In this episode, Tony speaks with Levi Smith, the CEO & President of Franklin Building Supply, a standout independent LBM dealer. A full line lumberyard in Idaho, they generate over $300m in sales, with 750 people, 17 locations, including door shops and truss plants. What is your best story to effectively attract bright young talent to your company? A great story has three components: A cast of characters that everyone cares about The desire to accomplish something for someone else A challenging obstacle to overcome Great leaders and excellent problem solvers create some of the most straightforward solutions. Levi’s insight and teaching are excellent.

Hire Smarter with Tony Misura

Episode 25: Levi Smith, CEO & President of Franklin Building Supply

In this episode, Tony speaks with Craig Webb, the decades-long editor of ProSales Magazine and current President of Webb Analytics, about the importance of excellent communication and how to hone in on your skills. Craig is easily one of the best speakers and communicators in the building materials and construction supply industry.  Craig recommends we ask 3 simple questions: What combination of media selection is the best given the outcome objective? What is the clearest, simplest form for that message to be delivered effectively?  What is the best feedback loop to refine the message?  

Episode 24: Craig Webb, President of Webb Analytics

Are you interested in building a sustained business model that thrives whether you are there or not?   Are you facing scaling or turnover challenges?   Are you curious about what drives a building products business to sell for 6-8x EBITDA instead of 3x EBITDA?   This episode’s guest is one of the building industry’s top operators, Kendall Hoyd, CEO of the Sharpen Group. His track record includes taking a $5m business that was red on the profit line to $25m with double-digit profits. He was a C-level leader with Trussway, a $250m company achieving high returns, then moved on to Residential Design Services/Interior Logic Group, a subcontractor installing cabinets, countertops, and flooring. There he inherited $110m and grew it to $375m, with ownership evolving from founders to private equity to a publicly-traded structure.  

Episode 23: Kendall Hoyd, CEO of the Sharpen Group

The #1 differentiating factor of great companies is simply the quality of their people. The quality of leadership determines the quality of people. Top talent does not want to report to mediocre leaders. It's the primary motive for most candidates we place.    Our guest today is Mai-Tal Kennedy, Principal Consultant with Building Industry Partners’ Center of Excellence. Building Industry Partners (BIP), led by Matt Ogden, is an industry-focused private equity firm with a vision around people.   In this episode, Mai-Tal challenges traditional views on human capital and is generous with her insight providing the best methods to impact your team building.

Episode 22: Mai-Tal Kennedy, Principal Consultant at Building Industry Partners (BIP)

 In this episode, Thea Dudley teaches us her approach to establishing and maintaining a culture of accountability through the Art of Candor. Thea is respected in the industry as the credit and collections expert. Her career as a VP at Guardian Building Products and SRS Distribution pivoted to her consulting service, Thea Dudley LLC, where she guides the building industry on credit and collections practices and team building.  Listen to her engaging and hard-hitting approach as she educates us on the best way to reach our stretch goals around the following areas:  How does a professional develop the Art of Candor?  How can you grow the sales and profits of a business through the Credit Department?   What are the best steps to be an emboldened industry leader?   

Episode 21: Thea Dudley, Credit Overlord

Our guest today is Stuart Kliman, Partner and Head of the newly formed Center of Excellence at Building Industry Partners.  Stu’s previous experience with the Harvard Negotiation Project (think tank behind the book – Getting to Yes) and as a founding partner of Vantage Partners, a management consulting firm, has made him an expert at helping not only companies improve their performance but assisting industries to collaborate and grow together. In this episode, Stu provides insight into the following questions: What does it mean to be a leader? What are the distinct traits of good leaders? What single trait can be used to further vet for outstanding leaders?

Episode 20: Stuart Kliman, Partner at Building Industry Partners

Our guest today is Mike Wisnefski, the Co-Founder of MaterialsXchange. Mike is shaking up the LBM purchasing supply chain with a low-cost, real-time e-trading platform for the 2x dimensional lumber and 4x8 plywood and OSB markets. Anyone can access Gold, Silver, and Palladium trades in real-time, and whether you are buying $1,000 or $1,000,000 - everyone has equal access to the market. MaterialsXchange's vision is that buying and selling lumber should be no different.

Episode 19: Mike Wisnefski, Co-Founder & CEO of MaterialsXchange

In this episode, we are joined by Gary Poulos, President of Mill Creek Lumber, a $250m LBM, Truss, and Millwork dealer serving the Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Wichita markets. Despite the issues everyone in our industry is facing with accelerated material pricing and availability, Mill Creek is aggressively growing with booming sales to keep up with demand while retaining its top talent. Gary answers a few tough questions: What is your view on the current supply and demand challenges in our industry? What are the steps you have taken as a leader to gain a competitive edge? What does the future hold for our industry around the enormous inflation and supply chain challenges everyone is facing? 

Episode 18: Gary Poulos, President of Mill Creek Lumber

In this episode, Tony speaks with longtime friend and mentor, Dena Cordova-Jack, Senior Director of Leadership & Talent Development at Kodiak Building Partners. Kodiak has over 5000 people and nearly $2B in sales annually. Central to their mission is developing leaders and inspiring people to grow. With 5000 people, Dena and Kodiak are taking on many challenges facing multi-generational teams. What are the best practices defining, benchmarking, and feeding leadership development?  What are the ways to approach succession planning? What is the distinction between a leader in a developmental stage and a leader who is miscast? 

Episode 17: Dena Cordova-Jack, Sr Dir of Leadership & Talent Dev, Kodiak Building Partners

In this episode, Tony speaks with Dr. Robert Hogan, the founder of Hogan Assessments, the leading professional assessment tool in the world. Dr. Hogan, Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Past Professor of Psychology at Johns Hopkins University, Past Psychology Department Chair at the University of Tulsa, and author of several books, shares his wisdom on why companies struggle to make leadership hires.  Suppose we know the top 3 traits that predict great leaders. Why do companies continue to be so poor at hiring them? It is not whether the hiring leader thinks the candidate has the desired traits that matters, it’s based on the outcomes and facts of their personal and professional lives. Adding the right psychological testing to the process helps leaders understand the innate personality tendencies, flagging the key areas for questioning to determine if needed behavioral disciplines are entrenched. 

Episode 16: Dr. Robert Hogan, Founder of Hogan Assessments

In this episode, Tony is joined by Cybelle Lyon. Cybelle has a Ph.D. from Portland State University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has been doing leadership consulting for over 20 years. Cybelle delivers some crisp, precise answers around complex topics:    - What are the two most critical traits of transformational leaders?   - What are the top five most common areas of development for leaders?   - Are you struggling with effectively implementing humility?   We deliver the answers to these questions and outline how you can accelerate your development path.

Episode 15: Cybelle Lyon, Ph.D., Leadership Consultant

In this episode, Tony is joined by Kendall Hoyd, President at Residential Design Services, to discuss Hoshin Kanri. Kendall, previously the president of Idaho Truss and CFO of Trussway, has been effective at implementing Hoshin Kanri in multiple business models and cultures.  Hoshin Kanri is a methodology used in strategic planning that creates alignment and ensures that goals drive action across the entire organization. Listen on as Kendall shares 5 best practices as well as some common pitfalls that can be made while implementing this process in your organization. 

Episode 14: Kendall Hoyd, President at Residential Design Services

In this episode, Tony speaks with Kyle Little, COO of Sherwood Lumber, one of the largest privately-owned lumber distributors in the nation. 2020 has been a wild year and particularly explosive to the lumber market. Kyle has dedicated his life and profession to understanding the lumber commodity markets and has one message for everyone: the market volatility is here to stay for the next 5 years.

Episode 13: Kyle Little, COO of Sherwood Lumber

In this episode, our guest is Jim Robisch, Senior Partner at the Farnsworth Group. Jim has been a strategic consultant to the building materials industry for over 30 years, developing strategic plans for companies accelerating their growth through data and research, not anecdotal information.   We dive into a topic that comes up for Misura Group often – strategy. A truly great strategy is a dynamic force that pulls cultural engagement and P&L performance to the highest goals.

Episode 12: Jim Robisch, Senior Partner, the Farnsworth Group

In this follow-up episode on the colossal merger between Builders FirstSource and BMC, Tony meets up with his close friends and LBM dealer presidents, Gary Poulos and Russ Kathrein. Having first-hand experience with BFS and BMC, Gary and Russ deliver insights about what makes these companies unique, the opportunities ahead for the now $11B business, and how this event will permanently change how the manufacturers and lumber mills interact with the national production builders.

Episode 11: Gary Poulos & Russ Kathrein, building materials industry executive leaders

Tony Misura is the founder of Misura Group, an executive recruiting firm that focuses on the lumber and building materials industry. In each episode, Tony will chat with building materials industry leaders, swapping stories and sharing best practices on how to Hire Smarter and make better career decisions.

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Hire Smarter with Tony Misura

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