This is an episode recorded on the Specified Growth Podcast, where Stefanie was a guest. Find out more here: https://tatstalks.com/specified-podcast
On this episode, Stefanie and host Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa, explore the journey of personal branding in the building industry, where individuality meets traditional business practices.
The episode highlights the value of adapting to modern consumer expectations while staying true to oneself.
• The evolution from a conventional lumber business to innovative brand strategies
• Embracing individual style within a conservative industry
• Adapting to the digital age: why online presence matters
• The power of AI in improving brand visibility and sales processes
• Practical strategies for utilizing technology in traditional sectors
• Importance of continuous learning and adapting in business
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (00:02):
All right,
Stefanie, thank you.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Stefanie Couch (00:06):
Well, thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (00:08):
Yeah, so excited about you, know your,
your marketing, your salesbackground, talking about you
know building brands and thebuildings industry and stuff
like that Certainly a topic I'minterested in.
Love your shirt, the couch, thehat.
Was this always happening or isit something that you know?
You came up with more when youwent off on your own?
Stefanie Couch (00:31):
Well, I've always kind of been really into,
you know, having my own stylein high school.
I grew up in a pretty ruralarea in Georgia and most people
are wearing, you know, jeans anda t-shirt to high school and I
would wear like three piecesuits and five inch stilettos to
hit to work in the office atschool and I kind of felt like I
(00:55):
was running a politicalcampaign at my high school.
So I think I've always justbeen different and wanted to
embrace my own style and that'skind of followed me along.
There was a time in corporatewhere I tried to wear, you know,
like a Columbia vest and someCarhartt pants, like all the
managers, or khaki pants, and itjust didn't ever feel right to
(01:15):
me.
So it's gotten a little bitmore out of control with the hat
collection and all the things.
Since I've started my ownbusiness, for sure, and been
creating more content, but yeah,so I definitely have an
addiction to hats and it just iswhat it is at this point.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (01:31):
Yeah, for sure, hats are fun.
What does your collection looklike?
Stefanie Couch (01:36):
Well, I have an office upstairs that has some
stuff behind me with like a lotof different hats, but I have
three just sitting here, twoother ones sitting on my desk
here, but most of them are kindof the same fedora style.
I do have a lot of baseballhats as well.
I like those as well.
I wear those to the gym and youknow when I'm out and about,
but mostly this style and I havea lot of different colors.
(01:57):
So if anyone has a great brandthey want to tell me about, I'm
always open to that very cool,all right.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (02:06):
Um, so you started in, I guess, uh,
lumber, building materials.
Um, you're doing this now.
I mean it was, was the, thelumber industry or or the
buildings industry, always aninterest, or were you doing
other things before you got intothis?
Stefanie Couch (02:23):
well, I was sort of born into it, so it chose me
by birth.
My grandfather and my dad had alumberyard a retail lumberyard
in Atlanta when I was born, realclose to the airport in
Hartsville, jackson area, andwhen I was five we moved up to
Northeast Georgia and my dadactually started a second branch
of his own lumberyard up hereand I sort of grew up around it,
(02:44):
stealing forklifts on the yardwhile he was inside, selling
customers and driving themaround the gravel lot and doing
all sorts of stuff I probablyshouldn't have been doing, but I
worked there when I was young,so I actually would like boot
people out of the way to ring upcustomers.
From about seven on I reallyloved it and it was just always.
(03:06):
Business was always verynatural to me.
I liked selling Girl Scoutcookies, I loved being in the
mix, and so it was neversomething I didn't think I would
do.
And I grew up, went to college,came right back and worked for
my dad during that time and theneventually went to a large
Fortune 500 to sell doors andhelp them build up a startup
division during that time andthen eventually went to a large
Fortune 500 to sell doors andhelp them build up a startup
(03:28):
division of that business and itwent from there.
Now I have my own business.
So I actually worked incorporate a lot longer than I
thought I would, but I think itwas because I was in a really
fast paced environment where wewere building a business that
was pretty much from scratch andopening new branches and all
those things.
So I got that kind ofaggressive growth that I like
(03:48):
from that part of the businesswhere typically a really large
corporation doesn't change thatmuch.
It's pretty stagnant or, youknow, growth at small scale.
This was like 100x on thebusiness in one year.
So I got addicted and now hereI am.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (04:02):
Yeah, I mean that's a good point.
I mean, just because you're ata bigger company or a company,
even a midsize company, doesn'tmean that you can't carve out an
area that could be very, veryentrepreneurial.
Stefanie Couch (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely , and some companies are really
into that stuff.
You know, they always have alittle niche or two that are
kind of doing something new,trying some new things.
I think with AI and all thethings that are coming out right
now, it's going to really openup the floodgates for people who
want to go out and kind oftrailblaze a little bit, that
maybe some of these companiesare going to give them a little
capex and say, hey, go see whatyou can do.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (04:36):
Sure, absolutely.
So you know you work for thesecompanies.
When was it the time or whatmade you decide to go off on
your own?
Stefanie Couch (04:47):
Well, I actually left the company I was with for
10 years and moved to Floridafor about five months and worked
at a company.
It was not a good fit for me orfor them.
I actually really did not likethe job from like day three, and
so I was ready to kind of goout on my own.
We had started some businessesLLCs and about November of 2022,
(05:07):
I actually got let go from thatjob, probably because they knew
I hated it Like I mean, it wasnot, I was not hiding it very
well, and so it just wasn't agood fit for any of us involved.
So my husband and I actuallywent out full time.
Both of us just burned all theboats at one time and said let's
just see what happens and it'seither going to be really good
(05:27):
or probably really bad.
And thankfully it was, you know, something that took off pretty
quickly and I was able toleverage some of those skills
and the relationships that I'vebuilt over the last, you know,
20 years of my career.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (05:41):
Yeah, and you know, what you started
at that time is pretty much inits form now, or did it evolve?
Stefanie Couch (05:47):
Very similar.
So we actually have rebrandedthe name a little bit.
We started out as Build GenNext and I figured out that no
one understood what I said whenI said that it looked really
cool on the logo but I was likeno, it's Grit Blueprint.
And we actually have been doingsome sort of growth strategy
and implementation for companiesthe whole time that we've been
(06:09):
working with them.
So we've done everything fromsoftware projects especially
around the window and door, andbuilding material softwares, and
then we've also done websites,branding, growth strategy,
really helping people figure out, you know how to grow their
businesses, even really largebusinesses.
So we've had companies that are3 million a year and we have a
(06:32):
client that's in the billions ayear right now.
So we've kind of ranged allthrough and it's been fun to
work on those different projects.
Some are super establishedcompanies, some are newer
companies and even someindividuals that we've worked
with with personal branding.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, can you share some
stories?
I mean you don't have tomention necessarily company
names, but legacy companies thathave done most of their
business via word of mouth.
You know, referral marketing.
Stefanie Couch (07:09):
That's really how the building industry works.
Even today, people that areoutside of our industry are like
, what are you talking about?
But then I say, well, thesepeople still use fax machines.
Like this is real and theydon't believe me.
But helping them figure outwhat does the business look like
for the next five to 10 yearsbecause we know that it will be
business in a digital waySomehow it might not be a
(07:32):
hundred percent transition andso figuring out how to brand
them in a way that they cancontinue to grow that legacy and
the next generation ofconsumers and customers that
will want to do research andprobably buy online can do that.
So we've really helped a lot ofcompanies rebrand come to the
2024-2025 with websites, socialmedia and also figuring out what
(07:56):
is your true best customer.
So a lot of these companiesthey do a lot of different
things for a lot of differentpeople, but maybe they find that
their best customers are all ina custom home builder that are
doing a lot of really intricatewindow and door packages and
they want to lean into that more.
And so that resource aroundwhat would they want as a
(08:16):
customer?
Helping them figure out whatthey find valuable and then
allowing people to know thattelling their stories is such an
important part of our business,especially with our industry.
I find that people don't do avery good job of showing end
product, which is interestingbecause we build beautiful homes
.
You know there's amazingproducts that are out there, but
(08:37):
in the building materialschannel there's the end user,
which is that homeowner or maybethe contractor that could get
those pictures, and a lot of ourcustomers are up the channel a
little bit.
You know.
Maybe they're the manufacturerthat's actually making the door,
the window, the LVL, maybe it'sthe person who's the two-step
distributor which is where Iused to work and then the person
(08:57):
under them is the dealer thatthat contractor's walking in
getting the stuff, ordering it.
So there's a lot of people inthat channel that never see that
finished product and so it'strying to figure out how to
weave that thread through theentire channel to help everyone
see what's going on and buildthat story around it.
So we love doing that kind ofwork and sometimes we get to do
(09:18):
some really cool projects withcustom stuff and sometimes it's
a standard two before that we'rehelping people sell.
All of those products have tobe a part of the building
industry yeah, it's true and notum.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (09:30):
The information doesn't always flow
right to the building materialsor from the contractor.
I think a bunch of years ago Ithought you know collecting
field images was kind of tough.
You know, maybe, uh, yourchallenges with the site.
You know, uh, you know, peoplethat you know may not be
familiar or have the tools orthe quality of the equipment at
(09:53):
hand to take quality photos.
I think for a while we're tryingto coach people with sort of
tools but, honestly, these daysI think I see more and more, uh,
people that are very good at it, they're aware of it, and even
the companies themselves, likecreating their own content and
tagging the distributor, or theorganization that has the
(10:14):
internal marketing team, whichis exciting.
Stefanie Couch (10:16):
Yeah, and with our cell phones now you know you
might not be able to put thatpicture on a super high res like
catalog or something that youwould print, but you can use it
for social media for sure, froma cell phone video or image.
So it's really exciting that wehave more accessibility to that
and we love doing that.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (10:35):
There have been any examples where you
know you were able to convinceor you were able to find people
in the organization that trulyhad personality and put them
forward Like you do that so wellwith your brand.
You have examples of clientsyou were able to do that with.
Stefanie Couch (10:50):
There's been a few.
It's really tough, truthfully,because people, especially in
our industry, they don't want tobe seen as flashy or show off,
and it's kind of like, well, Idon't want to be an influencer,
and it said, okay, well, youdon't want to be an influencer,
but do you want influence?
Would you like to influenceyour customers to buy more
(11:11):
things?
Would you like to influencepeople that might want to come
work here, to come apply Allthese things?
And so I think it's aboutreally helping people.
See, we have a few clients thathave started posting on,
especially LinkedIn, that havestarted doing more speaking and
positioning them in that manner.
It's really about consistency,though, and that's where we find
(11:32):
that people, a lot of times,just don't know what to say or
what to do.
So we do have some clients thatwe actually do ghostwriting and
posting for, that we actuallydo ghostwriting and posting for,
and so that helps some of theseexecutives to see the option of
well, if I'm not a writer, I'mnot a social media person, I
don't have to necessarily dothat.
We capture their stories and weget their words and we actually
(11:53):
use their thoughts and words,but we just actually put it into
the copy, post for it.
So that's been helpful for alot of our people that we do.
It's very unusual to find somesort of executive that's just
going to love posting onLinkedIn all the time.
There are a few I've seen a few,but it's very rare so and they
have a lot going on, so we liketo help them do that.
(12:14):
And one other thing that we aredoing is a big problem in the
industry that we see and a lotof our clients are asking us for
is really training, that nextgeneration of how to do all
different things.
So technical training like, forinstance, how do you know what
engineered wood product, like anLVL, is?
(12:34):
How do you know the differencebetween an interior and exterior
door or this roof versus thatroof?
Why is metal roofing moredurable?
Why does it last longer?
Those types of conversations.
So we're actually building outtraining, and one of the
trainings that we're buildingout is around building your
brand and building yourinfluence, and so we're hoping
that if we can really takepeople along the journey of how
(12:57):
this could work without it beingso intimidating, that that will
help people want to do it morecould work without it being so
intimidating, that that willhelp people want to do it more.
Yeah, so just basicallyeducation, I guess Absolutely
and some tools with AI toactually help you make the post
and position yourself in thatway.
So that's what people get sohung up on.
(13:17):
I've seen people spend and I'vespent before when I was first
starting hours on one post andmost people are not going to do
that for long-term if it's thathard.
So with AI it's helped us sortof quantum leap a lot of those
problems.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (13:30):
Yeah, with AI.
What does AI do well, you think, right now, and what is it not
quite do well right now?
Stefanie Couch (13:39):
I think that most people don't know how to
prompt AI or even maybe haven'teven tried much to prompt AI.
So I think most of the time theinput is the problem more than
what it does.
Well, if you give it enoughinformation and I like to use
this example because I speakabout AI a lot at events, if I
told my husband, hey, go getdinner at the store, go get
(14:02):
something to cook and he cameback and he brought home you
know, a salad and some bread andno meat, no, any of that I
couldn't really be exactly madat him.
When I really wanted a rib eyesteak with a baked potato and,
you know, apple pie and icecream for dessert, right.
But if I told him that'sexactly what I wanted and then
(14:25):
he didn't come back with that,then I maybe could be upset.
So AI is the same way.
If you prompt it in a verygeneral way, it's going to give
you back junk, for lack of abetter word, or usually
something that just isn't whatyou wanted.
If you prompt it extremelyspecifically and then continue
to nuance it, you're going toget a better output.
So I think that's really thebiggest thing.
I think what it does reallywell is help you ideate.
(14:48):
I think it does analysis onideas that are SWOT analysis and
even data analysis, extremelywell.
I think it gives ideas forcreative pretty well and I think
it's pretty poor at showcasingyou and your story in a way that
feels like you, unless you do alot of prompting, which most
(15:08):
people don't know how to do.
So I think that you know youget the idea, you get the story,
maybe you get a hook from itand then you write the rest.
That's really where I'm at atthis point.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (15:18):
Yeah, I was curious.
You said SWOT analysis with AIInteresting.
I never thought about that.
So what would you prompt?
Like you know, just say acompany name and do a SWOT
analysis and I've never tried toprompt that.
Stefanie Couch (15:34):
Yeah, so I use that one probably more than
anything else.
So one tip is on chat GPT.
If you have the pro version,which is like, I think, $20 a
month or something, you can usewhat they call O1.
It's version O1 and it'sadvanced reasoning, so that is
the best one because it actuallythinks and it uses these
analysis parameters that arevery much more involved than a
(15:57):
standard version of that.
So that's where I start withthat version.
And then a little pro tip is Iactually speak into my chat GPT.
I don't prompt it with typingbecause it's so much more in
depth.
So you can add a Chromeextension to do that or you can
do it on your app, on your phone, natively, through iPhone or
I'm sure Android has the samething.
But this is how I would promptthat.
(16:19):
I would say, hey, I want to doa SWOT analysis on I'm going to
use my company, right?
So I have an idea here's mygo-to-market idea of this and I
would actually let it ask mequestions first to get all the
information.
So the way I would start thatprompt would be act as an expert
interviewer and ask mequestions one at a time.
(16:44):
Here is the thing I want you toask me questions about with this
business idea, and then youtell it some ideas you know that
you have.
Let's just say, I want to do acourse on how to start a podcast
in the building industry andI'm going to do this price point
this, all these things.
And then, once it asks me thosequestions and it will ask you a
lot of questions as aninterviewer and it will be very
in depth I'm going to do thisprice point this, all these
things.
And then once it asks me thosequestions and it will ask you a
lot of questions as aninterviewer and it will be very
(17:06):
in-depth and probably things youwould not have thought to have
told it Then it will say youknow, is there anything else you
need to add?
And you can say no.
And then you can say act as anexpert, and that works at
McKinsey.
You can even get super, super,you know deliberative about how
you prompt it and say ask meeverything that you would need
(17:26):
to know to do a SWOT analysis onthis and then give me the SWOT
analysis and what it comes backwith will blow your mind.
Tatsuya "Tats" Naka (17:34):
Interesting .
Stefanie Couch (17:35):
Yeah, I do this all the time.
Tatsuya "Tats" Naka (17:38):
Interesting .
Okay, that is cool.
Stefanie Couch (17:41):
Yeah.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (17:41):
Um.
What are the otheropportunities in the buildings
or the construction industry interms of people coming to you
and asking for help?
Stefanie Couch (17:52):
Well, we do a lot of system optimization.
So people have a problem withsales forces right now kind of
being in a rut.
They don't follow up on leads,they have too many leads, or the
leads they have, they just aresitting too long and they lose
them.
I find that a lot of my clientshave these salespeople that
(18:13):
have been there for a long time.
They're great people, they'regood at what they do, but
they're selling the people theyknow and that it's comfortable.
And during the pandemic, therewasn't really a whole lot of
opportunity to go out and sellbecause we didn't have enough
products to even feed the people.
We already were selling tothose builders and those you
(18:33):
know dealers, distributors theywere all really just begging for
as much as they could get, andso why would you go set up a new
account?
But now in 2024, and even nowin 2025, it feels like that same
mentality, unfortunately, hassort of puttered along and we do
need to be going out andhunting again.
So I think it's helping peoplefigure out what to go hunt for.
What is your best opportunity?
(18:54):
What are the 20% of people thatwould you know really be best
for your business to sell?
And then how do you go aboutdoing that?
So helping them strategize withtheir sales teams and also
their executive teams of what isthat messaging and how does
that work?
And then we also have sometools like AI that can help with
that lead generation.
Follow up all of those thingseven from a perspective of a
(19:17):
sales team, getting remindersabout things like hey, did you
talk to this person last month?
Have you heard from them in amonth?
You know, it's more than just adonut run.
I think the days of oursalespeople going out and saying
like hey, joe, hadn't seen youin a while.
Here's the donuts.
Or you want to go to lunch orwhatever, once a month or
quarter, it's not cutting it.
We have to be solutions-basedselling and really helping our
(19:40):
customers understand this iswhat we can do for you.
That would actually make yourlife easier, it would make you
more money, it would make yourcustomers happier, and those
solutions are probably going tobe different than what they were
three or four years ago.
So figuring out what do we haveto do as a business to make
that valuable?
And one question that I askmyself a lot and I think I hope
(20:04):
every business owner does thisis am I doing this because I
think it's a good idea, or am Idoing this and the market
actually finds it valuable andneeds this solution?
And I think a lot of times wehave a lot of great cool ideas
and we waste a lot of time onthings that the market has zero
interest in.
So it's figuring out.
How do we test that and how arewe getting feedback from our
(20:26):
customers of what do theyactually want and what do they
find valuable from a product'sperspective and a service's
perspective?
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (20:33):
Yeah, no, that's very cool.
Stefanie Couch (20:35):
I like it, thank you.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (20:39):
With the social media stuff.
I mean, where do you sort ofconcentrate your activity?
Linkedin, yeah, yeah, linkedinis your main.
Stefanie Couch (20:54):
Pretty much right now I'm with this podcast.
I have a podcast as well calledthe Grit Blueprint that I've
been, you know, kind ofexperimenting with, but this
year we're doing a lot moreepisodes and we're going to be
putting that on YouTube.
I have some content with someof my clients that we're going
to be posting like, hopefully,job site stuff and actually in
the field, and I do a lot ofspeaking.
So I get a lot of in-person.
I do a ton of keynote speakingon AI, on branding, on, on just
(21:17):
business strategy for ourindustry, and then I also post
usually every day on LinkedIn.
So I try to do stuff that I canpost organically on a newsletter
and things like that.
That's an owned audience aswell as far as blogs,
newsletters.
But really LinkedIn has been mymain focus, and mostly because
I feel like that's where I'vebeen able to own my audience as
(21:39):
far as like really figure outhow to make this work.
Instagram is just a wholenother deal and I don't know
that my audience necessarily isthere.
I think there is an audiencethere I could capture, but it
just is a whole different world.
So YouTube is really my focusthat I'm going to start focusing
on in 2025 as a second platform.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (22:00):
Okay, yeah, very cool.
No, I like all the thingsyou're doing.
Is there anything else that youwanted to share that I haven't
asked you?
Stefanie Couch (22:14):
I don't think so .
I mean, I really love thisindustry and the people in it,
and I'm excited to see wheretechnology and branding takes us
.
I think that the personal brandis going to be, and even
company brands are going to bemore important based on the
technological changes.
So that's the only thing I'llsay is you know how you treat
your customers and how you'reseen is going to be more
important as the technologylevels the playing field on
(22:34):
other avenues.
You know.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (22:37):
Perfect .
Well, thanks for taking thetime.
Stefanie Couch (22:41):
Yeah, thank you for having me on.
I appreciate it.
All right,
Stefanie, thank you.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Stefanie Couch (00:06):
Well, thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (00:08):
Yeah, so excited about you, know your,
your marketing, your salesbackground, talking about you
know building brands and thebuildings industry and stuff
like that Certainly a topic I'minterested in.
Love your shirt, the couch, thehat.
Was this always happening or isit something that you know?
You came up with more when youwent off on your own?
Stefanie Couch (00:31):
Well, I've always kind of been really into,
you know, having my own stylein high school.
I grew up in a pretty ruralarea in Georgia and most people
are wearing, you know, jeans anda t-shirt to high school and I
would wear like three piecesuits and five inch stilettos to
hit to work in the office atschool and I kind of felt like I
(00:55):
was running a politicalcampaign at my high school.
So I think I've always justbeen different and wanted to
embrace my own style and that'skind of followed me along.
There was a time in corporatewhere I tried to wear, you know,
like a Columbia vest and someCarhartt pants, like all the
managers, or khaki pants, and itjust didn't ever feel right to
(01:15):
me.
So it's gotten a little bitmore out of control with the hat
collection and all the things.
Since I've started my ownbusiness, for sure, and been
creating more content, but yeah,so I definitely have an
addiction to hats and it just iswhat it is at this point.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (01:31):
Yeah, for sure, hats are fun.
What does your collection looklike?
Stefanie Couch (01:36):
Well, I have an office upstairs that has some
stuff behind me with like a lotof different hats, but I have
three just sitting here, twoother ones sitting on my desk
here, but most of them are kindof the same fedora style.
I do have a lot of baseballhats as well.
I like those as well.
I wear those to the gym and youknow when I'm out and about,
but mostly this style and I havea lot of different colors.
(01:57):
So if anyone has a great brandthey want to tell me about, I'm
always open to that very cool,all right.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (02:06):
Um, so you started in, I guess, uh,
lumber, building materials.
Um, you're doing this now.
I mean it was, was the, thelumber industry or or the
buildings industry, always aninterest, or were you doing
other things before you got intothis?
Stefanie Couch (02:23):
well, I was sort of born into it, so it chose me
by birth.
My grandfather and my dad had alumberyard a retail lumberyard
in Atlanta when I was born, realclose to the airport in
Hartsville, jackson area, andwhen I was five we moved up to
Northeast Georgia and my dadactually started a second branch
of his own lumberyard up hereand I sort of grew up around it,
(02:44):
stealing forklifts on the yardwhile he was inside, selling
customers and driving themaround the gravel lot and doing
all sorts of stuff I probablyshouldn't have been doing, but I
worked there when I was young,so I actually would like boot
people out of the way to ring upcustomers.
From about seven on I reallyloved it and it was just always.
(03:06):
Business was always verynatural to me.
I liked selling Girl Scoutcookies, I loved being in the
mix, and so it was neversomething I didn't think I would
do.
And I grew up, went to college,came right back and worked for
my dad during that time and theneventually went to a large
Fortune 500 to sell doors andhelp them build up a startup
division during that time andthen eventually went to a large
Fortune 500 to sell doors andhelp them build up a startup
(03:28):
division of that business and itwent from there.
Now I have my own business.
So I actually worked incorporate a lot longer than I
thought I would, but I think itwas because I was in a really
fast paced environment where wewere building a business that
was pretty much from scratch andopening new branches and all
those things.
So I got that kind ofaggressive growth that I like
(03:48):
from that part of the businesswhere typically a really large
corporation doesn't change thatmuch.
It's pretty stagnant or, youknow, growth at small scale.
This was like 100x on thebusiness in one year.
So I got addicted and now hereI am.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (04:02):
Yeah, I mean that's a good point.
I mean, just because you're ata bigger company or a company,
even a midsize company, doesn'tmean that you can't carve out an
area that could be very, veryentrepreneurial.
Stefanie Couch (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely , and some companies are really
into that stuff.
You know, they always have alittle niche or two that are
kind of doing something new,trying some new things.
I think with AI and all thethings that are coming out right
now, it's going to really openup the floodgates for people who
want to go out and kind oftrailblaze a little bit, that
maybe some of these companiesare going to give them a little
capex and say, hey, go see whatyou can do.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (04:36):
Sure, absolutely.
So you know you work for thesecompanies.
When was it the time or whatmade you decide to go off on
your own?
Stefanie Couch (04:47):
Well, I actually left the company I was with for
10 years and moved to Floridafor about five months and worked
at a company.
It was not a good fit for me orfor them.
I actually really did not likethe job from like day three, and
so I was ready to kind of goout on my own.
We had started some businessesLLCs and about November of 2022,
(05:07):
I actually got let go from thatjob, probably because they knew
I hated it Like I mean, it wasnot, I was not hiding it very
well, and so it just wasn't agood fit for any of us involved.
So my husband and I actuallywent out full time.
Both of us just burned all theboats at one time and said let's
just see what happens and it'seither going to be really good
(05:27):
or probably really bad.
And thankfully it was, you know, something that took off pretty
quickly and I was able toleverage some of those skills
and the relationships that I'vebuilt over the last, you know,
20 years of my career.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (05:41):
Yeah, and you know, what you started
at that time is pretty much inits form now, or did it evolve?
Stefanie Couch (05:47):
Very similar.
So we actually have rebrandedthe name a little bit.
We started out as Build GenNext and I figured out that no
one understood what I said whenI said that it looked really
cool on the logo but I was likeno, it's Grit Blueprint.
And we actually have been doingsome sort of growth strategy
and implementation for companiesthe whole time that we've been
(06:09):
working with them.
So we've done everything fromsoftware projects especially
around the window and door, andbuilding material softwares, and
then we've also done websites,branding, growth strategy,
really helping people figure out, you know how to grow their
businesses, even really largebusinesses.
So we've had companies that are3 million a year and we have a
(06:32):
client that's in the billions ayear right now.
So we've kind of ranged allthrough and it's been fun to
work on those different projects.
Some are super establishedcompanies, some are newer
companies and even someindividuals that we've worked
with with personal branding.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, can you share some
stories?
I mean you don't have tomention necessarily company
names, but legacy companies thathave done most of their
business via word of mouth.
You know, referral marketing.
Stefanie Couch (07:09):
That's really how the building industry works.
Even today, people that areoutside of our industry are like
, what are you talking about?
But then I say, well, thesepeople still use fax machines.
Like this is real and theydon't believe me.
But helping them figure outwhat does the business look like
for the next five to 10 yearsbecause we know that it will be
business in a digital waySomehow it might not be a
(07:32):
hundred percent transition andso figuring out how to brand
them in a way that they cancontinue to grow that legacy and
the next generation ofconsumers and customers that
will want to do research andprobably buy online can do that.
So we've really helped a lot ofcompanies rebrand come to the
2024-2025 with websites, socialmedia and also figuring out what
(07:56):
is your true best customer.
So a lot of these companiesthey do a lot of different
things for a lot of differentpeople, but maybe they find that
their best customers are all ina custom home builder that are
doing a lot of really intricatewindow and door packages and
they want to lean into that more.
And so that resource aroundwhat would they want as a
(08:16):
customer?
Helping them figure out whatthey find valuable and then
allowing people to know thattelling their stories is such an
important part of our business,especially with our industry.
I find that people don't do avery good job of showing end
product, which is interestingbecause we build beautiful homes
.
You know there's amazingproducts that are out there, but
(08:37):
in the building materialschannel there's the end user,
which is that homeowner or maybethe contractor that could get
those pictures, and a lot of ourcustomers are up the channel a
little bit.
You know.
Maybe they're the manufacturerthat's actually making the door,
the window, the LVL, maybe it'sthe person who's the two-step
distributor which is where Iused to work and then the person
(08:57):
under them is the dealer thatthat contractor's walking in
getting the stuff, ordering it.
So there's a lot of people inthat channel that never see that
finished product and so it'strying to figure out how to
weave that thread through theentire channel to help everyone
see what's going on and buildthat story around it.
So we love doing that kind ofwork and sometimes we get to do
(09:18):
some really cool projects withcustom stuff and sometimes it's
a standard two before that we'rehelping people sell.
All of those products have tobe a part of the building
industry yeah, it's true and notum.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (09:30):
The information doesn't always flow
right to the building materialsor from the contractor.
I think a bunch of years ago Ithought you know collecting
field images was kind of tough.
You know, maybe, uh, yourchallenges with the site.
You know, uh, you know, peoplethat you know may not be
familiar or have the tools orthe quality of the equipment at
(09:53):
hand to take quality photos.
I think for a while we're tryingto coach people with sort of
tools but, honestly, these daysI think I see more and more, uh,
people that are very good at it, they're aware of it, and even
the companies themselves, likecreating their own content and
tagging the distributor, or theorganization that has the
(10:14):
internal marketing team, whichis exciting.
Stefanie Couch (10:16):
Yeah, and with our cell phones now you know you
might not be able to put thatpicture on a super high res like
catalog or something that youwould print, but you can use it
for social media for sure, froma cell phone video or image.
So it's really exciting that wehave more accessibility to that
and we love doing that.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (10:35):
There have been any examples where you
know you were able to convinceor you were able to find people
in the organization that trulyhad personality and put them
forward Like you do that so wellwith your brand.
You have examples of clientsyou were able to do that with.
Stefanie Couch (10:50):
There's been a few.
It's really tough, truthfully,because people, especially in
our industry, they don't want tobe seen as flashy or show off,
and it's kind of like, well, Idon't want to be an influencer,
and it said, okay, well, youdon't want to be an influencer,
but do you want influence?
Would you like to influenceyour customers to buy more
(11:11):
things?
Would you like to influencepeople that might want to come
work here, to come apply Allthese things?
And so I think it's aboutreally helping people.
See, we have a few clients thathave started posting on,
especially LinkedIn, that havestarted doing more speaking and
positioning them in that manner.
It's really about consistency,though, and that's where we find
(11:32):
that people, a lot of times,just don't know what to say or
what to do.
So we do have some clients thatwe actually do ghostwriting and
posting for, that we actuallydo ghostwriting and posting for,
and so that helps some of theseexecutives to see the option of
well, if I'm not a writer, I'mnot a social media person, I
don't have to necessarily dothat.
We capture their stories and weget their words and we actually
(11:53):
use their thoughts and words,but we just actually put it into
the copy, post for it.
So that's been helpful for alot of our people that we do.
It's very unusual to find somesort of executive that's just
going to love posting onLinkedIn all the time.
There are a few I've seen a few,but it's very rare so and they
have a lot going on, so we liketo help them do that.
(12:14):
And one other thing that we aredoing is a big problem in the
industry that we see and a lotof our clients are asking us for
is really training, that nextgeneration of how to do all
different things.
So technical training like, forinstance, how do you know what
engineered wood product, like anLVL, is?
(12:34):
How do you know the differencebetween an interior and exterior
door or this roof versus thatroof?
Why is metal roofing moredurable?
Why does it last longer?
Those types of conversations.
So we're actually building outtraining, and one of the
trainings that we're buildingout is around building your
brand and building yourinfluence, and so we're hoping
that if we can really takepeople along the journey of how
(12:57):
this could work without it beingso intimidating, that that will
help people want to do it morecould work without it being so
intimidating, that that willhelp people want to do it more.
Yeah, so just basicallyeducation, I guess Absolutely
and some tools with AI toactually help you make the post
and position yourself in thatway.
So that's what people get sohung up on.
(13:17):
I've seen people spend and I'vespent before when I was first
starting hours on one post andmost people are not going to do
that for long-term if it's thathard.
So with AI it's helped us sortof quantum leap a lot of those
problems.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (13:30):
Yeah, with AI.
What does AI do well, you think, right now, and what is it not
quite do well right now?
Stefanie Couch (13:39):
I think that most people don't know how to
prompt AI or even maybe haven'teven tried much to prompt AI.
So I think most of the time theinput is the problem more than
what it does.
Well, if you give it enoughinformation and I like to use
this example because I speakabout AI a lot at events, if I
told my husband, hey, go getdinner at the store, go get
(14:02):
something to cook and he cameback and he brought home you
know, a salad and some bread andno meat, no, any of that I
couldn't really be exactly madat him.
When I really wanted a rib eyesteak with a baked potato and,
you know, apple pie and icecream for dessert, right.
But if I told him that'sexactly what I wanted and then
(14:25):
he didn't come back with that,then I maybe could be upset.
So AI is the same way.
If you prompt it in a verygeneral way, it's going to give
you back junk, for lack of abetter word, or usually
something that just isn't whatyou wanted.
If you prompt it extremelyspecifically and then continue
to nuance it, you're going toget a better output.
So I think that's really thebiggest thing.
I think what it does reallywell is help you ideate.
(14:48):
I think it does analysis onideas that are SWOT analysis and
even data analysis, extremelywell.
I think it gives ideas forcreative pretty well and I think
it's pretty poor at showcasingyou and your story in a way that
feels like you, unless you do alot of prompting, which most
(15:08):
people don't know how to do.
So I think that you know youget the idea, you get the story,
maybe you get a hook from itand then you write the rest.
That's really where I'm at atthis point.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (15:18):
Yeah, I was curious.
You said SWOT analysis with AIInteresting.
I never thought about that.
So what would you prompt?
Like you know, just say acompany name and do a SWOT
analysis and I've never tried toprompt that.
Stefanie Couch (15:34):
Yeah, so I use that one probably more than
anything else.
So one tip is on chat GPT.
If you have the pro version,which is like, I think, $20 a
month or something, you can usewhat they call O1.
It's version O1 and it'sadvanced reasoning, so that is
the best one because it actuallythinks and it uses these
analysis parameters that arevery much more involved than a
(15:57):
standard version of that.
So that's where I start withthat version.
And then a little pro tip is Iactually speak into my chat GPT.
I don't prompt it with typingbecause it's so much more in
depth.
So you can add a Chromeextension to do that or you can
do it on your app, on your phone, natively, through iPhone or
I'm sure Android has the samething.
But this is how I would promptthat.
(16:19):
I would say, hey, I want to doa SWOT analysis on I'm going to
use my company, right?
So I have an idea here's mygo-to-market idea of this and I
would actually let it ask mequestions first to get all the
information.
So the way I would start thatprompt would be act as an expert
interviewer and ask mequestions one at a time.
(16:44):
Here is the thing I want you toask me questions about with this
business idea, and then youtell it some ideas you know that
you have.
Let's just say, I want to do acourse on how to start a podcast
in the building industry andI'm going to do this price point
this, all these things.
And then, once it asks me thosequestions and it will ask you a
lot of questions as aninterviewer and it will be very
in depth I'm going to do thisprice point this, all these
things.
And then once it asks me thosequestions and it will ask you a
lot of questions as aninterviewer and it will be very
(17:06):
in-depth and probably things youwould not have thought to have
told it Then it will say youknow, is there anything else you
need to add?
And you can say no.
And then you can say act as anexpert, and that works at
McKinsey.
You can even get super, super,you know deliberative about how
you prompt it and say ask meeverything that you would need
(17:26):
to know to do a SWOT analysis onthis and then give me the SWOT
analysis and what it comes backwith will blow your mind.
Tatsuya "Tats" Naka (17:34):
Interesting .
Stefanie Couch (17:35):
Yeah, I do this all the time.
Tatsuya "Tats" Naka (17:38):
Interesting .
Okay, that is cool.
Stefanie Couch (17:41):
Yeah.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (17:41):
Um.
What are the otheropportunities in the buildings
or the construction industry interms of people coming to you
and asking for help?
Stefanie Couch (17:52):
Well, we do a lot of system optimization.
So people have a problem withsales forces right now kind of
being in a rut.
They don't follow up on leads,they have too many leads, or the
leads they have, they just aresitting too long and they lose
them.
I find that a lot of my clientshave these salespeople that
(18:13):
have been there for a long time.
They're great people, they'regood at what they do, but
they're selling the people theyknow and that it's comfortable.
And during the pandemic, therewasn't really a whole lot of
opportunity to go out and sellbecause we didn't have enough
products to even feed the people.
We already were selling tothose builders and those you
(18:33):
know dealers, distributors theywere all really just begging for
as much as they could get, andso why would you go set up a new
account?
But now in 2024, and even nowin 2025, it feels like that same
mentality, unfortunately, hassort of puttered along and we do
need to be going out andhunting again.
So I think it's helping peoplefigure out what to go hunt for.
What is your best opportunity?
(18:54):
What are the 20% of people thatwould you know really be best
for your business to sell?
And then how do you go aboutdoing that?
So helping them strategize withtheir sales teams and also
their executive teams of what isthat messaging and how does
that work?
And then we also have sometools like AI that can help with
that lead generation.
Follow up all of those thingseven from a perspective of a
(19:17):
sales team, getting remindersabout things like hey, did you
talk to this person last month?
Have you heard from them in amonth?
You know, it's more than just adonut run.
I think the days of oursalespeople going out and saying
like hey, joe, hadn't seen youin a while.
Here's the donuts.
Or you want to go to lunch orwhatever, once a month or
quarter, it's not cutting it.
We have to be solutions-basedselling and really helping our
(19:40):
customers understand this iswhat we can do for you.
That would actually make yourlife easier, it would make you
more money, it would make yourcustomers happier, and those
solutions are probably going tobe different than what they were
three or four years ago.
So figuring out what do we haveto do as a business to make
that valuable?
And one question that I askmyself a lot and I think I hope
(20:04):
every business owner does thisis am I doing this because I
think it's a good idea, or am Idoing this and the market
actually finds it valuable andneeds this solution?
And I think a lot of times wehave a lot of great cool ideas
and we waste a lot of time onthings that the market has zero
interest in.
So it's figuring out.
How do we test that and how arewe getting feedback from our
(20:26):
customers of what do theyactually want and what do they
find valuable from a product'sperspective and a service's
perspective?
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (20:33):
Yeah, no, that's very cool.
Stefanie Couch (20:35):
I like it, thank you.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (20:39):
With the social media stuff.
I mean, where do you sort ofconcentrate your activity?
Linkedin, yeah, yeah, linkedinis your main.
Stefanie Couch (20:54):
Pretty much right now I'm with this podcast.
I have a podcast as well calledthe Grit Blueprint that I've
been, you know, kind ofexperimenting with, but this
year we're doing a lot moreepisodes and we're going to be
putting that on YouTube.
I have some content with someof my clients that we're going
to be posting like, hopefully,job site stuff and actually in
the field, and I do a lot ofspeaking.
So I get a lot of in-person.
I do a ton of keynote speakingon AI, on branding, on, on just
(21:17):
business strategy for ourindustry, and then I also post
usually every day on LinkedIn.
So I try to do stuff that I canpost organically on a newsletter
and things like that.
That's an owned audience aswell as far as blogs,
newsletters.
But really LinkedIn has been mymain focus, and mostly because
I feel like that's where I'vebeen able to own my audience as
(21:39):
far as like really figure outhow to make this work.
Instagram is just a wholenother deal and I don't know
that my audience necessarily isthere.
I think there is an audiencethere I could capture, but it
just is a whole different world.
So YouTube is really my focusthat I'm going to start focusing
on in 2025 as a second platform.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (22:00):
Okay, yeah, very cool.
No, I like all the thingsyou're doing.
Is there anything else that youwanted to share that I haven't
asked you?
Stefanie Couch (22:14):
I don't think so .
I mean, I really love thisindustry and the people in it,
and I'm excited to see wheretechnology and branding takes us
.
I think that the personal brandis going to be, and even
company brands are going to bemore important based on the
technological changes.
So that's the only thing I'llsay is you know how you treat
your customers and how you'reseen is going to be more
important as the technologylevels the playing field on
(22:34):
other avenues.
You know.
Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa (22:37):
Perfect .
Well, thanks for taking thetime.
Stefanie Couch (22:41):
Yeah, thank you for having me on.
I appreciate it.
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