Ian Faison & Stephanie McCarty

Mixing Up Traditional Marketing Models for Next-Gen Buyers


Stephanie McCarty, CMO at Taylor Morrison, encourages her team to approach the next generation of buyers by mixing up traditional marketing models.



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[MUSIC]

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Welcome to Pipeline Visionaries.

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I'm Ian Faizan, CEO of Caspian Studios.

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And today we are joined by a very special guest, Stephanie, how are you?

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>> I'm great.

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How are you?

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>> I am doing great, excited to have you on the show.

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It's going to be a little bit different from our normal show, which is always

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really fun.

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We're going to talk Taylor Morrison, all the amazing stuff that you are doing,

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marketing.

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And as always, our show is brought to you by Qualified.

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Qualified is the number one sales and marketing platform for

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companies revenue teams that use Salesforce, head over to Qualified.com

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to learn more how you can start having smarter, faster conversations with your

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buyers,

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right there on your website.

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Stephanie, tell us what was your first job marketing.

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>> This is it.

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I don't have a traditional marketing background.

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I came up through the communications and executive communications role with a

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journalism.

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So my marketing foray really began on internal branding and

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getting your employee and your team members to fall in love with the brand from

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the inside out.

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And that has opened the door, Taylor Morrison, for

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the last five and a half years to spearhead our marketing and brand strategy.

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So not your traditional route, but I think comes with its advantage.

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>> Flash forward to today, now that you are the CMO, what does it mean to be C

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MO of Taylor Morrison?

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>> It's pretty exciting.

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I think Taylor Morrison's never had a CMO.

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So there became a moment in time when you realized how we market and

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brand new home construction and the communities and

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homes that we're building really mattered.

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I think in our industry, there's this field of dreams mentality where operators

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thoughts.

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If you buy the right land and you put the right product on that piece of land,

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consumers will just flock to your door.

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And I think they did until they didn't.

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And we all walk around the world with a device in our hand,

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their hungry for information.

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I tell the story of when I first became a CMO at Taylor Morrison,

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our website was a pure seduction tool where we just put a couple pretty

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pictures of our homes.

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And said, you must go into our sales center to learn more.

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We wouldn't get pricing information.

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We wouldn't talk about who's living there, why you should want to live there.

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It wasn't a selling tool at all.

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And now Souths forward five and a half years,

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we basically have a buy now button where you can do both of your research,

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assembling of a home building your home online, understanding full cost of what

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your

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options are, and essentially being able to reserve that.

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And the only time you go into a sales center is to really validate what we've

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told you

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online and to write a contract.

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So it's in my view, like almost a complete 180 of how homes in the past were

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sold.

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And we're going to get into all of that in our neck,

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hopefully sure you can go and feel honest and trusted and

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you can share those deepest, darkest marketing secrets.

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Zoom it out.

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What does Taylor Morrison do?

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Taylor Morrison is the fifth largest home builder and community developer in

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the United States.

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We build homes of every shape and size really for all different consumer sets

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from your

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first time affordable buyer, first move up, second move up all the way up to

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luxury,

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and really anything in between.

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We build coast to coast.

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We're in 11 states and 22 of the top markets in the country.

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And I've been with the organization about eight and a half years and have seen

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the

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organization grow tremendously.

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When I first started with the organization, we were a $2 billion business.

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Right now we're just shy of $10 billion.

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And not only do you have the primary brand here,

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Morrison, but you also have a family of brands in addition to that.

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So speak to that as well.

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We do.

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Taylor Morrison, really the parent company.

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We have a consumer brand, those silver homes are sold under the Taylor Morrison

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umbrella.

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Our resort lifestyle brand is Esplanon and we have several dozen of those

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communities in Florida.

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And a few that just opened in California.

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And we have a four rent brand as well.

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You know, today in the affordability crisis that we're facing,

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there are people who are choosing to rent.

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And so we are playing that space as well under Yardley, which is our four rent

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brand.

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And then we offer other services under kind of from a financing title and

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insurance

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perspective to aid in a consumer's purchase of a home.

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So Taylor Morrison, home funding, inspired title and Taylor Morrison insurance.

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And so who are your customers?

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What are the types of people that that head to Taylor Morrison.com and figure

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out how the heck

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they're going to buy a beautiful new home.

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Anyone can be a Taylor Morrison customer, which is why I love what we do.

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Anyone dreaming up their next home or their first home or their last home or

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the home for their kids.

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So I think we fit everyone's kind of life stage, depending on what that is.

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And we've had several repeat buyers, too.

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They love the product.

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They love the service.

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They love the experience because we build in so many different states, they

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have to relocate for work.

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You know, they will seek out a Taylor Morrison home in their next kind of

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location.

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So if you're in the market for a home, Taylor Morrison.com and so you should go

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Indeed.

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It's really interesting to hear you, you say some of the macro economic trends

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and how that is shaped it.

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But also, you know, from the time that you took over to CMO to now, just like

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how much is done

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online and it seems like, you know, a key part of your strategy is it's digital

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is, you know, the website is building an experience where you can help people

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make the best decision for them.

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How do you sort of think about that online experiences first, which is not

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definitely not something that a decade ago, someone would say of like buying a

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house online would be an online experience.

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It's an evolution.

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It has been.

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It always will be.

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I mean, it's a we've been in business selling since the beginning of time,

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right?

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And not a lot of innovation has entered that steer outside of maybe putting a

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hard hat on at a job site and introducing electric tools versus just swinging a

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hammer.

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But when it comes to the selling process, I took over.

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Well, I started this role as the first ever CMO in 2018.

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So not long before COVID, we had started to plant seeds and started to create

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the buy in process around.

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Remember time when before Zappos before Amazon, when you had actually go onto a

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department store to buy shoes or before you and airlines or you didn't have

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your boarding pass on your phone.

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You had a physical one.

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So it's just taking our executive team through kind of reminding them that

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things that they're used to today haven't always been.

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And that's the space that home building needs to enter.

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We need to enter that chat room and talk about here's what has always worked.

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Here's that model, but there's a lot of that model that doesn't fit the next

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generation of home buyers.

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A perfect example of that is we use the terminology trap fence.

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You go to a sales center.

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We essentially there's this little U shaped journey you need to get in, which

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is the trap.

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Like you have to go through this sales room in order to get into the model home

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to see the product you're hoping to purchase.

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I don't know about you, but I certainly don't like to be sold to and I wouldn't

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want to be trapped into a sales experience.

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Right.

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People want to be able to get information at their fingertips.

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They do it for everything else and home buying doesn't need to be any different

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than that.

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I think with platforms like Zillow on the for on the resale side, people are

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very used to.

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I bought a new home in 2020.

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I found my own home on Zillow sent the link to my realtor.

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I'm still not really sure what he did for the commission he got, but you know,

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consumers are driving this process versus being a part of it.

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So I think consumers want to have a sense of control.

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They like the convenience and COVID really allowed us to kind of accelerate

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some of those plans.

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The first digital product Ian that we introduced on the website was a scheduler

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, like a schedule unemployment.

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And think about some of the services you do today, you can probably go online

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and schedule an appointment for just about anything.

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In home building, we played this game of phone tag with a middleman to give an

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appointment to talk to a salesperson.

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And we found that by putting the button, schedule an appointment online,

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consumers will make us will do it.

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They'll do it on their own.

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They'll come at a time that's convenient for them.

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And we can track that.

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Now we have a new way of understanding how these consumers want to engage.

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And it's it was such a simple task.

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From there, we allowed consumers to schedule a self credit tour where they

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could go into a completed home and tour it on their own without a salesperson.

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And how do those convert?

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How did they feel about the home without having someone there to explain every

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nothing granny?

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And I think the big echelon of of the innovation that we've introduced at

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Taylor Morrison is

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very similar to the automotive industry where you can go on and you can kind of

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build and price the power of your dreams

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or your next car.

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And you could pick your base model and your kind of options that you want to

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add onto it.

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We've we've created the software to be able to do that with the home.

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You could pick your floor plan.

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You could pick the lot in the community where you want to live.

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It's location in the community is, you know, your number one, you can start

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there, pick the floor plan that fits your needs, fits your family size.

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And then all the add-ons that are important to you as a home.

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Everything's itemized.

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So you know exactly what that home is going to cost.

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So you can build it based on your budget.

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You can reserve it online and then you'll get a call from the salesperson right

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now.

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So that consumer is really driving the process, educating themselves along the

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way and understanding what is kind of an overwhelming, daunting task.

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If you think about just a new build from the ground up.

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So it's really arming the consumer to be able to take a leading role in this

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process, which is, I don't know, it's not only the future.

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It's also just how people are showing up and wanting and creating the

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interaction to be today.

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So we're really proud of that.

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That said, I'd say we're probably pretty behind most industries.

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So we're still playing catch up at a lot of it's a mental game.

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We have operators who will die on the hill of our product needs to be seen,

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felt, touched, smelled before someone will buy it.

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And we were able to kind of prove that wrong during COVID and even after COVID

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that some people might not need to interact with a physical product as much as

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maybe they had in the past.

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And certainly we've seen a lot with the younger generation.

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They want to lead the process.

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They want to be involved.

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They don't want to be sold to.

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They want to build a relationship.

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But they really want as much information as they can about the product and the

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community and the lifestyle at their fingertips.

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Yeah.

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And it's it's almost so obvious in retrospect.

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And it's so funny to even like even be having the conversations of like whether

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we should do either or when the answer like is always both and right.

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Yes.

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It's like honestly wild even have that.

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When I think the thing that when people are very draconian in the way that they

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think about how the buying process should be and it's like, well, you know, if

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if one of my sales reps can ask these, you know, if they get nine yeses, then

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it equals the sale.

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So we need to make sure the nine yeses and it's like, yeah, but if the digital

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tool.

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If they've selected those, you know, those nine things in the digital tool,

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then like that is also them saying, yes, nine times to something.

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And I think that 100% right.

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Like some people do need to talk to someone, but I think that where you arm

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those people with the decisions of like of what it means when you choose one

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thing versus another.

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Like our art, I just bought a home like you're in a half ago and our agents

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like amazing.

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And the stuff that she was telling us is like, hey, you're going to really want

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a little kitchen nook here because you have a one and a half year old and you

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're not going to want to walk all the way over to the dining room to feed him

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when you're cooking dinner and like you're not going to want to do that.

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Or like, oh, that's like, sure, incredibly valuable life thing perspective.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's like those are the things that actually you want from a salesperson is

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like, tell me how my life is going to be five years from now in this home.

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Not like what the drywall is going to be like.

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Exactly.

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Yes.

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And so I think that provides an opportunity for our salespeople to be providing

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that kind of perspective versus, yeah, here are the options that you could put

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in your home.

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It's a different conversation.

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That's, I think the relationship building that our sales teams do have with our

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consumers, but all the other stuff to your point, we can get them to say, yes,

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10 times over and feel so confident in that home and it meeting all their

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immediate names.

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The difference between a resale home and existing home and new, a new build

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construction is it takes time.

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If you're going to personalize your home, you've got, you know, anywhere

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between seven to 12 months before that home is a tangible product that you can

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walk inside.

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So we've also seen with the use of technology, whether it's a visualization

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tool, some sort of virtual reality, you can build less models and create an

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experience online where people can be walking through these potential homes and

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there's a cost benefit for the organization.

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To not have to eat those costs of having to build these models that then sit

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for a very long time.

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So I do think there's a benefit to the consumer because we found that most of

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the reservations that are coming in on these homes are happening between 10 am

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at five p.m.

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And our sales offices are opening.

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They're happening most of the time between nine p.m.

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And two a.m.

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Right.

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When when spouses can finally spend time together and talk about their plants

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for the future and and build their life, you know, when they want to build

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their life.

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The sales offices aren't open.

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And so the, you know, just as I do our, our website is selling 24/7.

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And so to be able to have that technology and those products available on our

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website, we have seen almost a 50% conversion rate for those that reserve a

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home.

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They are hot lead.

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They're highly qualified and they're committed.

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So I think when we first introduced these products, our sales agent saw it as,

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oh, you're trying to replace me.

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You're trying to replace the human that we're saying.

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There's a need for our sales teams.

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Their role is just adapting, right?

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And it is, it's evolving and the relationship is changing.

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Because we're doing some of the hard work online and we, I still believe it's

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such a blind play.

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You can talk to more people if we do more of the converting online, which we've

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seen happen over the last few years.

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What's out of our control is some of the macro environment, except from an

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afforded perspective, from a mortgage rate perspective, right?

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There's not a full lot we can do to, we can do to control that.

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But one of the benefits of new home construction is we have an in-house lender.

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I mean, if you see an 8% rate right now, that is not what our average buyer is

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getting.

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Our average buyer is getting in the high first to low fives because we have the

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ability to buy down rates and.

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It cover closing costs.

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So from a marketing perspective, a lot of it's getting that narrative out there

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because it's a lot different than I think people.

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They'll see a headline.

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They'll see what's happening in the resale existing home space.

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And there's not as much of an education on, you know, the role new home

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construction plays in that.

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Yeah, completely different, right?

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Like you said, the buying horizons and everything and how you plan for new

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construction and the type of buyer it is and the neighborhoods and every, it's

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like a completely different beast and it should be treated.

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It's completely different, right?

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100%. Right now, I think there's a little bit of a benefit that we're seeing is

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there's just not a lot of supply in the resale environment.

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So the only player that's really adding incremental supply into the market is

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the new home construction.

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So I think we are seeing a greater demand just because of limited supply and

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our competitor of the resale world, which is, I mean, it's great.

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We're trying to capitalize on as much as we can, given some of the other macro

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environment indicators.

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But I think, I mean, it's a really great year.

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People are moving into beautiful homes.

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They're feeling really good about a lot of the messaging right now.

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We're doing a lot of education on finance because people are worried.

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You have a set of buyers who are buying a payment, right? They're buying a

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mortgage payment.

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That's within their budget.

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And to be able to talk to them and understand that, hey, you're marrying the

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home, you're dating the rate, right?

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The rate you can refinance at a later time, but you want to make sure you're

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getting the home that you want.

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If you look back two years ago and like buying frenzy where everyone was buying

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a home right after COVID hit, a lot of people were being, they were buying a

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home that they didn't really want.

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And now you see them a couple of years in that they just got forced into a home

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because they didn't know if they'd be able to get another home.

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And that's never a good position for the consumer to be in.

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So actually, if you can afford to buy right now is a really good time to buy

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the minute that we start seeing rates reduce, which will be great from an

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affordability perspective.

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It's going to be harder to buy in a different way, right?

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People are going to be coming out from every place and you're going to have

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higher competition.

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So right now you have more choice and you can actually find a home that meets

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all your needs and you're not just kind of accepting because there's not many

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out there.

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But I think what's really fascinating too about the evolution of home building

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and certainly within my eight and a half years at Taylor Morrison is there's

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also this edict or this mindset that consumers are buying the brand.

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They're not buying the home builder, right?

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They're buying the product and they're buying the community.

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But if you're building in a master playing community that also has seven other

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builders, four plans are roughly similar price point might be similar.

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How do you get them to choose the Taylor Morrison over a royalty or Richmond,

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America, or a different builder in that area.

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And so we've been really focused on how does our brand stand out from being

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good stewards of the world and our sustainability initiatives and also just

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brand building the certain kinds of partnerships or influences.

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That we're joining forces with to help educate this next generation of

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homeowners because Gen Z, I mean they're nearing their home buying years if not

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, you know, currently there.

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And there, where are they?

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They're on TikTok for the new Google, right?

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That's how they're searching for things.

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And so being on some of those platforms, creating a personality behind a home

18:53

builder and a brand that's relatable.

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We're planting the seed of who you should buy your home from before you're

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ready to buy because that journey is so long and everyone's going to get to it

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at their own on their own time horizon.

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So I don't think you'll see a lot of national homeowners have that philosophy

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of reaching the next generation of homeowners in that way.

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We operate like a retail in a retail environment where we're going after every

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sale and we're trying to make relationships with every generation in a way that

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's meaningful.

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And that just means being where they are.

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And creating a brand that's memorable.

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So we just teamed up with the home that I would just the leading organization

19:32

company and see where brands and the founders, Lee and Joanna, and have

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inserted ourselves into their network of 7 million followers.

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Because if they're interested in home organization, they likely either really

19:47

love their home or need of a home or it's a very similar market.

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And again, it's just thinking about how you build your brand and what

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conversations you're being a part of, which is really exciting because I feel

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like we're still just barely scratching the surface.

20:00

Yeah, such a cool partnership and I definitely want to dig into that here in a

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second.

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One thing I had a question, would someone ever offer some type of incentive to

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have their house be shown as if it's a model who like currently lives there to

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see how people like are actually setting things up, etc, etc, because, you know

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, you mentioned like having models is like one of the hard parts of like this

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expensive to build and obviously that, you know, etc, etc.

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Whereas like people who are already living in the home who are already like

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happily living there. It's like, you know, if you just got to clean your house,

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you know, for, for, you know, a week, once a once a year, something like that,

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and get it all get it all ready to go.

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I know you wouldn't be staged perfectly, etc. But it's just throwing it out.

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Yeah, it's funny that you bring that up because my brain went to two places.

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The first being, we have a lot of floor plans. We don't build a model for, and

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we might have a model for a few of them, but people want to know how the other

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ones live.

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So there is probably something to that on kind of leveraging our existing

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community members and showing how they live in their home.

21:14

But another, my brain then went to from a marketing perspective.

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And there was actually a New York Times article, or maybe it was a Wall Street

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Journal earlier this year, we're talking about like embracing the mess where we

21:26

try.

21:26

You can put a picture, but we have beautiful pumps and they're staged and you

21:31

know, merchandise to a tee. We actually get a lot of looky lose where they're

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just coming into the model because they want to get design inspiration, which

21:38

is great, but no one lives like that.

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You know, I, it's something I have to tell myself over and over again. So I

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have three littles. It's hard to have a magazine picture perfect home all the

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time, right?

21:48

So it's very okay to present a home that looks lived in.

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But when you look at new homes and how they're marketed, they don't really look

21:56

good.

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So we have various times made our homes look more lived in where there's

22:00

something on the counter and there's a blanket strewn about so people can

22:04

actually picture themselves in their belongings and how they would actually

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look.

22:09

The toy closet won't look picture perfect. They'll probably be blocks or legos

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if you're in my house all over the floor, which I think there's something very

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endearing about that versus like stressing people out on like, oh, this home is

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gorgeous, but I'll never be able to make it.

22:25

That's why.

22:26

And we actually have a partnership to the third place I went with a company

22:30

called mine, which essentially if you walk through one of our models that is

22:35

very aesthetically pleasing.

22:37

You can scan the codes on all these pieces of furniture and purchase them and

22:41

have them at your home when your home is delivered so that again it's taking

22:46

one piece off your, because I never know how to assemble everything I'm like, I

22:49

love that bed.

22:50

I love that lamp. I don't know where you got that lamp. And so we're taking one

22:53

thing off the plate of our consumers.

22:55

And it's been such a fascinating and fantastic partnership.

22:59

So I think that's also just from a making it easy simplifying the lives of our

23:04

consumers because no one likes to move.

23:07

No one likes to pack up their old place and move into their new place.

23:10

No one knows where to put things or how to furnish things.

23:13

So we try to aid our consumers in that process too.

23:16

So we appreciate the full journey, not just the transaction of getting your

23:21

keys and getting into the home.

23:23

Let's get into our next segment, the playbook where you open up the playbook

23:26

and talk about the tax rates that help you win.

23:28

What are your three channels or tactics that are your uncuttable budget.

23:32

Oh, man, just three.

23:35

Well, I probably double down on kind of digital innovation and making sure that

23:40

we're spending a mass from a product perspective, whether it's ideating.

23:45

I mean, that it's not a set it and forget it.

23:47

Your website mean we're constantly improving and enhancing.

23:50

We're doing a lot of consumer testing, user testing, comparing our experience

23:54

to some of our competitors, comparing our experience to other retail

23:59

experiences to make sure that we're operating in the same fashion that we're

24:03

thinking through that consumer experience.

24:05

So it's anything surrounding our website.

24:07

The second would be brand.

24:09

We really do believe that those who are going to win in the future is those

24:13

investing in brand, knowing that that will lead to the performance metrics that

24:17

we're all kind of.

24:18

On the hook floor. And so we've been investing a lot in brand in brand building

24:23

and so that that will continue.

24:25

I also feel like email is a huge, huge channel for us in terms of we have so

24:30

many products. We have so many communities out there.

24:34

And we've invested an upgraded our marketing stack to include better technology

24:38

that all allow for more automation and personalization.

24:42

So those are the three bucket items as I could think going into 2024.

24:46

That I would bake my CFO not to have from.

24:52

I love it. How do you think about investing in buyer resources?

24:56

I think we need to do more of it. You know, we invest in a lot of assets from

25:00

just an educational perspective.

25:02

Some people are if they're buying their first home, they don't really

25:05

understand how to take care of it.

25:07

So what are the resources, the thinking forward that we can do to help.

25:12

Our consumers once they've been done. I think a huge buyer resource for us. We

25:17

call it our customer portal, which is there's a lot of innovation that's baked

25:22

into the customer acquisition part of the process.

25:25

But once you've signed a contract, if you have done kind of a B to order home

25:30

or built to be built home, it's not a completed ready now home.

25:34

There's this process, which is ultimately you talk about the customer

25:39

experience. That's where we, it tends to go south for a little bit. It's, you

25:43

know, where you don't get the communication as quickly as you like it.

25:47

Your, you know, windows might be delayed and that might delay your home three

25:51

weeks. But if the communication doesn't occur, you're kind of sitting in the

25:55

dark.

25:55

And the bad guy ends up being your builder and you're trying to figure out what

26:00

's going on.

26:01

And so we look at it from, you know, how do we keep our customer engaged in

26:06

that downtime while we're constructing a home.

26:09

Because they're going through, they're on cloud nine when they sign up. Yeah.

26:13

And then there's nowhere else to go sometimes but down into the wall of like,

26:17

well, what's happening and and in COVID, we saw the supply constraints and

26:22

issues and material issues.

26:24

It was really hard. I think sales people don't really like to deliver bad news.

26:29

Right. And again, you know, our sales team's not paid their commission until

26:32

that consumer was into their home. So there's a lot that can happen between

26:36

point of purchase to the closing and delivery at that home.

26:39

And so from a buyer resource, that's where I think our industry needs to be

26:44

investing in from a technology perspective from a training sales perspective.

26:49

So people are more comfortable keeping our consumers informed along the way

26:54

since I guess that it's such a long purchase process when you're considering a

26:59

new construction.

27:00

So you mentioned brand obviously what are some of the ways that you think about

27:00

spending money on, on, on brand and just getting getting the name out there

27:01

getting people engaged with with Taylor Morrison.

27:10

Yeah, I think a lot of it that we're focused on just organic social and a

27:14

building a personality and a rhythm and a framework for how we're presenting

27:19

who we are and what we stand for.

27:22

It's also I think investigating and finding partnerships that fit with the

27:26

ladies at the home at it certainly in order to organize a home yet to own a

27:31

home, but most of their, they have a Netflix series, you know, with two seasons

27:36

and they're going into celebrity homes and existing

27:39

kind of transforming existing spaces but we partnered with them and they're

27:44

like what about it when it's a blank canvas how do we help our consumers

27:48

prepare for their move and think about smart spaces that can create this form

27:53

and function and this like sanctuary when they

27:56

come in and it came from a personal experience I had my home organized well two

28:02

spaces I had my pantry and my, my master closet and ice.

28:06

I told my husband because I wanted to pull out a sleeping bag and sleep in my

28:10

pantry it's how much I loved what they did it was like this space is beautiful

28:14

I feel at peace I feel like a whole like elephant is no longer sitting on my

28:19

shoulders I know where everything is everything has a place my kids can come in

28:22

here I don't know how to get to their snacks and I was like how do I bottle this up

28:26

and give it to all of Taylor Wars and consumers because there is there's just

28:31

this ecstasy that comes with organization that I totally doubted until I

28:36

experienced it first hand

28:38

and so we created this series this video series that went through every home

28:42

every space in your home with Joanna and Clay and said if you're buying a

28:46

Taylor more home did you know it comes with this and this this here's how we

28:49

think about where you put your pots and pans and where you put your spices and

28:53

how to do it that's

28:54

what happens when you post ads form and function and is just an efficient face

28:58

but also a way that's aesthetically pleasing you might want to show off to

29:02

friends and family when you're hosting and that video series was a hit I mean

29:06

we use it across every channel it was on our website we use it in emails, it

29:11

was all over social we did collaboration posts with their audiences which they

29:16

have six plus million followers so from a brand perspective it's a give to our

29:20

consumer because really any consumer can benefit from that content

29:23

you don't have to be a Taylor Morrison homeowner or home respected buyer and we

29:27

just received so much feedback and actually a lot of the feedback we heard was

29:31

how do you integrate more of what the home that it provides into our homes.

29:34

So now we're entertaining how do we what's a home at it custom design closet

29:39

look like that we build and you can only get in a Taylor Morrison home or a

29:43

pantry and integrating some of their product into the packages that we sell so

29:48

again it's that simple one stop shop

29:51

when you're moving into a brand new home you get the furniture that you want to

29:56

get your put spaces organized and ready so you take a lot of that burden off of

29:59

the consumer.

30:00

So that's another big space that's new I think for us and I think the industry

30:04

at large a lot of it the sustainability for us we talk a lot about we think we

30:09

call our consumers are more conscious consumers and they care about things

30:14

beyond just the product as you know the product is

30:17

kind of table stakes if you build a home I think the expectation is that you

30:21

build a quality home.

30:22

So it's everything above and beyond that that we're trying to say here's the

30:27

value you get here the people that work at Taylor Morrison.

30:30

I think diversity is something that we lean heavy into we're the only public

30:33

builder in the space as a female CEO and a 50% female board.

30:40

And so I think that allows our brand to just stand out in a way that's

30:46

vulnerable to us that I think a lot of consumers care about today.

30:51

Yeah, and for listeners if you go to Taylor Morrison.com slash the home edit.

30:57

You can check out a bunch of those videos and and they have the ultimate home

31:02

organizing guide and just put your name and email and and they'll send it to

31:08

you for free.

31:09

My dad.

31:11

Wait so was that your pantry in the video or is or you just saying you got your

31:16

pantry reorganized.

31:18

So I hired like a local small home organization company here in Gilbert Arizona

31:25

But after I had that experience that's what I was like how do I do this how do

31:29

I offer this so then I just started researching and I found the home edit and I

31:33

watched all their series I loved them as women and so we tracked down there

31:38

talent agent.

31:39

And I said hey I have this idea and we give me any of your time so probably

31:44

five to six months of supporting this agent we we got to a contract and I was

31:49

like here's what I'm going to do and we put my CEO her name is Cheryl on the

31:54

phone with Joanna and

31:55

Leah and there was this kind of natural chemistry that was born.

32:14

And so when they heard about that and we're doing that for patients who have to

32:28

travel long distances to receive care and can't afford it where it's a

32:29

financial constraint and they shouldn't be in a hotel while they're receiving

32:30

treatment they need to be really close

32:31

to the hospital. And so it's part of our philanthropic endeavor and wanting to

32:42

do that when we enjoy and I found out about it they were like yeah we want to

32:43

partner with Taylor Morrison you guys are like things and so it was one of the

32:45

ideas that I had a personal experience

32:46

and I just, it's a little bit how I work when I get something that I can feel

32:51

and taste and I know there's some benefit and added value to our consumer.

32:56

It became my side hustle roads like I don't know how I'm going to bring this to

32:59

market or make it happen.

33:01

But we did and it's been a wild ride but even our team members we I mean

33:06

predominantly we have female sales associates and I can take you back to New

33:11

York, April 2023 we have our a biannual leadership team meeting I'll tell you

33:18

most of our division

33:18

presidents are men. And I'm talking about this notion because they all want

33:22

brand recognition. They all want in their market people to know who Taylor

33:26

Morrison is. So I said I have this great plan we're going to partner with the

33:30

home at it.

33:30

And I just get blank stares. None of these gentlemen know who I'm talking about

33:37

who these women are. What this home organization this leading home organization

33:40

company is all about.

33:42

And I just said tonight call your wives, call your daughters, call your sisters

33:47

, ask them if they've heard of the home at it.

33:50

I think 99% of them told me in secret when no one else was looking at their

33:54

wife was a huge fan their sister their daughters they just like raved when I

33:59

they were able to reiterate that we were going to partner with the home at it.

34:04

And I said exactly this room, a very smart seasoned men who have been operating

34:09

in home building for a long time. We're not my target consumer, but your wives

34:15

are your daughters are your sister.

34:18

We know that women are kind of the key decision maker when it comes to a home

34:23

purchase.

34:24

And we know that women are going to be able to work with their children and

34:31

their children.

34:32

And we know that women are going to be able to work with their children.

34:38

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34:42

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34:46

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35:00

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35:05

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35:09

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35:23

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35:28

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35:32

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35:46

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35:51

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35:54

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35:57

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36:07

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36:12

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36:20

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36:59

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37:02

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37:05

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37:11

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37:17

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37:32

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38:01

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38:04

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38:07

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38:12

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38:18

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38:24

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38:27

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38:30

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38:33

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38:35

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38:38

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38:42

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38:46

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38:49

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38:52

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38:58

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39:01

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39:04

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39:07

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39:10

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39:13

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39:16

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39:19

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39:22

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39:25

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39:28

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39:31

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39:34

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39:37

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39:40

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39:43

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39:46

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39:49

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39:52

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39:55

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39:58

And we know that women are going to be able to work with their children.

40:01

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40:04

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40:07

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40:10

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40:13

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40:16

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40:19

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40:22

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40:25

And we know that women are going to be able to work with their children.

40:28

Quick hits, these are quick questions and quick answers.

40:31

Just like how quickly qualified.com helps people generate pipeline

40:35

that will create a SSA website and identify your most valuable visitors.

40:40

Go to qualified.com to learn more.

40:42

Stephanie, are you ready?

40:44

I'm ready. Let's do it.

40:46

Number one, you have a hidden talent or skill that's not on your resume.

40:50

Before I tore my rotator cost, I have been practicing yoga for a long time.

40:57

So I can do a headstand for several minutes.

41:00

Which I should put on my resume.

41:03

But I don't currently have it on there.

41:06

Do you have a favorite book or podcast or TV show that you recommend?

41:10

I'd love to read.

41:13

I read a lot of novels.

41:15

Tony Morrison's my favorite author.

41:17

So I recommend any of hers.

41:18

I actually just started listening to the Mel Robbins podcast,

41:21

which I think just from a mindset perspective and shifting your mindset

41:26

when you're approaching any kind of partnership has been really helpful for me.

41:31

So I love the Mel Robbins podcast.

41:33

If you weren't in marketing or business at all,

41:36

what do you think you'd be doing?

41:38

I have a journalism degree.

41:39

I find myself writing has always been a passion of mine.

41:42

I don't think that I'd go into like writing a book.

41:45

That seems like too much to sign up for,

41:48

but I'd be doing some sort of writing.

41:50

What is your best advice for a first time CMO?

41:55

My best advice would be to follow your gut.

42:00

A lot of times early on in my tenure at Taylor Morrison,

42:04

I questioned myself and I felt like that only I,

42:07

I, and I would have gotten to the end result faster.

42:10

And I think that imposter syndrome when you're first in the role is,

42:14

is real.

42:15

I think that probably is true for men and women.

42:18

But I did a lot of listening and seeking to understand and I asked a lot of

42:21

questions.

42:22

I always was like, why is it that way?

42:24

And a lot of times there wasn't a good answer, which gave me,

42:27

I felt like a free pass to change it,

42:29

or to find a different way of approaching it.

42:32

And so I would do that, ask a lot of questions,

42:34

follow your gut.

42:35

A lot of times if I don't follow my intuition,

42:37

yeah, I always wish I would.

42:39

So that, that's there for a reason.

42:42

Agree.

42:44

Well, Stephanie, it's been wonderful having you on the show for listeners.

42:49

You can go to Taylor Morrison dot com to learn more.

42:52

Any final thoughts, anything to plug?

42:55

You know, I think if you're in the market for a home,

42:57

we build a beautiful home.

42:58

We make the experience well.

43:00

I think from a marketing perspective, we're just getting started.

43:03

So as you said, content compounds and wins, we get wins and we have built the

43:08

trust and credibility inside of our organization that is allowing us to bring more

43:13

grand ideas

43:15

to the table.

43:16

We've really centralized marketing internally and have taken control of, you

43:21

know, the costs of the dollars that are spent on advertising for and day.

43:24

So I think that is going to allow us to kind of just continue to take brand to

43:29

new heights

43:30

and provide an experience that a lot of other builders really can't touch.

43:33

So really excited about what's done.

43:36

Exciting.

43:37

We will go along.

43:38

Thanks.

43:39

I hope so.

43:40

Move that bus.

43:41

Thank you.

43:42

Yeah.

43:43

Yeah.

43:44

Yeah.

43:45

(upbeat music)

43:47

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