Ep 311: The Root of the Issue

Ep 311: The Root of the Issue

Nov 16, 2023 | By Market Proof Marketing Podcast

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 311: The Root of the Issue

For this episode, it’s the Beth and Julie show! Kevin is out sick so Beth Russell and Julie Jarnagin take charge and jump into discussion on builders who are overcomplicating their marketing and urge builders to ask themselves “What is the goal?” and build your strategy from there! They dive deeper into setting goals for the next year and Julie suggests before making goals for the upcoming year, reflect on last year's goals and what was actually accomplished. Beth requests you share your goals for next year in All Access!

Story Time (02:53)

  • Beth urges builders to not overcomplicate it. Get to the root issue and ask yourself “What's your goal?”
  • Julie has noticed all of her builders preparing for their 2024 goals and suggests that they reflect on last year's goals before setting new ones.

The News (12:42)

Things We Love Things We Hate (33:38)



Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we’ll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities can be found at Do You Convert All Access or on the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.

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    A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We’re here to help you – not to sell you!

    Transcript:

    Beth
    Well, welcome to the Beth and Julie show!

    Julie
    Here we are. It's a surprise. The Beth and Julie show! It's just us. Yeah. Now, apparently, Kevin's not feeling great, so last minute, just me and Beth. But, hey, we're gonna make it work. This is going to be fun.

    Beth
    It'll be good. And we hope he feels better soon. He just got back from Guatemala, so the whole fam went down a little bit, and we just want them feeling better.

    Julie
    Yeah, 100%. And I changed! I rearranged my office. It looks so good. I feel like everything's a little different. I'm trying to figure it out. Throws me off a little bit, but.

    Beth
    Are you one of those people, though, that, like, when you rearrange furniture, you're like, or that you have the need to rearrange furniture because it makes your whole house whole feel now?

    Julie
    Hmm. I don't rearrange much because I'm just kind of like a I, I don't like things to change. Yeah, but every once in a while, I get the itch, which is what happened here.

    Beth
    No, I love that. And it's interesting. My office, I feel like I rearrange more than anything because that's where I spend my most time and obviously, but what I've kind of realized, which honestly, I didn't really realize until now, until we're talking live in this moment, is that we've moved houses a lot. Obviously. Right. And with each house it gets a little bit better because we're a little bit older.

    Beth
    I mean, we can afford a little bit more or like depending on where we're living. But in the houses that like I didn't like very much or weren't necessarily my taste, I rearranged furniture a lot.

    Julie
    Oh, okay. Yeah, it can be. But this one, you've had it in your head from when you when you were building it? Probably so. Yeah.

    Beth
    This one we built, like we didn't pick the floorplan. We only made like a couple of changes, but everything else I selected or we selected and so it feels more like us and I don't have that need to rearrange. I mean, we've only been here for two months.

    Julie
    So yeah.

    Beth
    Ask me again in a year.

    Julie
    And six months and it forces you to clean and dust. That was other good thing.

    Beth
    Oh yeah, that's true. That's the other nice thing about moving is you get rid of things. All right, well, let's get started. Welcome to episode 311. I am Beth Russell. And with me today is Julie Dart. Again.

    Julie
    Excited to be here. This should be fun. We had a we had a Jenny Beth Julie show not long ago, and it was super fun. So.

    Beth
    So much fun.

    Julie
    Yeah. Yeah.

    Beth
    So again, this will be great. And we just I need to not go off on my random tangents.

    Julie
    Or maybe I need to!

    Julie
    Exactly. This is the perfect time. This is your chance. Go off the rails.

    Beth
    Okay, so I guess we'll get started with story time. We had an interesting call this week with the Builder, and it just reminded me to not overcomplicate and that we shouldn't be overcomplicating things as decision makers within our companies. In this particular example, they were talking about a promotion or an incentive, and their plan was to pause it for like five days and then have a go live again.

    Beth
    And immediately I was like, Tell me more about that.

    Julie
    Like, what is the.

    Beth
    Thought process here? What is the goal? And originally the response was they just want to take a pause and then hopefully they can get more attention.

    Julie
    When.

    Beth
    It goes live again. And so we brought it back up on our leadership call and drove a little bit deeper. Got to the root of the issue and we're like, okay, what is the real intent here? And the logic behind this pause.

    Julie
    So.

    Beth
    That we can understand and plan accordingly. And the response was, well, the thought is, is that if we take it off and then we put it back on and we refresh the graphics, we refresh some of the messaging that it'll look brand new and people will be like, Oh, what's that? And it'll get a little bit more attention.

    Beth
    And well, from a psychological standpoint and a consumerism standpoint, that could very well be true. I was like, Let's take a moment and step back and let's look at our numbers first, because if you don't have a huge amount of return, visitors to your site, then everything looks new to them anyway.

    Julie
    Yeah, they're not living in that world that they know what you're running at all times.

    Beth
    Yeah, exactly. They're not stalking your every move and like, remembering every single graphic that you have on your site. So we took a look and their return traffic was minimal. It wasn't the the dominant force on their website. So it ultimately didn't make sense. And then when you factor in their small lead volume, because a lot of people are running into the smaller lead volume right now, month over month, it just was like not worth it because their messaging was actually driving some leads, which ended up being like 15% of their total lead volume for the month.

    Beth
    So it's like, do you want to risk losing any leads that you could get in that small window? And the risk just wasn't worth the potential reward in that situation. So in that the story and the lesson there is get down to the root of the issue and really get to what goal it is that you guys are trying to achieve.

    Beth
    Use some backwards math if you need to apply some data to create some logic around it and determine if it's even worse. The work, the work that we put in to find out if that was work worth it for them is more work is less work than it would be for them to remove it, come up with new messaging, put it back on and rebuild ads, and do all that.

    Julie
    Behind.

    Beth
    The scenes.

    Julie
    And I think the other good lesson here is like, go be the best at your organization, that if people are throwing things at you from different departments or leadership or whoever, just to take the time to stop and be like, tell me more about that. Like, why are you wanting to do it this way? What are we trying to achieve?

    Julie
    Don't be afraid to ask those questions because they might have a perfectly good You're like, Oh, perfect. That makes sense. And then everybody's on the same page. But I think sometimes, especially if it's coming from above us, but sometimes we're like, Yes, okay, we'll do that. And we don't take the time to stop and ask the as the questions of why.

    Beth
    Yeah, and how you frame it. It doesn't have to be a conflict. It doesn't have to be an engagement of like me versus them. It just is getting down to the root of issues so that everyone, like you said, everyone's on the same page and they understand the intent because I think where communication gets lost a lot of times in every single company, regardless if you're in housing or not, is that people aren't understanding the intent.

    Julie
    Or the.

    Beth
    Why behind what they're doing and they're just executing and things just get.

    Julie
    Lost. Yeah.

    Beth
    And expectations are meant when that happens.

    Julie
    Yeah, absolutely. Well, mine's also kind of about goals, but it's from a different point. I'm glad you set a lot of goals. Are you a goal person? Like, do you like New Year's resolutions and like goals for the New Year? Are you into that?

    Beth
    I'm not into New Year's resolutions because I feel like oftentimes are empty promises that we make to one another, you know, or like me to ourselves. I do love goal setting, though. I'm like that neurotic person that's like, okay. And one year I want to be here in two years, I'm going to be here. And something that I used to have my team do all the time was build like a five year plan in that five year plan.

    Beth
    Leaders listening. Make note of this. I learned this for my husband. Should always include your personal life. It should always include your family. Because wherever you are with your family in that time of your life is going to impact where you want to be in your professional life. And so the two can't be completely separate from one another in regards to your growth and your progression and the person you want to become.

    Julie
    So yeah, big.

    Beth
    Five year plan type person.

    Julie
    So true. I love that. And next month, especially December's when everybody's making like 2024 plans professionally and personally. We've already started talking about budgets and things, so I would say take some time in December before you're setting all those goals and plans for 2024 to reflect on 2023. What were your goals at the beginning of the year, professionally, after Builder and personally, what did you achieve?

    Julie
    What did you not achieve? And take some time to celebrate your wins? Like, Well, what did I do? What did I what am I really proud of this year? So I do some journaling kind of stuff just because I process things better writing. And that's one thing I've been trying to do more instead of always looking at the next thing.

    Julie
    The next thing, the next thing. Stop and take a look at what's going well, what you're proud of, what you learned. So November would be a great time for that. Maybe around your Thanksgiving break and then you can start really focusing on 2024 plans in December. And I love that stuff. So and it's kind of weird right now.

    Julie
    I'm kind of in between because I wrote the book last year and that's all done. I had an injury, so some of my like jujitsu stuff is kind of on hold, so it's kind of fun to come up with something new. So that's where I am right now.

    Beth
    I love that. And especially because the growth doesn't happen without the reflection. And so you can use that reflection over your previous year professionally. And then don't be afraid, like don't do that and keep it to yourself. Put it in some some form of digestible format that you can provide to your leadership and say, Look at what I have done.

    Beth
    Look at what our department has done, look at what our team has done. And this is like quantify that impact on the organization because there's a lot of opportunity and that's how you can grow professionally within your career to say like, this is what we're doing, this is the impact we had. There's no denying marketing now.

    Julie
    Okay, people. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like you said, such a good opportunity to celebrate your team right now. So take a look and use that just to celebrate what everybody's done done this year. Because, you know, it's been tough, it's been a tough market and people are still like fighting for those last sales end of the year trying to meet goals, but just set aside some time on your calendar.

    Julie
    It's a good time for it.

    Beth
    That's good advice. I love it. I want to see like I want people to share like what they're doing and how they set their goals and how they how they maybe report on their year end impact or things like that. So if you're an all access share some of that. If you're listening right now, we would love to see it.

    Julie
    Yeah, I love it. And do you remember what your word was from last year? I remember a lot of people had a word last year. Does anybody remember their word? Oh, what was your word? And did you live it out this year?

    Beth
    Mean did I love it? I mean.

    Julie
    I remember Tigers. I think Carly had won. Maybe Jen had won.

    Beth
    Mine was definitely centered around like change because I was going through a lot of change professionally. So at the beginning of the year, I mean, I started do it in March, so I don't know what it was, but I still look back now. I'm curious.

    Julie
    I don't remember either going out to get a look report back.

    Beth
    Okay. So what would your word be for next year, though?

    Julie
    I don't know. See, I have to work on that. I'm What would my word be? I think some version of like confidence, because I think there's some things that are new to me that I'm working on some kind of step into like that, you know, not having imposter syndrome, being, you know, looking at where I'm at, that kind of thing.

    Julie
    So I don't know, confidence is the word, but I think it's some version. Version of that is what I'm hoping. So I'm working on it.

    Beth
    I love it. And I think that's so cool of you to admit on the podcast, too, because it's a realization that, like all of us have that imposter syndrome at time, right? Like even the people that we go to for advice and mentorship or guidance or coaching or whatever, like every single person has some sort of imposter syndrome in their life, even.

    Beth
    Kevin Probably. Are you listening?

    Julie
    I don't know.

    Beth
    Kevin Kevin will feel it for a second and then research it and then not have it anymore.

    Julie
    We'll be on it. He'll stay up till 3 a.m. listening to a podcast about it. Yeah.

    Beth
    I love that. Okay, so with goals and planning for 2024, a perfect transition onto the news is our first article that says 2024 looks to be a defining year in the ad market in this article from Adweek. And it basically is talking about how the global ad spend will turn a corner and rising to 8.2% from this year, what they call modest 4.4% in 2023, which I think is very poignant to Kevin's budgeting video that he put out.

    Beth
    If y'all haven't watched it, definitely recommend doing that because a lot of people over that or a lot of builders over the past, what was it, 3 to 4 years had really pulled back their ad spend or their marketing spend in comparison to their total revenue. And you know, a lot of conversations I've been having recently, I was like, Oh, my budget's going to be cut next year, my budget's going to be cut next year.

    Beth
    But this article forward it to you or your higher ups or your CFO or something, because it's also talking about how ad spend is going to continue to get more expensive.

    Julie
    Yeah, exactly. When I read this article, it was almost like they were excited, like it was a good turning point. The ad spend is going to go up. It's also more competition, you know what I mean? Especially I always tell people as far as Facebook, you know, in Google search, we're just probably competing against the builder down the road or a realtor or something like that.

    Julie
    And Facebook from Christmas season, we're competing just for eyeballs. So that could be Macy's or, you know, whoever is advertising. So, yeah, we're turning this corner for ad spend, but it also means more competition. Things could get more expensive. So yeah, and it also says most people are looking to spend and display video search and social are dominating CMO's global media plans and I think that's also people come to us sometimes and they're like, what's the new, you know, okay, we've done Facebook and we've done search, what else can we do?

    Julie
    And it's like there are other things and we can talk through all the other options. But like globally, this is what people, this is what's working right now. So I think a lot of people are using those same tools that are really reaching people. And that's where we have to kind of start. And then we can grow out from there and experiment with different things.

    Beth
    Yeah, there was a mention in the article that like the most of this revenue, where is it right here is actually going to the huge media networks like Amazon and and media and things like that. So I mean, people are spending money in the same places and you have to think of what are the where is it relevant to your industry?

    Beth
    Like when TikTok advertising became a huge thing, people are coming to us being like, should we advertise on TikTok or are we doing like not for housing, not for new home construction, It's not going to put a dent in what it is that you have. But I think what you should also take away from that is okay. So display requires content and good design, good brand messaging, a good logo, all those things.

    Beth
    Video is content. Invest in your content, search and social. I mean keeping things strong, optimizing those and understanding how things like you said, the how the market will get more expensive. So kind of relaying that messaging to your higher up saying people are going to be spending more money next year with the election and the Olympics happening. And so you have to understand how that's going to impact perhaps your Facebook budget, like you just said.

    Julie
    Yeah. Yeah. And it's just going to be we're just in a harder market than we were two years ago. You know, it's just different interest rates, different environment. So we probably are going to have to spend a little more use a little more advertising and still be efficient with it. But we just need to make sure we have that money kind of socked away.

    Julie
    Just just in case. Yeah. Yeah.

    Beth
    Because Lord knows the big guys aren't going to hold back.

    Julie
    No, no.

    Beth
    Okay. Our next article is Reshaping the American Dream. Millennials and Gen Z struggle.

    Julie
    To Leave the Nest. Yeah, this one.

    Beth
    Was interesting because if you open up the actual study and the report from the study, they're like, you're just inundated with graphs and information. All these numbers are comparing the two generation, but the sum of it is basically saying that millennials and Gen Z are.

    Julie
    Are.

    Beth
    Leaving the nest egg their parents homes at a.

    Julie
    Slower.

    Beth
    Rate than previous generations, which I don't really think comes as a surprise to anybody.

    Julie
    I don't think so. I don't think so for for numerous reasons. I mean, it's more expensive to move into your own place. Inflation, they're paying more for school or they're more in debt for school. There's just a lot of things that kind of play into that. I'm kind of I, I, I've talked about it before on the podcast.

    Julie
    I'm kind of from the opposite angle. We have my mom living with us and she's lived with us for years. So we're a multigenerational households, but the opposite direction. My mom was with us instead of us, you know, living with our parents. But then we also had my niece come live with us over the summer for a little bit, too.

    Julie
    So I do think it will be interesting to see if that changes new homes at all, if more people I know there are some like multigenerational plans and things out there in the world, but as there's more like grown young adults living in houses or mother in law's living in houses, if that's going to change, kind of how anybody does those business.

    Beth
    Yeah, absolutely. I think we saw it a lot in Texas because multi-generation.

    Julie
    Multigenerational.

    Beth
    Housing was a lot more popular down there than it is where I'm at right now. And they started building houses with dual primary suites for that reason. And sometimes they were like off to the side. Sometimes they're integrated within the plan. And it's interesting that the different ways that you can market that as a mother in law suite or grandparent suite, something like that.

    Beth
    But what I love about what you just said is so important tune, it speaks a lot to our generation is a lot of people are moving in their parents to help with child care because they have to work. They have to be a dual income house in order to afford housing where they want to be. And then childcare is so expensive.

    Beth
    And a lot of these large markets that multi-generational housing is the only way that they can afford childcare.

    Julie
    Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point. And we do have I know at least one of the builders I've worked with are doing a they use to have the acronym right. I'm still are you dwelling units so building a little chitchat or you know sweet or yeah what's the right word for it but I think that's what they're calling them.

    Julie
    So I think I think that's going to evolve more and more over coming years as we see more and more of, you know, of this being the trend, whether it's because people are choosing it or they're kind of forced into it either way.

    Beth
    It would be interesting to see a full development that could fit those eighties. As you said, on the lot, because, you know, like a basic production development with like a 60 by 120 onsite would not be able to fit that.

    Julie
    Yeah. The one I'm familiar with there, a custom builder. So it makes sense. But that would be really interesting for I can think of one production builder that had something similar, but that leads into one of our other, one of our other articles because there was some question on whether you could build, I think theirs was like a garage apartment basically, and whether that could be used as a short term rental or not.

    Julie
    And that kind of depended on the community too. So we'll get to that too. Do you want to jump into that article now?

    Beth
    Yeah, because that I think it also ties into why you have more millennials and Gen Zers living with their parents now because they can't find somewhere to rent.

    Julie
    Yeah, yeah. This is from business Insider and it's the best evidence yet that banning Airbnbs will make rent go down. And basically what it's talking about is that New York just passed a new I don't know if it's a new law or they're just enforcing it now, but basically it took it from 22,000 Airbnbs in New York down to 3000 is what's happening.

    Julie
    And and the idea of the article basically is just supply and demand. So because we're having such an affordability issue and especially somewhere in New York is having an affordability issue, the demand is the same. There's still the equal number of people looking for an apartment in New York City, but Airbnb is taking some of that supply and making them short term rentals so that somebody can't run it out for a long term.

    Julie
    Their permanent home. So what they're saying that if you open those all up for long term rentals, not just Airbnb, that rents are going to go down and they've seen some some proof of that. I think there was another their other example I think was in California, wasn't it, where they began that several years ago and it did actually bring rents down.

    Julie
    So it's a it's an interesting it's an interesting conversation to have. Of course, Airbnb says we're not the reason affordability is a problem, which yeah, it's a complex issue. Just banning Airbnb by itself is not going to fix all affordability issues. But really then they point it back to homebuilders because they said really the only thing that's going to fix affordability is us having more housing, and that would mean us that I mean builders, that's what we need is more housing.

    Julie
    But that's hard in somewhere like New York City. But it's.

    Beth
    Yeah, and I think they're absolutely right. It's all comes down. It all comes down to zoning, which this is talking about as well, like restricting how many Airbnbs there are if they're zoning for new construction, if they're zoning for new residential housing units in the area, you have to be able to resupply the area. And I when I read this, it came to mind was Brian and Brian College Station area in Texas, because there's a ton of Airbnbs in that area because people fled to the area for Texas A&M games and they spend every weekend there and then you have a college town.

    Beth
    So all of the like low rent housing is all taken up by college kids. So if you're a young professional trying to find a nice place to live with a decent rent that's affordable, where you're not surrounded by college kids up until 3:00 in the morning partying or being really rowdy every night of the week, your options are limited.

    Beth
    And it's just because there's, you know, Airbnbs popping up left and right in that area.

    Julie
    So I do wonder, I will be curious to hear if anybody says, like what the majority of those Airbnb landlords do. Will they sell Now that they can't do that, will they keep them and rent them as long term? Do they even want to be long term landlords or did they just like the money of the short term?

    Julie
    So now that that many people can't use that business model like well well listings flood the flood the market in New York because they'll just want to sell them or they get around anyway. I thought that was an interesting thing too. Like all the sudden there's all these apartments used for one things that can't be used for that anymore.

    Julie
    So what's going to happen with that?

    Beth
    Yeah, there are some cases where they the city allowed for an incentive. They didn't. I don't think that they explained what that incentive was if they converted to a long term rental. But again, it depends on what that incentive is. Is that inventive worth it enough for them to become long term landlords? And then what do you do with all of the stuff and furnishings that you put into that Airbnb as well?

    Beth
    That's what I find so interesting about what they do here locally. So we're we're located right outside of Augusta. Obviously, Augusta is known for Augusta National and home of the Masters. And so what the area did was make it so you could rent out your home as a short term rental during the Nationals. I'm sorry, during the Masters.

    Beth
    I don't know why I said the Nationals. It's because I'm a homebuilder, that's why. So you can rent out your house for up to two weeks, 14 days during the Masters or actually I think it's like at any point during the year up to 14 days and you don't have to pay taxes on the income that you make during that time period.

    Beth
    And they do that to incentivize, obviously, homeowners doing this, renting out their homes, but also to keep Airbnbs at bay and to keep hotel development at bay. And so the area isn't just run up with these huge resorts and hotels all around town. And it's amazing. Like we were just talking to our neighbors and they put professional golfers in this neighborhood.

    Beth
    They put the staff and the people that work here, our Airbnb that we stayed in for two months is owned by a lady who owns a catering company who only caters during the masters. So she had like a team of chefs that come into the area, stay at this Airbnb, which is why she bought it. And then the chefs go work at other Airbnb during the week of Masters as like the in-home chef.

    Beth
    And then it's like a whole building industry around here. It's it's fascinating.

    Julie
    It is. It is. I know I have some family up around Lexington, Kentucky, and they have something similar with the Kentucky Derby. Like if you have somewhere like with a little land where you can get horses, crazy money, crazy money for people who can come stay during horse racing season. So like all these little niche things, you don't hear about.

    Beth
    These like local markets. It's just crazy. Yeah, I love it. That's what's fun about moving so much as you get. I get to learn stuff that I never otherwise would have been interested in learning about previously.

    Julie
    What can you tell us about Kansas?

    Beth
    Beth I like Kansas City. Kansas City is lovely. The people are so nice. I remember my first. I'll go see. I told you to attend. It was bound to happen. I truly.

    Julie
    Started it.

    Beth
    So this will. You know what? We didn't have favorites. So this will be my favorite. And it is the people of Kansas City. Okay. And I probably people are going to be like, you're going to talk about Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. No, I'm not. I'm going to talk about my own personal experience. My sister in law is from Northern Missouri.

    Beth
    So she did her residency in Kansas City. And my so they lived there for a period of time. And they got married. They got married in Kansas City. So my first time visiting Kansas City was for the wedding. And I remember for a little background story, I'm from the East Coast, I'm from the Baltimore, D.C. area. So the cities that I'm used to are D.C. and Baltimore.

    Julie
    Where.

    Beth
    People don't stop for, you.

    Julie
    Know.

    Beth
    Like if you're a pedestrian, like, good.

    Julie
    Luck.

    Beth
    You better practice your whole look both ways. If you're trying to cross the street and you better wait for that ticker. Okay, we're in we're walking towards downtown and there's this whole area called the Plaza, which is where like all the really nice shops and restaurants are. So we were walking downtown there and we're about to cross the highway, the major road cutting through the plaza and there's no crosswalk where we're at.

    Beth
    So we're just waiting for traffic to stop or, you know, to go by these people. And can they just stop for you?

    Julie
    They just stop.

    Beth
    In the middle of a highway and just let you.

    Julie
    Cross. They're like, What's happening?

    Beth
    I was flabbergasted. I thought I was going to get handed like a casserole. At the same time on the other side of street, like they were just so nice. It was amazing. So shout out to that. Like Midwest.

    Julie
    Yeah. Don't even need crosswalks in Kansas City. I love it.

    Beth
    It's lovely. It's very nice.

    Julie
    So we're like, Oh, how are we going to tackle this next article?

    Beth
    We can talk about it because we actually did have some fun conversation around it.

    Julie
    Let's talk about it. So what happens is people throw in in our podcast on our Slack or our internal Slack idea, it's, you know, articles they see that we can talk about in the podcast. And this one, you know, we were probably going to let just Kevin run with it, but Kevin's not here, so it's us and we're not science people.

    Julie
    But.

    Beth
    But my reaction was I am not a bio engineer.

    Julie
    Quick out of my.

    Beth
    Wheelhouse.

    Julie
    So this is from a finance Yahoo! Is that what this is from? Scientist Make breakthrough in research that could change the way our homes are constructed. So basically and forgive our pronunciation on this because this is not stuff we have to talk about. Researchers at UCS, Newcastle University are using fungal networks to build structures. So basically, if you think about like a mushroom and the roots and the stuff that goes under the ground, you can make things from that.

    Julie
    The fungal network, small strings that are part of the fungus intertwined underground with tree roots. It's part of a network of plants that pass water and nutrients to each other. We're getting a little over over sciency here. But anyway, so they've basically they figured out that this might be a replacement to use less concrete and make buildings more lightweight and better for the environment.

    Julie
    But we laughed because you click through the picture they use for the article. It's like they're framing walls so you can think it's like a material for like a traditionally framed house. But if you click from the article to the research, wherever they got it, it's like these two people sitting on the ground in this little mushroom looking hut, looking over over their heads.

    Julie
    And it was like fungus. It looks.

    Beth
    Like fungus.

    Julie
    Yeah. I mean, it's it's from a mushroom and you can probably tell it. So it makes me laugh that like the headline acts like that we found this brand new material and now it's going to be in your houses. But unless you want to sit on the floor in your little fungus hut, I don't think we're quite there yet.

    Julie
    And we also had the conversation before we started recording that this is kind of like the 3D printing conversations that we were having all the time. Like, it is a really cool thing and we like to talk about it and new materials, but it's it's not going to get there until it looks recognizable or gets more people get more used to it.

    Julie
    It's just like until it looks something that we recognize as what we want to live in as a home. But it's always good, you know, to see these things and follow the research.

    Beth
    But I'm going to age myself and my reference was the show Roswell, the original one, this remake that they put out there, but the original Roswell from like the early 2000, late nineties, it looks like the hut that the aliens came out of because like, no one wants to live in that. So I'm sure that, you know, if you dig into it, they can say that they can basically reconstruct foundations and walls through this material, similar to how they 3D printed foundation and walls.

    Julie
    Yeah.

    Beth
    But even 3D printed houses don't look very nice right now. Like they have this weird.

    Julie
    Body and don't.

    Beth
    I don't know how else to phrase.

    Julie
    That. Yes, I agree. I had a friend whose dad his dream was always to build one of the Hey Bell, you know the hey bell. And then he put the mud over top of the hay bell.

    Beth
    That that's the comment. If you look at the comment on it, there's like.

    Julie
    Oh, really? Yeah.

    Beth
    He's like, my next house is going to be made out of strong Clay.

    Julie
    Yes, that is exactly that was I had a, I had a friend that that was her dad's dream.

    Beth
    Did he ever do it?

    Julie
    I don't think so, no. I never.

    Beth
    Under like, interesting. Okay. I'd walk through it. I'd walk through this one. I'd walk through that. I'd walk through a 3D printed home. Not going to buy one, not going to invest in one.

    Julie
    Either. Words, in 20 years when we're both living in our mushroom hut, I.

    Beth
    Can't wait for.

    Julie
    It. I can't wait for it.

    Beth
    All right. Do you have any favorites or not? So favorite?

    Julie
    Well, my not very fun. It's and y'all may have heard this. I forgot the brand name, so I was looking for barbecue sauce, but apparently there's Japanese barbecue sauce. Have you had actually have it. It's so good in Serbia and I only bought it because it like I was making an order online and I accidentally came across it and it had like amazing reviews and all these people bought it and I bought it.

    Julie
    It's delicious. I love it. Oh, good. So it's it's like more like a it's called a barbecue, but it's more like a soy sauce kind of teriyaki, soy sauce, whatever. But it's just good for cooking with. So that is kind of random, but that's my new favorite because I just discovered it.

    Beth
    I'm like, full on that train with you. We do know how we found out about it.

    Julie
    ASCO samples. Oh, okay.

    Beth
    The power of Costco samples.

    Julie
    Well, you'll have to tell me how to use it, because I've only used it in like a couple things so far. Like we have a bunch of my husband's a hunters, so we have a bunch of, like, round meat in the freezer all the time. So, I mean, kind of like a stir fry kind of thing with it.

    Julie
    I'm not so good. You have one? Not today.

    Beth
    Well, Kansas City, the people can bring. You know, I already went on my hand at the favorite.

    Julie
    So Kansas City.

    Beth
    You know, and I got to say that people in Georgia are lovely as well.

    Julie
    So kudos.

    Beth
    I approve. You have my stamp. That's me stamping.

    Julie
    My. Oh.

    Beth
    Well, this is fun. Thanks for listening to the Beth and Julie Show.

    Julie
    Yeah, we made it. And hopefully Kevin gets to feeling better and is back next week.

    Beth
    Yeah. We love you, Kevin. Feel better?

    Julie
    Yeah. Bye bye.


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