The Real Reason Customers Buy Again with Michael Tull, CEO of Tull Sales

Windows and doors are hard, and that’s exactly why they matter. In this episode, I sit down with industry veteran Michael Tull to break down why deep product knowledge, jobsite experience, and real relationships still win in a market full of shortcuts. We talk about how mastering installation details protects margin, builds trust, and turns salespeople into long-term partners instead of order takers. If you want to sell higher-value products, reduce callbacks, and stay relevant as doors get bigger and jobs get riskier, this conversation delivers the playbook.

Topics we covered:
• What a Manufacturer’s Rep actually does
• Two-step distribution and value add
• Diagnosing install vs product issues on site
• Handling price objections with apples-to-apples
• Moving from vendor to trusted advisor for your clients

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👉 About Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint

I'm Stefanie Couch, the founder of Grit Blueprint. I grew up in a third-generation building supply business. I've worked inside dealers, distributors, and manufacturers. I built Grit Blueprint to solve problems I saw in our industry.

Grit Blueprint is a visibility, media, and growth partner for manufacturers, distributors, dealers, service providers, and leaders in the building industry.
We help you get seen, build trust, and become unmistakable.

Transcript

Doing It Right Beats Speed

Michael Tull 0:00

In order to know the door business, you've got to know where the door is used. You've got to know how to hang a door. Yesterday I was out on a job teaching three new builders how to properly install the door. I had to slow them down and say it's not about speed, it's about doing it right.

Stefanie Couch 0:14

Windows and doors, I've always loved them because they're hard. People find them scary because they're difficult. If you get a window order or a door order wrong, it's expensive. So the stakes are higher, but also that means that you can make more margin, you can help people more on things that are scary for them.

Michael Tull 0:30

I think that's very important to understand your product and be able to go out to a job site, whether it be a homeowner or a contractor, and share with them what you actually see that's wrong and show them how to fix it. Okay, because then you become valuable to them and they're gonna buy from you again.

Stefanie Couch 0:46

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch. This is a spot where leaders talk about the stories, strategies, and systems that win in the building industry. We unpack how leaders and brands build their reputations and become unmistakable. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and today I'm coming to you live from Grit Studios in Clayton, Georgia, with my friend and colleague Michael Tull from Tull Sales. Welcome to the show.

Michael Tull 1:21

Thank you very much.

Stefanie Couch 1:23

And you actually are also a neighbor because you live nearby in the sticks in Northeast Georgia, just like me. Tell me a little bit about where you're from.

Michael Tull 1:32

I live in Cleveland, Georgia. It's a beautiful small town in White County. It uh I went to college there a long time ago, and I decided I had to move back up there. I had so many friends all across the whole county, and everywhere I go, I know somebody, and the the small town atmosphere is just wonderful.

Stefanie Couch 1:50

Well, and we actually have a lot in common, but we did not know each other until maybe what about a year ago? A lot of friends in common, a lot of loves in common, including the door business, which I don't know if I've ever met anyone that likes doors and loves doors as much as me until I met you. I'm pretty sure you might have more years of loving it for sure. But you've been in the door business a long time, and we have some customers in common, and you live in the place where I grew up in Cleveland. So pretty cool that we have so much in common. We may be twins. You just you need a hat, that's all you gotta have, and then we'll be twins.

Michael Tull 2:22

You know, I started in the door business when I was 17, and I'm close to fifty uh 72 now, but um and it's been the most wonderful business meeting people like you who have the same passion for doors that makes your whole life complete.

What A Manufacturer’s Rep Does

Stefanie Couch 2:36

Yeah. And it's fun because you just think about doors are one thing, but it's on every single house that gets built. You've got interior and exterior doors, got windows on every house. So no matter what kind of house you're building, whether it's big, small, a hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars, you gotta have a front door. So I'm excited to talk a little bit today about the business that we both love and just about the industry. I want to kind of go back to what you've seen in your career. You are actually a manufacturer's rep. So you and your dad had a business. You've done a lot of different things in the business, but you actually sell product to distribution, which is where I used to work to two-step distributors, and then you help them go out into the market and help sell that to dealers through the product that you're selling. So tell me a little bit about the manufacturer's rep business because I've actually never interviewed a manufacturer's rep on this show before. So for those who may not know what that means or what that is, tell me a little more about that.

Michael Tull 3:34

Well, I represent six different companies. Each one is an independent standalone business, and I try to keep the product lines related to the door business. Okay. For example, I sell weather strip, door sweeps, door panels, door hardware, and all of it can go to the same customer base, but comes from different manufacturers, depending on what their specialty is.

Stefanie Couch 3:57

Okay. And what is the difference between, you know, a manufacturer's rep and someone who works for the manufacturer just directly for them? Like what's the difference and why do one versus the other?

Michael Tull 4:10

Well, let's be real honest. It's about income. Okay. And a manufacturer's rep is going to be up earlier than a company person and stay later. Okay. Because without sales, you don't have any revenue.

Stefanie Couch 4:22

Yeah. Sales solves all sins and it also pays the bills pretty good when you're by yourself like we are trying to make it happen. You got to get up early, right?

Michael Tull 4:30

It certainly does. And you learn to depend on your customers, they become your best friends. And you you try to share with them everything that you're doing with their with the product line to help them grow their business because it makes your business grow.

Relationships As A Sales Advantage

Stefanie Couch 4:44

Yeah. We were actually introduced to each other through a mutual friend and customer of ours who I used to work with at another place. You sell them stuff, have have sold them for years. And talking about relationships, it is really interesting. Everybody says this is a relationship business. And no matter what happens with tech or AI or all these things, I still believe it's going to be that way. Now, we might do relationships a little differently, like you probably text people now. You probably didn't do that 20, 30 years ago, but it's still about who you know and how you build those relationships. You are a really great relationship builder. I've seen that, I've witnessed it myself. Tell me a little bit about how you build relationships with people, because I think a lot of people struggle with that, especially maybe the next generation that's trying to figure out how to do so.

Michael Tull 5:32

Well, when I have a new customer, I try to find out what their interest might be. Whether it be hunting, fishing, sports, whatever. And I might not have the same interest, but I'm still going to share with them. And like I said, I try to turn my customers into my best friends.

Stefanie Couch 5:45

Yeah. What happens when you have someone that maybe is not your best friend as a customer? I'm curious your approach on that, where you like them okay, but they're not your best buddy. What do you do then?

Michael Tull 5:56

I have people that work with me, then I might turn them over to them.

Stefanie Couch 5:59

Okay. That's smart. But you know, I think that's the thing. Um, actually, Ben and I have had that happen. There's some customers that uh I'm gonna use a really super country term. We don't, we don't jive, we don't, you know, we just don't get on with each other, like not the best fit. And then they love him, and so I'm like, here you go, hon. This one's perfect relationship for you. And there's nothing wrong with that because I'm very different than him, so they may not like me, but they love him, and that's that's a good thing about having a team.

Michael Tull 6:28

Absolutely. Some of the people that work with me, I can pass off a customer that gets along with them perfectly where I might have a different opinion.

How Two-Step Distribution Works

Stefanie Couch 6:37

Yeah, absolutely. So when you're talking about you're building a business as a manufacturer's rep, you've got six different lines and you're out there, but they all correlate with each other, which I love that you've done that because I do know a lot of manufacturers' reps sometimes sell things on all different product lines. So it makes it a little harder. What is the customer base that you're selling to? So just to explain to people who maybe don't know, you're selling to who, and then what is their end user?

Michael Tull 7:02

Well, like with fiberglass doors that I sell, we sell those to two-step distribution, which means they're gonna buy by the truckload from me. Yep. They got to bring it into their shop, add value. They they more for the lock, prepare for the hinges, put it in a frame, make it into a door unit. That can go two different ways. It can go to a dealer who's gonna add more value and sell it to a builder with a window package, perhaps, or it could go straight to a production builder, okay, who buys by the truckload door units, um multifamily type operation.

Stefanie Couch 7:34

Yeah. And for those that don't know two-step distribution, that's where I kind of cut my teeth after I left my dad's lumber yard. Um, they buy a lot of different things from you guys. That but the Plas Pro plant, which I was actually at last week with you, it is such a huge operation, a million square feet of new building, and then you guys have what 275,000 square feet of old building that's been there for a long time, making doors every day in Ohio in the U.S.

Michael Tull 8:01

That's correct. We have probably about 125 employees there, and we can make probably over a million doors a year, 100,000 doors per month at that plant.

Stefanie Couch 8:10

That plant is um very automated. So I've been through a lot of manufacturing plants. Some are pretty automated and have a few people at certain machines. Some, I mean, they have people everywhere. This plant is probably the most automated door print plant I've ever been in. Was that something very intentional from the get-go, or did y'all iterate that as you went?

Inside An Automated Door Plant

Michael Tull 8:30

Well, when we first put together the plan to build a plant in America, we we we're located in Ashtabula County, Ohio, because that's one of the hotbeds for fiberglass production. In fact, I think it's the number one uh county in the United States for fiberglass products that are manufactured there. Anyhow, we knew that we had to make a plant that was automated. Okay, labor has gotten harder and harder to get. So we designed our plant to have three different assembly lines. One that would make a door about every 20 seconds, a second one that makes a door about every 45 seconds to per minute. And to do that, you got to have automation and you want to make the same product over and over so that they're all A-grade and you're not creating any waste.

Stefanie Couch 9:16

And you guys also have a really nice pre-finish line so you can actually pre-finish. One of the things that uh I think about a lot is as labor does get harder to find, the pro contractor is gonna have a lot more say over what they do in the field. And it's gonna be harder to get a contractor to come to your house to paint one door if you're just installing one door, if the painter has to come just to do that door. So buying a pre-finished door where they can come and install it, it's done, it's already painted or stained. That's a huge value add for the contractor because they don't have to do it and they're still making margin on it. For the homeowner, they get a five-year warranty. I think that's one of the biggest opportunities in the door market right now that I don't see a lot of dealers and distributors really taking advantage of the pre-finished opportunity. What do you think about that? And how can we get more people to see that as an advantage on the contractor side as well?

The Case For Prefinished Doors

Michael Tull 10:09

Well, with the pre-finish, I've I've been fairly successful with it in the Southeast market. Most of it has gone into multifamily. Um, if you think about it, a a door gets hung on the job, it requires a prime coat and two top coats. That's three trips to a job for one door.

Stefanie Couch 10:25

Yeah.

Michael Tull 10:26

We can do all that in our factory in one pass, and it comes out, like you said, with a five-year warranty on a finish that's super tough and it's gonna last.

Stefanie Couch 10:34

And not to mention, if you're here in Georgia today where it's gonna get like what, eight degrees tomorrow, uh, you're not painting a door in eight degrees because that's not ever gonna finish up the right way. So you might not even be able to do that right now. You might have to wait. Um, and then unfortunately, a lot of people just don't finish their doors and then they have warranty issues. So if you're watching this and you're not sure, you should finish all six sides of your door immediately when you get it.

Michael Tull 11:00

Very true.

Stefanie Couch 11:02

You can pay me for that little endorsement later of warranty people. But at the end of the day, I think it's a really big opportunity. So if you're a dealer, a distributor, and you're trying to figure out how to make more margin, how to sell more high-end products, pre-finish is a great opportunity that also does really add a lot of value to the end user, the homeowner or the contractor as well. So I love that you guys are doing that. And you can paint any color.

Michael Tull 11:24

So if I want hot pink like my chair, you give me your color, we match it up and give you a sample first, and then you approve it, and then we paint it that color.

Stefanie Couch 11:33

Well, you already know that my color is going to be hot pink. There's no question really.

Michael Tull 11:36

No question about that, Stefanie.

Stefanie Couch 11:38

I do ask every manufacturer I go to, can you do hot pink? And sometimes they say no, and it's very disappointing.

Michael Tull 11:44

It's a shame on them.

Training The Next Generation

Stefanie Couch 11:46

Well, I'm excited to talk to you a little bit more about the future of where you think the industry's going. And I would like to just get some of your hot takes. So a lot of people are worried about we have a lot of people in this industry that are older, they've been in it a long time. I mean, both of us are old timers now. I've been in it over 30 years, uh, selling lumber since I was six. And I think about that a lot. Like, how do you replicate the knowledge that it takes three decades of selling doors, windows, whatever you're selling in the building industry? How do you replicate that with the next generation?

Michael Tull 12:37

I'm not completely sure, but I do try to share with the younger people what my knowledge base, and I teach them that in order to know the door business, you've got to know where the door is used. You've got to know how to hang a door. You need to teach a builder how to install a door properly. Yesterday I was out on a job um teaching three new builders how to properly install the door. And I had to slow them down and say it's not about speed, it's about doing it right.

Installing Oversized And Pivot Doors

Stefanie Couch 13:04

Well, and you said that door was a 12080, so 12 feet wide by eight feet tall. That sucker is super heavy, very big to even be handling. That's a big door, and the doors keep getting bigger. I mean, when we when I was selling doors when I was at my dad's lumber yard, it was basically like a 3068 or maybe a door with side lights, maybe a double. There was no 12080 door. They didn't even really exist. But now they just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Michael Tull 13:30

Well, Stefanie, when we built our plant in Ohio, when I mentioned that we had two, three different lines, the automated line was for only for six foot eight because that was the majority of the doors.

Stefanie Couch 13:41

Yeah.

Michael Tull 13:41

Now probably 50% of all the doors we make in Ohio are eight foot tall.

Stefanie Couch 13:45

Yeah.

Michael Tull 13:45

And we have the ability to make a 10-foot one.

Stefanie Couch 13:48

In certain markets like Florida, I mean, they're all eight-foot doors pretty much. I mean, almost everything you see is 8-0.

Michael Tull 13:54

They certainly are. And and we see the 10-foot-tall doors come in and pivot doors, which are wider than three foot.

Stefanie Couch 14:00

Yeah, those are big. I mean, we're both going to IBS in the next month. I know pivot doors were huge last year at IBS, and then again, the wide 12, 16 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet tall, 12 feet tall. How do you teach someone to install a door like that?

Michael Tull 14:17

Well, I'll use yesterday as an example. There were three men, and um I they wanted to put the door together and stand it up, and I said, no, we need to put it together laying down on the floor until we have two of the panels in because it's gonna be too heavy. Because you got to keep the door frame square so that it's installed in the wall square. And then you got to have it plum and level so that the door will operate properly.

Stefanie Couch 14:40

So, okay, for non-door nerds, what does plum and level mean?

Michael Tull 14:44

Plum is straight up and down and level is like the floor. It's got to be flat. Okay, it can't have any humps in it.

Stefanie Couch 14:50

What happens if the floor's not level?

Michael Tull 14:52

You're not gonna close the door.

Stefanie Couch 14:53

Yeah.

Michael Tull 14:54

Okay.

Diagnosing Problems: Install Vs Product

Stefanie Couch 14:54

So that's the first step. You gotta have a level floor. You gotta make sure you do certain things to to make sure it's level before you even put it in. I actually had a a very, very nice house that was like a $12 million home that we were we were doing some work media-wise for this customer. And uh they were like, Hey, do you have these pictures? And I said, Yeah, sure. We, you know, send me these specific pictures of this door. I'm like, oh no, that's never good, you know. And they're like, Yeah, they're saying this is not right. Well, it turns out that the floor was not level when the door was installed. These these people just provided the door, they didn't install it, and um, they had to go back after the house was fully finished, sheetrocks done, everything's done, people are in the house and it just would not close right. It was binding, and it was a 12080. And so they had to take the full door out and take some concrete and sand it down and then reinstall that door because the the concrete was not level when it was installed.

Michael Tull 15:53

And you know, when when that happens, a lot of times the first thing, the first person who takes the blame is the door manufacturer. It's the door. My door won't open, my door won't lock, my door won't close properly. I've got air leaking around my door. Well, that's usually an installation problem.

Stefanie Couch 16:08

Yeah, and it especially like at the top, I've I've seen it a lot, and I know you have to, you know, the door won't close right. That's it's sagging. A lot of times it's something really simple, like let's put some two and a half inch screws in the top hinge, and it'll pull it back up and it'll fix the problem. But that's why people like you, I mean, you've we've seen a lot of stuff on jobs. We've seen a lot of stuff in you know, emails saying, hey, this is your door manufacturer being wrong. A lot of times it's not, and it's a simple solution. So people like you can train those little tricks of put a two and a half inch screw in the top, you know, hinge, see what happens, and maybe it fixes it.

Michael Tull 16:44

You know, one of my new best friends, I bought a laser level. So when I get out of my car and a contractor sees me walking up to his job, straight here, he says, What is that? And I said, It's a laser level.

Stefanie Couch 16:56

We're gonna tell if that wall is your worst nightmare, my friend.

Sales Training On The Jobsite

Michael Tull 16:59

We're gonna make sure your wall is plumb. Because if your wall is plum and my door's hung properly, we're not gonna have a problem.

Stefanie Couch 17:05

I went um out on a claim one time with one of my outside sales reps, and uh, we got out there and the door was, you know, binding or something. They're saying the war warp door or whatever it was, and they had installed it with no shims, of course, and with 18 penny finish nails. And it's like, guys, come on. Like that you and again, they knew right when the rep came out, they're like, if they know what they're doing, this is gonna be denied. And we showed it how to show them how to fix it. But one of the things you've told me a lot is that you actually help people fix it. So not that you're doing warranty repairs, but you tell them what the problem is and how to make it better, which I love.

Michael Tull 17:43

All right, I think that's very important to understand your product and be able to go out to a job site, whether it be a homeowner or a contractor, and share with them what you actually see that's wrong and show them how to fix it. Okay, because then you become valuable to them and they're gonna buy from you again.

Stefanie Couch 17:59

That's true. And if you have something that is a commodity product, which you know, there are differences between door brands, there are differences between window brands, but it's it's an item that a lot of people compete on price in some ways. That value of what you're talking about, that's how you keep business for years and years, which is what you've been able to do. If you had a new sales rep, if I was riding with you for the first time and I knew nothing about really anything, sales doors, what's that process look like of training me?

Why Exterior Doors Beat Commodity Play

Michael Tull 18:29

I've I've done that several times, Stefanie. I've hired people that I knew are gonna be good salespeople, but I had to take them to the job site. I literally take them to a house under construction and start talking about everything that has to happen in the construction process so that you understand the window and door openings have to be done correctly. It starts with the rough opening, and if you get the rough opening right and then get the door or the window installed right, you're never gonna have a callback. And I try to explain that to salespeople that you want to become your customer's best friend and be able to talk the language, talk the talk with the contractor, and uh and you should actually be better than the contractor. The contractor's got a lot of responsibilities from the foundation through to closing the house.

Stefanie Couch 19:13

So true.

Michael Tull 19:13

He or she might not pay as much attention to the detail as you will because you're the door expert.

Stefanie Couch 19:18

Absolutely. And that's the thing about niching down. I really I've gotten, I mean, listen, I do a lot of stuff with different people and I love all building products, but windows and doors, I've always loved them because they're hard. They're difficult. And people find them scary because they're difficult. If you get a window order or a door order wrong, it's expensive. It's not like a bundle of two before studs that get ordered at eight foot instead of nine foot pre-cuts, and you just pick them up and resell them again the next day. It's not like that at all. So the stakes are higher, but also that means that you can make more margin, you can help people more on things that are scary for them. And again, every single house has to have windows and doors in it. So I've loved that part of the business. But for people that do shy away from it because of that, do you think exterior doors is a good place to start if you're gonna try to learn that specialty millwork category? Because you've you've sold windows, you've sold doors, you've sold it all. What do you think is a good starting point for somebody like if they're going to try to dip their toe in the water?

Michael Tull 20:17

Well, exterior doors are a great place to start versus interior doors. Interior doors are more of a commodity and they're sold on price.

Stefanie Couch 20:23

Yeah.

Building A Business From Scratch

Michael Tull 20:24

Exterior doors today, we have a lot of opaque doors and glass doors, and we can cross all the spectrums from quality starting, you know, at a low end own up to the finer homes are going to have a lot of doors in them, a lot of exterior doors, particularly. You it's not unusual in a fine home to see eight or ten exterior doors.

Stefanie Couch 20:44

Yeah. The average when I was selling doors at distribution, I think was like three per home, but that's average in the U.S. Like a lot of the houses you're selling, like you said, eight to ten doors, and they might be ten to twenty thousand dollars sometimes or maybe more than that. Some of these big, huge doors are way more expensive than that. So the margin is huge on what you could make on one job.

Michael Tull 21:04

It absolutely is.

Stefanie Couch 21:06

And we like that.

Michael Tull 21:07

Yes, we do.

Stefanie Couch 21:09

Well, I want to ask you a little bit about building a business from scratch because we're both entrepreneurs. We both grew up in entrepreneurial houses, and we've talked a lot over our some of our time together. We traveled together a little bit about how fun it is and how difficult it is. What advice or what thoughts would you have for someone like me that's only three years into the business on how to endure, what to do, maybe some lessons you wish you had known before?

Michael Tull 21:37

Well, like I said early on in this conversation, you got to be willing to get up early and stay late. As an entrepreneur, your your job is just never done.

Pricing, Value, And Objections

Stefanie Couch 21:47

Yeah, and empires are built before dawn is a saying that I like to uh to think about because while people are doing whatever they're doing on the weekends or or in the early mornings, if you're out lead generating or whatever on LinkedIn or you're sending emails or you're catching up, it's gonna make you eventually more successful because you're putting in that extra time. So I think you have to be willing to just go way harder than you would be if you're collecting a paycheck.

Michael Tull 22:13

Well, one thing when you're building a business, like just used to the the door just. Distribution business is an example. You go in, you make a relationship with your customer, get them comfortable buying your product, you service them really well. I have a saying that I've always used it's show and tell, watch it sell. If you don't, it won't. So if I leave something in my car and don't take it in on a sales call, that means I'm not gonna push that product.

Stefanie Couch 22:37

Yeah.

Michael Tull 22:38

Okay, so I always am conscious about why am I going in to see someone? What am I gonna talk to them about? What is my goal to leave that place with? Is it gonna be an order? Or I also like to use the term keeping it sold. Okay, so I the way you keep things sold is you do what you say you're going to do. And if your manufacturing company is behind, you call your customer and tell them we're behind. If you're if you got a particular week where you can jump ahead, you're gonna call them and say, encourage I would encourage you to do this this week because we have an advantage right now.

From Wood To Steel To Fiberglass

Stefanie Couch 23:12

Yeah, that's really the communication part of it and having hard conversations up front before they call you is huge advice. I mean, that's a really great point right there because it's gonna go bad, way worse if you don't bring it up. Like if the band-aid's gonna get ripped off, you might as well just rip it off either way. I think that's really good. Um, one question I have for you is what do you do when you have something really go wrong? Like during COVID, obviously, production times for everyone in the industry was crazy. I mean, it was just a crazy time. How do you handle stress like that when things are going wrong, but you need to keep it together for your customers and for your team? And I think about that a lot with my team and not letting them see you sweat as much. What do you do?

Michael Tull 23:59

Well, during COVID is a good example. We were uh, so let's say our normal lead time was four weeks, then we jumped out to six weeks, eight weeks, ten weeks, twelve weeks, fourteen weeks. Wow. When you get out that far, and the competition was as well, yeah, you really got to stay close with your customers and encourage them, even when they're discouraged, to go ahead and place the orders to stay ahead and keep them from running out of doors. Because we're in the door business, people depend on us for doors. Okay.

Stefanie Couch 24:27

What about when you um when you have a salesperson that if I'm a young salesperson, how do you handle objections? Your price is too high.

Michael Tull 24:35

When you're selling, you're selling value. Okay, so when someone says your price is too high, against what? I'd like to see what am I selling against so that I understand, is my price really too high, or am I talking about an apple versus an orange?

Stefanie Couch 24:47

Yeah. Sometimes your price is too high, but a lot of times it's not the exact same thing. Yeah. And sometimes I found in my career that sometimes that matters to people, and sometimes they like oranges and apples just the same, and they'd take an orange if it's cheaper. Sometimes you're not going to sell per a person that higher value thing for every single job. Maybe they need a steel door versus a fiberglass in that certain, you know, whatever. I don't know why you'd ever want a steel door, but some people do for some reason.

Michael Tull 25:13

That's true.

Smart Blinds And Switchable Glass

Stefanie Couch 25:14

Do you agree that you don't know why anyone would ever want a steel door?

Michael Tull 25:17

I used to sell some steel doors before I sold fiberglass, so I can't talk really bad about them. I started off selling just wood doors. Yeah. And then in the in the 70s, a wood door was the dominant door in the market. And steel doors started coming out, they were double the price of a wood door. Well, you know, over by the middle of the 80s, a steel door became half the price of a wood door. Yeah. Okay, so I pretty much had lost a lot of my business. That's why in the 90s I was looking around for something new to do, and I found the Plaspo fiberglass door was coming to market, and they had only plans to make fiberglass doors, no steel or wood. I felt like that was the next generation, and I felt like also it was going to be I would be able to give customers a better value because you have a door that's gonna last the lifetime of that house versus a wood door that's gonna be replaced. A metal door more than likely is gonna get dents, dings if it's on the coast, it's gonna rust out.

Stefanie Couch 26:12

Yeah, very quickly. Within like a year, sometimes it's crazy. Well, when you're looking at trends and things, uh like I said before, IBS is coming. Anything exciting that you see in our industry? I mean, you just talked about a pretty big change from wood to steel to fiberglass, you know, you see a lot of different things, but anything exciting that you see in the trends coming?

Michael Tull 26:31

Stefanie, I know that you're gonna see some new things at the IBS show. Some of the things that we are working on currently, they've been out in the market for many years, but we're improving them. For example, mini blinds, they're installed between the glass. We now have a third generation that we'll be showing at the IBS show that uses solar panels to raise and lower the blinds.

Wrap-Up And Call To Action

Stefanie Couch 26:50

Yeah, it's really cool. I saw it last week. So when when you're looking at a blind, they're just for somebody that may not know what we're talking about, you've got this blind inside the glass, which has been out, like you said, for a long time. They've they've recently in the last few years made them where they can be made in a flush glazed glass where it's made into the door. And you got this magnet, it's kind of on the side, it's kind of annoying, you know. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You got to tilt it a certain way to raise and lower and then to tilt. This thing has a remote control. Can I give away that it it's Alexa Smart Home? Yes, you can. Smart home. So I gave away a secret there, but like, hey, Alexa, close my door blinds. Boom, done. So that is I was pretty blown away when I saw it. And you have them in black and white. So if you want a black door with black blinds, you don't have to do black door with white blinds, which is really cool because black doors are so popular now.

Michael Tull 27:39

Well, another innovation that we'll be showing at the IBS show is a new glass that switches. So the same thing. You can say, Alexa, please close my door.

Stefanie Couch 27:48

Yeah.

Michael Tull 27:48

And the glass will change from clear to frosted.

Stefanie Couch 27:51

Super cool. And that way, if you have like a, you know, an exterior that at night you drive by and you can see inside your whole house, you can just switch it.

Michael Tull 28:00

You can switch the glass and it'll become frosted.

Stefanie Couch 28:03

My dog wouldn't like that very much because she couldn't see all the all the people outside at night that she likes to bark at. What would she do?

Michael Tull 28:09

She wouldn't have everybody to bark at.

Stefanie Couch 28:12

We'd have to just switch it right back for her. Well, I'm excited to see all of these new products at IBS. I always just love walking around because there's so much buzz and energy. There's contractors everywhere. There's people in our industry that are selling doors, selling windows, selling all the things. It's really a fun time. It's in Orlando, so hopefully it'll be warmer than it is here today.

Michael Tull 28:31

Yeah, we're forecast to have six inches of snow here today.

Stefanie Couch 28:35

We better get out of here before we get locked in the studio forever. Well, I'm excited to be your colleague, your friend. I'm really just excited to learn from you because you're probably one of the wisest people I've ever met, business-wise, but also door-wise. So it's very rare to have someone that I I trust from an entrepreneurial standpoint that also knows doors. So thank you for all you've done for me and taught me and your lovely wife as well. She's she's awesome. She's here. And we we both have spouses that work with us that um we'll say work with us and put up with us really. Put up with us is the right thing. That's the truth. I know that's the truth for me. But it's it's great to have that support as well. So I'm just always grateful for people like you and her in my life. So thank you so much.

Michael Tull 29:17

Stefanie, we appreciate everything that you do for our industry as well.

Stefanie Couch 29:21

Well, I appreciate that. Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast, and we will see you on our next episode. 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 gritblueprint.com to learn more and book a call to talk to us about your growth strategy. Until next time, stay unmistakable.