The Grit Blueprint

Beyond Brick and Mortar: Preserving Business Legacies in Construction with Kim Peffley

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Kim Peffley, Regional Vice President at Nation's Best, shares her journey from working at her family's True Value store to preserving business legacies across the hardware industry. Her story showcases how the building and construction industry offers incredible opportunities for making meaningful community impact while building successful careers.

• Began working at age 15 in her family's True Value hardware store in Granger, Indiana
• Managed multiple Ace Hardware locations before transitioning to consulting with NHPA
• Now oversees 14 locations across the Midwest as Regional VP at Nation's Best
• Nation's Best focuses on preserving legacy businesses while providing corporate support
• Currently has 64 stores in 18 states since launching in 2019
• Emphasizes the importance of mentorship for developing future industry leaders
• Believes in creating pathways specifically for women in the hardware industry
• Values the support of her husband in enabling her career success
• Encourages stepping into uncomfortable situations for professional growth
• Maintains work-life balance by enjoying lake life and unplugging when home

If you're interested in making an impact in your community or reshaping it through entrepreneurship, the building industry offers incredible opportunities to design the career and life you want.


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Stefanie Couch:

Our industry, the building and construction industry, the hardware industry. It really is the start of the American dream for most people.

Kim Peffley:

Anyone who's really interested in coming into this industry should know that if you have any bit of entrepreneurial spirit, if you want to you know redesign or reshape your community, you can do that. If you have a business sense, you can do that. So it's like every single day we get to work with our co-workers, we get to work with great brands, but we also get to really change our community, and so if you're wanting to make an impact, you can definitely do it in this industry.

Stefanie Couch:

When you look at these businesses maybe that don't have a family succession planning, which a lot of these kids don't want to take them over, and the idea of that legacy either dying so it doesn't get passed on at all, getting passed on and just taken, stripped down to parts it's really, really disheartening. But when you think about actually doing the opposite of that taking that legacy and growing upon it, building something with the tech and the branding that you guys can put behind it it's really cool. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast, the show for bold builders, brand leaders and legacy makers in the construction and building industry. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and I've been in this industry my entire life. Whether we're breaking down what's working in sales and marketing, new advances in AI and automation, or interviewing top industry leaders, you're going to get real world strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your team. Let's get to work.

Stefanie Couch:

Welcome to the Grid Blueprint Podcast with Stefanie Couch. Today I'm here, live in Orlando, with my friend, Kim Peffley. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Me too, and you and I have a lot in common because we both grew up in the hardware store world. Your family actually owned a True Value hardware store Correct, yeah, and you've been through lots of different iterations. You've worked in this industry a long time doing amazing work, but right now I think you're working for one of the most exciting companies that's out there Nation's Best and you're a regional vice president there. How long have you been with Nation's?

Kim Peffley:

Best. I joined Nation's Best in September of last year, so I'm going on about seven months Amazing.

Stefanie Couch:

So let's go a little rewind to your history. Tell me a little bit about your background your family hardware store, when was it? I want to know history. Tell me a little bit about your background your family hardware store, when was it? I want to know everything.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, so my parents decided to invest in a local business in our community, and they weren't really sure what business they wanted to do.

Kim Peffley:

So they kind of did some research and a hardware store was kind of what we decided on. And so we were very green into the industry, kind of had no real experience on it, and my mom was actually going to be the one running it. So we hit a lot of roadblocks early on when people were like, you know, not sure if a woman could run a hardware store in the 90s and of course it fueled our fire so we were like, let's do that. So it was in Granger, indiana, which is just outside of South Bend, indiana so around Notre Dame country.

Kim Peffley:

And we found a piece of property right next to a grocery store, and so we built from the ground up. So it was really exciting to be able to see the building go up brick by brick and see it get filled, and so it was a True Value store. We called it Granger True Value and we were there, for my parents had it for 12 years, and so when I started, I was 15 and I was a nights and weekends part-time cashier.

Kim Peffley:

I always joked. I got all the hours that nobody else wanted to work and filled the schedule wherever needed. But I'm so thankful for that and my parents, very much, were like you will work every position, you will learn everything. And I'm so thankful because I really got the opportunity to see the front side of the business and the back side, and anyone who owns a business knows every holiday, every dinner, you talk about the family business.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, there's never like a reprieve when, when you're you know, I worked for my dad's lumberyard and hardware store and my mom always used to say that, like can we just not talk about business?

Kim Peffley:

And it's like well this is literally a big deal in every aspect of our life.

Stefanie Couch:

Uh, the dinner table is always about you know someone who came in or some order or something, and we did a lot of weekends giving sending out statements you know I did a lot of file sorting. That was my least favorite childhood job.

Kim Peffley:

What was?

Stefanie Couch:

your favorite job as a child in the Harper store? I'm wondering.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, so I I always love, I always have been drawn to lawn and garden, so when I was in on the register I wanted to get to the sales floor. So we all have seen everybody's like get me out on the floor. So, we did that, and then my parents expanded and built on to the store and they added a lawn and garden center. I just wanted to run it. I just was like, let me run this building.

Kim Peffley:

And so they gave me the opportunity to kind of be the lawn and garden manager which was super fun, and with that came the first real time that I not only managed an entire department but also people, and so I just absolutely fell in love with managing folks and so we just had an incredible time out there managing that group of folks and we grew the business significantly and it helped me really learn about category management and, obviously, people management.

Stefanie Couch:

Do you have a green thumb? I do? Yeah, I do. Well, that's handy, it helps a little bit.

Kim Peffley:

I learned so much, though. You know we we always kind of joke that we got into the business and if you can learn to read the labels faster than the customer. Sometimes that's how quickly you learn it.

Stefanie Couch:

And then, once you know, you know but there's so much new stuff coming out all the time. Like I just went down on the floor and demoed some new bits and some new things and there's always so much innovation happening, which I think is also really a fun part of our business, because these products and the manufacturers are so innovative. You know, my side is the door and window. I love that part of it. And they just came out with something called smart glass, which has actually clear glass and then you click a button on the remote and it turns into privacy glass. Like that's such a cool thing, because people they don't want privacy all the time, they want it when they want it and now you can get that. You can have both. So that's awesome. That is after your time at True Value, your family sold their store.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, tell me a little bit more about your more recent career and some of the experiences that you've you've had there sure, yeah, so when my parents sold the, they sold it to a fourth generation family that ran an Ace store and they had seven locations. So it was really great opportunity to go from kind of a single store to a multi-store and learn kind of some of the additional things that are available to you, right? So not only was it just a bigger dynamic and bigger opportunities, but we just were able to connect and learn so much more. So it was instantly like our network grew and we were able to, you know, attend a lot of the ACE shows. And so I quickly became a manager of several locations and then became the general manager, overseeing operations of seven stores. And I love multi-store management, I love kind of that general manager role.

Kim Peffley:

And so I did that for about 25 years between the True Value store and my parents' store and the ACE stores, and then, after about 25 years, between the True Value store and my parents' store and the Ace stores.

Kim Peffley:

And then, after about 25 years, I was getting a lot of questions on like how do you do this, how do you do this? And I said I think it might be a natural transition to kind of switch into a consulting role, and so I did a lot of consulting and then I partnered with NHPA, the North American Hardware and Paint Association, which was great. So I got to do really an interesting take on the position because it was kind of creating it as we went so created, kind of created the consulting division there and worked directly with retailers so flew out to their stores and helped them, you know, become better and more profitable businesses and work on the culture side. And then I also got to do a lot of speaking at like public trade shows and education and training, so got to visit and attend almost every market or show. They are to visit and attend almost every market or show.

Stefanie Couch:

They are everywhere.

Stefanie Couch:

We were just at the National Harbor Show in Vegas this week, yeah, and it's been a busy week for both of us, so you actually received an award there, so congratulations. We hosted the very first ever how Women Rise in Leadership Summit for the National Harbor Show and Build Women. My company was able to be there and help host that and co-host it. You were an amazing woman and we'd actually never met, so we've been LinkedIn friends, but now I feel like we've known each other a whole life. But you won the Leadership Excellence Award, so congratulations for that.

Stefanie Couch:

And I was speaking with Chris Miller that is the CEO of Nations Best, and he was talking about just how incredible you are, not only just your attitude of just let's go out and do amazing new stuff and get those big ideas in, but really the fire and the energy that you bring into the room and into the organization. So you are so highly thought of in this industry and I always love to see other amazing leaders like you, but also women, that are really showing people that you can get in there and you can rock it and you can do all the things, and you don't have to have grown up in the business. I know mentorship is really important to you and I would love to hear just some stories about how you feel like the next generation. What should they know? What do you want those 20-year-old people out there that are looking for a career to see about our industry, and how do you mentor others?

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, thank you so much for all of your kind words, and mentorship is so incredibly important to me because I was very fortunate to have a great deal of mentors that really cared about me as an individual and also my growth within the industry.

Stefanie Couch:

And.

Kim Peffley:

I tell everyone, like I started, you know, knowing nothing and kind of came into this.

Kim Peffley:

And we can teach anyone anything, but your energy and your spirit and your drive are really things that it's like, if you've got that talent, like we will do everything we can to get you there.

Kim Peffley:

And you know, in my role with Nations Fest too, it's like you know, we face certain challenges and we face certain things that I would have never been able to face, you know, early in my career and someone was very fortunate to teach me that. So I tell people all the time like I will breathe confidence into you, I will believe in you. Like you see a magic in someone or a spark in someone that they have no idea about themselves. And and I always say, I'll be here to support you. And I think anyone who's really interested in coming into this industry should know that if you have any bit of entrepreneurial spirit, if you want to redesign or reshape your community, you can do that. If you have a business sense, you can do that. So it's like every single day we get to work with our coworkers, we get to work with great brands, but we also get to really change our community, and so if you're wanting to make an impact, you can definitely do it in this industry.

Stefanie Couch:

I love that so much because I believe so strongly that our industry, the building and construction industry, the hardware industry, it really is the start of the American dream for most people.

Stefanie Couch:

And it is obviously, you know, getting more difficult for kids to do a lot of these, you know, get a first time home and all those things. But it is still the core of the American dream, absolutely. And, at the end of the day, when you think about what is a community, it's usually built up with people and homes, yes, and all the other businesses and things that are going in. But, like you said, if someone is entrepreneurial, like I've always thought that I would own my own business, and now I'm living that dream, which is really cool. And I think if you want to open a business home services, construction, these boring businesses well, first of all, they're not really very boring.

Kim Peffley:

No, not at all.

Stefanie Couch:

They're pretty action packed and also there's just so much opportunity and there's a lot of people that will be selling their businesses and retiring soon. So if you're interested in getting into a business, I would say start asking local businesses around you. Are you Tell me about your business? Are you open to selling? Would you sell or finance some of these more nontraditional paths? Or someone that wants to sell could call your employer at Nation's Best and we just spoke to Chris earlier this morning what you guys are doing in the industry. I want to just dig in a little bit so for someone who maybe has never heard of Nation's Best, doesn't know what's going on in the industry, tell me what is the idea, what are you doing differently? And you guys have literally been a rocket ship.

Stefanie Couch:

So, you are going to from 2019, no Nation's best. It didn't even exist and now you have 64 stores in 18 states and you're continuing to grow. But what I love the most is that you have a long-term hold model. So you're not like a lot of these other companies that buy and they're ready to make more money, dump them in three to five years. You want to hold these things and grow them for the long haul. So tell me the story of what you guys are doing.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah. So I think it's an amazing story really, and I kind of got the opportunity to watch a little bit from the outside and was like man, what's going on over here at Nation's Best? Because there was this crossroads of time, right. So like post COVID, when, you know, obviously a lot changed through COVID and a lot of people were getting about this point where they either wanted to buy or they wanted to sell, and so I think the timing came together really perfectly.

Kim Peffley:

And Chris is incredible. He really is such an amazing leader and he has guided this great group of folks to say how can we make a difference in the communities? And so I think what I love most is that we're looking to help folks that would like to step out of the business but really have worked so hard. Some of the businesses we own you know we just celebrated like 90 years at Crafty Beaver and like several different brands. They want that legacy to carry on.

Kim Peffley:

And you know we really are very big about continuing to support the community, keeping the same staff and keeping the same leadership team there as much as we possibly can and keeping the same name. So the main goal is to have no disruption to the community to continue to be able to serve and keep the family legacy going on. And to me, I think what has inspired me so much is to say I have gotten the great opportunity now, working with Nations Best, to meet incredible people and incredible communities and we bring our managers together and they tell stories about their towns, and so I think of Nations Best as an opportunity to really continue to serve your local community, to keep your brand alive and to know that you know we're going to. It's a company with a great culture that takes care of its folks. So you know we're really passionate about saying like how can we make a difference today and help others?

Stefanie Couch:

What I love is you guys are taking the best of the big corporate structure. You have money, you are investing in these businesses, you are taking the support of tech and all those things, but you're not big corporate, correct?

Kim Peffley:

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch:

And so the best of both worlds really is what you're doing, and I don't see that anywhere else. I think it's a pretty unique value proposition that you're bringing. But when I think about my dad's lumberyard, my granddad's lumberyard, my uncles have a lumberyard I think about that legacy. The word legacy means a lot to me. I think about what they worked for. And when you look at these businesses, maybe that don't have a family succession planning, which a lot of these kids don't want to take them over, you know, maybe they don't have kids Neither one of us do and so if I owned my dad's lumberyard right now, what would I be looking at for the future? And the idea of that legacy either either dying so it doesn't get passed on at all, or getting passed on and just taken, stripped down to parts it's really, really disheartening. But when you think about actually doing the opposite of that taking that legacy and growing upon it, building something with the tech and the branding that you guys can put behind it it's really cool. So I love what you're doing. I'm totally bought into the idea. If you can't tell yeah.

Stefanie Couch:

But the independent businesses you know we're here at, do it Best. They are the champion of independence. You guys are partnered with them Absolutely and they have great products and people and they sort of have the same mentality of how do we serve the community, serve our members, and that's what you're all about at Nations. Best, tell me a little bit about your talent pool, because I know you're actually working. Tell me about your day to day. What are you doing? Because I want to know all that you're doing in your region.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah. So you know we're really excited about that and I agree it's all about legacy and making sure that we can continue to. You know, uphold the hard work. I would say we're standing on the shoulders of greatness, right, and that there's somebody that's really carved the way for us to be able to be here. So I think of it very much, so that we do have that we kind of say corporate support. We're very much.

Kim Peffley:

We always call ourselves the support team because we truly believe that, and so my goal ultimately is is I serve the North region, so I have currently have 14 locations that start from upper Michigan, indiana, illinois and Kentucky, and so I consider my job every day is to just help support those stores and eliminate roadblocks, and so our managers are incredibly talented. They are basically the CEOs of their own stores and their own businesses, and so I just say you know, what can I do to support you? What can I do to help make it easier for you to do the things that you need to do? Every single day, I want to be the safest place for them.

Kim Peffley:

So we all know that we're going to run into things that happen, issues, problems and at different, like varying, levels of our careers that hits differently. So the farther you're in like, you kind of have gotten a little bit better at handling those, and so I always just say I will be your safest place to call when anything goes wrong, so that you know you can come to me immediately, and then we have the power of the company to say how can we resolve this. You know what do we need to do, and that comes from not just our internal support team, but we partner very closely, like you said, with Do it Best, all of our vendors and everyone else that we've connected with network wise that we always say we don't have to do this alone. We have power in numbers. So my day to day is just really serving my stores and the amazing teams and making sure that they can be successful.

Stefanie Couch:

I love that. How many times do you think about? I think about this a lot. 25-year-old Stefanie would have had a total meltdown if this happened. I'm almost 38. 38-year-old Stefanie is like oh, it's Tuesday.

Stefanie Couch:

Just another day, yeah, so I think that we, as with experience comes that, but I also think you know these younger talent pools that are coming in. They're so innovative, so thoughtful. I spoke at an event with Boise State University two weeks ago with ninth through 12th grade girls and women, young women, and some of the questions and the ideas and the dreams they had just set me ablaze, thinking about, okay, this next generation. We talk a lot of smack. The older generations always talk smack about the next generation right.

Stefanie Couch:

So Gen Z is getting lauded as lazy and all these things, but I actually think that they have so much to offer us and obviously I'm a millennial which we, when I remember, when I started at my corporate job, after I left my dad's lumberyard, they're like, oh, millennials. And now I see all these statistics about how managers want to hire millennials, they're like we're the golden goose of all, hiring talent to shine.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, we will step into the limelight.

Stefanie Couch:

But at the end of the day it's funny to think about that. So what do you see in this younger generation? I know you mentor a lot of people. What excites you the most about them?

Kim Peffley:

Yeah. So I love the generational conversation because I think I'm a big study of people, right. So I'm always trying to understand and try to get a better idea. And so, with the generations as they come in, every time if I hit something that I'm like what an interesting question, and sometimes I'm like, interesting, it might be the kind way, right. So I think, well, gosh, I should really probably pause, because if this seems different or foreign to me, it probably means I really need to lean in and understand. And I think a lot of times they're asking questions that might seem obvious to us, right. And so, you know, when I think about that, I think, oh, my goodness, here's an opportunity for me to mentor or for me to learn as well. So, you know, I was meeting with somebody that was looking at an additional opportunity in the company and they asked a lot of questions that I, you know, was like, oh, that's great that you brought those up.

Kim Peffley:

We probably should build that into our system and we should be more clear and we should give more direction on what the next steps are, because I know that when I first started, like when we didn't really know much, I wanted to be able to ask questions and be able to do that.

Kim Peffley:

So anytime when I talk with the next generation, I'm always just like learning as much as I can from them and saying, you know, keep me motivated, keep me sparked, because I I never want to be that person that says, no, we already tried that, no, we've already done this, and I never, ever want to be somebody who shuts down ideas. I want all sorts of innovation to be within within our business and within the way that I approach leadership. So I ask questions where I'm like that's a great question, like what can I ask? What sparked that? You know how are, how would you like me to lead you? Because obviously we're from different generations and what have you heard about me and my generation and what can I learn about some things from you? So I think it's it's assuming that it's. I think it's important to say it's okay to ask questions both ways and I can guarantee you they're full of great ideas and we need them. So I'm excited.

Stefanie Couch:

I agree, and you know it's funny because I do still think there's so much to learn from the outgoing generation as well. So you know, we we kid a little bit sometimes, like okay, boomer.

Stefanie Couch:

But you know, I'm getting a lot of questions when I do these AI talks and I do these talks about marketing and some of the technology that's coming out. They're very intrigued. They are ready to learn. They are sometimes more adept to change than I am, you know. That's the thing is. I think we can never count anyone out because of where they're at in their journey, and also I think there's a lot to learn from those legacy people that we need to soak up like a sponge before they're gone.

Kim Peffley:

Absolutely.

Stefanie Couch:

So it's really fun to see the four or five people generationally in the workforce now and watch how that's coming about and what's happening with those people, and I think we should just keep trying to get the most amazing new talent we can. You guys are doing training programs. You have a very cool roadmap that you're actually showing people where they can start, where they can go. I think that's the most important part. The training is the thing I think keeps me up at night. It keeps other people up at night because there isn't a lot of training in our industry and there's not a lot of succession planning. So you guys are really covering a lot of bases there I want to talk a little bit more about. We talked a lot about work. Sure, we both have another thing common we're obsessed with our dogs, absolutely. So I have a golden retriever named Heidi Pearl, and you have also another female dog with two names, so Lula Jane is your miniature dachshund.

Stefanie Couch:

And tell me a little bit about what you and your husband I actually got to meet him at the NHS show Tell me about your day to day at home and what that's like for you?

Kim Peffley:

Sure, yeah. So we were very fortunate about 10 years ago to be able to buy my husband's grandmother's house, and so she lived on a lake. And so she bought the property in the 40s.

Kim Peffley:

They went by horseback in the 50s to buy the property. So we're the second owners of the home. So we love to be at home, especially because I travel so much. So Lula, jane, who's our little, you know adopted wiener dog and my husband, we love to just be at home and be on the water and just ice fish. We fish in the regular season, we go pontooning.

Kim Peffley:

We love to just be out on the water or in the garden and just spend as much quality time together as we can and I think it's so fun that you know we just all love to be there my, my dachshund traditionally cause they're kind of longer dogs they don't swim so well, but she's, like, actually a really good swimmer, so she's swimming around in the lake and having a good time and we are all floating around and just relaxing and it's so important, I think when you work as hard as you do and you know you've the same, like you're one of the hardest working people I've ever met in my life and when you have to say at a certain point you need to pause, reflect, unplug, turn the phone down, most things can wait. And so I think for me we love being on the water because we literally put our phones down and say let's go out on the lake and just take some time. It can wait a little bit. It's magical, it is. Yeah, there's something.

Stefanie Couch:

there's like a psychology around being around water and all of that. I think there really is something to that and I'll put it out into the universe because I have a dream similar to yours. There's a lake near our house. It's called Lake Rabun. There's also another one called Lake Burton. We live really close to a great little town in North Georgia and my dream and Ben's dream we want to have a little farm slash lake area house. Same thing. I mean we work really hard. Like you said, there is a lot of going and a lot of shows. We've now been traveling for what? Seven days straight.

Kim Peffley:

I don't even know what day it is.

Stefanie Couch:

I think it's Sunday, but.

Stefanie Couch:

I think you're doing this for a reason, and when you get home, to be able to turn off and just be home. And then also I want to talk a little bit about and this is a total, just interesting topic to me. Your husband obviously is very supportive, so is mine. He's in the business with me. Your husband works at Notre Dame, which is super cool job, and what does it mean to have a spouse that is pretty ride or die for you, no question, allows you to be exactly who you are and supports that, because I saw that with him last week. What does that mean to you and how important do you think it is to choose the partner or the spouse that you end up being with in life to your success? How important is that?

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's been probably I'll probably get emotional one of the most important things to me. Like, my husband absolutely means everything to me. I know I couldn't do what I'm doing today without him and it's such a unique thing and you know this really well, being a woman in the industry that it feels like you're always fighting against something.

Kim Peffley:

You're like I can prove myself, I can help you in this department, I can run a business, I can do these things and my husband is 1,000% behind me. He's always like no you, and he really lifts me up.

Kim Peffley:

Or if I start to beat myself down, he's like you have no idea you have no idea and and it's you know, it's an I, I travel quite a bit, I'm on the road quite a bit, as you are as well, and so it just to know that he has my back completely, has full support. And I think you know, a lot of times people look at things maybe from traditional. You know historically how things are and, and you know the same, we don't have children and so it's changed kind of the direction that we've gone and we're incredibly close and so he just every single day supports me in everything that I do, both internally and externally, and I'm forever thankful for him.

Kim Peffley:

So, I said always look for somebody that could be, that really is always rooting for you and thinks about you. You know being successful and he's, and he will eliminate a roadblock or anything for me in any way that he can. So I think he's like my favorite human in the whole world.

Stefanie Couch:

No question the same for me. I can't. We've been through. We've been married almost 18 years now. That's amazing, and we're you know we're ride or die for each other, and that's the thing I say a lot. Now we have this business together.

Kim Peffley:

We ride or die for each other, and that's the thing I say a lot. We now, we have this business together. We're married. Obviously, people are like don't you get tired of each other? How could he ever get tired? It's not possible.

Stefanie Couch:

But it's really true. It's like we are going to war together every day to try to win and live the life we want to live. We have big dreams and I think it's the most important decision you make in your life. I agree.

Stefanie Couch:

And it can actually allow you to either go so much more, exponentially greater than you would, or it can actually tether you down. So I'm very grateful and I think I didn't realize how important it was until we started this business together, because it is. It's really hard some days and, like you said, you do feel like you're fighting against the tide and when you have someone pushing behind you that's never going to let you fall back, it's pretty, pretty positive stuff and it's, you know, it's amazing.

Kim Peffley:

I think about it too, like I met my husband when I was in my twenties. And so we had our twenties together. We had our thirties together.

Kim Peffley:

We have our forties together. He's now in his fifties, and so it's like when you're you know, decade after decade, get to continue to be a cheerleader for that person you care the most about and see them really transition and live their dreams. So it's like I know your dreams to live on on the water as well too, and it's like we wrote that dream down and we said in three years we will be on the water.

Kim Peffley:

And we said we are committed to this and and it's the same thing, he he knew my dream was to continue to grow in the industry and he just you know it's the same thing in my 20s, 30s and 40s, he supported me in every way he could.

Stefanie Couch:

So that's amazing. So I want to touch on that writing down your dreams because I do that every single day. I talked a little bit about that in my wants list, but I want you to talk about some of that. What power it has to know where you're going, because you're a very driven person. You've obviously accomplished a lot in your career. I know you're not very driven person. You've obviously accomplished a lot in your career. I know you're not finished yet, yeah. So what is the power of that? And then how do you tell young people that you're mentoring, and even people, mid-career, that maybe feel like they've hit a snag. They're not sure how they're going to get to where they want to go? What do you say to people in that situation?

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important to know where your long-term goal is and then break it down a little bit, because I'm all about small victories, right. I think sometimes people make a goal which is great to have this big goal, but it's to say, you know, where could I be in, you know, three months, six months, a year, and so I'm really good about saying this is my vision and then this is where I want to get to. You know, a really good friend of mine gave me some advice that says anytime you get someone that sends you like an email or a compliment or something that's like, you know, you really helped me in this way. It's like take a little snapshot, put it in a little folder, on icon on your desk and just on those hard days, remind yourself what you're doing. You know, one of my big goals has always been to support, you know, future women, or future women in the industry, and just to do what they can, and not just in our industry, but really anywhere.

Kim Peffley:

So I'm really passionate about sharing what I do, and so I, you know, even if it means stepping into the hard and like being uncomfortable, I'm totally fine with that, because I just want everybody to know like this is where I've been successful, but I could make it look like just the highlight show and so I like to share, like everything that I make a mistake, I tend to share those as well. So every new employee that I get the opportunity to mentor, anyone that I mentor in or outside of work, I always say you are the version of you today and I was like but you're going to be great and I'm going to help you get there and be like, just so you know that I make mistakes every single day and I face challenges, but I'm going to get back up and I'm going to keep on trying and I'm 100% okay with making mistakes because I will learn from them. And I always say I call them opportunities and I'm thankful for them. And so I really just wanted everyone to know that, no matter where you are, no matter what mistake you make, it's completely fine. It's not career ending.

Kim Peffley:

This isn't school where there's like a permanent record, which I don't think there was ever really a permanent record which I don't think there was ever really a permanent record Like you can let it all go, like, shake it all off and just know that you know your career will be whatever you want it to be. And when you start it was interesting when I did a lot of presenting it's like you have to be able to kind of and you did as well, so you have to be able to in a short order. That kind of this is what you do. And when you have to pause and sit back and look on your career in that way, it's really just a collection of a lot of little moments. And I tell everyone that I was like sometimes you flip the coin one way, sometimes you flip it the other, but I promise that even though you're sitting in hard now, you will be so thankful for it. And if you're sitting in hard, I always say look around, because you're here to learn something.

Stefanie Couch:

Absolutely Some of my worst moments in my life, my career, have actually ended up preparing me or either teaching me something that I absolutely had to have in the next step or down the road, and I didn't.

Stefanie Couch:

You it's hard to see that when you're in the muck like when you're in the muck, you're drowning and you feel like this is the worst day of your life. It really is hard to feel that way, but if you can look at it that way, and then another saying that I really love and this is one of my mentors a business mentor, alex Hermosi. I watch him a lot. On his content he says this it's no silver bullets, only golden BBs.

Kim Peffley:

And.

Stefanie Couch:

I think that you really think in your life like if I can just get this one thing, if I can just get to this, or, you know, as a speaker, as a business owner, if I can just speak here, if I can just get this contract, or if I can just get this title, but the truth is that it's almost never that moment. It's all the little things that go into that that then make you allowed to do well in that job, or it's all the little moments that will come after that that will get you to the next thing. Silver bullets don't exist, only golden BBs, and so I try to remember that. I also try to remember that to take pressure off of a situation, you know, if you have a, we'll use a speaking engagement, because people are terrified by those.

Stefanie Couch:

If you have something, an opportunity that you are actually out in front and you're not sure if you're ready, take it. Yes, take it, because if you don't, it might not come back again. But if you do and it's not perfect, it still will allow you to do the next one and the next one. And I think a lot of times people get so caught up in well, what if I don't do it perfectly. You won't yes correct Ever, you will not.

Kim Peffley:

Yeah, so guarantee that no one hit it off. You know, no one was perfect the first time.

Stefanie Couch:

And that's the cool part about life is that all you have to do is just try and take action, and you'll probably get some really good fruit from it. And if not you'll get a good lesson, yeah.

Kim Peffley:

I remember when I started doing speaking engagements and just even being asked, I was so like, oh my goodness, of course I'd be honored and it was. You know, I remember the very first room and it was like 20 people and I was like blown away. I was like I can't believe 20 people are in here. And then, you know, as they continue to grow, all of a sudden you're like, oh my goodness, this is, this is really something. And but I was like I would have never been able to do.

Kim Peffley:

You know, I got to be the general session for True Value a couple of years ago and it was really amazing. It was kind of the last thing on my, on my, on one of my bucket lists, but I said I would have never been able to do that had I not done this, this and this. And I think so many times that you forget is like even in the room where it was the 20 folks which I was blown away, there was five retailers in that room that I still continue to network with to this day and really care about their businesses. And every single time you put yourself out there, it's completely worth it, I say, if you're not stepping into the hard every single day, or trying something that makes you a little bit uncomfortable, then you're probably not growing, and so I just I continue to challenge myself in that way. Sometimes at the end of the day I'm like, ooh, you really stepped in the hard today, maybe one step back tomorrow, but it's worth it.

Stefanie Couch:

Let's figure that out for next week, give a little break, yeah. And you know, that's the thing is that I think we continue to do that because we know the fruit that comes from that if you do. But you also have to give yourself grace. So I love that. Well, you are an incredible woman. I want to know what gets you up in the morning, what's exciting to you right now that you're doing in your career and what's next for Kim, yeah.

Kim Peffley:

So thank you, and I think you are an amazing, amazing person as well and I'm so thankful for you and our friendship. Thank you, you know we. What gets me up in the morning is I love the people that I work with. I literally love them with like everything that I have, and so every single day I'm like let's go, let's get after this, and I can't wait to connect with them and talk with them and and see how they're doing. And you know, I just think if I can just continue to bring energy and bring positivity for them and help them and support them, I know they'll be successful and I want to see them live their dreams.

Kim Peffley:

And so I think what's next for me is to just continue to see how I can mentor others, and I really want to go back more now and touch base and thank more people, because I think that we don't go back enough to thank the people that have really had an impact. So I've been trying to kind of go and really just reach out to people. I'm writing more letters, I'm trying to be more reflective on my career, and then I think the big next push for me is just to really continue to find ways and eliminate roadblocks for future leaders, future women leaders, to get into this business and say what can I do today to ensure that five years from now, 10 years from now, that there's more and more people that are standing on those stages and collecting awards and leading stores and growing this industry? Because I truly believe that we're the future of it, and so that's my big next thing is eliminate the roadblocks and make it easy for women to be successful in the industry.

Stefanie Couch:

Well, you are a trailblazer and I have no doubt that you're going to be successful in that, and I hope I'm right there alongside you, just pushing together, so I love it Well thank you so much for joining me on the Grit Blueprint.

Kim Peffley:

It's been an amazing conversation and I'm not sure what trade show we'll see each other at again, but I know it will be soon, so thank you so much. Thank you. I'm incredibly honored to be here and it's just such an honor to know you as well too. Thank you for everything you're doing. You're really. You are really changing the direction for women in this industry and and everyone.

Stefanie Couch:

I believe so. Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. That's it for this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast. For more tools, training and industry content, make sure to subscribe here and follow me on LinkedIn and other social media platforms To find out more about how Grit Blueprint can help you grow your business. Check us out at our website, gritblueprintcom.

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