Branding, Grit, and the New Face of Construction with Stefanie Couch

Steve Doyle (: 00:00

Welcome back to Blue Calor BS. Brad, how you doing today?

Brad Herda (: 00:03

I am fantastic, Mr. Stephen Doyle. How is Detroit City today?

Steve Doyle (: 00:07

You know Detroit City, it is rocking. It's rolling. We're in a couple weeks into January already. We're looking at the playoffs with the Lions at the number one seed. I mean. I know you're aware. come on, you're a lifelong fan. I'm not necessarily a lifelong fan, but you can't help but get involved in.

Brad Herda (: 00:21

I'm aware I'm still waiting. I'm waiting for the big disappointment. That's what I'm that's

Brad Herda (: 00:29

years. Yeah. Have you been disappointed your entire life, Steve? Probably not. Exactly. So there you go. So we got that happening.

Steve Doyle (: 00:36

Well, I haven't been a Lions fan my entire life, so no. So so Brad, who do we have on the show today?

Brad Herda (: 00:46

On our show today, we have the amazing Stephanie Couchborn and to a family lumber business. When I met her, she was telling me her origin story, what's all going on. I'm like, wow, she is the real deal in the construction world. She led a startup division of a Fortune 500 company, 10 years regional sales. She's the founder of Build Woodman and the Grit Blueprint specializing in branding and marketing. And I was so happy that she showed up today with her hat, which is part of her brand.

Steve Doyle (: 01:13

Nice.

Brad Herda (: 01:14

Cause it's, it's so cool to see and it stands out and it's there. And Stephanie, we are happy to have you here on our show to share your knowledge and wisdom of branding and construction and the industry and our pre-show conversation over the Gen Z versus millennials. This is going to be a great show. Super excited.

Stefanie Couch (: 01:31

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Steve Doyle (: 01:35

Excellent, so Stephanie, that's what she says now. And before I forget, because I'm kind of excited to get into this conversation, which generation do you best fit in with or identify with?

Brad Herda (: 01:35

She says, she says now.

Stefanie Couch (: 01:46

I'm a proud millennial.

Steve Doyle (: 01:48

and proud. Wow. Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 01:50

I like that.

Stefanie Couch (: 01:52

Gotta own it, right? I I own that I'm a woman in construction and a millennial and a blonde. I mean, I'm a triple threat.

Steve Doyle (: 01:59

Wow, I love it, I love it.

I

Brad Herda (: 02:04

That is awesome. I appreciate the owning it part of it. as a proud millennial and being in the construction industry for as long as you have been and grew up with it, what have you seen of your generation change to become the generation of choice for the industry, so to speak?

Stefanie Couch (: 02:10

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch (: 02:29

It is interesting. When I first started at my corporate job, I was 25 and I was pretty much the youngest person in my division, in my office. It was an Atlanta division of a really large company with around 6,000 employees and I was the youngest one. And so I really liked that was the youngest one because everyone else was old and now I'm no longer that ever. so that's definitely changed. I'm always the older wiser lady now.

And so, that was, that was how it started. And it was kind of a laughing thing, like, millennials, know, they're, don't work. They don't do whatever. And I never really got categorized as that because I would come in at like 6 AM when we were supposed to start at eight and I would go home and take work and work until like 11 or 12 o'clock, some nights entering orders. And so I very quickly positioned myself as someone who wasn't a standard millennial.

Steve Doyle (: 03:12

Mm.

Stefanie Couch (: 03:24

And I actually got told that a lot. Like, you're not like the rest of them. can't, you know, you're a unicorn. That's what they would.

Steve Doyle (: 03:24

good.

Steve Doyle (: 03:29

They call you, you know, that's a Gen Xer is really what that is.

Stefanie Couch (: 03:32

Yeah, exactly. That's what they meant by that. You know, it was like, Hey, you're really, I know you're 1987, but you're really not. You're really like 1980. And so I kind of prided myself a little bit like, they like that. I'm, you know, a hard worker. They they're giving me that. then as, as time has gone on, obviously now there's a lot of studies out that millennials are the chosen ones. And, and they really, you know, most employers want to hire millennials and a Gen Z kind of has that bad rap now, but I

Brad Herda (: 03:41

You

Steve Doyle (: 03:41

Hahaha!

Steve Doyle (: 03:47

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 04:01

when I started in 2012 at corporate. So pass it along. And, you know, have several Gen Z Gen Z, leaders on my team and I love them, but they are the really hardworking, they have a touch of Gen X in them as well. So I definitely, I hire for that. I call it competitive greatness really is what I think it is.

Steve Doyle (: 04:04

Mm.

Brad Herda (: 04:06

Kick that can down the road.

Brad Herda (: 04:22

And so how did you coin that competitive greatness piece to it? What brought that about?

Steve Doyle (: 04:23

like that. I like that.

Stefanie Couch (: 04:28

Well, truthfully, I actually stole that from someone else. So I can't take credit from that as a core values of one of a company that I really like. I've always considered myself extremely competitive and I'm a Gallup Clifton strengths coach. And that's one of my top 10 strengths is competitiveness. So. we was number five for me. Yep.

Brad Herda (: 04:43

Where's your woo? Where's your woo on the scale? No, 28. Woo, 28 right here.

Steve Doyle (: 04:47

Arrrr-

Stefanie Couch (: 04:51

You know, it's funny who's the one that everybody always knows where it is. It's either at the very bottom or the very top but If you have a woo top five you you know it people know it a hundred percent, you know or like and People that have we were like, whoa, like Ric flair, know, it's very obvious Yeah

Steve Doyle (: 04:51

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 05:02

Yes they do!

Steve Doyle (: 05:03

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 05:08

Yeah! Give me a little bit of that nature boy. Woo! Let's go!

Stefanie Couch (: 05:15

He's a George Bulldog fan just like me, so I like that.

Steve Doyle (: 05:18

That's awesome.

Brad Herda (: 05:18

That's so so that means you probably weren't watching last night's game or tonight's game most likely

Stefanie Couch (: 05:24

wasn't I was working last night I don't have time to watch non-Georgia football games I probably will watch tonight though seriously because I want to I want to see what happens

Brad Herda (: 05:33

So, are you then rooting for Ohio State or Texas being a Georgia fan?

Stefanie Couch (: 05:39

I'm gonna be a hook-em-horns girl tonight.

Steve Doyle (: 05:41

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Brad Herda (: 05:42

Perfect.

Stefanie Couch (: 05:44

Mainly because I lived in Texas for two years. So before Texas was in the SEC, I had no reason to dislike them.

Brad Herda (: 05:53

Now you do. Now we do.

Stefanie Couch (: 05:55

Now I do, but still don't like Ohio State more.

Steve Doyle (: 06:00

Perfect. Perfect.

Stefanie Couch (: 06:01

But back to the competitive greatness. I basically went to that word because I have a real strong need to always continue to rise my standards. And a lot of people have told me like your standards are too high. And I don't believe that's a thing. I don't think that you can have standards that are too high. And I think the only person that would ever tell you that is someone who standards themselves. They don't want to continue to can to push themselves.

Brad Herda (: 06:05

Right.

Stefanie Couch (: 06:27

So my standards are going to be high. And if anyone is going to work on the team with me, I want them to have that same push to just continue to be better. But also knowing that like you are going to screw some stuff up. And I do basically every single day, pretty much every time I do something new, it's like, God, I'm such an idiot, you know, but you're not, you just don't know what you don't know. And so I think that I have that in corporate, my dad instilled that in me at the lumber yard and I've continued that.

sense of urgency and competitive greatness in my own business.

Brad Herda (: 06:58

I appreciate the fact that you used the word give the chance to fail, right? That we're going to fail along the way because there's so much expectation of perfection and it's construction and it's skilled trait. There is no such thing as a perfect construction job. is no, all we can do is minimize the opportunities for failure, but there is no perfection.

Steve Doyle (: 06:59

That's.

Steve Doyle (: 07:04

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 07:24

Absolutely and the harder I have always loved the custom stuff. So I'm really more from the building materials side of the world You know sold lumber sold doors and doors and windows millwork. They're they're technical, right? They're hard to begin with and then there are segments of that are super custom and I always like the super custom stuff because it was harder So most people wouldn't do it They were scared of it and then also you can make a ridiculous amount of money on it because it's harder So nobody's gonna do it. So you have no competition

Brad Herda (: 07:32

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 07:54

and that's what I've always loved to live in. And so I do that now with my, haven't, you know, kind of a growth agency for people in the construction industry. And that's what I like the hard cases, like give me the stuff that no one else can solve and let's go do it and make a shitload of money doing it.

Steve Doyle (: 08:08

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 08:12

That's right. That's right. Yes, you can. We are explicit.

Brad Herda (: 08:12

That's yes. Show me the money. Perfect.

Stefanie Couch (: 08:14

I don't know if you can cuss on the show, but I just did so.

Brad Herda (: 08:17

We are experts, it is perfectly okay. You can use whatever words you'd like.

Stefanie Couch (: 08:22

Okay, gotcha.

Steve Doyle (: 08:23

Yep. So looking at, you know, the concept of that growth mindset that you have and the, we are going to make mistakes. From a generational perspective, how have you kind of instilled that in the different generations that you've had come in under your wing?

Stefanie Couch (: 08:43

Yeah, that's a great question because I do. I actually feel like that's one of the biggest problems that I see with Gen Z is they are really a lot of times very scared to make mistakes because they do. they are so used to being risk adverse in a lot of ways. And I don't know what has, I'm not sure if it's the comparison ism that comes from social media and everything's lived out loud. like now if you fall.

Steve Doyle (: 08:55

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 09:00

Right.

Stefanie Couch (: 09:11

Everyone sees it because you probably fell on someone's camera. There's no like just behind the scenes really. We filmed the behind the scenes. That's probably the most interesting part, right? And I tell people that in branding, film the stuff that you're doing that seems boring because people love that stuff. So I think it's really, there's three things in business that I think make the most excellent team members, business owners, whatever you're doing.

Steve Doyle (: 09:15

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 09:24

Thank

Stefanie Couch (: 09:38

And the number one thing is curiosity. So it's, if you don't know, you want to know. And you want to know why, you want to know how, you want to know what if we did this little thing different. So it's just generally curiosity. And the second thing is resilience, right? So it's knowing that you are going to screw up your, when you start asking questions, when you're curious,

Steve Doyle (: 09:41

Hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 09:52

Eh?

Stefanie Couch (: 10:01

then you're going to screw up. So then you're going to need that resilience to be told no or to be failing and continue to go. And the third thing that I think is really important is owning who you are and doing it the way that you can do it. So that goes back to that strengths thing, right? Is knowing that if you are not a strategic thinker person, you're an influencing person, that you're not going to need to do the spreadsheet thing like everybody else is doing it. Do it your way. Use that woo you got.

Steve Doyle (: 10:15

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 10:31

Use that other thing that's different that makes you who you are. And so, like I said before, if I'm a blonde wearing a pink hat in the construction industry, I might as well just lean all the way in and own that bad, bad boy because that is me, right? And so I'm going to do that because if I try to wear a polo shirt and be a spreadsheet person, I'm going to be miserable and everybody else is going to know eventually that I'm a fraud. And I'm just not going to be my peak potential.

Steve Doyle (: 10:46

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 10:59

So it's, it's allowing people in any generation. And I see, especially people that are in a job that have been in it for a long time. They, they own that because they're so good at it. So they're not, there's not much risk. If you've been doing something for 20 years, exactly the same way, like, I mean, it's literally back of the hand stuff, right? And then if you go to something new from that, actually have seen Gen X and boomers struggle just as much as Gen Z and millennials.

Steve Doyle (: 11:09

Yep.

Brad Herda (: 11:21

Correct.

Stefanie Couch (: 11:29

with these new tasks because I actually think it's harder for them because it's more of a transition.

Brad Herda (: 11:35

I was just going to ask you that question is how are you when you're working with your with your clients and you have some older owners or you have that Gen X guy that's been doing the window and door ring for 25 years the same way and you're trying to bring technology and advancement and branding and all those things into it. How are you helping them through that change management aspect? Where are some of the techniques you use?

Steve Doyle (: 11:35

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 11:40

you

Stefanie Couch (: 11:56

Well, one of the things that I like to do is I like to solve the problem that they think they have, because that usually is something that both of us can agree on. So let's just take, this can be any kind of business owner, construction builder, it can be someone in the trades, like a home service person or a lumber yard owner. Let's say they have a horrible website. Everyone can kind of agree that aesthetically and conversion wise and all that, probably updating and making the website look

Steve Doyle (: 12:13

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 12:25

good and convert better would be a good idea. So maybe that's the problem that they have and they know they have. But really they have no go to market strategy. They don't really know who their best customer is. They don't know what.

products or services they're selling the most of that make the best margins. They don't have any of that figured out, but they think they have it figured out. So if you go in and say, hey guys, you really don't have a go-to-market strategy. And I would say most businesses truly don't, or either their go-to-market strategy is sell everyone everything for as much as we can. And that's not a go-to-market strategy.

Steve Doyle (: 13:00

Go with that one. Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 13:00

Yes, go with that. Go with that one.

Stefanie Couch (: 13:03

See, that's it. That's where they checked all the boxes. It's like, let's just check every single one. But that's one of the examples. So we fix the website first. And then through that, you gain the trust of them and not in a manipulative way. You truly are helping them. But then they know that you're not just a charlatan marketing person because no one in the construction industry trusts marketing people as they probably shouldn't in most cases. And so it's...

Steve Doyle (: 13:06

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 13:30

says the blonde girl in the pink hat. You shouldn't trust anyone, but I'm here.

Stefanie Couch (: 13:33

You

Steve Doyle (: 13:34

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch (: 13:37

But at the end of the day, I'm a lumber girl at heart, way more than I'm a marketing girl. And so I know those problems. That's right. And so, and I think that's it. Solve the problem that they think they have and then help them understand that the other problems are worth solving. And that's really how you do it. You don't come in and act like, you you know more than them because you don't. And I think that's the thing is you know what you know and they know what they know.

Brad Herda (: 13:41

Absolutely. Correct. That's the difference.

Stefanie Couch (: 14:04

And somewhere in the middle we meet to make the best legacy businesses that we can. And a lot of my clients, they are big. They are 50 million, 150 million. I have a client that's like six billion a year. And man, they know a lot about a lot. Like they don't get to six billion without being a damn good competitor in the market. But it doesn't mean they can't get better. And it's the same reason why Elon Musk spends one week a year

Steve Doyle (: 14:10

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 14:25

Yep.

Stefanie Couch (: 14:32

on every problem he can. So he goes to his factories in person, one time a year, he solves 52 big problems a year. He goes himself into those places and he solves those problems with the engineers, with the team on the ground, in the weeds, and he solves big problems. Because it doesn't matter how big you are, you can always be better.

Steve Doyle (: 14:55

Mm-hmm.

Brad Herda (: 14:56

And it doesn't take heaven and earth moving heaven and earth to solve the problem. Most problems can be solved. Simply. My wife was showing me, had a conference. She's in healthcare. They showed this video on this piece where the elevator stops. I don't know if you've seen this video where they two people gets the elevator stops. There's two people on an elevator, like this empty mall. they're like, help, we're stuck help. stuck. can't get, we're stuck on this escalator. Like just walk up the escalator. It's not that, not that hard, right?

Stefanie Couch (: 15:01

Absolutely.

Stefanie Couch (: 15:07

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 15:12

Uh-uh.

Stefanie Couch (: 15:23

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 15:25

it

Brad Herda (: 15:26

It was a very funny video, but it's like, most problems are simple to solve if you can take yourself far enough away from the day-to-day task at hand and get yourself out of that. And that's awesome.

Stefanie Couch (: 15:39

Yeah. And there's two other things that I think really people, I won't say miss, but we overlook. The first thing is focus. And that actually is my number one CliftonStrength focus is it. But I still think I struggle with a lot because I have a lot of different things I like to do. And there's a lot of things you can focus on as an entrepreneur. But if people could just solve one problem at a time and not try to have 72 goals, you know, it's the beginning of the year.

I've got 852 goals I'm going to accomplish this year. And I want my whole team to remember all 852. And it's like, why don't we choose three big goals? I like to do 12 week years. You know, let's choose three goals this quarter and really let's work on that number one goal. Let's kick that one's butt and then go to number two and number three. And exponential growth happens that way because everybody's pushing in the same direction. So it's that focus and then it's action quickly.

Steve Doyle (: 16:08

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 16:20

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 16:37

So it's speed wins in business always. And it's really the ultimate leverage because while you're thinking and talking and ruminating about all these things, somebody else is just doing it. And that's, mean, that's the key to winning in business, especially as a small business. Like if you don't have a billion dollar check, you can write, which I certainly don't yet. Hopefully one day I will. My biggest advantage is going out there and just moving as quick as I can and learning and failing and keeping and getting better.

Brad Herda (: 16:40

Correct.

Steve Doyle (: 16:41

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 16:48

Somebody's doing it. Yep.

Brad Herda (: 17:03

Do it.

Brad Herda (: 17:07

Right. I mean, that's Savannah bananas, right? The customer experience. mean, what he did with that and changing and creating it's like, it's pretty spectacular to go from living in the stadium broke to now the empire of these created all over very simple, simple, actionable, simple, actionable activities and, the empowerment of people. earlier you talked about the Gen Z's coming into your team and some of the things that you are,

Steve Doyle (: 17:08

Mm.

Stefanie Couch (: 17:10

Yeah. Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 17:12

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 17:23

That's right. I love that guy. He's awesome.

Brad Herda (: 17:37

trying to work on to support them. What are some of the key things that you are using to create success? Because we talked a little bit about the failure and I think some of that comes from that social media. I think a lot of it comes because their lives have been scheduled since they were five years old. So they don't have some of that brain power that looking outside the lines.

Stefanie Couch (: 18:00

participation trophies, they've gotten a lot of those.

Steve Doyle (: 18:02

Mm-hmm.

Brad Herda (: 18:03

So did you. It's okay.

Stefanie Couch (: 18:05

I never got a participation trophy. Not one time.

Brad Herda (: 18:07

Well, that's because you were in the lumber industry, but that's OK. They didn't do that in the lumber. You had parents that didn't allow you to be on the soccer team to get the participation trophies, probably.

Stefanie Couch (: 18:18

I started playing sports when I was in middle school and I did not get participation trophies. either lost big or I won, but my team always sucked. So I got lot of like 17 to one softball games.

Steve Doyle (: 18:32

Yeah

Brad Herda (: 18:32

Okay. All right. Fair enough. So, but how are you, how are you, what, what are some of the things you're doing to, to put in place to, to a, to attract that Gen Z into your organization, because that's usually, that's usually the first step for an organization. And then to keeping them engaged and wanting to learn and, keeping that curiosity and that resiliency going on, because there is a, there's a decent amount of those Gen Z's that do want to, that's too hard. I'm going to go on to the next thing.

Steve Doyle (: 18:36

resonates hard.

Stefanie Couch (: 19:01

Yep. So to answer question A, what am I doing to get them in? Well, that's where brand comes in. And this is where I think the construction industry is missing out big time on this because I have a lot of people that are wanting to come work on my team. And this is across generations. I have people that like as soon as I'm ready, they'll come type thing. Like Stephanie just get it together, get it together so you can actually hire these people. So I'm trying to figure that part out.

Steve Doyle (: 19:12

Yes.

Brad Herda (: 19:25

Congratulations.

Steve Doyle (: 19:26

That's great.

Stefanie Couch (: 19:31

But it's because you're building something that people want to be a part of that is, it's like a contagious energy and you attract the people that want to be a part of that. So I think it's about building a brand that people want to get on the train and go for the ride with you, knowing that it's not going to be perfect. It's a startup, it's going to be hard, but they're willing to do that because they know number one, they're going to learn a lot and it's going to be a really cool journey.

Steve Doyle (: 19:59

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch (: 20:00

That's part of it. And then, you know, you're on, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm talking about all the things, you know, I do a lot of speaking and events. I'm out there in the world of construction. I'm not speaking, at a, like a education, but I'm actually going to be speaking at the Plaspro booth on AI, Tuesday and Wednesday at 1pm Pacific standard time at the Plaspro booth. So, that'll be cool. Come see me there.

Brad Herda (: 20:09

Are you gonna be at AutoIBS?

Steve Doyle (: 20:26

that's nice.

Stefanie Couch (: 20:29

and I'll be and about, you you can see me, wear my pink hat, you'll find me. But I'll be wearing a pink hat, who knows what color. It'll be hot pink one day, medium pink the next day, maybe even throw some light pink in there to mix it up a little bit. So I will be doing that. But yeah, so going around events like that and talking to people, it helps for sure. A lot of my team members have come from that type of thing or LinkedIn.

And then the other thing to answer your second question is I ask a lot of questions and manage expectations upfront about what it's gonna be like. Hey, this is gonna change maybe every single day. This is startup. If you need a routine that is like 100 % for sure, this is what you're gonna be doing every day from eight to five, not the fit. It's not a fit for you. If you are gonna wanna work from...

Steve Doyle (: 21:08

Perfect.

Stefanie Couch (: 21:24

you know, eight to five and never have to work extra or never, have to work weird hours sometimes to go to events or something like that. Not for you. If you don't want to be the absolute best and continue to learn and get better, not for you. And that's okay. Like there are roles that I've been in before where it's like, just wasn't the right fit. got fired from a job five months in. And right before I started this business, it just wasn't the culture for me. And I really hated the job.

Steve Doyle (: 21:37

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 21:51

And the day they fired me, I had already started my LLC. So it was just like, okay, I get it. Universe, God, whatever you believe in. Like, I hear you, I'm gonna go do this. Like, I get it. Thank you. Should have just listened. But I mean, there's just, yeah. Like, I only told you 875 times that you just got time to go do your own thing. I know, but you know what? I learned so much in that five months that I think it's also knowing that every single step in your life, your career, your journey,

Brad Herda (: 22:04

Listen to Fresh Time!

Brad Herda (: 22:11

You should have listened to me five months ahead of that.

Stefanie Couch (: 22:21

whatever it is, you will use that for something later. So all the things I learned in that five months, like it was in the Florida market, it was a lot of really big builders like Deer, Horton, Poulty, people like that. I'd never really been exposed to that. Florida is a whole different universe with the way they actually construct things, block construction, all this hurricane stuff. I learned so much about that, that now I got what I needed for five months and I was good. So I can use that in the rest of my life in my job now.

Steve Doyle (: 22:40

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 22:50

in my career. So it's really cool how life works. So I would say to any person in any generation, don't look at something as a linear journey and don't look at it as like, how am going to use this or how, why has this happened to me? Because you may not know right now, but eventually somewhere that plug will plug into the puzzle piece. And then you'll be like, man, like how cool is that? That that thing I did 10 years ago that I thought was a pain in the butt is now what I'm making money on today in my real job.

Steve Doyle (: 23:19

You

Stefanie Couch (: 23:22

God definitely has a sense of humor, I can just tell you that.

Steve Doyle (: 23:24

right?

Brad Herda (: 23:26

Don't disagree.

Steve Doyle (: 23:28

That's funny. One of the questions that I'm curious as we're as we're talking here is with more let's let's say you definitely have this charismatic approach to you and from attracting. That is the woo. I mean, yeah, we'll get into that right. That is the woo. How do you help those that you know they they kind of and I'm going to pick on the Gen X and the boomers right that they know they need your help.

Stefanie Couch (: 23:40

Thank you. Woo!

Brad Herda (: 23:41

That's the woo.

Steve Doyle (: 23:58

but they're kind of like, eh, I don't know. How do you help people recognize and realize, hey, yes, we as millennials, as Gen Zs, we can do this shit because we know this shit.

Stefanie Couch (: 24:13

Mm-hmm. That's a great question. I think it's not trying to belittle anyone in any generation for what they don't know and trying to show them in a way that they understand and can appreciate so that it builds trust and that takes time. And I think one of the things that millennials are known for, but especially me, because I have this thing called activator, which means I'm wildly impatient. So I...

Steve Doyle (: 24:29

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 24:41

you heard this three times, what are you waiting on? don't, yeah, I mean, like, I don't get it, you know, but at the end of the day, again, to reel it back is like some of these people have giant businesses. And so if you tell someone that has $150 million a year business, well, I can increase your business by doing all of this stuff. They're like, well, number one, what's that going to cost? they're, you know, they're always looking at that, hopefully. And then also it's like, but then what do I get?

Brad Herda (: 24:44

What don't you fucking understand?

Steve Doyle (: 24:45

Right. Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 24:55

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 25:07

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch (: 25:11

Because how much more work is that gonna be for that person? Sometimes it's almost none, right? But like I have an operations background as well so if I tell you like I can help you sell 2,000 more doors a day and They're like, that sounds cool. Like that could be 40 more million dollars of revenue every year, know at the same margins That's amazing. But then the part I didn't tell you is and we're gonna have to buy a new building and 13 new trucks and four new forklifts

Steve Doyle (: 25:16

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 25:28

Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Couch (: 25:38

and also hire 100 new people and buy $5 million in the machinery. And it's going to also take five years to get there. Then it's a whole different story, right? And that's the true story. And there's always what a marketing person or what any person that's selling something wants to show you the pretty side, the vacation, the on the beach, smelling the sand, drinking the Mai Tai. But really what it is is a 15 hour flight in the backseat of playing by the bathroom.

Steve Doyle (: 25:39

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 25:45

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 25:49

yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 25:57

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 26:07

Right.

Stefanie Couch (: 26:07

where you're sitting with a guy with his shoes off. And so that's real life, right? And so it's a balance of showing them like, understand what real life is. And I also understand like, if you don't wanna do this because you're cool at a hundred million, good, like congratulations, you are amazing. Or five million, you don't have to be at a hundred million. I keep using these big numbers, but it is amazing to build a...

Steve Doyle (: 26:11

Yep.

Stefanie Couch (: 26:31

$500,000 remodeling business and you're making 30, 40 % margin and you're feeding your family, you have a great life. Like if that's what you want, amazing, keep doing that. And if you want to grow 10 % a year or whatever to keep up with inflation, then that's great. But if you're hungry and you are like unquenchable, which is what I like to talk about with myself, like I am unquenchable and I was born that way and I don't know why, but I'm never gonna turn that off.

Steve Doyle (: 26:39

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 26:54

I love this. Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 26:59

I feel so sorry for your husband.

Stefanie Couch (: 27:01

Yeah, exactly. He's in the business with me as I live with this every day and be married to it. But if you're unquenchable and you want to go hit 150 million and you want to climb that next mountain, then let's go do it. I've got my climbing poles ready and I will take you up the mountain.

Steve Doyle (: 27:03

Ha ha!

Steve Doyle (: 27:09

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 27:21

spectacular. So Stephanie, how do people and where do people find this unquenchable desire to sell more things, make more things, make more money and let's go get shit done. Where do they find you?

Stefanie Couch (: 27:35

Yeah. grit blueprint.com is where they find me. And I think that's why I use the word grit because it's for people that have grit and want to go just do gritty stuff. And, so that's my company name. It's, behind me here, grit blueprint. And, it's that Spartan spirit of like, I'm going to go, I'm going to go with whatever I need to do to make this happen. And so I want to work with people like that. That's the people I love working with.

And I really love the independent spirit of some of these small business owners. It's not just businesses that are huge, but it's people that want to do amazing things and break barriers that they didn't know they could ever break. And that's what I'm trying to do in my life every day.

Brad Herda (: 28:08

Mm-hmm.

Brad Herda (: 28:16

All right. That is spectacular. Your energy is infectious and contagious and we are blessed to have you have you here as a guest today. Safe travels. Enjoy the snow with the puppy later on today. And and we appreciate you being here Stephanie. Thank you so much.

Stefanie Couch (: 28:21

Thank you.

Stefanie Couch (: 28:25

Thank you.

Yes? Yes, I'm excited.

Thank you for having me.

Steve Doyle (: 28:34

Yeah, thank you.