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Hey everybody, welcome back to another Builder 365 podcast.
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I'm Jeff Schor, that's Amy O'Connor.
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Hi Amy.
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Hi, good to see you.
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Good to see you too.
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And here we are, obviously the holiday time, but just a few days away from the end of the
year.
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You already got all your plans in place for 2025.
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You're already thinking about 20.
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I know for some people who are listening to this podcast, it's just...
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We haven't gotten to Christmas yet, but others will listen after Christmas.
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And so so what do you think?
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Are you ready for the year to come?
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You're about as ready as I'll ever be.
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I mean, you know, from a planning perspective, Jeff, you know that our calendars populate
usually September, October.
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And so having that plan and knowing what your calendar is going to be and blocking off
time.
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Yeah, all that's done.
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I understand my cadence.
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I'm feeling good about the structure of next year.
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What about, you know, it's, it's that time of year when people make their new years, new
years resolutions.
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What do you think?
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New year's resolutions.
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Are you in or you out?
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What are you thinking?
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I'm a big thumbs down on it.
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the data would suggest that it's not very effective.
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and I don't know, maybe this is bad, but I've never really much done that.
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Although I did try about four years ago, I decided that I was going to eat healthier.
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And by January 6th, I was eating an entire Pizza Hut pizza by myself in the Denver
airport.
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So, I mean, there you go.
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But in your defense and for those of you who don't travel much, there are times when you
get off a plane and you're hungry and you look around and there's garbage.
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mean, it's just it's so hard to get a good meal at an airport.
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Do you think that's getting better, though, in some airports?
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Right.
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Don't you think?
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Yes, but it's really slow progress.
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It's really our options.
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Our options are usually pizza, sandwich, cheeseburger.
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Like that's usually it.
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Right.
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And I do love all three.
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But I know that's that's that's the problem.
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Yeah, I think some airports are ahead of the curve on this.
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But but most of them are way, way, way behind like your home airport at Dulles.
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Terrible and not good on the food stuff.
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So nasty.
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Although, have you seen this new cool thing?
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It's like a little convenience shop in the airport or they probably have in other places
too, where it just knows who you are and you walk in, you do nothing.
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You put stuff in a bag and walk out and they charge you.
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I don't know whether to be completely freaked out by that or amazingly in love because I
don't have to interact with anybody.
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I mean, it's not as 50 50.
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Right.
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Yep.
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But I've seen that.
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I saw it just a couple of weeks ago at the Dallas airport.
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It was like, okay.
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And there was one person who was working there, but they were just sort of, I don't know
what they were doing.
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They were just standing there looking around.
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yeah, yeah.
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Yeah.
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And, and, just, you know, in Amy's defense, Amy and I, when, we're out there, we are
talking to people all day long.
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And, and sometimes you need to just not talk to people for a little bit.
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So I,
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I'm going to admit, I once said to a very chatty person who sat next to me on an airplane,
I once said, I have a very important nap to take.
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I did say those words, but I needed the sleep and what are you going to do?
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yeah, yeah.
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The top New Year's resolutions were 2024 according to the website, Statista.com.
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Save more money, exercise, eat healthy, spend more time with family, friends, lose weight.
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Man, they never change, do they?
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Everything.
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19 % said they want to spend less time on social media.
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That was actually a little depressing.
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I think we need a much higher percentage of people to spend less time on social media.
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So, but I also found a list of resolutions that people made that were just plain fun or
funny.
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So just a couple here that resolutions made with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
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one exercise my right to eat more chocolate.
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I vowed to keep my plants alive for more than a month.
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I want to perfect the art of pretending to listen during Zoom meetings.
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That's a legit goal right there.
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I will attempt to fold fitted sheets without summoning dark forces.
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Good one.
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I'll try not to judge my cat for sleeping eight hours a day right up your alley, Amy, to
develop the ability to remember names, even if it's just mine.
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And I will strive to say no more often unless it involves dessert.
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So there you go.
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Those are pretty good right there.
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Yeah, they really are.
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If I have to, I know you said the cat thing with napping, but honestly, mine is a peeing
issue, not a napping issue.
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But the one that I probably identify with most is the whole houseplant thing.
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I treat houseplants like you buy flowers at the grocery store.
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You buy them, they die, you replace them, right?
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There's not like a little care system that happens in between.
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mean, they're just going through the rotation.
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Yeah.
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I do know that in my house,
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My plants are always healthy and I figured that out because on a regular basis all the
plants come together on the kitchen counters and then they all look nice and I don't know
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how that happens.
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They all come together and they go back to the places.
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It's sort of like with my clothes.
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I put them in this basket in the bathroom and then a little while later...
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They show up folded in my drawer.
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Someday.
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don't go there.
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All the wives are groaning right now.
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I'm sorry, ladies.
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I'll do better.
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Well, I've heard that there's a washing machine in my house.
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I don't know where it is.
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I haven't identified it yet, but somebody told me that there's a washing machine.
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So we'll figure it out.
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Yeah.
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I'll balance this out, everyone.
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My husband does the laundry.
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All right.
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So you got both.
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You got both happening.
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Love it.
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Love it.
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Love it.
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Hey, let's talk business, Amy.
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How do you, how do you sum up the year when we think about home builders and what they've
been through?
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How do you, how do you, how do you sum up the year?
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Man, I, you know, I just look at the year and say it's a master class in resilience.
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I mean, there's just so many things, persistent labor shortages, continuing affordability
issue with interest rates.
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We were out of toilet paper again.
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Where did that come from?
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I thought we, I thought we figured out our toilet paper.
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So there's just all these things that buyers, sorry, the builders have had to figure out
and the adaptability and the flexibility that I've seen has been really, really
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impressive, but it's, it's been tough.
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It has been.
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Yeah.
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There's no question about it, but I think you make a really good point.
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There has been a required nimbleness for builders to try and figure out how to adapt to
everything that is going on around them and to adapt.
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very, very quickly.
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It's not easy to take this huge, huge, you know, cargo ship and turn on a dime.
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But as an industry, it is absolutely one of the things that we have had to do.
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And I would say that that's true across the board for building companies, but also for the
people who make up the building companies, for the changes that affect our superintendents
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and our salespeople and our mortgage officers and everybody else.
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So yeah, I think that this is a good way to be able to look at it.
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I also look at it from the perspective that we'll look back and say that 2024 was a really
good year.
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think most people are going to say, was it harder to get sales in 2024 than it was in
2021?
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yeah, there's no question about it.
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Were there ongoing difficulties and shortages and things that we had to deal with?
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Yeah, there's no question about it.
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So everybody was affected.
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But I think we'll look back on 2024 with a certain amount of pride as an industry.
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I think we'll be able to look at it and say, that's a year when we should be proud we
performed well.
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But what about 2025?
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What are you thinking about for 2025 and what buyers and builders are facing right now?
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I have three big predictions here.
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I think we're going to see more mergers and acquisitions.
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already seeing that those waves are, are rolling in right now already.
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And did you see that we right now are at 19?
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There had been 19.
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The average in a year is 12.
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So we're seven above the average.
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And I'm just looking at all of the tea leaves and I'm thinking we're going to start, we're
going to keep seeing that.
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think we're going to see a big level of that.
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I think we're going to see affordability drive innovation.
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This is a little bit what you were talking about on another podcast, Jeff, about, you
know, how do we make spaces work in different ways?
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I think we're going to see more ADUs, right?
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The dwelling units that you can put either on the bottom of a town hall or maybe somewhere
else on the property.
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think maybe we're going to see more build to rent that sometimes is a little bit more
accessible, higher density, you know, all of those things.
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But the affordability is going to force the innovation.
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And then I think the third thing that I'm really thinking about here is that I think we're
going to see builders continue to try to figure out this whole AI thing.
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I mean, we've seen builders play with it.
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We're really not sure how do we integrate it.
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But the first person who figures it out in a big way, they're going to they're going to
own it.
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I mean, it's going to be really amazing for them.
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Yeah.
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Right now, it feels for many builders like it's more of a toy than a tool.
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And it's it's I'm able to play with it over here a little bit.
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And that's great.
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But when it comes to really advancing, I agree with you.
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I don't think we're there yet.
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One other thing that I'm thinking about for 2025 and I think we're to see an increase in
in buyer uncertainty.
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And and, you know, we've seen it in 2024 already.
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You know, we had a contentious election.
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We've got, you know, inflation concerns.
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you know war them in the Middle East and in Ukraine and and and just there's a lot of
tension a lot of angst a lot of animosity and that all even though it really shouldn't
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Feed into our home buying sentiment it it does and when we are uncertain then what
happens?
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When our uncertainty goes up then our confidence goes down And so I'm just thinking about
it from the home buyers perspective right now
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I think it's going to be incumbent upon us as builders to try and figure out how do we
encourage, how do we share positive messages?
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What do we do to try and reduce that anxiety, that uncertainty?
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Because if if you look at 2021 as an example, when people were buying in droves, sight
unseen.
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Why?
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Because they felt a certainty that this was a good investment, that the prices were going
to go up.
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And when there is a greater degree of certainty, there's a greater degree of confidence.
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when that level of certainty drops, the confidence drops with it.
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And I think that's where we have to step in.
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And I'm not just talking about salespeople, by the way, I'm talking about everybody who's
customer facing, meaning to lean into this positive optimism.
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In other words, we need to make it fun to buy a home.
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We need to make it fun for our customers.
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We need to make them feel really, really good about what it is that they're doing.
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And it should be fun, right?
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It should be one of the most enjoyable things we ever go through.
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Alas, oftentimes it's not.
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But I know you share that too, right?
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You've talked for many, many years to our clients about the idea of how we have a greater
degree of celebration and what it is that we do.
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I mean, you've hit on so many things there.
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I could talk for two days on all of those topics.
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And I think one of the interesting things to think about is while we talk about buyer
uncertainty being a major inhibitor in their decision-making ability, I think we also have
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to look at the other side of that.
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And I challenge leaders with this as
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Well, what's your frontline sales team thing?
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Do are they certain?
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Do they think it's a good time to buy?
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Because if you got a sales person over here who doesn't think it's a good time to buy and
you have an uncertain buyer, I will show you nothing.
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I will show you a sale that never happens.
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And so it's interesting.
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We're trying to talk about, you know, calming the buyer down and building certainty.
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But in a leadership team, if we're not out there building certainty with the people who
are communicating that to the buyers, then we're missing it.
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Yeah.
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It's a really
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good point.
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You know, sometimes you see cultures of optimism and sometimes you see cultures of
negativity.
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know, that culture is it's a it's a culture is always a combined effort, but there's no
question about it.
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The leadership is the one who is going to drive that culture more than anything else.
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And so what what does that look like?
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It's a valid point.
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And I think a little soul searching for anybody in a leadership position to ask that
question.
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What are we doing to try and build that?
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atmosphere of positivity, optimism, and such that it wouldn't be a program to bring that
to our customers.
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We would just be sharing that from the soul.
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Yeah.
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And before we wrap it up, let's talk about the resolution to grow.
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And then we'll let people take that any direction that they want to.
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But I want to move beyond,
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resolve, right?
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I make a resolution to do this.
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And as we all know, it often happens on a whim and you know, I may or may not jot it down
and that it doesn't really go anywhere until you move into plan and then track.
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can you talk a little bit about that?
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Because right now we got a lot of people who are listening to this are thinking, well,
what do I want to do in 2024, 2025?
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What do want to be in 2025?
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I think this is a good time to talk about
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And I'm so glad you brought that up because I struggle with those questions too.
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And I see the value in setting goals.
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But when you just sit down and you ask yourself those big questions, to me, that's really
hard to get your brain started.
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So one of the things that we do in women's leadership circle and we start the year with it
and we end the year with it is a circle of life.
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I'm sorry, the wheel of life is actually what we call it.
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Wheel of life.
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There's a wheel of life.
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And listen, you can go find one.
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can Google it.
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I use a very simple one that looks at eight different areas of your life.
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And then you shade in for each of the little pie slices.
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How well do you think you're doing there?
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So you step back and you get some sense of where am I balanced?
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Where am I imbalanced?
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Why?
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What's happening?
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How do I feel about it?
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And there is something about seeing it that way, that visual.
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of places where I'm just not doing so well.
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And I got to tell you, with the first time I did it, I realized I am not fun.
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I'm not.
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Like there's one of the sections that talks about front and recreation and it's five
levels.
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And I'm like two.
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So apparently I have to plan to be fun.
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can't be spontaneously fun.
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But the second sort of piece of that activity, if you will, is to take those white spots
in your wheel of life that you did not shade in.
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and then write your action plan in those.
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If I want to be able to shade this piece, what do I need to do?
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So for me, it's a better way to set goals because it's so visual.
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You can very much track it.
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I suggest to you on a quarterly basis to see where you're at.
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And it was so rewarding to do that at the beginning of Women's Leadership Circle.
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And you know, we just wrapped up our masterminds, Jeff, several weeks ago.
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And so to see them at the end and look at them compare in the growth that had happened, it
was phenomenal and it was very heartwarming.
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So it does all the things you want it to do.
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It punches you in the gut where you need to be punched in the gut.
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It shows you where you're doing a great job.
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gives you the opportunity to plan.
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And it's definitely a tool for tracking.
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I just love it.
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You know, it sort of reminds me a little bit of when Stephen Covey wrote the seven habits.
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You know, one of the things that you do early in that book is you define your roles.
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What are all the different roles in your life?
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And and then you say, well, you know, here's my role as a business person.
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Here's my role as a father, as a husband, you know, as a friend, whatever it is.
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Well, then you go back and you challenge that against your your time and energy.
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Well, are those roles important to you because you vote with your time and your energy?
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So, you know, when you it was it was the first time I did it, it was like, wow.
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my wheel is lopsided over here, right?
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And I think that that's, but as Dan Sullivan always says, all change begins by telling the
truth.
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And so that the wheel of life sounds like a truth telling exercise more than anything
else.
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The good news is that you can change that truth, right?
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You can say that this is the truth that I brought into it, but with that right intention,
I can change my truth.
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And I think that that's the idea of growth is that if we look into it we go,
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there is room for me over here.
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The truth is this might be where I am.
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But the another truth is I don't have to stay here.
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So what does that look like?
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And it doesn't look like resolution.
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looks like like tracking and accountability to yourself and maybe to people around you.
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But if you're not willing to do that, then nothing happens here.
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So so we want to encourage you, you know, if if you want to call it a resolution, that's
fine.
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But don't stop there.
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There's got to be a plan and there's got to be a way to track it.
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That this is the only way that this is going to work.
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Having said that, we do wish you the very, very best for 2025 and all that 2025 has to
offer.
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It has been a wonderful experience for us this year to bring you the Builder 365 podcast.
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We wish you nothing but the best for the holiday season and for 2025.
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And we'll see you back here right after the change of the calendar.
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Thanks for tuning in everybody.
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Now go out and change someone's world.
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Take care.
00:00:07,342 --> 00:00:11,002
Hey everybody, welcome back to another Builder 365 podcast.
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00:00:11,002 --> 00:00:12,942
I'm Jeff Schor, that's Amy O'Connor.
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00:00:12,942 --> 00:00:13,882
Hi Amy.
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Hi, good to see you.
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00:00:15,922 --> 00:00:17,212
Good to see you too.
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And here we are, obviously the holiday time, but just a few days away from the end of the
year.
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00:00:26,502 --> 00:00:29,502
You already got all your plans in place for 2025.
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00:00:29,502 --> 00:00:30,762
You're already thinking about 20.
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00:00:30,762 --> 00:00:34,546
I know for some people who are listening to this podcast, it's just...
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00:00:34,546 --> 00:00:37,439
We haven't gotten to Christmas yet, but others will listen after Christmas.
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And so so what do you think?
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Are you ready for the year to come?
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You're about as ready as I'll ever be.
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00:00:44,435 --> 00:00:51,321
I mean, you know, from a planning perspective, Jeff, you know that our calendars populate
usually September, October.
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And so having that plan and knowing what your calendar is going to be and blocking off
time.
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Yeah, all that's done.
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I understand my cadence.
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I'm feeling good about the structure of next year.
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What about, you know, it's, it's that time of year when people make their new years, new
years resolutions.
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What do you think?
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New year's resolutions.
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Are you in or you out?
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What are you thinking?
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I'm a big thumbs down on it.
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the data would suggest that it's not very effective.
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and I don't know, maybe this is bad, but I've never really much done that.
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Although I did try about four years ago, I decided that I was going to eat healthier.
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And by January 6th, I was eating an entire Pizza Hut pizza by myself in the Denver
airport.
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So, I mean, there you go.
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But in your defense and for those of you who don't travel much, there are times when you
get off a plane and you're hungry and you look around and there's garbage.
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mean, it's just it's so hard to get a good meal at an airport.
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Do you think that's getting better, though, in some airports?
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Right.
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Don't you think?
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Yes, but it's really slow progress.
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It's really our options.
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00:02:05,548 --> 00:02:08,560
Our options are usually pizza, sandwich, cheeseburger.
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Like that's usually it.
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Right.
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And I do love all three.
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But I know that's that's that's the problem.
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Yeah, I think some airports are ahead of the curve on this.
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00:02:21,895 --> 00:02:28,494
But but most of them are way, way, way behind like your home airport at Dulles.
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00:02:28,494 --> 00:02:30,655
Terrible and not good on the food stuff.
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So nasty.
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Although, have you seen this new cool thing?
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00:02:34,058 --> 00:02:44,025
It's like a little convenience shop in the airport or they probably have in other places
too, where it just knows who you are and you walk in, you do nothing.
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You put stuff in a bag and walk out and they charge you.
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00:02:48,094 --> 00:02:55,553
I don't know whether to be completely freaked out by that or amazingly in love because I
don't have to interact with anybody.
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00:02:55,553 --> 00:02:58,044
I mean, it's not as 50 50.
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Right.
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Yep.
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But I've seen that.
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I saw it just a couple of weeks ago at the Dallas airport.
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It was like, okay.
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00:03:05,460 --> 00:03:09,451
And there was one person who was working there, but they were just sort of, I don't know
what they were doing.
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They were just standing there looking around.
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yeah, yeah.
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Yeah.
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And, and, just, you know, in Amy's defense, Amy and I, when, we're out there, we are
talking to people all day long.
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And, and sometimes you need to just not talk to people for a little bit.
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So I,
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I'm going to admit, I once said to a very chatty person who sat next to me on an airplane,
I once said, I have a very important nap to take.
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I did say those words, but I needed the sleep and what are you going to do?
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00:03:40,830 --> 00:03:42,270
yeah, yeah.
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The top New Year's resolutions were 2024 according to the website, Statista.com.
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Save more money, exercise, eat healthy, spend more time with family, friends, lose weight.
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Man, they never change, do they?
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Everything.
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19 % said they want to spend less time on social media.
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That was actually a little depressing.
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I think we need a much higher percentage of people to spend less time on social media.
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00:04:07,035 --> 00:04:14,747
So, but I also found a list of resolutions that people made that were just plain fun or
funny.
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00:04:14,747 --> 00:04:19,648
So just a couple here that resolutions made with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
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one exercise my right to eat more chocolate.
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I vowed to keep my plants alive for more than a month.
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I want to perfect the art of pretending to listen during Zoom meetings.
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That's a legit goal right there.
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I will attempt to fold fitted sheets without summoning dark forces.
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Good one.
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I'll try not to judge my cat for sleeping eight hours a day right up your alley, Amy, to
develop the ability to remember names, even if it's just mine.
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And I will strive to say no more often unless it involves dessert.
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So there you go.
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Those are pretty good right there.
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00:04:54,050 --> 00:04:55,770
Yeah, they really are.
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If I have to, I know you said the cat thing with napping, but honestly, mine is a peeing
issue, not a napping issue.
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00:05:01,214 --> 00:05:05,537
But the one that I probably identify with most is the whole houseplant thing.
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I treat houseplants like you buy flowers at the grocery store.
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You buy them, they die, you replace them, right?
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00:05:11,672 --> 00:05:14,344
There's not like a little care system that happens in between.
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00:05:14,344 --> 00:05:16,785
mean, they're just going through the rotation.
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00:05:18,307 --> 00:05:19,507
Yeah.
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00:05:19,968 --> 00:05:23,086
I do know that in my house,
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00:05:23,086 --> 00:05:35,626
My plants are always healthy and I figured that out because on a regular basis all the
plants come together on the kitchen counters and then they all look nice and I don't know
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how that happens.
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00:05:36,296 --> 00:05:38,366
They all come together and they go back to the places.
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00:05:38,366 --> 00:05:40,886
It's sort of like with my clothes.
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I put them in this basket in the bathroom and then a little while later...
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They show up folded in my drawer.
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00:05:48,055 --> 00:05:48,905
Someday.
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00:05:48,905 --> 00:05:49,726
don't go there.
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00:05:49,726 --> 00:05:51,557
All the wives are groaning right now.
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I'm sorry, ladies.
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I'll do better.
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00:05:55,478 --> 00:05:58,150
Well, I've heard that there's a washing machine in my house.
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I don't know where it is.
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00:05:59,260 --> 00:06:03,402
I haven't identified it yet, but somebody told me that there's a washing machine.
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So we'll figure it out.
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Yeah.
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I'll balance this out, everyone.
111
00:06:06,183 --> 00:06:07,394
My husband does the laundry.
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00:06:07,394 --> 00:06:07,714
All right.
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00:06:07,714 --> 00:06:08,984
So you got both.
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You got both happening.
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Love it.
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00:06:11,766 --> 00:06:12,046
Love it.
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Love it.
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00:06:12,706 --> 00:06:14,377
Hey, let's talk business, Amy.
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00:06:14,377 --> 00:06:19,590
How do you, how do you sum up the year when we think about home builders and what they've
been through?
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00:06:19,590 --> 00:06:22,211
How do you, how do you, how do you sum up the year?
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00:06:22,211 --> 00:06:27,835
Man, I, you know, I just look at the year and say it's a master class in resilience.
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00:06:27,835 --> 00:06:35,879
I mean, there's just so many things, persistent labor shortages, continuing affordability
issue with interest rates.
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00:06:35,879 --> 00:06:37,350
We were out of toilet paper again.
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Where did that come from?
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00:06:38,461 --> 00:06:40,952
I thought we, I thought we figured out our toilet paper.
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00:06:40,952 --> 00:06:50,105
So there's just all these things that buyers, sorry, the builders have had to figure out
and the adaptability and the flexibility that I've seen has been really, really
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impressive, but it's, it's been tough.
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It has been.
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Yeah.
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00:06:54,106 --> 00:06:56,936
There's no question about it, but I think you make a really good point.
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There has been a required nimbleness for builders to try and figure out how to adapt to
everything that is going on around them and to adapt.
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very, very quickly.
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It's not easy to take this huge, huge, you know, cargo ship and turn on a dime.
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00:07:18,301 --> 00:07:22,403
But as an industry, it is absolutely one of the things that we have had to do.
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And I would say that that's true across the board for building companies, but also for the
people who make up the building companies, for the changes that affect our superintendents
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00:07:31,578 --> 00:07:34,542
and our salespeople and our mortgage officers and everybody else.
137
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So yeah, I think that this is a good way to be able to look at it.
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00:07:38,902 --> 00:07:46,522
I also look at it from the perspective that we'll look back and say that 2024 was a really
good year.
139
00:07:46,522 --> 00:07:54,202
think most people are going to say, was it harder to get sales in 2024 than it was in
2021?
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00:07:54,202 --> 00:07:56,522
yeah, there's no question about it.
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00:07:56,522 --> 00:08:00,432
Were there ongoing difficulties and shortages and things that we had to deal with?
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Yeah, there's no question about it.
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So everybody was affected.
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00:08:03,534 --> 00:08:07,924
But I think we'll look back on 2024 with a certain amount of pride as an industry.
145
00:08:07,924 --> 00:08:12,924
I think we'll be able to look at it and say, that's a year when we should be proud we
performed well.
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00:08:12,924 --> 00:08:14,174
But what about 2025?
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What are you thinking about for 2025 and what buyers and builders are facing right now?
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I have three big predictions here.
149
00:08:24,604 --> 00:08:28,568
I think we're going to see more mergers and acquisitions.
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00:08:29,016 --> 00:08:34,711
already seeing that those waves are, are rolling in right now already.
151
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And did you see that we right now are at 19?
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There had been 19.
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The average in a year is 12.
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So we're seven above the average.
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And I'm just looking at all of the tea leaves and I'm thinking we're going to start, we're
going to keep seeing that.
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think we're going to see a big level of that.
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I think we're going to see affordability drive innovation.
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This is a little bit what you were talking about on another podcast, Jeff, about, you
know, how do we make spaces work in different ways?
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I think we're going to see more ADUs, right?
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The dwelling units that you can put either on the bottom of a town hall or maybe somewhere
else on the property.
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think maybe we're going to see more build to rent that sometimes is a little bit more
accessible, higher density, you know, all of those things.
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But the affordability is going to force the innovation.
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And then I think the third thing that I'm really thinking about here is that I think we're
going to see builders continue to try to figure out this whole AI thing.
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I mean, we've seen builders play with it.
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We're really not sure how do we integrate it.
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But the first person who figures it out in a big way, they're going to they're going to
own it.
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I mean, it's going to be really amazing for them.
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Yeah.
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Right now, it feels for many builders like it's more of a toy than a tool.
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And it's it's I'm able to play with it over here a little bit.
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And that's great.
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But when it comes to really advancing, I agree with you.
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I don't think we're there yet.
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One other thing that I'm thinking about for 2025 and I think we're to see an increase in
in buyer uncertainty.
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And and, you know, we've seen it in 2024 already.
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You know, we had a contentious election.
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We've got, you know, inflation concerns.
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you know war them in the Middle East and in Ukraine and and and just there's a lot of
tension a lot of angst a lot of animosity and that all even though it really shouldn't
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Feed into our home buying sentiment it it does and when we are uncertain then what
happens?
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When our uncertainty goes up then our confidence goes down And so I'm just thinking about
it from the home buyers perspective right now
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I think it's going to be incumbent upon us as builders to try and figure out how do we
encourage, how do we share positive messages?
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What do we do to try and reduce that anxiety, that uncertainty?
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Because if if you look at 2021 as an example, when people were buying in droves, sight
unseen.
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Why?
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Because they felt a certainty that this was a good investment, that the prices were going
to go up.
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And when there is a greater degree of certainty, there's a greater degree of confidence.
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when that level of certainty drops, the confidence drops with it.
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And I think that's where we have to step in.
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And I'm not just talking about salespeople, by the way, I'm talking about everybody who's
customer facing, meaning to lean into this positive optimism.
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In other words, we need to make it fun to buy a home.
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We need to make it fun for our customers.
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We need to make them feel really, really good about what it is that they're doing.
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And it should be fun, right?
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It should be one of the most enjoyable things we ever go through.
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Alas, oftentimes it's not.
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But I know you share that too, right?
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You've talked for many, many years to our clients about the idea of how we have a greater
degree of celebration and what it is that we do.
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I mean, you've hit on so many things there.
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I could talk for two days on all of those topics.
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And I think one of the interesting things to think about is while we talk about buyer
uncertainty being a major inhibitor in their decision-making ability, I think we also have
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to look at the other side of that.
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And I challenge leaders with this as
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Well, what's your frontline sales team thing?
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Do are they certain?
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Do they think it's a good time to buy?
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Because if you got a sales person over here who doesn't think it's a good time to buy and
you have an uncertain buyer, I will show you nothing.
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I will show you a sale that never happens.
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And so it's interesting.
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We're trying to talk about, you know, calming the buyer down and building certainty.
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But in a leadership team, if we're not out there building certainty with the people who
are communicating that to the buyers, then we're missing it.
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Yeah.
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It's a really
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good point.
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You know, sometimes you see cultures of optimism and sometimes you see cultures of
negativity.
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know, that culture is it's a it's a culture is always a combined effort, but there's no
question about it.
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The leadership is the one who is going to drive that culture more than anything else.
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And so what what does that look like?
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It's a valid point.
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And I think a little soul searching for anybody in a leadership position to ask that
question.
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What are we doing to try and build that?
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atmosphere of positivity, optimism, and such that it wouldn't be a program to bring that
to our customers.
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We would just be sharing that from the soul.
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Yeah.
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And before we wrap it up, let's talk about the resolution to grow.
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And then we'll let people take that any direction that they want to.
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But I want to move beyond,
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resolve, right?
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I make a resolution to do this.
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And as we all know, it often happens on a whim and you know, I may or may not jot it down
and that it doesn't really go anywhere until you move into plan and then track.
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can you talk a little bit about that?
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Because right now we got a lot of people who are listening to this are thinking, well,
what do I want to do in 2024, 2025?
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What do want to be in 2025?
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I think this is a good time to talk about
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And I'm so glad you brought that up because I struggle with those questions too.
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And I see the value in setting goals.
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But when you just sit down and you ask yourself those big questions, to me, that's really
hard to get your brain started.
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So one of the things that we do in women's leadership circle and we start the year with it
and we end the year with it is a circle of life.
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I'm sorry, the wheel of life is actually what we call it.
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Wheel of life.
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There's a wheel of life.
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And listen, you can go find one.
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can Google it.
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I use a very simple one that looks at eight different areas of your life.
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And then you shade in for each of the little pie slices.
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How well do you think you're doing there?
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So you step back and you get some sense of where am I balanced?
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Where am I imbalanced?
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Why?
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What's happening?
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How do I feel about it?
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And there is something about seeing it that way, that visual.
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of places where I'm just not doing so well.
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And I got to tell you, with the first time I did it, I realized I am not fun.
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I'm not.
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Like there's one of the sections that talks about front and recreation and it's five
levels.
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And I'm like two.
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So apparently I have to plan to be fun.
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can't be spontaneously fun.
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But the second sort of piece of that activity, if you will, is to take those white spots
in your wheel of life that you did not shade in.
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and then write your action plan in those.
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If I want to be able to shade this piece, what do I need to do?
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So for me, it's a better way to set goals because it's so visual.
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You can very much track it.
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I suggest to you on a quarterly basis to see where you're at.
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And it was so rewarding to do that at the beginning of Women's Leadership Circle.
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And you know, we just wrapped up our masterminds, Jeff, several weeks ago.
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And so to see them at the end and look at them compare in the growth that had happened, it
was phenomenal and it was very heartwarming.
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So it does all the things you want it to do.
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It punches you in the gut where you need to be punched in the gut.
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It shows you where you're doing a great job.
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gives you the opportunity to plan.
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And it's definitely a tool for tracking.
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I just love it.
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You know, it sort of reminds me a little bit of when Stephen Covey wrote the seven habits.
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You know, one of the things that you do early in that book is you define your roles.
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What are all the different roles in your life?
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And and then you say, well, you know, here's my role as a business person.
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Here's my role as a father, as a husband, you know, as a friend, whatever it is.
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Well, then you go back and you challenge that against your your time and energy.
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Well, are those roles important to you because you vote with your time and your energy?
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So, you know, when you it was it was the first time I did it, it was like, wow.
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my wheel is lopsided over here, right?
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And I think that that's, but as Dan Sullivan always says, all change begins by telling the
truth.
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And so that the wheel of life sounds like a truth telling exercise more than anything
else.
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The good news is that you can change that truth, right?
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You can say that this is the truth that I brought into it, but with that right intention,
I can change my truth.
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And I think that that's the idea of growth is that if we look into it we go,
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there is room for me over here.
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The truth is this might be where I am.
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But the another truth is I don't have to stay here.
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So what does that look like?
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And it doesn't look like resolution.
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looks like like tracking and accountability to yourself and maybe to people around you.
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But if you're not willing to do that, then nothing happens here.
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So so we want to encourage you, you know, if if you want to call it a resolution, that's
fine.
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But don't stop there.
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There's got to be a plan and there's got to be a way to track it.
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That this is the only way that this is going to work.
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Having said that, we do wish you the very, very best for 2025 and all that 2025 has to
offer.
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It has been a wonderful experience for us this year to bring you the Builder 365 podcast.
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We wish you nothing but the best for the holiday season and for 2025.
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And we'll see you back here right after the change of the calendar.
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Thanks for tuning in everybody.
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Now go out and change someone's world.
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Take care.
