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S2 EP 4 | Looking Forward With Kimberly Mackey

Show Notes:

Focus Discussion of the Week:

This week’s episode of Building Perspective brings in the insight of Kimberly Mackey, the founder of New Homes Solutions, and recently named Chairperson for the National Sales and Marketing Council (NSMC). In a time where sales may be record-breaking, Kimberly brings her unique perspective and discusses making the most of your time, navigating today’s buying surge, and much more.

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Two thought leaders come together to explore all things sales and marketing from their unique perspectives. Each week, Mollie Elkman, Matt Riley, and others from Group Two dive into a focus discussion to talk about the latest trends, changes, and best practices.

[00:00:00] Kimberly: I hate spreadsheets, but you know, I live in spreadsheets. This is what I do in my world. And you know, I’m not an accounting person, but I have to be, I have to know my numbers. So that was the time that I really focused and I got that stuff done. And then when my models were open, I knew I had to have reactive time for my salespeople.

That’s that was my time to be in the field. That was my time to answer those phone calls and to help them with challenges they were having. And then again, about five to seven in the evening. As things started to get quieter in the model centers. That’s when I could wrap everything up, plan my day for tomorrow, so that I could start strong again or finish up whatever project work I didn’t get finished in the morning.

And I knew that, you know, 10 to 10 to five, you’re also going to have your meetings with your, with your, your teams. You’re going to have, you know, all those corporate meetings that you have to have as a man manager. And so this, this works no matter what your position is. So you just, maybe your hours are different [00:01:00] because of when you have to be proactive when you have to be reactive.

Matt: Hi, and welcome to building perspective with Matt Riley and Mollie Elkman

Mollie:  we’re here to bring value to you and your team by exploring all things, sales and marketing related all from different

Matt: perspectives. All right. And welcome back to another episode of building perspective. This week. We are. We are in what season two episode four, I’m going to mess one of these up one of these days since we’ve changed seasons.

I can’t keep it all straight. I, I don’t even know what day of the week. It is much less what episode we’re on, but off we go and I’m super excited to start this episode with, one of our very [00:02:00] special friends and guests. and my co-host is always, I have Mollie here with me, Mollie, say hi.

Kimberly: Hello

Mollie: everyone.

So we are so excited today to welcome Kimberly Mackie to building perspective. So if you’re in the industry, you definitely know Kimberly Mackie. I mean, you’re involved in everything. You, you know, everyone, I mean, it’s unbelievable and I can’t believe we haven’t had you on yet. So we’re so, so happy to have you here.

And before you get into a little bit of your background and who you are, I just want to say, I have so much respect for you. I, I look at what you do for our industry and how involved you are. And I just, it inspires me. So I just want you to know that that is seen and you are very, very

Kimberly: appreciated. Wow.

Well, thank you very much. So

Mollie: what I would love to do is have you start by telling us just a little bit [00:03:00] about you and your company, your background. Just give us a little snapshot.

Kimberly: I’d be happy to, so, and again, thank you guys for having me on, and I know I’ve had you on a couple of the programs that. that I work on and I appreciate always appreciate your wealth of information that you share.

So, it’s fun to be on with, with both of you. again, I’m Kimberly Mackie and my company is new home solutions consulting. I’m based out of sunny, Tampa, Florida. So that’s always fun. and especially in the winter time when everybody else is buried in snow. So I love snow. I love to look at it on Facebook from here.

it it’s much prettier. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t get to see all the gray nasty anymore. So I moved, I moved from Tennessee years ago and haven’t looked back, I am a sales and marketing management consultant and I stress the word management. I do outsource sales management. I get involved. I’m more of an immersion consultant.

And I like to say that I’m the person who, comes in to make sure that sales is the engine that [00:04:00] drives the train instead of running it off the tracks. So, and right now sales are running off the tracks. it’s a crazy time in our industry, so it’s a very busy time for me. And, probably one of the weirdest I’ve seen in my, a zillion years in this industry.

So, I am very involved as well. Mollie said in a NHB and, my state and local, association, and, you know, this industry has been really good to me. I fell in love with it. many years ago, we don’t even want to go into how long ago that was. I kind of fell into it by default. And then I just, I was like, this is the coolest thing ever.

I get to help people build a home. You know, the place that they’re going to live and they’re going to raise their family and security and, and build wealth for themselves. And, you know, it’s literally, I, it sounds cheesy, but it’s literally the American dream and it just, it, I just fell in love with it. So, I’ve been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

As some of my friends have said, they’re like, is there anything in the [00:05:00] industry you haven’t done? And I had my, I mean, I’ve done a lot of stuff. So I built homes. I was a director of, construction. Not because that’s what I set out to do, but because I was selling so many homes, we couldn’t build them. So, and they kept firing my director of construction.

So I became the director of construction by default for a while, so I can keep my homes moving. cause otherwise they told me to lay off my Salesforce and I decided that was not that’s unacceptable solution. So, so I’ve done a lot of the parts and pieces behind, so I’m good at putting the puzzle pieces together and understanding how sales can impact the rest of the company.

so, so. I don’t know. I don’t know what else to tell you. What, what else can I tell you

Matt: guys? I want to know. You said, did you say you were originally from Tennessee? I am. Well, my wife grew up in Johnson

Kimberly: city. Oh my husband’s from Johnson city. His father was a professor at ATSU. Yeah. so he’s retired now, but yeah, I’m from

Matt: Ottawa.

My [00:06:00] wife’s uncle was also a professor ETS. You,

Kimberly: Oh, that’s so funny. I wonder if they know each other. It was

Matt: his name he passed, or late last year, but his name is Jim Lawson. and my father-in-law was the purchasing director. ETQ so there you go.

Kimberly: Wow. What a small world. So, yeah, so yeah, so my father-in-law’s Dr.

John Anderson, who was a head of kinesiology, so, wow. Interesting. Very cool. And he’s been retired for years, but, that’s really cool. What a connection. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. All right, sorry, Mollie, go ahead. I had to, I had to ask about the Tennessee thing.

Mollie: Cool. So for, you know, one of the things that I think differentiates you and what you do for builders is really how hands-on you are.

I mean, you really, that visual of the puzzle pieces is like a perfect visual for you. and you’re also that hands-on when it comes to the actual industry. So [00:07:00] you are the current. NSMC chair, is that, did I get it right?

Kimberly: You D yes. After, the international builders show this year, it’s officially my year as the national sales and marketing council chair.

So, I’ve been in the, the ladder for that for about three years. so it’s, it’s a lot of fun and I get to meet really cool people. Like you, you said, I, I know a lot of people why it’s because of my involvement through the industry and through NHB that I get to meet everybody and, and, make great friends.

Mollie: Yeah, I would love to talk a little bit more about that. Like how you got involved, what that path looked like, just because I have always found it a bit intimidating, getting involved, not knowing where the right place to get involved is. So, what, what do you do in that role and, and what was your path

Kimberly: to getting there?

Yeah, I can see that it’s a, it’s a confusing, association. So, so, and it’s a low, a lot of the stuff takes place behind the scenes. so it is, [00:08:00] I, I found the national sales and marketing council even more confusing than anything else, but I started at my local and I’m fortunate to have a really strong local association with the Tampa Bay builders association.

And I got involved because of the educational component. I kept asking. even though I was winning all these awards selling, I was like, there’s gotta be some training for this. It can’t be just here’s the keys Mackey, go sell something. And they kept saying, well, you know, the only place you’re going to get training is the association.

So why don’t you go and, get your certified sales profession. So I did that and then I wanted to get my CMP, the certified marketing professional. And then I got all of my IRM training and, and I just kind of became addicted to all of the training that was involved. I started serving on my local sales and marketing council.

Went up the leadership ladder there I’m on, I’m a live director, at the local association. And then I got involved at the state level. and we have in Florida, we have a, the Florida sales and marketing [00:09:00] council where I think we’re probably the only state that still has a state association. so I got involved with that and got to work with people around the state and, very active in the Southeastern building conference.

I ran the sales rally in 2011, 12 and 13, which were great years. but they were actually really a lot of fun. So we brought in a ton of stuff. Speakers for the, for the industry, we’d have about 350 people were seeking education for that. So I got to see it from both sides and then I just graduated to the national.

And I think because I did that progression, it made it a little easier. it’s not a fast thing. It’s something you do over years and years. And you know, if you’re looking to get in and immediately get gratification and a recognition from working at the association, it’s not going to happen. I I’m here to tell you.

but everybody can get involved at some level. So just pick something, just pick something, whether it’s your local parade of homes, whatever it is, get [00:10:00] involved and just work at it and it’s, and, and do it in a spirit of giving. And don’t worry about what you’re getting, because you’ll get more than you ever give, but only if you approach it from what can I give back to the industry?

Yeah, I love

Mollie: that. Cause you did start by saying I love the industry and that’s the key is like you, it starts from a place of love and giving and helping the industry be better. So, I, you know, I always, I always like to know how, how that started and I, For me, you know, I went to my first spring boards, is that what it’s called for NHB?

And I remember I just sat and listening because you’re exactly right. Like so much is happening and so much is going on and you don’t go and automatically need to have your voice. You just need to go and, and experience the conversations and see what’s happening and, and go from a learning [00:11:00] perspective.

Kimberly: And I did that for about a year when I went to NHB may maybe even a little bit longer before I ever started before I even put in. So every October we open up for anybody who is a member can put in to serve on any committee or council at the national level. I recommend if you’re going to do that, you reach out to somebody like me, reach out to somebody who’s already serving and identify yourself and say, Hey, I want to step up.

I I’d like to join. I want to, I want to be part of this and let us help you by sponsoring you so that people know, you know, who you are and, and the, the gifts that you can bring to the industry. And, we will arrive a little record, a letter of recommendation. You can put, who’s sponsoring you for whatever position and.

you know, there are openings every year, particularly for builder members, ironically, since it is a builder’s association, but we need more builder members to serve. And there’s just, there’s so much that builders can get out of this. My co-chair is a builder out of Tulsa, John Madden, [00:12:00] with John Madden homes out of, out of Tulsa.

And, you know, he’s, he’s amazing. It’s incredible. And I, I seek his counsel regularly. so it’s just, it’s a really it’s. It it’s, it’s a really cool thing when you can collaborate at the national level and see how well all of us working together, what we can do to benefit everybody.

Mollie: I love it. It’s so inspiring.

another thing is you are such a planner. I mean, I, I, I saw that you already know what your next position is going to be, through. NHB and S NSMC. So, you know, how do you plan that far ahead? How do you know? And I, you, might’ve already answered this a little bit with it’s years of doing it and being a part of the conversations, but I know that that planning is a big part of.

How you operate your business as well, and being organized and planning and, and, looking [00:13:00] forward, which is why we have our title looking forward. So I think it’s a part of who you are, not just your role with any HB, but also in your business and how you operate.

Kimberly: One thing, none of us start a business go.

I’m going to do this for five minutes and then I’m done. Or I’m only going to do it for a year. it’s you know, I think we do have to be strategic if we want a long-term success with our business. And I do have goals for myself not only for, each week, each month, through, you know, for, for the year, for the, for five years, for 10 years.

And I think that’s, I think that’s important and I think NHB teaches you or any association, does teach you patience. Because nothing happens overnight, particularly when you do things by committee. So committee work is hard and can be frustrating. And I think you have to have very realistic goals for what you can get across the finish line.

So that’s a long way of saying [00:14:00] that. yes, I have done it for four years. you, you have to be appointed the it NHB. They don’t do ’em. They don’t do elections for these positions. so you’re appointed by the executive officer and I’ve, I’ve, been fortunate to work. Chuck Falck, who is took over last year, and, is the chair chairman of the board this year is obviously out of my home association.

and I was fortunate enough to, for him to recognize my, longevity in the national sales and marketing council. So three years ago he appointed me. So this is the year that I would then serve for that. and Alicia Huey, who I know through the professional women in building. And I just think the world of, I mean, she’s just so amazing.

And, she tapped me and said, Hey, I want you to get involved at the associates. so there’ve been some other peoples who tapped me and said, Hey, associates could really use some. Some more organization, a little bit more influence on that from the sales side and the positioning and, [00:15:00] and all of that.

And we’d like you to get involved over there. So I’ve spent a couple of years chairing and co-chairing committees, and then they tapped me. Alicia tapped me for that. So, you know, it is it’s year or so. And then it’s a, three-year commitment to go up the ladder to then share it. So, you know, it’s not something you take lightly and if you’re doing it just to build your resume, I it’s, it’s not worth it.

I’ll tell you that right now. but it is worth it when you get involved and you see that you can make a difference. Yeah.

Mollie: And it’s obvious to see that it’s a major time commitment at your level. So you’re putting in all this time and, you know, dedicating to making the industry better. And that is a great opportunity for us all to learn from you.

So like how do you manage time to be able to give that much back to the industry?

Kimberly: Well, I’m fortunate that I do have a team behind me, so that’s helpful. so some of my accounts, you know, have the, having an account manager, particularly my Berkshire, how, the way where I run the builder relations program for them, which I’ve [00:16:00] been doing for 11 years now, I have somebody who runs the day to day for that.

So that frees me up to do the other things. And I time block. so it was pretty old school. And you know, it’s not about using a particular app or this. I mean, I use a calendar, I use my outlook I’m I am addicted to outlook. I can’t break it. I can’t go to Gmail. it drives me insane. I do have Gmail, for business, but I just, and I’ve worked with clients that, you know, I had to be totally on Gmail for them and it just makes me insane.

I can’t break the outlook habit, because the calendar function and the task function to me just, it keeps me on the straight and narrow. I’ve I it’s been a challenge. I will tell you what this whole pandemic, I mean, I was used to being on the road two to three weeks out of the year. I mean out of the month.

and so now that I’m here, one day does kind of drag into the next and urgency has seemed to not be as, as much like, Oh, well I [00:17:00] wouldn’t do it tomorrow. You know, the time-blocking, that’s what keeps me, that’s what keeps me on track. And whenever my time blocks get out of whack, I find my productivity goes down.

tell me

Mollie: more about time-blocking just because I, you know, are you talking about like managing your calendar and literally planning out your day? Like, what does that actually look like for you?

Kimberly: So I actually have a spreadsheet that I have graphed out. And I color code cause I like pretty things. so, and I learned here’s a little trick that I learned with it.

So instead of using the actual blocks or the grids and the in Excel, I actually create text boxes and I put in whatever the thing is. And the reason I do it with a text box is now when my week goes out of whack, like last week, I was literally tied up for four days, doing six hours, zoom trainings. So obviously.

Anything my day job had to like shift to L after, after that and all the stuff that I still had to get done [00:18:00] shifted till after I was through training, which was tough because I was exhausted after six hours on zoom. I mean, Zoom zoom fatigue is a real thing. People I’m telling you, especially when you do that.

but so I can take those text boxes and I just shift them around. I don’t have to like retype it or cut and paste or worry about any, reformatting. I just move those slide, those text boxes around and that way I can visually see, okay, what do I need to do? What are my big chunks of things that I need to get done?

And these are the things that are, they’re, they’re my proactive time. And I make sure I get that proactive time in before my reactive time. So I’m always available for different things that people need from me or projects that I’m working on, where I need to react. I need to be able to react to my clients and whatever crisis or challenge comes up for the day or the phone calls or the text messages, or, you know, any of those things that any of us have.

So I actually time block that part in [00:19:00] that that’s my reactive time. And then if I am, I’m working on a project and I don’t know, I don’t have to react to anybody then I, you know, I can get a project done during that time, but. onsite salespeople. I coach them to their floor. Time should be reactive time.

Right? So the time they’re going to meet with customers, but the con the time they’re going to have to manage their pipeline, especially right now, it’s more pipeline management than it is a walk in traffic management. you know, all of those things and like block out that time. That’s your floor time.

That’s your reactive time. And then the time to get your projects done on your paperwork, done to do all of the reporting and all of the things in your planning, that’s gotta be your proactive time. And you’ve got to set that aside. That’s gotta be before you go on floor time or after maybe you’re like, maybe your energy is higher in the evening.

So I have two bursts of energy during the day. And it’s usually from, from about eight to 10 in the morning, there’s like my big energy time, or I can just like really focus and button down and get [00:20:00] things done before the phone starts ringing. And then in the evening, as people are settling down, so like between five and seven, then so I know that that can be so that’s four hours a day that I can dedicate to projects.

And then the rest of the time, then I can have meetings. I can do my coaching sessions and I can meet with, I can have my association. Yeah.

Mollie: Yeah. So I w I want to stop right there because to me, this is a golden nugget because. Proactive versus reactive. I tend to have the mentality that we don’t want to be reactive.

We want to be proactive, proactive, proactive, and it has never occurred to me to manage your reactive time. you’re you, you know, you manage the things that you can be proactive about. So you have the time to, for the reactive. tasks that you have in your day. And that’s, that’s really interesting because I’ve never looked at it that way.

Kimberly: When I got into this industry, [00:21:00] I struggled with how much reaction time I had to have, and I felt a bit out of control. And as you might can tell from my personality, I’m a little bit of a control freak. So this was my way of figuring out how to control the chaos. Or manage it. And if I couldn’t control it, at least I could manage it and try to contain it a little bit because otherwise I was just exhausted.

I just felt like it was just take, take, take all the time and I couldn’t ever get ahead of it, you know, and this way I can be ahead of it. And most of the time, I mean, not all the time, certainly. and you know, it’s, it’s just my way of trying to balance it out. And obviously every day is a new day to start over.

So some days I’m more successful than other days.

Matt: Yeah. And, and Kimberly, I think that it’s really, really insightful and super smart to teach that reactive and proactive time. I really like [00:22:00] the C like put the reactive time on your calendar. And I, from what I see what I’ve seen in the industry and being starting off, you know, being an onsite salesperson for so many years, you know, when the model.

Hours happen that time is no, like when you’re open, open in quotes, like we can’t use COVID this time period is the normal is the barometer. But when model hours are, are on that time is no longer yours. You can’t plan anything to really happen during your model hours because someone can just walk in the door and you have to attend to what they need.

And I really like how you said, like, that’s your reactive time. You have to put it. On your calendar and then your before your model hours or after your model hours is going to be your proactive time. Because as an onsite sales person, If you’re, you’re, you’re fooling yourself. If you think that your nor the [00:23:00] hours do you work are your actual model hours, right?

Like if you, if your models, if you, if you work, if your models are open 11 to six, like that’s not a real job, 11 to six, like it doesn’t work that way. And so I’m sure that. Yeah. I mean, I would assume that you spend a lot of time with your clients and especially onsite people. And maybe even, I guess not maybe even us, maybe especially sales management about really, really that Thom blocking skill and about reactive and proactive.

Is that, do you spend a lot of time talking to me to the leadership about that as

Kimberly: well? Absolutely. Yeah. So, and you’re right. And salespeople get in this thinking, Oh, well, I get to sleep in. So I don’t have to go to work until 11 o’clock or 10 o’clock or whatever. The common areas I’m telling you. If you think this is a 10 to six job, you will not be successful.

Don’t confuse floor hours with the amount of time it takes to be successful in this business. And for sales managers, I think it’s even worse [00:24:00] because of a, a term that I’ve coined administrivia. so it, sales managers get caught up in so much administrivia that really should be given to an admin person or off-loaded to a different department, or not even done at all.

So that’s one of the things in outsource sales management, you know, I can only do the maximum I will ever commit to any client is 10 hours a week, and I rarely commit to 10 hours a week. It’s typically five. So I can manage an entire sales team in five hours a week, but do I get everything done that a person, a sales manager who was there for 40 hours a week or 70 hours a week, which is usually the case would get, no, I don’t get all that done.

I can’t, it’s physically impossible for me to do that. And we find a way to figure out who the best person for those tasks are. We find a way [00:25:00] to automate, to simplify reporting and so that I can do it. And not only can I do it in the shorter amount of time, but I can do it from a distance because I’ve been zooming since before zoom was cool.

You know, so, you know, sales managers, particularly, and when I was, in sales management and, you know, VP and senior VP, that one of the things I did the same thing I had to, I came in early and that was my project time. That’s when I got those really important things, you know, Brian, Tracy tells us to eat that frog, right.

so the sub the unpleasant stuff, the report, I hate spreadsheets, but you know, I live in spreadsheets. This is what I do in my world. And you know, I’m not an accounting person, but I have to be, I have to know my numbers. So that was the time that I really focused and I got that stuff done. And then when my models were open, I knew I had to have reactions.

Give time for my salespeople. That’s that was my time to be in the field. That was my time to answer those phone calls and to help them with challenges they were having. And then [00:26:00] again, about five to seven in the evening, as things started to get quieter in the model centers. That’s when I could wrap everything up, plan my day for tomorrow so that I could start strong again or finish up whatever project work I didn’t get finished in the morning.

And I knew that, you know, 10 to 10 to five, you’re also going to have your meetings with your, with your, your teams. You’re going to have, you know, all those corporate meetings that you have to have as a manager. And so this, this works no matter what your position is to you, just, maybe your hours are different because of when you have to be proactive, when you have to be reactive.

Matt: By the way I love this conversation because, you know, it’s like all we’ve been talking about, well, really for a year now is like how to manage through, you know, the, the pandemic. And now we’re talking about how to, how to keep, you know, we’ve got this, this plethora of buyers and essentially it’s like, How do we manage all these people?

I absolutely [00:27:00] love that we’re talking about basics, right? Like always like back to the basic and, and, you know, as a builder, many moons ago, I w like we would taught this was. 2015, 2016, when we, which by the way, we thought was one of the best housing markets, great ever

train on our sales team with our team, while we’re going to train on the meet and greet, we’re going to train on how to demo. Oh, we’re going to train on, you know, we want to make sure that we have focused time. We called it kind of one of the. Things that we talked about was having protected time. So if your model’s opened at 11, the sales person had to be at the model home no later than 9:00 AM.

And so that first hour between nine and 10 was protected time. And what they were supposed to do between nine and 10 was to actually do their outreach, their realtor outreach. you know, they’re supposed to do lead generation, and for, for [00:28:00] prospects, you know, in realtor relationships, things like that.

And then from 10 to 11, the sales manager could actually come out and do one-on-one training and sales process training and things like that. So I love that we’re talking about this today. I mean, this may seem like why are we talking about time blocking and time management? with what we’re doing.

Like, I need an app for that. Like, I need something to like automate this. I don’t have time to think about this, and this is exactly why we have to make time to talk about our time. Because if we don’t, it’s all gonna fall apart. Like all this, this great backlog that we have is just gonna, it’s gonna turn into a nightmare,

Kimberly: right?

It’s already turning into a nightmare for many builders and because they sold too far ahead. they’re not throttling their sales, which they need to be throttling right now. They need to be managing and not getting I’ve got one client. and her, her leadership is pushing her to sell more homes. And I’m like, why you can’t even build what you have for the next to stop selling.

Because you’re just going to resell [00:29:00] this stuff and you don’t even know what your losses are going to be on these. And yes, we’re talking actual losses because we don’t know what the price of lumber is. We don’t know what our supply side is going to be, and they can’t hire fast enough to build this stuff.

Plus they’re running out of land. So I’m like, you know, land is a precious resource. We can’t squander it right now. So again, when you slow down, you can think through these things and you can manage your, your time. You can manage your business, you can plan better, whether you are an onsite sales salesperson, or you’re a division president or a principal of a builder.

And that’s the problem. We, our business is so reactionary that we forget that we have some control over it. And we should, and we especially showed right now because this market is going to change and it’s going to change on a dime. And you Mark my words in 2021, it’s already changing. I was talking to Carol Morgan yesterday and we were going through some analytics for some shared clients and traffic while [00:30:00] still very good.

And our online traffic activity is very good. It’s not what it was in January. There’s already people going, I can’t get a home. Can’t find a home. So I’m just gonna wait. I’m gonna sit it out. That’s already happening. It’s real. So the economists haven’t told you that yet, because they have to look at everything in the rear view mirror, but I’m telling you it’s happening.

Matt: Yeah, all, all the data that we get, all the reports that we get are a bare best 30 days in the past and best. Right. And most of the time it’s 60 days plus. Right. You know, cause you’re looking at closing data that that stuff has to, you know, that stuff has to record and that doesn’t happen a lot of times instantaneously and the closing data isn’t.

The leading indicator of what what’s happening. It’s it’s leads that are coming in it’s conversations that you’re having with buyers early in their process. And so having your finger on the pulse of that [00:31:00] side of it is the real leading indicator of what’s happening in my opinion. So I think those

Mollie: builders who can’t keep up with the demand who are overselling and selling too far in advance, they want to see that decrease in traffic to the website because.

They’re not, you know, full steam ahead. So that’s actually that decreased in traffic to the website, depending on who the builder is, is not a bad thing. It could be reflective of where they are. Do you agree with that or? No?

Kimberly: I think it could be, but I also think that, you know, again, this market’s going to change and we need buyers tomorrow.

Just like we need them today. You know, we need realtors tomorrow. Like we need them today. We don’t need to be cutting anybody out of the process. It just may be a longer process. So I think we need to elongate. what we are doing in, in that, so that we can still nurture those leads and not lose them, because there are some builders who have not experienced the same kind of demand as say, some of the big publicly traded and, you know, they [00:32:00] can take on some more and they can help to alleviate a little bit of this, this, this pipeline, but people don’t always know how to find those guys, you know, and gals go, let me say that politically correctly.

Mollie: So. What about your personal time? Do you also manage your personal time? do you time block, you know, manage your schedule in that way? Obviously I know people, you know, there’s a lot of conversation about mindfulness and making sure that you take the time you need for yourself to be your best self. Is that, do you consider that like, More reactive time.

How, how do you manage that side of your life? Which is

Kimberly: very busy. It is very busy. So yes, I have two children. I have a horse, two dogs, we’ve moved twice this year and a pandemic. Yay. That was fun. And then I just moved my horse this weekend. So that was, you know, that’s the whole weekend. I, I manage my personal life sort of the same way, except that, you know, it’s kinda like that.

How do you eat an elephant one [00:33:00] bite at a time? So I just kind of take the most pressing things and make sure again that I’m putting those in there. I’m not, I will tell that’s where I fall off the rails a little bit. So, you know, if I cook dinner for my family three nights a week, I think I’ve done.

That’s great. You know, I kinda, I have to take the pressure off, hire help. I do have a housekeeper it’s cheaper than therapy. You know, I’m like, I don’t like to do this. I get angry because cleaning up after people who are fully capable of cleaning up after themselves. So I offload this stuff, you know, and, and so I can manage it.

And I think that’s important to know what you are, are good at what you’re not good at and, and go with that. Not that we can’t all stretch and, and do some things that we don’t like to do, but, you know, there’s, there’s a limit. And I can’t do it all. And that’s hard for me to admit. but you have to get there.

I think so, you know, I do what I can and some nights I come in and I collapse on the couch [00:34:00] and I watch Netflix just like the rest of us, you know, that’s, you know, so much you gotta do it.

Mollie: I, I absolutely love that. you know, there are certain chores that you’re going to like doing, and they’re fine.

And there are other things that it’s okay to ask for help. And I think, you know, I know for me, I, you know, I can’t be at, I can’t be an at-home mom and a working mom at the same time, so I definitely relate to that. And I, and

Kimberly: I love that. I think if you’re whatever you’re doing, be there. I’d really try. So if I’m there with my clients, I like, I put, I shut out everything else.

So the rest of it, you know, I tell everybody I’m going to be off limits. You’re not going to be able to get me between these apps so I can truly focus and be there. And I am fortunate that I have a husband who has worked for home from home for years. So he’s run a graphic design business from home. So he’s had the flexibility.

So when I’m traveling, he can run the kids and you know, now they’re old enough to, you know, to kind of do [00:35:00] themselves. My daughter’s going to be getting her learner’s permit. That’s really scary. yeah, so, and my son is in his twenties, so. you know, it’s it, but over the years it has been really helpful too, to have that ability.

So, you know, you, you got to play to what works and make, you know, forget stereotypical roles sometimes.

Mollie: Yeah. And I, I do want to just repeat what you just said, cause it, it speaks to me, you know, wherever you are be there. And I will tell you like being totally real sometimes, you know, at home, my husband and I will say to each other.

Put your phone down like this is we’re, you know, we have to actually call each other out on it because there’s always an email. There’s always something that you could be doing on your phone. But if you know, when there are times for different things. So I think that that’s, great advice wherever you are be there.

Kimberly: It’s a hard thing to do, but it certainly makes whatever you’re doing much more [00:36:00] enjoyable.

Mollie: I like it. I’m going to, I’m going to, that’s going to be my

Kimberly: go-to. Yeah. My horse really taught me that my horse has taught me a lot of things in life. So, including last night when I almost had a heart attack, because there was literally a Turkey underneath his feet.

That’s

Matt: so funny.

Kimberly: I’m like, Oh my gosh, somebody’s going to die. And I don’t want it to be either one of them, because both of them were in a very precarious situation and you’d think the horses not in as much, but he was because he was on cross ties. So yeah, we really had to, I couldn’t be anywhere else, but right there at that moment.

Oh,

Matt: I have to ask, are you, do you just have a Turkey just because you want a Turkey or are you like. Raising a Turkey for, maybe Thanksgiving.

Kimberly: And then we actually moved to, I, I don’t live in a place where my horse can live with me. So, my, I bored him at a barn and I just moved him from one barn to another.

And this barn has Turkey and peacocks and L and a deer. There is, a wild deer that Lee is the resident [00:37:00] deer that lives in the property. Her name’s Debra. I don’t know why it’s Deborah. It’s just Deborah. but Deborah will eat carrots, like come up to the horses and go nose to nose. She hangs out with the horses.

So, but this Turkey, they, they, the people who own the land now inherited the Turkey and the Turkey just hangs out with the horses too. But she decided last night while my horse was on the cross ties, which means that too, for those of you who aren’t horse people, it means that you’ve got two, leads, hanging on both sides of his halter.

so he really, he can’t turn around. So it’s like, you’d put them in where you’re going to wash them or whatever. It just keeps them from being able to turn around. And I walked away for a minute to go get something and came back and there’s literally a Turkey underneath his front feet. And as I tried to shoo her away, she decided to just lie down underneath his feet.

And I can’t believe he was so calm because he, he just got there three days ago. Turkeys are not something he’s ever seen. So he’s just like, okay, we’re doing this. There’s a Turkey at my feet. So thank goodness. I was able to [00:38:00] maneuver him out of a way, because I could not get the stupid Turkey to move. And.

Then the kid who came from who lives there, Kim comes over and just picks up the Turkey and moves over. And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t know. We could do that. You can pick up,

I was afraid of getting beat that beat and I was afraid of getting they’ll

Matt: they’ll kick you. And they have that spur on the bottom of their feet. Like that’s no joke. It’ll do some damage.

Kimberly: Oh, so yeah, I thought we were having first Turkey for dinner last night. Oh goodness.

Mollie: They’re going to become best friends.

We’re going to have the saga of the horse in the Turkey

Kimberly: when she starts riding him. We’re going to, that’ll be

Matt: not good. That makes for good social media content

Kimberly: right there. It does. Yeah. It got a lot of, I got a lot of fodder on that last night. That’s right. That’s right.

Mollie: So we’ve gotten a lot of really great insights.

I know you have a lot more that you can share with us is our, you know, we’ve been talking about time management, you know, we haven’t even really gotten [00:39:00] into goal-setting all those things. So I want you to have a chance to give us some of these, Things that help you manage and help your clients manage their business.

So I want to make sure we give you a

Kimberly: chance to talk about those things. So we’ll just very quickly, cause I know we’ve gone through a lot and I know we’re short on time here, but you know, we always talk about goals. We talk about goal setting and setting smart goals. Right. So, you know, give yourself a time frame that’s reasonable and set your goals.

I think I’m, I’m all about reach for the stars. But figure out the mini goals that help you get there, you know, so that you can, if you set your goal too high, too far without setting some mini goals, so you can have those wins and celebrate as you make those strides, I think it can be very discouraging.

At least it is for me. so I always encourage, okay, what is, okay, this is great. This is the goal we want to achieve. I want to make y’all, don’t make a $500,000 this year. Okay, great. I want to make a hundred thousand [00:40:00] dollars a year. Okay. 75. It doesn’t matter what it is, whatever that number is. And then, but how, what does it look like?

So how many sales do I need to get there? And how many closings does that equate to. And I’m going to celebrate. And then I, we work on, I work on a principle with my sales teams and my business, my builders called ten five to one. And it’s how we break this down into little micro chunks. So 10 is the number of traffic that each salesperson needs on average, that isn’t always the case.

I’ve got a builder in Rochester, New York. If we get two a week, we are doing a happy dance, but they’re very qualified. So we know that we’re still going to be able to hit our sales goals if we get to really qualified leads. So that number I don’t focus on as much, but on average a salesperson. Now we know that it takes 10 leads, for them to have a 10% conversion rate, five first appointments a week.

Two second VBAC appointments that second, third, fourth appointment. If it takes that today, if you have a second, third, fourth appointment, it’s [00:41:00] a miracle because if people aren’t buying sight unseen or putting in offers, or, you know, I mean they know they have to react and they have to react quickly, but again, this market’s going to change, so we can’t lose these principles.

So 10 traffic, five first appointments to be back appointments equals one sale per week. And this is really simple. So that’s 50 sales a year because I do believe that, you know, at least you’re taking a two week vacation a year, so there’s 52 weeks in the year, easy math. So one sale per week is 50 a is 50 sales a year per salesperson.

And most builders are completely thrilled if they have a salesperson who is doing 50 sales a year. So. We can throttle that we can, we can, you know, I’ve, I I’ve actually been brought in to slow down sales before. so we can throttle that to and adjust it based on land and land constraints, or we can ramp it up and it can go beyond that.

But if you’re following those basic principles, then your cashflow. [00:42:00] Is is where you need it to be. Because if you are selling on a consistent basis, then you’re starting homes on a consistent basis. And if you’re starting homes on a consistent basis, you’re closing homes on a consistent basis, which means your cashflow will be there consistently to help you plan and manage your business.

So, you know, with that in mind, we start with the bigger picture and we work our way backwards with the goals and set those little mini goals along the way so that we can actually have those celebrations every week, every month, every quarter, and every year when, as we get there. And I find that, you know, that that motivational accountability really is not an oxymoron because people love to achieve their goals.

so take the time to set them, I guess, would be my big thing. Be flexible. And my Achilles heel factor in some life happens times, cause it will happen. And it’s a domino effect when it does and things do [00:43:00] go wrong and things go off course. And so, you know, always think that everything’s going to take longer than what you plan.

I know it does for me, so that, I guess that would be my very. Wrapped up succinct, put a bow on it. Information is that,

Mollie: you know, that is such good advice. And it, it really is not limited just to our industry. You know, I’m, as you’re sitting here talking about goals, that’s exactly what we do at group two.

You know, we set our big picture goals and then we have smaller, you know, check-ins and, that’s something that Matt had helped. You know, set up when he first started at group two and you know, that’s great business advice in general. so I, I love that. And, I also love life happens and it’s not just for leaders.

Life happens for everyone on the team. And I think having a place where you. You know that, and you’re able to support other, you know, everyone on the team, knowing that life happens. and coming from a [00:44:00] place of, you know, kindness about that. And, and empathy, I think is important too, for leaders to remember

Kimberly: it’s very important and you know, every day is an opportunity to start fresh.

So you can’t change the past. Nobody has that power. The only thing you can control is what you’re doing right now. So if I, if I like to reward that reward, right. Behaviors what I say. So, you know, if you’ve got somebody who’s really working at it and help them, they’ll get there. If they’re really working at it and they’re really focused on it.

but if I’ve got somebody who’s just like, yeah, whatever, I’m going to do it my way now that see that’s a whole different ball game for me. So, you know, you’re either on your you’re either on the team or you’re not, you know, you’re you’re, you gotta be, everybody’s gotta be rowing in the same direction.

I

Mollie: love it. So if people want to get in touch with you, how can they reach out to you? what is it, your website, social media. What’s the best way to get in

Kimberly: touch with you? They can just Google [00:45:00] Kimberly Mackie. if they forget my company, they can go to Kimberly mackey.com. It’ll take them right to my website, which is new home solutions.

two S’s in the middle of new homes solutions. so, you know, it’s easy to find me. So, you know, again, you know, either one of those, they can email me at K Mackey at new home solutions. So, I’m happy to, I’m happy to help and, and, you know, meet with people. I meet with people for free. I do, I offer a free one hour consultation.

So, and I don’t hold back on my advice. I’ll give you advice and then if I can help you in an hour, we’re done it. Doesn’t cost you a thing. So you go

Mollie: get your free hour. Exactly, exactly. Like it. We’re going to put

Kimberly: that in the show notes.

Matt: How do people find you? And you say, just Google me.

Mollie: I love

Kimberly: it.

Mollie: Didn’t you start by saying you don’t like Google and Gmail, but just

Kimberly: to go Google me, I have G Gmail for business. I love it. I just see, I can’t live in my Gmail. It just makes me crazy. I have [00:46:00] to click too many places. I don’t want a lot of clicks.

Mollie: Oh, don’t get mad

Kimberly: email. Yeah. I hate it. I love

Mollie: it. So, this was really helpful.

We appreciate your time and appreciate just you in general and everything you add to the industry and lots of really good information here. So thank you so much.

Kimberly: Well, thank you guys. It’s always a pleasure and I hope I was helpful today. And, when you know, let’s do some more stuff in the future together.

Sounds

Matt: good. Absolutely. Thanks Kimberly.

 

 

 

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