Episodes

Kevin is joined by Beth and Julie for a post-Summit debrief that unpacks what landed the hardest in Austin, from the difference between accountability and pressure to why your dashboard might be gaslighting every other team at your company. They also cover fresh AI tools worth exploring and the latest Google updates on spam content and location asset requirements. Plus, they talk about Caroline’s “generational translator” moment that turned an AI skeptic into a believer! Announcements:ResiDay ...

In this solo episode, Kevin takes listeners inside two of the Online Sales and Marketing Summit’s keynotes. He first breaks down Britney Muller's presentation, where she challenged builders to rethink how they're actually using AI day-to-day, and where most are getting it wrong. Kevin then dives into Rand Fishkin's presentation, where Rand made the case that the traditional funnel marketers have relied on for the past 25 years is officially dead, and the path forward looks very different. Kevin...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Jackie to talk about AI tools we’d love to have in our personal lives, why buyer timetables never match the ones we build for them, and what a home builder could actually do with an extra $10 million. They also dive into Meta's new AI agent, Google's "Dive Deeper" experiment, Pinterest's visual search ad play, and how a football club grew its audience by posting less. Story Time:Julie: Buyers don't follow your timetable Jackie: Turn the music down Kevin: You can'...

Jackie is joined by Beth and Caroline to talk about why AI can't solve problems you don't already understand and what happens when sales, marketing, and online sales finally sit in the same room! They also discuss why purchased lists are the VHS tapes of lead gen, what a new app signals about the demand for authentic content, and how to move beyond "resort-style amenities" fluff to create content that answers real buyer questions. Story Time:Caroline: Skip the AI restaurant picks Beth: Know t...

Julie is joined by Jackie and Karla Tuten, Head of Creative here at DYC, to talk about what happens when builders hand the phones over to AI, how to actually measure brand consistency, and the topic that will lead to the most honest conversation you have with leadership this fall. They also dig into Instagram's polarizing logo refresh, the growing uncertainty of what AI pulls about your brand during search, and the AI marketing campaigns that landed (as well as the ones that fell off the trust ...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Beth to talk about the messy new relationship marketers are building with AI reporting tools, why your favorite pair of jeans holds the secret to better content strategy, and the uncomfortable truth that most "urgency problems" are really sales process problems. They also get into why weekly (or - gasp - DAILY?!) reporting cadences can break marketing & operations, the danger of outsourcing customer context to a summary line, and how personalization at scale doesn't...

Kevin is joined by Jackie and Beth to talk about why "best practice" isn't a dirty word, why doing 95% of the process still counts as doing it wrong, and why the resurrection of a two-year-old blog series says everything about the state of marketing right now. They also unpack HubSpot's new AI visibility tool, YouTube's change to how views are counted, OpenAI apparently pulling back from Reddit, and why comparing today's market to 2008 might be the better perspective for your team to use. Plus:...

Britney Muller, founder of Orange Labs and former senior SEO scientist at Moz, joins Kevin for a wide-ranging conversation on AI literacy, debunking the idea of LLMs as all-knowing oracles, calling out "complexity as competence" among self-styled AI experts, and explaining why foundational SEO and brand mentions matter more than ever in an evolving AI-supported search landscape. AI literacy over better prompting: Many assume better prompting alone can fix AI's blind spots, but the deeper issue ...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Caroline, and it starts with a question no marketer wants to answer on the record: have you ever broken the law for marketing? The confessions come quickly (and anonymously, if you'd like to submit your own). The team also digs into why late-summer budget conversations shouldn't feel panicked, why reallocating spend usually beats adding to it, and how a $5 cost-per-click on a niche banner ad is nearly always a red flag. Story Time:Julie: Have you ever broken the la...

Ryan Hillgartner, Director of Sales and Marketing at Tim O'Brien Homes, joins the podcast to discuss his nearly 10-year journey with the high-performance home builder and how the company has built consistent sales success through disciplined pricing, strong sales training, and a growing data and analytics function. The conversation explores why Tim O'Brien avoids incentive-driven sales tactics, invests in integrated tech platforms, and treats each community's performance individually rather tha...

Jackie, Julie, and Caroline talk about how the smartest marketing often comes from slowing down long enough to notice it, why "defending what we do" is quietly eating up marketers' time, and how the same incentive can flop or fly depending on how you frame the math. They also cover Google's new AI content labels, the risk of leaning too hard on AI for blog content, and how to communicate to buyers that a brand-new home might actually be the best deal on the market right now. Story Time:Julie: ...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Caroline to celebrate Episode 450 (only 50 to go until the grand finale…), perform Market Proof Marketing’s first dramatic live reading, and dig into why the flashy, top-down fixes so many builders reach for are rarely the ones that actually move the needle. They also break down the Q2 Online Sales Benchmark data, talk through the risks of AI-generated content strategies, and unpack what happened when OpenAI's newest model got a little too curious for its own good. ...

Julie, Jackie, and Caroline talk about the anxiety of not knowing what you signed up for, why marketers keep drowning in the "junk drawer" of tools and tactics, and how to sell the communities everyone else has written off. They also discuss why builder websites are burying their best photos and whether Google's new social signals in Search Console are actually helping you or just helping Google. Story Time:Julie: What to do when a community has less-than-ideal neighbors? Jackie: Not my fault...

Beth Russell and Karla Tuten take over the podcast to talk about their personal experiences buying and nearly buying/renovating homes, using their own emotional and often illogical decision-making to illustrate what builders and marketers consistently miss about the customer journey. The conversation moves from house-hunting logistics into a broader argument about brand messaging, urging builders to sell the feeling of a life lived in a home rather than its spec sheet. Buying is emotional, not ...

Online Sales Coach Melissa Fort joins the podcast to trace her 20-year career journey through the new home industry, from launching one of the earliest online sales programs at Lennar in 2005 through the 2008 financial crisis, multiple cross-country relocations, and eventually into marketing leadership roles. The conversation blends nostalgic industry history with hard-won lessons about resilience, adaptability, and the value of gaining broad exposure across many builders rather than staying sil...

Jackie, Julie, and Beth discuss the power of staying curious with your data and why obsessing over your competition might be steering you in the wrong direction. They also dig into when marketing follow-up crosses the line from serendipitous to straight-up creepy, what a two-year-old spec home can teach us about listening to buyer feedback, and the growing tension between AI adoption and consumer trust. Story Time:Julie: Sometimes the answer is a can of paint Beth: When follow-up feels like b...

Kevin is joined by Julie to debate which AI tool will own the consumer mindshare race, why following an incentive through the buyer's journey matters more than the promotion itself, and the question every marketer should be asking their leaders this week. They also dig into a fresh wave of zero-click search data, what the ProBuilder Top 200 reveals about where builders are betting their innovation dollars, and why "we need more awareness" might be the wrong instinct when buyers are already worr...

Erin Willis, Chief Insights Officer at Sekisui House, joins the podcast to share her journey through the home building industry and challenges the sector to move beyond generic decision-making toward consumer-focusd, data-driven strategies that treat home buyers as whole humans instead of transactions. Targeting everyone means reaching no oneBuilders default to generic out of fear of missing buyers, but intentional design for a specific target actually expands the market by pulling people out o...

Julie is joined by Caroline and special guest Melissa for a crossover conversation about why marketing and online sales teams can’t afford to operate in silos. They dig into the assumptions marketers make about what buyers care about and how AI is quietly turning OSC call transcripts into one of the most underrated marketing research tools available. They also break down why UTM codes are not optional, what Realtor.com’s new AI-powered home search means for builders, and whether Google’s new Pr...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Beth to talk about what marketers can learn from Disney, why a successful event deserves a lot more than most teams give it, and why "leads are up" might be the most dangerous sentence in your dashboard. They also dig into the CoStar acquisition of Zonda and what it could mean for new home listings, why Google is quietly retiring standalone display campaigns, and a friendly debate over whether Meta’s upcoming subscription tiers are worth a single dollar of anyone’s ...

Kevin is joined by Julie and Jackie to talk about overpacked calendars, a return to glasses (and what that has to do with reading your data), and why the prettiest content in your ad account isn’t always the one converting customers. They also debate whether home builders are in the demand creation business or the desire creation business, unpack the Compass and MRED Zillow standoff playing out in Chicago, and break down what everything from Google Marketing Live 2026 actually means for builder...

Julie is joined by Jackie and Caroline to share real-world stories about the pitfalls of new market launches and how everyone looks at the marketers first when things start to go south for sales. They also dig into the latest news around Google Ads and a broad SEO shift that prioritizes brand recognition and trust over traditional keyword rankings. Story Time:Julie - You have to create what the customer can’t see yet Caroline - Don’t blame the marketer Jackie - Pre-launch prep is key Announ...

Rachel Peters joins the podcast to share her career journey from a college intern at Hershey Entertainment and Resorts to her current role at Realtor.com New Construction. The conversation covers lessons from working in large marketing organizations, the value of diverse internship experiences, her time at Keystone Custom Homes, and her perspective on what home builders consistently get wrong with their digital marketing. Early Career LessonsRachel talks about her 5 college internships across c...

Kevin is joined by Beth, Caroline, and a special guest to discuss the importance of leveraging internal teams for great content ideas and the benefits of using AI tools for content automation, while ensuring that human expertise is still used. They also get into defending your foundation, tools, and strategies in a noisy market with less-than-hopeful headlines. Story Time:Beth - Trust your foundation Caroline - Do one thing at a time Kevin - Fact-check the headlines Announcements:Market Pro...