Why-How-Impact with Stephanie McCarty, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Taylor Morrison

Thank you for having me.

You know, I think if you think about having dogs, they say a bored dog is a bad dog, right? So I actually really enjoy being busy. I am motivated by making an impact, and I've been very fortunate throughout my career to have worked for leaders and within organizations that have allowed me the autonomy to be me and be creative and try a lot of different things. And so my path has just taken me from one great company to the next, and Taylor Morrison has been home for me for almost 10 years. I just focused on doing really great work, and I think as a leader, that's always been my motto: if you focus on great work and you keep that fire in your belly lit, good things, good opportunities, more responsibility tends to come your way.

Well, I found my why in a few different ways. I went through a series of tragedy and loss in my early 20s. I lost both my parents and my sister, and so you have to take a real look at your life and what you want it to stand for and what you want it to mean. I wanted to live a life that not only I was proud of but that my immediate family would be proud of too. And so I just really started investing in learning. I have a journalism background, I was always writing, and my first two big girl jobs out of college were in executive communication functions, writing on behalf of Fortune 500 CEOs, helping them to articulate their vision and growth strategies to thousands of employees. I think that entrance into marketing has created this marketing from the inside out, building a brand from within, and proving that brands, if they're built that way, can stand the test of time and go through tragedy or trauma or adversity. On a personal level, I was able to show that that is true. Being able to apply those learnings from a very personal grieving place is very applicable in business. In homebuilding, we're a very cyclical industry. Cycles come and go, interest rates come and go, there are so many economic factors that hinder our ability to sell and build homes. With COVID, there were supply chain issues. Being able to know that those things can't knock me down, I can apply that same belief and strategy through the written word and through creativity to bring businesses out of those hardships too. So in some weird way, my own personal journey has really impacted how I approach my work within the business world as well.

Yeah, it's a great question. While in journalism school, I did several internships. I was first interested in print, but it was hard to get internships in print, so I got a broadcast internship. I was okay at it, didn't love it, didn't hate it, but I got really close with the assistant news director at our local CBS affiliate, and he said, 'You're a really great writer. Have you ever explored media relations or PR?' It wasn't something I had thought through, so my next semester I did an internship with their media relations department and loved it. I found that I was actually able to write more than on the broadcast side. So I don't want to say I fell into it, but through guidance from a mentor, I pivoted into more of a media and corporate communications lens. When I graduated, I was putting my name and resume out there, and my first employer ended up being a semiconductor in the manufacturing space. I walked in very honest to my first boss and said, 'I have no idea what a semiconductor does or is, but I am a fast learner, I'm a hell of a writer, and I know I'll be able to do this job.' I think that honest vulnerability and transparency clearly meant something to him. After going through six or seven interviews where I felt like I did all my research and was prepared for every question but still didn't get the job, when I showed up as my true and honest self, that's when opportunities started to become more tangible. I've shared that story with a lot of my employees: nothing bad can come from being who you are, being honest, and being open to possibilities, but also knowing in your heart and gut what your superpowers are and not being afraid to show them. Coming to that realization early on fueled me to continue to grow and move from company to company.

You know, I think my leadership is very... my goal is to mobilize my team toward a vision and then let them execute with autonomy and creativity. I think as a leader, the most important thing you can do is hire really great people, people who are smarter than you, and then get out of their way. As the chief marketing officer over a large department, it is my job to make sure that vision is crystal clear and that the obstacles have been removed so that my team can execute. Speed is really critical today in business and certainly in marketing because things change so quickly. So I think that's worked for me. It's trusting the people you hire to do really great work. I have very high standards, and my team knows that. Being a trained journalist, I also have an eagle eye, so extra spaces, missing periods, typos... my team hates it, but I catch it within a second. It's not because I'm looking for it; it's just how my eyes have been trained. But I really feel like if you hire the right people and you get out of their way, that's when true magic can happen.

It is frustrating.

You know, I have always had really high standards for myself, and I've always taken the lens that I don't want to pass on anything I've worked on to anyone else for review unless I know it is the best that I could do. It was almost like a weird realization when I came to find out that maybe not everyone operates that way. Sometimes good enough is good enough, and people will just get it off their plate. So I have used that as an opportunity to help level up some of my team members. I report to the CEO; I would never send her something that I didn't feel was ready to be put out into market. So why should my team members send anything to me that they feel isn't a reflection of their best effort? Through coaching and mentoring, helping people see through that lens, I've been able to level up a lot of my team members to think that way. In communications and marketing, you need to be able to anticipate the needs of the organization and your leaders before they realize the need. That takes a lot of forward thinking and planning. I've been told many times that people don't always think the same way you do, Stephanie, so it is my obligation to help people see the world the way I do and the things I have harnessed or perfected to help me position myself in ways that have allowed great opportunities and larger roles to present themselves. I'm the first CMO at Taylor Morrison; there's never been that role. But before that, almost every role I've been in was newly created. I've never stepped into a box that was fully defined or had footsteps I had to squeeze my feet into. In retrospect, that's quite amazing. Every position I've had, I've been able to create the role and the value. That obligation has fueled me to continue to raise the bar against myself: how much better can I be? How much more creative can I be when I look at a business problem and find the right solution? Continuing to level up yourself, you are your own greatest competition. There's a great obligation and opportunity to mentor the next generation to think that way. If you do that early on and repeatedly, I've seen some of my leaders really grow. I call them my little... I'm married to a very big Star Wars fan, so I have several little Padawans, little protégés, who are starting to see the world a little differently. To see them grow and think differently and evolve as strategic business partners is a moment of pride for sure.

Absolutely. I think it's happened several times, but the most prominent is the current opportunity I'm in with Taylor Morrison. I was hired as the organization's first vice president of corporate communications, under the edict that I had a CEO who was on a tremendous growth strategy. She knew that through the power of communication, she could get this organization rowing in the same direction and believing her vision and outperforming themselves. I said absolutely. We had a wonderful three-hour interview process where we talked about the power of communication. She hired me and said, 'Go forth.' So I had to create the infrastructure, the channels, the mediums, the relationships to communicate on behalf of a Fortune 500 large organization where there wasn't any infrastructure or frequency or consistency with voice. There was no real employer value proposition or how we talked about our own culture. I was in that role for about three and a half years, and as I started to show the organization the impact of communications, my boss Cheryl started pulling me into other opportunities. I started helping her with scripts and prepared remarks for investor calls, and with her thought leadership outside the organization. After three and a half years of being involved with all our key stakeholders, I noticed that sales and marketing were kind of one unit, meaning sales got all the attention and marketing got what was left. I told her, almost as a pure observation, that there was so much opportunity to make an impact with how we speak to our consumers and future customers. I was going to look into ways we could do that more impactfully. About four or five months later, I sat down with Cheryl and she said, 'What do you think about chief marketing officer?' I said, 'I think that's an important role. What about it?' She said, 'How would you like to be that?' I remember going home that night and telling my husband, 'I think I just got a promotion to the C-suite, but I'm not entirely sure.' He said, 'How do you not know?' I said, 'It just happened very easily.' I came into work the next day and said, 'Well, what does that mean?' Because I had been at University of Phoenix for about six years prior, and in my tenure there, I saw lots of CMOs come in and out. So I said, 'I don't really want to sign myself up for a job that I'm going to lose in a couple years.' She was flabbergasted, having never had a CMO on her staff, and said, 'Why would I do that to you? I know that you will define what a CMO means in this industry and then blow that up and create something special.' Having the opportunity to create what it means to be a CMO at Taylor Morrison in a very antiquated, male-dominated space was a challenge I was signing up for, though I didn't have a full appreciation for it at the time. Now, almost six years into it, it takes a lot of the characteristics I shared earlier: grit, fearlessness, resilience to push through adversity and challenges. People don't want me to rock the boat or do things differently or market the organization differently or talk about branding, because that's not something our industry has focused on for decades. It was like pushing a boulder uphill for many years. Now I've gotten very good at picking those boulders up and tossing them over my shoulder, but that's through repetition of knowing who you are, understanding the impact and opportunity, and learning how to communicate that and sell people on the vision. Painting that picture of what's on the other side of the work. Looking backwards, connecting all those dots, I was perfectly positioned to be the first CMO at Taylor Morrison and to take that on because it has not been easy, but it has been a lot of fun.

I do too. I've talked to a lot of CMOs, and they say, 'You have whatever a CMO wants: buy-in from the CEO, trust, open space to try things, to be creative, to push boundaries.' That's really exciting to me. In our world, we paint this perfect picture of a home where everything's in the right place, waiting for a perfect situation. But that's not realistic. Life isn't perfect; life is messy. Homes are messy. I have three children, and something about having that third one, you just can't contain the mess, so you have to embrace the mess. But that's what people want to see. When you move into a new home, it's not always for the most wonderful, beautiful moments in life. Sometimes it's through divorce or becoming a widow. Life is messy. Being an honest and open brand that sees people, all of them, warts and all, is what makes my job so impactful. We can see those insights from customers and apply them immediately to how we sell, how we speak to people, how we present the brand, knowing that we're there for them for the good times and the bad times.

You know, I think as long as I'm doing impactful work and making a difference in people's lives, and making customers feel better about their decision to purchase a Taylor Morrison home... A home is somewhere you're going to make memories for the rest of your life. You're going to raise your children. Good things and bad things will happen there, and those memories stay with you forever. So I do think it's a very important job to take seriously, but not too seriously. I think it's also about creating and leading the next generation of Stephanies, helping them to see the world the way I do, hopefully not by experiencing direct loss and tragedy, but by being very honest and open with my team, sharing the things they need so they can be better leaders and grow. That's part of my legacy. I want to know that if I were to ever leave Taylor Morrison, that next generation of creatives and marketing and communication professionals can take the reins and do it just as well, if not better.