29 The Keys to Manage Regional Marketing - Brenna Ryan Oct 7 2020

[00:00:00]  Greg Bray: Hello everybody. And welcome to another exciting episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine 

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. 

Greg Bray: And today we're excited to be joined by Brenna Ryan Brenna is the corporate director of marketing for William Ryan Homes and North Shore Builders.

Welcome, Brenna. Thanks for joining us. 

Brenna Ryan: Thank you for having me. 

Greg Bray: Well, it's our pleasure for those who haven't had a chance to get to know you before. Brenda, why don't you give us that quick introduction of who you are and kind of some of the things you've been up to? 

Brenna Ryan: Sure. [00:01:00] my name is Brenna Ryan. I live in Chicago, Illinois, and I am the corporate marketing director for William Ryan homes, North shore builders. and I'm surviving the pandemic successfully. So 

Greg Bray: how do you define that as surviving successfully? 

Brenna Ryan: mentally I'm still here, so I haven't checked out yet. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, that's the corporate Brenda. I want to know a little secret about Brenna, so like example.

If you were to be on a rugby team in challenge, a French speaking rugby team, would you compete in, would you win?

Brenna Ryan: where'd you get that insight from? 

Greg Bray: We do our homework Brenna. We do our homework.

Brenna Ryan: I wouldn't compete. I have a torn, my ACL twisted my ankle broke my nose twice and so I am retired officially from rugby, but I might coach and I would definitely win. 

Kevin Weitzel: And you're fluent, I assume in 

[00:02:00] Brenna Ryan: French. So I was fluent when I lived there and shortly after I. You know, left, but I have not officially kind of been in a French speaking environment in probably like three years.

And I haven't had to like live in France or in a French community in about 10 years. So I'm a little, iffy on my French skills now. But the funny thing is I just signed up for the LLS Francaise in Chicago and, my classes start next week on Wednesday. Nice. So ask me again, let's check back in like six months and ask me again.

Kevin Weitzel: The true test is can you laugh in French?

Greg Bray: All right. 

Brenna Ryan: No, but I can swear in French. So that's all that matters. 

Greg Bray: That's even better. I have to admit, I was not aware that there was a lot of women's rugby out there. So I just tell it a little bit more. How did you even get into rugby? How'd that even happen. 

[00:03:00] Brenna Ryan: So dad played rugby in college, so I, you know, and all his friends are like my uncles, quote unquote, and they all played rugby together.

And just like a bunch of like frat boys is kind of like part of the childhood that I grew up in. hopefully my dad doesn't listen to this, but, so I, that was just like really cool. I didn't know much about the sport. I just knew it was kind of a part of like him and his like fond memories of oh, college and friendship.

And when I went to school, there was a poster, you know, my freshman year, first week there, I wanted to join some clubs. And there was a poster that said, like, join the women's rugby team. And I was like, I didn't know, girls could play rugby. So I showed up and they were like, you're tall and you're fast. And we want you to play.

And like, we think it would be great. So I'll everyone, there was really nice. My coaches were ex professional players from like South Africa and Scotland. And it was just like a very interesting welcoming world and I kind of got [00:04:00] stuffed into it. And then senior year is when I officially retired. So, 

Kevin Weitzel: so assembling a rugby team.

How much different is that in assembling a marketing team? 

Brenna Ryan: totally different, rugby team, has required positions. You need at least 15 people on the field. Everybody has their exact position. You don't have like a bunch of defensive and offensive people. You have the person in the locked position and the hooker position in the fly position.

And like the eight-man position I know, right. I didn't make up the term. That's just the actual, it'll in that position, but in the marketing team, either going to do whatever you want, just be like, how many people do you want here? Do you want one person marketing team and a bunch of vendors? Do you want a full in house marketing team where everybody's assigned and you know, either way you assemble your team, you could be successful?

So a [00:05:00] lot less structure, a lot less direction.

 Greg Bray: Brenda, tell us a bit then how you've gone about deciding how you wanted to structure your team at William Ryan Homes and North Shore Holders. 

Brenna Ryan: Yeah, I mean, part of it is like, What did you decide? And like, what did I inherit and how did I change it? So I'm going to go with what I had here, heritage and how I am.

Adjusting it, or, you know, molding it work in a better way. yeah, we are a little decentralized. We have a corporate marketing team, which I, and leading, and then we have our division marketing team and they're more kind of the boots on the ground. They understand exactly, exactly. We build in  gold coast and our buyers have this type of personality.

So we need to yeah. Get to marketing to them this way. Versus the corporate team is more like, you know, we need to be involved with the Zillows and the BDX is, and Google my business. We need to be present to make sure we're always present on Apple maps. Our [00:06:00] website is SEO friendly. We have a good PPC strategy and an excellent social media strategy.

And so now that we've put together this kind of big world of what we want to do go you local marketing teams go and execute it to your local buyers with your local sales team. So that's kind of how we structure it. 

Kevin Weitzel: you got Greg glazed over, you said SEO and PPC in the same sentence. He's just like, Oh, shes perfect. 

Greg Bray: Speaking my language. Yeah. 

So, well, Brenna tell us a little bit more. Just. Again, you mentioned division structure and some of that decentralization, just how, how is the company structured?

Where are you guys selling a little bit more of that general background? So we kind of understand that structure 

Brenna Ryan: a little better. Yeah, sure. So I'm in the corporate office, which is in Glen view, and then we have divisional offices and each [00:07:00] of the markets that we serve and that is Chicago, Illinois, Madison, Wisconsin, Phoenix, Arizona, and Tampa, Florida. and so we have a Schomburg office here for Chicago and then each of the other offices, their own local, office building, or really have our local marketing teams. 

Greg Bray: Yeah, no, no. I find that a little unique, the spread of geography that you just described there to be in, in Florida and Arizona and Illinois.

I mean, you could have found something a little closer together, I think, but just how that comes about. 

Brenna Ryan: So, we call it the triangle offense, which actually is a sports reference. That is way before my time. So other people might know exactly what I'm talking about, but I just kind of regurgitating what our executive team says.

But the reason we do that is because, you know, different parts of the country cycle, differently. And I don't just mean between January and [00:08:00] December. I mean, between. 2015 and 2020, 2010, 2015. So right now, you know, the Midwest is not the most desirable place to live, especially Illinois, if you follow, Illinois politics, but Florida and Arizona.

I mean, that's where everybody wants to live. And 10 years ago couldn't have been more opposite. So we try and position ourselves in different markets. So when certain areas of the country are experiencing different fluctuate cities and, economics or politics that we still are able to kind of carry the, the company and not just rely on those, local restrictions or local ebbs and flows.

Greg Bray: Okay. Awesome. No, that's I think that that makes a lot of sense business-wise, but we don't see a lot of people that, that execute that. I mean, from a, from a marketing management. 

Brenna Ryan: It's very difficult

Greg Bray: Yeah. Yeah. From a marketing management perspective, those are. You know, [00:09:00] it's not just that they cycle differently, but they have different customer profiles, different expectations, different marketing opportunities, 

Brenna Ryan: totally different products.

Greg Bray: Yeah. 

Yeah. It doesn't drive you nuts. 

Brenna Ryan: Yeah. So I like to think of it as, I don't have any kids, but I have a lot of siblings, so I'll, I won't use the parent a synonym, but like it's like having different siblings. I have my brother in Chicago and my sister up in Wisconsin and my little brother, Tampa and my cousin and Phoenix, and each of them have different personalities, but I'm required to support them all in a certain way, but to get them to be like, okay, happy and healthy and successful.

So how does that look? What looks different for everybody, but I'm still the same person. So that's kind of my analogy and so you kind of have to be a little bit of a chameleon in your [00:10:00] communication and management style in order to get the same message to different people. That makes sense. And that's kind of more of like a management thing versus a marketing thing.

Cause you could really apply that to any department in the company. 

Greg Bray: Have you guys ever had an experience where you we're rolling out some type of campaign or promotion or something, and you went ahead and did it in all divisions and it worked great one place and just totally bombed in, in another and, you know, caught you off guard.

Brenna Ryan: I gotta think about that one. I guess there's two things to do. Like typically we wouldn't do the same exact thing in every market. So say we're running a promotion. we do a pool promotion in Tampa. It's very successful. and we wouldn't do that in the Midwest. So we have been trying to figure out like, how do we get the pool promotion that is like one of the, [00:11:00] you know, number one, like promotional sellers and our Tampa market.

How do we duplicate that in the Midwest? Like, should we do a free deck? Should we do a free grill? Should we do this? And it's like, nothing ever quite translates, no matter if we do the exact same social media campaign or marketing campaign spending that same money, like do the exact same, like keywords and demographics.

So I would say that's kind of where it's like, A head-scratcher sometimes, which is like, how can I get this over here? And a lot of times it's just like, well, that's the market. It doesn't want you to do that. 

Kevin Weitzel: you have a pen handy because I'm going to give you some gold right now 

in Chicago, 

in Chicago, you guys have what we don't have down here in Arizona or Florida.

You have winters, why not offer a free sheet of ice with every home? Know every backyard comes with its own mini ice rink. Boom. I just sold 20 houses. 

Brenna Ryan: That's a good idea. I'm [00:12:00] also thinking that maybe like every home in Chicago. You can also just get a discount on your second home that you're going to buy from us in Florida.

That might work too. 

Kevin Weitzel: I actually was going to ask if that was the way that they got started in Florida. And was it with some executive just said, I'm going to go take a vacation? They're like, we got to build houses here. My goodness. You could wear shorts in the winter. It's insane. 

Brenna Ryan: Yeah.

Greg Bray: But, but Kevin isn't that, isn't that sheet of ice.

What a pool is. And there isn't that? What if it's the same promotion? It's just a, it's the pool built, you know? Okay. All right. 

Brenna Ryan:  Kevin let's talk. After this 

Kevin Weitzel: Michigan, I was a hockey kid, so, you know, we not only did our high schools have ice rinks. But half a dozen of my friends all had like small little mini sheets of ice with a goal net that they could practice their shots or approach on goal.

And you know, for about four months in the winter, you could literally practice your skating right in your backyard.

Brenna Ryan: And so you became a professional hockey player when 

[00:13:00] Kevin Weitzel: we left and came to Arizona, actually Kansas, and then Arizona. And then I got into bicycling and abandoned hockey 

Greg Bray: and. I was going to say, Kevin, I'm constantly amazed that I learned something new about you. Every time we do this. And I did not know, you could say skate, 

Kevin Weitzel: so like a champ, but it's not about me.

This is about Brenna William Ryan Holmes and their marketing. We need to know more because I actually love some of the stuff you've said so far. 

 

 

 Greg Bray:  So let's just take a moment and talk about the upcoming 2020 home builder digital marketing summit virtual series. It's going to be starting on October 29th. 

Kevin Weitzel: And if you don't want to be a knuckle dragon mouth breather like myself, then you better register now. 

Greg Bray: That's right. I think it doesn't matter if you're an experienced chief marketing officer, or if you're brand new to the home building industry, we are giving you a chance to take your marketing and sales to the next level, by learning from the top home building digital marketing experts. 

Kevin Weitzel: You're going to be able to do more and sell more homes by learning from the industry's best. And when [00:14:00] we say the industry's best, we mean it. We're talking Jimmy Diffee, Angela McKay, Bassam Salem, Spencer Powell, Dana Kovach, Chris Hartley,  Eric Martinez, Stuart Platt,  Greg Bray, a builder panel. And of course myself, Kevin Weitzel. 

Greg Bray: It's truly a star studded lineup, Kevin.

And for that, tell him how much it's going to cost. 

Kevin Weitzel: $15,000. Now we're just kidding. It's only actually going to be nothing it's free. So get your whole team together buildermarketingsummit.com. It's all virtual. So you can learn from your home, your office, or your home office. 

Greg Bray: We know you're busy. So we're trying to accommodate your schedule.

The home builder digital marketing summit virtual series will be two hours once a week on Thursdays for 40. 

Kevin Weitzel: It definitely won't wreck your schedule, but you'll still learn a ton of tricks that you can put into practice right away. 

Greg Bray: So go to buildermarketingsummit.com today and register and

remember it's free and now let's get back to the podcast. 

So Brenda, tell us how you guys [00:15:00] are kind of splitting and focusing between traditional marketing. If I can use traditional and air quotes, and digital. Kind of how, how do you guys, see your, your budgets, and efforts break splitting between those?

Brenna Ryan: I am constantly asking for more money to be put towards digital and every year more money gets put towards digital. So I think I'm winning that battle, but I think the. The realization happens, for people like me, let's say who, like my whole world is on my phone. Like I don't go anywhere without typing it into Google maps first.

And I don't search for anything nearby without. Typing into Google maps and then like clicking on, you know, what hours I'm not even going to try and go there. If I don't know it's already open from my phone, but it's still important that we have like signage and flags. It's still important that we have relationships with the boots on the ground, realtor community.

It's still important that we have, events like at the model or with like the [00:16:00] local chamber of commerce, local schools, and communities. And it's even still important for, depending on which, where we're building and who our buyer is that we do have a couple of print ads or are having PR articles written about us.

So that's kind of like a, I had to humble myself after working here for a couple of years to be like, okay, well, we're never really going to fully get rid of that stuff. And actually the less and less builders and other companies use that stuff. The more expensive it becomes so we still always have a portion of the money dedicated to traditional marketing.

but luckily for me and my team, and I think for the company too, is we keep getting more money to push towards digital expenses as well. 

Kevin Weitzel: You seem way ahead of the game as compared to some of the other people that I run into in this industry. Have you just out of curiosity, more of a curiosity, uh, have you implemented geo-fencing, or have you experimented with it at [00:17:00] all?

Brenna Ryan: So that is what I would rely on a vendor for, to tell me what we should do and how we should implement it and educate me on why it would be benefit for us to invest in it. 

Greg Bray: Geofencing is a great example of something where you're right.

Is, does that make sense to do that in house or bring in a partner or something like that? How do you guys kind of approach that decision point of when does it make sense to have somebody in house? Versus an agency or a partner or somebody to help implement some of these technologies. 

Brenna Ryan: Right? Right. Well, without, degrading myself too much is I don't ever really need to be the expert in anything.

I just need to know enough about things to know who I should talk to. And if it's worth further conversation to see if William Ryan should invest in that, and then we'll go and outsource an expert. And typically there's things like, you know, let's say something as simple as like social media, [00:18:00] organic social media strategy, what you, you want to get out of it.

We can do that. We do do that. Yeah. In house mostly. And we also outsource it in certain divisions because it's kind of like, what level are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to achieve status quo or we just have a social media presence and it's fine? Or are we trying to really, you know, increase our leads and customer engagement and market exposure through social media? Well, then we should probably hire an expert to kind of like come in and show us the best way to do it. Maybe do it for a while. And at some point, we could probably bring that back in house that's kind of one side of it. And then the other side is how much money do we have to pay for who's doing what.

So I mentioned pay-per-click the other day. I would love to have an internal person that just manages our pay-per-click accounts all day. Every day, we get so many clicks and leads from those it's cheaper for us to outsource it to a [00:19:00] vendor than it would be to hire a full-time person to manage that and that's a full-time job.

So. Instead, we have an outsourcing vendor who does our pay per click. And then we have internal people and their job is to make sure that our outsource vendor is doing what we want them to do and what they say they're going to do. But that only takes up a part of their day because they're not actually doing it.

They're just kind of checking in on the numbers and making sure the ads are correct. So that's kinda my, my strategy. 

No, 

Greg Bray: it makes it, it makes, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, it's, it's hard to keep up to, you know, and, and when you don't do it all day, you know, or if you don't need a full person, you only need a quarter of a person, you know, or something like that, you know, an agency can, can help there as well.

So, so no, I think your eye make sense to me, that type of strategy. So thanks for sharing. Um, have you run into any. Common challenges as you look towards some of the new technologies out there and, and, you know, trying to decide, should we do this? Should we do that? You [00:20:00] know, we picked one and then it went wrong, or gosh, we picked one that went great.

Any, any stories to share?

Brenna Ryan:  Um, I have the perfect example, of something like this. So we, we use Atlas RTX, uh, chatbot services on our website, as a way to really just like I said, it's like, I want to have a conversation with the customer where they want to have a conversation. Sometimes they don't want to fill out or call you, but they want to get halfway there.

And so we're like, let's put the chatbot services on a website. It's AI, you know, we pre-populate like all the questions and answers that we think people are gonna ask. And then it kind of learns. As people continue to communicate with it. And we continue to adjust what it should be saying to certain questions.

Then if someone fills out a lead form, it's still goes to our OSC. So it's not replacing, adding to the features of how our website works. And when we first rolled it out, [00:21:00] We were like, chatbot's going to be great. I thought it was going to be great. My marketing coordinator, my VP, or my CEO were like, it's going to be amazing.

And, well, we never really shared why we thought it was going to be amazing, like what we had learned and what the capabilities that we thought it had and what it could do for the company all the way through to. The divisions and the end-users. And so they just got this new piece of technology on the website and it wasn't working because they didn't know how to educate the chatbot on how they wanted it to work.

And long story short it's like I had all these bugs, nobody was happy with it. You know, my team again was like excited, but I couldn't get the other. Half of my team, which is the division teams to be excited about it. And so basically what we did is we, we totally started over, we like took it off the site, launched a [00:22:00] meeting and we incorporated all the players into the meeting and had everybody kind of be a part of what, you know, the decision making process and the educational process.

And then, so we relaunched it and. It's been very successful ever since like all the end-users are happy and like the executive team is happy with its performance and what it does. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, you have to have a buy-in from multiple departments. So if you offer, uh, you know, a marketing campaign for your different divisions and their sales teams, number one, don't know anything about it.

Number two aren't bought into it. And how successful can it be if they're not bought into the whole process? So in all reality, you just tie that you just hide in a giant, not into the equation that you have to have buy-in and communication inter-departmentally. Otherwise it will be no matter how fantastic Gidget, widget, and gadget is.

Brenna Ryan: Right. Well, [00:23:00] and I think the lesson for me personally, there was not everything is the same. I mean, we launched, I came to the company and we had not been working with Zillow and we were kind of one of the first builders that launched, pro builder, My rep is going to kill me, but I forget what the product is called program.

And, and we just told, I mean, we just told the company, we're like, this is the future. Like we're getting on Zillow and we're paying for it. And like, we have to do it. And so we just did it and it was like immediately. I mean, it's still, people were scheduled that they were like, there's a lot of money. Is it getting us, you know what it says, it's going to get us.

But like now it would be. Like, if you, if you didn't have your listings on Zillow, it would be like the same thing as if you didn't have a website, it'd be like, what are you doing? and that was an easy buy-in that was just like, we're doing it. It's done. Whereas like, this was much more complicated and different.

And I, I sometimes forget that like every new digital tool, because it [00:24:00] has a different purpose and it does something different for us requires a different strategy. 

Greg Bray: I love though, the way that you approached it, when things were bumpy and not working well, where you didn't just say, Oh, the technology's junk, throw it out.

Nevermind. We made a mistake. Instead, you realized. Because great technology is only as good as the implementation. Right. And it's only as good as the data you put into it and you gave it a chance to say, Oh, you know what? We need to step back and regroup and revisit. I'm sure. I'm sure some of the folks at Atlas RTX helped you with that decision too.

Um, but, and we love them. We love them. So 

Brenna Ryan: yeah, I'm laughing right now because I was like, I had a moment where I was like, you guys don't want to use it fine. We won't use it. And then I was like late. I was like, wait, put your, put your big girl pants back on. Like, let's find the solution. Let's not throw a temper tantrum, but I'm laughing.

Cause I do remember being [00:25:00] like, whatever, I don't even care then it's like, I actually care so much that like, we really have to try this again. 

Greg Bray: No, that's a that's a terrific story. Terrific. And if people are not familiar with Atlas RTX, we have, an interview with the Bassam Salem episode nine, if you want go check that out.

So, so we, we had a good chat. 

Brenna Ryan: Bassam is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I like him a lot. 

Kevin Weitzel: And in full transparency, both Blue Tangerine and Outhouse are friends with the whole staff over there at Atlas RTX. So I applaud you and applaud them for seeing that there was an issue seeing if there was a problem and collectively coming up with a solution.

And then that was mutually beneficial. 

Brenna Ryan: Yeah. I'd like to give a shout out to my friend, Kimber, over at Atlas RTX who, at IBS this year, just like totally kicked my butt at the craps table.

Kevin Weitzel: Did you drink any scotch with her? 

Brenna Ryan: I, I wasn't drinking scotch, but I think that she was, but, uh, I would have to say it might've been, it might've been one of those interactions that got us to kind of push through, to do the relaunch. [00:26:00] So, you know, they know how to, they know how to treat their clients right. 

Greg Bray: Alright, we will tag little tag Kimber in the show notes for sure. 

So I'm Brenna, we want to be mindful and respectful of your time because this has been some great information, but as we kind of, just a few more questions to, to, to wrap up as you, as you're looking ahead at trends that you see coming, what, what are you looking for?

And anticipating, you know what? We gotta get ready for X. That's going to be here, you know, next year, two years, whatever, what are some of those things you are watching? 

Brenna Ryan: so two things, you know, one is just the product itself. you know, people are moving to the suburbs that's where we build. So we're trying to gear up and get ready, to accommodate the buyers that want more room in their homes.

One office space, one, you know, separate areas, want a big backyard due to, not just. COVID this year, but just is, you know, [00:27:00] the longterm effects of realizing the benefits of having more space in your living area versus being close to a train station. that would be the product side of it. And then on the digital marketing side, you know, I want.

Home builders are notorious for being late to the game on everything, digital marketing. Um, and I actually think they do it on purpose, which I have had someone tell me that it's like, why not wait until every other industry has proven that it works until we decide to try it out. So, you know, I'll take that excuse, but I think that.

We just need to stay on top of the ball for how people do their shopping and it's more and more online. And so we need to be able to make, you know, not just finding what communities and, you know, renderings of homes for what the price point is available, but also, you know, picking your lot, picking your [00:28:00] finishes, you know, customizing your home.

Everything like that needs to make it more accessible for the online experience for people to shop from home. 

Kevin Weitzel: So in the marketing world, in the sales world, we tend to steal ideas. And where do you go for inspiration? Where do you find your ideas? Where do you look for those new opportunities for your marketing team?

Brenna Ryan: Doesn't everybody look to the car industry or is that, is that just me? Isn't everybody on Bill Jacobs, bmw.com and like building their own, like, you know, next X five model or something. Oh yeah. 

Greg Bray: I think there's a lot to learn from the auto industry. Absolutely. For sure. For sure. 

Brenna Ryan: I have a good friend that works in the auto industry and the amount of times that I call him like a month to be like, can you send me the job description of your sales assistants?

Because I just want to see if mine lines [00:29:00] up with the way that yours does. So I steal from them all the time. 

Kevin Weitzel: I always liked it in the stealing from the car industry. Exactly. This scenario is that when I'm talking with my builder clients that are, want to use internet floor plans, and we're trying to talk a custom builder into offering custom options, but that they are standardized, you know, using an interactive floor plan tool to, you know, where your clients can pick those various options.

And they're like, ah, for clients going to be into this, I'm like every client that you have, no matter what brand the car they buy, they're buying packages. They're buying, you know, there's a letter, there's a letter code in your car and LX and SVX, whatever those are packaging already buying pre bundles.

So why is the home building industry so slow to adopt that concept? 

Brenna Ryan: Yeah, I mean, it's with everything. It's not just home builders, it's with everything, but, it's like the buyer adapts to like digital enhancements really easily. Cause they're just always online. You know, someone, you know, Nike [00:30:00] comes out with some new trend on their website or, you know, new way of advertising and, and people are just absorbing it like subconsciously.

So it's not that side of it. It's not what the buyer can handle. It's actually what the internal team can handle and how they can pivot the way that they, You know, have their set processes and then can manage to change those too more digital, forward world. And that's the hardest part, to be honest.

And it's, it's harder too because we're so connected to construction and the construction world has a lot of red tape around it due to building codes, building requirements. You know, community constraints, permits, and all. So, so we're already tied to a world is so slow to change that, that kind of like mentality leaks over into the marketing side.

And I think that that, that is the hardest part of, you know, digitally enhancing [00:31:00] anybody's marketing program. It's a mental state. 

Kevin Weitzel: I'm going to give you a time-traveling magic wand. What advice does Brenna give to Brenna five years ago?

Brenna Ryan: What did I give to my past self five years ago 

Kevin Weitzel: When you first got started in the marketing world? What advice would you give back to you starting completely over to add to your success that you already have? 

Brenna Ryan: Oh, that's a good question. I usually go the other way where it's like, what about myself five years ago? Say to me now.

And she always says, you're awesome. I love it. Uh, what would I give to my, my past marketing self? I would say like, don't be afraid to have your own opinions. Like who cares if you're wrong, everybody's wrong. Sometimes they'll just be like, this is what I think. And I'm making an I'm making the best decision I can make with the information that I have.

Greg Bray: That's awesome. Any other pieces of advice for our listeners today that you want to leave? [00:32:00] 

Brenna Ryan: I don't know, actually. I need more advice to my advice. Be, give me advice. No, 

Greg Bray: if they, if they want to contact you, how do they, how do they reach out? What their advice for Brenna? All right. Folks, you've been invited.

She wants all the secrets. 

Brenna Ryan: Find me on LinkedIn. I think my advice is like,  it's kinda like you got to stay nimble because everything is always changing. It doesn't matter. Like once you found, once you have this new program and you found like the perfect way everybody's onboard, the processes, right?

The product works. Um, either that's about to totally change. Cause they were about to build a whole new website or another thing has come on board that has now affected it. So just like just be ready to be constantly changing. I don't know if that's good advice or not. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, it's, it's great advice. And I'm going to give you one perfect example, smartphones.

You could put an interactive floor plan on your website seven years ago. Well, it's called let's go more like 10 years ago. keep in mind, we invented [00:33:00] those over 18 years ago, but that's not the point. What I'm getting to is that you could have put it on your website, how to implement it. It works just perfectly fine, but guess what?

As soon as the websites had to be mobile-friendly, You're all your inner interactive floor plans became useless on phones. So what do you have to do? Right? That's you have to adapt. You have to overcome that new scenario, that new technology. So, yeah, you're right. Don't be afraid to change and be prepared to have to adapt.

Brenna Ryan: Right. Another little piece of advice is like, once you realize that you're behind try and catch up as fast as possible. Cause it's just good to like the delay just makes it worse and worse and worse and worse. Don't wait. 

Greg Bray: Awesome. No, that's terrific. Well, Brenda, thank you so much for all your time today.

You know, you've shared a lot of great ideas and we really appreciate it. I hope you've had fun. I hope, uh, hope Kevin has been too rough on you today. so 

Brenna Ryan: I may cry later, but I'll wait for the call. 

Greg Bray: Okay. Alright. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Join us again. Next time on the [00:34:00] homebuilder digital marketing podcast.

I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine 

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. Thank you.