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.
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.
Working 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."
Push 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.
