Podcasts about Page One

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Kate Christensen is the author of seven novels, including The Last Cruise, The Astral, Trouble, The Epicure's Lament, Jeremy Thrane, In the Drink and The Great Man, which won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Christensen was one of only five women in 30 years at the time who had ever received this prestigious award. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. She teaches fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has taught numerous workshops in both memoir and fiction at various residencies and MFA programs throughout the United States, in addition to publishing many essays, reviews, and stories. She has recently finished the first book of her debut YA trilogy with her co-writer, Eliza Wolfe, for Disney Books and also finished her first detective book, published under a pseudonym for HarperCollins. When she's not in Iowa teaching, she lives in Taos, New Mexico with her screenwriter husband and two dogs and is currently at work on a new novel. You can follow her on Instagram @kate.christensen100. About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.Hear past episodes.To get updates and writing tips from master storytellers, follow me onFacebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram.Until then, be well and keep reading!In service,Holly

Our conversation today with Gina Hilliard and Edison Emmons from Luray/Page Chamber of Commerce gave us all the details for their 8th Annual Holiday Festival. This is a FREE event for all to attend! Families can come and enjoy Santa's workshop with lots of crafts the kid can take home, write a letter to Santa and leave it in the mailbox, make a Christmas card, and take home some reindeer food. Enjoy festive cookies, popcorn, hot cocoa, holiday punch, and s'mores by the firepit. Take a barrel train ride or enjoy the live holiday music. Bring the whole family and get your picture taken with Santa for a $5 cash donation or canned food donation. The proceeds will benefit Page One and Page Paws. Get a headstart on your Holiday shopping at the Holiday Market featuring over 30 vendors. We also talked about their Shop Small in Page County campaign that kicks off on November 25 and runs through December 17, 2023. When you shop or dine locally, send a picture of your receipt by email to events@lurayapage.com, or drop it off in person at 18 Campbell Street, Luray, to be entered to win a $500 shopping spree. Each receipt equals one entry, even for online purchases. Each entry must include your name, phone number, and a copy of the receipt. Receipts are due to by Sunday, December 17th, at 5pm. The drawing will take place live on Facebook on Monday, December 18, 2023. For more information follow Luray Page Chamber on Facebook, send an email to events@luraypage.com or call 540-743-3915.

TGIF! Thank you for joining us on Page One!

Our conversation today began with Andrea Cosans, Director of Winchester CCAP to talk about her organization, specifically the three "freedges" that she has located in Winchester & Frederick County. She explained what they are, how they work, and the value & convenience they bring to those wishing to donate food as well as receive food in our area. She also talked of the great need for volunteers in a wide range of capacities. Learn more about Winchester CCAP on their website: https://www.ccapwinchester.org/ and by following them on Facebook. In the second segment, I ran through a list of food pantries across the Shenandoah Valley. This was, by no means a complete list. You can access more resources on the United Way NSV website by clicking here. You can download their Community Resource Directory by clicking here. Please check their websites or social media to confirm their hours and any restrictions they may have as things may have changed since this show aired. We're going to start off with the Winchester Rescue Mission. They are located at 435 North Cameron Street, and they serve meals every day of the week, every week of the year at their Cafe on Cameron. Lunch is served every day from 11:30am until 12:30pm. Dinner is served from 5:30pm until 6:30pm. You're also welcome to take a to-go meal. Those are available at noon and at 6pm each day. Their food pantry is open Monday through Friday from 10am until 11am. Their food distribution is open to anyone in the community needing food for themselves and their families. The community meals are open to the Winchester community. If you want more information about Winchester Rescue Mission, head over to their website at winrescue. org. There they have a wish list, of items that they always need for donations. I'm sure they're always looking for volunteers as well. And you can follow them on Facebook. Braddock Street United Methodist Church offers a hot meal every Monday night at 6pm. They are located at 115 Wolfe Street in downtown Winchester. Highland Food Pantry is located at 446 Highland Avenue, Winchester. They are in the lower level of the Highland Memorial Presbyterian Church. They are open on Tuesdays from 9am until 11am and from 6pm until 7:30pm. Follow them on Facebook for updates. Stephens City United Methodist Church, located at 5291 Main Street, Stephens City has a drive-thru pantry on Tuesdays from 11am until 2pm in their parking lot. It is open to residents of Frederick County, Winchester, and Front Royal. You can receive food every other week, and some of that food includes frozen meats, chilled dairy products, fresh produce, pet food, and cleaning and hygiene items, in addition to canned and boxed goods. Victory Church Food Bank and the Olive Branch Food Pantry at 2870 Middle Road also provides a drive-thru service. They are open on Wednesdays from 9:30am until noon. Hayfield Assembly of God on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month offers a food pantry from 9am until 11am. They are located at 5118 Northwestern Turnpike in Gore. Welltown United Methodist Church at 1444 Welltown Road in Clearbrook offers a food pantry on Thursdays from 5:30pm until 7pm. Emmanuel United Methodist Church at 2732 Martinsburg Pike in Stephenson every Monday from 4:30pm until 5:30pm. They offer hot meals and a food pantry.  Laurel Ridge Community College operates a food pantry for its students. It is open Monday through Friday from 8am until 7pm. You can head to the TRIO office which is in room 606 of Cornerstone Hall. Do a little self-service shopping or you can fill out an online order form, and select your pickup date and time. You can also find a list of other food pantries on their website: https://laurelridge.edu/foodpantry/  FISH of Clarke County is located at 36 East Main Street in Berryville. They are open on Tuesdays from 8am until 10am and on Wednesdays from 8am until 11am. Follow them on Facebook for updates. Go to the back door of the building to access their food pantry. The Christ Episcopal Church in Millwood, located at 843 Bishop Meade Road operates its food pantry on the first Friday of the month from 1pm until 3pm. They also have a special first Saturday of the month from 9am until 11am for seniors and clients with special needs. Bread of Life at Woodstock Presbyterian Church is located at 156 South Muhlenberg Street in Woodstock. They are open on the third Tuesday and the third Thursday from 1pm to 4pm for their food pantry. The Compassion Cupboard at 533 Burgess Street in Strasburg is open on the third Tuesday of the month from 9am until Noon, and from 1pm until 3pm. Loaves and Fishes Pantry at Manor Memorial UMC is open on the third Thursday of the month from 1pm until 5pm. They are located at 9320 North Congress Street in New Market. Loaves and Fishes in Front Royal is located at 613 North Royal Avenue. They're open on Tuesdays from 1pm until 3pm, and on Thursdays and Fridays from 9am until 1pm. Front Royal Salvation Army has a food pantry that operates Monday through Friday from 9am until Noon and from 1:30pm until 3:30pm. They are closed on Wednesdays. They're located at 357 Cloud Street. As a side note, their kettle kickoff is on Saturday, November 18, 2023, at 12:30 at WalMart in Riverton Commons. You can register to ring and give them a little bit of volunteer support during the holidays.  In Page County, Page One has two locations. We just talked to Page One last month on the show. Page One - Luray is located at 35 North Bank Street. They are open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8:30am until 11am. They also offer delivery for homebound residents. Their second location, Page One - Shenandoah is Located at 600 Comer Lane. They are open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:30am until 2:30pm. They do not offer delivery but can bring your food to the curb if needed. 

Be courteous towards your neighbors.

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer, and USA Today bestseller. Khaw's work can be found in places like Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Khaw's first original novella, Hammers on Bone, was a British Fantasy award and Locus award finalist.Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon's “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film. Some of Kadrey's other books include King Bullet, The Grand Dark, Butcher Bird, and The Dead Take the A Train (with Cassandra Khaw). He's written for film and comics, including Heavy Metal, Lucifer, and Hellblazer. Kadrey also makes music with his band, A Demon in Fun City.It was great having the chance to speak to both of them and hear about their very different routes into the writing world, and how they came to collaborate on The Dead Take The A Train. We also discuss why authors shouldn't be shy about asking for proper payment for their work and why it's always good to have more than one project on the go.Links:Buy The Dead Take The A Train nowFollow Cassandra on Twitter/XFollow Richard on Twitter/XVisit Cassandra's websiteVisit Richard's websitePage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter/XFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on MastodonFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Writer and photographer Lisa M. Hamilton has documented agriculture and rural communities around the world. She was a National Fellow with New America, and has received additional fellowships, grants and awards from the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, California Historical Society, Creative Work Fund, James Beard Foundation and others. She is the author of Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness, and her feature articles have appeared in Harper's, McSweeney's, Virginia Quarterly Review, and California Sunday. She lives in Northern California.About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.If you have a first page you'd like to submit to the Page One Podcast, please do so here.As an author and writing coach, I know that the first page of any book has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. So I thought to ask your favorite master storytellers how they do their magic to hook YOU. After the first few episodes, it occurred to me that maybe someone listening might be curious how their first page sits with an audience, so I'm opening up Page One to any writer who wants to submit the first page of a book they're currently writing. If your page is chosen, you'll be invited onto the show to read it and get live feedback from one of Page One's master storytellers. Page One exists to inspire, celebrate and promote the work of both well-known and unknown creative talent.  You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes.To get updates and writing tips from master storytellers, follow me onFacebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram.Until then, be well and keep reading!

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 308: The Lag EffectIn this episode, Kevin Oakley is joined by Andrew Peek and special guest Amanda Martin, an Online Sales Coach here at DYC! Amanda gives some insight into personalization and how far an OSC should go to find an emotional connection for a lead. The team discusses “the lag effect” and the importance of marketers helping their team to understand it and their thoughts on a new Ai rollout of celebrity lookalike chat bots. Story Time (04:29)Amanda quoted Kevin during the Summit “There's never going to be enough emotional drive or urgency if they don't pink something that there's any fear of loss in.” and was inspired by it!Andrew talked with a builder whose content featured the possible objections of their townhomes instead of featuring its positives. Kevin talks about "Lag times"The News (36:15)What are Meta's AI Personas, and how do you chat with them? (https://mashable.com/article/meta-ai-personas-explained)Alexis Rivas on X: BIG news for ADUs today. (https://twitter.com/alexisxrivas/)Google's AI-powered search experience can now generate images, write drafts (https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/12/googles-ai-powered-search-experience-can-now-generate-images-write-drafts)The Q3 2023 Online Sales Benchmarks (https://www.doyouconvert.com/blog/the-q3-2023-online-sales-benchmarks/)Homebuyers Must Earn $115,000 to Afford the Typical U.S. Home. That's About $40,000 More Than the Typical American Household Earns. (https://www.redfin.com/news/homebuyer-income-afford-home-record-high/)Things We Love Things We Hate (01:01:46)Amanda is loving her role of coachingAndrew is loving his task management tool “TikTik.com”Kevin's favorite is the Pro Builder Professional Forty under 40 list! 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:KevinI think it's Kylie Jenner on here.AndrewOkay.KevinAs an option. Let's see.AndrewMaybe a good option Is this Mr. Beast?KevinOkay. Tom Brady.AndrewOkay.KevinI feel like Taylor Swift was supposed to be one of the options.AndrewLet me see.KevinBut there are. There's 15 and total. I think, including Alvin the alien.AndrewI like the alien. Now that I. I'll trust the alien seems trustable.KevinBob. Bob, the robot here kind of gives me vibes of short circuit, Like one of the best movies from the eighties of all time.AndrewDon't you feel bad for that robot? But you develop.KevinJohn. I mean, Johnny five is alive and you can't find him.AndrewI need to revisit this movie. I haven't seen the movie, but it's been years. It's been years, okay?KevinI mean, I would I wouldn't be surprised because you're young and. But.AndrewYoung'un, I'm an I'm in that cut off. Where? Let's see, when, like, animated movies really took off with late nineties and has before them but like Pixar was 99 I think with Toy Story I think that kind of shifts. Like what shows did you grow up as a kid? They went to Blockbuster for and it was an animated, nothing animated, at least for me.AndrewIt it's like, okay, then kid got stuck watching those for like what I playing for the kids now like, oh, I don't know. Like, did they need to watch all the James Bond movies for like the Silhouette music intro? I be like, Oh no. But I was I think we grew up with that. That was that was usual for them.KevinAmanda What was your childhood media content like?AmandaOh gosh, just some of the classics like Tom and Jerry the Road Runner, you know, like, Okay.AndrewYeah, like a weekend.AmandaLike that is classic and stuff like that. I mean, that's like gone way back.AndrewBut The Simpsons, I guess The Simpsons were on there. I mean, I grew up I remember memories of like Seinfeld was on all the time, like all the time. Seinfeld is like Seinfeld. Frasier is like the same order and just knew what it was be on.KevinApparently, there's a new Frasier show.AndrewOh, you can't because there's no family anyway. Oh, man, It's probably not the same.KevinWe should. We should go and start the show.AndrewYou should. Let's do that.KevinWelcome to episode 308. I'm Kevin Oakley. And with me today is Andrew Peek and Amanda martin.AmandaNo, no.KevinAnd Amanda claims she's never been on the podcast before. I don't know how it's possible.AmandaI don't either. But here we are.AndrewI cannot believe that. But Amanda, you would know, like, if we're out here before. So, yeah, that's right. Got to believe.KevinYou. It's your truth. How long have you been on the team now?AmandaOh, man. About four and a half years. Right at it? Yeah. Yes. That's crazy.AndrewI. I don't believe that The.KevinReason that my memory and this might have just been like a teen call that we were on, but I just remember giving you a semi hard time. But it must have just been like sea questions when you first joined anyway. Yeah, sorry. We should. We should have had you on the table. Everyone watch. What do you do here?KevinYeah. TV For those who may not know.AmandaI'm an online field coach with Jen and Jesse and I help you know, everything with online sales, coaching, new offseason and lifting with these and ramping them up for success, helping with onboarding all the good things. I love it. It's so great.KevinHelping out with Online Sales Academy. Oh yeah. Leading sessions at the at the Do you convert online sales and marketing summit doing all the things so that's why I just.AmandaKind of things Love it.KevinWell, now, sorry, Jen, you're just going to have to come on once every quarter or six months because Jesse and Amanda are.AndrewTaking over.KevinTaking this.AndrewBy. I feel like you're like an O.G., because when I started way back in the day with with the convert you were with, I believe, at Royal Oaks Home.AmandaYes. Yes.AndrewWay back in the day, y'all had amazing videos because I feel like the accents and everything are just so, so different. But also, like, you worked amazingly together. Yeah, that's. That's going way back. So, you know, it.AmandaIs way back. And you sort of.AndrewYears.AmandaYou would like, made us for us like late, late at night and they would just magically be ready the next day or.AndrewDefinitely.AmandaKevin America. Okay.AndrewThat was but yeah yeah. Those fun times. So we go way back. This is, this is good.KevinOkay, so, Amanda, story time, no pressure. First story time in four years. Yeah, I'm one of the best on the team. What do you got for us?AmandaWell, I do have a story for you and question for you. Kevin, Did you know that I quoted you in my session at the summit? Oh, no, no.KevinYou didn't go to the cloud, first of all. But only if my my head is not on the image. Like, there's just something.AmandaOkay, Images.KevinJust like, what.AmandaWas it.KevinAbout pancakes or was it actually about someone else's?AmandaI shouldn't have done pancakes. I would have been good. No, no, it wasn't, though. It just really stood out for me. And one of your Pulse episodes. I even read blog about it, so I don't know if you know you're famous. Yeah.KevinThat's a good hint.AmandaYeah, You said, Kevin, that there's never going to be enough emotional drive or urgency. If they don't pick something that there's any fear of loss, then. So that really just inspired me to talk about the like thing. One part about this, though, at the summit, my session was all about the power of personalization and part of it you talked about selecting one and I used your quote and I related that to when I got our second cat there.AmandaAnyway, that was fun. So that was my that was my story I quoted, you know?KevinOkay, now I have questions for you. Yeah.AmandaOkay. So let's here.KevinI think the perception, maybe misconception about online sales is that getting to one doesn't really matter because you're just kind of giving them general information and you want to get them as quickly as possible to the on site team. So talk to me about when when is it necessary to apply personalization. Can you get go too far in that attempt?KevinIs it is it even possible to to go too deep in personalization, do you think so?AmandaI think I think you do have to it. Well, I'm first of all, because, you know, you have to you have to learn enough about them to be able to recommend something for them. So if you don't if you don't take the time to fully qualify them and learn their story, you can't select one. But if you've done your job, then you should be able to select one, right?AmandaSo I think you have to do that.KevinDo you mean I am assuming, but I want to clarify. You're talking about community. You don't necessarily have to get them down to a particular hall. No, but you got to find something to.AmandaTo find something. Yes. Yes. They are emotionally invested in something that's going to be a good fit for them based on what they're looking for. But yeah, community is great. Sometimes you'll get down to a floor plan and if that's, you know, a big must have for them.KevinOr you're on your lot builder and there's nothing else to.AmandaOf course Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't you can take it a little bit too far I guess if you, you know, qualify them out of thing if they don't want to get too far. But definitely a good idea to learn their story and select on and to become emotionally invested in it. So yeah. Yeah. I love your.AndrewLast makes sense.KevinThe last qualifying or and I'm just an insanely curious person so.AmandaI love it.KevinWhen you were just talking about that, it made it feel like it's okay for the online sales person to have an opinion on what's best for the customer based on what you learn about them, which I'm maybe if listening is like, Well, duh. But again, I know, I know sales managers and onsite salespeople who are like, Oh, online salesperson is just supposed to absorb and direct the customer on whatever it is they already came in on.KevinAnd I think to me that connects to this is an older number. I don't I actually don't know where we are currently, but I remember doing analysis of Heartland of about one third of the people who came in as a lead for one community ended up becoming an appointment for a different community after verification and personalization was made.AmandaSo of that. Yeah. So the leads, they don't know everything that you have to offer and that's why the OSD is there to really be able to give that easy button. And that's also why it's great to have signage numbers go to that. With me though, like a story, you know, I had someone going out that was driving out path.AmandaThe community they call, they were interested in that, but it completely did not fit what they were looking for at all. And I was able to reroute them to a different community that was a great fit. So, you know, just because they have to show up somewhere that you think they're interested in something doesn't mean that that's the best fit for them.AmandaAnd you're able to provide them with that knowledge because you know all the products, you know. So it's all about uncovering what they're looking for and giving them that easy button and directing them to the right place. So.KevinMM Yeah. The place that people are headed with over the automated systems, we're saying, well if Amanda asks for information about Happy Acres, this is easy. I just load up information about Happy Acres and I send it to her in little bursts over multiple different channels. And and I think that's dangerous because, again, just the reason that someone reaches out is not a clear connection to what it is they ultimately will purchase or even what they're most interested in.KevinYeah. So I think I think that's interesting thought, too, is that at the end of the day, no matter what else is checked off in the CRM, no matter what pages said they came from there. A prospect for a home above and beyond any particular community or floorplan. It's not that it can't inform or shouldn't inform.AmandaMhm.KevinBut you can't just say oh well they asked for Happy Acres, I will schedule you an appointment via text in 30 seconds at Happy Acres because I can, I can make that happen.AmandaYeah. That's exactly right. That's why I exists.AndrewRight. I just, I can't imagine any automated solution I could build like the emotional momentum to then that increases the appointment kept ratio. That increases like it just gets you along the funnel quicker. Like imagine you hear Amanda close your eyes and Amanda's like, you call. It's like, you know, I think that communities like selected, that might be good for you but we have this other one and then you and your great voice, you're talking, talking and you're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go, let's go.AndrewI want that versus reading something on the screen. And it's a robot and that has no emotional like it doesn't create any emotion within Yeah.KevinI mean any attempt at fake emotion oftentimes comes off worse than no emotion. Honestly.AndrewHappy, awkward, like this. Yeah.KevinYou I don't know what story you would both use as my example. For me, it's typically like Home Depot or Lowe's.AndrewI like Home Depot. Don't like Lowe's.KevinThe same Lowe's I only looking for their they have seem to have a better power tool selection generally than Home Depot does or a larger one. But other than that, I agree with Abraham. Yeah, but you know, when someone offers you assistance, you have kind of this built in thing of I mean, I really do want as is internal talk now.KevinKevin Internal talk, Yeah. I definitely want assistance finding this one size particular special fastener that I need to replace on something in my home. And all I have is the broken one and I have to go line up the right side. And this is obviously a real world example that have a salad go. But someone's like, Hey, can I help you?KevinAnd everything inside of you is like, Yes, I want help, but I really doubt you're going to be able to offer the help that I need or just be an expert that I need versus just taking up my time. Like we've all had those experiences where someone's like, Oh yeah, I'll try to help you, and then they lead you to like the plumbing section.KevinYou're like, No, but like even I know that fasteners are aisle five, so that's where we should go. And so I think there's always this thing that online salespeople and salespeople and even marketers with some of our messaging has to get through is like the relief that you have as a consumer. When you finally talk to an expert, it truly is just the feeling of exhaling.KevinIt's like, Oh, okay, Amanda knows her stuff. And that's what I'm saying. It's this fine line between overconfidence, oversimplification. You want this, therefore you go there as soon as you can become an actual expert and the consumer trust that everything changes, no matter what the emotional state of either party is beforehand. It's like, okay, okay, I could totally be convinced that I don't even need the fastener.KevinI thought I came in with that as a replacement. Maybe there's something better, but that person's first can have to prove to me that they're not just making stuff up.AmandaAnd they also have to understand your story. What you're going to use it for on the right. How can they make that recommendation?KevinYeah.AmandaMm hmm.KevinYeah. So it's this weird. It's the same thing talking about interest rates right now. You know, interest rates at 8%. I don't know if that's I think we've talked about that enough on other places. We're not going to talk about that in this news. But interest rates, mortgage rates going to 8%. There's a whole bunch people saying don't talk about interest rates.KevinIt's not a big deal, just end. And it's kind of like, well, if everyone knows it, I, I don't think you can completely avoid it.AndrewYeah. Yeah. You're crazy not talking about it.AmandaMm hmm.KevinLike not talking about it or having at least some planned responses for the, like, common objection or statement. Because, again, as a consumer, I would feel it's my job to to be a good customer and to protect myself in this engagement, I would have to be like, you know, we're just a little bit concerned with how high interest rates are right now.KevinYeah, if a customer didn't say that, that would be weird, unless they just know they're paying cash. It's the same the same thing as again, you go to a retail store, do you need any help? The default reaction to protect yourself is no, I'm just looking. It's just what our job is as consumers. That's great.AndrewAndrew Yeah, I had one. I think I'm to shift that over to favorite things. I had him because like literally right before we started, I'm like, I just use this in the example of why I like this piece of software, so I'll save it for favorite things as it's more appropriate. Okay. Townhomes. I love townhomes. They're my favorite.KevinThey're that's I don't is that is that true?AndrewThat's not true. That's not true. I'm not true at all. Because I think that's like my first if I had to be like, what did I first learn coming to to do? I see. And like, I was like, Kevin, why are townhomes always like the issue? Like it was almost like a bat in my head. Like, all right, about this is about a townhome for something struggling and like 2017, 2018 it was townhomes, but two weeks ago, two weeks to three weeks ago, I had to call the builder and is about a townhome product and I was looking through their photos.AndrewIt's a coming soon. The price is really nice. You're like, really that price like, but it's a little farther out. So there's all these challenges with it. And at the end of the call it really didn't go the direction I thought it would, but we really uncover that a lot of their content highlighted the objectives as and they like made the objectives valid against townhomes.AndrewLike unintentional.KevinYou mean objective objections? Objectives.AndrewOkay, This my back. The objections? Yeah. The objections were they were like featuring the objections. Like what do you hate about townhomes? They didn't because their photography is so standardized that the way they photograph townhomes is the way they photographed single family homes. There is no intentionality as far as like, okay, cool, this is a I only how the product here, maybe it's 25 feet wide.AndrewMaybe. I mean, our home is sprint. It's 30 feet. We're on a foot, 40 foot lot. So we're at a 30 foot home.KevinIt's pretty decent for them.AndrewSo it's 20, 25, eight. But all the photography, the angles were not featuring like depth. And so in town, home is more like, what do you hate about it? Or why would you not choose this townhome? They're small and cramped. Okay, so the photography should feature mostly images that feature like the length of the home, right? That's going to be it.KevinYou don't have to document the entire crime scene.AndrewCorrect. Like, let's make sure it is showing like it feels big and spacious. What he also not like phantom asylum's privacy. These include a fence in the backyard that are like it cuts off the backyard where I think it's like a 12 foot fence. You could barely see it. And the photos, as far as like separating you, your back patio from the neighbors, you could barely see it.AndrewSo I'm like, hey, if they feature at every it's like they only needed these big shots of the whole building. This I think there were six units per person, per little per building. And so I saw all six. So like me and Alex, really small, it didn't focus in on like, hey, here's like the living area of your outdoor living area and it says example after example after example, in the order of the images, I'm like, if you showed number three versus number one, you might be able to hook them and create like we talked about with Amanda, like enough emotional excitement, like, oh, you know, that actually does look more spacious.AndrewAnd I'd expect and then you tie in to the fact that like more for all rural area where this townhome project is being built, I think there's as you go farther away from like downtown, there's an expectation of land and space. So a townhome close to downtown to like that's perfect for me. You put that 25 miles outside a city center.AndrewPeople were like, I could get a double wide on 45 acres for 250. Okay, And you're trying to give me 3000 square feet of yard space if that even. Yeah. And why would I do that? Like so your everything they did was the opposite content wise and like, Oh that's really interesting. I've never looked at photos of townhomes.KevinSo instead of I guess I want to clarify that like his clarify and what instead of instead of knowing that those are the objections, is your point and then creating content that speaks to them as No, that's not really a valid objection. You just have a misperception about townhomes are are different. You're saying all of the content just affirmed the likely objections?KevinYes, It didn't because didn't always talk about Smucker's is one of my favorite Smucker's. But the name like Smucker's, it has to be good. It's they know the objection would have been when that first became a brand. This is a weird sounding company. It sounds like just smacking saying I mean, it's just bizarre.AndrewIt is.KevinSo there's there's definitely a technique or approach of saying, I know what the objection is going to be. I'm going to hit it head on with answers or solutions or or different viewpoints. You're just saying that was the big miss.AndrewIs big mistake. Yet it made it made you go like, well, this is why I don't like townhomes. It's what I gathered from it. And it's like this builder. They're very process driven. Everything standardize. You've got to recognize their photos with even at least I can without their name on it. So but they're all great. Like they're they're doing an amazing job.AndrewBut the townhomes are photographed the same way as a single families. The buildings are the same way. And I think that's like the not the issue, but it's like, oh, they could probably like I'm like in one here. There's it's a three, three floors and there's four units in the building. And you go like, well, we're I park like it never feels like where's my home within this.AndrewAnd I think they should like just focus on the unit versus the entire building. As far as the big exterior, they only the kitchens and it's like, well, this kitchen's actually pretty spacious, but the way they took the photo, you can't see all of the kitchen and the shape. And so it looks like there's one countertop to cut something on.AndrewAnd then once something like cooking, you're like, This looks miserable to cook in, it's tiny. And so they should have just had different angles on it. And you keep going to go and you're like, Oh, everything I do, it makes us feel like it's a small, cramped townhome they really don't want to live in. But you'll have to settle for versus like, Oh, it actually looks like a nice place to live.AndrewLike there's ten foot ceilings, you have your private outdoor space on there. And so it could be, I guess if you're struggling with townhomes, which is probably everybody, if you have townhomes, maybe like I look at it in that context, like am I reinforcing why people don't actually prefer townhomes first? For the most part if they're not actually like downtown or a walkable location?AndrewYeah, so we'll see if there's new content. Yeah, that.KevinAnd this is true for every community. Page One of my pet peeves is certainly community pages, where 95% of the images and the photo gallery for the community page are the model home. Yeah, I'm like, Oh, that's not the community, but it's even more so true in multifamily scenarios, settings where if you just had photos of the model versus the community, the walkability, the amenities and again, the area around it is the amenities.KevinThat's, that's why even in.AndrewI agree.KevinMarkets like you know, the broader metro area around Washington D.C. I think we still can be on a on a metro line and that is an important amenity of the community, even if it's not in the community and it's ten blocks down the street, it's still. So that just is even more critical. That's your pick because, I mean, that's just by default.KevinThat's why people are choosing multifamily, mostly because of affordability. And builders choose multifamily primarily because, I mean, this is what I heard my entire career, pretty much as I especially pre and VR, when when you're a smaller or even a large private builder and you're just trying to find opportunities on the landside piece of land as identified, I think it's going to go one way and then, you know, eight hour in two, it's like, you know, this isn't going to work as single family.KevinWe're going to have to turn it into multifamily. Yeah, very rarely for for a builder that's focused on the suburbs, do you do you target let's go find more multifamily product. There are those who do it and you know that. And that's why the people who do multifamily exclusively, just like builders do on your lot exclusively, are typically way better on your lot.KevinIf if 90% of a builder's portfolio single family and they just kind of sort of do multifamily again that's the other reason why that can be a challenge.AndrewDo you think multifamily is going to increase? I want to say substantially, but what does that word even mean? Is that five, ten, 20, 30, 40%, Do you think it's going to have a larger increase? And do you think builders will have more multifamily products the next five years from now compared to, say, ten years ago due to affordability and maintaining the margins they want to maintain?AndrewI mean, I would thinks and this my like dumb assumption is like, well, that kind of makes sense if if they.KevinI think the reason that my answer is yes is because land prices again are the main drivers. Yeah. And those don't seem to be improving like land prices and also becoming more affordable anytime soon, even in in even in an economic downturn. So yeah, but I guess my the reason it's making me hesitate is single family for rent and even just really dense single family is all know I was just in a home yesterday and it's a single family community that was built 15 years ago and the homes are traditional, single family homes.KevinIt's not a zero lot line community, if you're familiar with that terminology. There are a lot lines, but the houses can't be more than eight feet apart. And in where I'm from, that's kind of strange, especially for homes that are probably selling in the $500,000 range.AndrewYeah, And it.KevinIs like this is close.AndrewI mean, that's us. We're we're ten feet apart, you know, five feet and inside. So we're we're cozy with our neighbors. And you could probably. Yeah, that might have been the minimum we could do with our air. But the older homes, like older homes right there across the street, like out the back yard there on Thursday, 50 to 70 foot lots.AndrewAnd so they have quite a bit of room between between them. But we're twice the size square footage. So they made it work. I mean, they sold or they sold in a heartbeat, the smaller, much smaller lot sizes.KevinWell, yeah, my story is about lag times, which that's one of those terms that I just didn't hear a lot about or really fully understand until about 10 to 12 years ago. So, I mean, like eight years into my career in homebuilding and then I was like, okay, I'm understanding. But one of the reasons why homebuilding is so hard of an industry is the amount of time that passes between something changing and the result of that change.KevinA real clear example of this is back to land. Builders have to be looking 3 to 5 years out and saying, Where do I want my communities to be in 3 to 5 years? The physical location to figure out, is this the right price I should pay for this land? Will people want to live here in five years?KevinWhat price with what products and that they're tossing the dirt five years into the future in California longer. And so this lag effect is also what we're experiencing right now with interest rates and its impact on the economy. So everyone freaked out, Oh, my gosh, interest rates changed and it's going to be a disaster. Turns out the disaster hasn't happened yet.KevinPeople are still employed. You know, wages going up for the most part, people still buying homes. And it's because interest rates short term interest rates, which is what the Federal Reserve changes, that typically takes 24, I think 36 months before the impact of wherever the rate was changed. You has a fact because that's how long companies are borrowing from the bank at a particular loan and it doesn't have to be renewed for five years.KevinAnd so they're halfway through that at the rates change. And it doesn't really matter which one of the reasons the big tech companies right now are still firing on all cylinders is they've got $1,000,000,000 or I think in Apple's case, like 20 some billion dollars in cash. And so they're like cool interest rates are higher. We don't need your stupid interest rate bank.KevinYou just keep it. We've got cash. So lag as a term is just you know the delay from making a change to seeing its impact and it's real. They're all over the place in the world, but especially in our industry. And one of the things that I had a conversation with this week with one of our builder partners was a particular struggling neighborhood that we with with them and their team have been, I'd say, squirreling away like a squirrel, attacking a bird feeder, trying everything we can to try to make things work.KevinAnd not really a shock. This is one of the things we talked about. It seems like actually I'm going to give full context here. The the head of of sales and marketing made the comment said, you know, my my father made the comment that every time you all seem to focus on a community, things get better. And the joke is like you kind of like insinuate like, can't you just do that all the time for all of them, which, you know, as a, as the marketer perspective is like, can you just make sure the product and pricing is better so that things just work more often and they don't need to, you know, But that'sKevinthat's the healthy tension in the business. So things get better. But what's interesting is one of the takeaways was that the the getting better was related to the most recent thing. So this weekend, this past week, the number of appointments like tripled or quadrupled to the community. And the connection was what must have been the thing we changed on Friday or Thursday.KevinI was like, well, we can't. We can't say that. We really can't because for the prior 30 days we had taken the average amount of traffic to that community from like 1000 visitors a month to 14,000.AndrewIt's a few.KevinAnd and the concern was, hey, the the lead in appointment volume isn't correlating to that immediately. So we're not sure if these folks are the highest quality folks. So let's actually change some of the messaging adjust spend which the spend was already very, very healthy obviously to get to that level. And then it was like that must be the change that made the difference.KevinAnd I was like, What is your average time between website visit to lead, which most people would have a hard time calculating anyway? In this case, the builder actually has. I don't want to go into that right now because it's somewhat proprietary both to us and them, but they have another way of telling some of that cycle time.KevinBut as an example, one of the other builders you work with just told us yesterday they did their latest analysis from lead to contract, which everyone in this, listen should be able to calculate. Their average cycle time right now is 150 days, 150 days from getting the lead to getting a signed contract. There are reasons why and the type of builder they are that that would be longer.KevinBut the point is that is elongating, the lag is getting wider. And so just imagine if you're that builder and you get 300 leads in a month where you typically would get 100 and everyone gets excited and then you don't get sales for I don't even know what that is for five months.AndrewYeah.KevinSo 100 days.AndrewFive months.KevinYeah. So there's, there's, there's potentially four months where everyone's like those leads were all crap. They weren't worth it. What's going on? It's just really hard. If you don't understand the lags that are in the business to make the dots. So one of the things we talked about to try to bring some practical application here besides just understanding the concept and trying to figure out what your lags are in your business is privacy changes make all this really tough.KevinNow their CRM system does a better job than most at identifying source and medium, but it's still not obviously going to be perfect. We know that in time. It's a particular campaign can be even harder. One of the best good old fashioned ways to do this is just have actual start and stop definitions. So there's two ways to kind of do this good enough, I would say.KevinOne is it'll be really scary because this community just took off. But if you turned off all the extra advertising like cold turkey it on a day and then watch the lag from when you cold turkey to it to when does that appointment volume taper off. If it correlates like if if there's correlation there, then you can at least take some of that.KevinAnd now you could do that for individual channels. Like if you're concerned that the meta traffic or the Google traffic isn't good, you could just cold turkey one. But again, you're going to have to watch the lag. It's not going to be what happens tomorrow or next week. But this this idea of stopping, I'm actually trying to resurface as a really important concept.KevinYou know, we talk about sprints like do a two or three week sprint of of spend or change in strategy, then stop and see what happens. And I feel like right now the impetus for most people is just keep piling on, Just keep doing more.AndrewMm hmm.KevinAnd there's a couple of problems with that. One, you're not even really analyzing. You're just like more and more and more and more and more. And you don't have that. You can't you can't really tell. Like if you've if you've done ten experiments on one neighborhood and then things get better, you don't know.AndrewYou're stuck doing those ten forever. Yeah, maybe only two, right? I mean if you, if you get for ten. Yeah. You don't, you don't have answers.KevinYeah. I just that, that is actually for people who aren't trained marketers, you're going to have to help them understand the lag effect and the I didn't even know really that I was doing this. But but one of the in terms of the lag concept, but I used to tell my salespeople all the time at Hartland, if you tell me the last week of the month that you're freaking out and you're not, you're falling behind or you're not going to hit your sales plan, I can't help you.KevinI didn't frame it in the sense of the lag, but I just said it's too late because it's going to take me 2 to 3 weeks to create the traffic, to then have that interest develop for them to then reach out to get scheduled in for an appointment. It's not going to happen in a week. The only the only prayer we have of turning people that quickly is basically email and the phone texting or calling, and that's for someone already in the database.AndrewI feel like this really makes the case to be much more proactive and like the marketer, we should all be like, That's kind of obvious. Everyone should be more proactive.KevinNo, you're absolutely.AndrewBut they have thresholds of traffic that you monitor per community. So you're ahead of the salesperson who's on the last weekend of the month. They're stressed about their quota on the 23rd. They're like, Oh shoot, I need two more sales this weekend on the 27th, 28th of October. But if you already knew traffic was low on the ninth because you're like projecting it based on what you're seeing in analytics, like I need to bump that, traffic it up somehow and that could prevent things from from escalating to that situation.AndrewBut you need the threshold. So you need to figure out like, well, what's my number? What are the numbers for? It's gray and I don't really have to do anything before someone talks to me about it.KevinAnd before you set those thresholds, you better be doing your coffee and analytics time to be able to understand the patterns, because if you just create random defined thresholds.AndrewYeah.KevinThat's also just going to cause tail chasing. It's like because we already see this happening where people mishear our statement of a thousand units of traffic per community to get 1 to 2 sales from that neighborhood. And they think every neighborhood has to have 1000. But you can absolutely sell four homes off of 300 website visitors. That's allowed and does happen.KevinSo you have to be spending that time to really know where those things are, are going to be set. But that's where a lot of people get caught off guard. Last year at this time was they felt so comfortable with the backlog or the sales volume of of spring and summer that even though the numbers were all going down and we were we were saying on this podcast, other places like, hey, things are 1,000% slowing and slowing pretty quickly because people weren't looking at those leading indicators of traffic because everyone was so overwhelmed with the amount of activity that had been going on for the last two years.KevinMost builders really didn't even realize it was happening until like late summer, early fall. And then they started to freak out.AndrewTo like proactive thresholds. All right.KevinOn to the news. First up from Mashable.com, Metta has some new AI personalities and they are super cool people. That's intentionally bad grammar, but we've got people who look like Jenner's and Paris Hilton. Oh, is this a Snoop dog? I did not realize I was Snoop Dogg.AndrewSnoop. I don't know who the bottom four are on the right side. I don't know whether or not they seem like great people.KevinYeah, they're not all celebrities, but I think somebody for everybody and I think about half of them are the celebrity chat bots are live and they're weird is the subheadline from the article and this is my last intro. And then I'll let you guys share. Which do you think? But they're weird that from the article yet another chat bot with a celeb twist.KevinThat's right. And more chat bots baby. We were promised flying cars and hoverboards and instead we get to talk to bots that can just barely hold a conversation akin to your single worst interaction at a cocktail party. But it looks like a famous person. What do we think here?AndrewThis is Amanda you go.AmandaFrom for the Oh.AndrewYeah. Okay.AmandaGot creeped out by the fact.AndrewIt's it's depressing. It reminds me of the movie. And if you have time this weekend, you should watch it and you'll understand the reference. The movie is called Her H.E.R. Just heard her from 2013. He falls in love with the guy. This guy?AmandaOh, no.AndrewIt's super bizarre. It's very uncomfortable. All you're like, Is this really insane what's happening here? But it's won some awards. But it's it's it's definitely in the, like, eccentric, weird movie category. But it's this. But this. He falls in love with Scarlett Johansson, who is the voice actor, who is the A.I.. So, again, that's that's reasonable. So maybe meta onto something.AndrewLet's try to use celebrities as who you're interacting with, but still read it. You're like, this is okay.KevinSo the short answer from the online sales world who, you know, we love anything that would potentially allow us to connect with more people. This doesn't hit the market. We an agreement. Yeah, this is the agreement where you know okay so I think the interesting question is, is what led them down this path also wrong? Here's what I mean by that.KevinI watch my wife in particular and she follows influencers and I just you know, everyone knows how I feel about the word and the thing and whether we are. Do you convert to influencers or not. All the all that stuff. But let's say there is a workout influencer or last night I'm watching her use flip through her stories and she's like, Oh, I love this person.KevinAnd it's just very clearly an ad for some hair serum. And she's like, Oh, I love this. She's so great. I'm like, It says by now. And she's talking strangely high energy and how much she loves this product. And I go, Of course, she says she loves the product because she's selling you the product, she's making money and she's like, Well, but she designed it.KevinShe made it like that makes even more weird because she's talking about how much she loves this product that clearly the IKEA effect, right? I made this. It must be the best thing ever because it has my name like I did it and yet it doesn't matter. She's just enamored with it. So And every once in a while I see her actually comment or talk to these people who have hundreds of thousands of followers.KevinAnd it it gives her this weird high, I think of like I just interacted with an influencer, I guess somewhat akin to, you know, if Rich Barton or somebody on on Twitter X likes a tweet. But that's like in that scenario for me. I don't expect it and I don't it's their reaction to it, not me just talking or adding them.KevinThat is the exciting part. It's just like, oh, they, they, they read it, responded. There's this weird thing, I think that younger generations are like, I just like my kids just would love the idea of interacting with Mr. Beast in the smallest way possible. So I think there's something there that is directionally right. But they they've missed the mark badly.AndrewBut I think they missed because there's no brand assigned to these people for her to be like, okay, the Kardashians have a brand and that's why people want to associate with them. That's why they buy their products. Mark at the summit, I forgot his last name. Mark from a thousand. What? You buy that apparel because it makes you feel part of the club or makes you feel a certain way.AndrewSo like who we follow also I think makes us feel a certain way or we get whatever emotion out of following that person, interacting with them, or just interacting even just engaging with our social media. And as for Metta, it's like I feel like they're trying to piggyback that experience of like, Oh, I'm interacting with this feels like Tom Brady.AndrewIt talks like Tom Brady or like, This isn't Tom Brady. Tom's on a yacht in Miami doing whatever the heck he wants. He's not this isn't a bot. So like, it's like, of course this is fake. It feels like you're like tricking me, like I'm like a child or something like. And, like, that's that's not the real Elsa at Disney World.AndrewLike, I know that's not her.AmandaRight?AndrewBut they do like. The four year old, the three year old, the five year old. Like they're like, That's Elsa. Oh, my gosh, This is amazing. So, like, they're trying to trick us, like we're like children or something. Something like that. That's why I think the cringes. Yeah, it's, it's, it's obviously fake like. And it feels Grinchy. It's a long way to get that point, I think.KevinYeah. The first message is not not having the real name. So it shows Mr. B's likeness, but his name is Zach. It's almost like right from the get go, you're looking at a fake coach purse that you know is fake and everyone else will know is fake because it doesn't even say coach. But everything about it looks like a coach.KevinPurses like once. Scott you're missing the whole better feel of the essence of the brand, right? If it was a if it's a knock off and no one knows is a knockoff, then you know that that's one thing. But this is a clear knockoff.AndrewAnd yeah.KevinIt, yeah, it just doesn't look that good. But I do think there's something to wanting to interact with these, these people that we know or feeling like there's interaction, but it's just not even close to the, to the mark it's fun.AndrewSomeone's probably going to come up with a something very similar and they'll use like deepfake technology. And so you could like video chat with Tom Brady and it's just people, thousands of people in a call center that then they could use their face and then they'll just like use Deepfake to be like, Oh, I'm actually talking to Tom Brady.AndrewCool. Like, what are you doing it with? So they take his voice and that seems more like a fun experience. It's a waste of time and it's not chat bot, but it's like, look, I talk to Tom Brady but it's not Tom Brady.KevinI mean, there are Elvis impersonators and not all of them look like Elvis. Maybe we're completely wrong.AndrewThat's true. We'll find out. That might be gone in a year. All right.KevinNext up, there is an actual article, but we're linking to a Twitter, a tweet on X. Well, I've finally crossed the chasm. I call Matamata pretty consistently, but I am having a hard time with X. I agree. A gentleman named Alexis who said big news for ADD used today, accessible dwelling, accessory dwelling units. These are essentially small homes connected or not connected, but in the yard or somehow on property.KevinThat's for another primary residence have now been able. The FHA policy now allows 82 rental income to qualify for mortgages, further cementing their role in the housing market. And in places like California, you know, if you can rent out your ADU for 3500 bucks a month and that counts, as you know, rental income, that's a big deal.AmandaYeah, that's really neat.AndrewYeah, that's neat.AmandaI actually talked about this on my coaching call today. Like, because, you know, like people are running into this of a high interest rates affordability like it's not it's a condition now that you know just an objection it's the conditions that like how could you overcome that and I thought this was like possibly thinking out of the box like a great opportunity for builders.AmandaYou know, like they build the customers house, Maybe they can build a little tiny home to like L.A. money.KevinOr I mean, it's.AmandaActually.KevinThe construction of an 80. You can be folded in to New construction financing. So now it's like, I'm going to build both these things.AmandaYeah.KevinYeah, yeah.AndrewYeah.AmandaThat's true.KevinI think lenders really may begin offering borrowed mortgages on properties that they to use on the new policies effective immediately. Mm.AndrewYeah. So Alexis builds what appears to be areas that look really nice like they're, they like they would fit in a backyard better than a tiny home looking looking thing like they're really.KevinNice $350,000, probably tiny others.AndrewThey're pricey. My first thought I think it's neat, but I'm like, okay should someone who's buying through an FHA be a landlord? And will this like what is their rate if they have to use 82 income to qualify? Like I'm like, does that hold significantly higher risk? Because if it's ever vacant or if it's vacant for x percent two months out of the year, can I make their mortgage if they don't have that income for two months or three months or four months or something?AndrewSo you qualify for it, or maybe they've been paying rent. That's actually more than what their new mortgage would be. And they're like, Please, just let me do something. I'm not even I rent that thing out there, but my rent now is 5500 a month. I'm a finance and I'll be 4400 per month and I'm saying they'll be rental income.AndrewYeah, I like that.KevinThere's certainly be unintended consequences from this. Like one of the comments on here is I have a house with a garage that I want to convert into an 80. You, you know, well this helped me and so it might Yeah. And then and it might improve your value. It might lower the value of the primary residence if you don't no longer have a garage.KevinSo but I mean people California are super excited about this. And the one I know if it's this particular change or something else that because I think call it the state of California also passed a different law related to its use. But every individual municipality has to basically opt in or say, yes, that's allowed. And so in the markets, even where this is the would be the biggest deal because a lot of aid use already exists in California is can't qualify each individual market.KevinSo L.A., San Diego, you go service each town has to say, yes, that's allowed and that's going to take time. And it won't necessarily be applied everywhere, but super interesting. Next up from TechCrunch, Google's AI powered search experience can now generate images and write drafts. So this is kind of the only lead in here from this article. Is that the trend?KevinFor sure? You've got folks like Jackie Beatty or Openai who are trying to create brand new platforms using alarms and AI powered tools. And then the other trend is just integrate those kind of tools within the already standard platforms. An example of this is Adobe. Adobe is like, I see, I see you daily and I see you, I have to say discord, use it via discord.KevinBut what's the other Netherlands?AndrewI lose, I lose track anyway.KevinThat's what I use all the time. So it's crazy. I can't think of it, but they're like cool and nice. Try trying to like, you know, integrate artificial intelligence in images. We're just going to drop it into Photoshop Illustrator and all the tools that real creatives already use. So they don't need your other little silly thing because it's going to just be built into the platform that those experts already use.KevinSo this to me is kind of big picture. What Google is doing here is let's just integrate all this right into the core product. But what else are your thoughts on this one wager.AndrewI'm a fan. I think it's super cool. The because I think all the tools you've mentioned, they are not user friendly. Like for normal people to use.KevinHaving to learn the average just how to use discord to to use what is the premiere generative visual tool, which I can't think of the name of, is they got.AndrewTo go to Discord first. So it's like, it's annoying. Yeah, it's not accessible. And that's I think that's the way to for the fastest progress is to make it accessible to everybody where there's no login, there's no credits or whatever you have to buy to get it and make it work. I know it's expensive to run these things by Google pushing it.AndrewI'm all for that because I will. I think that will push progress on this a lot faster for the robots to take over the world. Just getting the last one or not, I'm all for it. Let's let's do it. This will help with them be easier to make PowerPoints and decks and presentations. This is what I need. Yeah.KevinAnd it's it's not everything. And they're they're doing it kind of interesting where the one example in the article and I saw a video on this as well if you do a Halloween table setting search and click images in Google where you see you'll see all the normal images and then you'll just see a box that says create something new with our generative A.I. tool.KevinAnd then you click that it will create four additional images for you out of thin air. And so it's it's not like, again, that's trying to incorporate to the to the image search you're already going to. And then it's like if you're not finding exactly what you're looking for, just make it. I think it's I think a smart also, by the way, when you try some terms, that box does not appear.KevinAnd my other thought is, is there some initial scrub there that goes? Is there enough images that we believe would it be highly correlated to this? Then we don't even need to show this generative AI option because there's already.AndrewLike.Kevin10,000 really good options. It might only be appearing in less, less popular searches.AndrewYeah, let's play with that. That's fun.KevinAll right. Next up, we've got the numbers. We've got the third quarter.AmandaWe balanced.KevinIt was benchmark data.AmandaIs this.KevinIs this like a world premiere.AmandaAnd release? Yeah. Okay. Hot out the press. I yeah. So I prepare these calculations with the benchmarks every quarter they call me the nerd over here so many ways. But but good numbers So yeah I compare it to quarter two. So benchmarks for quarter three are lead to appointment. We have 40% though, that went down just by 1%.AmandaSo kind of steady appointment to sell 19%, which is down 2% from quarter to that contribution that went up, which is really neat to see. The online sales contribution went up to 48%, whereas quarter two with 46% and quarter one with 45%. So not only increasing, which is very exciting. Yeah. One thing to point out though, is that leads they did go down by around 15% last count from quarter to quarter three.AmandaSo I'm going to pick your brain off of that. So why do you think lead counts are dropping and doesn't even matter? Or tell us what you think.KevinWhat your rivals and I both saw the same tweet from Lance, formerly of Forbes. He just started his own newsletter on housing data. Now, be a good follow or a sign up if you're if you if you like, that kind of nerdy content. But he just said, hey, basically I crunched the numbers and October is the least affordable month for housing in the last get ready 100 years.AmandaOh least affordable month and.AndrewWe have no problems with affordable.KevinWe got no issues here. Oh work. In fact I think this is this is just data that I saw about an hour ago and I don't have it still pulled up, but I believe of the National Association of Realtors just came out with updated data that showed for the I think for the first time in at least like the last flying blind here 20, 30 years, there are under 4 million transactions that are that are currently like they call it annualized transactions.KevinSo they take a data point and they say if it stayed here and was and happened over 12 months, this would be the number and it was the lowest that it had been in whatever time frame they were talking about, and it was below 4,000,003.96, I think. And so there and the other end and little piece of the puzzle, Amanda, is a lot of our builders who do highly partner with local real estate professionals like were.KevinAnd these are major markets, not like top 15 markets in the country. They're calling the top two or three agents in the market that they've had great relations with. And they're like, Hey, we've got this great thing or we've got this opportunity, We've got these homes. And the response from these these are the best of the best agents and those markets are that sounds awesome.KevinI have no. One to work with. I don't have customers.AndrewWow.KevinTo work with. You know, so 15% those aren't too bad. And the other thing is the overall slope. But what we can see as well from home builder data and other data providers is that the slope of the decline this year is nowhere near as steep as last year. So last year in this and the third and fourth quarter, it just dropped almost actually almost as severely.KevinThis is all transactions used and new, almost as severely as during the Great Recession. It wasn't starting at a higher high like that chart. You look at it, it's just like, oh my goodness, down 80%. Some ridiculous number. But the steepness of the curve is severe but pretty short. This year we didn't ever get as high as last year's highs, but the decline and the slope of the decline is more steady and slow.KevinSo take your poison. Would you rather be down 15% or I bet if you went and looked at the same data last year, third quarter, second quarter. Mm. Just My quick guess would be it'd be 35. So you know that's the thing with percentages is Yeah. The higher high probably felt great. Yeah. But the ride down probably felt worse.AmandaRight. That makes sense. Mm hmm. Yeah.KevinAnd I'm most interested in the apartment to sell ratio. I got 90%. That's what you said was.AmandaFor 19%. Now.KevinThat's still freaking awesome.AmandaI agree.AndrewDown from 21%, I think. Right?AmandaYeah.AndrewSo that's shifted.AmandaAll in 2%. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I love these benchmarks because, you know, it's just such a good overall image because, you know, it's all market that's large builders, small builders established online program, new programs. So it's just a really great mix to have an overall view.KevinYeah.AmandaYeah.AndrewIt's real, real data.KevinOh, hey, something just happened. I think. I think somewhere in the last hour we just crossed over officially 25000 minutes of the podcast, which does means I said yesterday so you could listen to market proof marketing Monday through Friday for 8 hours a day and still be able to listen to a fresh new episode for you for over 60 days now.KevinFor over two months now, the tools.AndrewYou will see.AmandaThem catch.AndrewYour life change. It'll be like a sitcom, like an had two kids here now. Yes. Three, seven has a new house like all these things that have happened.KevinI mean, again, the IKEA effect is real. So it might just be because we made it. But if I ran a marketing department and hired someone who was brand, I would be tempted to just mandate like, Yeah, over the next three months I'll give you three months, but you need to listen to like just have it in the background.KevinYou don't need smooth jazz, you don't need rock and roll or country. Just listen. I know it happened years ago. Just listen to it. Anyway.AndrewMy like reprogram their brain. And so if they had something wrong with the brain, maybe it fixes that. There's nothing wrong with it. Maybe there might be something wrong with it, then maybe that'll be fine. Yeah.KevinOkay. So you're going to have to make sure we do favorites because we're going to end on a depressing note on the news stories here, unfortunately. But according to Redfin.com, homebuyers must earn $115,000. That's obviously household income to afford the typical U.S. home. That's $40,000 more than the typical American household actually earns. So, okay, some of you listening are like, I mean, that's that's a lot of money, but that's not terrible.KevinBut when you put it in the context of the average household brings in $75,000, that's a problem.AndrewIt's a lot of buyers that put that were previously in the market are not in the market like they are. They cannot participate. That's a better way. They are they cannot participate in home buying those people because of that.KevinYep. And the typical years homebuyers monthly mortgage payment is 20 $866 an all time high, up 20% from a year earlier.AndrewThat's a bit of a mortgage so crazy.KevinBut you know rates are just a state of mind. Just take the rate.AndrewYou know, just stay in it like it's not permanent. I mean, you still might need 28, 66 for the average average.KevinBut yes, and I do you know, some of the folks that I see posting the stuff I like, I get it when you're speaking to people within the industry, you're you're trying to motivate, put things in context. But then there's other people who are within the industry who are clearly talking to just the average person. And you're like, I don't think you come across the way.KevinYou think you come across here.AndrewYeah, I mean.KevinIt's not if you live in the Bay Area, California, by the way, you have to earn at least $400,000. Oh.AndrewNo big deal.KevinNo big deal.AndrewNo big deal.KevinRust Belt buyers, nearly CENTCOM, Detroit home buyers only have to earn $52,000. Wow. But it's still a 19% increase from last year.AndrewYeah, that's in Detroit. You could buy some houses for like nothing because.KevinYes, if yes, like $10 if you.AndrewThere are.KevinRoom and even give it away, because that sounds interesting. There's Japanese, there's homes in Japan, they're the same way. And Spain and and other parts of Asia. You buy this home for ten bucks. But before you jump out and say, I'm going to become a real estate mogul, you have to promise. In Detroit's case, I think you have three years to bring the house up to a certain level of livability or you lose it again.AndrewSo I still don't.KevinWant people buying up a bunch of land and doing nothing with it.AndrewAmanda has it's close to Detroit, so we move to Detroit.AmandaI know, but no, but actually like 3 hours. But I have your place there. But I am close. Yes.AndrewYou don't. You have no reason to go there.AmandaYou think I'm an area of Detroit.KevinI'm a bigger fan of the west side of Michigan, generally speaking. Okay. But you didn't. You don't care about that. That's not why you're listening to the show. How does affordability get fixed? I think everyone keeps saying the way to fix affordability is just to build more. But I just want to remind everyone that there are still this problem of the price of land, and that's not helping things, and it's build more of a certain type of home which zoning and or voters will not allow.KevinSo you either have the problem, not my backyard or zoning or building a bunch of stuff in a place where no one is, which is its own challenge. So not likely to to be fine is.AndrewNot in my back.KevinEven if manufactured housing takes off like a rocket.AndrewYeah.KevinMm hmm. All right, so let's end with current favorites. Yeah. Got to be a favorite this time. Amanda What do you got?AmandaYeah, well, I. I have really been loving. A favorite is the role of coaching that I have been able to kind of step into the role full time. And it's just been really neat to see the best of clients and kind of be with them through the journey of like really establishing their program. Like Candace, that whole homes, for example, we do the builder shop and she was one of the ones that made it all the way through one of the three.AmandaAnd I was like proud coach moment and thought that just really neat to see their numbers kind of come to life when when they don't have that before and then also see them grow like as they as you spend time with them. So I've been loving that and I've also been loving the fall weather, the shift in perspective, you know, like I was like, no, I don't want summer to end, but that's the best we are.AmandaAnd the the leaves are beautiful and I'm enjoying it.AndrewSo your life change color?AmandaYeah. Without changing color. So they're so prett

Gareth Rubin writes about social affairs, travel and the arts for British newspapers. In 2013 he directed a documentary about therapeutic art at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London ('Bedlam'). His books include Liberation Square, set in Soviet-occupied London; The Winter Agent, about British agents in Paris on the eve of D-Day and The Turnglass, two entwined mysteries that take place in Essex in 1881 and Los Angeles in 1939.We loved chatting with Gareth and hearing how he moved into writing fiction from journalism, why he thinks you should never give your book to friends to read, and what made him want to write a tête-bêche novel. Plus, we discuss why research can be both helpful and a waste of time, and why he loathes the writing process!Links:Buy The Turnglass and Gareth's other booksFollow Gareth on Twitter/XVisit Gareth's websitePage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter/XFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on MastodonFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TGIF! Welcome to another edition of Page One on Blogtalkradio!

Susan Lewis is the internationally bestselling author of fifty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s. Following periods of living in Los Angeles and the South of France, she currently lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, James, and her dog, Mimi. Her latest book is I Know It's You.We enjoyed chatting with Susan about how she got her start in TV and why it was advice from a producer that led her to become a novelist. We ask how she keeps coming up with ideas, talk about what makes a compelling protagonist, and hear some stories of her times in Hollywood...Links:Buy Susan's booksFollow Susan on FacebookVisit Susan's websitePage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on MastodonFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our conversation for The Valley Business Today - Luray/Page County edition - with Edison Emmons from Luray/Page Chamber of Commerce featured Justin Horn, Executive Director for Page One of Page County. Justin explained the services they offer, the history of the organization, and the other nonprofits that have spawned from Page One. He talked about the huge need within Page County. He encouraged listeners to support the organization in multiple ways that included volunteering, donating food, donating items to their thrift stores, as well as monetary donations that help them assist residents in a variety of situations. Learn more on their website: https://www.vapageone.org/  Page One has been serving the Luray/Page County community since 1977.  They were organized by individuals and churches who had compassion for meeting the human needs in the community. To fund their family assistance program, they operate three thrift stores - two in Luray and the other in Shenandoah.  The income from these stores and financial contributions by churches, businesses, and individuals allow Page One the means to provide those essential services to needy families.  The sale items are donations from estates and yard sales including clothes, household goods, books, toys, furniture, and jewelry. Follow the thrift stores on Facebook. ​In 1979 the Page One Board of Directors approved a location in the southern end of Page County to help serve needy families in that area.  They also service clients with financial assistance (rent, water, fuel, and electricity) as well as a food pantry.  Family Assistance (Main Office) Hours: 8:30am – 11am Luray Food Pantry (35 North Bank Street, Luray / 540-743-4863) Hours: Mon/Tue/Thur 8:30am – 11am  Shenandoah Thrift Store, Food Pantry & Family Assistance (600 Comer Lane, Shenandoah / 540-652-8780 Thrift Store Hours:  Mon - Fri 10am – 3pm / Saturdays 9am – 12pm Food Pantry Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri 10am – 3pm Family Assistance Hours: CLOSED Page One Thrift Boutique (1 Cave Street, Luray / 540-743-4357 New with tag & slightly worn clothing, Household Items, Furniture Department NEW Arrivals Added Daily Hours:  Mon - Fri  8am – 4pm / Saturdays: 8am – 2pm Page One Treasures Thrift Store (42 West Main Street, Luray / 540-743-4357 Hours:  Tue – Fri 8:30am – 4pm / Saturday 8:30am - 2pm

Ian Moore is a leading stand-up comedian, known for his sharp, entertaining punditry, who regularly headlines at London's world-famous Comedy Store. A TV/radio regular, he stars in Dave's satirical TV show Unspun and Channel 5's topical comedy Big Mouths. Ian lives in rural France and commutes back to the UK every week. However, he has recently moved into the world of novel writing, with Death and Croissants being released to great reviews as the first in a new cosy crime series. His latest book, The Man Who Didn't Burn, sees Ian turn to a more serious side of his thriller writing.We had a great time talking with Ian and hearing why he wrote his standup while actually standing up, why a desire never to leave the house again turned him into a novelist, and how doing so has allowed him to fulfil his dreams he had as an 18-year-old.Links:Buy Ian's books nowFollow Ian on Twitter/XVisit Ian's websitePage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on MastodonFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Dominic Lim holds a master's from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is an alumnus of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and has sung with numerous professional choral ensembles. Lim  is also a member of the Actors' Equity Association and has performed Off-Broadway and in regional productions throughout the US. He lives in Oakland, California and supports the San Francisco Bay Area writing community as a member of the Writers Grotto and as a co-host of San Francisco's Babylon Salon, the quarterly reading & performance series which has featured award-winning authors, including Booker Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and more. You can follow him on Instagram at @jdominiclim.About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.If you have a first page you'd like to submit to the Page One Podcast, please do so here.As an author and writing coach, I know that the first page of any book has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. So I thought to ask your favorite master storytellers how they do their magic to hook YOU. After the first few episodes, it occurred to me that maybe someone listening might be curious how their first page sits with an audience, so I'm opening up Page One to any writer who wants to submit the first page of a book they're currently writing. If your page is chosen, you'll be invited onto the show to read it and get live feedback from one of Page One's master storytellers. Page One exists to inspire, celebrate and promote the work of both well-known and unknown creative talent.  You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes.To get updates and writing tips from master storytellers, follow me onFacebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram.Until then, be well and keep reading!In service,Holly