March 3, 2025 • 31 mins
In this She Builds Nation Special episode, Stefanie Couch shares her journey as a women in construction, from growing up in her family's lumberyard to becoming a dynamic leader in the construction industry. She highlights the importance of branding and marketing in the sector, emphasizing the need for companies to tell their stories effectively. Stefanie also explores the transformative potential of AI technology in revolutionizing marketing and operations, highlighting its ability to enhance customer experience and provide a competitive edge. Additionally, she delves into her mission to empower women in construction through Build Women, sharing success stories and insights on promoting inclusion and innovation in the sector.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm lu Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
construction and trades. We have a special co host today,
Jennifer Hires, who will be interviewing women in Construction for
Women in Construction Week. Hey Jen, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi lud Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Who is your special guest today?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
All right, thank you so much for attending The Builder
Upper Show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I am beyond excited. Do you have a special guest?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We have Stephanie Kouch for our special guest this week
for our Women in Construction And I'll just do a
little introduction and then Stephanie you can fill in the
holes that I miss.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Stephanie is a dynamic leader in the construction industry, known
for her innovative approach to marketing, branding, and leadership development.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
As the founder of brit Blueprints.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And Build Women, she focuses on empowering businesses and individuals
within the building sector, and her extensive experience bans over
twenty five years, beginning in her family's lumberyard and advancing
through roles in Fortune five hundred companies.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please welcome Stephanie Couch to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Thank you so much. For having me. I'm excited to
be here.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Do you want to fill in the gaps of what
I took through the lifespan of you?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Stephanie Well, twenty five years is not really true because
I was actually kind of born into a lumber truck.
So my dad and my grandfather owned a lumberyard when
I was born and we lived in Atlanta, and I
actually rode in a lumber truck in a car seat
when I was six weeks old. So literally my whole life,
I've been in the business. But short version is started
in my family lumberyard. It was a retail lumberyard in Georgia,
(01:55):
and then went to a fortune five hundred distribution company
and helped them scale and grow at door and millwork
division kind of from a startup to ten locations in
two hundred million a year. And then two and a
half years ago, my husband and I went out on
our own and we have a growth and marketing agency
scaling business for construction and building industry companies. So we
(02:15):
have a lot of partners that are amazing companies throughout
the US and a few in Canada, and we are
just excited to be a part of this amazing industry.
So that's me. I do a lot of speaking and
I love going around and going to shows, which we
just talked. We're going to be at IBS together next week,
so I'm pumped about that. Get to meet you in person.
So yeah, that's me.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, she is going to be speaking at IBS, which
this recording will probably be before the Women in Construction
that week, but yes, she will be speaking.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So Stepan, I want to tap in a little bit
into some early influences, right, Like, so growing up in
the business, then, how did those early experiences shape your
passion for the construction industry.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Well, I have always loved business. I actually asked my
parents for a cash registrue when I was five for Christmas.
I don't know if it was the money. I don't
even know if I had a cons like a conversation
in my head of what money really meant. I just
knew that you could like do things and people would
pay you for it, and I just thought that was
the coolest thing ever. So I was a girl scout.
I love selling cookies. I'm very competitive, and I just
(03:22):
wanted to do business from day one. So I went
to work with my dad a lot at the lumberyard,
I would go and meet customers. I would actually ring
people up from I mean like seven or eight on.
I just I remember now the stud STUDSKU was two
four o eight pc for pre cut studs, so like,
I just loved it, you know, And that really was
who I was as a person from birth. I think
(03:44):
I believe a lot in using your natural strengths, and
I'm a gallup Clifton strengths coach, so I lead with
influencing and sales and kind of that competitive communication nature
is just who I was from day one. So then
my dad really taught me a lot about business. He
taught me about customer service. And we had a very
great local business that did very little marketing and just
(04:06):
had a lot of very loyal customers. We did a
lot of high end stuff and a lot of custom
homes on the lake and things like that. And so
I love that part of the business still because of
what my dad taught me. And he taught me a
lot about business ethics and really about working hard. You know.
I remember my dad from a very young age. We
would work all day. You know, I was obviously at
(04:27):
school at the time, but he would work. He would
if someone called out, he'd drive the lumber truck. He
had a CDL if you know, invatory any of that
needed to be done. He would work late and they'd
come home and he was so tired because it's very physical.
You know, you're loading trucks and you're doing all the things.
And he would come home. My mom would have dinner cooked.
My mom's an amazing, amazing mom, and she would always
(04:50):
have everything taken care of with the kids, so he
at least hopefully didn't have to do that when he
got home. But he was such a good dad that
he would go like throw the softball with us or whatever,
even though I know he was just now looking back
at it, like so tired because at seven pm, after
I've worked from like five am till seven, I'm just dead.
And I don't do physical stuff as much as he did.
But then he would go back inside and he would
(05:12):
price tickets, and so I know, you know, software is
amazing now, all the things that we have, ERPs and
all these other tools. He had carbon copy tickets, so
he would price them. We would write it out for
the customer and then he would have his market pricing
and he would actually price it, and I remember very
much my childhood is the sound of him hitting that
(05:32):
printer on the calculator and I would hear that at
night as I was going to sleep. That was my childhood.
So what he taught me is that you have to
work hard to do anything that's worthwhile. And boy, has
my entrepreneurship journey proved out to be true.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, And you can definitely see it in all of
the speaking events that you're in right now, and you
know just the growth that you've.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Had in your career from that.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I would say comment denominator there is really your father.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah. And my mom had a lot to do with
it as well. My mom also was very supportive of
him and everything he did, and she did things that
she was good at, so he could do what he
was good at. And I think that that taught me
a lot about being in business with a spouse and
kind of that level. My husband and I've been married
a long time now. We have a business together, and
really what he is good at is the things I'm
(06:20):
weak at, and vice versa. So we have a very
good division of labor as well. And I watched that
from a young age with them and they never waivered
on each other. And I think the most important thing
in life to me is who you choose as your partner.
I have been with someone who supported me like ride
or die no matter what. Now we're right or die
in business together, so there is no break. But when
(06:43):
you have the right person, I tell him a lot.
I'm like, we're going to war together every day and
I freaking love it, and I wouldn't want to do
it with anybody else. I'm so grateful for my husband
Ben what was his name, Ben? Ben?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, it will Ben be at the show.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
He'll see him there. He's gonna be there. He'll be
recording the content and stuff, so he'll be there. And
that's part of a lot of what he does is
operations and helping me just do all the things that
I do, and everything you see somehow has him behind
it making it happen. I love that, you know, Yes,
right now we have cameras and lights and all that,
and he makes all that happen and then I just
hit record.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well, let's transition from like background and journey and let's
talk about industry. Okay, So how do you approach branding?
And marketing differently for construction and building industry companies compared
to let's say, like other sectors.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Absolutely, I believe the construction and building industry needs a
rebrand and we need to step into the forefront and
show how amazing we are, especially for top talent, and
also to brand ourselves that we actually have something to
show that is an outward facing thing that's not just
reputation based. So we have beautiful products, we build amazing homes,
(08:02):
We have all of this stuff that's so esthetically beautiful,
and then we have cool stories that go with it,
and we don't do a very good job of telling
our story as an industry. And what we've done is
we've allowed ourselves to believe that reputation will speak for itself.
And these legacy businesses that have been really promoting on
word of mouth and all of these things, they have
(08:24):
built brands. Brand is something you have, whether you intentionally
curate it or if you just let it happen. You
have a brand. You as a person have a brand,
A company has a brand. It's just is it out
there and is it known? And are you known for
the things you would like to be known more? And
so that's really how I think we could rebrand our
(08:44):
industry and honestly our people, showing who we are and
really showing up and actually intentionally doing that. So when
I think about brand, I think about two things. So
I'll explain kind of my little thirty second version. Brand
is really the association of two things. So the brand
started with cattle. A cattle farmer would have a brand
(09:06):
to mark that cow, to say this belongs to me.
So two things that belong together are are associated, and
that is how brand started. Now we think of brand
as logos and colors, it's so much more of that.
It's really about who you or your company is when
you're not standing there giving the pitch, when you're not
(09:27):
telling them what you want them to think. It's what
are you thought of and associated with when you're not
in the room. And so that goes for people or
for companies and brand. With everything going on in our world,
with all of the amazing technology. I talk about AI
use AI a lot, it's going to revolutionize our industry.
It's almost the only thing that can separate people truly
(09:52):
is brand. So another way to say that is that
brand is the only long term moat it's the only
way to protect your castle. And so as a person
or as a company, you should be thinking about, am
I building a brand that will stand the test of time?
Am I finding my customers where they are to show
them who my brand is? And Third, am I thinking
(10:15):
about this from a long term perspective? Or am I
thinking about this of what return on investment will I
get tomorrow or in the next three weeks or the
next month, Because it's not like spending money on an
AD where you get a click and then you get
a purchase. Brand is a long term game. But really
we should all be thinking in decades and not in today,
(10:36):
because if you have a business that's already been open
for thirty years, fifty years, one hundred years, some of
these brands are so long term and they're amazing companies.
Who cares about tomorrow? You care about twenty twenty eight,
twenty thirty eight, twenty forty eight. That's what you're thinking about.
And so even if you want to sell your business
or you want to keep your business, you've got to
think about how important brand is.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That's good, No, that's really good.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So then you mentioned AI, right, So in what ways
do you see AI technology transforming marketing and operations for
the construction industry.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Well, I'll give you one example that I think is
going to change everything. Okay, there is a technology that's
it's been out for a year or two. I heard
the first time I've ever heard it about a year
and a half ago. It's called a voice AI agent
is what most people call it, So it is actually
a salesperson. I'm going to be demoing this at IBS.
You'll get to see this in real life. If you
(11:33):
go on to my website and I'm selling doors, and
you click on there and you're like, man, I really
like these doors. I want to learn more. You call
me and I don't answer. Sixty eight percent of small
business phone calls actually go unanswered. So it's not really
that uncommon that someone's doing something else and they're just busy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
If you're getting five phone calls at a time and
you have three people on the counter, you're not going
to answer all five. It's impossible. So this, this person,
this AI agent that you've programmed, will answer that phone call.
And you can either say hey, this is an AI agent,
or you can decide just to let it be paid
from Stephanie's Door company whatever you want it to be,
(12:14):
and you can say, hey, this is Stephanie Stephanie's Doors,
thank you for calling. How can I help you today?
And then that AI agent is going to have a
conversation just like you and I are having right now.
It's going to ask you what you want to know
about the doors, what you're looking for, how to qualify
you all those things, and then it's going to get
your email phone number, maybe even book a calendar time
(12:36):
if you haven't set up that way for me to
call you back, and me as the person sell you
what you need. That's here, I can turn that on
for you tomorrow. And so that's twenty twenty five AI.
In two years, there will not be front end business
development agents in most businesses. It will be AI because
we can do things with humans that that AI cannot do.
(13:00):
We are spending time, spending our wheels about how do
we get all these things done? When these little tasks
that are very tactical and super important to our businesses
could be allocated to AI so that we can spend
the time doing what only we can do. I get
asked a lot, aren't you afraid of a dystopian future.
With AI, I am a positive person and I'm going
(13:22):
to choose to think that it's going to make our
life better, just like the tractor made the farmer's life better,
just like AI now is going to make our lives better,
just like websites or ERPs in our lumber business. Think
about CAD software. Architects probably thought their world was ending
when hand drawing wasn't the only way anymore, But what
(13:44):
actually happened was it just made them better and able
to do more with the time they had to spend.
Think of AI as a tool, just like a nail
gun or a crane, anything like that. It just allows
you to do something better and faster and more efficiently
than it did before you had that tool. And if
you learn how to use it as a person or
(14:06):
your company implements it, it will give you an extreme
competitive edge. So those who early adopt it were still
in the very early stages, especially in our construction and
building industry, where people are not sure. A lot of
people have not even use chat GPT. Those who decide
to do things now will be the ones that are
winning in a decade. So brand and this technology and
(14:29):
innovation that is the future. That's how you leverage and
set yourself apart and build a business that is worth
so much more and actually have stickiness from your customers
because of those things, customer experience, all that goes into branding.
That's what I like to talk about because that is
really how you stand out because no one wants to
(14:50):
compete on price. Everyone has good products, and truly talent
is really hard to find. So how do you use
the talent you can get and then lever that of
industry technology. That's what I think the future is.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
No absolutely, and we could go on and on with
AI and I'm very excited that I will be part
of next week or you so I get to hear more.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So let's transition.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Since we are here for Women in Construction week, let's
talk about empowering women in construction. So can you share
the mission behind you know, build Women and some success
stories from you know, any programs? Then?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yes, when I was in my young life, I really
didn't realize that being a woman was a big deal
in the construction industry. I knew I was the only
one at the lumberyard, but it was like five people
or seven people or whatever inside the business. Inside the
lumberyard operation. We had people, you know, driving and stuff,
but it was me and five or seven other guys.
(15:52):
I never thought anything of it because this is the
way it was my whole life. And then you know,
my mom was a part of the business, but it
wasn't a big deal to me. Then I got to
corporate and there were a few women in my office,
but it was all men running everything. All the managers
were men, All the their managers were men. All their
managers were men. You get the idea, And I was like,
this is kind of weird, Like I'm I'm twenty five,
(16:15):
I uh want to be very ambitious, and I'm looking
up and there's no one that looks like me, like anywhere.
And I also remembered that my lifetime had been spent
talking to amazing women who worked at these companies that
I would call that were my vendors, and they were
the go to at every place pretty much. I mean,
there was a woman that when she went on vacation,
(16:37):
the business shut down at every business. And I laugh
a little bit because a lot of my men will
say that, do you want to talk to the man
in charge of the woman that actually runs the place,
And My dad used to say that a lot about me,
you know, kind of laughing about stuff. But that is
really how I grew up, as like, hey, these are
amazing women that are awesome at the lumber business, at
the building business, whatever they were doing. So I knew
(17:00):
that there were boss women everywhere and they were just
a part of this industry. I just didn't see them
where I was at that corporate job, and so I
decided that, you know, I was just going to do
my thing and just be me, and that was kind
of a that's just always how I've sort of played it.
Sometimes that went in my favor and the dice laid
on the side that I needed them to, and sometimes
that was really hard. Looking back on it now, I
(17:24):
feel like I actually got more opportunity in my career
because I was a bubbly, blonde woman that was also
extremely good at what I was doing and worked really
really hard. I feel like I got more upside from
that than downside. Now. I know there are a lot
of women that don't see that and don't say that
in the construction industry especially, but I believe now where
(17:45):
I'm at in my life that it is a competitive
advantage and a differentiator that is positive in a lot
of ways to be a female in this industry. And
I have leveraged that in a lot of ways since
I've started my business, but also before in my corporate career.
And it's because you are different, different stands out. Why
would you want to be one of a hundred that
(18:08):
look identical to everyone else and not that all the
men in the industry are the same, because they're not.
There's a lot of different people and they all have
different skills and personalities and all that. But you being
a woman in a place where maybe you are the
only one at the table, if you can position it
the right way and really frame it in your mind
as an advantage, it is an advantage if you tell
(18:32):
yourself that everyone's going to hold it against you that
you're a woman, and that they're never going to let
you do things that will be a self fulfilling prophecy.
And I believe so strongly in that that that's one
of the reasons why I start to build women, because
I wanted these women to know their value and take
into their own hands their brands, their confidence, and their skills,
(18:56):
and also know this is one thing that's a little
different than some of the other women's organizations that are
out there. Is like, this is gonna be hard, and
it's hard for men too, and you gotta work, girl,
Like this is not a phone it in because I'm
a woman. I get this thing and there will be challenges,
but heck, there's challenges for every single man that I know.
(19:18):
I mean, me and my husband are building the same
business together at the same time. Like we are working
side and side, like two horses pull in a plow.
We are working. And it is just as hard for
him than it is for me. Actually maybe easier for
me because I have connections and all these things that
I'm like reaching out to people and doing things, and
a lot of what he's trying to figure out is
(19:38):
like there's no one to ask, you know, He's just
got to figure it out. But it is hard because
I'm a woman, and it's hard because he's a man.
It doesn't matter. So life is not easy and anything
that you do is not going to be easily come
and gained without work. And that is what I want
these women to know is you are your own best advocate.
(19:59):
You've got to use your voice and speak up, and
you've got to be confident in your own abilities, and
you've got to know that sometimes you don't have it
figured out, and you got to keep working until you do.
And so that's one thing that we do at Build
Women is really helped with confidence and breaking those habits
that you have that are actually holding you back. It's
not anyone else, it's us. It's me that's holding this back.
(20:23):
And so when I started this, I had some things
that I worked on myself to get past, like some
real speed bumps in my career that I was doing
a lot of things like perfectionism is one. It brought
me so far to be a perfectionist in my early
career because I was really really conscientious. I wanted things
to be right slash perfect. And now once I'm into
(20:46):
a point when a lot of what I'm doing is new,
it's risky. It's not going to be perfect. There's zero
intention of it being perfect because you've never start. If
it was, I had to get past that or I
was never going to be able to do what I
needed to do in the next step. So that was
one of the we talk a lot about the habits
that hold you back. And actually in March March eighteenth
(21:07):
through the twentieth the National Hardware Show and Build Women
are doing a How Women Rise and Hardware Conference and
it's a part of the National Hardware Show main stage
and it's a whole day built around content that shows
women how to do that. So I'm going to be
speaking on how to build your personal brand and then
also doing another session on how to break the habits
(21:29):
that hold you back. And that is based on a
book called How Women Rise by an amazing woman named
Sally Helgenson and also Marshall Goldsmith co wrote the book
with her, and that's a best selling book in her
and I have partnered together to do a program on
How Women Rise for the construction industry, so educating women
on how to get it out of their own way
and make it happen.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Oh that's incredible.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah. So, if you're listening to this, you're anywhere near Vegas,
or you want to come to that show. It is
the National Hardware Show, and you can actually click on
and just sign up for the How Women Rise Day,
or you can come to the whole show and it's
in Las Vegas at the Convention Center March eighteenth, twentieth.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
All right, So then you're going to have a pretty
big stent in Vegas. Then you're going to be doing
a Vegas touras Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And also there's some other amazing speakers. So Gina Schaefer,
who owns thirteen hardware stores, she has over fifty three
million dollars a year in Harbord store business, amazing entrepreneur.
She's going to be speaking about how to handle people,
profits and purpose in your business and what you need
to know. And then we have a panel of leaders
from the industry of women that are going to be
(22:33):
speaking a networking session afterwards. A lot of cool stuff happening.
So if you're anywhere near Vegas, you got to get
to this event.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Awesome, No, and this is perfect because again we're going
to be airing this and so everybody will be able
to you know, look into it and then go.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, let's let's look at now, you know, at your
advice personal reflections newcomers in the industry. Right, So what
advice would you give someone starting their career in their
construction industry today?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I would say, enlist allies from day one, get people
in your corner from day one. Don't try to be
the quiet person in the corner that just lets things
happen and figures it out and then comes into the fold.
I want you to kind of find some people that
will help you from day one, so you will know
some of those people are going to be easier to
win over than others. You might have someone that is
(23:29):
assigned to train you that doesn't want to do that,
or someone that doesn't have time. That's really it's usually
more it's not people don't want to help you, it's
that they're already drowning in their own respective position. It's
hard to hand someone a life vest and say I'll
help you when you're already, you know, sort of drowning.
So find those people that can help you and figure
out what is most important first, and don't try to
(23:52):
do everything at once. So if you have a lot
of responsibilities in the role that you're taking and you
don't feel like you're quite ready, I hear the words
I have imposter syndrome a lot. You don't have imposter syndrome.
What you have is inexperienced. You don't know what you're
doing because you've never done it before. And that's okay,
because every single person that does something new is that way,
(24:12):
you feel like an imposter because you just haven't figured
out how to do it yet. So give yourself some
time and some grace to do things and fail. That
is the biggest lesson that I would ever give anyone
is you have to be able to take risks and
embrace failure as a learning lesson and know that you
will fail if you're doing anything that is new or
(24:34):
that it's hard at all. If you win every single
day at every single thing you do, you must not
be doing anything that's very difficult, because I certainly know
that I fail all the time at things that I do.
I yesterday send an email with a loom link for
a video. I sent someone that on my team instead
of a proposal, and it's like, send the wrong thing.
I mean, it's not like some horrible email I sent,
(24:56):
like a bad thing, but email that can say like
working for I didn't say this. I've been working for
fourteen hours today. This is the last email of the
day that I sent. And I put their own link
on the proposal. You know, I sent them back and said, hey,
use this instead of that I screwed up. Does that
mean they're not going to hire me for that? Speaking
of it. I don't know if that's if they don't
do that because of that, then cool. But I make
(25:17):
mistakes and so will you, and no matter how brilliant
or how hard working you are, that will come. So
embrace it, learn from it, and try not to do
it again if you can. That's how you grow and
learn in your career and your company. So don't be
scared to make mistakes. That is my number one piece
of advice for anyone in any role anywhere.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, just give yourself grapes.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Right, We're human, we make mistakes and it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But you know I've learned from those.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Well, let's wrap up with one more question if you
have time. Yeah, again, lessons learn. Reflecting on your own journey,
what has been your most significant like learning experience.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
The number one thing I think really was a catalyst
for me to take it from one level to the
other is figuring out what my natural abilities and strengths
were and that is from the Gallop Clifton Strengths Assessment
that I did. You can go online Gallop dot com.
Anyone can take it. I think it's sixty dollars to
take the test. It takes about an hour or so,
(26:18):
and it really is two hundred questions that you answer.
It's a normed test, so they ask you the same
thing a few different ways, so you don't kind of
gain the system, and it gives you your strengths in
order and tells you almost like a psychic reading on
the report. It's a twenty five page report about you
(26:39):
exactly how you're wired and why you do things and
what you should lean towards, and also your blind spots.
So any strength can turn into a weakness if you
use it the wrong way or overuse it, don't use
it at all. The out actual Gallup definition of a
weakness is anything that gets in the way of your success,
So that could be a strength or a weakness. Right.
(26:59):
But when I took this and I started also using
it with my teams and different things, it made me
realize that some of the things that I was trying
to do the way I was trying to operate like
other people. So I would look around and see someone
that just loved data and spreadsheets and like would spend
like seventeen hours looking at the pivot tables and the
(27:19):
micro data and all this stuff, and I'm like, I
gotta know how to do all that, and I need
to be able to I gotta love data like that,
and I do love data to make decisions, but I
like data that's done for me so I can strategically
analyze it and then pull the trigger. And I want
someone else to do that fourteen hours of legwork. Thankfully,
that fourteen hours of love work is my husband's love language.
(27:41):
So if you look at that, when I was trying
to force myself into that position of being that person,
it was really hard for me to thrive there. Right
It's like trying, you know, I think it's Einstein says,
if you try to make a fish climb a tree,
he's gonna look like he's an idiot every single day.
But if you put him in the ocean and watch
them go, And that's really what I would say, is
(28:03):
find your ocean that you can swim in, that you
were amazing at swimming in. And once you find that,
and then you will still have to work really hard
to hone those skills. But once you get into that
right lane, better watch out, because that is when you
can be happiest, the most fulfilled in what you're doing
and also make the biggest impact for yourself financially, impact
(28:28):
wise as far as how you feel about what you're
doing in your world or for your company. And that
really was an unlock for me that I couldn't quantify,
and that's why I became a Strengths coach. I actually
got let go from a job and I had already
decided that I wanted to start my own business anyway.
I'd already started some businesses and I was just trying
to wait to get a little more bonus money, honestly,
(28:49):
so I right after I got let go, two weeks later,
I went to the Gallop Strengths training as a coach,
and I did everything I could to get the training.
I did not have the money to do it. Someone
actually sponsored me. It was really cool, cool story we
don't have time to tell. But ask for what you
want and go after things that are in your strength
(29:09):
zone and you will exponentially grow. And if you're trying
to do too many things in your role every day
that you are, it's not if you're not good at it,
it's if you really dread that. If my example of
the spreadsheets is the easiest thing I noticed, say, if
you wake up in the morning and you're like, I
love spreadsheets and I really hope I get to analyze
some data today. That's your thing, right, If you had
(29:33):
that feeling I had where it's like, just give me
the final notes and I'll make a decision. That probably
isn't the job you want to be doing every day, right,
So maybe you don't need to be the data analyst.
Maybe you need to be the strategist or something. So
at the end of the day, know your strengths, know
your weaknesses, work on it, and grow your strengths instead
of focusing on your weaknesses, and hopefully you have a
(29:54):
team of people that love to do the things you're
not good at, and that's when real exponential growth happens
in companies.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
That's awesome, Stephanie, such a such a joy to have
you on this show. And also thank you Ben in
the background. We have to also, uh.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Makes every like this lighting all been, all the things
it's been, He makes it happen. He makes me He
he is an amazing, amazing human and I wouldn't trade him
for trillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's incredible. I'm happy for you both so and I'm
looking forward to meeting you next week.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
We also found out that we live probably within an
hour of each other, absolutely already coordinating something.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
We get to meet next week and then we're gonna
do something collaborative, hopefully maybe multiple times in the future.
So I'm excited about that. Thank you so much, Jennifer,
You're awesome and I am excited for Women Week this
this coming month. And I would just say to any
woman that is not sure what to do next, you
have the ability and you are worthy to do whatever
(30:59):
is that you want to do in your life. You
just have to be willing to put in the work
and be consistent with it and believe that you can.
Because if you believe plus put in the work, it
will absolutely happen. It just might not be tomorrow. So
you've got to be consistent and work and believe all
at the same time. And that's how you really build
(31:19):
what you want in your life.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I'll leave it on that, So thank you everybody for
joining and.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
Hey everyone, I'm lu Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
construction and trades. We have a special co host today,
Jennifer Hires, who will be interviewing women in Construction for
Women in Construction Week. Hey Jen, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi lud Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Who is your special guest today?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
All right, thank you so much for attending The Builder
Upper Show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I am beyond excited. Do you have a special guest?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We have Stephanie Kouch for our special guest this week
for our Women in Construction And I'll just do a
little introduction and then Stephanie you can fill in the
holes that I miss.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Stephanie is a dynamic leader in the construction industry, known
for her innovative approach to marketing, branding, and leadership development.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
As the founder of brit Blueprints.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And Build Women, she focuses on empowering businesses and individuals
within the building sector, and her extensive experience bans over
twenty five years, beginning in her family's lumberyard and advancing
through roles in Fortune five hundred companies.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please welcome Stephanie Couch to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Thank you so much. For having me. I'm excited to
be here.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Do you want to fill in the gaps of what
I took through the lifespan of you?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Stephanie Well, twenty five years is not really true because
I was actually kind of born into a lumber truck.
So my dad and my grandfather owned a lumberyard when
I was born and we lived in Atlanta, and I
actually rode in a lumber truck in a car seat
when I was six weeks old. So literally my whole life,
I've been in the business. But short version is started
in my family lumberyard. It was a retail lumberyard in Georgia,
(01:55):
and then went to a fortune five hundred distribution company
and helped them scale and grow at door and millwork
division kind of from a startup to ten locations in
two hundred million a year. And then two and a
half years ago, my husband and I went out on
our own and we have a growth and marketing agency
scaling business for construction and building industry companies. So we
(02:15):
have a lot of partners that are amazing companies throughout
the US and a few in Canada, and we are
just excited to be a part of this amazing industry.
So that's me. I do a lot of speaking and
I love going around and going to shows, which we
just talked. We're going to be at IBS together next week,
so I'm pumped about that. Get to meet you in person.
So yeah, that's me.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, she is going to be speaking at IBS, which
this recording will probably be before the Women in Construction
that week, but yes, she will be speaking.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So Stepan, I want to tap in a little bit
into some early influences, right, Like, so growing up in
the business, then, how did those early experiences shape your
passion for the construction industry.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Well, I have always loved business. I actually asked my
parents for a cash registrue when I was five for Christmas.
I don't know if it was the money. I don't
even know if I had a cons like a conversation
in my head of what money really meant. I just
knew that you could like do things and people would
pay you for it, and I just thought that was
the coolest thing ever. So I was a girl scout.
I love selling cookies. I'm very competitive, and I just
(03:22):
wanted to do business from day one. So I went
to work with my dad a lot at the lumberyard,
I would go and meet customers. I would actually ring
people up from I mean like seven or eight on.
I just I remember now the stud STUDSKU was two
four o eight pc for pre cut studs, so like,
I just loved it, you know, And that really was
who I was as a person from birth. I think
(03:44):
I believe a lot in using your natural strengths, and
I'm a gallup Clifton strengths coach, so I lead with
influencing and sales and kind of that competitive communication nature
is just who I was from day one. So then
my dad really taught me a lot about business. He
taught me about customer service. And we had a very
great local business that did very little marketing and just
(04:06):
had a lot of very loyal customers. We did a
lot of high end stuff and a lot of custom
homes on the lake and things like that. And so
I love that part of the business still because of
what my dad taught me. And he taught me a
lot about business ethics and really about working hard. You know.
I remember my dad from a very young age. We
would work all day. You know, I was obviously at
(04:27):
school at the time, but he would work. He would
if someone called out, he'd drive the lumber truck. He
had a CDL if you know, invatory any of that
needed to be done. He would work late and they'd
come home and he was so tired because it's very physical.
You know, you're loading trucks and you're doing all the things.
And he would come home. My mom would have dinner cooked.
My mom's an amazing, amazing mom, and she would always
(04:50):
have everything taken care of with the kids, so he
at least hopefully didn't have to do that when he
got home. But he was such a good dad that
he would go like throw the softball with us or whatever,
even though I know he was just now looking back
at it, like so tired because at seven pm, after
I've worked from like five am till seven, I'm just dead.
And I don't do physical stuff as much as he did.
But then he would go back inside and he would
(05:12):
price tickets, and so I know, you know, software is
amazing now, all the things that we have, ERPs and
all these other tools. He had carbon copy tickets, so
he would price them. We would write it out for
the customer and then he would have his market pricing
and he would actually price it, and I remember very
much my childhood is the sound of him hitting that
(05:32):
printer on the calculator and I would hear that at
night as I was going to sleep. That was my childhood.
So what he taught me is that you have to
work hard to do anything that's worthwhile. And boy, has
my entrepreneurship journey proved out to be true.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, And you can definitely see it in all of
the speaking events that you're in right now, and you
know just the growth that you've.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Had in your career from that.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I would say comment denominator there is really your father.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah. And my mom had a lot to do with
it as well. My mom also was very supportive of
him and everything he did, and she did things that
she was good at, so he could do what he
was good at. And I think that that taught me
a lot about being in business with a spouse and
kind of that level. My husband and I've been married
a long time now. We have a business together, and
really what he is good at is the things I'm
(06:20):
weak at, and vice versa. So we have a very
good division of labor as well. And I watched that
from a young age with them and they never waivered
on each other. And I think the most important thing
in life to me is who you choose as your partner.
I have been with someone who supported me like ride
or die no matter what. Now we're right or die
in business together, so there is no break. But when
(06:43):
you have the right person, I tell him a lot.
I'm like, we're going to war together every day and
I freaking love it, and I wouldn't want to do
it with anybody else. I'm so grateful for my husband
Ben what was his name, Ben? Ben?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, it will Ben be at the show.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
He'll see him there. He's gonna be there. He'll be
recording the content and stuff, so he'll be there. And
that's part of a lot of what he does is
operations and helping me just do all the things that
I do, and everything you see somehow has him behind
it making it happen. I love that, you know, Yes,
right now we have cameras and lights and all that,
and he makes all that happen and then I just
hit record.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well, let's transition from like background and journey and let's
talk about industry. Okay, So how do you approach branding?
And marketing differently for construction and building industry companies compared
to let's say, like other sectors.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Absolutely, I believe the construction and building industry needs a
rebrand and we need to step into the forefront and
show how amazing we are, especially for top talent, and
also to brand ourselves that we actually have something to
show that is an outward facing thing that's not just
reputation based. So we have beautiful products, we build amazing homes,
(08:02):
We have all of this stuff that's so esthetically beautiful,
and then we have cool stories that go with it,
and we don't do a very good job of telling
our story as an industry. And what we've done is
we've allowed ourselves to believe that reputation will speak for itself.
And these legacy businesses that have been really promoting on
word of mouth and all of these things, they have
(08:24):
built brands. Brand is something you have, whether you intentionally
curate it or if you just let it happen. You
have a brand. You as a person have a brand,
A company has a brand. It's just is it out
there and is it known? And are you known for
the things you would like to be known more? And
so that's really how I think we could rebrand our
(08:44):
industry and honestly our people, showing who we are and
really showing up and actually intentionally doing that. So when
I think about brand, I think about two things. So
I'll explain kind of my little thirty second version. Brand
is really the association of two things. So the brand
started with cattle. A cattle farmer would have a brand
(09:06):
to mark that cow, to say this belongs to me.
So two things that belong together are are associated, and
that is how brand started. Now we think of brand
as logos and colors, it's so much more of that.
It's really about who you or your company is when
you're not standing there giving the pitch, when you're not
(09:27):
telling them what you want them to think. It's what
are you thought of and associated with when you're not
in the room. And so that goes for people or
for companies and brand. With everything going on in our world,
with all of the amazing technology. I talk about AI
use AI a lot, it's going to revolutionize our industry.
It's almost the only thing that can separate people truly
(09:52):
is brand. So another way to say that is that
brand is the only long term moat it's the only
way to protect your castle. And so as a person
or as a company, you should be thinking about, am
I building a brand that will stand the test of time?
Am I finding my customers where they are to show
them who my brand is? And Third, am I thinking
(10:15):
about this from a long term perspective? Or am I
thinking about this of what return on investment will I
get tomorrow or in the next three weeks or the
next month, Because it's not like spending money on an
AD where you get a click and then you get
a purchase. Brand is a long term game. But really
we should all be thinking in decades and not in today,
(10:36):
because if you have a business that's already been open
for thirty years, fifty years, one hundred years, some of
these brands are so long term and they're amazing companies.
Who cares about tomorrow? You care about twenty twenty eight,
twenty thirty eight, twenty forty eight. That's what you're thinking about.
And so even if you want to sell your business
or you want to keep your business, you've got to
think about how important brand is.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That's good, No, that's really good.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So then you mentioned AI, right, So in what ways
do you see AI technology transforming marketing and operations for
the construction industry.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Well, I'll give you one example that I think is
going to change everything. Okay, there is a technology that's
it's been out for a year or two. I heard
the first time I've ever heard it about a year
and a half ago. It's called a voice AI agent
is what most people call it, So it is actually
a salesperson. I'm going to be demoing this at IBS.
You'll get to see this in real life. If you
(11:33):
go on to my website and I'm selling doors, and
you click on there and you're like, man, I really
like these doors. I want to learn more. You call
me and I don't answer. Sixty eight percent of small
business phone calls actually go unanswered. So it's not really
that uncommon that someone's doing something else and they're just busy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
If you're getting five phone calls at a time and
you have three people on the counter, you're not going
to answer all five. It's impossible. So this, this person,
this AI agent that you've programmed, will answer that phone call.
And you can either say hey, this is an AI agent,
or you can decide just to let it be paid
from Stephanie's Door company whatever you want it to be,
(12:14):
and you can say, hey, this is Stephanie Stephanie's Doors,
thank you for calling. How can I help you today?
And then that AI agent is going to have a
conversation just like you and I are having right now.
It's going to ask you what you want to know
about the doors, what you're looking for, how to qualify
you all those things, and then it's going to get
your email phone number, maybe even book a calendar time
(12:36):
if you haven't set up that way for me to
call you back, and me as the person sell you
what you need. That's here, I can turn that on
for you tomorrow. And so that's twenty twenty five AI.
In two years, there will not be front end business
development agents in most businesses. It will be AI because
we can do things with humans that that AI cannot do.
(13:00):
We are spending time, spending our wheels about how do
we get all these things done? When these little tasks
that are very tactical and super important to our businesses
could be allocated to AI so that we can spend
the time doing what only we can do. I get
asked a lot, aren't you afraid of a dystopian future.
With AI, I am a positive person and I'm going
(13:22):
to choose to think that it's going to make our
life better, just like the tractor made the farmer's life better,
just like AI now is going to make our lives better,
just like websites or ERPs in our lumber business. Think
about CAD software. Architects probably thought their world was ending
when hand drawing wasn't the only way anymore, But what
(13:44):
actually happened was it just made them better and able
to do more with the time they had to spend.
Think of AI as a tool, just like a nail
gun or a crane, anything like that. It just allows
you to do something better and faster and more efficiently
than it did before you had that tool. And if
you learn how to use it as a person or
(14:06):
your company implements it, it will give you an extreme
competitive edge. So those who early adopt it were still
in the very early stages, especially in our construction and
building industry, where people are not sure. A lot of
people have not even use chat GPT. Those who decide
to do things now will be the ones that are
winning in a decade. So brand and this technology and
(14:29):
innovation that is the future. That's how you leverage and
set yourself apart and build a business that is worth
so much more and actually have stickiness from your customers
because of those things, customer experience, all that goes into branding.
That's what I like to talk about because that is
really how you stand out because no one wants to
(14:50):
compete on price. Everyone has good products, and truly talent
is really hard to find. So how do you use
the talent you can get and then lever that of
industry technology. That's what I think the future is.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
No absolutely, and we could go on and on with
AI and I'm very excited that I will be part
of next week or you so I get to hear more.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So let's transition.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Since we are here for Women in Construction week, let's
talk about empowering women in construction. So can you share
the mission behind you know, build Women and some success
stories from you know, any programs? Then?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yes, when I was in my young life, I really
didn't realize that being a woman was a big deal
in the construction industry. I knew I was the only
one at the lumberyard, but it was like five people
or seven people or whatever inside the business. Inside the
lumberyard operation. We had people, you know, driving and stuff,
but it was me and five or seven other guys.
(15:52):
I never thought anything of it because this is the
way it was my whole life. And then you know,
my mom was a part of the business, but it
wasn't a big deal to me. Then I got to
corporate and there were a few women in my office,
but it was all men running everything. All the managers
were men, All the their managers were men. All their
managers were men. You get the idea, And I was like,
this is kind of weird, Like I'm I'm twenty five,
(16:15):
I uh want to be very ambitious, and I'm looking
up and there's no one that looks like me, like anywhere.
And I also remembered that my lifetime had been spent
talking to amazing women who worked at these companies that
I would call that were my vendors, and they were
the go to at every place pretty much. I mean,
there was a woman that when she went on vacation,
(16:37):
the business shut down at every business. And I laugh
a little bit because a lot of my men will
say that, do you want to talk to the man
in charge of the woman that actually runs the place,
And My dad used to say that a lot about me,
you know, kind of laughing about stuff. But that is
really how I grew up, as like, hey, these are
amazing women that are awesome at the lumber business, at
the building business, whatever they were doing. So I knew
(17:00):
that there were boss women everywhere and they were just
a part of this industry. I just didn't see them
where I was at that corporate job, and so I
decided that, you know, I was just going to do
my thing and just be me, and that was kind
of a that's just always how I've sort of played it.
Sometimes that went in my favor and the dice laid
on the side that I needed them to, and sometimes
that was really hard. Looking back on it now, I
(17:24):
feel like I actually got more opportunity in my career
because I was a bubbly, blonde woman that was also
extremely good at what I was doing and worked really
really hard. I feel like I got more upside from
that than downside. Now. I know there are a lot
of women that don't see that and don't say that
in the construction industry especially, but I believe now where
(17:45):
I'm at in my life that it is a competitive
advantage and a differentiator that is positive in a lot
of ways to be a female in this industry. And
I have leveraged that in a lot of ways since
I've started my business, but also before in my corporate career.
And it's because you are different, different stands out. Why
would you want to be one of a hundred that
(18:08):
look identical to everyone else and not that all the
men in the industry are the same, because they're not.
There's a lot of different people and they all have
different skills and personalities and all that. But you being
a woman in a place where maybe you are the
only one at the table, if you can position it
the right way and really frame it in your mind
as an advantage, it is an advantage if you tell
(18:32):
yourself that everyone's going to hold it against you that
you're a woman, and that they're never going to let
you do things that will be a self fulfilling prophecy.
And I believe so strongly in that that that's one
of the reasons why I start to build women, because
I wanted these women to know their value and take
into their own hands their brands, their confidence, and their skills,
(18:56):
and also know this is one thing that's a little
different than some of the other women's organizations that are
out there. Is like, this is gonna be hard, and
it's hard for men too, and you gotta work, girl,
Like this is not a phone it in because I'm
a woman. I get this thing and there will be challenges,
but heck, there's challenges for every single man that I know.
(19:18):
I mean, me and my husband are building the same
business together at the same time. Like we are working
side and side, like two horses pull in a plow.
We are working. And it is just as hard for
him than it is for me. Actually maybe easier for
me because I have connections and all these things that
I'm like reaching out to people and doing things, and
a lot of what he's trying to figure out is
(19:38):
like there's no one to ask, you know, He's just
got to figure it out. But it is hard because
I'm a woman, and it's hard because he's a man.
It doesn't matter. So life is not easy and anything
that you do is not going to be easily come
and gained without work. And that is what I want
these women to know is you are your own best advocate.
(19:59):
You've got to use your voice and speak up, and
you've got to be confident in your own abilities, and
you've got to know that sometimes you don't have it
figured out, and you got to keep working until you do.
And so that's one thing that we do at Build
Women is really helped with confidence and breaking those habits
that you have that are actually holding you back. It's
not anyone else, it's us. It's me that's holding this back.
(20:23):
And so when I started this, I had some things
that I worked on myself to get past, like some
real speed bumps in my career that I was doing
a lot of things like perfectionism is one. It brought
me so far to be a perfectionist in my early
career because I was really really conscientious. I wanted things
to be right slash perfect. And now once I'm into
(20:46):
a point when a lot of what I'm doing is new,
it's risky. It's not going to be perfect. There's zero
intention of it being perfect because you've never start. If
it was, I had to get past that or I
was never going to be able to do what I
needed to do in the next step. So that was
one of the we talk a lot about the habits
that hold you back. And actually in March March eighteenth
(21:07):
through the twentieth the National Hardware Show and Build Women
are doing a How Women Rise and Hardware Conference and
it's a part of the National Hardware Show main stage
and it's a whole day built around content that shows
women how to do that. So I'm going to be
speaking on how to build your personal brand and then
also doing another session on how to break the habits
(21:29):
that hold you back. And that is based on a
book called How Women Rise by an amazing woman named
Sally Helgenson and also Marshall Goldsmith co wrote the book
with her, and that's a best selling book in her
and I have partnered together to do a program on
How Women Rise for the construction industry, so educating women
on how to get it out of their own way
and make it happen.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Oh that's incredible.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah. So, if you're listening to this, you're anywhere near Vegas,
or you want to come to that show. It is
the National Hardware Show, and you can actually click on
and just sign up for the How Women Rise Day,
or you can come to the whole show and it's
in Las Vegas at the Convention Center March eighteenth, twentieth.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
All right, So then you're going to have a pretty
big stent in Vegas. Then you're going to be doing
a Vegas touras Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And also there's some other amazing speakers. So Gina Schaefer,
who owns thirteen hardware stores, she has over fifty three
million dollars a year in Harbord store business, amazing entrepreneur.
She's going to be speaking about how to handle people,
profits and purpose in your business and what you need
to know. And then we have a panel of leaders
from the industry of women that are going to be
(22:33):
speaking a networking session afterwards. A lot of cool stuff happening.
So if you're anywhere near Vegas, you got to get
to this event.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Awesome, No, and this is perfect because again we're going
to be airing this and so everybody will be able
to you know, look into it and then go.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, let's let's look at now, you know, at your
advice personal reflections newcomers in the industry. Right, So what
advice would you give someone starting their career in their
construction industry today?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I would say, enlist allies from day one, get people
in your corner from day one. Don't try to be
the quiet person in the corner that just lets things
happen and figures it out and then comes into the fold.
I want you to kind of find some people that
will help you from day one, so you will know
some of those people are going to be easier to
win over than others. You might have someone that is
(23:29):
assigned to train you that doesn't want to do that,
or someone that doesn't have time. That's really it's usually
more it's not people don't want to help you, it's
that they're already drowning in their own respective position. It's
hard to hand someone a life vest and say I'll
help you when you're already, you know, sort of drowning.
So find those people that can help you and figure
out what is most important first, and don't try to
(23:52):
do everything at once. So if you have a lot
of responsibilities in the role that you're taking and you
don't feel like you're quite ready, I hear the words
I have imposter syndrome a lot. You don't have imposter syndrome.
What you have is inexperienced. You don't know what you're
doing because you've never done it before. And that's okay,
because every single person that does something new is that way,
(24:12):
you feel like an imposter because you just haven't figured
out how to do it yet. So give yourself some
time and some grace to do things and fail. That
is the biggest lesson that I would ever give anyone
is you have to be able to take risks and
embrace failure as a learning lesson and know that you
will fail if you're doing anything that is new or
(24:34):
that it's hard at all. If you win every single
day at every single thing you do, you must not
be doing anything that's very difficult, because I certainly know
that I fail all the time at things that I do.
I yesterday send an email with a loom link for
a video. I sent someone that on my team instead
of a proposal, and it's like, send the wrong thing.
I mean, it's not like some horrible email I sent,
(24:56):
like a bad thing, but email that can say like
working for I didn't say this. I've been working for
fourteen hours today. This is the last email of the
day that I sent. And I put their own link
on the proposal. You know, I sent them back and said, hey,
use this instead of that I screwed up. Does that
mean they're not going to hire me for that? Speaking
of it. I don't know if that's if they don't
do that because of that, then cool. But I make
(25:17):
mistakes and so will you, and no matter how brilliant
or how hard working you are, that will come. So
embrace it, learn from it, and try not to do
it again if you can. That's how you grow and
learn in your career and your company. So don't be
scared to make mistakes. That is my number one piece
of advice for anyone in any role anywhere.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, just give yourself grapes.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Right, We're human, we make mistakes and it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But you know I've learned from those.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Well, let's wrap up with one more question if you
have time. Yeah, again, lessons learn. Reflecting on your own journey,
what has been your most significant like learning experience.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
The number one thing I think really was a catalyst
for me to take it from one level to the
other is figuring out what my natural abilities and strengths
were and that is from the Gallop Clifton Strengths Assessment
that I did. You can go online Gallop dot com.
Anyone can take it. I think it's sixty dollars to
take the test. It takes about an hour or so,
(26:18):
and it really is two hundred questions that you answer.
It's a normed test, so they ask you the same
thing a few different ways, so you don't kind of
gain the system, and it gives you your strengths in
order and tells you almost like a psychic reading on
the report. It's a twenty five page report about you
(26:39):
exactly how you're wired and why you do things and
what you should lean towards, and also your blind spots.
So any strength can turn into a weakness if you
use it the wrong way or overuse it, don't use
it at all. The out actual Gallup definition of a
weakness is anything that gets in the way of your success,
So that could be a strength or a weakness. Right.
(26:59):
But when I took this and I started also using
it with my teams and different things, it made me
realize that some of the things that I was trying
to do the way I was trying to operate like
other people. So I would look around and see someone
that just loved data and spreadsheets and like would spend
like seventeen hours looking at the pivot tables and the
(27:19):
micro data and all this stuff, and I'm like, I
gotta know how to do all that, and I need
to be able to I gotta love data like that,
and I do love data to make decisions, but I
like data that's done for me so I can strategically
analyze it and then pull the trigger. And I want
someone else to do that fourteen hours of legwork. Thankfully,
that fourteen hours of love work is my husband's love language.
(27:41):
So if you look at that, when I was trying
to force myself into that position of being that person,
it was really hard for me to thrive there. Right
It's like trying, you know, I think it's Einstein says,
if you try to make a fish climb a tree,
he's gonna look like he's an idiot every single day.
But if you put him in the ocean and watch
them go, And that's really what I would say, is
(28:03):
find your ocean that you can swim in, that you
were amazing at swimming in. And once you find that,
and then you will still have to work really hard
to hone those skills. But once you get into that
right lane, better watch out, because that is when you
can be happiest, the most fulfilled in what you're doing
and also make the biggest impact for yourself financially, impact
(28:28):
wise as far as how you feel about what you're
doing in your world or for your company. And that
really was an unlock for me that I couldn't quantify,
and that's why I became a Strengths coach. I actually
got let go from a job and I had already
decided that I wanted to start my own business anyway.
I'd already started some businesses and I was just trying
to wait to get a little more bonus money, honestly,
(28:49):
so I right after I got let go, two weeks later,
I went to the Gallop Strengths training as a coach,
and I did everything I could to get the training.
I did not have the money to do it. Someone
actually sponsored me. It was really cool, cool story we
don't have time to tell. But ask for what you
want and go after things that are in your strength
(29:09):
zone and you will exponentially grow. And if you're trying
to do too many things in your role every day
that you are, it's not if you're not good at it,
it's if you really dread that. If my example of
the spreadsheets is the easiest thing I noticed, say, if
you wake up in the morning and you're like, I
love spreadsheets and I really hope I get to analyze
some data today. That's your thing, right, If you had
(29:33):
that feeling I had where it's like, just give me
the final notes and I'll make a decision. That probably
isn't the job you want to be doing every day, right,
So maybe you don't need to be the data analyst.
Maybe you need to be the strategist or something. So
at the end of the day, know your strengths, know
your weaknesses, work on it, and grow your strengths instead
of focusing on your weaknesses, and hopefully you have a
(29:54):
team of people that love to do the things you're
not good at, and that's when real exponential growth happens
in companies.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
That's awesome, Stephanie, such a such a joy to have
you on this show. And also thank you Ben in
the background. We have to also, uh.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Makes every like this lighting all been, all the things
it's been, He makes it happen. He makes me He
he is an amazing, amazing human and I wouldn't trade him
for trillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's incredible. I'm happy for you both so and I'm
looking forward to meeting you next week.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
We also found out that we live probably within an
hour of each other, absolutely already coordinating something.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
We get to meet next week and then we're gonna
do something collaborative, hopefully maybe multiple times in the future.
So I'm excited about that. Thank you so much, Jennifer,
You're awesome and I am excited for Women Week this
this coming month. And I would just say to any
woman that is not sure what to do next, you
have the ability and you are worthy to do whatever
(30:59):
is that you want to do in your life. You
just have to be willing to put in the work
and be consistent with it and believe that you can.
Because if you believe plus put in the work, it
will absolutely happen. It just might not be tomorrow. So
you've got to be consistent and work and believe all
at the same time. And that's how you really build
(31:19):
what you want in your life.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I'll leave it on that, So thank you everybody for
joining and.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
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