Jen

Jesse. I think I got the. I got the count down. Nobody's probably here yet, but let's just chat for a few minutes. This is called the. The cold opening. Right.

Jessie

This is the cold opening.

Jen

I, I think so. This is the cold opening that I know. We do it on the Market Proof Marketing podcast. I'll wait and see who's popping on before I do our official entry. But wow. Hey, you are in the business of dog rescue right now.

Jessie

I don't know if I'm going to smile or cry about it. Like the generosity has been so amazing, but I don't even know what's to come. But I'm really excited.

Jen

I am. I am of course. You know, like my heart goes out to you and your family that are trying to help these puppies for horses. Many horses, basically. But I am just overwhelmed. And the support that you've gotten so far like it. I know. It's amazing. It's amazing what you're you're going to need it. So, yeah. Ah, they're going to need it, obviously.

Jen

Okay.

Jessie

No, it's going to be fun. What? Three Great Danes in a car for 8 hours.

Jen

So how? I didn't ask you that. How are they actually getting here?

Jessie

In a car with my mom?

Jen

Okay, so your mom is going to be bringing them? Yep. Wow. Oh, my.

Jessie

Gosh. It's going to be it's going to be awesome, man.

Jen

It's on to the fine line. People talking. And today we're talking about Great Dane Dog rescue. Oh, my gosh. All right. Well, let's go ahead and get going. Welcome, everybody. This is online people talking or OPPT, as we like to call it. My name is Jen Barkan and this is with me.

Jessie

Jesse Suggs. Happy to be here.

Jen

This program is dedicated to you, the online sales specialist. We'll talk about real life solutions, challenges, scenarios just for you. And so we are so excited to kind of dig into what we have planned today. If you are joining us, say hello. Make sure that we know you are here. Use the use your little fingers and chat away because we definitely want to say hi and give us some hearts and lights.

Jen

And we're here to answer your questions, too, as we chat. We do have a special guest today that will be joining us. But before we get into that, Jesse, we have some we have some kind of housekeeping things we want to talk about some reminders for you out there in the industry. So coming up very soon, I think Monday is something special that people need to know about.

Jessie

Yeah, the Nationals Awards. It's near and dear to our hearts. We get to watch all of you amazing people get up on stage. So Monday is the deadline for everything. So it's lots of information to get over there. But Monday, the 23rd, the official deadline for the Nationals awards.

Jen

Yes. If you are applying, chat it out. If you have applied in the past, if you have been a winner, definitely let us know. We want to celebrate you. It is such a big deal. And if you're thinking right now, man, it's Tuesday and it's due on Monday. Do I have time? Yes, you do. It takes about an hour and a half to 2 hours of dedicated, focused time and you can get through that application.

Jen

So don't cut yourself short. Definitely apply online sales team of the year. Online sales Person of the year, online sales, Rookie of the Year. And there's actually online sales manager of the year as well. So four different categories for online sales. Oh, okay. The other thing exciting is hey Donna, the other exciting news is that this past week, October 9th and 10th, Jesse and I launched in Amanda launched the virtual online Sales Academy.

Jen

Jesse, how did it go? What did you think?

Jessie

I mean, it has been so amazing. There's just an intimate group. I think there's 16 of us, and I think like five of them have been in the seat for less than a week. So it's just been amazing to see all of the fresh new minds coming into the industry and then all that we cover just in two short days, plus, of course, additional weeks of training.

Jessie

So it's just been fun.

Jen

Yeah, it's the first one that we've done virtual in quite some time. And I have to say, hey, if any of our Academy members are watching right now chime in, I just want to say right here on online, people talking. I'm looking at you and your eyeballs. You guys are a fantastic academy. We're having so much fun with you.

Jen

It's been engaging and we can't wait to spend the next eight weeks. Like we told you, You're not you're not done with us yet. You're going to be with us for eight more weeks at the The Convert team is just back from our online sales and marketing summit as well. Woo! Man. Jesse I don't know about you, but I'm still I'm still processing now the magical time that we.

Jessie

Like two weeks to make a LinkedIn post because I've just been digesting all of the information and it was just amazing. Oh my God, good to see everybody.

Jen

What was over there was so much content and so many takeaways. But what stood out to you? What was one thing if you had to pick?

Jessie

Oh, if I had to pick one thing right now, it would be love the market that you're in. I mean, this is the only one you got. So having the predictor of like your success being your level of optimism going into this next market is just a nice reminder that like you've got to intentional and be intentional on how you're thinking about what is in front of you.

Jessie

So it was a good little reminder on that.

Jen

Oh my gosh, I love that. I think my favorite takeaway was from Rhonda, where she said, You've got to find the pony and the room full of Pooh. She didn't say Pooh, if you know Rhonda, but you got to find a pony. She tells the story. It was awesome. So if you. Yeah, Presley says so true. Love it.

Jen

If you were there and you heard that story, let's give some high fives to Rhonda Conger. She was fantastic. Okay, Well, let's let's get into talking about what we want to talk about today on OPPT and introduce our special guests. I'm going to let Jesse have the honors of introducing her because she has been working with her now for a little while and I think it will be awesome.

Jen

So Jesse, who do we have as our special guest?

Jessie

I am just thrilled to introduce you guys to Aaron Russell. She is a part of the Tim O'Brien team. She is a dynamic duo with another Aaron. So it's the Aaron and Aaron team over there at Tim O'Brien. Aaron has been just amazing to watch crow in the seat so she fun fact about Aaron she's a twin. I don't know if you knew that.

Jen

She had a.

Jessie

Twin brother, but aside from that, she actually started straight out of college into the industry, just like myself. She did an internship with Tim O'Brien, Homes in sales and marketing, and fell in love with it four years ago. And so she has been doing online sales ever since. So we would love to introduce you to Aaron Russell.

Erin

Hello. Thank you guys for having me.

Jen

And oh, my God, to be here. Absolutely. I did not know that. That is so cool. So you started as an intern and look at you now. You're a part of the super team at Tim O'Brien. How long have you have you is it been how long have you been actually in online sales?

Erin

So I started in January of 2020. So it'll be four years at the start of next year. So.

Jen

Right. Or the pandemic.

Erin

Is everyone's like, you know, that weird time? And I'm like, I didn't know any different. So it's the normal for me, I guess.

Jen

Yeah, that's so awesome. So, you know, one of the things that is been so great, like Jesse said, is kind of watching you grow in this role and now as you're four years in, right. And when you get to that place of being in this position for a while, you know, you start like thinking like, okay, what's something what do I need to be doing differently or is there something new I need to be doing as an online sales specialist?

Jen

And I know, Jesse, did you ever feel like that when you were in the seat?

Jessie

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's normal.

Jen

Yeah, you know, I know I did. That's why I started doing the stuff with dogs. And you know what? Finding, like, what were you passionate about that you can incorporate into your day to day. And one thing that you're doing so great is something called the Construction Chronicles, which is what we want you to talk about today and share with us kind of what you're doing, how you're doing that.

Jen

So how did you start or why did you start this and what exactly is it? Let's start there. What, what, what are the construction chronicles?

Erin

Yeah, so the Construction Chronicles is really a video series that me and my counterpart, Aaron, we are in two different divisions, but we're still kind of a team here at Tim O'Brien Homes. So it's a video series that we came up with to really give Leeds kind of an inside look at what the build process looks like here at Tim O'Brien.

Erin

Homes. So we really kind of came up with the idea because we're like, okay, what can we do? What ideas can we come up with as far as content goes to get out to Leeds? But something that we haven't done before? I feel like I oftentimes get stuck of, you know, what can I come up with that's new?

Erin

And I feel like I'm always trying to come up with new ideas, but sometimes it can be difficult. So we started really brainstorming ideas of what would be exciting for a lead to see. So if I were a customer considering building, what would I want to receive that would be exciting and fun to watch, whether I'm looking now or if I'm still kind of sitting on the sidelines and not necessarily looking to buy now, but something that we can still stay in front of leads in our CRM system.

Erin

So it kind of started by back in 2021, we created a video that was really just us talking through the build process from online inquiry to contract. So kind of more of the initial point of things. And we really started talking about, oh, maybe it's time to revamp that video updated and send it out again. And as we got talking further, we're really like, actually, let's take this a step further and really give somebody something to watch and something to see that's a little bit more exciting than just our faces talking about, talking about what the stuff look like because a lot of our leads already see our faces very often from video emails.

Erin

So we really came up with the idea based on kind of starting with the video that we did back in 2020, but then again, taking it a step further and really showing what the build process of that because I think that's that's not only exciting to everybody, but also kind of a big question mark for many of our customers that have never built before.

Jen

Yeah. Yeah. And Tim O'Brien, just explain to everybody, like what type of builder you are, because I think that's important to understand why this is so valuable to your customer.

Erin

Yeah. So Tim O'Brien, Homes, we are a semi custom builder, so we do about 50% of our builder customer builds the other half our stock homes, we call them ready homes. So we do do stack homes as well. But then about half of our built our customer homes. So they really get the opportunity to pick out. We have a collection of plans.

Erin

They get to pick out what plan they want, and then there's a lot of room for personalization and ways that customers can modify our plans and really make it their own. So when we kind of came up with this idea for The Construction Chronicles, we felt like it was important to pick a customer home the feature versus a spec home, because then we can really showcase how this specific customer that we've picked out to do the video series on has personalized their home and really made it their own.

Erin

So it kind of gives customers or future customers ideas on what they can do. And again, an opportunity to showcase what this specific customer has done to their new home too. So that's also kind of a fun piece of it because it's going to be a little bit different than any other floorplan of this home we've built.

Jen

Yeah, that's awesome. And anybody watching, if you have questions as we're talking about this content, definitely chat it out for Aaron. Jesse, you were work you know you're working with Aaron like through this process and kind of brainstorming through it. What are your thoughts or what are your questions for?

Jessie

Aaron Yeah, yeah. Well, we really started just kind of brainstorming on a call together. We're like one. What do you like doing videos too? If you are a homeowner, what would you want to receive right? Well, I don't know the build process, so I want to see I want to have firsthand glimpse of what it means to build.

Jessie

And then they took it from there and really ran with it. And started using this as not only prospecting or a way to stay in front of their customers, but also how do we use this content in other ways to get new lead generation. And so they're going to take this content and use it on socials and try to gather some more interest from that as well.

Jessie

So it's just been super neat to watch. And then as we mentioned, our team. So they both have their own construction chronicles going on with their own customers and watching them do a different kind of perspective or what they want to portray. That's been super neat too. So making it their own.

Jen

Okay, interesting. Yeah. So okay, so I have another question. One, how did you come up with the name Construction Chronicles?

Erin

I was trying to think of this. I know it. Was it the help of Jesse? So we and so it kind of started once we came up with this idea, we're like, we love the idea. This is going to be so fun. But then we knew we had to come up with kind of a cute, fun name to keep it the same with each video that we're sending out.

Erin

And I started trying to brainstorm ideas I tried to use to get GPT to come up with some ideas, but I don't think I was because.

Jen

Well, I love that you tried it, but I tried it.

Erin

What happened? Just it was not capturing our vision of what we were wanting this to be. So the names that it was coming up with were not my ideas from it, but I'm like, This is not what I'm trying to get it here. And I think at the end of the day was really just see, that came up with Construction Chronicles.

Erin

We like kind of the play on words and it just yeah, and it came up and we loved it.

Jen

That's awesome. So Jesse mentioned you're using it for prospecting, so you're you're sending this out as a way to get in front of leads that are already in your database. How else are you using it?

Erin

So the main way we are doing it right now is so we've been sending it out monthly through our CRM, which we use HubSpot, we're going to start posting on our social media to is kind of more combined videos. So a little bit longer videos, we actually are going to eventually give them to the customer too, which is going to be fun for them.

Erin

They're really excited about that because they'll have a look back at.

Jen

Oh, you're saying this specific customer that you see?

Erin

Yeah, they're they're so fun. So we're at the end, we're going to combine it kind of in one long video. So almost be a little bit of a time lapse, not necessarily a time left, but kind of a long video from start to finish that we can show. And that's something that we're going to do to combine them all into one big video, because then for years to come, we really have these these videos to use and show people, hey, this is what a little taste of what the build process would look like.

Erin

And people that are not in our maybe our prospecting CRM lists and things, we can still share these videos with them too to get them excited about what this process will look like for them.

Jen

Yeah, I know. As an online sales specialist, you're you're always looking for something to send out, like some kind of news or something cool to send out. So I love this idea. I think I have, you know, we just have more questions for you, but I think it would be really cool to show everybody one of these videos.

Jen

And I think you have I think we have one queued up to go meet you guys.

Jen

Oh my God, I love it. Oh my gosh. So if you love that, give air and some hearts, you know, it really just there's so many. Unless you have built a home before, you don't really understand all of the the process, all the things that have to happen. So let's get into talking about how you produce this, because, you know, it looks really professional.

Jen

It's not like you're with your iPhone out there on the lot with the selfie stick going, Hey, I'm out here and, you know, we're digging dirt or digging your foundation. So what's the production process here?

Erin

So what I can actually tell you is I actually am out there with my iPhone and myself. So it's really it's really actually not very produced. And it's really easy to feel me going out there and doing it. So I did buy kind of a traditional selfie stick to help stabilize. And that way, if it is me in the video, I can have it a little bit further away.

Erin

But otherwise what I have been generally doing is going out to the site, going out to the lot, taking kind of short videos of what's happening. And then I use the iMovie app on my iPhone and then I'll combine the shorter clips so that we can show kind of several different things in one video and then as you saw the video, that was where I was standing talking.

Erin

And then Eric, our construction manager, was next to me. I was just talking into the camera. And then sometimes I'll do some voiceovers too. That way I'm not always having to talk while I'm standing out at the lot. And then I just combine the videos, I'll add in some music over it. So it's not just dead silence in the background, but always it's all just coming from.

Erin

And I know.

Jen

That is amazing. And also like if you're thinking, you know, I don't know technically if I would be able to do all of that, it might be something that you could get in marketing, like if you didn't know how to do all of that yourself, you could at least get the little clips and get some help with it, Right?

Jen

Get marketing to help you with it.

Erin

Yeah. What I can say too, is it's actually it seems intimidating, but it's actually so easy to use. I started using iMovie when I was just doing some walk through videos of our homes or our homes. We were posting on Facebook and things, and once you start playing around with it, it's actually pretty simple. I feel like if I can if I can do it, I'm sure most of the other people watching other places that are looking to do something like this would be able to do it because it's pretty, pretty simple.

Jen

I can say it says you can do it. Let's see. What questions do you have for Erin?

Jessie

You know, I was just thinking as I was watching that, you mentioned, you know, even if you've purchased a home before or even if you bought a new construction spec home, you don't always know the process. And so this is an educational series for the customer, but also as an online sales specialist, you don't always know all the steps.

Jessie

So that's the added value. There to learn. So like, what have you learned in this process so far as you've been making the series?

Erin

I have learned a lot and that's something that I was going to say too, is it's it's an educational piece for Leeds, but also for myself, because I don't get to get out there and see every little step that takes place to get a home built. I know the general steps and I know what the process looks like, but to be able to see it actually happening day by day, step by step, has been so great.

Erin

Also getting to see our trade partners out there working and seeing what they actually do, It's like, Oh, I know they're out there framing, but going out and actually seeing them do the work has been so eye opening too. So it's been such a great experience so far and I've already learned a lot and it's only been I think we started this in July or August, so I'm excited to kind of see what else I do learn are Construction Manager has also been great in letting me know exactly what's going on, some of the lingo and terms as far as specifics too.

Erin

So it's been very educational for myself as well, which has been great.

Jen

Mm hmm. I got chills, I'm aware now, but that is so amazing. And, you know, when in your in your role, when you find yourself with maybe a little bit more bandwidth, you know, seasonality of maybe leads are a little bit slower and you're like, okay, I've got some extra time. As long as your first priorities are always taken care of.

Jen

That's that's the mama Jen here. Just remember calls, leads, appointments, all that's happening, and you find yourself with some extra time. What a great way to learn. Like you're saying. You're like, get out there. Like, take these videos, learn yourself, ask questions, get the lingo. Jesse, What else.

Jessie

I was going to ask you. You know how long I know you said it doesn't take much effort in learning how to use the video platforms, but how long should someone take out of their day to prescribe to getting out their recording, editing and then posting or sending out?

Erin

Yeah, that's a good question. So I usually so we've been sending these out on a monthly basis. So my next one will actually be sent out tomorrow. So I'll usually try to get out to the lot a couple different times in that month before I send it out to get some video so I can show a little bit more progress in each video.

Erin

I would say taking videos out at the lot. I'm not there more than maybe 20 minutes, and that's if I'm really taking videos and if there's somebody else out there that I'm talking with. Truthfully, if there's nobody there and I'm just taking some videos, I would say closer to 10 to 15. So maybe 15 minutes, a couple of different times throughout the month.

Erin

And then I would say next half hour to get them all combined. And if you are going to do some voiceover, sometimes takes a little bit of time to come up with what I'm going to say or what I think is going to be and then recording those and depending on how many takes I have to do, But otherwise I would say I maybe spend an hour to an hour and a half at the most each month between taking the video is putting it all together and doing the music and voiceover and everything too.

Erin

So it really is. And I try not to think too much into it and make it too perfect because this is real life. So I try not to do 50 different takes or whatnot, but yeah, I would say an hour to an hour and a half, maybe each month.

Jen

Okay. If you are, what, what is your advice for somebody who's thinking about doing this? And they're like, not sure how to get started?

Erin

Yeah. So my biggest piece of advice would be to get your team involved. So as you saw in that video, that was again Eric who our construction manager for that community. So when we first came up with this idea, what I immediately did was reached out to our sales team, let them know what what we were going to be doing or what I was going to be doing and said, Hey, does anybody have a customer that they feel like would be a good one to feature in this series or that they're comfortable with you?

Erin

Because we did let the customer know we're going to be doing this and we will be posting on social media to an m who is one of our sales professionals here. She immediately reached out and she was like, Hey, you should totally feature this customer at home. They'd be okay with it. And the great thing about that too, is that she has been so excited about it as well, in addition to our construction manager.

Erin

So they're really excited about it. They're going to be featured in the videos. They're able to help keep me updated on exactly what's going on, what trades are out there, on what days. And we're also going to hopefully get some of our trades in the videos, too, as far as talking. So they'll be able to help with that connection as well.

Erin

So I would say the biggest piece is getting your team involved because it makes it much easier and much more exciting and fun to.

Jen

Probably bridges the gap with your on site sales specialist to getting them involved in your world and something that you're working on as well. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, before we do fun facts, Jesse, any thing else about the Construction Chronicles?

Jessie

I was just thinking, you know, I went back to my OCD self and I managed a number of communities and areas that I couldn't visit. So if somebody is in that position and there's maybe a community or a customer that they can't drive to, what would you say? Is this doable for them? What would you tell them to do if they can't actually go out and record videos themselves?

Erin

Yeah, so that's a good question. What I because I we have quite a few different communities and some of them are definitely a little bit of a hike for me. So I purposely tried to pick a neighborhood that was near our office because I come up to our office once or twice a week for our sales meetings and things, so that way I can kind of knock it out while I'm out here already.

Erin

Now I know that might not be feasible for some too. So again, getting the team involved might help because your sales team members are already going to be out at the at the site on a weekly or more basis. I know a lot of our sales team members actually send customers update videos anyways, so that would be a good opportunity.

Erin

Hey, if you're doing this, could you send me the video so I can compile and then make something a little bit different? Or, you know, even if they're just able to do photos, you could even do it with kind of a slideshow of photos type of thing too. So I would say with the help of your team, it's definitely still still something worth considering or trying.

Jen

Yeah, I love that. Just get your team, get your sales team or your superintendent to send you whatever videos or any taking. Yeah, brilliant. Okay, Fun facts. Aaron Okay, Rapid Fire. Jesse Now we're going to go back and forth. I'll go first. What do you do to recharge your battery?

Erin

You either play with my dog pumpkin or go shopping.

Jessie

I like it.

Jen

Okay, The dog is pumpkin.

Erin

She is a pembroke Welsh corgi.

Jen

Oh, gosh, That sounds sounds fancy.

Jessie

That sounds.

Erin

Like fancy. Fancy.

Jessie

Okay, I already gave up your twin fact because that was the fun that I knew about. Yeah. So let me put you on the spot. What's another fun fact about yourself?

Erin

Oh, okay. This sounds very random, but I. Back in August 2018, I won a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Oh.

Jessie

Stop it.

Erin

What? Yeah, we really don't have time for that.

Jen

What did you do with it?

Erin

I sold it.

Jen

Okay.

Erin

It was a very large bike. I'd never driven a motorcycle before. It was kind of worked out, but it was exciting.

Jen

Yes, Well, that is exciting. I want to talk about that later. Yeah. What are you reading? Watching or listening to right now?

Erin

So I have a deck of books that I've been meaning to read that I need to start watching. I'm kind of watching like Guilty Pleasure shows right now. I've been watching The Golden Bachelor and.

Jen

How is anybody in the Golden?

Erin

I really enjoyed it.

Jen

Okay. It's better than the regular Bachelor.

Erin

I think. So Now it's been good. So I'm watching that. And then I'm also watching the new Real Housewives of New York City.

Jen

And I'm watching that, too. So. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a wait, hold on. Back to the Golden Bachelor. Is there more drama or less drama on on this one?

Erin

I would say equal. I was at first when I before I started, I was like, how is like, what's the what's the dynamic going to be? But it's pretty similar to the normal Bachelor, which is interesting, but I would say equal amount of drama.

Jen

Oh my gosh. While Erin you guys can see why we wanted to have Aaron on to share with you guys what she's doing, you know, it's always good to have like a refresh and think of a new way to communicate with our home buyers and giving them information about how you build homes. You know, that's something that typically we put on our websites and things like that, but this just adds a whole nother layer of awesomeness.

Jen

And I didn't even think about some of these added benefits that we talked about today, like working with your on site. Actually you yourself getting educated about your home builds. That makes you a much better online sales specialist, wouldn't you say? Like how that benefited you?

Erin

Yeah, being able to explain the process too, because there are some people that really want to know the nitty gritty right off that. So being able to have a little bit more insight and firsthand look at what that process looks like makes it so much easier to then explain to somebody else who doesn't know what that looks like.

Jen

Yeah. And what do we always say? With knowledge comes confidence. So, I mean, it's just so awesome. So thank you, Aaron, so much. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, Jessi, so much for joining us. And thank you guys for tuning in to online. People talking, as we like to call it Art. We will see you next time. As always, you can head over to convert icon for all of the latest and up to date information, blogs, podcast, all of this free resources for you.

Jen

Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time!