Latest / NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman / SPECIAL EDITION: On-Site With Martha Stewart: Inside Hint, the Home Intelligence App

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SPECIAL EDITION: On-Site With Martha Stewart: Inside Hint, the Home Intelligence App · NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman

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  It's not always about noise versus signal. Sometimes
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  we just get to talk to really cool and interesting
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  people at really cool and interesting places.
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  Like the time I got to sit down with the legendary
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  Martha Stewart at Blueprint in Las Vegas. She
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  talked to me about all things home and what she
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  was going to do next at the very young age of
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  85. So join me in this special edition of Noise
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  Versus Signal where we speak to the legendary
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  Martha Stewart. Hey everyone, this episode is
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  brought to you by Lofty, the agentic AI operating
• 0:32
  system for real estate. Lofty's AI doesn't wait
• 0:35
  to be prompted. It works proactively on behalf
• 0:38
  of your agents to uncover new listing opportunities,
• 0:42
  engage leads, schedule meetings, and drive more
• 0:45
  transactions. Lofty turns every agent into a
• 0:48
  top producer. Visit lofty .com to see how agentic
• 0:52
  AI can put your business growth on autopilot.
• 0:56
  Everybody in the business of home has a pitch.
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  Almost nobody gets asked a hard question. This
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  show fixes that. Welcome to Noise vs. Signal.
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  I'm your host, Inman CEO Tom Bohn. Each week
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  we sit down with the top producing agents, industry
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  CEOs, prop tech founders, and the people shaping
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  the future of the business of home. Then we break
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  down the week's biggest headlines and decide
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  what's noise and what's signal. Let's get into
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  it. Thank you both so much for joining us today.
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  I don't think anyone needs an introduction for
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  you. Martha Stewart, absolute legend. Thank you
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  for being here. I love an introduction. Martha,
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  you have been an amazing brand for so many years
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  and continue to evolve. And just thank you for
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  being here at Inman's Blueprint. And Kyle Rush,
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  you're a co -founder of the new app, Hint. And
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  we're going to talk about that a little bit.
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  But first, Martha, as I was sitting in the stage
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  hearing everyone talk about you, They asked me
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  to ask you one question, and I'm dead serious.
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  It wasn't about Hint. It wasn't about your magazines.
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  It wasn't about your career. It was how do you
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  stay looking so amazing? So can you share the
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  sorcery that you're using with the world out
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  there? Well, I am probably older than most of
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  the audience, unfortunately for me. But I enjoy
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  what I do. And I actually have – I'm sure I have
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  – I come from good stock. Good stock. I am healthy.
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  I care a lot about longevity. I care about taking
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  care of myself. I care about being a healthy
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  human being. So I work at it. Good exercise,
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  good diet, good skin care. So good because I
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  now actually have an entrepreneurial venture
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  called Elm Biosciences. And you'll be hearing
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  more and more about that. But we actually have
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  created some very efficacious products for skin
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  care. Well, it's working. Kyle, you also look
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  very good too. Thank you. So whatever you're
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  doing, please keep doing it. Absolutely fascinated
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  and so interested in what you're doing with the
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  app. Can you tell me a little bit about what
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  brought you to this point, why you wanted to
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  create Hint, and what do you think it's going
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  to bring to the market? Well, we both come from
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  probably exactly the same place, home ownership.
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  And I thought about this years and years ago
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  when I first started my company. I'm very curious
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  about real estate, about homes, about keeping
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  the homes in good working order, making them
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  more beautiful. And I was always wondering, why
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  isn't there some tool that can help me run my
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  home better? It's a big, big job. You have other
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  jobs to do. You have motherhood. wifehood. You
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  have a job, a real job out in the workplace.
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  Who's going to help me run my home? And I thought
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  a home organizer would be so great. And then
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  I stumbled upon my neighbors. Kyle's a neighbor
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  and he has just gotten his first home with his
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  family. And it was so exciting. And they were
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  working already on a program, a real software
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  program, an app. to help people run their homes.
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  Tell me a little bit about the app because it
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  sounds perfect. I wish I would have had this
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  all these years. Of course. Once you start to
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  use an app like this, this app, Hint, it's called
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  Home Intelligence, you are going to find that
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  your life is easier. you're going to find that
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  your home runs better, that you're going to find
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  that you're smarter and your home is smarter.
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  That's the whole object of Hint. And Kyle and
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  his team of software engineers and the rest of
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  the partners who are doing the marketing and
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  doing the research and doing the artwork, the
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  creativity for this thing, it's not an easy thing
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  to create. By the way, you can talk about that.
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  One of the hardest things I've built because
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  the home is huge, right? I mean, there's nothing
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  that doesn't touch the home. And we're used to
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  building apps that solve one specific problem,
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  right? And so we've started with specific problems
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  and built it out. But Hint is a very capable
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  app across the board. You have people like Martha
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  who know how to manage a home and are an expert
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  on it. And then you have a bunch of people like
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  me. I bought my home four years ago. It was something
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  we planned for for a decade. We were so excited
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  about it. Got into it, and about six months later,
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  we're like, oh, God. What are we doing here?
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  What is an oil -fed hydronic baseboard heating
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  system? How do you maintain that? That broke
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  in our home about a year in. Is oil the best
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  heating? Is that the best thing to heat your
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  house with? Right. Is it natural gas? Is it electric?
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  Who the heck knows when you're just coming out
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  from an apartment in New York that all this is
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  taken care of by somebody else and you have to
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  figure it out when you have your own home. And
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  then pulling together warranties and all that
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  type of stuff. Oh, the warranties are the worst.
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  I have drawers full of warranties. I've saved
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  every warranty from every single appliance I
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  have ever bought. And now, guess what? Now you
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  just take a picture of the number in your appliance.
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  and you feed it into Hint, and Hint will tell
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  you about that particular appliance. And now
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  we're calling all the appliance companies and
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  making those numbers more visible and more easily
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  recognized. I mean, it's hard to find some of
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  them. I've had to go inside and take out drawers
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  from refrigerators to find the number. But it
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  really works. I love on stage you said something
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  that I thought was really interesting. So we
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  represent a lot of realtors and agents and brokerages,
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  right? So it's a big part of our community here.
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  So I want to ask you in a second how they can
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  interact with this and how it could be helpful
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  in that process, Kyle. But I want to hold that
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  because Martha said something interesting. She
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  said, imagine if you were buying a house. and
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  it already had been in the app. And all that
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  information, the realtor can then take and share
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  it with that. Just elaborate a little bit on
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  that, because I think that's - That'll make your
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  purchase much more reliable. Somebody's not going
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  to just say, oh yeah, we've taken care of all
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  of that. This will tell you that it has been
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  taken care of, that it has been thought about,
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  that it has been addressed. That's what I want
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  him to do. I want that to do it for every single
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  home in America. It would be so great to of a
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  record. It's like the genealogy of the home.
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  The genealogy of the home. I love that. Kyle,
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  how do you see sharing this with realtors and
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  how can they help spread the word? There are...
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  like millions of Instagram reels out there about
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  people talking about like, you're just constantly
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  at war with the previous homeowner because you
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  don't know anything about the home. You don't
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  know how it was maintained, why decisions were
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  made, anything like that. Can't get access to
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  them anymore. Yeah. I've dealt with that. Many
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  people don't have access, never had access, right?
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  How do you turn this on? Realtor. Yeah. You have
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  no idea. So, you know, eventually where we want
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  to move is where the hint is embedded in the
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  transaction. um the realtor will enter like the
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  home inspection report um the deed um you know
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  any of the closing documents will automatically
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  be put into hint that way when you are moving
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  into the home you now have an expert on your
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  side it'll be very different from when i moved
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  into my home and they were just like have fun
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  you know enjoy it hopefully you can figure it
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  out But now you'll have a history of the home.
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  You'll have like the home inspection report has
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  tons of information on the home and people don't
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  know how to read that and they don't read it.
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  But now you can just go into Hint and say, why
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  is my boiler making a weird sound? And it knows
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  all of the history on it. Your boiler is 35 years
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  old. It's time for a service. And you don't know
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  that. Absolutely. Yeah. What a great idea. And
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  who's going to service it? What a great idea.
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  So, Kyle, I'm going to put you on the spot. You
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  need to tell me, what's it like working with
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  Martha Stewart? Okay, I get asked this a lot.
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  It is the best co -worker I've ever had, to be
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  honest. I had no idea what to expect working
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  with you, Martha. I was like, oh, is she going
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  to be a figurehead? Is it just going to be a
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  marketing relationship? I could tell you the
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  answer to that. No, she's not going to be a figurehead.
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  On the outside, I could literally tell you the
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  answer to that. I've never met somebody more
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  detailed. I mean, she knows every single little
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  thing about the home. I come over to her house
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  all the time. We look at the app, and she very
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  easily can say, you know this isn't right about
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  soil people need to know this these are the types
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  of siding that are popular in these areas we
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  need to change the language to make it you know
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  easier to understand for the average homeowner
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  i mean it's it's very detailed and super super
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  helpful to have somebody who has been working
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  on homes for 40 years it's kind of amazing i
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  think when i come from a media background and
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  media world and i i would put martha up in the
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  absolute top of the best media ceos to ever come
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  so thank you yeah you've been absolutely amazing
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  martha i'm going to finish it on on this question
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  because i know you've got a lot going on um you
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  you've accomplished so much um is there anything
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  next i mean what do you never slow down what
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  what should we what should we be looking for
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  there's skin care there's other things what what
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  are we i'm just looking for that Beautiful, simple,
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  sort of like a little shoebox of a house on the
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  coast of somewhere looking out at the sea with
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  every single modern appliance known to mankind.
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  Enjoying your success. Right. Not exactly. Simplification
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  is key. to making things understandable. I mean,
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  really. And that's what we're trying to do with
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  Hint. We're trying to simplify the job for the
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  homeowner. And I think it's going to work. I
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  think it really is a very, very fine tool. I
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  think you got a tiger by the tail. Kyle, how
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  do you get the app? So you can download it in
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  the iOS app store. It'll come to Android in the
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  future. It's very easy. You just install it.
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  You enter your address and it will immediately
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  start getting all the public information on your
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  home and become an expert and it's ready to go.
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  Love it. Kyle Rush, co -founder and CTO of Hint
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  and the legendary Martha Stewart. Thank you so
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  much. Thank you. wherever you get your podcasts
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  so you never miss an episode. I'll see you next
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  time.