Market Proof Marketing

Kevin Oakley: Marketing Mind at Do You Convert
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  • Marketing
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A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley 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 sell you! No fluff - just honest perspectives on where to invest your time, money, and energy to get the highest volume of quality new home leads to your sales teams. Take action on these ideas, and you can market proof your marketing efforts for your home building company.

  1. 4d ago

    Ep 454: Bias, Averages, and the Myth of the Neutral AI

    Britney Muller, founder of Orange Labs and former senior SEO scientist at Moz, joins Kevin for a wide-ranging conversation on AI literacy, debunking the idea of LLMs as all-knowing oracles, calling out "complexity as competence" among self-styled AI experts, and explaining why foundational SEO and brand mentions matter more than ever in an evolving AI-supported search landscape. AI literacy over better prompting: Many assume better prompting alone can fix AI's blind spots, but the deeper issue is a lack of AI literacy. Understanding how these systems are trained and retrieve information, without needing deep technical expertise, builds a stronger mental model of what AI is and isn't qualified to help with. "Complexity as competence" is a red flag: Britney coins this term for self-proclaimed AI experts who use technical jargon to project authority on AI search, even though no one has actually reverse-engineered how AI search ranking works, and warns how this can mislead stakeholders. Bias is structural: Because the internet overrepresents Western, high-frequency content, AI models magnify existing societal biases (illustrated by the Starbucks South Korea campaign controversy).  What questions do you have for Britney when she joins us at the Summit in Austin? Follow Britney on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/britneymuller/ Learn More About MMIW - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womenhttps://www.niwrc.org/mmiwr-awareness

    Ep 454: Bias, Averages, and the Myth of the Neutral AI

  2. Aug 20

    Ep 453: Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission

    Kevin is joined by Julie and Caroline, and it starts with a question no marketer wants to answer on the record: have you ever broken the law for marketing? The confessions come quickly (and anonymously, if you'd like to submit your own). The team also digs into why late-summer budget conversations shouldn't feel panicked, why reallocating spend usually beats adding to it, and how a $5 cost-per-click on a niche banner ad is nearly always a red flag. Story Time:Julie: Have you ever broken the law for marketing?Caroline: Reallocate before you spend moreKevin: Holy AI Announcements:Online Sales and Marketing Summit – Austin, Texas – October 1-2, 2026 – 95% sold out!  In the News:Claude’s new Scarlet Letter watermark is invisible—for nowGoogle confirms testing new buttons on home page to drive users to AI-powered search featuresThe Chart Isn't The Patient

    Ep 453: Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission

  3. Aug 13

    Ep 452: Building Trust Through Value

    Ryan Hillgartner, Director of Sales and Marketing at Tim O'Brien Homes, joins the podcast to discuss his nearly 10-year journey with the high-performance home builder and how the company has built consistent sales success through disciplined pricing, strong sales training, and a growing data and analytics function.  The conversation explores why Tim O'Brien avoids incentive-driven sales tactics, invests in integrated tech platforms, and treats each community's performance individually rather than chasing company-wide fixes.  Consistency over chasing more trafficTim O'Brien Homes has kept stable, strong sales performance (20%+ appointment close rates) for years without dramatically increasing marketing spend or traffic, showing that alignment between value and sales process matters more than volume. Tech and data as a differentiatorFrom adopting HighArc early to building an internal data and analytics team that integrates other systems, Tim O'Brien has invested in connected data infrastructure well ahead of many builders their size. Foundational trust enables autonomyRyan's leadership philosophy centers on supporting experienced sales managers rather than imposing change for change's sake, built on a track record of hitting sales goals. Follow Ryan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhillgartner/

    Ep 452: Building Trust Through Value

  4. Aug 6

    Ep 451: The Cheat Code Isn't the Answer

    Jackie, Julie, and Caroline talk about how the smartest marketing often comes from slowing down long enough to notice it, why "defending what we do" is quietly eating up marketers' time, and how the same incentive can flop or fly depending on how you frame the math. They also cover Google's new AI content labels, the risk of leaning too hard on AI for blog content, and how to communicate to buyers that a brand-new home might actually be the best deal on the market right now. Story Time:Julie: Your best content is hiding in plain sightCaroline: Sell the lifestyle before the listingJackie: Stop defending, start communicating Announcements:Online Sales and Marketing Summit – Austin, Texas – October 1-2, 2026 – 90% sold out! Don't wait to get your ticket. In the News:Google rolls out AI content labels in asset studioGoogle May Be Penalizing AI-Generated Content As Thin ContentThe best deal in housing might be a brand-new home—how builders are winning over first-time buyers

    Ep 451: The Cheat Code Isn't the Answer

  5. Jul 30

    Ep 450: Appointments Don’t Lie

    Kevin is joined by Julie and Caroline to celebrate Episode 450 (only 50 to go until the grand finale…), perform Market Proof Marketing’s first dramatic live reading, and dig into why the flashy, top-down fixes so many builders reach for are rarely the ones that actually move the needle. They also break down the Q2 Online Sales Benchmark data, talk through the risks of AI-generated content strategies, and unpack what happened when OpenAI's newest model got a little too curious for its own good. Story Time:Julie: Getting ahead of the aftermathCaroline: Zoom in, zoom outKevin: Fix the root, not the symptom Announcements:Online Sales and Marketing Summit – Austin, Texas – October 1-2, 2026 – 90% sold out! Don't wait to get your ticket. In the News:Q2 Online Sales Benchmarks OpenAI and Hugging Face partner to address security incident during model evaluationGoogle Local Services Ads Transitioning To Google Ads PlatformIt Works Until It Doesn't: AI Content Strategies That Backfire

    Ep 450: Appointments Don’t Lie

  6. Jul 23

    Ep 449: Get Specific or Get Skipped

    Julie, Jackie, and Caroline talk about the anxiety of not knowing what you signed up for, why marketers keep drowning in the "junk drawer" of tools and tactics, and how to sell the communities everyone else has written off. They also discuss why builder websites are burying their best photos and whether Google's new social signals in Search Console are actually helping you or just helping Google. Story Time:Julie: What to do when a community has less-than-ideal neighbors?Jackie: Not my fault, but it is my problemCaroline: What Snuba taught me Announcements:Online Sales and Marketing Summit – Austin, Texas – October 1-2, 2026 – Over 80% sold out! Don't wait to get your ticket. In the News:Most Builder Websites Hide Their Best AssetGoogle Is Using Social Media Signals To Mask AI Search Click LossAI SEO: Writing That’s Specific May Get Cited More

    Ep 449: Get Specific or Get Skipped

  7. Jul 16

    Ep 448: A Tale of Two Home Buying Journeys

    Beth Russell and Karla Tuten take over the podcast to talk about their personal experiences buying and nearly buying/renovating homes, using their own emotional and often illogical decision-making to illustrate what builders and marketers consistently miss about the customer journey. The conversation moves from house-hunting logistics into a broader argument about brand messaging, urging builders to sell the feeling of a life lived in a home rather than its spec sheet. Buying is emotional, not spreadsheet-drivenBoth admit that once they found "the one," specs like square footage, interest rate, and lot size stopped mattering.  New construction vs. resale is a peace-of-mind gap Karla contrasts the "black and white" certainty of new construction (known systems, no bidding wars, warranties) against the chaos of resale (unknown home age, competing offers, escalation clauses, surprise maintenance costs). Attention vs. emotion vs. conversion are three different jobsMany marketers are good at getting attention but fail to translate that into the emotional resonance that actually moves someone to buy - and that gap is where builders lose customers.

    Ep 448: A Tale of Two Home Buying Journeys

  8. Jul 9

    Ep 447: 20 Years, Zero Regrets

    Online Sales Coach Melissa Fort joins the podcast to trace her 20-year career journey through the new home industry, from launching one of the earliest online sales programs at Lennar in 2005 through the 2008 financial crisis, multiple cross-country relocations, and eventually into marketing leadership roles. The conversation blends nostalgic industry history with hard-won lessons about resilience, adaptability, and the value of gaining broad exposure across many builders rather than staying siloed within one company. Crisis Reveals Character The 2008-2011 downturn taught hard lessons about how quickly fortunes reverse; those who lived through it built resilience that served them in later market shifts. Breadth Over DepthWorking across 100+ builders at Do You Convert (vs. staying at one company) has built pattern-recognition and problem-solving skills that function like an industry "MBA." Advice For NewcomersPush through the tough, absorption-heavy first three years; patience, geographic openness, and long-term relationships pay off, with opportunities compounding around year five or six. Announcements:Online Sales and Marketing Summit – Austin, Texas – October 1-2, 2026 – Over 70% sold out! Don't wait to get your ticket.Do You Convert is hiring! View all open positions.

    Ep 447: 20 Years, Zero Regrets
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4.9
out of 5
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About

A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley 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 sell you! No fluff - just honest perspectives on where to invest your time, money, and energy to get the highest volume of quality new home leads to your sales teams. Take action on these ideas, and you can market proof your marketing efforts for your home building company.

Information

  • Creator
    Kevin Oakley: Marketing Mind at Do You Convert
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Market Proof Marketing
  • Show Website
    Market Proof Marketing

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