Meet 
Elisa Cool Murphy 

​Growing up in an Air Force family, home was never just one place. My father flew F-111s for the United States Air Force, and we moved often enough that my mom used to say, “home is where your toothbrush is.”

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Still, Louisiana had a way of following us everywhere.

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Grandma Cool was from just outside of St. Francisville, and even when we lived overseas, she mailed Tony Chachere’s seasoning across the Atlantic so home would still taste like home.

 

Looking back, I think I spent much of my life learning how people create emotional connections to places long before I ever worked in real estate.

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After college, I spent more than a decade in media and marketing in Manhattan, working with companies like The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Whole Foods, GE, Red Bull, and yes, even Zillow.

 

My work centered around audience psychology, storytelling, positioning, and helping brands understand how people actually connect with what they’re seeing.

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Eventually, New Orleans pulled me home.

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And once I arrived, a lot clicked into place.

I fell in love with the architecture, the layered history, and the emotional texture of the city itself. I also realized very quickly that most real estate marketing dramatically underserves both homes and the people buying them. Too much of the industry still treats homes like inventory when, in reality, buyers experience them emotionally.

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That realization became Cool Murphy.

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Today, Cool Murphy operates as a modern real estate brokerage, creative studio, and private client advisory built around thoughtful preparation, strategic positioning, storytelling, and media. We’re best known for helping clients prepare and market homes with a level of intentionality that often changes both the experience and the outcome of a sale.

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That philosophy eventually became the foundation for my upcoming book, Prepped to Sell, which explores presentation, pricing psychology, buyer behavior, and why the way a home is introduced to the market matters more than most people realize.

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I’m also deeply interested in where this industry is heading next. Technology, AI, media, and changing consumer expectations are reshaping real estate in real time, and I believe the future belongs to advisors who can think strategically, communicate clearly, interpret nuance, and guide people honestly through high-stakes decisions.

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That perspective shapes how I lead Cool Murphy and how we serve our clients.

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These days, home looks a little different than it did growing up. I live in New Orleans with my husband, Matt Murphy, our son Cooper, and our dogs, Maddie and Wren. Matt owns Murphy Property Services and Dinomite Painting, and together we spend a lot of time talking about houses, neighborhoods, restoration projects, curb appeal, and what makes a place feel truly lived in and loved.

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I still love helping people discover New Orleans — especially the ones who feel that same strange pull to this city that I once did. There’s a moment when someone walks into the right house here and quietly realizes, “Oh. There you are.” That never gets old.

Different on purpose.