Keynote speakers for the building industry
Building is not like other industries. Neither is its marketing.
Helena Tivey and Emily Williams run a marketing agency that works only with residential builders. They take what they learn doing the actual work and put it on stage, with the numbers still attached.
Available Australia wide, plus virtual sessions.
Recent stages
- APB Summit 2026
- Master Builders
- Brisbane BFast Club
Why a builder audience is different
Most marketing advice was not written for builders
It was written for businesses that sell something small, fast and easy to change your mind about. Nothing about a home build is any of those things, and that changes everything.
The sale takes months, not minutes
A build is a long, considered decision. Marketing judged on this week’s enquiries will always look like it failed.
Buyers move on trust, not price
Builders are chosen on confidence, not on the cheapest quote. Very little standard marketing advice accounts for that.
Referrals stop scaling
Word of mouth builds a business and then quietly caps it. Most builders hit that ceiling without noticing.
Generic advice costs real money
Tactics built for e-commerce get sold to builders every day. The invoice is real. The pipeline is not.
Helena and Emily have spent years working inside that gap. That is what they bring to a stage.
What they speak about
Pick the conversation your room needs
Every session is shaped around the audience in front of them. These are the subjects they know cold.
Signature keynote
Why builder marketing feels like a gamble
Three beliefs nearly every builder holds about marketing. All three are costing them work.
What happens between “just looking” and “let’s build”
The months a buyer spends deciding, what they are actually doing in that time, and why most builders are invisible for all of it.
Leads are not the problem
What happens after the enquiry arrives, and why follow-up quietly decides whether marketing ever pays.
Why builders’ ads get scrolled past
What makes a buyer stop on a building company’s advertising, and the creative habits that guarantee they will not.
AI in a building business, minus the hype
Where automation genuinely earns its place in a builder’s sales process, and where it just makes a mess faster.
What your audience gets
Not another slot people slip out of
Two speakers, not one monologue
Helena and Emily hand the room back and forth. Two voices, quick handovers, and no twenty minute monologue.
Real numbers from real builders
Everything on stage comes out of campaigns they are running right now, not a slide deck of theory.
No pitch from the stage
The talk is built to be useful whether or not anyone in the room ever speaks to their agency.
Something to do on Monday
The room leaves with a checklist and a clear first move, not a vague sense that they should “do more marketing”.
See for yourself
Why builder marketing feels like a gamble
Three beliefs nearly every builder holds about marketing. All three feel like common sense. All three are quietly expensive.
Who you are booking
Operators who speak, not speakers who consult
Helena and Emily present together. Everything they say on stage, they are doing for clients that same week.
Helena Tivey
Co-Founder and Head of Growth, The Arrow Agency
Builds the systems that decide whether an enquiry ever becomes a signed job. Known for a no-fluff, practical approach.
Emily Williams
Co-Founder and Head of Operations, The Arrow Agency
Runs the delivery side, and has strong opinions about why most builders’ advertising gets scrolled straight past.
How they present
Four ways to book them
Always as a pair. Always shaped around your audience.
Keynote
30 to 60 minutes on the main stage, delivered as a two hander.
Conferences, summits and association events with a full room.
Panel or fireside
A moderated conversation with room for the audience to push back.
Sessions that need discussion and real questions, not slides.
Webinar or virtual
Delivered online for members, partners or a national audience.
Association member programs and supplier networks across several states.
Podcast guest
A recorded conversation for an industry show.
Shows serving builders and the wider residential construction industry.
Got a room full of builders and a slot to fill?
Tell us who is in the room and what you need them to walk away with. We will come back with how we would shape it.
Available Australia wide, plus virtual sessions.