Erin Moore shares why being small and nimble in the lumber industry is a competitive advantage in today's market. We explore how independent lumberyards can thrive amid industry consolidation by leveraging their deep community relationships and service-oriented approach.
• Third-generation owner of Moore Lumber and Hardware, operating 7 locations with 150 employees in Colorado
• Largest independent lumber company in Colorado, serving communities for 77 years
• Left the family business to work for larger corporations before returning with valuable perspectives on organizational management
• Learning that sometimes being "directionally right" is more important than having absolute data
• Community relationships and legacy remain central to the independent lumberyard business model
• Name recognition and reputation accountability create trust that large corporations struggle to match
• Industry consolidation continues but creates opportunities for independents with strong service models
• Finding and training the next generation of talent is the biggest challenge facing the industry
• Exploring AI solutions that can enhance operations without replacing the human element
• Future focus includes expanding into markets where competitors have been acquired by larger corporations
🎥 Watch the Video Version of This Episode
Catch the video version of The Grit Blueprint Podcast on my personal YouTube channel:
Stefanie Couch on YouTube
📧 Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get exclusive updates and insights from Grit Blueprint:
Sign Up Here
✨ Stay Connected
- Website: GritBlueprint.com
- Instagram: @Grit.Blueprint
- LinkedIn: Grit Blueprint
💼 Follow Stefanie Couch
- Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
- LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch
- Personal Website: StefanieCouch.com
🚀 What Is Grit Blueprint?
Grit Blueprint helps businesses in the building materials and construction industries grow through expert marketing, branding, and AI-driven tools.
📅 Book a Call
Learn how we can help your business thrive:
Schedule a Call
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stefanie Couch (00:00):
I really strongly believe that the
independent lumberyard isactually the most competitive
advantage right now that anyonecan have.
Erin Moore (00:07):
We don't have to have absolute data, but we can
see the direction of somethingand we can steer our ship or we
can steer our organization inthat way.
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
Stefanie Couch (00:17):
Yeah, I think there's something to be said
about being able to call the guyor the girl that's names on the
door and know that your name'son the door and it counts
towards your reputation.
Erin Moore (00:27):
At the end of the day, our hardware stores, our
employees, our people theycreate the community in which we
live and work for generations.
I mean, we're talking 77 yearsnow.
Yeah, literally for generations, and it's super important.
Stefanie Couch (00:41):
Some of these larger players have bought up a
lot of independents around thecountry.
How does the independentlumberyard survive?
Welcome to the Grit BlueprintPodcast, the show for bold
builders, brand leaders andlegacy makers in the
construction and buildingindustry.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and I've been in this industry
(01:04):
my entire life.
Whether we're breaking downwhat's working in sales and
marketing, new advances in AIand automation, or interviewing
top industry leaders, you'regoing to get real world
strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your
team.
Let's get to work.
Welcome to the GrP BlueprintPodcast.
(01:28):
I'm Stephanie Couch and I'mactually coming live from Vegas.
Today.
We are here for theInternational Builders Show and
I'm joined by my friend, AaronMoore, who is actually the Vice
President of Moore Lumber andHardware in Colorado.
Welcome to the show.
Erin Moore (01:42):
Thanks, Stefanie.
Stefanie Couch (01:43):
Thanks for joining me, and we just landed
big week this week.
I'm really excited.
There's a lot of stuff going onand a lot of people in the
business here.
Like 80,000 people are supposedto be here.
I think, it's out of control.
So I'm ready for a big week andI want to talk to you today a
little bit about.
You have an amazing story.
You are a third generationowner of an operator, your vice
(02:06):
president, seven locations.
You guys have 150 employees.
You have all the products fromhardware to paint lumber, all
the things to build a home, andy'all are doing some great
things.
I love talking to independentowners because there are not a
lot of us left out there.
You know people that grew up inthe lumber business.
We both grew up there and soI'm excited to hear your story a
(02:28):
little bit.
Tell me a little bit about howthis got started.
It's been open a long time.
Tell me the story of MoreLumber.
Erin Moore (02:35):
Well, Stefanie, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
It's a beautiful day in LasVegas it is, and it's exciting
to be at the IBS show.
So 77 years ago my grandfatherstarted a small, I guess,
mercantile and mill shop tosupport a dude ranch that he had
not far away from there.
And the dude ranch was soldlong ago and the legacy still
(03:00):
lives on with more lumber andhardware.
We don't mill any of our ownlumber anymore.
Obviously that comes mostlyfrom the Pacific Northwest and
Canada, but we are a prettystrong organization, the largest
independent lumber company inColorado.
Stefanie Couch (03:14):
Wow, that's really cool and you guys are
still in your dad's, still inthe business with you, right?
Erin Moore (03:19):
Yes, my dad is still in the business I don't know
that he'll ever retire.
Stefanie Couch (03:23):
That's awesome.
I love that and you know I grewup in a family lumberyard too.
So my, my granddad, had alumberyard in Atlanta growing up
and then we moved to NorthGeorgia.
My dad had one and I lovedworking there when I was a
little girl like from very youngage I mean five or six I would
beg my dad during the summers togo with him, and I love that.
Any like fun childhood storiesof you at the lumberyard or at
(03:44):
the hardware store.
Erin Moore (03:45):
Yeah, so, one of our original lumberyards.
We actually had an apartmentabove the hardware store.
We lived up there.
Okay, every day after work Iwould beg my dad to drive the
forklift.
Dad please, dad, please, dad,please.
And now that I have childrenand they ask me those kinds of
questions dad, dad, dad I wonderwhat he thought.
But it was the greatest time ofmy life when I could drive a
(04:05):
forklift.
Stefanie Couch (04:08):
Same thing.
I used to go steal it in theback.
My dad would be like doingsomething up front and I would
kind of watch and.
I would go out the back door.
It's actually a miracle thatI'm alive, because I was wild as
hell, um, and I would literallygo pick up concrete pallets and
stuff like I OSHA would havehated it there.
So this, this message is notOSHA approved but I really love
(04:30):
that story and you actually leftand went and adventured out of
the family business, learned,I'm sure, a lot of things that
you brought back now that you'reback in the family business.
Tell me about your time at BlueLinks.
And then you went to UniversalForce Products for a while.
What did you do there and whatare some of the things that you
learned, leaving that familyatmosphere to go work for a
(04:51):
larger company?
Erin Moore (04:52):
I did.
At one point my dad sold acouple of his locations to
Foxworth Galbraith and we weredown to just one single location
the original location in lonelyold Bailey, colorado, and let's
just say there were too manychiefs and not enough Indians.
And I did.
I went to work for Blue Linksfor a while and in 2008, I could
(05:12):
see the writing on the wall Itook a job at Universal Forest
Products.
So you know that was a greatopportunity to see what a big
business looks like and how theyoperate.
I can remember one time at BlueLinks this was close to 2008,
when a senior vice president, wewere in a meeting and we're
(05:33):
talking about some data andstuff and everybody's like, well
, it's not exactly right, it'snot exactly right.
And he goes well, it doesn'tmatter if it's exactly right,
it's directionally right.
And at the time I thought thatwas pretty silly.
And now that I'm back in ourorganization and we rise to
leadership roles, we look atdecisions that we make and we go
.
We don't have to have absolutedata, but we can see the
(05:55):
direction of something and wecan steer our ship or we can
steer our organization in thatway.
So those are some kind ofthings that you learn in big
organizations.
You learn about a hierarchy, achain of command.
You learn about big supplychains.
You also learn that sometimesthe big guys don't always have
the advantage.
I can remember working at BlueLinks and we would share.
(06:18):
I was a lumber trader and youcould buy from a mill and sell
to a customer and we wouldmanage the freight and our
freight costs were three or fourhundred dollars higher than if
we bought from a broker and soldto the customer.
So we literally buy frombrokers and sell to customers
instead of buying from the millourselves because the insurance
costs were so high from the bigguys.
(06:40):
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
Stefanie Couch (06:45):
I totally agree with that.
I actually think one of thebiggest advantages for
independent businesses likeyours and obviously my business
is a small business is that youare nimble, you can change and
move with the trends and if yousee an opportunity you can
capitalize on it quickly.
And a lot of times when youhave a big hierarchy, it's kind
of hard for that to go throughall those ranks and get things
(07:07):
done really quickly.
Erin Moore (07:08):
Yeah, for sure.
Stefanie Couch (07:09):
Even in big companies, I think that the ones
that are most successful oftenare very decentralized and they
do allow people on the ground tomake those decisions.
I know when I was indistribution it was very similar
to that.
That was a real competitiveadvantage.
Do you allow your locations to,kind of you have some
operational kind of make theshots on the ground type things?
Erin Moore (07:29):
Yeah, we do, almost to a fault sometimes, one of the
takeaways coming from thepublicly traded companies.
Of course, blue Links andUniversal Forest Products are
both publicly traded lumbercompanies.
In fact, I think Universal isthe largest in the world lumber
companies.
In fact I think Universal is thelargest in the world.
When you see a problem, itbecomes a monumental fix.
(07:53):
Even the smallest problemthat's out of place, that guy
shouldn't be here, that's asafety problem.
Everything is by committee andwe empower people.
I'd like to think we empowerpeople to make those problems
resolved.
Yeah, even sometimes to a faultwhere you ask the question why
did you do it that way?
But you know what?
They probably 80-20.
They probably do it right 80%of the time.
Stefanie Couch (08:13):
Yeah.
Erin Moore (08:14):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (08:14):
It's kind of an expectation that we have yeah.
The right people they kind ofprobably know when they should
ask for permission versusforgiveness, I guess sometimes.
And sometimes we're not righton those decisions even at the
top.
You know, we we're all justtrying to figure it out.
I think that's the thing aboutbusinesses.
There really isn't a resolvedanswer on anything.
It's all just kind of a hopefor the best.
(08:35):
Like you said, directionallyright and take the chances, and
sometimes they pay off andsometimes they don't.
Erin Moore (08:41):
Well, I think we we set some for ourselves and as
long as we work towards thosegoals, we know we're going to
make some mistakes along the way, but we support each other as a
team and we're all headed inthe same direction.
I love it.
Stefanie Couch (08:53):
How important is local community support in your
business and especially in thehardware side of things.
You know you always think aboutthe local hardware store.
How important is that to youand your business?
Erin Moore (09:03):
Yeah, I mean it's super important.
That's what we were founded onwas our local business and our
local hardware store.
In a lot of cases, we've grownbeyond our locality in terms of
our sales and distribution, butat the end of the day, our
(09:26):
hardware stores, our employees,our people, they create the
community in which we live andwork for generations.
I mean we're talking 77 yearsnow yeah, Literally for
generations and it's superimportant.
It helps us maintain our values.
It helps us maintain ourcommitment to our community.
It's super important.
Stefanie Couch (09:44):
One of the conversations that I have a lot
with owners and small and largebusinesses is about the
consolidation.
You know USLBM, bfs.
Some of these larger playershave bought up a lot of
independents around the country.
Is that consolidationinevitable?
Is it something that that canbe stopped?
How does the independentlumberyard survive?
Erin Moore (10:06):
Well, certainly the current landscape says that that
trend is going to continue,especially with QXO out there.
That's the big money guy rightthere.
So we know that thatconsolidation is going to
continue.
Whether it's good for theindustry or not is yet to be
seen.
I mean, in my lifetime I'veseen a lot of consolidation and
(10:28):
then cycles of devastation andso on.
For us sometimes it's exciting.
Recently a well-respected ESOPin Colorado, alpine Lumber, was
purchased by BFS and to us, welook at it and we go that's
great, we just lost anothercompetitor.
They got gobbled up by the bigguy.
So it's going to happen.
(10:49):
It's going to continue tohappen, and how that turns out
in the long run remains to beseen.
Stefanie Couch (10:54):
What competitive advantage do you think that
independent lumber yards havetoday?
Erin Moore (10:58):
Yeah, I mean, obviously the big guy doesn't
care about you, right, theymight make apps for you and they
might trend on social media orwhatever they do, but at the end
of the day, our deep productknowledge, our local
relationships, our relationshipswith our customers and our
(11:20):
builders, that really is whatdefines us.
You know product quality andservice is what will define us,
and you just don't get that whenyou have a lot of consolidation
.
Stefanie Couch (11:30):
Yeah, I think there's something to be said
about being able to call the guyor the girl that's names on the
door and know that your name'son the door and it counts
towards your reputation andgenerally generations of
reputation really.
I mean, I know when my dad usedto, when we talked about things
like that, you'd think like,well, yeah, I'm going to make it
right because it's the rightthing to do and it's my name.
Erin Moore (11:57):
Yeah, and we're super centered on our values.
Right Like, how we conduct ourbusiness is just as important as
the business we conduct, so Ithink that's what separates us
from the big guys.
Stefanie Couch (12:02):
Yeah, and that service and those relationships
that you build over generations.
Do you have a lot of peoplethat buy from you, that are
generational businessesthemselves?
I'm curious, like builders orcontractors that have passed it
down to their kids?
Erin Moore (12:15):
We do.
Stefanie Couch (12:15):
That's awesome.
Erin Moore (12:16):
Yeah, we do.
I can remember being a littlekid working in the lumberyard
and knowing some guy's dad andnow he buys from us and his kids
are getting in the business andit comes and goes.
But yeah, there's definitely anelement of that, for sure.
Stefanie Couch (12:29):
Yeah, we have some people that we used to sell
and they went to school.
The kids went to school with me.
We grew up together, saw eachother at the lumberyard and now
they're running the store orrunning the contractor's
business.
It's really awesome to see that.
Erin Moore (12:42):
Yeah, I think the best part about that is that our
relationship extends beyond ourjust friendliness or knowledge
of each other, like we'reproviding a service to them.
They're a customer of ours,it's a business partnership and
it's really unique actually.
Stefanie Couch (12:58):
Yeah, and our business is so relationship
driven.
Now, like you said, there's alot of technology out there.
I'm speaking this week on AI.
It's coming, it's here.
You know there are things thatyou can do to make that better,
but what I like to tell people,you know, is you're not going to
replace that part of thebusiness and you shouldn't try,
take the AI and use that withthe stuff that no one's doing
anyway.
You know the little things thatwe don't have time to do, that
(13:20):
we probably should be doing, andthen that gives us more time to
go do the stuff that reallymatters, that our customers
actually care about.
How does customer experienceand that really resonating with
you as like having thoserelationships?
How does that matter to you andyour business in a day to day?
Erin Moore (13:36):
Well, at the end of the day, like we're super
focused on our customerexperience and that's what
really matters to us Our service, our quality and and a
competitive price.
Right, it's kind of athree-legged stool price,
quality and service but anymoreyou really have to be good at
all three of them.
We're always going to provide acompetitive price and we're
(13:58):
going to strive to have the bestservice and quality for sure.
Stefanie Couch (14:01):
I want to go back to your sabbatical, to the
big distributors and then comingback here.
How did seeing those things?
Or maybe just maturing in yourcareer?
How did that change yourleadership style?
Now that you've been back for12 years at Moore Lumber, how
did that change that?
Erin Moore (14:17):
I think it goes back to being able to solve problems
right.
When you're in a bigorganization, any problem you
see takes a committee or a teamto solve.
It could be a dumpster that'sout of place.
Hey, the dumpster is over there.
It probably should be by thegate so the guy can just pick it
up tomorrow.
In a big organization it mighttake two, three weeks to solve
(14:40):
that problem.
In a small organization, youempower your people to go.
Here's the right solution.
Let's just solve the problemright here and now.
Stefanie Couch (14:47):
It's one of the most frustrating and also
eye-opening things that I eversaw in business.
When I went from my dad'slumberyard, it was like I walked
in and said, hey, dad and thenit was done right.
Erin Moore (14:58):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (14:59):
And I remember the first time I went into the
branch manager's office and itwas a man who was a similar age
to my dad and basically it was aman who was a similar age to my
dad and like, basically it waslike, hey, dad, and it was like,
oh well, let me.
Let me work up these 14processes to see if maybe we
want to talk about talking aboutthis.
It was a really big eye-openerfor me.
There's a lot of advantages.
Obviously, they have sometimesa lot more capital to put into
(15:21):
projects and things like thatand maybe a longer vision for
like, hey, if this doesn't makemoney for three years, we're
okay with that, sometimes in abig company, but it also does
take a long time it feels like,to get anything done.
Erin Moore (15:32):
Yes.
Stefanie Couch (15:33):
And that's a big competitive advantage, I think,
for you guys as smaller,nimbler business, to be able to
move on something quicker.
The opportunity could be gonebefore people say yes.
In a big company, yeah, how doyou balance family dynamics?
I know it's you and your dad,you know, but I'm sure you have
other things going around andsometimes those people that have
worked there a long time, man,they become family, right?
(15:54):
How do you balance that?
Erin Moore (15:55):
You know that's a really great question and it's
always a bit of a challenge, butat the end of the day, you have
to maintain your familyrelationship and your business
relationship is about business.
So you have to treat everythingwith facts and be goal oriented
and just make decisions withthat process in mind.
Yeah, yeah.
Stefanie Couch (16:14):
Yeah, it's tough , right.
I'm married to my businesspartner, so most days it's good.
We challenge each other, Ithink in good ways, and that's
the thing you got to treatbusiness like business for sure,
one thing that I like to talkto people like you about is the
next generation of talent.
Tell me what keeps you up atnight about what's coming down
(16:37):
the pipe with all theseretirements, or what are you
thinking about with nextgeneration talent in your
business.
Erin Moore (16:42):
Well, I just got goosebumps here thinking about
that.
That is the number onechallenge to our business.
It is not a glamorous business.
I tell people that get into thebusiness that you better be
prepared to work hard, but yourhard work will pay off and it's
not a difficult business.
You don't have to learn how tolaunch a rocket or anything like
(17:03):
that, you just need to beprepared to work really hard or
anything like that.
You just need to be prepared towork really hard.
Product knowledge is probablythe very most difficult thing.
20 years ago, a guy that cameto work to us that sold fencing
had fixed fences before.
Yeah, it doesn't work that wayanymore.
Stefanie Couch (17:19):
Yep.
Erin Moore (17:20):
Right, a truck driver knew what was on their
truck, and now they don't alwaysknow what's on their truck.
They might have delivered Pepsilast week, and now they don't
always know what's on theirtruck.
They might have delivered pepsilast week and now they're
delivering lumber.
So adapting to the generationaltalent is probably our biggest
challenge as an industry, forsure.
Stefanie Couch (17:37):
What job do you think is the hardest one to fill
?
Is it that technical stuffwhere you have to know, like
doors, windows?
So I would say.
Erin Moore (17:43):
I would say, the technical stuff, yeah, for sure,
like windows for sure yeah,yeah.
Stefanie Couch (17:47):
We do a lot of training and stuff in our
business and we've startedbuilding some of that out and
it's like how do you take a 22year old that's never sold
anything?
They've never.
You know, they just got out ofcollege, they've never sold
something.
They also know nothing aboutWindows, doors, whatever that
product is, and think about howmany things you have to teach
(18:08):
them to learn that, plus thesales skills.
Erin Moore (18:10):
Yeah, I mean, if you were to put a 22 year old with
a 65 year old architect, thatwould be an interesting
conversation.
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (18:19):
And I think it's a competitive advantage for
those who do have some sort ofprogram or some sort of training
resources.
But it seems like that'ssomething that's very deficient
in our business, because we'reall so busy doing our business.
We don't have time to train.
How do you solve that problem?
Erin Moore (18:36):
Well, I mean, I think you just have to solve it
like you solve any other problemand you have to sort of put
aside some things and put firstthings first, and I mean there's
really no other way to go aboutit.
I don't think it's like eatingan elephant right, you got to
take a bite and go after it doyou think technology will help
with that?
I do and I don't.
There's obviously almost everywindow platform has its own
(19:00):
software.
A lot of them, obviously, arebased on a single platform, but
it doesn't solve the nuances atall.
I also am not sure that peopleare as cognizant of the result
of the nuances as they used tobe, so so maybe that's not as
(19:21):
important.
But I mean, I don't thinkthere's any other way.
But to just start and train.
Certainly build with fromwithin is for sure the best way.
It's hard to just hire talentin this industry.
Stefanie Couch (19:29):
Yeah, and if you hire away from someone else,
it's so expensive.
Erin Moore (19:33):
It is, but sometimes you just, like we, went and
worked for somebody else.
Sometimes you bring some freshenergy to that.
Stefanie Couch (19:39):
Yeah, 100%, and I think that that is something
you're going to see.
A lot of.
It's people moving around,especially as these
consolidations happen.
I think some of these peopleare not going to like what
happens when that settles, whenthe dust settles, or there could
be duplicates of roles andthings like that.
I just saw a few largecompanies letting some duplicate
positions go, but I doubtthey'll have a hard time finding
(20:01):
a position because there's somuch need in this industry yeah,
yeah and it's interesting to me, with tech companies and all
these people laying everybodyoff, it's like come work in the
construction industry.
We need you, we?
How do we get those people,though, to see us and see what
we're doing in this industry andsee it as an appealing option?
How do you do that?
Erin Moore (20:20):
well, at the end of the day, it's about building
success, right, it's um makingpeople feel uh good about their
job, winning emotionally,winning financially, um being in
an environment they love towork in.
And, at the end of the day, ifyou do that and you have the
right team, you're gonna worktowards the common goal and
you're going to build success.
Yeah, yeah.
Stefanie Couch (20:41):
What excites you the most about the next year or
two in the business?
Erin Moore (20:45):
Well, I have to tell you I think the business has
changed more in the last fiveyears than it has in the last 25
years, and I'm super excited tosee where it goes.
Obviously, ai is a hugeconversation.
Everybody's all about it Rightnow.
It helps me write emails andthings like that.
But when it gets into ourbusiness and it's able to solve
(21:07):
problems and give us data thatwe had a hard time getting
before or took a long time toget before, and it can answer
questions really fast, I thinkthat's going to be a game
changer.
Stefanie Couch (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely agree with that, because the
ERPs have all the informationsomewhere in the mystery of the
ERPs.
It's really hard to get it outof there, you do have to be a
rocket scientist to get that.
So maybe we should call Elon andask if he could come help us
figure out our ERPs.
But it is interesting that AIcan just go in and have a prompt
and say, hey, go figure outwhich customer segment was the
(21:41):
most profitable over the lastfive years after X, y and Z
taken out of it After freightand returns and things like that
.
And then in 20 seconds it we'veactually started playing.
I don't know if you've seenthis yet.
It's a pretty new technology,but we've started building out
custom AI agents so that it'llactually do back and forth with
(22:04):
with a person, and it's because68 percent of businesses miss
phone calls, right, and so ifyou're after hours or if you're
busy or they're, you know, onanother phone call, it at least
will get the information so theycan call.
You can call a human, can callthem back.
It doesn't have to sell thewindow, but it's just taking
that call and that way itdoesn't just get lost, because
(22:26):
most people never call back ifyou don't, if you don't get the
call.
Erin Moore (22:29):
Well, that's pretty cool that you're working on the
calls, but one of the strongestleaders in our organization,
mark Blickenstaff- is working onan AI agent to take paint
orders via text.
Stefanie Couch (22:42):
Okay, yeah, very cool.
Yeah, I think text is a greatmedium.
I love that Mark's actuallyhere on the side.
Mark and I need to have aconversation it sounds like
about that but I think text isgood because it doesn't freak
people out quite as much astalking to a robot that's
smarter than most people are.
That work there.
You know like it's like hey,this person knows more about
paint than a paint person that'sbeen selling paint, so it's
pretty cool that texting is alittle more comfortable, like
(23:04):
ease into the AI agents.
I love that.
Erin Moore (23:06):
I have a 13 year old and a 15 year old daughter and
almost unanimously when I callthem, they go.
Why are you calling me?
Stefanie Couch (23:15):
Yeah, why are you calling me on?
Erin Moore (23:16):
my phone Just text me.
Stefanie Couch (23:17):
Yeah, it is true , and but you know, I actually
think that's a great pointBecause a lot of the people that
I deal with they don't havetext messaging ways in their
business right now at all, butmost builders do text their
salespeople and what happens isit's on that salesperson's phone
in the never, never land and ifthat salesperson leaves or if
(23:37):
just something happens, youcan't get that information, so
it's not even going into theirCRM.
So I think a lot of this AIthat's talking to each other,
implementing things together,like you said, those systems
that you can get data from.
You know how does this personlike to communicate?
Oh well, Joe sent 48 textmessages last week.
I'm not going to email him orcall him.
He wants to text, you know, orvice versa, if they don't want
(23:58):
to text.
So I love that.
I mean, how many napkin ordershave you gotten that?
It's like it's a text phonepicture of a napkin order.
You can't read it anyway.
And then they text it andyou're like where did that order
go?
I can't remember.
Did they email it?
And then you go back and findit in your phone and you can
figure out what happened.
I love it.
What are you thinking in thenext year?
(24:19):
For you personally is the mostexciting thing, Because I know
you guys got a lot going on.
What are you working on rightnow that just excites you?
Maybe it's Mark's fancy AIagent.
Sounds like pretty cool.
Erin Moore (24:31):
You know, I think that has a roadmap.
That's the word that all thetechnology guys always use the
roadmap.
Stefanie Couch (24:36):
You're a futurist yourself.
You're all in the game overhere.
Erin Moore (24:39):
But at the end of the day, I mean we're focused on
being a strong organization,being profitable, growing,
expanding our markets.
As I said, in Colorado acompetitor just got purchased by
Builders First Source, so wesee a huge opportunity there.
Stefanie Couch (24:57):
Yeah.
Erin Moore (24:57):
And we want to take advantage of that opportunity as
much as we can.
So that's a huge opportunitythere and we want to take
advantage of that opportunity asmuch as we can.
So that's exactly where we'refocused right now.
That's awesome yeah.
Stefanie Couch (25:04):
I can't wait to follow that story and I think
that that's great, that you'reseeing something as an
opportunity.
That some people may see as anegative because you think, oh
well, you know moreconsolidations happening, but I
really strongly believe that theindependent lumber yard is
actually the most competitiveadvantage right now that anyone
can have.
If your service, your customerexperience and hopefully your
(25:27):
technology is following the paththat it needs to follow to keep
up and I think the big dogsjust going to you guys are going
to eat it's going to be amazing.
I'm excited for you.
Erin Moore (25:36):
Well, I definitely think it's cyclical, right Like,
when the boom times come andthere's track housing, they are
going to boom higher and whenthe track housing dips, they are
going to, they are going to golower and we're going to be a
lot more steady.
Um, and that's important to us.
Stefanie Couch (25:58):
Well, and whether you're chasing that, you
may not even want to chase thattrack business.
You know, I know a lot ofsmaller local independent
lumberyards don't even want tomess with that because the
margins are so slim.
You know, it's just.
It's a hard business to win.
Erin Moore (26:03):
It's all about the business partnership.
Yeah, depends on who thebusiness partner is and what
they value.
Stefanie Couch (26:07):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me on the Grit Blueprint
.
This has been fun and I hopeyou have a wonderful week in
Vegas.
Erin Moore (26:14):
All right.
Stefanie Couch (26:21):
Thank you, thank you.
That's it for this episode ofthe Grit Blueprint podcast.
For more tools, training andindustry content, make sure to
subscribe here and follow me onLinkedIn and other social media
platforms To find out more abouthow Grit Blueprint can help you
grow your business.
Check us out at our website,gritblueprintcom.
I really strongly believe that the
independent lumberyard isactually the most competitive
advantage right now that anyonecan have.
Erin Moore (00:07):
We don't have to have absolute data, but we can
see the direction of somethingand we can steer our ship or we
can steer our organization inthat way.
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
Stefanie Couch (00:17):
Yeah, I think there's something to be said
about being able to call the guyor the girl that's names on the
door and know that your name'son the door and it counts
towards your reputation.
Erin Moore (00:27):
At the end of the day, our hardware stores, our
employees, our people theycreate the community in which we
live and work for generations.
I mean, we're talking 77 yearsnow.
Yeah, literally for generations, and it's super important.
Stefanie Couch (00:41):
Some of these larger players have bought up a
lot of independents around thecountry.
How does the independentlumberyard survive?
Welcome to the Grit BlueprintPodcast, the show for bold
builders, brand leaders andlegacy makers in the
construction and buildingindustry.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and I've been in this industry
(01:04):
my entire life.
Whether we're breaking downwhat's working in sales and
marketing, new advances in AIand automation, or interviewing
top industry leaders, you'regoing to get real world
strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your
team.
Let's get to work.
Welcome to the GrP BlueprintPodcast.
(01:28):
I'm Stephanie Couch and I'mactually coming live from Vegas.
Today.
We are here for theInternational Builders Show and
I'm joined by my friend, AaronMoore, who is actually the Vice
President of Moore Lumber andHardware in Colorado.
Welcome to the show.
Erin Moore (01:42):
Thanks, Stefanie.
Stefanie Couch (01:43):
Thanks for joining me, and we just landed
big week this week.
I'm really excited.
There's a lot of stuff going onand a lot of people in the
business here.
Like 80,000 people are supposedto be here.
I think, it's out of control.
So I'm ready for a big week andI want to talk to you today a
little bit about.
You have an amazing story.
You are a third generationowner of an operator, your vice
(02:06):
president, seven locations.
You guys have 150 employees.
You have all the products fromhardware to paint lumber, all
the things to build a home, andy'all are doing some great
things.
I love talking to independentowners because there are not a
lot of us left out there.
You know people that grew up inthe lumber business.
We both grew up there and soI'm excited to hear your story a
(02:28):
little bit.
Tell me a little bit about howthis got started.
It's been open a long time.
Tell me the story of MoreLumber.
Erin Moore (02:35):
Well, Stefanie, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
It's a beautiful day in LasVegas it is, and it's exciting
to be at the IBS show.
So 77 years ago my grandfatherstarted a small, I guess,
mercantile and mill shop tosupport a dude ranch that he had
not far away from there.
And the dude ranch was soldlong ago and the legacy still
(03:00):
lives on with more lumber andhardware.
We don't mill any of our ownlumber anymore.
Obviously that comes mostlyfrom the Pacific Northwest and
Canada, but we are a prettystrong organization, the largest
independent lumber company inColorado.
Stefanie Couch (03:14):
Wow, that's really cool and you guys are
still in your dad's, still inthe business with you, right?
Erin Moore (03:19):
Yes, my dad is still in the business I don't know
that he'll ever retire.
Stefanie Couch (03:23):
That's awesome.
I love that and you know I grewup in a family lumberyard too.
So my, my granddad, had alumberyard in Atlanta growing up
and then we moved to NorthGeorgia.
My dad had one and I lovedworking there when I was a
little girl like from very youngage I mean five or six I would
beg my dad during the summers togo with him, and I love that.
Any like fun childhood storiesof you at the lumberyard or at
(03:44):
the hardware store.
Erin Moore (03:45):
Yeah, so, one of our original lumberyards.
We actually had an apartmentabove the hardware store.
We lived up there.
Okay, every day after work Iwould beg my dad to drive the
forklift.
Dad please, dad, please, dad,please.
And now that I have childrenand they ask me those kinds of
questions dad, dad, dad I wonderwhat he thought.
But it was the greatest time ofmy life when I could drive a
(04:05):
forklift.
Stefanie Couch (04:08):
Same thing.
I used to go steal it in theback.
My dad would be like doingsomething up front and I would
kind of watch and.
I would go out the back door.
It's actually a miracle thatI'm alive, because I was wild as
hell, um, and I would literallygo pick up concrete pallets and
stuff like I OSHA would havehated it there.
So this, this message is notOSHA approved but I really love
(04:30):
that story and you actually leftand went and adventured out of
the family business, learned,I'm sure, a lot of things that
you brought back now that you'reback in the family business.
Tell me about your time at BlueLinks.
And then you went to UniversalForce Products for a while.
What did you do there and whatare some of the things that you
learned, leaving that familyatmosphere to go work for a
(04:51):
larger company?
Erin Moore (04:52):
I did.
At one point my dad sold acouple of his locations to
Foxworth Galbraith and we weredown to just one single location
the original location in lonelyold Bailey, colorado, and let's
just say there were too manychiefs and not enough Indians.
And I did.
I went to work for Blue Linksfor a while and in 2008, I could
(05:12):
see the writing on the wall Itook a job at Universal Forest
Products.
So you know that was a greatopportunity to see what a big
business looks like and how theyoperate.
I can remember one time at BlueLinks this was close to 2008,
when a senior vice president, wewere in a meeting and we're
(05:33):
talking about some data andstuff and everybody's like, well
, it's not exactly right, it'snot exactly right.
And he goes well, it doesn'tmatter if it's exactly right,
it's directionally right.
And at the time I thought thatwas pretty silly.
And now that I'm back in ourorganization and we rise to
leadership roles, we look atdecisions that we make and we go
.
We don't have to have absolutedata, but we can see the
(05:55):
direction of something and wecan steer our ship or we can
steer our organization in thatway.
So those are some kind ofthings that you learn in big
organizations.
You learn about a hierarchy, achain of command.
You learn about big supplychains.
You also learn that sometimesthe big guys don't always have
the advantage.
I can remember working at BlueLinks and we would share.
(06:18):
I was a lumber trader and youcould buy from a mill and sell
to a customer and we wouldmanage the freight and our
freight costs were three or fourhundred dollars higher than if
we bought from a broker and soldto the customer.
So we literally buy frombrokers and sell to customers
instead of buying from the millourselves because the insurance
costs were so high from the bigguys.
(06:40):
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
So sometimes saying small andnimble has a real big advantage.
Stefanie Couch (06:45):
I totally agree with that.
I actually think one of thebiggest advantages for
independent businesses likeyours and obviously my business
is a small business is that youare nimble, you can change and
move with the trends and if yousee an opportunity you can
capitalize on it quickly.
And a lot of times when youhave a big hierarchy, it's kind
of hard for that to go throughall those ranks and get things
(07:07):
done really quickly.
Erin Moore (07:08):
Yeah, for sure.
Stefanie Couch (07:09):
Even in big companies, I think that the ones
that are most successful oftenare very decentralized and they
do allow people on the ground tomake those decisions.
I know when I was indistribution it was very similar
to that.
That was a real competitiveadvantage.
Do you allow your locations to,kind of you have some
operational kind of make theshots on the ground type things?
Erin Moore (07:29):
Yeah, we do, almost to a fault sometimes, one of the
takeaways coming from thepublicly traded companies.
Of course, blue Links andUniversal Forest Products are
both publicly traded lumbercompanies.
In fact, I think Universal isthe largest in the world lumber
companies.
In fact I think Universal is thelargest in the world.
When you see a problem, itbecomes a monumental fix.
(07:53):
Even the smallest problemthat's out of place, that guy
shouldn't be here, that's asafety problem.
Everything is by committee andwe empower people.
I'd like to think we empowerpeople to make those problems
resolved.
Yeah, even sometimes to a faultwhere you ask the question why
did you do it that way?
But you know what?
They probably 80-20.
They probably do it right 80%of the time.
Stefanie Couch (08:13):
Yeah.
Erin Moore (08:14):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (08:14):
It's kind of an expectation that we have yeah.
The right people they kind ofprobably know when they should
ask for permission versusforgiveness, I guess sometimes.
And sometimes we're not righton those decisions even at the
top.
You know, we we're all justtrying to figure it out.
I think that's the thing aboutbusinesses.
There really isn't a resolvedanswer on anything.
It's all just kind of a hopefor the best.
(08:35):
Like you said, directionallyright and take the chances, and
sometimes they pay off andsometimes they don't.
Erin Moore (08:41):
Well, I think we we set some for ourselves and as
long as we work towards thosegoals, we know we're going to
make some mistakes along the way, but we support each other as a
team and we're all headed inthe same direction.
I love it.
Stefanie Couch (08:53):
How important is local community support in your
business and especially in thehardware side of things.
You know you always think aboutthe local hardware store.
How important is that to youand your business?
Erin Moore (09:03):
Yeah, I mean it's super important.
That's what we were founded onwas our local business and our
local hardware store.
In a lot of cases, we've grownbeyond our locality in terms of
our sales and distribution, butat the end of the day, our
(09:26):
hardware stores, our employees,our people, they create the
community in which we live andwork for generations.
I mean we're talking 77 yearsnow yeah, Literally for
generations and it's superimportant.
It helps us maintain our values.
It helps us maintain ourcommitment to our community.
It's super important.
Stefanie Couch (09:44):
One of the conversations that I have a lot
with owners and small and largebusinesses is about the
consolidation.
You know USLBM, bfs.
Some of these larger playershave bought up a lot of
independents around the country.
Is that consolidationinevitable?
Is it something that that canbe stopped?
How does the independentlumberyard survive?
Erin Moore (10:06):
Well, certainly the current landscape says that that
trend is going to continue,especially with QXO out there.
That's the big money guy rightthere.
So we know that thatconsolidation is going to
continue.
Whether it's good for theindustry or not is yet to be
seen.
I mean, in my lifetime I'veseen a lot of consolidation and
(10:28):
then cycles of devastation andso on.
For us sometimes it's exciting.
Recently a well-respected ESOPin Colorado, alpine Lumber, was
purchased by BFS and to us, welook at it and we go that's
great, we just lost anothercompetitor.
They got gobbled up by the bigguy.
So it's going to happen.
(10:49):
It's going to continue tohappen, and how that turns out
in the long run remains to beseen.
Stefanie Couch (10:54):
What competitive advantage do you think that
independent lumber yards havetoday?
Erin Moore (10:58):
Yeah, I mean, obviously the big guy doesn't
care about you, right, theymight make apps for you and they
might trend on social media orwhatever they do, but at the end
of the day, our deep productknowledge, our local
relationships, our relationshipswith our customers and our
(11:20):
builders, that really is whatdefines us.
You know product quality andservice is what will define us,
and you just don't get that whenyou have a lot of consolidation
.
Stefanie Couch (11:30):
Yeah, I think there's something to be said
about being able to call the guyor the girl that's names on the
door and know that your name'son the door and it counts
towards your reputation andgenerally generations of
reputation really.
I mean, I know when my dad usedto, when we talked about things
like that, you'd think like,well, yeah, I'm going to make it
right because it's the rightthing to do and it's my name.
Erin Moore (11:57):
Yeah, and we're super centered on our values.
Right Like, how we conduct ourbusiness is just as important as
the business we conduct, so Ithink that's what separates us
from the big guys.
Stefanie Couch (12:02):
Yeah, and that service and those relationships
that you build over generations.
Do you have a lot of peoplethat buy from you, that are
generational businessesthemselves?
I'm curious, like builders orcontractors that have passed it
down to their kids?
Erin Moore (12:15):
We do.
Stefanie Couch (12:15):
That's awesome.
Erin Moore (12:16):
Yeah, we do.
I can remember being a littlekid working in the lumberyard
and knowing some guy's dad andnow he buys from us and his kids
are getting in the business andit comes and goes.
But yeah, there's definitely anelement of that, for sure.
Stefanie Couch (12:29):
Yeah, we have some people that we used to sell
and they went to school.
The kids went to school with me.
We grew up together, saw eachother at the lumberyard and now
they're running the store orrunning the contractor's
business.
It's really awesome to see that.
Erin Moore (12:42):
Yeah, I think the best part about that is that our
relationship extends beyond ourjust friendliness or knowledge
of each other, like we'reproviding a service to them.
They're a customer of ours,it's a business partnership and
it's really unique actually.
Stefanie Couch (12:58):
Yeah, and our business is so relationship
driven.
Now, like you said, there's alot of technology out there.
I'm speaking this week on AI.
It's coming, it's here.
You know there are things thatyou can do to make that better,
but what I like to tell people,you know, is you're not going to
replace that part of thebusiness and you shouldn't try,
take the AI and use that withthe stuff that no one's doing
anyway.
You know the little things thatwe don't have time to do, that
(13:20):
we probably should be doing, andthen that gives us more time to
go do the stuff that reallymatters, that our customers
actually care about.
How does customer experienceand that really resonating with
you as like having thoserelationships?
How does that matter to you andyour business in a day to day?
Erin Moore (13:36):
Well, at the end of the day, like we're super
focused on our customerexperience and that's what
really matters to us Our service, our quality and and a
competitive price.
Right, it's kind of athree-legged stool price,
quality and service but anymoreyou really have to be good at
all three of them.
We're always going to provide acompetitive price and we're
(13:58):
going to strive to have the bestservice and quality for sure.
Stefanie Couch (14:01):
I want to go back to your sabbatical, to the
big distributors and then comingback here.
How did seeing those things?
Or maybe just maturing in yourcareer?
How did that change yourleadership style?
Now that you've been back for12 years at Moore Lumber, how
did that change that?
Erin Moore (14:17):
I think it goes back to being able to solve problems
right.
When you're in a bigorganization, any problem you
see takes a committee or a teamto solve.
It could be a dumpster that'sout of place.
Hey, the dumpster is over there.
It probably should be by thegate so the guy can just pick it
up tomorrow.
In a big organization it mighttake two, three weeks to solve
(14:40):
that problem.
In a small organization, youempower your people to go.
Here's the right solution.
Let's just solve the problemright here and now.
Stefanie Couch (14:47):
It's one of the most frustrating and also
eye-opening things that I eversaw in business.
When I went from my dad'slumberyard, it was like I walked
in and said, hey, dad and thenit was done right.
Erin Moore (14:58):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (14:59):
And I remember the first time I went into the
branch manager's office and itwas a man who was a similar age
to my dad and basically it was aman who was a similar age to my
dad and like, basically it waslike, hey, dad, and it was like,
oh well, let me.
Let me work up these 14processes to see if maybe we
want to talk about talking aboutthis.
It was a really big eye-openerfor me.
There's a lot of advantages.
Obviously, they have sometimesa lot more capital to put into
(15:21):
projects and things like thatand maybe a longer vision for
like, hey, if this doesn't makemoney for three years, we're
okay with that, sometimes in abig company, but it also does
take a long time it feels like,to get anything done.
Erin Moore (15:32):
Yes.
Stefanie Couch (15:33):
And that's a big competitive advantage, I think,
for you guys as smaller,nimbler business, to be able to
move on something quicker.
The opportunity could be gonebefore people say yes.
In a big company, yeah, how doyou balance family dynamics?
I know it's you and your dad,you know, but I'm sure you have
other things going around andsometimes those people that have
worked there a long time, man,they become family, right?
(15:54):
How do you balance that?
Erin Moore (15:55):
You know that's a really great question and it's
always a bit of a challenge, butat the end of the day, you have
to maintain your familyrelationship and your business
relationship is about business.
So you have to treat everythingwith facts and be goal oriented
and just make decisions withthat process in mind.
Yeah, yeah.
Stefanie Couch (16:14):
Yeah, it's tough , right.
I'm married to my businesspartner, so most days it's good.
We challenge each other, Ithink in good ways, and that's
the thing you got to treatbusiness like business for sure,
one thing that I like to talkto people like you about is the
next generation of talent.
Tell me what keeps you up atnight about what's coming down
(16:37):
the pipe with all theseretirements, or what are you
thinking about with nextgeneration talent in your
business.
Erin Moore (16:42):
Well, I just got goosebumps here thinking about
that.
That is the number onechallenge to our business.
It is not a glamorous business.
I tell people that get into thebusiness that you better be
prepared to work hard, but yourhard work will pay off and it's
not a difficult business.
You don't have to learn how tolaunch a rocket or anything like
(17:03):
that, you just need to beprepared to work really hard or
anything like that.
You just need to be prepared towork really hard.
Product knowledge is probablythe very most difficult thing.
20 years ago, a guy that cameto work to us that sold fencing
had fixed fences before.
Yeah, it doesn't work that wayanymore.
Stefanie Couch (17:19):
Yep.
Erin Moore (17:20):
Right, a truck driver knew what was on their
truck, and now they don't alwaysknow what's on their truck.
They might have delivered Pepsilast week, and now they don't
always know what's on theirtruck.
They might have delivered pepsilast week and now they're
delivering lumber.
So adapting to the generationaltalent is probably our biggest
challenge as an industry, forsure.
Stefanie Couch (17:37):
What job do you think is the hardest one to fill
?
Is it that technical stuffwhere you have to know, like
doors, windows?
So I would say.
Erin Moore (17:43):
I would say, the technical stuff, yeah, for sure,
like windows for sure yeah,yeah.
Stefanie Couch (17:47):
We do a lot of training and stuff in our
business and we've startedbuilding some of that out and
it's like how do you take a 22year old that's never sold
anything?
They've never.
You know, they just got out ofcollege, they've never sold
something.
They also know nothing aboutWindows, doors, whatever that
product is, and think about howmany things you have to teach
(18:08):
them to learn that, plus thesales skills.
Erin Moore (18:10):
Yeah, I mean, if you were to put a 22 year old with
a 65 year old architect, thatwould be an interesting
conversation.
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (18:19):
And I think it's a competitive advantage for
those who do have some sort ofprogram or some sort of training
resources.
But it seems like that'ssomething that's very deficient
in our business, because we'reall so busy doing our business.
We don't have time to train.
How do you solve that problem?
Erin Moore (18:36):
Well, I mean, I think you just have to solve it
like you solve any other problemand you have to sort of put
aside some things and put firstthings first, and I mean there's
really no other way to go aboutit.
I don't think it's like eatingan elephant right, you got to
take a bite and go after it doyou think technology will help
with that?
I do and I don't.
There's obviously almost everywindow platform has its own
(19:00):
software.
A lot of them, obviously, arebased on a single platform, but
it doesn't solve the nuances atall.
I also am not sure that peopleare as cognizant of the result
of the nuances as they used tobe, so so maybe that's not as
(19:21):
important.
But I mean, I don't thinkthere's any other way.
But to just start and train.
Certainly build with fromwithin is for sure the best way.
It's hard to just hire talentin this industry.
Stefanie Couch (19:29):
Yeah, and if you hire away from someone else,
it's so expensive.
Erin Moore (19:33):
It is, but sometimes you just, like we, went and
worked for somebody else.
Sometimes you bring some freshenergy to that.
Stefanie Couch (19:39):
Yeah, 100%, and I think that that is something
you're going to see.
A lot of.
It's people moving around,especially as these
consolidations happen.
I think some of these peopleare not going to like what
happens when that settles, whenthe dust settles, or there could
be duplicates of roles andthings like that.
I just saw a few largecompanies letting some duplicate
positions go, but I doubtthey'll have a hard time finding
(20:01):
a position because there's somuch need in this industry yeah,
yeah and it's interesting to me, with tech companies and all
these people laying everybodyoff, it's like come work in the
construction industry.
We need you, we?
How do we get those people,though, to see us and see what
we're doing in this industry andsee it as an appealing option?
How do you do that?
Erin Moore (20:20):
well, at the end of the day, it's about building
success, right, it's um makingpeople feel uh good about their
job, winning emotionally,winning financially, um being in
an environment they love towork in.
And, at the end of the day, ifyou do that and you have the
right team, you're gonna worktowards the common goal and
you're going to build success.
Yeah, yeah.
Stefanie Couch (20:41):
What excites you the most about the next year or
two in the business?
Erin Moore (20:45):
Well, I have to tell you I think the business has
changed more in the last fiveyears than it has in the last 25
years, and I'm super excited tosee where it goes.
Obviously, ai is a hugeconversation.
Everybody's all about it Rightnow.
It helps me write emails andthings like that.
But when it gets into ourbusiness and it's able to solve
(21:07):
problems and give us data thatwe had a hard time getting
before or took a long time toget before, and it can answer
questions really fast, I thinkthat's going to be a game
changer.
Stefanie Couch (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely agree with that, because the
ERPs have all the informationsomewhere in the mystery of the
ERPs.
It's really hard to get it outof there, you do have to be a
rocket scientist to get that.
So maybe we should call Elon andask if he could come help us
figure out our ERPs.
But it is interesting that AIcan just go in and have a prompt
and say, hey, go figure outwhich customer segment was the
(21:41):
most profitable over the lastfive years after X, y and Z
taken out of it After freightand returns and things like that
.
And then in 20 seconds it we'veactually started playing.
I don't know if you've seenthis yet.
It's a pretty new technology,but we've started building out
custom AI agents so that it'llactually do back and forth with
(22:04):
with a person, and it's because68 percent of businesses miss
phone calls, right, and so ifyou're after hours or if you're
busy or they're, you know, onanother phone call, it at least
will get the information so theycan call.
You can call a human, can callthem back.
It doesn't have to sell thewindow, but it's just taking
that call and that way itdoesn't just get lost, because
(22:26):
most people never call back ifyou don't, if you don't get the
call.
Erin Moore (22:29):
Well, that's pretty cool that you're working on the
calls, but one of the strongestleaders in our organization,
mark Blickenstaff- is working onan AI agent to take paint
orders via text.
Stefanie Couch (22:42):
Okay, yeah, very cool.
Yeah, I think text is a greatmedium.
I love that Mark's actuallyhere on the side.
Mark and I need to have aconversation it sounds like
about that but I think text isgood because it doesn't freak
people out quite as much astalking to a robot that's
smarter than most people are.
That work there.
You know like it's like hey,this person knows more about
paint than a paint person that'sbeen selling paint, so it's
pretty cool that texting is alittle more comfortable, like
(23:04):
ease into the AI agents.
I love that.
Erin Moore (23:06):
I have a 13 year old and a 15 year old daughter and
almost unanimously when I callthem, they go.
Why are you calling me?
Stefanie Couch (23:15):
Yeah, why are you calling me on?
Erin Moore (23:16):
my phone Just text me.
Stefanie Couch (23:17):
Yeah, it is true , and but you know, I actually
think that's a great pointBecause a lot of the people that
I deal with they don't havetext messaging ways in their
business right now at all, butmost builders do text their
salespeople and what happens isit's on that salesperson's phone
in the never, never land and ifthat salesperson leaves or if
(23:37):
just something happens, youcan't get that information, so
it's not even going into theirCRM.
So I think a lot of this AIthat's talking to each other,
implementing things together,like you said, those systems
that you can get data from.
You know how does this personlike to communicate?
Oh well, Joe sent 48 textmessages last week.
I'm not going to email him orcall him.
He wants to text, you know, orvice versa, if they don't want
(23:58):
to text.
So I love that.
I mean, how many napkin ordershave you gotten that?
It's like it's a text phonepicture of a napkin order.
You can't read it anyway.
And then they text it andyou're like where did that order
go?
I can't remember.
Did they email it?
And then you go back and findit in your phone and you can
figure out what happened.
I love it.
What are you thinking in thenext year?
(24:19):
For you personally is the mostexciting thing, Because I know
you guys got a lot going on.
What are you working on rightnow that just excites you?
Maybe it's Mark's fancy AIagent.
Sounds like pretty cool.
Erin Moore (24:31):
You know, I think that has a roadmap.
That's the word that all thetechnology guys always use the
roadmap.
Stefanie Couch (24:36):
You're a futurist yourself.
You're all in the game overhere.
Erin Moore (24:39):
But at the end of the day, I mean we're focused on
being a strong organization,being profitable, growing,
expanding our markets.
As I said, in Colorado acompetitor just got purchased by
Builders First Source, so wesee a huge opportunity there.
Stefanie Couch (24:57):
Yeah.
Erin Moore (24:57):
And we want to take advantage of that opportunity as
much as we can.
So that's a huge opportunitythere and we want to take
advantage of that opportunity asmuch as we can.
So that's exactly where we'refocused right now.
That's awesome yeah.
Stefanie Couch (25:04):
I can't wait to follow that story and I think
that that's great, that you'reseeing something as an
opportunity.
That some people may see as anegative because you think, oh
well, you know moreconsolidations happening, but I
really strongly believe that theindependent lumber yard is
actually the most competitiveadvantage right now that anyone
can have.
If your service, your customerexperience and hopefully your
(25:27):
technology is following the paththat it needs to follow to keep
up and I think the big dogsjust going to you guys are going
to eat it's going to be amazing.
I'm excited for you.
Erin Moore (25:36):
Well, I definitely think it's cyclical, right Like,
when the boom times come andthere's track housing, they are
going to boom higher and whenthe track housing dips, they are
going to, they are going to golower and we're going to be a
lot more steady.
Um, and that's important to us.
Stefanie Couch (25:58):
Well, and whether you're chasing that, you
may not even want to chase thattrack business.
You know, I know a lot ofsmaller local independent
lumberyards don't even want tomess with that because the
margins are so slim.
You know, it's just.
It's a hard business to win.
Erin Moore (26:03):
It's all about the business partnership.
Yeah, depends on who thebusiness partner is and what
they value.
Stefanie Couch (26:07):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me on the Grit Blueprint
.
This has been fun and I hopeyou have a wonderful week in
Vegas.
Erin Moore (26:14):
All right.
Stefanie Couch (26:21):
Thank you, thank you.
That's it for this episode ofthe Grit Blueprint podcast.
For more tools, training andindustry content, make sure to
subscribe here and follow me onLinkedIn and other social media
platforms To find out more abouthow Grit Blueprint can help you
grow your business.
Check us out at our website,gritblueprintcom.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.