The Grit Blueprint

Do it Best Spring Market Preview with Stefanie Couch and Ryan Cooley

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This is a special episode! 

Get ready for a deep dive into the disruptive changes in the lumber and building materials (LBM) market coming to Orlando March 18th through March 20th! 

This episode explores the monumental merger between True Value and Do it Best, a game-changer for independent retailers seeking new opportunities. We talk about how this landmark collaboration enhances supply chain efficiency and strengthens vendor relationships, laying the groundwork for a robust future for independent businesses.

We’re also gearing up for the major March market in Orlando, where industry leaders will gather to share insights and forge connections. From engaging workshops to insightful discussions, you’ll learn how to adapt your strategies to thrive in an evolving landscape. We discuss key topics such as futures in pricing, effective marketing strategies, and the importance of personalization in today’s consumer-focused market. 

Hope to see you at the Do it Best Spring Market March 18th through the 20th!

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Ryan Cooley:

It was one of the most mind-blowing concepts for a market. Already we're stepping it up. It's bigger and better than it was.

Stefanie Couch:

Technology is changing every single day. Ai is coming in. What do we adopt? How do we keep up? How do we stand out? We are going to have an expert that will speak about actionable strategies that really help you and your business be more efficient and also more profitable. We have tools, services and people that can help you level up.

Ryan Cooley:

The way you use each of these tools will vary based on if you're a yard compared to a hardware store. Everyone's going to have something they take away as a really helpful piece of information.

Stefanie Couch:

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch. This podcast is about branding building and business. It also highlights the grit that it takes to be successful in business and in life. Let's get started. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I am your host, Stefanie Couch, and I am here today with a special guest. Ryan Cooley is here from Do it Best. He is an LBM business development specialist at the LBM division, which I've been partnered with as a brand ambassador and a what would we call it speaker for the new events. So we are excited today to talk about the up and coming March market in Orlando, Florida. Welcome to the podcast, ryan.

Ryan Cooley:

Yes, thanks for having me.

Stefanie Couch:

I'm really pumped about this market, and I know you are too. One of the reasons why it's so exciting is actually going to be the first time ever that Do it Best and True Value are combining to have one mega market. We'll call it, and we're expecting what? Over 8,000 members to be in attendance in Florida.

Ryan Cooley:

As of now, only growing.

Stefanie Couch:

That's awesome. Are we going to be able to fit all these people? I mean how many? How many does that conference center hold?

Ryan Cooley:

I have no idea. I haven't heard that concern. I hope we're good there, but man, what a good problem to have.

Stefanie Couch:

It is awesome. I'm really excited and this show is coming up next month, march 21st through the 23rd. It's coming along very quickly and it is like we said in Orlando, florida, at the conference center there. So if you are planning to go, make sure you've already got your hotel and all of your travel plans. We are going to dive in today and talk a little bit about this show, Some of the cool things that we're doing for the first time, especially in the LBM booth, and we're going to have a special learning day that's going to be on Saturday for LBM and Millwork members. But first I want to talk about a trending news topic that involves Do it Best. It is the True Value merger which happened recently and it's been kind of all over the news. It's really exciting for both Do it Best and True Value. Tell me a little bit about that, ryan, and why that's so really monumental for both brands.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, it's been a big year for us. I mean we went from having our last acquisition pre-2024, it was in 1998. And that was when we merged with United Hardware and we became Do it Best. So fast forward, what you know. 26 years later we'll like we're saying let's just do two in one year. So we had United earlier in the year and then all the true value stuff just unfurled here at the end of 2024. And it's been awesome.

Ryan Cooley:

I mean to think about all of these retailers we're bringing on. We're going to be able to help and ideally the way it looks is we're working on beefing up all of the infrastructure for the warehouses on the True Value side. If you're a True Value retailer, nothing changes on that end for you. Everything stays the same. But when it comes to the LBM programs, all of that opportunity comes over to do it best and that works out great because True Value had an LBM team, but it was three people and they did a fantastic job with the resources they have. But we do over 2.6 billion each year in LBM, have over 70 team members. We're in four different sites across the country. We are just scaled in a way where we're going to be able to help all these True Value members, especially ones with an LBM focus, and that's why this market is so exciting just getting to talk to these folks about all of that.

Stefanie Couch:

And I know these True Value members are so pumped to be at this show and have a lot of new resources. Meet all the people on the teams that are there to support them, and I know Do it Best members are really excited to welcome them into the fold as well. Dan Starr, the president and CEO of Do it Best, actually described this as a generational opportunity, a move that will strengthen all the vendor relationships, enhance the supply chain efficiency and really provide independent businesses with the resources that they need to compete and grow in the future. And what I love the most about Do it Best I grew up in a small family lumberyard and hardware store and I love independent businesses and you guys are really the champion of independence and that is an awesome thing to be saying about your business and you prove it with the services and the value that you bring.

Stefanie Couch:

So this market is going to be a great way to prove that to the True Value members. This is really exciting for us because we are launching something I want to talk a little bit about. On Friday, we're going to start with the LBM lunch and a market update A lot of crazy trending topics like tariffs and things like that going on in the world and people want to know what the latest and the greatest news is. So tell me a little bit about that lunch and what people can expect.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, so we're going to have a handful of folks up on stage at any given time. Basically, we have a lot of specialists who have their pulse on different parts of the LBM market, whether what's happening as an aggregate from the terrorist standpoint, what's happening in independent species markets based on dimensional number, whatever it is. We have experts in each of these fields. So you'll hear from our vice president of LBM, russ Kathrine, our director of purchasing, mike Tremolin. I'll actually help lead a small panel where we'll talk more about trends emerging on the tariff side versus new products and trends emerging in the industry and basically how all this comes together to where there will be solutions for these at market and through Do it Best, something you won't want to miss. I mean there's lunch for one, but also some great content, for sure.

Stefanie Couch:

Absolutely, and then, right after that wraps up, you need to scoot right on over to the Learning Center with the Knowledge Day at Friday. It's all over. Different speakers are going to be throughout the day, but I am actually going to be hosting a session at 1.30 on Friday and that session is really for LBM members. So it is about building your LBM brand and leaving a legacy, and I'm excited to share some of the things that I'm seeing with my business and my customers. I have a lot of customers all over the US and Canada that are in the lumber and hardware and millwork business and they are struggling with some of the things like.

Stefanie Couch:

Technology is changing every single day. Ai is coming in. What do we adopt? How do we keep up? How do we build a brand that actually stands out in a sea of? Sometimes what we're selling is commodities, so pricing is one of the only things we can compete on. How do we stand out? And I believe that technology like AI and automation and all of these things that we have access to, plus brand and building a strong brand, are actually the only real, true competitive edge in the moat that will hold your castle for decades and legacy building to come. So I'm gonna be talking about that, specifically around LBM, building materials and millwork, and I'm really pumped about that. Hopefully people will come and join us at 1.30 and the room will be announced. You'll see that on all the signs and that's in the knowledge sessions. And then let's get to the real thing we're here to talk about today. So Saturday we have some big news. Ryan, tell me what we're doing this year for the first time.

Ryan Cooley:

For the very first time in the LBM area, we're doing LBM learning sessions. So you talked about Knowledge Central. A lot of great content there, including you, while in the LBM booth on Saturday throughout the entire day, we're going to have five separate sessions. It's going to be LBM specific content. Technically it's probably relevant to a lot of dealers, not just LBM, but we're curating it based on our content. You'll be in the booth already to see a lot of really good stuff, which we'll talk about here in a minute, but additional content to sit down, hear from experts on things like futures, how to do it best, the futures program and our reloads how you possibly could, too, as a dealer, all the way from that to gosh do it best marketing programs. I don't know how deep you want to go on each of these, stephanie.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about it. So we're going to kick it off with an operation session how to grow your operations. You know we all have bottlenecks in our business. We have constraints and a lot of times I hear, hey, I have this huge constraint in my operations, especially if you're manufacturing or light assembly like in a door shop, or maybe you have a trust plant or maybe you're just doing a lot of shipping and you've got to figure all those things out. We are going to have an expert that will speak about actionable strategies that really help you and your business be more efficient and also more profitable and that's going to keep your people happier. You have all of these amazing tools that you can utilize to grow your business through operations. So that's going be the first session we're gonna kick it off and then I'm gonna talk a little bit more about AI for LVM businesses.

Stefanie Couch:

This session is tactical. It is something that you can take from your session and go in to your hotel room later that night and actually use some of these tools. It is something that any person in your organization can learn. It's not really crazy pie in the sky, it nerd stuff. It's stuff that you could use in your business or even in your email writing to really level up. And if you're scared of what AI could do, I want you to know that it is an approachable thing and you can get on the early adoption right now it's still super early for this and really grow your business with it. And then the next session, I want you to intro this one. So you talked a little bit about it. Tell me a little bit more about the LBM Futures training and why that might be advantageous for someone that has a lumber business.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, I think the beautiful part about this session is Futures as a concept. You can get really deep really quick. Futures as a concept, you can get really deep really quick. And what we're doing here is you're going to have a real dummy of a moderator, me sitting up in a panel with a couple of experts. So one guy actually used to do purchasing at a large lumber yard and he used futures to kind of diversify the mix of lumber he had on the ground. The other guy helps manage our reload inventory and uses futures to kind of mitigate the risk that we see there manage our reload inventory and uses futures to kind of mitigate the risk that we see there. And between both of them and me asking the most one-on-one questions possible, we're going to convey the concept and, ultimately, how Do it Best can help you when it comes to forward pricing, future pricing, lumber when you need to bid a project or hit a basis or whatever it is. And if that didn't make sense, it will after you see the session.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, absolutely, and one of the things I think I love the most about Do it Best and this co-op model that you guys have is you can buy lumber from a lot of different places, but we want to be the place that you come. That makes your business better, that we have tools, services and people that can help you level up, and that's really what we're doing here. This show is trying to just give you more of that, and we're going to be doing it throughout the day on Saturday, obviously, and hopefully continue this forever on. But it's going to be exciting to see these people show up and see what they find valuable, and I know that this lumber futures one is going to be especially for younger members that maybe haven't ever seen this training. We've done this in the past. It's been extremely well attended, so we're pumped about this, and I know the moderator is going to crush it, so I'm not about that.

Stefanie Couch:

Next, we're going to talk about the marketing strategies that we would use and have available through Do it Best for our members. You actually used to be in the marketing department, so tell me a little bit about some of the practical ways that people can reach more customers and actually increase their sales easier with these tools that we're going to be talking about.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, this will be a lot of fun. We get to work with a gentleman on our consumer marketing team. His name's Josh, so Josh comes in and he has a lot of perspective of helping a diverse type of members everyone from actual hardware to lumber yards, home centers and we have a large array of marketing tools at our disposal. But the way you use each of these tools, or if it's applicable, will vary based on if you're a yard compared to a hardware store. So we'll dive a little bit into that. It's going to be a really good mix because we'll also have you there as well. So, from the standpoint of does Do it Best have the right tool to help with a lumberyard or is there a way that your expertise can be leveraged here to help people figure out how do we drive traffic? So, from the mix of Do it Best and you there, I think everyone's going to have something they take away as a really helpful piece of information.

Stefanie Couch:

It's crazy to me. There's so many marketing tools out there and obviously with AI, it's like every day something new comes out.

Stefanie Couch:

But, it's overwhelming and there are a lot of things you can do and you don't know exactly what should be spent on each thing and maybe there's seasonality and all these things that come into play. Sometimes people forget really great tools like direct mail is crushing it right now for a lot of customers and we often forget those things. So we are going to serve, hopefully, as a little reminder or maybe even where you can ask questions. We're definitely going to have Q&A sessions at all of these sessions, after the speaking or the panel, we will have Q&A and you know you can kind of ask anything Like. I kind of love it when people send me questions or ask me questions that are kind of stump questions like stump the teacher Maybe.

Stefanie Couch:

Maybe I won't know the answer, but somebody up there probably will and if not, we'll find it out for you which is for sure, and we're going to wrap up the sessions with my favorite topic, which is the window door and millwork business part of Do it Best, and it is really about how our resources and our team can help you elevate your millwork business. We're going to have one of our Millwork team members, gavin Weeks, up with us and he's going to be talking about exactly how we can support members in that department and, again, we're going to have a lot of amazing vendors there. They're going to be right outside the LBM booth, so they're going to be there. Once you get this information, you can probably go right out and talk to them or talk to someone on our Do it Best team about this. These sessions are going to be awesome. I can't wait for them and I'm really pumped to hopefully give a lot of value to our members.

Ryan Cooley:

Me too. It's going to be fun.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, and there's something else amazing that we had first at the show in Indy in the fall and it is coming back. Tell me a little bit about Studio 695 for those maybe who haven't attended or didn't see it in the fall.

Ryan Cooley:

Man. In the fall it was One of the most mind-blowing concepts for a market I mean to think of. It's the first time we have a little house built right and it's just sitting out on the market floor. When you walk in you see awesome examples of appliances. You can get through us band-aids, you can get through the warehouse, even flooring. We even had fake walls up and the fake window on the wall. It's an actual window. You can get through us and the intentionality and thought behind this.

Ryan Cooley:

It's really meant to help members see this in real life and think how can I do something similar in my store and drive traffic? So that's the concept. In the fall it was awesome. Already we're stepping it up. It's bigger and better than it was. This year we're going to have a farmhouse theme including the core items that match that, and then we're also going to have a garage concept attached to Studio 695, where we'll feature a lot of different you know, organizational pieces, anything you'd find in the garage new products, trusted products, everything and if a member goes in and checks it out, it'll be really easy to buy everything they're seeing.

Stefanie Couch:

I'm going to tell you from experience. I love an organized garage. Mine is not right now, but I do love an organized garage, so I'm excited to see what they've come up with and all the amazing things that we've added and that has been curated by an incredible woman who is a team member. A beer at Do it Best. And she is actually has a design background. She is a total professional at this. She always wows with what she comes up with, so I can't wait to see what it looks like.

Ryan Cooley:

Same. She's too good.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, she's awesome. All right, All work and no play makes Stephanie a dull girl. So tell me about Saturday night, because we're going to kick off our shoes and put on the tennis shoes and show up at Universal Studios.

Ryan Cooley:

Yes, so yeah, exactly. Shoes, and put on the tennis shoes and show up at universal studios. Yes, so yeah, exactly. Long day, a lot of fun, a lot of good stuff, best way to unwind amusement park. We'll be there um universal. Start at 7 30 so you can start showing up, hit the park up, go through rides, grab food, all that. The best part, though, is at nine o'clock, the public gets, gets kicked out, and it's just us, duo Best Market attendees who have the whole park to ourselves all the way until midnight.

Stefanie Couch:

I can't wait, I've never been in a private park before. I haven't either so cool.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, it's going to be fun. We're going to hit a lot of the Harry Potter stuff on our end.

Stefanie Couch:

I hear that your son is super excited about the Harry Potter world. Huh.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, we think we have a Gryffindor. We're not sure yet, but we'll try the sorting hat when we get there.

Stefanie Couch:

And he's been prepping with all the movies, so he is ready to go. I'm going to love it. I'm hoping you're going to have a little lightning bolt when you show up.

Ryan Cooley:

Maybe I might just leave that to him, but we'll see.

Stefanie Couch:

I might show up with one as well.

Ryan Cooley:

You can get the sorting hat.

Stefanie Couch:

I would love it, that would be, amazing. I need another hat for my collection. 72 is not enough.

Ryan Cooley:

I agree.

Stefanie Couch:

All right. Well, let's roll into Sunday, where we're going to have one last hurrah that morning for LBM. It is actually our new LBM marketing breakfast, so tell me a little bit about the premise of that, what we're talking about and why people should attend.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, this will be fun. I mean, again, there's free food. We know what's important, but even beyond that, it's so easy to look at LBM and think, product, product, product and huge part of what we do. Yes, but the reason why we're partnering with marketing on this is because we're so much more than that. We're service as well. So this whole breakfast is to make sure that the membership understands when you work with marketing, when you work with LBM, what kind of services and programs can you leverage to enhance your experience as a yard owner or retailer and really take that product and price to the next level? So it's going to be a lot of good content. You'll hear from a lot of great members of the LBM and marketing teams and then once again, get a free breakfast.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, from a lot of great members of the LBM and marketing teams, and then once again get a free breakfast, yeah, and that is gonna be kind of the last thing that we're gonna plan for that day as far as sessions.

Stefanie Couch:

So then you'll be free to do all the other things for the rest of the day, and I'm really excited to have Do it Best and True Value members combined, because this is their event, this is just for them. The connections, the education, all the strategies that they're going to gain at this market will help them strengthen their businesses. They're going to help you stand out in your market which everyone is trying to do and build a lasting legacy that will stand the test of time and hopefully bring in amazing generational success for your business. And I'm going to be there, ryan's going to be there, all the 8,000 of your best friends from Do it Best and True Value will be there, so don't miss out. It is March 21st through the 23rd in Orlando, florida, and I really appreciate you hopping onto the Grit Blueprint with me, ryan, to talk about this, and I can't wait to see you in Orlando.

Ryan Cooley:

Yeah, same here. Thanks for having me. I'll see you soon.

Stefanie Couch:

Thank you for joining me on the Grit Blueprint podcast. If today's episode fired you up and inspires you, subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who's ready to level up. But here's the real question Are you ready to take bold action and build something extraordinary? At Grit Blueprint, we don't just create strategies. We actually create results. Whether it's building your personal brand, optimizing your marketing and strategy in your building business or scaling, we're here to make sure you dominate the industry and leave a legacy. Don't wait. Visit GritBlueprint. com to book a consultation and start making your moves today. Remember, success doesn't just happen by chance. It happens by grit. Keep building and I'll see you next time on the Grit Blueprint Podcast.

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