280.5 Bonus Episode: 2025 Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit Preview - Greg Bray and Kevin Weitzel Aug 11 2025

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody, and welcome to a special bonus episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse.

Greg Bray: And we are excited today to tell you about the 2025 Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit coming up September 24th and 25th in Atlanta, Georgia. Kevin, this is going to be another awesome one.

Kevin Weitzel: It will be. Do we get to go see like a Braves game? Isn't that baseball? Are we going to go see Braves football?

Greg Bray: Braves is baseball. We are not going to get to see a Braves game.

Kevin Weitzel: Oh, okay.

Greg Bray: It's even better than a [00:01:00] Braves game, Kevin. I am so pumped about it. Man, last year was great, the year before was great, and we just keep getting better. And guess what we're doing brand new this year? We are adding another track. So last year, we had the marketing track and the online sales counselor, or the OSC, breakout tracks. And this year we're adding a third track for leaders. It's a leadership track where you're going to get some leadership-specific training and ideas, and that's going to be led by Kimberly Mackey, who we all know and appreciate her expertise in that area. So, really pumped about that.

Kevin Weitzel: From New Home Solutions.

Greg Bray: Yes. And of course, Leah Fellows from Blue Gypsy is back leading our OSC track. And Blue Tangerine and OutHouse, of course, hosting this. What are you excited about, Kevin? What are some of the presentations that you've been seeing get put together that have got your interest up?

Kevin Weitzel: Well, obviously, Elicia Azali, our keynote speaker. She's kicking the whole thing off. Love her, respect her. She's from Beezer Homes. Can't wait to hear what she's got to say. I'm hoping for some inspiration. I always like the keynote once because they tend to get your batteries charged up before it even starts. [00:02:00]

Greg Bray: Yeah. Real excited about Elicia as well. She is actually not super long in the home building industry, so she's going to bring some insights from other industries that she's seen, and now how we can apply that to building and make sure that we are connecting with our customers. I think that's going to be a fabulous session for sure.

Kevin Weitzel: And even though I joke around about being a knuckle dragon mouth breather, I absolutely love, and apparently the rest of the room does too, Cabe Vincent, one of your specialists there. The cool thing about Cabe is that he is so good about just smoothly and easily disseminating the information to where all people from all walks of life can understand it. I love his sessions. And I think he's one of the first sessions, anyways.

Greg Bray: Yeah, and he's our SEO leader at Blue Tangerine. SEO has changed a lot over the last year to two with all the AI impact, and so he's going to be talking about how your SEO program needs to change related to all the AI implications. And it's going to be a great presentation. We probably did [00:03:00] not give him enough time. He probably could have done a half a day just with that, and we're only giving him, you know, 30 minutes. But it's going to be good.

Kevin Weitzel: I think he has the record still for the most questions, and that was in our Phoenix edition.

Greg Bray: I think you're right. I think you're right. We did move him up earlier, so people will know who he is, so they can go ask their questions the whole time instead of all cramming them in at the end. It's going to be awesome. We're going to be connecting on AI, probably in all kinds of sessions. Right? Leah's going to be hitting some AI stuff in the OSC track. I know it's going to show up in several other presentations as well. So, if you're interested in understanding where does AI fit with your marketing programs, how can you start to leverage these tools, you don't want to miss the Summit. This is going to be the place where we are really going to peel back that onion and get in deeper.

Kevin Weitzel: Is there one that stands out for you?

Greg Bray: I am excited about the AI. I'm also excited about the variety of what goes into this. We're going to have some folks from Denim Marketing sharing more about social media. We're going to have Kimberly Mackey and Leah Fellows [00:04:00] helping us connect sales and marketing together. We've got Heidi Schroeder back from Lasso helping our OSCs understand how to get more out of the CRM and understand the power in that. There's just so much here, Kevin. We've got some new folks coming. Brian Kernohan from Lumin.ai is going to be with us for the first time. Real excited about him. So, I don't know how to answer that question. I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just looking at the list, and there's just so much. Am I too excited? I don't know.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, on the OSC track and the leadership track, those are driven by Leah and Kimberly, respectively, but they have some guest speakers as well, some guest presentations. Being that they're standalone tracks, you can have whole teams show up. You can have people that are here from the marketing side. You can send your OSCs over Leah. You can send your management, your ownership over to, you know, learn from Kimberly. It's a well-rounded and very intimate setting. You know, the beauty of this that we love the most about it is that it's smaller. It's not about how many butts can we put in seats. It's about [00:05:00] how much content can we get in front of people through this two-day session.

Greg Bray: And you know, Kevin, we're coming back again with our most popular feature, and that's our round table discussions. For those who haven't had a chance to be with us, these are opportunities for you to sit at a table with between four and eight other attendees, with a facilitator, with a predetermined topic. And you get to sign up for the topics you want. You'll get to attend four different round table conversations, two on the first day, two on the second day.

And this is a real chance to get to know your fellow attendees, to get to know some of the experts that are there, that we have as our speakers, and some of our sponsors. And then, really learn from each other and be one of the contributors as well. And that's why people just really love this because they get to find out what other builders are doing in these different areas and get to ask questions. It's not a sales pitch, it's not a presentation, it's a conversation. It's something that gets [00:06:00] the highest ratings every year. Really excited to do that again. I know you've had a chance to facilitate some of those conversations. Tell us your experience with the round table.

Kevin Weitzel: I have, and we get really good feedback from them. Here's my take on it. Again, it's educational. It is topical based off of the subject matter that usually aligns with the person that's facilitating it. Doesn't always, but for the most part, it does. The fantastic aspect is that if you're struggling in one aspect of your business, you get to choose which round tables you go to. So, you can actually pick based off of the topic and or the speaker and or whatever, what that subject matter is going to be that you're going to go talk to. And then, you're literally learning from people that have either one, found successes, or two, made some missteps, and you can learn from their missteps. It's pretty fun.

Greg Bray: Yeah. Sometimes people are sitting there going, I know nothing. Tell me what you do. And others are there, they're doing some of it. They just want to make sure they haven't missed something along the way. Or frankly, sometimes people just share because they're the ones that are kind of leading the pack, and they may not have even realized it. Such a powerful [00:07:00] part of this event is getting to know the other builders that are like you, doing the things you're doing, and be able to continue those relationships after the event as well, and make them part of your group that you can tap into for insights later.

Kevin Weitzel: Not only after, but even during the lunches and the breaks. Because it's such a smaller environment, you have that intimate setting where you can sit down with one of the sponsors if you want to, learn a little bit more about their offerings. You can sit down with maybe a competitive builder, maybe a similar builder in a different market, and you can actually have conversations with people. There's time for that. So, definitely a big plus.

Greg Bray: And, of course, Kevin, it's not all about sitting around and learning. We've got some fun worked in, too. Tell them about Kahoot, Kevin if they haven't heard of Kahoot.

Kevin Weitzel: I live for Kahoot. Kahoot is awesome. So, instead of just having random door prizes, we have the Kahoot game, which is basically you go through and you answer trivia questions. And the trivia questions are usually about products or different services that are out there. Or they're about the topics that you've learned about [00:08:00] while you were there. The fantastic thing is that the higher you are up on the leaderboard, the more likely you are to go home with some pirate booty.

Greg Bray: There have been some great prizes, and these come from our sponsors and are donated as well. And so, we've had prizes worth several hundred dollars given out before. Sometimes they're, you know, $10 gift cards for those third and fourth place winners. But if you're first in these Kahoot games, it'll be worth it. It'll be worth it.

Kevin Weitzel: I am a little disappointed that not one of the winner recipients has ever chosen the date with Kevin. I don't know why I've offered that coupon up every year, but still, it never gets accepted, and I don't know why.

Greg Bray: Maybe it's a travel thing, Kevin. Maybe they're just too far away.

Kevin Weitzel: It could be. It is far. It could be that.

Greg Bray: Yeah. Yeah. So, well, not only do we have the games, but we're going to have a fun reception the evening on the first day with some heavy hors d'oeuvres, drinks, friends, conversation. Just a chance to really get to know each other in a more casual setting. Again, not just feel like you're in class all day. That's not what we're after.

And [00:09:00] if you're really adventurous, provided by our friends at Audience Town, they do a 5K fun run the morning of the second day. I don't know how 5K and fun end up in the same sentence, but they make it work. It's great. Are you going to sign up for that one this year, Kevin?

Kevin Weitzel: All right. It's a known fact that Kevin hates running. I hate running. I did eight years in the Marine Corps, and trust me, you run almost every day. And I hated every minute of it. I don't like running because I'm a cyclist. I want the faster pace of a bicycle. However, I will commit because I am trying to lose a little bit of weight. I will commit to at least going down, stretching, greeting, and starting with the Audience Town team, and the participants that go, and I will just make it a little walk. So, I might do a one-mile brisk walk instead of the 5K run, but I will commit to that this year. You heard it here first.

Greg Bray: Alright. Now we'll find out how many people are listening to us, Kevin, to see how many people hold you to that.

Kevin Weitzel: Fact.

Greg Bray: If you don't see Kevin show up for the fun run sendoff, [00:10:00] you let me know. All right? You let me know all. Awesome. Well, Kevin, I just want to say, too, there's a couple of folks that are coming in addition to Elicia, that I'm really excited to learn from, and you've got them on your panel. Tell us about your panel and the topics that you guys are going to be diving into.

Kevin Weitzel: On my panel, we're going to have Chris Thornton from Ashton Woods. We're going to have Jamie Godwin of Coulter Group, and then we're going to have one other. We haven't determined who that last person is, mostly just because people, for some reason, are just very afraid to commit to things. But, that said, we're going to be talking about how smart builders are marketing in a very unpredictable world. I mean, there's so many things that are hitting the news that affect home builders.

You know, you've got interest rates, you've got tariffs, you've got migration. You've got hiring freezes. I mean, all these different, you know, scary things. What are these various builders doing, from the giants to the middle to the smallest builders? How they're tightening the belt, how they're adjusting to those punches that keep coming.

Greg Bray: The other one that I want to just shout out to is Melinda Byerley. She is from the agency called [00:11:00] Fiddlehead, and she is a marketing AI expert extraordinaire. And so, she's agreed to come and really share how you can use these tools in your marketing processes to generate more content, to improve overall. And she's going to talk about which tools fit for which types of scenarios. And again, this is somebody that we probably didn't give enough time to because she's going to have so much to share, but really excited and grateful that Melinda's willing to come spend some time with us as well. So, don't miss that one.

 Kevin, these events are impossible without great support, and we've got another fabulous set of sponsors. Many of them are back, a few of them are new, but we want to just really thank them. Our diamond sponsor, Homes.com, really stepped up. They are doing some exciting stuff in the new construction space now. Really excited about them. New sponsor with us this year is Rilla, one of our platinum sponsors. Our other platinum sponsor, New Homes Directory. They're a returner, so grateful to have them back as [00:12:00] well.

Kevin Weitzel: In the gold side, we've got New Home Source, they're back again. ECI Lasso also back again. Audience Town back again. I'm saying back again for a reason. Greg, there's vendors that will sponsor an event and they'll try it, and then they leave. They'll sponsor another event, try it, and leave. We get an unrealistic number of repeat sponsors. Either one, we're too affordable, or two, it's just a quality event. I'm going to lean toward the quality event. We've got Homebuilder Ops, CommVersion. These guys come from across the pond to come to our event.

Greg Bray: And we've got LaRuche Photo, new sponsor this year. And then we've got Lumin.ai, new sponsor this year as well. But NterNow, back again, NoviHome, back again. Denim Marketing, back again. Realtor.com, back again. We've got Sales Uncomplicated, first time joining us. And, of course, our charity sponsor that we love to support, Homes for Hope, who's been with us for multiple years, and we're excited to have them back again as well. Again, a [00:13:00] great layout of sponsors. Not only do we want to thank these sponsors, but one of the benefits of attending is you actually get to learn more about what these folks have to offer.

Because we don't just let anybody come sponsor this. We want sponsors that bring value, that bring products and services that will help you be more successful with your digital engagement, with your digital marketing, with your website processes, with your CRM tools to manage your leads, all of those things. We want partners that you will feel comfortable talking to, and this group is that. We have definitely vetted these folks. They have great things to offer, really excited about their support.

Kevin Weitzel: Thank you to Kimberly Mackey at New Homes Solutions Consulting for heading up the leadership track. Thank you to Leah Fellows over at Blue Gypsy for heading up the OSC tracks. And to one of the co-hosts and the founder of this, thank you to Blue Tangerine for being a co-host.

Greg Bray: Of course, thank you to OutHouse for being such a supportive partner and co-host as well.

Kevin Weitzel: Boom!

Greg Bray: It's [00:14:00] almost like we know each other, Kevin. Alright, so if you didn't hear, it's in Atlanta, Georgia, September 24th and 25th. There are limited seats remaining. There are still some seats, but not a lot. So, if you are interested, you need to get registered. You can get all of the information, you can get registered, everything at buildermarketingsummit.com. Again, one more time. That's buildermarketingsummit.com.

If you are in the home builder digital marketing space, if you're responsible for generating more leads online, if you're responsible for managing those leads and nurturing those leads, or if you are someone who leads those teams that are responsible for those things, this is the event for you. So, don't miss out. We'd love to see you there. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you. [00:15:00]