia. I hear you listening in. Okay, so before we end, we have to do our favorite favorites.JulieI do have a favorite.JenOh, my.JulieGosh. So I just found on Netflix there is a new season of my very favorite show, which is Great British Baking Show. I do not.JenBake.JulieDo not bake. I love it. It's my favorite. And there's a new season out and it.JenJust made my day. Do you actually bake or do. I don't watch it because it's soothing.BethI the dry humor is everything.JulieIt relaxes me. The British accent was relaxed me. But I just it's my favorite. I would I have watched these episodes. It's one of those ones I'll put on in the background and just let play because it's very soothing to me. So I'm very excited about that. That is my my favorite Right now.BethI'm learning more about you. I like this.JenWow. This is my favorite show right now. It suits me.BethOh, it had you having a resurgence.JenI know. Yeah. You know, it's bad when my 75 year old mom tells me about it, she's like, Oh, have you seen this new show? Suits? It's so funny and cute. You would really like it. I was like, okay, so I start watching it. I'm hooked. Yeah.BethIt's addicting. So if you haven't watched.JenIt, you guys watch it?JulieNo, I'm too busy watching.JenYour acting for this. Baking show.JulieNo time in.JenTime to watch it.BethSo it's really entertaining for sure. Mine isn't related to TV shows.JenGood. We need something else. Yeah.BethI don't really have any. I. I'm boring, and I watch those same shows, like over and over and over again, but it is the fact that. So we just moved into our house and it looks like a black cave. For those of you that are watching and aren't watching, like my my office looks like a black cave, but it's actually painted a dark olive color.BethIt's called Olive if you love it. It's so pretty in real life. But on Zoom, it looks a little dark, but the house itself, I live in a tree house. It is.JulieAmazing.BethYeah, like it feels like a tree house and I love it. And I go out on this like all, of our neighbors are like, oh, my gosh, your your deck. And oh, my gosh, know. And I'm like.JenNo, it's amazing. It's so nice.BethSo yeah, I'm in. I'm in a pinch me world. So if you if you follow me on Instagram, you'll see lots of tree house pictures and one.JenOf us yeah we love.JulieA pretty.BethYeah I'm not apologizing for.JenI'm so happy for you. It may say you know it makes paying the movers a little bit and making skipping lunch or food. Yeah I got her video.BethLiving in an Airbnb for two months.JenYeah.BethWhich by the way, our neighbor who is building their house, whose house is also delayed, she is now living in the same Airbnb that we lived in.JulieMan providing jobs, providing money for the community.BethAll right. Well, thanks for today. This is.JenFun. Oh, this is so fun. Thank you, guys. It's fun. Have a good one. Bye. The post Ep 306: The Girls Club appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 305: Creating Your Backup Plan with Tara BarliaDue to recent Summit events, we are releasing a special Online People Talking episode! In this episode, Jen Barkan is joined by Tara Barlia! Tara is an Online Sales Specialist at EYA, LLC and sat down with Jen to give some expert advice on having a backup plan. Tara shares that the most important way to avoid burnout is finding a backup person to handle leads over the weekend or during your vacation time so you're not coming back to a flood of emails. Together, Jen and Tara share all the tips and tricks to making your backup plan go seamlessly! Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunesFollow on SpotifyListen On StitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript:JenHello everybody. My name is Jan Barkan, online sales coach at Do you convert and welcome to online people talking or opt as we like to call it this series is dedicated to you the new home online sales specialist all about enhancing your lives and careers. We'll talk about real life scenarios is dedicated just for you. I am so excited to talk about this topic today.JenI think mainly because when I was an online sales specialist, I did not have a really good backup plan. Partly because I was stubborn and wanted to do everything myself and nobody could do it as good as me, and I quickly learned that was a mistake. Totally regretted that because having a true backup plan to give you that piece in mind so that you can take breaks is so important.JenSo I'm excited to introduce our special guests today. Welcome, everybody.TaraTara Barley Hello, everyone.JenHello. We are so excited to have you, Tara. Tara is the online sales specialist, senior online sales specialist now at the neighborhoods of EIA. So welcome to.TaraApsara. Thank you. Thank you for having me.JenYeah, absolutely. So before we kind of get into our topic today, talking about backup plans, tell us a little bit about EIA for us. Like where in the world are you located? Tell us a little bit about yourself.TaraYeah. So we EIA has been around for about 30 years, mainly townhomes for new construction. We are located in the DMV area, so we have community throughout the D.C. district, Maryland and Virginia. As I say, the DMV, the head of motor vehicle. I know we do get that a lot. But so it's interesting to have, you know, at the same time might have different types of sales going through anywhere from, I guess price range from 600,000 to a mid million.TaraSo big range there. And the market can be different between DC, Maryland and Virginia at the same time. So it keeps it keeps it exciting.JenYeah. And how long have you been in the role of online?TaraIt will be about two and a half years I've been with EIA like.JenLike almost O.G. status.TaraI know through COVID that CRE probably feel longer and then into now. Yep.JenAnd what and what did you tell everybody what you did prior to that? Because I think it's interesting.TaraYeah. So prior I worked with the Washington Nationals baseball team here in DC. I was part of their ticket sales and service. So. So a lot of sales, a lot of customer service, just a very different product that we were selling.JenYeah. So Haaz, if you, if we have any baseball fans watching this. Yeah. If you're joining us, definitely. Chad and tell us hello that you're here, we want to say hi to you. A special shout out to the Chesapeake home team who told me that they were logging in and watching today. So hello, Chesapeake Homes here in Virginia Beach.JenLet me ask you, Tara, really quick, because I think as an online sales specialist out there watching, they can probably join in and answer this question, too, with you. So if your online sales and you're listening, chat this out, what what's the biggest challenge that you're dealing with right now?TaraBiggest challenge, I think just you don't have control of the market, of course. So just going through the ups and downs of that summer months can be a little bit slower when people are on vacation and trying to still find what that urgency is for for our homes. So I think that that's been the biggest challenge. But before we know it, it's going to be fall and it'll pick back up.TaraSo just trying to get people in before that craziness and find a home for everyone.JenSo, so true market fluctuating is one of the the hardest or most opportune time to be an online sales specialist. Right? Because as things fluctuate, we have to continue to evolve. However, what we do is the it's the constant, it's the constant and the variable of the new home industry. So I'm sure everybody can share in that with you that there's a lot changing.JenWe've had a pretty great year so far, right. And we'll see what the second half of the year brings for sure. So guys, I wanted to bring Tara on to talk to you today about having a backup plan. This is something that we see is still sometimes a challenge to figure out. And there's certain there's lots of different scenarios when you would need a backup plan.JenSo you could be a solo online sales specialist like Tara was before today.TaraYeah, literally today.JenLiterally today. Do you have a special shout out to.TaraShout out to Simone? First day today? She's joining me. Very excited.JenYes. Shout out to Simona. We're so excited to have you join the team. Hey, Jessie. Hey, Sam. Sam barking shout out to you, son. Okay, so there's several different scenarios. You might be a solo Aussie and as a solo Aussie, if you're working, if you're on demand seven days a week, you need to have a break, right? So who is going to be in the fort while you're off?JenYou have, of course, vacation. We do want you to take vacations, right? I know, Tara, you like to travel. So figuring out like you love to travel. So taking those vacations, sometimes there are emergencies you need to have. Like who is going to take the leads? And then there's like, overflow situations where maybe you have a lot of leads and you want to have that overflow person that can kind of be your support and backup.JenAnd then you have the long term leave type of situation, which is like a maternity or paternity leave. And for example, and you've got to figure out who is going to cover for you. So there's lots of different scenarios. The one that I want to talk about with Tara that she has recent experience with is having being that solo Aussie.JenSo, Tara, when did you like talk a little bit about when you realized like, okay, like we got to figure this out?TaraYes. So as many of you guys know, leads continue to come in. It doesn't matter if it's a weekend week day holiday. Everyone's continuing to look for for home. So weekends were technically my days off, but people are still coming in, asking for questions, asking for appointments. And like Jen said in the beginning, too, you don't want to miss out on something and you want to be there.TaraBut it's also important to not get overwhelmed and take that break and it'll make you better when you come back and get back on the job. So when I really notice that something might be needed, I'd come in on Monday morning and my inbox would be filled with leads coming in and you wanted to get to the ones that looked like they were the most important or how to prioritize that.TaraReally, You still wanted to get back to everyone. So that's when I really realized that something might need a backup plan. Someone else might need to come help and cover because it is. I think we've all heard Jen say that if you the sooner you get to someone, the more likely they'll still be interested. Haven't shopped around yet, but more likely to get that appointment.TaraSo the sooner the better. And as I realized when I was trying to catch up from all the weekends, my Monday was gone. I didn't even get to my Monday people. And then all of a sudden it's Wednesday, Thursday and I'm still maybe playing catch up. So really important to try and get that backup plan.JenWell, I want to go back to something you said really quick before we move forward. And you're in the way that you're structured before having a teammate as a solo. I see you were working five days a week and on two days that you were off, What was happening on those two days that you were off.TaraTo the leads online, Any form still went to my inbox now.JenAnd then. They were just getting it. Okay, So they were sitting waiting for you? Yeah.TaraMonday the phone calls, the phone inbound, the phone call did go to these sales reps on site, which is great. You know, someone's still answering. However, if they're on an appointment, the phone will ring. There's a voicemail maybe going on, then I never get to them since they might have just called in to the sales rep and hopefully, you know, you booked a lot of appointments for the weekend and they're full are open houses.TaraBut yes, the phones were going to the sales reps to see if they could answer any initial questions.JenSo a little bit of a it was kind of like a like halfway kind of a backup plan, Right. Like the the on her days off the sales reps were taking the calls. So in your call tracking system, you were forwarding those calls to their sales team. But the E leads, Internet leads that were coming in. We're just sitting there in her CRM.JenAnd so what she was saying, guys, and if you're a solo LC, we want to hear from you like solo or team like chat it out. I want to see who's on if you if they're sitting in your inbox and you wait until Monday like you're trying to catch up and they need your new leads that are coming in on Monday are not you're not getting to them, right?JenIt's like you're playing catch up, right?TaraYes.JenAnd then it's like, you know, hey, Steven, how are you? You're playing catch up. And so it's just like a domino effect and you never feel caught up, right? So I finally said how.TaraI admitted it. I did it. I needed help. Yes.JenI said, okay, okay. I given help. Okay. So where did you guys go to look like who? When you're thinking like, okay, who's this person going to be that's going to manage the elites? Who did you work for?TaraSo initially we had luckily we had a community that closed out. Okay. So we had a sales rep that had kind of waiting for the next community to open, had some more free time. So she filled in on just Saturdays and Sundays and would get the leads. We knew this was kind of in the short term.JenOkay.TaraDecision right then since we thought, you know, down the road we may hire another one if this ends up working out. And we would look at the answer how many people are answering and seeing if that number, the percentage goes up, which it did since I think people were getting we were getting back to people quicker. So that's why we ended up hiring another one.TaraBut Tammy was our sales rep who would help me out on the weekends. Okay. Actually log into my email and get all of the leads and be able to respond to everyone throughout the weekend. And just coming in on a monday the first week I came in on Monday had only eight in my inbox, and just like that, I was so relieved.TaraI felt like I can get to those people right away starting Monday fresh as opposed to dread. You know, people dread Mondays already. You don't want to try them.JenMore like, Oh, my inbox is going to have.TaraExactly. So even week one just just for myself to see that was was huge and we'll get it right. We trained it.JenSo why do we need a backup as a solo O.C. To prevent burnout, first and foremost, right To handle our leads better. I mean, if you are if your leads are sitting untouched for two days, you're missing opportunity, right? So there you go. And leads. Right now, somebody has a lead that's like golden butter role, right? I mean, that's a big deal.JenSo that's why we need to look at having a backup in that situation. Who you have like Tara close out community, a sales rep could come over and assist in that way. You might look at a sales assistant or marketing somebody on the marketing team possibly that could do that. Let's see what else? A design assistant I've seen.JenI've even seen managers. Yes, managers fill in right. And learn how to just be in reactive mode, how to enter the leads in CRM, how to what to do on the phone call, just basic hey online sales specialist, your D convert coach Jen Barkan here. Are you looking for guidance structure and proven methods to help you set more appointments and create more sales?JenThen join online sales coach Jesse Suggs and myself. We are offering an intense two day virtual training experience, followed by eight weeks of training and coaching through our online sales academy. This fall. Jesse and I have been in your shoes and we teach from our direct experience and years of coaching online sales specialists just like you. This will be hands on and real world.JenNo theory here. If you're interested, don't miss this incredible opportunity. Reserve your spot today by visiting. Do you convert dot.com? So let's kind of get into that segue by now, as you have, Tammy. Yes, thank goodness for Tammy. MAN Hey, Tammy, what did the like what type of training or what were the expectations set for your backup?TaraSo it was, of course, great that she already had a sales background, knew, you know, with our company a while, she knew a little bit about each community. Of course she knew about hers the most. But I made sure that she had all of our pricing and floor plans. That was simple. As far as other training walked her through sequences.TaraSo she actually would, if she did not get in touch with anyone just like us, she would set up a sequence and it actually, if they didn't answer the sequence would then turn into me. So would be like, Hi, I know we didn't catch up over the weekend and then if they did answer now it's a weekday, I'm back, it comes to me, they call me, they email me so we don't have to worry of losing a lead or anything like that.TaraAnd then I just pick back up where Tammy left off, and it was pretty much it was a pretty good smooth transition from there. And just the beginning of teaching the sequences, sales on site, as we know, may not know all the sequences and all of that, but just teaching that and taking the time to do that was, yeah, it definitely paid off.JenSo yeah, you definitely didn't need to teach her, you know, internal backup, right? They're going to know your going and they're going to know the homes and the communities and things like that. But you, you needed to take some time to teach them, okay, When you get a new lead, this is what you need to do in the CRM, Right?JenSo it's it's very minimal, though. We don't need to put our part time backups through for like online sales training necessarily. Right. In certain situations, we're just kind of teaching them the basics and how to be reactive. And something that Tara said that was really important is that when you have your backup that's filling in for you, it's not necessarily like you don't need to assign like they're not taking ownership of those leads, right?JenIf somebody calls in and she's helping them and she sets the appointment, great, But she's not carrying them through the 30 day follow up process as her own. You know, she's just starting them on the follow up process. And then when you came back, you're picking that back up. So we get a lot of questions about that. You know, as far as like do does does the backup like hold on to all the leads?JenIs the backup doing the the process prospecting? Well, thank you. Stephen. Yeah. I mean, in a perfect world I think everybody should be trained in online sales. But, you know, that's just me. Now, listen, the devil is in the details. And what I mean by that is it's one thing to go, yes, I've got a backup. We you know, Mike is stepping up.JenHe's going to be my backup. But now what? Like, you've got to take some time to figure out the logistics. And we actually have Amanda martin from our team is getting ready to release a playbook for online sales on the logistics and setup for how to do your backup. So I'm not going to go into too much detail here.JenBut Tara, talk a little bit about the logistics as far as like in your call tracking in your like what did you guys do for like email and CRM and call tracking?TaraSo a lot of it we use HubSpot at, at our company here. So a lot of it was training through there. And again, luckily the sales rep has already has an account with HubSpot, but she actually would log in as me too. So it was fully taking on my role just for Saturday and Sunday That way no confusion on the client since that's kind of the most important.TaraAnd if we if they didn't connect, it's, you know, they might have thought it was just me all along. But she did sign her name, you know, in regards to Tara, just so people knew something like that. But again, as far as the sequences would go, it would then go straight straight to me for phone calls. All of our communities then got switched off.TaraI think it was Saturday morning at 10 a.m., got switched to her so that she can get started and do Saturday and Sunday and then it automatically for call will automatically switch back to me on Monday morning. So. Okay. Okay. So let's work on our end all computer and it again it was very smooth transition.JenSo that's the beauty of having a call tracking system and being able to set up like a workflow and schedule. So what I'm hearing you say is like this schedule wise, when this time hit, calls are flipped over to Tammy, and when the shift ends, the calls are flipped back over to Yep, right? Yes. And that's the beauty of automation and setting all of that stuff up.JenSo that's great. The other thing to think about too, I don't know that you guys did this, but you know, if you have a let's talk a little bit about like a longer extended stay. You're taking a vacation and you're going to be gone for more than just a couple of days. Really thinking about don't just set up an auto responder that says, hey, I'm out on vacation, contact my teammate, Symon.JenYou know, really look at having those work emails forwarded to your teammate so that it's a seamless process. We always want to keep the customer in mind here. So if the customer then has to go do another step to contact now. Symon that's not as that's not the best experience possible. So we want that to be seamless as set up filters in your inbox that forwards your emails over to your teammate.JenDon't just rely on the auto responder and then definitely have some time to do some lightweight CRM training, lightweight call tracking training just so they have the basics and understand all of those things. Anything else to add there, Tara, that I'm thinking about? Logistical, logistically.TaraLogistically, I think, yeah, that that was it. And then also the big thing to still still try and get them to know most of the basic qualifying questions just so that they're making good appointments. And it was fun to kind of do that with her since she was an onsite sales rep. So she got to see the side of of seeing how we qualify them for appointments for her.TaraSo that was fun too, to kind of do with her.JenI just saw this out of the corner of my eye here and give your backup, you know, make them a prospecting sheet that has the things that you want to make sure get asked and get entered into the CRM on your behalf. Like these things need to be asked. They need to go in the CRM. This is really important and this gives them a guide to make sure that they they do that.JenNow, a couple of other things to think about. Here's some pro tips for if you're going on vacation. Okay, So we are going to be out. You have found your backup. You have figured out all the logistical things that you need to the first thing you want to do, too, is test it out. Test your backup plan out.JenOkay. Meaning while you are still working and on, you know, you go ahead and you turn everything over and you make sure technically that it's working, that they're getting the leads that they know how to while you're still there and you can answer questions, so do a practice run. The other thing is give yourself a ramp down period and a ramp up period.JenHere's what I mean by that. So if you know, you're going to be going out for the weekend or going on vacation or going on maternity or paternity leave to start your time a little bit earlier so that you're not getting new leads right up until the time you go on vacation. Go ahead and turn things over to your backup either a half day or a day before you are going to be out.JenAnd then also when you come back, you're going to have some catch up to do right, Tara? Yes, you're buoyant. You're having you come back. You know, even Tara just being out for the weekend, right, as a solo or C you're going to have stuff too. So when you come back in and give yourself a ramp up period, don't have you keep your backup on until half day or even a full day.00:24:17:25 - 00:24:44:21JenIf you've been out a while, you have have that person stay on until you can get caught up. So just a couple of things to think about. And then my advice and this is definitely for Martha, who's watching, Don't sweat. Don't sweat the small stuff, right. The the benefit of taking the time off are going to outweigh it not being perfect.JenWhat do you think about that, Tara?TaraYou burnout is real. You you deserve a break and that's why we have these backup plans. So so definitely enjoy that break. And you come back, you feel revamped, re-energized and maybe better for the clients in the long run and your success. So totally agree.JenHey, listen, this is something small. I just did this on vacation, like actually take the time to go in and turn your notifications off, like turn your email notifications off, turn your internal slack off, you know, and just really have a break. You know, sometimes when we it's called a fake break, when we when we're like, yeah, like we're off you know.JenBut what happens is you're anticipating that you might have to do some work, like I might have to go in and respond to that person. I might have to answer that lead really quickly or whatever. It's not a big deal. But what happens is you never fully relax, you never fully recharge. And so what we know, Tara, right, is that if you're not happy, neither are your customers either.JenIf your burnout, neither are your customers. So were you feeling that way? Like, where are you starting to feel like, Oh.TaraIt was just the dreading of Monday more than it should have been? It's probably how I felt. And then, you know, you have your phone on you, even if you're like, I will not answer it. It's the weekend. But you see it and you see it going, Yeah, it's oh gosh. And then you think, All right, if I answer a few now, maybe Monday won't be so bad.TaraAnd yeah, you know, it can cycle. So that's I think when I realized Yeah.JenAnd now you have a, you have a team, right. And, and this is a big leap that you're taking.TaraI and.JenThat's the reason.TaraI will be going on maternity leave at the end of August. So the timing for this.JenSo this is, this is a big leave. This is a big backup situation which now is a teammate. But I just want to also caution everybody that even if you have a team and you're watching this stuff happens, like on teams where you need a backup, you need to have somebody on the bench that's ready. So don't wait.JenI guess I'm saying is don't wait to maybe cross train or get somebody in the know on what it is that you're doing, how your systems work. Take some time to create some you know that you have ready and available that if there was an emergency, if somebody needed to step in, you would have some documentation and be able to help.JenSo flip the switch is what you guys need to be thinking. Hey, I have an emergency, but that's okay. I've got a backup plan that I can just switch on right and execute right away. Okay, fine. Rapid fire fun questions.TaraOkay.JenYour favorite thing about being an online sales specialist?TaraFavorite thing? I mean, there's so many, but I think it's fun to be that first voice or face that they see and really represent the company. So I think it's just fun to set the expectation high of what they'll experience throughout their new homebuying experience. And it's fun to be that that person. Oh.JenI love that answer. What do you do now? What do you do to recharge your battery when you are off?TaraI exercise. I know it's kind of funny, but, you know, let out that steam not get that. I used to run a little bit. Now it's been a little bit more weight lifting. Lightweight.JenOkay Momma.TaraBut getting still getting that hour in for exercise. It's super important.JenOh, okay, guys. She said she used to run a little bit. Oh, what did you just do?TaraI did do the New York City marathon last year.JenAny other New York City marathon runners out there? Shout it out. You're this. You're a whole group of people. What any current books that you're reading.TaraSo I literally just start I think I'm late to this trend but lessons in chemistry I'm two chapters in so do not know much about it but I just finished Verity two, which was.JenOh, very good. That was really good. I literally was I was reading it and I went, Oh my gosh, yeah. My husband's like, What are you reading over there? I was like, Oh, don't.TaraWorry about it. She added a chapter too. So I don't know if you read the the add on chapter. It's very interesting.JenTo her fans out there.TaraYes.JenLet's one thing that most people don't know about you.TaraI'm I was a division one gymnast in college.JenMartha.TaraSo. Yeah.JenHave you met Martha?TaraI have not know.JenOh, my gosh. Any other gymnasts out there? I mean, Martha, I'm pretty sure was like a Division one gymnast, too. But you guys are like.TaraWe have a lot to talk about then. Yeah.JenYeah. Okay, last question, because I'm always looking for something great to watch on TV. Are you watching anything good on TV? Like, what's the latest thing?TaraThe latest? We just finished The Bear on Hulu and it's very good. It's about kind of starting a restaurant in Chicago and how crazy that industry is. Speaking of different industries, it is wild to see see the food and restaurant industry.JenDoes it make you not want to eat out?TaraNo, that's fine. It just intends to start at your own restaurant. It's a big challenge, but it's very, very good. Yes. Okay.JenWell, okay. I'm going to have to check it out. It's very fair. Thank you so much.TaraYes, thank you for having me. This is so fun.JenOh, my gosh. You are just fantastic. I'm so excited that you took the leap to have a backup. It also just validated the fact that you needed a teammate, your company supported you, got you a teammate, and we're just looking forward to that. So much. So thank you so much. And thank you, guys.TaraThank you. And we might have to do an update when I get back from maternity leave. Yes. Yes. Okay.JenOkay. We are we're going to do an update. Thanks for watching.TaraThank you.JenThanks for watching. Opt in. Hey, guys, Make sure you check out D convert dot com. Sign up for our newsletter if you haven't because we are constantly sending out great content and be sure to watch out for Amanda's playbook on backup plans and how to set those up. And we will see you next time.TaraThank you. The post Ep 305: Creating Your Backup Plan with Tara Barlia appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 302: The Measure of SuccessIn this episode, Kevin Oakly, Andrew Peek and Jen Barkan! The team is currently participating in fantasy football and Jen shares her stats so far. Together, they consider how to measure the success of an ad if it doesn't become a lead and talk about how everything is hanging on interest rates right now. Spicy Kevin makes several appearances and keeps the conversation interesting!Story Time (06:34)Andrew is trying to figure out how you measure the success of a phone call or ad if it doesn't end up becoming a lead? Or can it be considered successful at all?Jen's daughter is going through the vet school application process and it's made her compare that process to people applying for The Nationals this year.Kevin says that managers and senior leaders who have zero desire to unpack why things are working are insecure in their own ability with what would be revealed. News (31:26)New sustainability tools help businesses and cities map environmental information (https://blog-google.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-apis-environment-sustainability/amp/)In Its First Monopoly Trial of Modern Internet Era, U.S. Sets Sights on Google (https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/06/in-its-first-monopoly-trial-of-modern-internet-era-u-s-sets-sights-on-google/)Mortgage demand drops to 27-year low as interest rates pull back (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/mortgage-demand-drops-to-27-year-low-as-interest-rates-pull-back.html)ONE+ By Rocket Mortgage® Is A 1% Down Payment Option (https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/one-plus?qls=QNS_20180523.0123456789)Favorites/Hates (59:50)Andrew watched a documentary film called “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” on Amazon. Jen loves that college football is back!Kevin's favorite is a sports jacket and a youtube video by Kyla Scanlon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdBSaG2cujM Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunesFollow on SpotifyListen On StitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript:KevinJen do you know who you want to trade?JenWell, I tried to pull one over on Jackie Lipinski and tried to get Justin Jefferson from her, as if she didn't know who that was. But I did. I did try to offer her a couple of really good legit players, but she denied me.KevinOh.JenYes, I have not.KevinYou're a fantasy football professional, so can you talk right now who's like, if you had to call it right now, who has the best team? Do you think?JenUm, I mean, Jackie has a pretty good team. Mike has a pretty good team. I have a pretty decent team. I mean, I'm really not a professional. I just like to pretend that I know what you want.KevinRight. You won that unicorn trophy.AndrewIt's great.JenYeah, I won.AndrewIt's gold.JenI won once. Yes, but it's really just. It's really just luck. Plus, the way that we do it, guys, is this auto draft. So it's not even like you, you just, just auto automatically picks your players. You don't really have any say in what's.AndrewGoing to have the winners decided with the auto draft.JenSort of yeah.AndrewWell if you don't like such a.JenLineup it says projected standings with Mike Ryan and first place.AndrewSo happens every year somehow.JenTrying to.KevinRAZ Even though he's the commissioner right? Yeah.JenYeah. Like Jalen hurts or your quarterback.KevinLet's see. Here's here's what makes me mad is I had to make myself like math again. Like I failed the honors pre-calculus. And I took it twice. And then I never had to take math again. And I was like, I'm never. I chose a different like, I was like, I'm going to go Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science because I'm not taking anything close to math.KevinAnd then I had to make myself like math when I became a marketer, became important. Yeah. So it drives me nuts. Like I'm going up against Lipinski and it says projected score of 124 and a half for me, this is 122 and a half for her. Okay. How is it possible that what's going to happen is going to happen?KevinI'm going to get 65 and she's going to have 172. I mean, that's just gambling. That's just randomness.JenThey're just taking average projections. But what happens is somebody could get hurt. They might not even play. Hey, I mean, like, you never know.KevinI just think if we have, you know, I that can take us to Mars and back. Can it give us better projections at this? Like, come on, ESPN, get some GPUs fired up And.JenThen but there is.KevinMachine learning.AndrewHuman.JenTo human factor.AndrewAre reliable, unreliable.JenHuman factor.KevinBut they're all being paid off to like take a fall and stuff anyway. Right. Like it's it's all statistically for sure. Oh, it's all over.AndrewIf there is no drama in the game, no.JenOne wants to think.AndrewIt's like people think all the housewife shows are real. Like if there's no drama, there'd be no show. It's all manufactured.KevinI just think it should show around. You should be like, Here's. Here's that. Every year I am like, okay, I'll give Fantasy another shot. And then after the first two or three weeks of the same thing happening every time, or it's like I should have 180 points and I get 30.JenLike, there's no no, you just have to make sure that your players don't have a bye.KevinI don't. I do believe that never happens the first two or three weeks before I get.JenOkay.KevinSo that's why I was wondering, besides you and Mike, who is most likely to win so I can just trade them my best players now.JenBut now you're playing that game we're not in. Oh, man.AndrewI just opted out this year because now we have enough people. I do convert, you know, I don't feel like I'm like.JenNo pressure.AndrewNo pressure because I was not adding to it. I would I would set my thing, but I was just like, Oh, there's another person playing. I don't watch football. I watched some college football, but professional. But they said on.JenUsually guys, I went to the Virginia Tech Old Dominion game this past weekend. It was freaking electric. I was pretty sure Old Dominion was going to get pummeled, but they played pretty good. You know, that's my alma mater.AndrewSince that's where you went.JenThat's where I went to school, right? I'm a die hard fan. I go, Every time you have a home game, I'm there. But when they started playing Enter Sandman at the beginning, I mean, it was like it. In fact, they when everybody's jumping like that, it registers on the text size. Yeah, my grandma, I don't know what the type, but I registers as an earthquake.JenIt was crazy. Like, I was like, almost. I was so overcome with emotion. I was, I was like, it's not even I mean, look, I pay Virginia Tech a lot of money because my child goes there. So I like either way, whoever won it was fine. But I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, I brought me back to Meredith Oliver's fanatical selling and like, we have to our customers need to be fans of, you know, our our business and our brand and our company.JenAnd yeah, I mean, it was it was a thing, man. I was like, I'm all in on these Hokies.AndrewSo you can't replace you cannot replace humans, I guess is what it is.KevinYeah. It's not human to happening this year, but sometimes soon I'm going to have to get my kids to the summit just for like the first 30 minutes and then tell them to leave, because I think that's the only atmosphere that work. And I understand like, Oh, okay, Dad, you do you do real work outside of just talking to your computer upstairs.AndrewOr they might be like, wait, So you go on stage and talk for like a couple of minutes and all these people give you give you money, they listen to you. I don't know. That sounds like a scam. I feel like that's what you promise.KevinNo more sports talk for the rest of the podcast.AndrewNo more sports.KevinLet's start. Walk on to marketers marketing the podcast from the industry leaders. How do you convert where we talk about the current and future state of marketing and online sales for builders and developers across the globe? We're not here to sell you. We're here to help you and to try and elevate the conversation. Is there a topic you'd like us to cover or a question you'd like us to answer?KevinWe'll do it. Simply send an email to show at. Do you convert? Dot com. Welcome to episode 302. I'm Kevin. Okay. And with me today is Andrew Peek and Jen Barkin.AndrewWe're here. It's so exciting.KevinIt's a chat. Are we allowed to announce what's happening?JenOh, my gosh. What's happening?KevinSee, the thing that you're doing?JenAm I doing.KevinFast with the ends with podcast? Oh, are you kidding me? Talking about that? And we're not talking.JenAbout that yet.KevinOkay, we'll talk about it.AndrewI think you just talked about it like it's like, what do you know?KevinWe didn't.JenWe are pretty sure you didn't mind people talking.KevinOh, all right. Well, that's funny. What do you got?AndrewOh, what I got This is a fun question. And I talked about yesterday and this morning, so my. Oh, this could be open discussion. Maybe we make it a parallel to the online sales world. But at the same time, how do you measure a successful ad or how do you measure a successful phone call if it doesn't end up with a lead or an appointment?AndrewCan it still be successful? It's kind of like a gay like principle or like theory. Question This is like the long essay question at the end of an SAT. I don't know if they still do that or not. It's been quite a few years, so sort of open ended discussion. So let's talk about this with Beth, a coach convert and Bryce, a marketing strategist.AndrewAnd it really went down to this rabbit hole of like, oh, you kind of need to be rooted in some type of principles before you decide what is success or not success, because it could be like, Hey, it's really efficient. Was that successful or not? We need every single click out there. Like maybe that's actually the opposite. It's unsuccessful or maybe a very, very limited budget.AndrewSo having a really low or very efficient cost per click is success. Or maybe it's a coming soon community. You need as many leads as you can and you just need to spend as much as can. It doesn't matter what the cost per lead is because the urgency of more leads is significantly more important than trying to save some of the marketing budget.AndrewSo I kind of just gave the answer. It really depends. It really depends. There's no there's no good.JenAnswer, but the right answer as to your.KevinQuestion, it's a hard question. Salespeople leads.AndrewWell, that's it's online sales. People talk.JenAnd I was going to say I was going to say I don't know what the right answer is, but I would think it would be a good ad, would get leads and appointments and sales.AndrewYeah, sounds good to me.KevinYou know. Yeah.JenIf it's a it's.KevinIt's you know, I other maybe maybe land I don't know of a longer purchase cycle for most people to deal with and then homes.AndrewYeah.KevinMaybe mega yachts or airplanes I mean but like if you're shopping for an airplane, is that comparable to shopping for a car? I don't know. Like.AndrewYeah, yeah, yeah. Boats, boats and car boats and there's lots of personalized ocean.KevinLike I've seen lots of visualization tools for customizing your own private jet. Being advertised is like the new way to sell expensive stuff to people.JenI mean, ads are the need though just that really any.KevinWell right but I mean is like the number of decisions and trade offs to consider and you know but at that that's just what makes it all more complicated and.AndrewVery complicated. It's a hard question. Like it's well, it's I think it's.KevinIt's it's the question in advertising. But for us, it's important. Remember that there are multiple parts of the funnel. Different ads serve different purposes for different customers in different stages. You know, you can't I think about this way if you think about a pie pizza and everyone inside of that pie, it doesn't matter if you spend $2 million or $2,000 a month on search, if it's only within that pie, there is always a tradeoff of like if you spend all $2 million and the pie doesn't expand and it's not really pie, it's Rubik's Cube because it's like seven dimensional.KevinBut you you can't have any one tactic that you can just never max out.JenNow.KevinNot just in terms of I guess what I'm trying to convey is it's not just that the ads will get more expensive, but it will not raise the number of people that it reaches if it's defined by a certain radius or shape or audience already and so can't.AndrewYeah, we can't really create a market sort of.KevinWell, yes, but I guess my point is each channel is by definition we don't think about this way. It's own market. Like only the people who are searching can be reached by search marketing. It makes sense. Yeah. If people who aren't searching or they're not searching at every moment of their decision making process. Right.JenAnd so if they're searching, we want to capture them with your.KevinYeah, if they are search, you want to capture them. But you also have to realize that every every line goes back to Steve Schumacher's joke, which you repeat all the time, is if you've got five different things that are viable reasons why someone ends up being a purchaser or they have a realtor, they're referred by a friend, they saw you on a social ad, they did a search, they went on an event and then they purchase who gets credit.KevinBut it's just the acknowledgment that you have to have that every customer becomes a member of multiple channels, advertising channels all the time. And so, like there is this well-rounded ness that I don't think I understood early in my career that now that everyone's I mean, it's everyone's I'm data driven, dated or data driven, and it's like that curve that we get a name Dunning, Kruger data or whatever.AndrewGreater than.KevinFeeling data over.AndrewThat data.KevinYeah, but I would say to your point, what's the word you used to start with a piece that we need.AndrewPeople we.KevinKnow we need. Well, anyway, it's a good ad we need. We need what?AndrewBefore to me is as context we need I don't even know. I don't know where it's just come out my mouth is what usually happens.JenIt's a struggle and.AndrewEventually it forms a sentence that makes sense.KevinYeah, but anyway, the whole world has gone so over onto the data side that for sure there is a serious lack of around principles of thinking principle.AndrewThat we have principles.KevinHere that we will.AndrewLive by principles. That's what we need and building principles come from.KevinThis is the LinkedIn post that I made a little while ago. The principles come from having an ultra deep understanding of what your consumer's experiencing and doing and thinking That's not defined by just asking them, What are you doing? What are you thinking? Because they can't, they can't articulate. They do what's called preference falsification, where they just say what they feel like they're supposed to say to appear good.KevinAnd so you have to have that deep understanding. Just know like, well, of course they're doing these other things. And I don't actually I need data to continually prove to me that they're doing that because I'm constantly watching consumers do what they do and interacting with them and talking to them anyway.AndrewYeah, it's a loaded question. Yeah, we talked about it probably like an hour and a half until yesterday and today. Beth and Bryce. Well, not that single question, but it was a series of question. Yeah, from a very intelligent builder partner of ours. And it was like, Oh, this is actually like, this gets deep. Like you can't that's not a surface level question.AndrewIt's not like, Hey, just check on that. Click the rate, the CPC and conversion rate, and it is your answer because you could have amazing conversion rate.KevinAnd I think.AndrewI just asked.KevinMy sister, here's our episode and she doesn't listen anyway, but she's a CMO now at a at a university, I guess. I mean, sorry, Kristen, but, you know, remember all those bad things she did to me when I was a kid? There's no payback. She she read like a Harvard Business Review magazine article and then, you know, reached out to me and was like, how do I get my team to do this?KevinLike, I read this in an article and it's like, I mean, okay. But I think that's where our prints were. The principles come from Your principles either come from just things you like, observed from afar, or someone else just told you that's a terrible way to develop or principle you can shortcut by getting a coach right? Jenn My coaches help you shortcut to the best principles, but if you're going to your coach and you're like, Hey, I think maybe we should do, you know, squats this way.KevinAndrew Instead of this other way. Why I someone on TikTok said so you're like, Well, I've been in a couple competition. Like, that's, that's not good, right? So I think that's, that's where the friction comes from, is people who have strong principles without strong experience of testing those principles. They just decided it were good principles. Like that's and I it's just important for me to articulate, I guess, to everyone else.KevinAnd our principles don't come from our feelings. Back to your T-shirt. Andrew Yeah, the principles come from the data, but the data combined with experience and observation, not just data on its own. Yeah.AndrewAnd then kind of testing against those principles reinforces the.JenPrinciple, the direction this conversation was going about ads, successful ads.KevinThere. Again.AndrewI think moving it towards online sales world is like a principle on a phone call. Here's the intent of this.JenSo this this kind of plays into yeah, let's just just well, it just plays into the whole coaching and being coachable and wanting to do things the right way and the like. You said, the experience that like our coaching team, do you convert as like thousands upon thousands of hours in the seat. But, but then also coaching and training, I mean, just thousands.JenI don't even know what that might be.KevinHundreds of years. I think if you add up the whole. Yes.JenYeah, hundreds of years. And so it's like when we are speaking from like experience and relevance in the market because we work with, you know, over a couple of hundred online sales specials a month. So we know like what's happening in real time. It's a few, it's like this is yeah, like this is we're not this is not just, are we?JenWe're not is like pulling this out of thin air. What we think like this is what we know, you know, because of what we see on a daily basis. So and you got to be coachable. You got to be open to listening and learning. And I was actually on a podcast yesterday with the homes for Hope program. Yeah, it's awesome.JenDerek And he asked me something came up about coach ability and I was like, Yeah, you know, as a coach you can, you can be like, we're totally invested in that online sales specialist, right? But they have to be invested back in us. We can train, we can coach, we can lead them to the water. We can't make them drink.JenIt can't make them do that. They got to be invested back. And so, yeah.KevinThat's well, and I'm going to get I mean, you use a spice emoji so I'm, I don't know if you've chilled out since then, but I'm going to bring some spice back. So I feel, I think it's not the right word. I don't want use that word. There are absolutely managers and senior leaders out there who have zero desire to unpack why things work are working, and that it seems to be my hunch would be my hunch would be managers told me my wife, that I should never use that word.KevinDo people not use the word hunch anymore?JenI just know. Yeah, I use that hunch.KevinOkay. She's like, when you use that word, stop it.AndrewIs it like, quote, a word? I don't know if like that. That phrase.JenLike moist.KevinYou know, my hunch is that they are insecure in their own ability with whatever it is that would be unpacked.JenAbsolutely.KevinAnd that leads them to be like, nope, don't want to like results are good, don't care about. And I'll give you the tangible example here. There is a builder we were speaking with who it looked like the online salesperson was averaging like 30 to 40 leads a month for the last six months. Okay. And we were on a quarterly leadership call and our online sales coach, working with that person has been talking about things a certain way based upon an understanding that that lead volume, by the way, that lead volume is given by the LSC in the reporting that we use, it comes from the CRM, but he's always have the availability to make sureKevinthe numbers are accurate and consistent. So our leadership and the leadership sales manager, VP of Sales Marketing is like, Oh no, no, no. That only gets like way more than that. We're talking like a hundred plus more leads a month than what that is showing. But it's in this other system that doesn't talk to our CRM and, and I was like, well, that's why for about an issue, I don't know, two years we've recommended to stop using that thing and sorry the answer came back was but it's working really well for us.KevinLike how do you know?JenDo you know.KevinBecause you're your online salesperson doesn't know. Apparently because they don't, they don't count those things. There's no tracking of of how those people are followed up with. And what it boils down to is it's just someone who's highly uncomfortable with the use of technology themselves, someone somewhere told them or whatever, like this is a good thing to use and things are going fine enough, but that's just a that's a huge blind spot that is going to cause massive panic at some point that could be avoided if you just.JenHear.KevinMore about how you how you got to that end result.JenThere is definitely a.KevinKnow.JenYou know, listen online sales contribution is so high. I mean, 45 to 50%.KevinOf.JenSales are coming from this program. But there's still this disconnect of the resources, the support, the time spent understanding, learning the tools, the systems, the reporting.KevinFor this role.JenAnd so there's a lot of like just wild, Wild West happening out there with some of the online sales specialist because there's management is not is not getting in there and taking the time to understand it's it's like you said, Kevin, maybe a lack of understanding or technology but there's also bandwidth issues to feel like everybody is spread so thin and when push comes to shove, we need sales to keep everything running, right?JenSo I'm going to take my efforts and focus on the the sale, the end of the funnel here. But really, we're not going to get sales unless we have a point difference. And if we don't have a point, we got to manage it. So it's really the shift perspective that needs to happen. And I was talking with somebody earlier today that there's still there's still broken parts of the CRM, there's still broken parts of how the leads are managed and things like that.JenAnd it's like, Hey, we've been talking about this for like a year that's still broken.KevinLike, isn't that funny? Like serums As a broader topic, I feel like, you know, there was a time where it was like, are you using Outlook Express or Outlook or like, what's your email client? I haven't heard maybe once in the last two years someone talk about email or questions are around email and how to write their own email client, right?KevinMm hmm. Why the heck aren't serums the same way? It's 2023.Andrew2023. That would stress me out like I won Lead, lost or won. Lee That you lose. I'm like, that could be X amount of profit from one sale of the home that they just ignore that to someone else.KevinAgain.AndrewAnd that just like.KevinAll this.AndrewThat makes me feel.KevinOlder. We're on the call and I'm looking through their CRM system and there were months at a time where not a single prospect was ever entered into the CRM by the onsite sales team. That's like millions more months in a row, not a single lead.AndrewMy that could have been like, that's like, I get weird. I'm like, we could it's like they could have just like, paid someone to pay the whole company notification.JenI mean.AndrewAnywhere.KevinThey were always the lost revenue or. Ms..JenMs. Yeah. Or, you know, just looking at even when we could go on and on about this. I mean, you just looking at like, you know, average appointment to sale number right now is 21%. That's a, that's, that's strong 21%. Right. The average walk in traffic conversion is historically like 10 to 12%. Right. So we go, okay, we're still 21%, like one out of five keep appointments are going to write a contract, but we're still not focusing on that.JenDuring the handoff or making sure that this connection with on site and online is at the forefront of our training and our our discussions. I had some math this episode is all about now. I did some math on Friday where they're right, right now they're at 11% conversion of appointment to sale. And I'm like, if you did these four steps and you were able to increase your conversion to 21%, that's an additional $19 million of revenue.JenYeah, sales revenue, 19 million, 50 million, which equated to like an additional because we did this math in front of the sales team, that's an additional 400 and something thousand dollars in commission or whatever. That's like being left on the table as like when you put it in that perspective, like, well, oh, you know, like just, you know, like these.JenAnd again, this goes back to what we were just talking about, Like we're not just coming up with like, yeah, we think you should do it this way. Like, we know this works. We have the data to support it. We have the conversion metrics to show that this is what the averages are.KevinOkay, What do you think.JenThese four things.KevinOne more thing. Let's just say just for fun.AndrewOkay, fancy.KevinBecause no one else is listening. Right? Lower left lead to employment ratio. Yeah. Is currently.AndrewCan brighten 18.KevinPercent and our and our average benchmark currently is.Jen40.Kevin40. Okay lead to of women.JenWill get to women. Yeah.KevinMy favorite is when the person who has an 18% lead to appointment currently is again the one suggesting that they have found a better way something comes out. I mean and this is where this is where our approaches differ because we're all different humans that do convert, as I'm kind of like I mean, I'm going to explain to you why there's that.KevinThat's a bad idea. But you don't I would say to everyone, like, you don't pay me enough to make your decision for you. So, I mean, try it for a week or two, but not longer because you can't afford to go to five. Like 18 is bad enough. Let's get you to 35 with these proven things right first.KevinOh, yeah.JenYeah. Now, I just say that.KevinJohn, about that school application, I.JenOh, man, I feel like I you go back to school just by now. You know, I did apply to vet school and I if you guys knew that I did at one time want to be a veterinarian.AndrewSent a telegram I.KevinThink like, yes.JenI didn't get in. There's only 30 vet schools in the world.KevinOhio State is one of the best I hear like, yes, there goes a.AndrewLot of things.JenMy daughter is in her senior year, Virginia Tech, and is going through the vet school application process right now. She's applying and like I think 15 schools out of the 30. Oh oh yeah.KevinIs she going to live here or something?JenI so I said if you if you get into Ohio State you can go to Kevin's for dinner. So you know he'll take care of things every sale, you know, they'll feed you, make sure you're okay. But as she's going through this, you know, she's super stressed out. She's having to, like, go back through the last ten years of her life and basically and think about all these things and these prompts.JenIt's like, what's the defining moment of when you wanted to be a veterinarian, Right? So she's having to go through this. And I said.AndrewThese questions are terrible.JenWell, and listen, the vet schools, they only accept it's like the hardest one of the hardest things to get into. They only accept like a 100 out of thousands and thousands of applications. Wow. So I'm like, you've got to do something in this essay to make like to stand out. Like the first sentence has got to be some catchy thing, you know?JenBut it made me think about a couple a different think it's a one. If you are thinking about applying to the Nationals, you should because it's a great way to go through and like you go back into the archives, you just document all of this awesome stuff that you've done in your career and put it on paper. And if you're thinking about doing it, you should go for it.JenBut also make sure you tell this, tell a story that is what is going to help you stand out All in all of those applications that come in. So tell a story, be specific how you overcame something or whatever. But also maybe think about like when we're communicating with our customers and we're sending follow up and we're sending and we're leaving phone messages and we're communicating like you got a you got to spice it up a little bit.JenLike you got to be personal. You got to you got to put something in the subject line that's going to break through the clutter. It's going to make you stand out instead of touching base, checking in. How's it going? Because people's inboxes are inundated, like and they just get so many, you know, especially if if they're looking at your builder, they're looking at ten other builders that are all sending emails that are all sitting to these letters of.KevinWe are.JenAll doing all the things.KevinWe have.JenWe hope. We think, who knows? But you've got us. We've got to break through the digital pollution, right, and cut through the clutter. So that's good luck to Mia. Little Mia.KevinShe's like, Our.JenLocations are due September 18th.AndrewSo 15 of them, But I'd be paying someone to do that, I think.JenYeah, Yeah. That's what I would like to donate to the MIA application fund. But you've got to, like, pay like zillion dollars for all these different applications. So I'm really excited for. So put out some deposit invites.AndrewTo the universe.JenYes.KevinTo see what's her favorite animal is a dogs.JenYes. She's actually doing the research study on cows right now. So she gets to go hang out with cows and draw blood and do little like feeds. She had to, like, pile up on a big, like, green machine and, like, feed them. And I don't know, she's she likes horses, too. She's done some stuff with the horses, but mainly small animals.KevinNot a horse fan. Human kryptonite, those things.JenYou're not a horse.KevinThey can be really good. Yeah. It's not safe. Yeah, that'll.JenOh, they're so beautiful too.AndrewAbout, like, the miniature horses. Those are fun.KevinLittle tiny, maybe. Yeah. Yeah.AndrewWas just to see.KevinWhat would you rather be? Fight one giant hundred foot horse or 101 foot tiny horses?AndrewIt's like running around a little baby horses.KevinSorry, everyone. I'm in some kind of strange, strange minute here. On to the news multiverse.AndrewThis is Earth four.JenHey, online sales specialist, your D convert, Coach Jen Barkin here. Are you looking for guidance, structure and proven methods to help you set more appointments and create more sales? Then join online sales coach Jesse Suggs and myself. We are offering an intense two day virtual training experience, followed by eight weeks of training and coaching through our online sales academy.JenThis fall. Jesse and I have been in your shoes and we teach from our direct experience and years of coaching online sales specialists. Just like you. This will be hands on and real world no theory here. If you're interested, don't miss this incredible opportunity to reserve your spot today by visiting. Do you convert dot.com.KevinMan first up from D and Y use as I stand for, I need to know the news. The news. It's like.AndrewOkay, so two syllables that has generated.KevinThis one wasn't me.AndrewHow about this?KevinSo we're we're using the link and its first monopoly trial of modern Internet era. The US sets its sights on Google. So for those of you old enough to remember, I think the last big Monopoly trial breakup that happened was AT&T.; That was then split up into seven different regional companies in 1984, the article says. But effectively, the United States government is saying that Google is preventing any new opportunity for search to occur.KevinGoogle basically does what Facebook did back in the day. It was like any popular social app. We'll just go out and buy them. I mean, if you guys spend $1,000,000,000, going to spend $1,000,000,000 to Instagram, but it just prevents anyone from getting to the point where they could be a rival. And the charge here is that they're doing that with search and what's going to be so one, it's a big deal.KevinThe other thing is it's hard for monopolies. Monopolies are not illegal monopolies that harm consumers are illegal. And Android Android is was one really smart move by Google of saying we're going to make an operating system that's basically free. I mean, the catch is it has Google search built in as the default option, but it's hard to prove monopoly like consumers don't pay for ads on Google.KevinConsumers don't pay for Google sheets for Google Docs. They don't pay for it. I guess you're getting a lot of, you know, in quotes, free as are straight resources.JenYeah.KevinYou're getting a lot of resources as a consumer that you don't directly pay for. But they're going after it. And I think it's it's not I don't want to say this, it's just a distraction, but it's a really big distraction because this is like a very low percentage chance. But if it does like you, you just imagine working at Google in the senior leadership and you're like, we should be working on AI and we should be making this better and this better and YouTube and oh crap, we are.AndrewThere like we have Mitch McConnell reason out over here telling us what or how to run the business. I agree.KevinIt seems like Google is a monopoly.AndrewI think their monopoly in that they own their own search. Like you Google something, it's the verb, it's what you do versus what you do. I think they're trying to prove, right. Did they do things that were like the competitive nature? Of course they did. They wanted to get rid of the competition. So there's times where I'm like, I don't make any sense this.AndrewI can't stand this type of thing. But then I'm like, we kind of need more regulation over here and like zero regulation and stuff like this. So I feel like, you know, like there's contradictions there with government involvement in business and stuff like that. But this is like, come on, like, this is so dumb. Like everyone that.JenLike it.AndrewOn this thing against Google uses Google likely for their search engine and they're not on asked Jeeves or or Amazon.com or Bain. They're using Google to do it so and there's a reason it's still the better product. And they kind of prove that if even if they did all these, I think that's where the cases is. Probably even if we did not do these things, people would still use Google.AndrewThey're not using Bing. They're not switching to another search platform at all.JenThey're going all use being anymore.KevinYeah, they don't.AndrewEven have points. You can get the search stuff.KevinOn pay, please. Bing.AndrewThey try to pay you. Yeah. You give pretty.KevinLittle coupons or. Yeah. I mean, this is just one line builder here in Texas as an example. But year to date, they have 330,000 unique sessions from Google Search, and they have 13,000 from Bing, 4000 from Yahoo! 2000 from DuckDuckGo Technical.AndrewAnd those are the people, the tin foil hats, but the DuckDuckGo. So yeah, like the conversions, they're like, well, those are the crazy ones, so you don't want those people.KevinSo next from Google itself, new sustainability tools help businesses and cities map environmental information. This is again interesting one to me because Zillow's kind of led the charge of adding all this additional information around property. You know, like safety scores. And I think they also they do have it was started by Brad, Adam and I forget the name of the company where they give like a climate score rating.KevinBut now this is being built into Google Maps platform. They're going to let you see solar energy potential. So it'll identify roofs and talk about the amount of information that likelihood that it will produce a certain amount of power, air quality information and common allergens. That's and so everyone who has a Google map built into their site, you wouldn't, in essence, if you thought that this was important enough to be able to opt for offer a toggle on your own site or experience with access to this same information.AndrewLike it's pretty cool. The solar one is a little bit interesting because our you know, our electricity rates here expensive. We have a moderately large our home 3300 feet so we and I'm home all day so there's no saving of power during the day by turn AC down and we run the AC 23 to 60 days of the year for the most part.AndrewSo we've considered solar. So Project sunroof in our home is newer. Like for some reason, like our house is not in there yet, which is really bizarre. Sort of imagine even like a brand new home. It's obviously not going to be in there, but being that we have no trees because they tore everything down to make it easier and more efficient to develop.AndrewWe have some trees growing, but I'm like, man, solar is like ripe for most new home builds, especially in the South. Like, I think we did do a private survey with our property at one point and like the amount of power we can produce is insane. So I think that's like, oh, that could be that could be a really cool selling tool to go new home construction.AndrewIt's more efficient. Oh, and then now you have solar, the ROI on that. The payback is extremely quick because like you, the efficiency of it for a new home compared to an existing home, an older established neighborhood would be there. So be nice if they I would imagine as it gets use more often the how it refreshes the map and how that would be a little bit quicker.AndrewYeah, just fast for like two, three, five years from now. Pretty cool. All the tools we have.KevinI don't have the exact number, but whoever originally shared this article in my social network also included a stat that I, if I remember it was either close to 50% or like 60% of people who were surveyed had considered at least one environmental factor as part of their search for a home. I imagine both of you living near water in Virginia Beach and near Tampa, that like that's a but even in Ohio, like you can't build homes in a certain level of a floodplain.KevinLet's say 100 year flood, I think is you just can't build in here. So it's kind of surprising in one sense that that number sounded like a good number to use as a stat because I would think like 100% of people are considering like possession of the sun and amount of shade. Yeah, it seems like people who, you know, still quote like, did you know that 94.9% of people use the Internet to shop for a house?KevinAnd like we stop talking about this, it's everyone is like everyone.AndrewJust remember that.KevinAre we doing this? Yeah. Well, like, of course, the environment's a big like, that's what location is. It's all those things wrapped up together. But I mean, do you remember doing, like, a specific thing that you were?AndrewI'm a for me, definitely with hurricane evacuate like we just had a hurricane one week ago that passed by us. So we still had, you know, work zones. I think it's part of the same records and it's like ABCD and then X non evacuate or like a is like you're on the beach or you're a mobile home. The trailer home, manufactured home, no such a wind, wind and water and then B and then we're C, we're actually like B and a half.AndrewLike our kitchen is a B, the rest of the house is a C for whatever reason. So we, we stick with C, we're like, okay, if that gets wet over there, it's fine. We're staying like we're 13. You're yeah, you're gone. You're thinking.JenI'm underwater.AndrewYou're under water. So we're like 13 feet above sea level. You're below sea, you're like a bowl. You're like, you know.JenTraffic is is.AndrewYou have tunnels.KevinSinking. Oh, yeah. Yeah.JenSo you're saying bought a house in the flood zone. And I knew that. So this I'm not a good candidate.KevinIt's gone. But you still porous. I mean, if it was bad, it's.JenOkay to tension Lake. Yeah. Yeah.AndrewIf you need insurance, if you don't like, that's a huge factor.JenFlood insurance required.KevinIt's just a good thing that it's me. It goes in the category of if this place your advantage, you should be talking about it. If you're a builder in Albuquerque, New Mexico, or Southern California or the center of California, and you have now the ability availability to show the potential of solar usage on a on a home like you should be.KevinYou should be talking about that. Definitely. Yeah. All right. Next up from CNBC dot com, we're going to start with the scary and then get to someone trying to offer a solution. Mortgage demand drops to a 27 year low as interest rates pull back the average contract interest rate for 30 year fixed mortgages was $726,000 or less, decreased to 7.2% from 7.3%.KevinApplications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 2% or 28% lower than the same week. One year ago. So affordability matters, huh? Who would have thought who.AndrewWould have thought of that? You were going to think there's some really smart builders that are offering some bite out of mortgages and I think the show 5.45 or any number less than seven is really attractive.KevinYeah, rates are I mean, again, I think it's catching people off guard. And I don't want to go into an economics lesson, but what's happening right now is that the government has to sell so many more treasuries to fund the government that investors are demanding a higher rate of return. And so, again, people just keep getting confused. It's worth at this point, it's it's kind of like, again, it's September of 20, 23.KevinInterest rates have been kind of a big deal for a while now. So if when I say interest rate, Treasury bonds, Treasury bills, tenure and you're like, whatever, just shut up and move on to the next topic, you should go watch a couple YouTube videos. Well, I'll give yeah, something like this. You know, it's a bit like you have at some point you have to be like, Huh, I guess this is big deal.KevinYou you don't have to understand it to solve it. You again, you can't empathize with your customers, say can't communicate, you can't educate, you cannot build trust. If you're not making any content about this at all because you're scared of it. Like just, you know, so people are like, I don't understand. We didn't raise interest rates or interest rates only went up by X when the Fed.KevinWell, the Fed's not the only factor here. You know, and and so rates are still sliding higher and the government's going to need more money for a while.AndrewSo I mean I think you would say. Kevin and to end interest rates is the I'm trying to think of the right word to phrase it at principal. That's a strong word. I think we all can feel that word. What it means like interest rates, that is the single biggest factor right now, above all everything else, like you could have a purple house with backwards doors and windows upside down, sideways, all this stuff.AndrewAnd the interest rate is right on that single home. Somehow, who cares? Nothing is selling, right? Yeah. Like it overrides the most amazing campaign, the most amazing website, the most amazing content. Yeah. Location. All that stuff is the rate right now. Shoot, we had a home just list in our neighborhood, and it's one that's like, closest to our our size home and like, Oh, what's something listed for?AndrewIt's like seven something. And then I see that's not the Zestimate, the Zillow's I've heard the call their, their mortgage calculator. I'm like, Oh gosh. I'm like, that's a whole different type of person income job life wise compared to, say myself.KevinI mean.AndrewWhen we got it and at this house now we're at two points, you know, like that's a whole different ballgame as far.KevinAs ask your parents for money. I don't know if you saw that Barbara Corcoran video. So. Barbara Corcoran, she's had a couple of these viral comments. I don't know if she just doesn't have anything going on with her real life.AndrewCPR form.KevinStatements that are compelling. But the first one was, of course, like if rates go, go down, prices will go up. So you better buy now. It's like, okay, we just want to look at one way and that could happen. It also could be their rates go down because the economy is terrible and people that have to sell their house and then there's more supply, then demand, and then prices go down.KevinSo either one could happen, but now she's come out and she just her it was one of these like dude bro podcast about like how to get rich quick. She's like, you just got to get into real estate and like if you can't afford it, no big deal. Just ask your parents for the money. Like the boomers have money, just get their money.KevinAnd so then she's just getting trolled. Get the boom so hard by people who are screenshotted that and they're like, you know, in their clearly not rich surroundings. And these are like teenagers even. They're like, yeah, thanks, Barbara. I'll definitely just ask my parents for, you know, a couple million to buy that apartment in Manhattan. And I'm like.AndrewI can imagine the reactions on that would be hilarious.JenWell, you know, just despite the Straits, it's not like, you know, you can easily slip into this, like, dude, I'm like, oh, my gosh, this sucks, right? But when we look at I mean, I just talked to a builders like we had our best month. August was our best month than ever, you know, at their best, Like it was.KevinThe best.JenMonth ever, ever. And, you know, conversion rates are still really strong, even more so than they were first quarter. Like.KevinYeah.JenSo it's like, yes, it's there and it's harder, but there's still a lot of positives happening justifying.KevinWay more there. There are actually way more positives than the negatives. I'm telling you I would rather have rates where they are or higher than I would like to have the same number of existing homes available on the market today as there were in 2018. If that happens, I'm telling you it's not that that is bad. I will find it.KevinA whole bunch of other things. More fire will take an extra couple million homes, you're saying?JenBecause you're saying because the existing inventory is so low. That's yes, it's so good for us. Yeah.KevinThe only common factor, not not the only the main common factor that unites individual markets that are struggling right now are builders are not hitting or exceeding their goals is where existing home supply get This has returned to like normal normal. And it's not like poems are sitting around forever, but they're like this is the same month supply that was like considered healthy is violently unhealthy now because.KevinBecause why? Because if you get the same healthy supply as is normal and demand is still down here, that's not good like you. Yeah. And so anything that reduces supply and this is why people get into housing experiences of like builders don't want to build that. People truly think this is hilarious. They think home builders are like Louis Vuitton and they're thinking of like, you know what?KevinWe'll do here's we'll do Jen. We'll just build homes a little bit slower or we'll make them a little less available just to protect the prices of our homes. Right. They've never met D.R. Horton. They've never met else, you know, Century Jimmy, like some of these builders that just focus on volume like that. It's hilarious. But your point is again, Andrew, 100% correct.KevinWe would not be in this House now when rates went down to three and a half and then kept going lower. I was like, Melanie, I mean, we own this property since 2015 that we built on and we had a loan and still the we were paying off on the land. But the loan on land was like seven and a half percent.KevinYour land aside, you realize that if we build a that's basically the same size as the house we're in now on the seven acres versus a three quarter acre, we all have a lower payment than what we are paying right now, paying the land and.JenThe spray money. Basically.AndrewShe was like, Shut the front door. Kevin, are you serious? This real interest rate, principally.KevinWhat she said like, well, then why.JenAre not doing that will ever see is that low.AndrewYeah. I don't I don't ever want to see that low.KevinBut that's.AndrewThat's.KevinConspiracy. That's what I wish more people would just honestly talk about if it went back to that guess what would happen like there's there is my friend Rob John says that you know there's just that these are the five these are four days and we added a fifth I think. But deaths, diamonds, diapers, divorce, divorce and displacement like physical, those are the reasons people move.KevinYeah, those reasons haven't stopped.JenRight.KevinWhat has stopped is the availability to easily move around.JenRight.KevinAnd transact. And so that means that I think it's very likely that when rates do go down, there's going to be a whole bunch of people just like the the race was on and people realized that there are still going to make money During the factors. Half of the world was shut down. The race was on to buy things and do things and get things.KevinI think there's a whole bunch of people who the minute rates get below 500 are like, Oh, this is our chance. We got we've got to say this. Yes, we made the dumbest decision ever to move to Nowhere Vermont and work remotely and try to raise yak wool on the side. We need to get back home to Chicago.KevinYeah, You know, put their house up 400%. Yeah. And that is. I'm just telling you, whatever keeps inventory low as what I'm in favor of for our industry now as a human being and wanting people to be able to have access to housing, I think it's terrible. Absolutely terrible. Yeah. But it it is it makes the market work right now.AndrewI think there's a lot of people that regret not doing something with the massive amount of equity they have. So they're like this. This might be like, who knows what's going to happen? Like, this is our chance. We have half million or whatever, number two, three, 400,000 inequity. I want to do something with it. I want to move.AndrewSo there's there's a lot of reasons, I guess.KevinYeah. Now, you can't really touch that equity because there's.JenA lot of people.AndrewLook expensive.JenWebsites and looking and lots of traffic to get you know people are looking.AndrewPeople love new.JenHomes. It's just waiting.KevinBut it's to the rescue, maybe.AndrewRescue.KevinTo the rescue, maybe.AndrewLike a rocket is.KevinIs one. Plus buy rocket mortgage, a 1% down payment option. Andrew, you found this?AndrewI did find this. I was actually. So we reified with Rocket. I logged in, we revived like 20, 20, 20, 21 or whatever, whenever it was. And then I saw this as like an ad something like, Oh, they got me. They got me enough to share this with, with the team. Like, this is interesting and it just read the fine detail.AndrewSo it, it essentially it is targeting it's first time buyers or if you're a repeat buyer, but you do have to fit certain income requirements they give you. You could put down 1%. That's all they're asking for, 1% down payment. They'll give a 2% grant as part of that down payment. So you're at three and you could only give up to 3%.AndrewSo there's max down, payment is 5%. So they're making sure that like, okay, they they'll make more money with less down payment. They have more principle to have interest attached, attached to, but then there's no PMI on it. So that's really interesting. But the and the credit requirements to you looking at this, I'm not a mortgage broker. I'm not a finance person, but you're like, okay, 620 or better.AndrewThat's pretty low. I feel like for like what seems in my brain like this seems to be like a higher risk product or, you know. Beth our team was like, This feels really familiar to VR alone in terms of requirements. Like it's it's kind of what the VA offers for military. But there are you know, there's that every mean something I'm not educated enough in this as far as like what does qualified income mean versus income on it.AndrewBut it seems like it is targeting kind of like the middle ish class income levels and that kind of like in number, we're not probably a lot of people that are very great renters. They pay on time. They have no issue with that yet. They're stuck. They're kind of like, I can't get a down payment, I can't get a down payment on houses, keep going up.AndrewInterest rates are higher. I want to get out of renting. This seems to be the perfect thing for them.KevinSo, yeah, my niece, this seems like a product product for and it's not it's not just I'm almost positive this is a government for Fannie and Freddie have kind of somehow this has been devised and rocket does always a really good job of packaging things up. They do easily and simply for people but I'm pretty sure this option exists for from a lot of different sources.KevinBut my nieces, I think she's 24. She's made good money for a couple of years. She's lived with her her mom. She's getting married and she's like, I really want to buy a house, but I can only afford to put down or only want to put down X. Even though she has more money, she just doesn't want to put it on one.JenOf the.KevinMedia.AndrewYou want to have backup? Yeah. You're like, Cool. That which makes sense. Yeah. You think that'd be like, rewarded somehow? Maybe it is like less down payment.KevinBy banks because they know that's more risk for.AndrewThem. It is risk. But another thing I think a take on this too, is if you read it, I think most builders I'll be meaning for a second any incentives, they're usually not great at explaining them on their website. Intentional, not intentional. To me, I think clear is kind of the more direct you are with it, the better conversions you'll have.AndrewSo I don't know if there's any like, Hey, just leave a little bit info out. People want to call. Well, that's not good because it's in the cards you get or confused. People like, Hey, I'm trying to read this thing, you know, online salesperson. Like, well, they didn't tell me either, so I don't really know. I don't really know.AndrewSo I think I.JenRead that deceptive. What itself what are you talking about?AndrewI think it's like 90% clear and at the bottom there are some like really? Well, that number does make sense. You know, about 6000 there but that's not reference in I was little details I think might not be the best.JenAnswer but it's just written the word incentive. Okay. We're like.AndrewIncentive.JenBuying options.KevinHome buying like.JenNew home options.AndrewOkay, I'm buying.KevinI don't know if.AndrewI can tell if you're messing with me or not, because.JenOptions.AndrewFeels like a really weird word. Really? Oh, we should talk about that. And options versus incentives and do a Did you watch the story on Netflix? I'm really distracting this right now, but it's about words choosing words. It's about when oxycodone content was created and they did a group what's a focus group on naming the drug? Like what is morphine mean to you?AndrewThey're like cancer death, my grandmother passing. What does this word mean to you? Oh, headache. What does this word mean to you? OxyContin, Breathing like oxygen and as all positive words. And they're sitting there and you're like, oh, well, this is terrible. Like, if you if you watch another person affected by it, you're.JenSitting there like, so and so and so it's it makes a big.KevinDifference.JenAnd will mean something rid of the word appointment of somebody is like thinking like I blow.AndrewMy mind. I'm stuck in nerd corner only know what's happening.JenAnd now we we were like don't even say appointment because that means that's transactional and the last more stressful. Like if you get an appointment like you're, you're going to go to contract basically what.AndrewWord to be like.JenSo like we don't even say that we were to discovery tours this Discovery tour community visit. If there's somebody who's really like, I don't know, like, Hey, how about let's just touch up with an informational session to get you started? Like, I.AndrewHope they're not like, so, like an appointment. I feel like I'm Jerry Seinfeld, right?JenBut I guess softening that verbiage, that's when like, you know, anyway, I don't know how we.AndrewGot my language is.KevinMy grandma.AndrewMeans something while.KevinShe's still alive. She's 104. So there might be something to this. But her and my grandfather used to take vitamin. Oh, Andrew.AndrewThat sounds made up too.KevinAnd it like had oxygen in it. And I, like, I was, I don't know, five at a time.AndrewI see it now.KevinBut I was so like, I'm pretty sure you can't put oxygen into powder form and shove it inside of a capsule.AndrewLike it's just hydrogen.KevinAnd I think they're probably that's one of the jokers got away with that is they're like, well you're breathing, you know, you're breathing while you're taking it. So you're taking it out.AndrewI guess I need to know what's in this. I found.JenIt. It's like.AndrewWell, I found the Amazon thing, which is terrible. It's it's like a white he gets like a white and blue bottle vitamin. Know about it, But no ingredients. Ingredients aren't even.KevinYeah, well, my father in law also sells total shyster thing. He sells saltwater. It's a cure all. He's from West Virginia. Okay. Okay. And then my mom used to take Queen Bee Rock Royal Honey, It was. It was special honey in gel tabs that only came from Queen Bees because Queen bees have some ideas. Like, why do we all want to live for?KevinOh, wait, I guess that's insane.AndrewSay I'm quality over quantity. I don't know.KevinIf on.AndrewAny given time.KevinI'll just be paying way more attention to cosmetics and vitamin companies. Yeah, because I know more and that's just make up more stuff. It's getting.AndrewLet's make it as.KevinWe have plenty to talk about. That's interesting to them that we don't have to.AndrewMake it and we have discovery tours. We could tell them about this information.KevinOh, it's I like this. I don't know. Do you like this, Kevin? Or do you hate this? Kevin, This Kevin could never appear another episode again. It's just too much cost me.JenHave you heard today? Maybe. Is it too much or not enough?KevinNo, I think I think it's just the knowing that this is my last thing of today. And I get that you.AndrewSo every Thursday for the month of September, I think it's month to September, Starbucks is doing buy one, get one fall drinks after 12:00. Oh they.KevinShould be Stanley.AndrewThey should be sponsoring me. Right. And that's why I went and got one before. Like this little thing doesn't look so little. I don't I'm not a big dude. I'm like, five, eight. But that's in this cup look so dainty. Like, that's a top, but it's the pumpkin cream cold brew.KevinPeople always think this stuff is contrived and made up, but I will add a Starbucks card and all access you all can scan.AndrewAnd they better post a picture using it.KevinBut I'm just kidding. Ha ha ha ha.AndrewYou better use.KevinAll right, let's move on to our favorites or things we hate either in either one. Oh gosh. What are your favorite shows? Books, Things you've watched. I'm going to give away one of my secret favorite thing I like. You know, I share a lot, but then I'm always like, Ooh, that person's got really good stuff. I can't share it with anyone, but I will.KevinI will share it today. You want I start inter Yeah.AndrewYou talk about West Virginia. So we were recommended. I'm not recommending this.KevinI'm just West Virginia. You're you wonderful people. My home.AndrewCountry roads. Shenandoah River. Right. It's a great place. So there's this documentary. I think Johnny, Johnny Knoxville made it so someone from East, right? But it's the wild and wonderful whites of West Virginia. Just watch on the Amazon. It seems like it's a high school project. Someone made an I'm movie and it's about this family the house and West Virginia and Boone County, Boone County, West Virginia.AndrewAnd it's just a train wreck of I mean, you don't watch it and try to figure out who the father is of any of these children. I think it's one person, the great grandfather or the grandfather. It's the craziest thing. But it's about this family that's they're all related interbred. So it's it's it's insane. I'm like, what are we watching right now?AndrewBut someone recommended it to us. So sure enough, we watched it. I'm not advising to watch it or to not watch it, but if you need something that's a change of pace.KevinYou're doing this with, you're like, Hey, watch this thing.JenYou don't need to be. You don't need to justify your favorite. Oh, you're very handsome.AndrewThis is definitely not I mean, this is about a ancestral family that's inbred. It's a little.JenWeird. Are you favoring favor?AndrewI don't know. This is just.JenWild. It's.AndrewIt's interesting when we finish this whole thing, if that says anything. So we didn't turn it off. I've heard people left.JenIt was like the train movie.AndrewNobody watching it was a train wreck. You're like, Wow, this is real. Everybody. When I said West Virginia, so am I, my boom mic. But the boom, my boom arm that I got, the new one, it's perfect. It doesn't.KevinMove.AndrewThe other one's on the ground. I need to throw it away.JenSo not 2

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 296: Be Curious, Be AttentiveIn this episode, Kevin Oakly, Andrew Peek and Jen Barkan discuss the reasons why it is so vital to be passionate, ready to learn, curious and attentive about the world around you. They go over an article on personal brand rules for employees, pointing out what they would add and emphasizing rules they agree are effective. Together, they discuss their thoughts and fears on the looming mass inventory of used homes that will inevitably affect home builders who are raising their specs.Story Time (05:54)Jen's son is interning as a summer sales intern and loves it which made Jen realize how refreshing it is to have someone who might not have a lot of experience but is passionate, ready to learn and excited.Andrew has been getting up and working early in the morning and loves the extra time with no distractions.Kevin went to Nepal and loved people watching and taking in a whole different culture. He urges us to be insanely curious and attentive.News (29:42)An Employee's Guide to Building a Personal Brand (https://sparktoro.com/blog/an-employees-guide-to-building-a-personal-brand/) New-Home Sales Dip 2.5% In June (https://www.builderonline.com/data-analysis/new-home-sales-dip-2-5-in-june_o?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Article&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BP_080123&&oly_enc_id=9807D1461978C8T)Spec Strategy Drive Record Q2 Homes Closings and Revenue for Meritage Homes (https://www.builderonline.com/money/spec-strategy-drives-record-q2-home-closings-and-revenue-for-meritage-homes_o?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Article&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BP_080123&&oly_enc_id=9807D1461978C8T)‘The everything app': why Elon Musk wants X to be a WeChat for the west (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/29/elon-musk-wechat-twitter-rebranding-everything-app-for-west)Zillow and Redfin announce partnership to help buyers and home builders connect (https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2023-08-01-Zillow-and-Redfin-announce-partnership-to-help-buyers-and-home-builders-connect#assets_28775_137891-135)Favorites (51:54)Jen's favorite are her new Hoka walking shoesAndrew still loves his espresso machine Kevin is really loving his Kuhl and Howitzer athletic shirts.Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunesFollow on SpotifyListen On StitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript: JenI was going to tell you about my permanent eyebrow.AndrewMotorcycle gang. There's so much going on here. What is happening? Let me get my cup of coffee and some popcorn.KevinAnd I'm highly uncomfortable. I have COVID. I don't know how long I can hang in on this episode, so continue.AndrewBut you have a special strain of COVID.JenLet's get this going. Don't talk too much. Done.AndrewSome good news to go over.JenYeah. So update on Andrew and I, we climbed to the top of the motorcycle gang ladder again.KevinYou're amongst people already? Yeah. Your husband, Andrew.JenOh, yes, yes, yes. Sorry. Andrew.AndrewThe other team who just released her book, her husband is Kevin, so it's really confusing.JenOh, okay. Let me let me clarify. My husband, Andrew and I.AndrewMr. Barkan?JenYes. Mr. Barkan climbed to the top of the motorcycle club rankings.KevinHave to whack someone.JenWith that happen? How do you. I can't. I can't. Well, I guess I could discuss it now that I'm no longer in the club.AndrewYou're in finance for the FBI?KevinYeah, sure.JenWe both ended up becoming presidents of our respective clubs.AndrewIt sounds like you said yes to everything.JenAnd like,  it was a whole election. We were voted in. Was like that was a whole thing.AndrewNo fraud.JenYou know, But both being super competitive, you know, once you reach the top, it's like, all right, you know, what's next? And, you know, it was just becoming, was just becoming a lot. And there was contrary to what a lot of people might think, there was some drama and some stuff that, you know, we just like to relax. There's too much drama.JenYeah, We were just like, you know, we'd rather go, like, play golf and do a bowling league on Wednesday night. So that's what we have decided to do. So we have left.AndrewI support that.JenWe did not get what's it called, You know, we weren't kicked out. We weren't we weren't stomach punch. Clearly not your stomach punch.KevinYeah.JenSenator Punched. Senator punched is you know, if you if you're put out bad.KevinBut it's called.AndrewSo.JenWe were not put out that we, we gracefully left and yeah we're just having a good time now I'll have to worry about.KevinIt. Cut.AndrewCut. Any. Not saying it was the negative thing but yeah I'm all for like if that's not bringing you anything positive.JenIt wasn't bringing too much joy, right? It was because even people that sounds.AndrewYeah, but like.JenYeah it was.AndrewUp I have come time.JenSo now I'm I'm doing a golf league.AndrewThat might sound bowling's more frustrating to me golfing.JenWell, you know, I definitely have to talk to myself like, you know, this is just practice. Although I am on a team and we do have a leaderboard and, you know, I'm challenging myself to get better every week.AndrewPrediction in 2024 is that might be gone. Golfing is just frustrating. So hard Sport is hard.KevinIs the international show in Vegas again next year? I think it is.AndrewIt to make us All.KevinRight we'll um whatever day is the lightest we'll just go on the wind course.JenBut still.KevinHave a.AndrewSister Three holes. That's plenty.KevinNow, you got to do it. At least.JenNot well.AndrewWe could do.JenKevin. Are you good? Do you golf?KevinOf course I do. I, I, I used to be good ish. I mean, if you get under 100 and you don't play very often, that's.JenYeah, that's.AndrewGood. 100 for the first four. The first nine.KevinYeah. No I, me. Yeah. My old, my old boss was really big on golfing and my rule was, I mean, golf is both expensive and time consuming. So when you're in your early thirties and you have four kids, so like, I'm only golfing when I can do it for work during work hours. So now that no one that I work with basically is like, Hey, Kevin, let's go golfing.KevinI don't golf. I do top golf now.AndrewTopgolf sounds.JenBetter. I love Topgolf Yeah.AndrewI just never got into golfing, but it might have been that. Like, I just very quickly realized to be good at this, I need X amount of swings per week at like each, you know, whatever. But they putting mid range whatever the heck the thing is short game.JenKevin I'm gonna hold you to this or they're doing.KevinGolf. Yeah no, we should get them. Get yes. I don't know what eight.AndrewI'll click on the.KevinSix eight foursomes and we'll, we'll just do a little thing. Yeah.AndrewThursday. What is his speaking schedule. But Yeah. Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon.KevinHour. Yeah.AndrewOkay. As long as it doesn't, it's.KevinA, it's a, it's a nice little course. There they have.JenOh yeah. I'm sure I seen.AndrewFrom like the window, you know, bunch of players up like oh it looks nice out.JenThere. It'll do, it'll do.AndrewThey'll do it Will do.KevinYeah. All right.AndrewWhat a life.JenWe have too. We were talking about new home stuff now.KevinYeah, Yeah, I want to, I want to talk a little bit about Nepal, but that's what that's what story time is for, I guess. All right, let's go. Welcome to episode 296. I'm Kevin Oakley. And with me today is Andrew Peek and Jen Barkin. Yeah, Jen finally stopped standing us up. It's been, what, three months since you've been?KevinNo, sir. I was getting hate mail. Like, what's going on? Where's Jen?JenIt hasn't been that long ago.AndrewTwo months.KevinI think. Jessie on my list. Yeah. Someone. Fact check. Jen has not been back.JenI was traveling some.KevinYou've been busy, Michael Austin. And, you know, traveling and speaking.JenAnd I think I was visiting a client.KevinYeah, we don't have those.JenSo that's a part. Your partner. You're working? Oh, I was visiting a partner. You're working?KevinOh, I love it. All right, story time. Let's go. And Jen.JenOh, I get to go first.KevinYes.JenOh, I love this story time because So my son, Sam, you guys, I.KevinSaw this before.JenYes. So he came to me in the spring, actually, and was like, I think I'm interested in real estate. So really, he'll like, yeah, you know, I really am interested in this. And I said, okay like easy.KevinMoney industry I everyone.JenOh, he's like, you know.AndrewHe's like, real.JenYeah, he's like I said, like selling like, like what are million dollar listing? Like what's, what part of it is in.AndrewNews on Netflix. Yeah.JenYeah. He's like, I don't know, just all of it. And I said, Okay. So a couple months went by. He came home from college and he was like, came to me again and said, You know, I am really interested in. And I said, okay, well, let's see if there's any builders in our area that are doing any sort of summer internship.JenI don't know. Let's just check and see. Called some friends said, Hey, what's going on? And I said, Yeah. And so I said, okay, Sam, I'm stepping out this is all on you. I'm making the introduction. Now don't embarrass me. Yeah, you know. Yeah. And I even said that to our partner, You know, I was like, Hey, you know, this this is, this is on you and him, and you figure it out.JenAnyway, fast forward. He's been doing this now for a couple of months. He loves it. He comes home and is like talking about he's like, Oh man, this is awesome. Like, I could totally do this. He's like, memorize the stuff on the website. He's memorized the plans. He's talking about pricing. He's like, Hey, these this one couple came and they were just lovely and they wanted this home and I, I got them to get the larger home because why not go for the larger home?JenAnd he's like talking all this stuff and I'm just like, man, that is so refreshing. I mean, he is like, he came in my office the other day and sat down is like, Let's talk about lasso CRM. Like, what.AndrewDid I create happened here?JenI'm like, okay, tell me. And then he's like, you know, let's call the online sales appointments and, you know, and it's just it just reminded me one, like, I'll take any day, I'll take somebody who is an experience but is passionate, is excited, is hungry to learn. You know that energy is I mean, that's that's just that's what it's all about.JenThat's what it's all about. And so, you know, they're paying them whatever this internship pay is, Right? Is nothing. But he is just he's just so excited. He's just there to learn. And, you know, as we see saying about us, because we're doing we're helping a lot of our partners hire right now. And the question is always like, do I look for this experienced person that's out there that's been in real estate or and I'm like, No, like, you don't need that.JenWe can teach them how to be an online sales specialist and teach them how to be a salesperson. You can teach them all those things, but you can't teach that, you know, that excitement and hunger and drive and that you have when you're brand new. So, you know, I've always, you know, Kevin and I have talked about this.JenI've always been a big advocate of, hey, look at college, you know, college and intern, you know, get a college intern, right? Bring them up, mold them, you know, get them in and teach them and bring them.KevinYou don't have to be like the nice internship company like you. You can you can pay them and you can just pay them, you know? You know, they're I'm sorry. And they come out right again. I do have covered folks, so bear with me. I'm also way more excited to be here than my voice sounds. But there are folks who craft internships and like my my niece has been in some where you hear what she's done and she didn't really do anything.KevinLike they almost crafted like an internship experience, like a Disney made an internship and you're like, okay, but there is no skill learned or like work done. It was just like, Yeah, us. We have an intern. Yay! Intern. They like our company. Yeah, you don't you don't have to have that pressure again. I always go back to one internship.KevinI had for the summer. All I my job was to scan in slides of pictures that have been taken all over the world and categorize them. That's all I did.AndrewThat's science.KevinAnd technology back then sucked so badly that you'd hit the button and it would not scan in five slides at a time. And it took almost an hour. And so I would hit the button once an hour and then read a John Grisham book and then plug in, you know, everything that was in in each picture so they could have a searchable archive of all these images.KevinIt was not like that experience isn't going on TikTok or Instagram reels. Mm hmm. But it's it's a job that needed to be done. So I just think a lot of people don't create an internship position because you're like, I don't think I have something cool enough from the work on or some special big project like just tell them to go sweep out the houses under construction if you want to.JenRight?AndrewRight. I had the right my internship was opposite. It was for the American Red Cross in Tallahassee where I'm with the school. And they were setting up their I forgot their command center for when hurricanes came. They had this massive grant from something like 100 something computers. And I worked alongside the guy who actually knew what he was doing.AndrewI didn't know. So we set up a hundred stations we like, I don't know the word is, but deployed each desktop from like a server, like all this cool stuff. And then it taught me I hated that type of job. So I was like, This is done with cool. It looks good on a resume, but on my own, right?JenBut it's yeah, it's a good way for you to figure out what you like and what you don't like, right?AndrewSam had sales experience before That didn't work at Footlocker, right?JenOh, Footlocker.AndrewMan, did you lean on that? I'm sure. Especially now that and during his because it's really.JenThe course needed.AndrewSales and sales or just selling something different.JenYes it is.KevinYou should sell the coolest thing possible, which is a house like I think that's probably like you can you can geek out about details of a shoe, I'm sure. But I mean, the average individual you're trying to sell to probably only wants to hear about three of the 72 things you think are cool. Whereas if like if he likes differential demonstration and like the like if he like, sells, I don't know, like, why would you not want to sell a house?AndrewWould be better.JenHey, he told me.AndrewThat are drugs.JenHe told me last week that.KevinYou don't have to sell drugs.AndrewJust pharmaceutical.JenLast week, that this feels very natural to him and he's.KevinCool.JenHe's just super excited. So, yeah, mean, I'm really happy for him.KevinThat's great. Mm hmm.AndrewAndrew Yeah, mine's a quick one, so summer's almost over, actually, when you listen to this. Yeah. Be around the first day of school for our kiddos. We have a middle schooler this year. Why in the world, like, I feel like.JenHold on to your mom.AndrewLike, Oh, I'm so old now. I got, like, you'll see me at the summit. Like, you're like me. And what's this gray stuff coming into Andrew's beard.JenLooking like what happened to Mike.AndrewLove? Yeah, Looking like mini Mike over there.KevinWhere has he been? Doing his hair for a long time then, or what? What's that.JenAbout? No.KevinSuddenly stopped dying.JenTeenagers, teenagers. And then it just style goes gray. Okay, so just crazy.KevinThere's this one Thanksgiving. I remember my my mom to stop diner hair and she went from like, I didn't know she was dying, her hair. And then all these.JenYou were like.KevinWow. It's like, Whoa.AndrewMom, my mom's not listening. That would be her. My mother did.JenShe pointed out like mom with the help.KevinYeah. I mean, I'm her son, so I can say whatever I want, right? I'm just like, Mom.JenOh, my gosh.KevinI did. It wasn't a bad look. It was just shocking. It was like, Mom, what happened? And she's like, so silly.JenMom, that was me. During COVID, are you going to do.KevinWith.00:14:08:16 - 00:14:11:04AndrewWhat's happening here? Here's the employee handbook.KevinIt looks distinguished. I've always wondered why people dye their hair like that, but I mean, yeah.JenOh, man, I don't think I could go through the growing out stage. That would be.KevinYes. Okay. Anytime we start talking about anything related to fashion, I become highly uncomfortable. So let's move on.AndrewSo back to this. So kids start school next week. So summer's been, you know, summer is is a blessing. Get to see the kids face more often. But it's also like, oh, my goodness, can you working from home like, can you, like, be consistent with your schedule me talking to the kids because like, hey, it's it's breakfast time.AndrewCan you help me out my kiddos it's 1;30. Like, what are you talking about? Like, what day is almost over? It's happening then. So I'm like, okay. CUOMO Adjustment schedules. So this week I've flopped around my schedule. Usually get up in the morning. There's a point to the story and like I go straight to the gym since my birthday was April.AndrewSo I'm like, I'm just not feeling that like getting up and going there and like, oh my goodness, like not fun. But I do like just wake up at that time naturally, like without alarm, like 435. I'm just, I'm awake. So this week I'm like, I'm a try. Just working for a couple of hours until like what would be seven or seven when I would have to next week get the kids ready.AndrewIt's been nice. My I forget how nice those times are where like, no one can talk to me even though I can at times ignore or like delay a response, an email or slack if it's not emergency or if it's something that isn't bottlenecking someone else. Like, okay, I could get to that at like 430 or 440.KevinFive.JenMinutes from June.AndrewSix from Jen when she's asking weird questions, how to help spot and other stuff like that.KevinYou got to get around. To fact.AndrewI could all get that, get that later. But it's been so I'm kind of like gaining 2 hours of work time, which is amazing. And then, you know, kids leave earlier because my oldest is in middle school, so they're out of the house by 740. I'm like, This is great. So it's like 40 minutes to get them ready.AndrewSo I'm like, I'm gaining almost like two and a half hours of time with this new schedule that have It's nice, it's beautiful. I love it. So I don't again, working from.KevinHome or I there's a couple of things. They're like. Andrew One is.AndrewLike, I think be more productive.KevinShifting your schedules, even if it's the same amount of time. In this case, you're gaining some time, but even if it's the same amount of time, a shift is helpful in lots of ways. It just gets you out of a rut.AndrewOh, for sure.KevinYou know, it can potentially change or create the opportunity for change of many things just by making that change in any schedule. The second thing I love is the chaos that it creates for everyone else in your life. Trying to figure out what your new schedule is. It's like a fun little extra game within the game. Like my old when I was actually working for real companies.KevinOh, that's a joke. It's a joke. We always are. Like, I was like, I guess we're a real company now.AndrewAt 20 so.KevinMuch I would always tell different people, different days that I was getting back from vacation, like my boss knew the real day, but I would always tell three different dates. No one really knew when I was coming back and it was just awesome because you're back for like a full 24 hours before the whole company would realize you're back and you could catch up.KevinBut just changing your schedule means that other people have to become aware that your schedule has changed and that gives you it's the same advantage of people who live on the West Coast have like they send us, who live on the East Coast, things to do, and we're always behind. Like they leave the office and are like and 5:00 their time, they're like, there you go.KevinAnd we wake up and we've got this thing to do, you know? So it's it's kind of just there is an advantage to getting up earlier. So because you are always ahead.AndrewYeah, yeah. Agreed. And what I needed it for is like one not not of right but just as far as like when you work from home I see the same. There's my window, there's like if I don't leave the house like that. So to get is that like it's. I feel like I'm going crazy. So you need a change of environment.AndrewSo this changes that up for me. Like, oh, it's dark outside. Cool. This feels this feels different enough for me. And now I could shift like, all right, here's these must do's are in the morning now versus later. Prior to this, I'm like, okay, we'll get to that. Next thing you know, it's 4:00. I have to do these other things that are build a partner.AndrewWork has to get done. So this is like, okay, cool, those things will have to get done anyways. Like I'm not stop a monday until they're done. But here's this other set of things that really have to be done but can kind of be kicked out. Is this.KevinYou mean you're going to become no longer a night person or wait, there's worse because I remember some.JenOf morning never been a night.KevinThat's right. Yeah, that's right. I just.AndrewRemember just like adjusting my morning until your.KevinPhrase. Yeah, well, you're one of the first people I ever worked with who said something like. Like I just go to bed. When I go to bed, like, I can't stay up and keep working, but I'll wear I'll wake up as early as I need to, and it's no big deal.AndrewI get up at three.KevinTo.AndrewDo it, whereas.JenI'm like, I'll work till like.KevinI'll just not sleep.JenYeah, Yeah.AndrewBecause in my mind, like, ardern's be done it. Let's say there's something crazy as far as schedule. Like either stay up late until one to do it and it's due the next day at 8 a.m. or just get up at three and you have from 3 to 8. Like it's kind of the same thing.JenWhat's your natural wake up time given.KevinNatural probably is 6:45. Okay.JenSee? Yeah. So like weekend, like if you don't have to get up, you're so waking up and getting up.KevinIt's like still waking up around then. And then I usually unsuccessfully try to tell myself to go back to sleep on the weekend. Yeah. Yeah.JenBut you don't.KevinYeah.AndrewWe are. We were on our vacation like a couple weeks ago. We had a couple of crazy nights. We're out to like two or three in the morning because, like, why not? Even then, I'd wake up at, like, 7:30.JenHow did you do that?AndrewWell, of course, that day I, like, took a nap later. They. But I'm like, I'm awake. Like when the world like, let's get some breakfast, Let's go. That's crazy. What do you got?KevinMy story time. So I went to Nepal last week and that's a nine hour and 45 minute time change. Well, you can. Wow. I have to look up on Wikipedia. Why? It's 45 minutes and not a full hour. Something about the the meridian of every country determines which time zone is supposed to be in. The meridian is the exact center of the country.KevinAnd then that put too many of the population in a like, you know, I have two time zones in a country as small as Nepal. Anyway so the exact other half of the world. And yeah, what I really wanted to talk about today is just the absolute fun. It is as a curious individual who loves how human psychology works to be dropped in a new culture that you have no exposure to a language you have no hope of understanding.KevinLike when we when we go to Guatemala and I don't speak Spanish, great. But, you know, I know how to say good morning. I know how to say where it's bathroom, like 50 common phrases and I kind of authenticator.JenYeah, yeah.KevinYou're like your mouth moves in, like similar motions.JenYeah.KevinAnd so I'm like, I'm going to I want to like, in Nepali, I want to learn how to say like, Hi, how are you doing? And it's like, so da da da. I can't. I give up. I can't. I just tried to use Google Translate. We had translators with us, but like people watching is always a fun thing.KevinPeople watching in that culture you have no connection to at all is wild and in it like just sensory overload. It was so much fun to try to orient yourself to that, and I think it was just a really good exercise of what marketers should always be doing in relationship to our customers of you can't just make assumptions, you can't not be curious, not be interested, you can't ever think, you know, But in this case, it was all like whether you wanted to pretend that you were comfortable and understood, you didn't.KevinYou were. You were starting out at zero. But I was with a couple other folks all week, and they never they never call it like they were there for a whole week. And they're still like, What did he say? Like our translator who's speaking English, They're still just like, What? I can't understand what he's saying or what is happening.KevinAnd I found myself, I think just because that natural curiosity and body language and and context of for whatever reason, by like Wednesday, I'm like, I know what's going on. I don't I don't really know what's going on. But like, like this one, this one.JenLady comfortable with the uncomfortable like you were, you started to get like okay with the.KevinWell, you're just you're I think it's also just learning which is my favorite thing in the world to do is to learn. So I'm I'm just constantly absorbing and and trying to translate that and how does it all, how do all the pieces fit together. And so this one example is we were in a remote village and this woman, there's a gentleman there and this wasn't what we did all the time, but find out that the guy is depressed and the wife and all the families there and the wife just starts going off like like my wife would, which helps.KevinSo, so she just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And she's making hand motions and I'm like, she's really mad at her husband because she wants to talk and be expressive. And he holds everything in and she doesn't understand why he can't just talk and be like and connect with her. I understood nothing of what she was saying, but I was like, I recognize that.KevinAnd so what I'm the things I tell people is going to Nepal taught me to look at someone's eyes. His eyes are the same everywhere. And I think that's the other thing anyway. Anyway, I don't even know what the context of all this is, other than the insanely serious.JenYeah.KevinAnd attentive. I think that's the other thing. Like in art school, when I would take studio classes, the first thing they teach you to do in drawing class is your connecting your eye with your hand. Most people don't look to see the actual thing we're abstracting. We're like, Oh, that's a bird. And you don't actually look at all the intricate details of the bird.KevinYou're just like, this is a bird. My brain says that birds are shaped like this, so let's draw this thing like no, just as your eye moves, move your hand. It's that same kind of connection that it's just especially refreshing when you do not get in a rut, but you start to over assume or you think you've got something down.KevinYou start paying attention and that's when you miss the market shifts or the consumer shifts for each. And we have the advantage of what we do. It is an advantage. We don't try to hide it working with so many different companies in so many different places, we're kind of always in this mode of like we're having to take what the builder is bringing to the call or what the data says, and we're abstracted away from it because we don't live in Iowa or California or wherever.KevinSo we can pick up those same cues. And it was just a really cool experience and maybe made me realize that like we have to keep being curious and attentive all the time.JenOh my gosh.KevinExcel.JenI love what you're saying. I love what you're saying because, you know, I take that and I think about it for online sales and I talk to them all the time about like, how do you active listen, you have to be curious and ask questions like if you're doing all the talking, you're not learning anything about them. Like if you were there in Nepal, like.KevinYeah.JenYou were observing, you were active listening, you were not.KevinIn a rush. I didn't have a choice. I couldn't talk. So that's all I could do was but like, take it in, right?JenYou know, you know, in online channels. I tell them all the time, like, ask questions, repeat back to people when they tell you something that helps you learn and connect with them more. Right. Don't interrupt. I love that And that.KevinAnd then the the really like final connection piece of was interesting is how they use Tik tok there. Tik Tok in Nepal is not a performance art or even a storytelling art the way it is here. It's so prevalent and used by everyone for everything that everyone would want selfies or group pictures with us because we look strange to them, right?KevinAnd so they're like, Hey, let's get a picture. It's get a picture. And someone would take a couple of pictures and then someone would be holding up the phone like this. John And they would they would just turn this and we're like, Hi, my girl. She's she's an every day. Every day is are you going to take the picture?KevinThey're just recording a Tik tok with no sound, no nothing. It's just going to get posted as here is this group of people standing, which I mean, maybe that stuff gets made and it just doesn't hit the algorithm in the U.S.. Tik Tok. But it was just like saying, yeah, it was. It was different. And so it was a blast.KevinI would always get out of your comfort zone.JenI loved your pictures.KevinI mean.JenYour pictures, you know, like just came into life. You know, as I was looking at images, they're just awesome.AndrewDid you did you bring for pictures?KevinWhat equipment? Yeah. Are we talking nerd talk? Okay, So just like.AndrewOkay. Oh, no. All right.JenI got to go now.KevinOkay.AndrewNot this kind of work. I got to.JenGo. Oh, I got to guess.KevinNo, no, this is it. Because we are an auto show.AndrewLike, I knew it had to be simple as far as insta go.KevinThree. Okay, so it looks like a GoPro. It does here. And there. But the thing is, the camera pops out and so you can use a screen still see what you're recording, but I could inconspicuously it comes with a magnetic chest mount. So like Iron Man, that is so I could just record up to 45 minutes with it just stuck right here.KevinNo one even really looked at it. It it's.AndrewCompletely it doesn't look like a camera.KevinAnd it's and it's magnetic. So you can also just stick it on any metal object you find. So you're riding a tutu. Can you want to get a cool camera angle you just put in? It sucks on the side of the vehicle and you're driving down the Nepali highway at 40 kilometers an hour with bikes. And you know, it's just well, it's a.JenIt's the most interesting thing. You ate.KevinOh, wow. So. TOLLEY Well, yeah, by yoga, they really love their yogurt. So they like fermented yogurt with they grow mangoes there. That was interesting.AndrewMangoes. So they're like almost tropical weather. But then there was a.KevinHot.AndrewNepal is wherever it is, right? That's right.KevinYes. I so I'm going to add to my LinkedIn profile that, you know, climbed on it. I climbed Mount Everest because we were in the foothills of Mount Everest. I never saw it when I was on the ground. I didn't see it from the air that was really cool. But wow, even though I was right in front of it, it's so tall and there's other tall mountains in front of it.KevinYou can't see it. Yeah. So there is lots of cameras, lots of gear. Maybe that's a separate blog post.JenBut very cool.KevinYeah. All right, on to the news first up from Spark, TerraCom. This one's called An Employee's Guide to building a personal brand. And an article, of course, is great. That's why we pick it. But I'm just going to skip down to the personal brand rules for employees. Yeah, that's Prince's. This is really interesting. So if you're feeling stuck, consider these guardrails.KevinEveryone, please. Like the number of times that these guardrails have been avoided by people in this industry, or just people generally that that we all know. Like, please don't do that.AndrewI can I can name those. I'm not naming names.KevinDon't name names, but be mindful of your role within your company. You might not be the company spokesperson. You're your own spokesperson. Don't say or do anything. You wouldn't do it. Work. Give yourself topic guardrails. That's interesting in that yes, similar to what I think we mentioned before, Mark Davidson had to say and will say at the summit is, you know, you can't have a brand unless you are restrictive like this concept.KevinI'm going to be my full self. Your full self is too complex to be a brand. And that's why personal branding is tough in that if you if you decide you're going to talk a little bit of everything, fewer people will connect with that with your personal brand because you're just all over the place. And those are people who know you and just like you.KevinFor you, that's fine by giving yourself topic, guardrails will improve your audience growth and and your sanity. And then when in doubt, stick with what you know. Hmm.AndrewGreat. I like it. I wish I could add another one because someone on our team. I don't want to. I'd want to. I won't say the full story, but, like, she's like, look at this garbage. And it was a salesperson posting. They made their own graphic using the brand's logo, the company's logo now. And it was just terrible.AndrewIt was just awful. The fans were wrong, like, but they put it look like the brand made it. And so then that should be another one. And they're like proper use of branding guidelines, which is of course nerdier. But like, I mean, the person there, I think they're not being incentivized, but they're being encouraged to like use their own social media to like get referrals and sales and whatnot.AndrewBut like, oh my goodness, like it'd be better if they just took an iPhone photo, honestly, without any branding because then they throw the logo on there. It's like, Oh, what is this garbage? Then it looks like the brand is like kind of messy. Oh, that's an idea.JenThat's really a great article.KevinIt is.AndrewThere's so much and it's written by an employee at Spark. Toro I believe 90% sure. So I'm like, This is even better.KevinYes. Well, I really like this is a good piece lifted from the article. Don't don't say I want to focus on my personal brand because that's crunchy and icky. Just saying it out loud. Instead, try saying I want to create leverage for myself. I want to make it easier to network with other people, and I want my ideas to serve as a magnet for the people and opportunities I want to attract.KevinAnd I think that's what, you know, people are naturally connectors for and and go proactively networking. Or if you want to have a good network, you have to find reasons to draw people to you. And I like that definition a lot better of a great, you know, the algorithms do the work for you and that's why the topics do really matter what you decide you want to talk about.KevinIf you're going to talk about gardening one day and sales the next, unless gardening was an analogy for sales, it's confusing even to the algorithms to know who should see this content. And and once all the gardeners start interacting with your content, you might get de-emphasize to people who are interested in sales related content. So that's another way to I don't think it's covered in the article, but just also think that you're trying to make sure that the algorithms understand what your personal brand is as well.KevinAnd air quotes. Great.JenThat makes sense.AndrewYeah, I think set in other ways they hyperfocus.JenYeah you're yeah.AndrewYeah I think that was I forgot his name on Instagram. He is like here's how the algorithm works and it's all what we assume. If people engage with your content, they'll see it more often. If they don't engage with your content by engage, it isn't just like a comment. If they're watching it and their screen time, they'll see your stories more often.AndrewIf it's a story. So if you're all over the place, then the outdoor algorithm would be like, I don't know who to show this to. Now, the 50 people that really liked it don't like you anymore. Maybe the next batch of people will. Who knows?KevinYeah, well, everyone famously. You know, you're not supposed to put. If you want better reach on LinkedIn. Do not put the link in. Your post has to be a link in the comments. Why? Because like all social networks, LinkedIn doesn't want people leaving. They want people staying. And so this is again, some where friction should exist between sales and marketing.KevinWhen salespeople come up with bad ideas or have bad habits, you know, it's no different than when social media first came around. Everyone was like, Well, you got to put their phone number and our hours on the post. Like, I don't know if you remember that, like early Facebook, like.JenYeah.KevinHow are people going to know what to do if you don't give them your phone number, give them more hours and put the physical address of the location and say, come see us today when no one wants to interact with that garbage content again we're having. You have to negotiate with the algorithms. And the algorithms have their own motives and their own things are trying to achieve.KevinThey don't want people leaving. And so how weird does it feel to post a piece of content or a clip of a piece of content and not say, Click here to go see the whole thing, or click here to learn more. Every sales person in the world would be like these Marketers don't know what they're doing. The marketers are like, If you want the biggest reach possible, we can't do that thing that you really want to do.KevinYou've got to be patient. Yeah, well, that's that's hard. Kevin It is. It's hard for marketers to.JenWho in the organization responsible for like if you see sales doing something that is against this person's operating guidelines.KevinTheir online sales coach, and that's that's who's in charge. Jen That's how much a conversation.AndrewAs Jen.KevinThat's good. That's a that's a that's really mean.AndrewWho should be in charge of that.JenSerious like.KevinWell.AndrewBecause it needs to be someone you can't say no to in my opinion. Like you cannot go against that person.JenThat marketing leadership. Is it sales leadership?KevinListen to me. This is one of the rules. I mean, if you're we're going to big companies then and this isn't a hard question because let's be honest, the larger your company gets, people generally are more okay with being jerks to each other when necessary. Right? You're just like, hey, you're you're doing this wrong. Stop it. I've seen 40 other people on this email, right?KevinThat that's what you do in a big company in a in a medium or small size company. It shouldn't matter who the person is or the title. Right. And I think the bigger thing is the technique of saying, what are you trying to accomplish? And that's that's that's how you always get people to be great teammates, is you don't say, stop doing that.KevinI can't believe you used our logo inappropriately, you know, Don't you understand? We have brand standards. Look at this demerits for you. You just say, what do you what are you trying to do? How can we help?JenYeah, let me help you. I was going to say, that's.00:37:20:23 - 00:37:31:00KevinThat's. Can we help you? Yeah. Agreed. Oh, you want people to engage with your content over time? Okay, then.JenNot like to.KevinComment. We're not going to say, well.AndrewToday I want them to call today.KevinOkay. That that's actually a great role play. So you want them to call you John, right? Let's do this. Yeah. Yeah, I'll call you. Okay. So no one wants to call someone they don't know and aren't sure yet if they even are interested in what you have to offer. And the little slice we're giving them doesn't have enough context.KevinSo what we have to do is go a couple steps before the call. What would be the thing that in the consumer's mind you think would happen before they choose to call you? What else would you like them to do if they're not going to call you today? What's the thing that would lead them to calling you that you'd like them to do?JenI'd like them to look at my website and get some information.KevinThere we go. So, yeah, you're just you're helping them understand that we can get to where you want to go.JenI just wanna recall me.KevinWe can't skip those steps.JenNo, it seems to be. I say that, you know, I'm not trying to be, but. But this is. This is what happens, right? Is just put my number on there. Just, you know, I want to talk to, you know, and.KevinAnd and honestly, I think a lot of this goes back on marketers not looking far enough into the future. Again, we all can time travel just pull out a calendar and you can transport yourself into the end of next month. Right. Like so if the salesperson is is crying on the phone saying, I just want him to call me because they only have one cell in on a sales goal of three and they've only had four appointments the entire month.KevinThat's shame on shame on everyone. Managers, marketers, operations folks who's been monitoring the data, knowing this person has no chance in hell of hitting their sales goal. And why do we let them just, you know, like like look around like a a lost a lost fish in a fishbowl until the day before. And in a moment of panic, say, I just need people to call me buy a house today.KevinToday. All right. Next up from Zillow's media room, Zillow and Redfin announce a partnership to help buyers and homebuilders connect. This is a this is a big win win win all around for everyone. I think So. Basically, the the content for new construction will come from Zillow's content library. They'll be syndicating the content through to Redfin and in particular because Redfin's had new construction content on it for a while, it's going to be adding the community pages and some of the additional product features that Zillow has created for the new construction product over the last several years.KevinSo Redfin gets better content to display to all of Redfin's users that they don't have to worry about building and maintaining. That comes through through Zillow. Zillow gets additional exposure for new construction listings on Redfin, which short story short, when another syndication site kind of similarly imploded a while ago. I'm going to get hate mail just for mentioning that.KevinBut, you know, something happened out there in the world and several builders that we work with just said choosing not to work with a syndication partner anymore. But they were feeding data to Redfin and they were they were not concerned about kind of the core product. They were concerned about my homes won't show up on Redfin the way I want.KevinSo Redfin has always been surprising. It's a great website, it's a great user experience. But even folks who aren't in typical Redfin markets really covet the Redfin audience. And so that so it's a win for Zillow and for Redfin and a win for marketers who use Zillow to to promote those listings. So there's not it's not very often where you see an announcement.KevinYou're like kind of like who won? Who lost in this announcement? I don't think anyone lost anything on Wednesday.AndrewNo, no one losing on this call.KevinNext up from builder online dot com came okay new do they not own builder magazine dot com is there a different URL? Am I the only one who wonders this? Come on builder. Anyway, new home sales dipped 2.5% in June. Sales slid slightly month over month, but are up 23.8% year over year according to the census. So down new home sales volume down 2.5% June compared to May, but year over year up 23%.KevinIsn't that.AndrewInteresting? If they were to say new home sales up 23.8% would be like one. The world's happening as far as like the buyer perception on that versus demand. They're like, oh, the sky is falling, Prices will be super low soon, but you said opposite people like, oh my goodness, I better get some urgency, like it's getting more expensive out there or whatever, maybe.JenBut while even just like looking at.AndrewThe story, you want.JenNumbers, you know, like it's in line with that. Like our our builder partners, like I'm just looking at averages and what we saw an increase in appointment to the sale and the been Q2 and looking at 2022 sales averages and 2023 sales averages it's up.KevinYeah. And July for most people, you know the first week with the holiday and lots of people traveling slower but the me in the back half of July who it's cranking the number of people who are just like we hit half of our sales goal in the last four days of the month and really continuing into August and rates taking higher.KevinAre higher rates starting to become like a a good thing for new construction? You could argue like they have been, but I wonder if it's even more so making it better because builders have these I mean, there's more value like 5% as a bought down interest rate is kind of like like I'm I'm desensitized to it. I mean the average consumer isn't.JenIt seems that.KevinStuff up but.AndrewI thought I saw someone with a 3.9 the other day.KevinYeah. These are 30 year fixed mortgage.AndrewSo I was thinking.JenWell, we'll pay for your refinancing, too.KevinMm hmm.JenSo, like, so know, this.KevinIs from Ali Wolf, the chief economist is on to both. Supply and demand are down for housing. Given higher interest rates, today's housing market is all about finding the right buyer for the right home at the right price. And that's a challenge compared to the resale market, though new home builders are doing a better job working with consumers and are gaining market share.AndrewYeah, we had that Kevin article. He sent a few of us.KevinMm hmm.AndrewBuilders have to build, Builders build. That's what they do. So they have to sell compared to resale. It's. It's realtors. Realtors gonna sell now. Realtors will sell when they have the opportunity with a listing to sell. But, you know, builders are making the market. I don't if that makes any sense. What I just said the realtors there between the transaction but no one's forcing a seller a homeowner me to list the home.AndrewBut builders are like, we have to sell. We have a company we have revenue to. Great. And so we'll make it work. And that's where that's where I take the higher interest rates are pushing more people to builders.KevinWhat's the.JenI mean, the home buyers that are out there have to move and.KevinMove.JenNew home builders are getting this getting those buyers because there's nothing else on the market. So.KevinYeah, is it is it Kesha who sings the song that has the lyrics like Don't Stop.AndrewThat's for sure. Kesha Yeah.JenYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good.KevinKevin Good job. Here's the only thing that makes me nervous. This is our next article is also from Builder Online Spec Strategy Drives Record due to Home closings and revenue for Meritage Homes. Listen, there's Really only two options for builders right now. If you want to maintain velocity, the number of units that you are selling in a year, you are building more specs and that strategy works until it doesn't.KevinBut I feel like the whole industry is singing this song of of just please don't stop market because if you get caught and whenever this happens and it always does happen, it's going to be a double whammy because at the same time, all of these specs will need to be urgently sold by builders. The the used market will return at that exact same moment.KevinAnd I someone I don't have it for this this show but we'll try to get it for next week. Someone just did a survey that found that like one out of every four or five homeowners plans to sell their home they live in in the next like three years.JenSo that makes total sense to me because.KevinTerrifying.JenI know, but.KevinI wouldn't live through. Okay.JenI know. But I just think that maybe I misunderstood what you're saying, but I just think that there was a lot of people who bought during the pandemic, like as a, you know, and didn't really buy what they wanted. Just bought some.KevinSell.AndrewBecause of lack of supply. Like, I need a home.JenLike, yeah, like I don't care or you know, there was just limited and whatever and I think there's going to be a lot of people that are like, I want to move now like I don't this isn't my forever home. I just needed something. I bought it and.KevinI think it was a zonder data report that I saw. Zonda owns Builder magazine as well that showed that I think it was Indianapolis Market and they showed the the START data for spec spec of the inventory in Indianapolis and it had come way down from the peak in January, February of this year, I think. And the question was like, are builders going to replace that?KevinAnd the top ten builders who are building inventory, pedal the metal like Meritage on our as famously said, we're just going to keep building. D.R. Horton, of course, is going to keep building. And so they are going to gain market share as long as as long as they have that strategy, because a lot of the smaller private builders are like, I mean, we'll keep doing some inventory, but we're not going to go as extreme as we have been because we're concerned about the fourth quarter or where things might go.KevinSo don't stop, let it rock. What's the D.J. play that song tonight? What? I don't know. The lyrics, that song.JenWell, let's just forget it.AndrewOh, I have an interruption. Maybe this won't replace Thanks article, but it's random. There's a community that built a spec so this is they built spec townhomes. They did not presale.KevinAnd that's what I'm saying. It's very common now. Everyone's like, we don't need to be.AndrewLocation.KevinTo build specs.AndrewLike I'm like, why would they not pre-sell like am I brand? I'm like, they would have the whole thing would been sold because.KevinThey want to maximize their costs and profit margin. I want to know to the penny what so they can maximize and.JenThey're creating certainty.KevinThey are creating certainty. They're truly building certainty and in profit margin and their theory, which is currently correct, is that every month they don't sell it, it will become worth more. Yeah, right. Right now, values are going up again. Interesting. But that's my point.AndrewAnother marketing. That's terrible. So like there's there's maybe that seems much more intelligent but the market I'm like, oh my gosh.KevinLike no, I mean, it all makes sense. There's reasons why, but I'm just telling you that, that some projects like that are financed with debt, that it's on a razor's edge like they have to get those units sold within like 45 days of them being done or the whole thing will go under the bank, will repossess it, turn it around, sell off the parts.KevinAnd most likely that won't happen. But at some point it will for.JenSounds very scary.KevinI'm not trying to be scary. I mean, looks like we're probably in on it. Like we're going to be selling more or less. I think just.JenMore like to create certainty for the builder, but it also creates certainty for the buyer because you know sometimes the pre sell, right? Then it's like, well it's hard to envision what that will be, what will be going on.KevinRight.AndrewTo you know we went for Kesha we'll go to Billy Joel. Honesty is such a lonely word. So that's all Kevin's doing. He's been the most honest. Here we go. But his name.KevinSometimes it's things you don't want to know, by the way, here, Like, you know, like sometimes owners are like, You don't need to tell us all that. Like, just let us live in our.AndrewLive our life.KevinAll right, Last article for the week from The Guardian, the Everything app, Why Elon Musk wants X to be a WeChat for the West. So we chat is not WhatsApp. First of all, I've had several conversations. People like I use WeChat all the time and I'm like, What do you do on WeChat thinking they're going to talk about these other things that the Super app can do and they're like, I text people from other countries.KevinI'm like, That's WhatsApp. That's a different.AndrewFacebook.KevinThey're an app also green color. But this idea of a super app and Zillow wants to be a super app for real estate, what does that mean that that means they want multiple use cases for the Zillow operate. Now what do you do? You Zillow on the Zillow app, you make a connection and then a lot of that stuff after that connection goes offline or on other websites that they own, like dot loop, they want to bring everything within one app.KevinSo imagine if like and I don't think this is what they've said and probably is a terrible idea, but imagine you're in the process of buying or selling a home and at some point you're using the Zillow up so much that just says like, hey, for $50 during the entire course of you buying or selling, you could do everything here.KevinIt would keep track of everything for you, all the paperwork here, all the pictures, all the comments, all the discussions, everything is contained in this one app and this archived experience for 50 bucks. Like I would do that and sign me up. Yeah, just.AndrewI mean, it's only 30 bucks.KevinBut I'm evens try and so Twitter is dead or we're moving on to x but he wants x to be like WeChat meaning get ready for I mean people were immediately asking like, okay, if Twitter is not Twitter, is it still called a tweet? You still retweet? Do you X? What do you what is what's all the lingo?KevinAnd he's basically saying, look, Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech. That's a question mark. I feel like I have to say that even though I think generally he is trying to do that as an accelerator for X, the Everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.KevinTwitter made sense when was this hundred 40 characters going back and forth? But he wants you to be able to buy, sell, play games, do whatever you want to do is basically well, WeChat, for those of you who are familiar with WeChat and other countries like it is, it is the Internet. It's like 80, 85% of all Web traffic in some Southeast Asian countries goes through WeChat.AndrewWouldn't that be.KevinIt's Facebook combined with Spotify.AndrewKind of like government policy, really influences that.JenI don't know their use.AndrewI mean, this is like now we're outside of scope of what I know like, like China, right?KevinLike, yeah, but WeChat is also used, I believe in like Brazil and I mean, so it's it's not a communist plot is like, like we want to see.AndrewWe're going there that we're going to have to talk about next week. Let's do that.JenOh, can I come back?KevinMaybe there's a comment. I don't know.AndrewI don't know. I'm just thinking like is it's popular and what seems to be more restricted or I've never been to other countries culturally, but like people like, oh, this country is amazing. Like, their culture is so much different than our culture. Like, we are.KevinLike, well, I think like the underdog there is still like to try to keep to try to keep Jen from falling asleep on us.JenNow I am I'm thinking about this. I don't.KevinKnow. Do you use Snapchat at all with your kids? So I.JenI have, but I'm not on there regularly. No, I'm not in the habit.KevinI used to be. If you use Snapchat I think is has one of the worst UI like user interfaces. Intentionally so. Intentionally so to make it hard for old people to catch on rap crappy.JenReally.KevinSo if you know you know think about how again matter rolled out threads you want to get on threads you got to know how to type and you click this weird ticket thing and the thing spins around. You get access right. It was a this is intentionally like strange or difficult to get to. You can use Snapchat for years like I did and not know that there is some core functionality that every all the kids are using.KevinYeah, once you know it's there and you're like, Oh, of course you just click this over here and now you can see where all your friends are and you can do this thing and that thing. I think WeChat, it just, it's like this never ending spiral of like catching. All my friends are here, I'm all connected. If I want to play a game or order food or watch a movie or like, it's just all in all in one one spot and it's to my bank account and my credit card.JenAnd and I guess the the old lady in me does have like I would be hesitant to add everything connected I guess is what I'm saying.KevinLike what? Yeah, well.JenI don't know if I would.KevinWant. That's why I think you want. So what does the island have going for him? Yes. Tesla. If X becomes the way to gain access to or control your Tesla and he's like, forget the Tesla app, it's now part of X. You want to get access to your car, you're going to X. Oh, and by the way, you can also communicate with people and follow Ashton Kutcher and, you know, do this and do that.KevinAll in the same place. Yeah, but the history of the US has generally been that things don't. What's the word I'm looking for? Converge? Things generally don't converge the way we expect them to where like like you could back in the eighties or the early nineties you could get a really nice boom box I android you know what a boom boxes.KevinYeah Have you seen that movie say anything?AndrewOh I don't if I'd seen a movie but I definitely had a.JenOh my gosh.AndrewSo anything that was probably Gen might have graduated high school when I came out I was 49.KevinYou know you've got you've got the Boombox, which has a tape player, has the radio, it has.AndrewLike standing with it.KevinA lot of things on one. Yeah. But rack systems were the deal. Like if you were really into audio you had a rack system because each component was exponentially better or higher quality or whatever. And so the idea is you're going to converge. And we do have convergence in the phone for a lot of things in our life, but almost everything else that we tend to go towards specialized tasks for an object, even though it could like go in your kitchen.KevinAlton Brown I got I got this thing from when I saw him in person autograph. I mean, I love it, but one of his rules is like nothing in my kitchen can only do one thing. Everything. My kitchen has to have three purposes. I mean, for I don't like you could you could have a bazillion gadgets that all do one thing.KevinTrue.JenBecause then you have less and it's more efficient is what you're saying.KevinYeah, but that's not generally where, like, our stuff obsessed culture goes. We're like.AndrewWe were like premium.KevinThe we'll get the doodad that does the one thing like super amazing I use it twice and then throw it away.AndrewI feel like this only will work if there's either acquisition of like Venmo or Cash app or they partnered together. Somehow we're then it's like enough people that fit the right of.JenFive didn't say Spotify.KevinSo yeah, I don't know if anyone cares that we're still talking about this really, But like, where did he on come from? PayPal.JenWe lost everybody, everybody on space.KevinEllen Ellen came from PayPal, so it's not it would not be weird to be like, Hey, PayPal's struggling excuse me, PayPal is struggling as a corporation. Let's just acquire them. Let's roll them into X. Hey, let's grab a Spotify now. I've got music I made. You know, Spotify has as much video content on it. Now. There's no no.KevinLike, if you if you want to try to control your you want to try to control your eight year old screen time when you're thinking, well, but he likes listening to his kids music on Spotify now. Now there's like entire playlists that are just YouTube videos on Spotify for you to watch.AndrewYeah, sounds sounds like someone got their iPad taken away after that.KevinYeah, they did. Yeah.AndrewI'm sure that's like a sounds like our house.KevinOh, goodness. All right, let's go to favorites and get the heck out of here. Do we have favorites? I can go first if you're if you need a second.JenYou my favorite thing right now is are my new Hoka walking shoes.KevinOh, interesting.JenDo you guys have. Yes, it is. Yeah, It's okay. They're super kind of like clumsy looking.AndrewI mean, I ask Olivia on her team if they're okay to wear or not.JenShe's hot. I think Olivia would have.AndrewThis.JenDetector. I think Olivia would approve.KevinWe did ask everyone on the marketing team today who owns Crocs. There are only two people who raise their hand, so they own crocs for themselves. They're back, And I think they're also good style.AndrewPeople ask us out, Does Sam have crocs?JenAbsolutely.AndrewAnd I see where socks with them.JenAbsolutely.KevinAbsolutely is. It's Dr. Seuss socks with Crocs.AndrewHe prefers Nike socks with.KevinLocks.AndrewNike other like that, like there.KevinAre. All right, cool. So you got shoes, Andrew what about you?AndrewMeaning favorites. I've had a because my new schedule so I wake up, I drink coffee in the morning which coffee would be hit or miss? But most of the we get our coffee. I still love my Nespresso machine. Oh, but here's the thing. I'm like, What is this on the counter? I thought I was making a mess on the counter.AndrewI think it's broken like something's leaking out of the bottom. It's just like, Oh, I'm like, I.JenAnd then it's like a little thin thing, like.AndrewKevin Well, the spin thing called different, different budget category, but I think they might be a longer I'm.JenOver here in the kitchen.KevinMy PR Oh, when you have to buy those pod things for you.AndrewThat's what I made this. This was like a dollar 20. I think

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"You gotta be in it to win it. And we are very much IN IT."

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Straight From The Off welcomes David Jennings to the Podcast. Jenno was a tough tackling midfield general with a touch of class and later on in his career dropped back in to centre half and won more trophies in doing so. Jenno has played for teams that include Redrock, The Pilot, Royal Seaforth, Sandon, Seymour and JOB amongst others. Whilst playing for Royal Seaforth they lost 9 finals in a row before landing the Challenge Cup. He tells us how his battle with cancer effectively ended his playing/managing days and how he dealt with that awful news. He talks about his favourite goals, games and all about the lads he shared a pitch with and played against throughout those times. Episode 62 is brought to you by: Impressions Health & Support www.impressionsgroup.org/

David King joins Jenno for a special episode, looking back on the meetings between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs in Round 11 and Round 19.

Dragonheart is back for the new season, as hosts Mark Griffiths and Tom Barlow look forward to the new season, pay tribute to their first guest, Kingsley Evans, and talk to James Jennings about his time at The Racecourse and departure to Stockport. Dragonheart has a new rss feed: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:35366634/sounds.rss Subscribe to Dragonheart on your favourite podcast aggregation services: iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, Stitcher and more! Just search for "Final Whistle"

Ep. 44 Carl Jennings has lived quite a life, and he’s just warming up. From a scrawny kid to representing his country in 2 sports, Jenno has played a key part as Head Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Bradford Bulls, Canberra Raiders, Penrith Panthers, Great Britain Rugby League, Crusaders Super 15’s and also Head of Athletic Development with the NZ Warriors.   He was awarded the New Zealand Bravery Medal in 2016 for launching into an exploding house to save a womans life and now has an amazing movement called Super 6 High Performance where he helps youth improve themselves not just in sport but all areas of life.   Kick back and sink your teeth into the incredible stories and life lessons this man has that we can all take onboard to better ourselves and circumstances.

Her får du en dejlig reportage fra Creative Mind en kunstudstilling på Docken i København - Booster Universe besøgte Jens Andersen fra Jenno's galleri og fik en snak om kunst, livet som kunstner og et besøg hos hans kollega Carsten Guldborg Nielsen fra Galleri Guldborg - Vi håber det kan give dig et smil på læben

I veckans avsnitt blir det två kära återseenden. Biggan och Jenno på djursholm ska köpa julklappar. Sen åker vi till Österlen för att träffa Margareta och Eva-Lena som planerar nyår.

Toronto based DJ, Jenno, has dropped an energetic feel good mix for the DJcity Podcast. Follow Jenno on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennochristian/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chris and Jenno are back to recap what we just saw in the divisional round of gamesChiefs 31Colts 13Patriots 41Chargers 28Eagles 14Saints 20Cowboys 22Rams 30and preview the championship games Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots & New Orleans Saints vs Los Angeles Rams See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chris and Jenno break down what we've just witnessed in the Wild Card weekend, what we will see in the divisional round, and finally discuss the recent coaching hires See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ste and Jenno are back breaking down the nfl playoff picture, with Jenno making his predictions on how the regular season will finish. They also discuss the John Defilippo firing, and the resurgence of Defense in the NFLThey finish off with their week 15 pick'em See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pajak and Jenno in the bunker this week. Wow, what a game of football that was between the Rams and the Chiefs. Two heavyweight QBs. Two heavyweight Offensive minds but it was the Defensive side of the ball that was the difference.Rams / Chiefs chatIs this the Modern NFL?Lamar Jackson: The running man.Fuck GrudenGet well soon card to SmithWeekly Pick'emEnds... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ste and Jenno are back to discuss Lev Bell deciding to sit out the whole season. They also break down who they think will win the congested AFC south and NFC north. As well as the weekly pick'em and week 11 preview See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ste and Jenno discuss the impact that Dez Bryant will have in New Orleans and how Bruce Irvin can help Atlanta.They then ponder of the Chargers and Panthers genuine Super Bowl contenders before predicting the results of this week’s games. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pajak and Jenno on the mics from the Cover 2 TV bunker. So much to talk about this week as there have been multiple trades across the NFL. We also meander through this week's upcoming matchups and ask the question.... Is Jared Goff getting the respect he deserves? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Jenno and Destross talk about how zombie games have generally shit stories, how Metro 2033 crashes computers, the death of Sir Terry Pratchett, the death of senpai Konami and Kojima's plan to leave the company, and Destross throws Jenno under the bus several times.

In this inaugural episode of Game Slag, Jenno and Destross talk Legend of Zelda and how Minish Cap is the best, Dragonball Z and how nobody remembers Lord Slug, and Des admits to having never seen Cowboy Bebop