The Grit Blueprint

Building Better Brands Through Resilience: Lumber King | Sponsored by Do it Best

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Matt Spinks shares his journey from growing up in a family lumber business through the recession's hardships to becoming an award-winning young retailer at Lumber King in Danville, Kentucky. His story demonstrates how personal resilience and strategic innovation can transform traditional building supply businesses for modern consumers.

• Growing up in the lumber industry as the son of an 84 Lumber manager
• Experiencing the collapse of the family business during the 2008-2010 recession
• Developing a leadership philosophy that balances growth with stability
• Creating a work environment where employees feel valued rather than managed by fear
• Implementing a "Milwaukee Red Zone" strategy that increased inside sales from $10K to $350K
• Navigating generational differences in communication and buying preferences
• Leveraging strong brand partnerships to drive local store traffic
• Building a cohesive company culture within an employee-owned business model
• Finding purpose in continuously improving both personally and professionally
• Investing in self-development through education and industry resources

If you're ready to turn visibility into growth, head to gritblueprint.com to learn more and book a call to talk about your growth strategy.


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Matthew Spinks:

Generations today care so much about branding. As a millennial, I care about branding. If your brand is clean, it looks good and I know that it's gonna be reliable because everybody I'm watching is using your product I'm gonna be your loyal fan. Do it Best is one of those special companies. They're all about building your better brand. They are all about the success of others which creates success for everybody. It's kind of like an unsettling urgency that I want to be better than what we are. You were up here giving your presentation and, like my mind was going 100 mile an hour. It's not a selfish endeavor at all. I know a better version of me is ultimately going to be better for my company and those around me.

Stefanie Couch:

The feeling of being with people around you that are also really good at what they're doing and they're trying to get a lot better every day. I think if you find enough people that are like that and you can get the culture of that, it's pretty unstoppable. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast, the playbook for building unmistakable brands that grow, lead and last in the built world. I'm Stefanie Couch, the founder of Grit Blueprint, and I'm a lifelong building industry insider. I was raised here, built my career here, and now my team and I help others win here.

Stefanie Couch:

The truth is, you can be the best option in your space and still lose to someone else who simply shows up better and more consistently Each week. On the Grit Blueprint, I'm going to show you how to stand out, earn trust and turn your brand into a competitive advantage that lasts. If you're ready to be seen, known, chosen and become unmistakable, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Thank you for joining us today on the Grit Blueprint. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch. Today, my guest is Matt Spinks. He is the assistant manager of Lumber King in Danville, kentucky.

Stefanie Couch:

Yes ma'am, and you have been in this business a long time, which we're going to get into. But your story is really one of resilience and grit, which I obviously love because my company is called Grit Blueprint. So I think our industry is made one of resilience and grit, which I obviously love because my company is called Grit Blueprint. So I think our industry is made up of a lot of really awesome gritty people and I know you're one of them. You grew up in the hardware and lumber world and you have been watching your parents launch businesses in this space. Now you're in this space and you had some hard times closing one of the businesses in the recession, which was one of the hardest times any of us have ever been through, I think, in this industry. And I know at one point you were like I'm done with this industry, just kind of thought you're going to tap out. But now you're back and you are leading innovation.

Stefanie Couch:

This year at the Independent Home Improvement Conference, you are actually winning an award, so we're going to talk a little bit about that being honored as one of the young retailers of the year. So congratulations on that, thank you. And you have been also a 40 under 40 for another LBM Journal magazine and you are quite, quite the decorated person here. Tell me a little bit about your background. She grew up in the lumber and hardware industry. So did I. I don't know if your experiences was like mine, but I loved going there when I was a little girl. It's pretty cool. Tell me about growing up in a lumber yard and harvest store.

Matthew Spinks:

So I lived there when I was a kid, pretty much from birth. My dad had worked for numerous years for 84 Lumber, which is a huge company, but that's every kid's, every little boy's, I'll say magical playground. Yeah, every day it was my dad's responsibility to take me to daycare in the morning I'd cry and he would take me there and we'd color blueprints all day right.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, that's awesome.

Matthew Spinks:

It was honestly. It was a gateway for me to always think in my mind growing up that being a store manager of a lumberyard was always what I was going to do. I thought my dad was the best at what he did and, to be fair to his credit, he was very good. He is very good, but that's kind of what got me started in it. I mean, every day after school, mom would take us over there and let us talk to him. I was always friends with all the guys, all the workers, some of them actually, I help manage today. That's really cool, which is it's special.

Matthew Spinks:

It's a cool circle, for sure it is, and so that was kind of my childhood. But you know, around 07, my family kind of departed from Avery Ford Lumber and we started our own business, builders Choice, and actually was was a very successful business up front, I think. If it had been any other time than then, then getting ready to head into that recession, I think we probably would. It's probably still been open today. Yeah, I think there's a very distinct difference between being a very good store manager or being a very good business operator and running your business. There's a big learning curve there and there's a lot of things Exactly, there's a lot of things that you know other people take care of that you don't take care of, and then when you're trying to just stay afloat, that's something that you know. I had the displeasure of seeing my parents argue in tears every day there for a long time going through middle school, so that was seeing that and, of course, my family filing bankruptcy, you know, in 2009, officially closing in 2010.

Stefanie Couch:

The worst possible timing. Yeah, I mean, we lost everything. That sucks.

Matthew Spinks:

And, a matter of fact, we ended up the only thing we could get a hold of was we were renting from another builder of ours whose spec homes didn't sell. We had to rent out that spec home. That's what he had to do. And it was now which full circle, like, like you were talking, that subdivision where there were only three houses at which we were in one of them. Now there's probably 50 homes in that subdivision, so it is blooming again.

Matthew Spinks:

But yeah, you know, once we did that and we filed bankruptcy and Builder's Choice is no more, lumber King kind of came into the picture and that's that's where my dad has worked for the last, going on 16 years now 15, 16 years, yeah, and I went through high school. You know I was fortunate to still be able to play varsity football. I've got two state championship rings. You're just a winner. Yeah, I'm telling you, just a winner. But just something that was still special to be able to go to school where I was going to school and, to be honest with you looking back on it now, that was probably something my parents could afford, couldn't afford.

Matthew Spinks:

Yeah, and you know I've said this before to numerous people but I really admire my parents for what they did, taking that leap and having the courage to start their own business. A lot of people will never do that, even if they should they will make it so hard.

Stefanie Couch:

You know, I think I grew up in an entrepreneurial household my dad and then his dad, obviously but I was scared to death because of the recession same timing so I graduated college in 2007 and my dad kind of wanted to sell the business. You know, a few years later, and after that recession, I was like I don't, I didn't even think about buying it. I mean, I really now like I look back on it and I think why did I not just do it Like I had it in me? Obviously I've got my own business now. I also didn't have a lot of the skills I have because I went and worked somewhere else for 10 years, and I think it is one of the scariest, biggest leaps, because you can look totally stupid.

Stefanie Couch:

You are going to fail. You are going to fail. You might fail ultimately, where you can't come back from it, which is that story there. What are some of the things, though, that you watching that? As a younger person a middle schooler, high schooler what do you think about now in your day? That really came from that time, because I can only imagine the like, resistance and resilience that was built up in you to quitting to you know giving up. You can't give up. You have to keep going Like what did that teach you that you use today.

Matthew Spinks:

It taught me a lot of things but after eventually not realizing, because I grew up in this business and grew up wanting to pretty much be my dad, like a lot of kids do- right, yeah, sure, every one of us.

Matthew Spinks:

I didn't want to go into this industry because at the time I had a pretty bad hatred for it, but at the same time I had no clue on earth what I wanted to do with myself as far as college, anything like that. So I wound up going to a community college and worked my way into into Lumber King, and so what that's done for me today is as I've kind of gone through it and went through all the struggles of being 18 and 19, early 20s year old. And you know, every decision that you make you know is going to have a consequence, whether it's a it's or at least an impact, whether it's a good one or a bad one. And so it's not to me. I know a lot of people if they look at you, if they look at me, they kind of assume I take things a little too personal. But to be fair, in this business, in this industry, it has been nothing but personal for me, and so I know that at the end of the day somebody's payroll has to be paid If somebody, if somebody, wants a raise.

Matthew Spinks:

You know now you have to figure out how you're going to do more business to make up for that money you're spending, also not to be careless with my spending as far as what I bring into the store, what I order, as far as inventory. You know you don't want to have just an overt abundance of inventory dollars just sitting there when it's not making you money. Sure, like, you want to be very intentional about what you stock, what you sell, what you advertise, because, frankly, at least especially with Lumber King, it's an employee company, it's 100% employee, which is yeah, that is so, even though it's not my sole business to run, sure, you know, it's kind of like it still is.

Matthew Spinks:

It's my money, it's my co-workers money, it's my boss's money, and so you have. Unfortunately, everything does revolve around money to a certain extent, and you have to be.

Stefanie Couch:

That's what the point of business is to make a profit.

Matthew Spinks:

You want to make it and you don't want to lose it, and so if going through all that hard time taught me anything, is that growing is special, growing is fantastic, but if you grow too fast, too quick and you're kind of not, you don't have a, if you lack, like, a spatial awareness of what you're doing as you're growing, you could find yourself in a massive hole.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, because at some point the rocket ship is gonna start to break apart in the atmosphere and it can blow up right.

Stefanie Couch:

You gotta make sure to test it, and I think it is, especially with rapid growth, it is a good lesson to try to. Can we calm the storm a little bit so the ship doesn't break? You know, let's keep this thing whole but also push it as hard as it can. It's a really fine balance. How do you balance that hunger? Because I mean, I feel that very much when we talk, you're hungry personally. You're hungry for Lumber King to grow. You want things to be. You know, you want a state championship ring every day. Right, like that's how people like us operate. Right, we wake up and we want to win. How do you deal with that when not everyone, not everyone in the world feels that way, which is kind of incomprehensible to me? But how do you deal with that when people on your team people you know that you lead aren't necessarily as hungry think differently? Maybe you have to inspire them. How do you balance that?

Matthew Spinks:

It's a great question and and actually one that I do think about. I think about it a lot because you kind of encounter it every day. And so, um, you know, you see, you know, most of my childhood, most of my early days in my early career with Lumber King, has always been with my father being my superior. But as of the last seven or eight years, I've also dealt with other superiors that I had, and you get different management styles, and so I've always been a big supporter of not being afraid to be a copycat but also putting your own spin on it to make it work.

Matthew Spinks:

And so, number one, I feel like you have to be contagious in your attitude. Yeah, and you're not always going to have the best attitude, but you have to make sure that you're putting your people in a position to win, even when they don't feel like winning. They don't carry wins, and that's not always easy, sometimes it's not always pretty, but your employees are gonna understand the difference. I do feel this way. They're gonna understand the difference between being passionate and having a deeper care about what you're doing and them, rather than just being I'm the boss kind of attitude, I'm a dictator kind of attitude. I'm a dictator kind of attitude. You do it because I told you to, whether that's the right way or not.

Stefanie Couch:

You can lead with fear and make people do things because they're scared of you, but you cannot inspire greatness with fear.

Stefanie Couch:

You don't inspire greatness by yelling at people, by screaming about P&Ls and all these things. How do you inspire people that maybe are, you know, not thinking the same way as you don't have as much? You can't tell everybody everything that's happening in the business, right? Maybe they don't know all the things that are going on. How do you inspire the person, all the way from the cashier to the CEO, to be great, to continue to want to win?

Matthew Spinks:

Through conversations like this and through conferences like this, something that I've kind of adapted within myself is that you know, especially working for an employee-owned company, but you want to see everybody around you, whether it's your customers, your employers, your co-workers. You want everybody to be successful. If everybody can make a million dollars, wouldn't you want that? Yeah, and so, even though that might be unrealistic at the same time, that is then with my president that I just that conversation I just had the other day was you know, my main goal is to make sure that everybody can be as successful as possible. Yeah, and whether that's me doing my own research on whether it's products, trends, going back to school, gaining another degree, there's a certain level, at least as a leader and a manager, there's a certain level of sacrifice that you have to do.

Matthew Spinks:

I think it is ultimately required to invest in yourself, to have more tools to put people in better positions, and so that's kind of the thing that I like to do to inspire people, because, to be honest with you, you really shouldn't lead by fear, because most people, most employees, if they have enough respect for you, if they respect you, they're not going to want to let you down, right?

Matthew Spinks:

No matter if they're making 10 cents an hour or 50 an hour. There's a certain level of personal connection there that they just don't wanna let you down, sure. And so I think if they know you have their best interest in mind, regardless of what happens, whether it's a level of trust or things you do for them outside of the normal realm of that relationship they're gonna have a conscience of they're going to have to do this the right way, and I know it may be hard to grasp sometimes, but that's just what I found in my short existence so far is that you know you have to the old saying you have to treat people the way you want to be treated, and I know it sounds generic, but you know when you're dealing with a different generation every day. That's what's what I found that works, at least for now.

Stefanie Couch:

I think, a lot about how communication is different for each person, but also generally generationally. There's a lot of communication style differences. We were talking earlier so you were in the session about branding and we were talking about visibility, and then we had a great conversation afterwards about how things are changing. Yet there are still so many different generations in our business that what has worked for a certain generation that's been running the business is still true. You know, like word of mouth business walking in the store, buying the thing, calling on a phone all those things are still true. However, searching on chat, gpt and TikTok are also true.

Stefanie Couch:

E-commerce is also important. How do you find the spot where you can get people to buy into these new ideas and understand that it is going to continue to be more important in our business to do things like optimize with AI to have e-commerce? Even if they don't buy the thing online, they still want to look at it online before they get to the store. What do you guys at Lumber King doing, and what are you personally doing to figure that out?

Matthew Spinks:

So it's funny, my wife she's an elementary school teacher and we often have a conversation about how education is changing rapidly. So when I was a kid in school, when she was as well, it was kind of one curriculum either you get it or you don't. Today, every kid has their own case file and it is incredibly personalized as far as how they learn and transferring that. I actually use hers a lot of inspiration, because if you transfer that over, every customer is different. Our industry, like we were talking about, is changing every single day, and so you have to be not only adaptable but you have to be really flexible in how you market your business, just how you interact with the public in general, and so when you have certain generations that have built their brand so there's no secret about it, we have a lot of older age, a lot of ancestry embedded in our company, and so those people who built the brand of Lumber King, they don't want to change what they've been doing.

Stefanie Couch:

They built that brand on what they did Well and it's worked for a long time.

Matthew Spinks:

It has.

Stefanie Couch:

I mean, and probably been extremely successful for a long time.

Matthew Spinks:

We've had some great successes, successful. We've had some great successes. Honestly, I know that I'm here this week for Young Retail of the Year, but there's been many of late. There's been many awards that have found its way to our campus. The business we are growing I think a lot of it has been the newer generations circulating in but, like every business goes through, we're going through massive growing pains right now.

Stefanie Couch:

It is so hard to grow. Yeah, I don't think people understand what when you you say everybody says they want to have exponential growth, or like let's 10 X this thing, and that seems really fun on like a book cover or on an instagram reel or something, where you're all pumped up and it's kind of like 300 where you're ready to run into war.

Matthew Spinks:

um, but holy crap, it's hard to be honest, I don't know and this sounds really cold to say it like this but you really don't know. As far as a corporation, you don't know who's going to make it through and who's not. Yeah, because, frankly, with our industry and the way it is changing and growing so much with age, that business is gonna outgrow some people. If you're not willing to change with it, the company at some point, whatever it may be, whatever industry it is, they're not gonna have really much of a choice but to move on from you if you're not willing to grow and adapt.

Stefanie Couch:

It's easy to hide in a company that's relatively complacent and stagnant. Dave Ramsey talks a lot about, you know, complacency, because he's a huge, you know coach business. All these things he's done have been kind of like crazy because no one else did them before him and he actually talked. I read a book recently that he wrote about being complacent himself and then he kind of had to re-engage and I think about this a lot. When we have customers at Grid Blueprint that are they're 70 year businesses, they're a hundred year businesses, they're maybe third, fourth generation, and if we say like we could grow this thing 10 or 20% this year, we'd have to do all this stuff. It's going to be really hard, it's going to be a lot of blood. It's going to be really hard. It's going to be a lot of blood, it's going to be sweat and tears. It's going to be late night hours, Like for them as an owner, if they're 60, 70, 80, you got to have something like really in you burning to want to do that to grow 10% or 20%.

Stefanie Couch:

Now there are a lot of people. I feel like I'll be a hundred, I'll be like what's the hardest thing, but I think it has to be something inside you. It's like a hole that you can't fill or you are doing it for a purpose. Yeah, purpose, especially since you guys are an ESOP. I love that, um, and I'm excited because I think that model could be like a huge savior for our business with some of the other ways that acquisitions are happening and things like that, because it keeps the heart and the purpose in the business. How does purpose drive you at Lumber King and your team? Because I think an ESOP has way more heart and I believe heart is the thing that will have you endure the pain that growth brings.

Matthew Spinks:

You're 100% right. The ESOP has kind of always been something close to me, not because it's just my own personal stock in how we do, but it's. You know, it's kind of like what we were talking about earlier with sports and state championship rings and stuff like that. But you always want to be, it's like always trying to find the better version of yourself. Yeah, um, it's not about, uh, owning 500 locations, it's not about grossing the most dollars ever, it's about being the best version of ourselves. And we're nowhere close to that. But that's what drives me and it's.

Matthew Spinks:

I've had a lot of conversations with some of our upper management that you know, like you were saying it's it's really hard if they're close to retirement or they feel like they've kind of made it right. They don't see the urgency, and that's what it really is. It's for me it's kind of like an unsettling urgency that I want to be better than what we are. Like I look and I see and I'm like there are so many things that we can do different than be better. You were up here giving your presentation and like my mind was going a hundred mile an hour and like I was, we were, we were talking earlier. You know you got to slow down for a second. You can't do every bit of it at once.

Matthew Spinks:

I think that's the biggest driver for me. Is is bit of it at once. I think that's the biggest driver for me. Is is just knowing that there are so many better versions of ourselves and myself personally that you can. That you can achieve and I think to a certain level that's pretty contagious is if you do it right. Some people they, they, they. They can be turned off by that and and like it's sometimes. I think it's misconstrued, misconstrued as as to whether or not you're you're being selfish or not, and it's. It's not a selfish endeavor at all. It's. You know, I know a better version of me is ultimately going to be better for my company and those around me, and that's, that's ultimately what I want.

Stefanie Couch:

But when you have the right team and you have a team of A players, we talk about it a lot at our team. We currently have about 10 people on our team and it's 10 pretty hungry people, you know, like we want to win and we want to do something. That's a category of one, like how do we be the best at what we're trying to do? And so when we think about that, it's like if you get the people that understand that that there's not much that you can't do together. I think that a talent it's hard to come by. It's getting harder in our industry because there's more competitive. You know, people pay more, people offer more.

Stefanie Couch:

But there's something about being on a team where, like you've been on the state championship team, I'm a little bit jealous I'm not going to lie, because all of my teams sucked everywhere I ever went to school team. I'm a little bit jealous, I'm not going to lie, because all of my teams sucked everywhere I ever went to school. However, I was in a super nerdy fun fact I was actually a classically trained singer and I was in a really, really great choir in college, so we were kind of like a national championship. I didn't get a ring, which I'm pretty pissed about. But it was the feeling of being with people around you that are also really good at what they're doing and they're trying to get a lot better every day and we would challenge ourselves with harder you know harder things, harder piece of music. And then, once I got to corporate, I felt that way and I feel that way now. If you're on a team of people, they're all pushing each other each day and then you go to like a boring let's just just check the box.

Stefanie Couch:

You can't get that out of your system like you can't turn that off, and so I think if you find enough people that are like that and you can get the culture of that in your, in your, you know surroundings, it's pretty unstoppable yeah, I agree, um, you know when?

Matthew Spinks:

so I've been with Lumber King right at 13 years. When I first started with them, it was a very the atmosphere and I don't know that they would mind me saying this because I think they a lot of people would agree the atmosphere was very. Each location was their own and, like it was, nobody worked together.

Stefanie Couch:

There was no communication.

Matthew Spinks:

And over the years and that's been something that I've wanted to change more than anything and I think for the most part we have, yeah Is to be more cohesive as a company.

Matthew Spinks:

And you know, one thing that I would love to see us get better at is our continuity from our corporate office to our store levels and to have a main goal, like at the top of the pyramid that you're trying to reach.

Matthew Spinks:

Yeah, um, so that you know, when you're an employee on company, everybody from it I don't care if you, um, even taking the lumber building material, uh aspect out of it, I don't care if you wash dishes or if you're a cook or if you're if you're the restaurant owner everybody's working towards one goal, a hundred percent. And so if, if you have people that are both hungry to reach that goal and they all want to get better, knowing that they, if they get better, they reach that goal, I think that everybody's better because of it. They have better attitudes, the morale is better. Ideally, you know the money will be better at some point, right? I mean, that's what we all want is to be more successful, and so that's what I love, frankly, about this industry as a whole right now, because you come to conferences like this and anybody outside of your next door neighbor that you're competing with, everybody cares about how well everybody else is doing yeah.

Stefanie Couch:

It is a very friendly even. You know, like you were just talking to someone who's in the same state as you. I don't know if y'all compete against each other or not, but it's. Everybody wants everybody else to get better because collectively, if our industry is stronger, it is better for everyone, I believe, correct. I think that the point of you know where we're at in our industry is kind of a breaking point with the technology piece.

Stefanie Couch:

I don't think people admit that as much as possible. I know it's coming. It'll be slower to come here than everywhere else in the world, but AI is not going to slow down. Also, the generational changes if you take AI out of the mix, totally just the fact that we have a generation that will be fully retired, probably in the next 10 to 15 years, and they're the, the patriarchs and the matriarchs of our industry, the people who are running everything and have been for 40 years that should be scary and exciting to people.

Stefanie Couch:

And if it's scary, it's because you're hopefully not. You know you're not totally head in the sand, but you're probably not as concerned as you should be. And if it's exciting, it's because there's so many cool new things that can happen, not only with the next generation of workers, but the next generation of people who are buying from your company. So I'm curious you talked about you know we were talking about branding and all those things and you said your brain was what inspired you, like you were thinking that's a good idea, or I should think about that, or where, because I always like to know what it is.

Matthew Spinks:

So this conversation, to a certain extent, has been a common one over the last few years for me, when you have board members and executives all talking about, well, we have to hit this number, we have to meet this certain goal of a sales as a company by this date, or whatever the goal is of a sales as a company by this date or whatever.

Matthew Spinks:

The goal is, how do we get there without growing more stores? Sure, Right, and here's the thing you know today, when generations today care so much about branding, as a millennial, I care about branding Like if your brand is clean, it looks good and I know that to a certain extent it's going to be reliable because everybody I'm watching is using your product, I'm going to be your loyal fan. That's been the huge thing with just Milwaukee at that point and Diablo and a few other brands, Yellowwood being a massive one. All of these companies have massive advertising and following that, all you have to do is advertise that you have them and you're piggybacking off of their they're doing all the work for us, you absolutely are.

Matthew Spinks:

They are and all you have to do is say, hey, world, we have this and and do a good job to advertise and you can't. You got to do pretty well with I mean you don't, you don't want to just like throw it on the shelf, just have it there. But as long as you actively promote it and work it, people are going to come to wherever that is. I mean, yellowwood has some of the funniest commercials and they're everywhere between the Super Bowl, nascar, christmas, whatever it is, we're both Southern, so I know you'll love this.

Stefanie Couch:

But Jimmy Raines obviously was one of the first people that I ever saw do branding in our industry and he was CEO and owner of, you know, yellow wood of great Southern wood preserving. And I remember when I was a little girl, you know he did the Western videos I don't know if you remember this where he's riding the horse and he's got like a banana yellow chaps on and everything and they've obviously quit using those. You got to look it up.

Stefanie Couch:

I remember that was the first time I ever saw someone do something cool and weird and crazy in this industry and my dad thought he was nuts and he was nuts and everybody loved it. And so 25 years later, however long I think it was in the like 95 and he still is there figuring out. You know it's other people obviously now, but I was in one of my customers in Georgia, a lumber yard, one of my customers in Georgia Lumberyard, and they have a great Southern wood, yellow wood container and I thought you know they made pressure treated lumber, which is the plainest, most boring thing, cool and branded, where you look for a color tag and you see something much like a pink hat and you know what it is right and that matters to people and they remember it, whether they subconsciously or consciously know. But like, for instance, they have a box that they have right now that says what in tarnation?

Stefanie Couch:

Who uses the word tarnation? Well, we do, because we're Southerners. We know what that was. I saw that and I was like you know what that's hilarious and it was at that customer's and it was in the floor and it had KDAT wood and it said what in tarnation? And I thought that's different. It's funny. People that are Southern contractors get that that probably wouldn't fly in California. I don't know if they would know what the heck that even means. Do you say tarnation in California?

Matthew Spinks:

Probably not. I think it depends on what part of California you go to.

Stefanie Couch:

But that's the thing is, they understand their market and they're willing to go out and they're willing to do something that might not work, that people might talk about them for but what if they talk about you because you're the coolest, most memorable thing?

Matthew Spinks:

I have people that come in our store and they they want yellow wood because they believe it's the best. Frankly, it's the same treatment for the most part as anybody else's. Now they may buy better wood, you know. If you want to get down to specifics, but the patent has probably run out now.

Matthew Spinks:

I mean you have to. I mean it's like a mandated code that you have to keep for wood, and so they want yellow wood. And so the funniest thing for me that I always pick up on, and it's so small but my OCD brain picks it up but when they have the piece of wood on the commercial and they go to staple the tag on it, the stapler is pointed the opposite direction from the staples when it goes in. And I'm always, I always remember that I'm like yellow wood. That's it before I ever even carried it and Milwaukee is another you know, you have a red zone in your store.

Stefanie Couch:

Tell me a little bit about the red zone.

Matthew Spinks:

So the red zone was actually I can't take all the credit for it because there is a company in Columbus, ohio, called Ohio Power Tool that started as a small mom and pop store that became, through revolutionizing, became one of the at the time one of the biggest online retailers for power tools, and it was that's kind of what sparked it, and so they had red floors and all that. And so what I did was I was like, hey, nobody around here carries Milwaukee, nobody carries Diablo, and it's got this huge following and I'm like we need this, everybody wants it. They're traveling Lord knows how many miles to go get it. Thankfully, through some vulnerability, through some personnel changes, I was actually able to have the leeway to implement that.

Matthew Spinks:

And so, just judging off of the thousands of dollars I had spent personally on those power tools, I built it piece by piece and ran off of promos with Do it Best or Milwaukee Direct, and that has been a huge winner for us because we tapped into a niche that was not tapped into and since then has everybody. You look around the corner and everybody's got Milwaukee now, but you still have to line up and put your pads on and play football, yeah, 100%.

Matthew Spinks:

And so we still have people that come from across the state that have heard Lumber King Dam was the place to come by Milwaukee.

Stefanie Couch:

That's super cool.

Matthew Spinks:

And that's not our bread and butter only, but it has certainly been what we've been known for here lately. That's cool. I can remember looking at our P&L statements for the year and, although this is not what our store grossed, our inside sales only tapped out at like a little over $10,000 in 2021. Then you take, whenever I was able to kind of do, the Milwaukee and the Diablo and it went from half a year, so from 21 at $10,000, 22, only partial a year. With Milwaukee we were already over 70,000. In the last two years we've been considerably over 350,000.

Matthew Spinks:

Wow, that's amazing, and you know our store is an old fucking transfer station, built in the 50s, that does not scream hey, come shop here millennials. And so that comment's been made a lot, but you know you still, if you line up, you do it right and you have the right goal in mind.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah.

Matthew Spinks:

We found a lot of success for it to where uh all of our stores in our company now carry uh they. They stock Milwaukee and as a company the last two years we've been right around a million dollars in Milwaukee as far as sales, red zones, making you a lot of green. Yeah, I love it, I want to end with two last questions.

Stefanie Couch:

So tell me a little bit about being a Do it Best store. Talk to me about why you love being a Do it Best partner and what that is for your business.

Matthew Spinks:

Do it Best.

Matthew Spinks:

As my career has progressed, my relationship with them has gotten a lot closer, and Do it Best is one of those special companies and I do say special because every person that I've talked to that has been employed at that company has been nothing but outstandingly nice, like they're overwhelmingly pushy to help you and I say pushy and maybe that's not the right word, but they're all about building your better brand, and rightfully so.

Matthew Spinks:

The better you are, the better they are, sure, but they're all about the success of others, which creates success for everybody, and so everybody from my rep, drew Banyas he's been one of the best coaches and mentors that I could have ever asked for. We really connect on our ideals and things and we've had some similar paths. That's awesome, and so it's nice that way, all up to the academies and the trainings that they provide by bringing individuals like yourself and Bradley Hartman and just giving you the best opportunities they can for you to learn and be better stewards of our industry, and that's you know, all in all I mean, and you can take the specifics of what it means to be a Do it Best member as your own company, but just, there's not really a whole lot like them out there.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, they're great and I think they're always trying to push to make sure. Like you said, what do you need to make your brand better? Because, hey, if our customers win, you win and your customers win, it's all good, it all comes back right in the wash.

Stefanie Couch:

That's for sure, all right. Well, last question is you are award winning retailer of the year this year, so congratulations on that. If you were starting out in the business and you were going to tell someone who was a young retailer some advice, what one piece of advice would you give them?

Matthew Spinks:

The one piece of advice that I would that I actually I do give a lot is actually don't be afraid to invest in yourself. Take the experience along with with invest in higher education and that doesn't mean automatically going to college or doing anything like that, but invest in the resources that the NHPA offer you. Invest in buying products on your own money, in your own time, researching YouTube. Those are all things that I did, but, depending on who you ask, everybody's got different opinions. You know, depending on who you ask, everybody's got different opinions.

Matthew Spinks:

But in my opinion, in order to be a great young retailer, a great merchant in our industry today, you really do need both the experience and the education, and you need to mix both worlds, because there are a lot of old timers out there that can give you fantastic advice, but there's also things that they don't know that are changing, yeah, and so you can become the best of both worlds, as long as you're able to adapt. And to boil it all down, the main thing I tell them is invest in yourself to make yourself more marketable for companies that are going to hire you. Yeah, you know, not everybody is going to. You know, at least up to my point be a be a lifer or a 10 year person in a company. But you know there are companies out there looking for people because nobody's beating the doors down to get into this industry.

Stefanie Couch:

They don't realize how much opportunity is out there. I think that's a great point to say that, basically, you are a brand yourself and the more you can invest in it and the more you can do. There's no returns that are greater than the return on investment in yourself. And the more you can invest in it and the more you can do, there's no returns that are greater than the return on investment in yourself. That's right.

Stefanie Couch:

Because you'll put everything into you know anything else, any other channel, and you get 100% of the payback that you put into yourself and your own development. So I love that answer. I think it's very, very smart. So I have enjoyed talking to you. I think we probably could have done like an eight hour podcast. So I really appreciate it and congratulations on all your success. I know you're going to be wildly successful as you continue to grow. I'm excited to continue, hopefully, to collaborate and follow your story. So thank you so much for being on the Grit Blueprint and have a great time in Orlando.

Matthew Spinks:

Thank you for having me. I'd love to be back again this is a blast, awesome, thank you.

Stefanie Couch:

Thank you for listening to the Grit Blueprint podcast. If this episode helped you think a little differently about how to show up, share it with someone in your building world who needs it. If you're ready to turn visibility into growth, then head to gritblueprintcom to learn more and book a call to talk to us about your growth strategy. Until next time, stay unmistakable.

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Stefanie Couch

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