What We've Learned After 100 Podcast Episodes: Building Grit Blueprint with Ben & Stefanie Couch

What does it really take to get to 100 episodes when no one cares at first? In this special episode, Ben flips the script and interviews me about how the Grit Blueprint Podcast started, what almost made it stall, and why consistency beats perfection every time. We talk about building in public, learning through bad reps, why niche content wins bigger than broad content, and how real, human media will matter even more in an AI-heavy world. If you are trying to build a brand, a platform, or a business that lasts, this episode provides proof that momentum comes from showing up. 

Topics we covered:
• Stefanie’s background in lumberyard and building materials
• How we launched our business after a major career shift
• Early format mistakes and learning faster through volume
• Niche audience math and why you don’t need mass reach
• AI as a tool plus the rising value of real content
• Favorite podcast moments including live show interviews
• Our next 100 episodes and what Grit Studios becomes

👉 Subscribe to Built to Win

Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie.

👉 Book a Strategy Call

Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk.

Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint

Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com
YouTube: Stefanie Couch
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch
Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com

👉 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

The 100th Release Setup

Stefanie Couch 0:00

The first episode I ever recorded in that January was Marion Pulse, who now is our operations and customer success manager and a huge part of our Grit Blueprint team. She actually forgot. Forgot that she was our first. So it must not have been too memorable to Marion, but it was to me. Courage is what it takes first. You are not going to be good and you're not going to be confident. If you're interested in doing this, telling your story, telling other people's stories, you don't really need to have a ton of equipment. You don't need to be fully optimized, but you need to have enough gumption that this is going to take a while, and probably no one's going to care about this for a long time.

Ben Couch 0:33

If you're waiting for the perfect moment, or you're waiting for the right time, or you're waiting until you have all the stuff you need or all the equipment, like you'll never start.

Stefanie Couch 0:40

I think giving people a chance to get out of their comfort zone, but also still trying to make them comfortable while we're doing it is probably my favorite part of this. 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.

Ben Couch 1:10

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Ben Couch, here with my guest, Stefanie Couch. And before you change the dial, you are on the right podcast. But today we're doing things a little bit different because today is the filming of our 100th episode.

Stefanie Couch 1:29

100.

Ben Couch 1:30

100. Now, it's not actually probably the hundredth episode. I think we've already filmed more than a hundred, but this will be the one hundredth release. And so me and Stefanie wanted to do something a little bit special for the hundredth episode, and we decided that I will interview her. So for today, I am the host of the Grit Blueprint. I have made my way from around the uh back of the cameras to the front, which we did do an episode with me um like a week or two ago.

Stefanie Couch 1:59

And got ready for reviews. Everyone loved it.

Ben Couch 2:02

But today I'm actually hosting hosting the show. So I was thinking of some questions to ask Stefanie uh this week, and most of them are going to be about the podcast because this is obviously um around the hundredth episode of it. And um, so I came up with some of those I'm going to ask you. And I don't actually have this written down, but you always intro your guest. So I guess I have to intro you, don't I?

Stefanie Couch 2:27

Yes, you have to intro me, and you're going to do it without a right a written intro.

Ben Couch 2:31

No intro, which I'll probably get most of it right, except dates and times and part of the details. But the rest of it I'll nail.

Stefanie’s Lumberyard Roots

Stefanie Couch 2:39

But who's really counting?

Ben Couch 2:40

Who's really counting? Uh Stefanie Couch, you grew up in the lumber business. So you grew up in a second generation uh uh lumber yard. Your granddad actually had a uh lumber yard in East Point, Georgia, and that was Watkins lumber, right? And then at a certain point, your dad, who was working there, uh started his own lumberyard, which was uh Watkins Building Material Building Supply, Watkins Building Supply. And that was not in East Point, that was in Clarksville, Georgia. And then his brothers, your uncles, uh extended or moved that lumberyard from East Point to Jasper, Georgia. But you grew up in your father's portion of the lumberyard. Uh-huh. From a young age, you were running around the lumberyard, uh ringing people up, stealing forklifts, knocking things over, um, doing inventory in the plumbing aisle, that kind of thing. But it's in your blood. Uh I know when we started dating and we knew each other since we were kids, but when we started dating, your dad still ran the lumberyard, still owned it. And then um early in our our marriage, uh he ended up selling it. We did some we had to move a little bit. I got a job, required us to move. And um after you left the the family business, you went to a uh Fortune 500 building material company uh specifically on the door in the door division. And you started out there in sales, selling doors, and eventually you kind of expanded beyond just sales into marketing and really uh growth and green fielding locations for the door the door side. And I remember we had moved to Dallas, Texas, and one of the years before you actually left that that company. You had traveled like 280 days that year.

Stefanie Couch 4:26

Yeah, I think it was like 221 days, 221 nights in a hotel in 2021 by August. Because you got COVID in August.

Ben Couch 4:33

And that was move that was that was starting locations or starting the door locations in Dallas and Houston, and then you were also heading to other locations to kind of help them periodically as well. So you worked for that company, and then you eventually decided to make a change. You went to a another company in Florida.

Stefanie Couch 4:55

Large dealer.

Ben Couch 4:56

Dealer in Florida and quickly realized that that wasn't the right right place for you. And we had already been discussing uh starting our own business. We had already kind of taken some small steps forward with that. When we moved, um I had left my job. I'd gotten back into law enforcement for the second time and uh left that because moving to Florida like I had a bunch to do. Like we had to move. I was I'll call it remodeling a bathroom. It was more like destroying a bathroom. I was doing that. Uh we can talk about that. Uh I wouldn't want to though, probably. It didn't turn out well.

Stefanie Couch 5:33

It turned out fine.

Ben Couch 5:34

We sold the house and no one said it was it looked good.

Stefanie Couch 5:38

I won't say great, but it looked good.

Ben Couch 5:40

It was acceptable. Anyway, uh, so I left my job and we moved down to Florida, and not long after that, uh the company decided you were not aligned. So you parted ways with that company, and we decided at that point to go ahead and start our business, launch our business.

Stefanie Couch 5:58

We had actually already started our LLCs before that, about two months before.

Ben Couch 6:01

Yep. And that process was basically forming an LLC and buying like a hundred domains.

Stefanie Couch 6:08

I don't think it was a hundred. If you went into our GoDaddy, it is now, but I don't think it was the first day. We basically took the strategy of domains or like Rolex's, and uh, we're going to collect them and hope they hope they add value eventually.

Starting The Business And Podcast

Ben Couch 6:22

And I can't remember this. You'll have to kind of help me out. At what point did you decide that to do the podcast? How long or how far in had we gotten?

Stefanie Couch 6:30

So timeline-wise, I'll fill in some blanks for you. Uh I left my dad's lumber yard in 2000, 2012. He sold the business in 2012. I went to a two-step distributor for 10 years, so 2022, I left that for five months. Worked at that little dealer in um Florida, started our LLC in 2022 in September, got fired in November of 2022, and I think we actually started the podcast. I think I recorded my first episode in 2024 in January.

Ben Couch 7:06

Because we had moved back to Georgia, and we were living in Brazzle, too. Yeah.

Stefanie Couch 7:09

Is that right? That's right. I know we were there when we started. January of 2024, we recorded the first episode, and then um now here we are in March 2026. So it's about two years to get to a hundred episodes recorded. We're a little past that, like we said, but this is going to be the hundredth one recorded.

Ben Couch 7:24

I think when you we got started, you were just recording on your computer, weren't you? Like on Riverside. Yeah, we started on Riverside. Shout out Riverside.

Stefanie Couch 7:31

Yeah, shout out to Riverside, and um it was really around we'll talk about this a little bit, but around the women's programs that we were going to do with Sally Hilginson.

Ben Couch 7:41

We never did that.

Stefanie Couch 7:42

We never did that, we never did that.

Ben Couch 7:43

Well, we wasn't for lack of triangle.

Stefanie Couch 7:45

Yeah, I mean, we it was just a directional change that um directional, and we've probably discussed this or you probably discussed this before, but uh also when you're starting a business, like you want to do most people try to do too much.

Ben Couch 7:58

Yeah, we're no different, and it's just you gotta that is balanced by the time you have and the revenue you have. Yeah, both things you have to take into account. And um, not to say we won't still do that one day, but right now it just it it never we we had to focus our energy and efforts on other things.

Stefanie Couch 8:16

Yeah, I mean I've sort of had a little bit of a change of heart about that, which we can talk about um for a few different reasons.

Ben Couch 8:21

Well, I would love to, but the first thing I want to talk about is you mentioned shooting your first episode, and one of the actually the first episode we shot, it was not the first one we aired, but the first one we shot was extra special besides just being the first one, wasn't it?

Stefanie Couch 8:36

Yeah. So actually the first episode I ever recorded in that January um was Marion Pulse, who now is our operations and customer success manager, a huge part of our grip blueprint team. I had met her at an event uh back in that November beforehand. Her and I had done um some stuff conversating about actually an event where she was working that I ended up doing a little speaking event virtually for women. And so she was our first guest, which is really cool. That is cool. Good job on the intro, by the way. Thank you.

Ben Couch 9:09

Killed it.

Stefanie Couch 9:09

You didn't you didn't introduce Hattie Pearl, though. She's upset. Come here, Hattie Pearl.

Ben Couch 9:12

You got her tomato in her mouth.

Stefanie Couch 9:14

So our number one uh employee. Sorry to everyone who who are humans, but I think they'll agree. So here she is. Come here, Hattie Pearl. Come over here. She is the number one uh sidekick. She is our chief happiness officer, chief snack officer. Um, she also does Paw Patrol very seriously. Uh, and she's been in a lot of pre-staging. She actually really loves sitting in these pink chairs. She really actually likes the podcasting uh whole experience. I mean, she'll sit by the mic.

Ben Couch 9:45

So we were shooting some behind the scenes footage yesterday. I pulled her up another chair and she was up here. We were kind of vibing listening to something.

Stefanie Couch 9:52

Yeah, but she prefers the pink chairs just like her mother. But yeah, Howdy Pearl, goodest girl. Howdy sit. Is it? Is it? Oh, yes, perfect. Very good. That was perfect. Acceptable. Okay. Picking back up.

Ben Couch 10:06

Picking back up. So one thing I I wanted to talk about is you took an interesting approach to the podcast. And I remember when we were discussing doing doing it, you researched podcasting and you were like, There here there is a number of episodes that most podcasts do not hit. And I think it was like 20 or 30, wasn't it?

Stefanie Couch 10:26

Yeah, so I think the statistic was um the average podcast never gets past 10 episodes. And then if you got past 20 episodes, you were top 1% in the world. And I really hate failing, and I really hate quitting things. Um, and I knew this podcasting is something I I from the research I did, unlike a lot of things where you might could go viral or, you know, which hasn't happened to us a lot, it takes time to do anything really that's worth doing. But podcasting especially takes time. Like you might talk into the dark. I had heard some of our people that we listen to every day say, like, I hit 400 episodes before anybody gave a care at all. But podcasting was one of those things that I knew was going to take extra time. And I really felt like it would be a good way for me to not only highlight other people that I thought were worth highlighting and needed some shine. Uh, they were just kind of invisible or maybe hadn't told their story, but also hopefully share some of our expertise and then show what we were doing. I thought it would turn into like a YouTube thing first and then podcast second, which I think is still the way. But um, yeah, we started with video podcasting from day one on Riverside. It was all virtual at the time.

Ben Couch 11:39

You had found that stat that was like 10 episodes, and this was you know a few years ago, so it may not be accurate anymore, but you basically said if getting past 10 is a hurdle for most podcasts, before we launch episode one, we're going to record 10 podcasts.

Stefanie Couch 11:56

Yeah, I decided it was 20 because I wanted to be top 1% in the world. I'm very competitive. Um, I'm currently competing with my Grammarly to be top, I'm top 1% in the world of Grammarly users, which for those of you who don't know what that is, it's literally means nothing to anyone because it's just correct grammar in your typing on any app you use on your phone or your But let me I mean uh it's not that your grammar is correct, it's that you use grammarly. It ranks a lot of stuff. It's how I speak, it's my communication, it's the words I use, how many times I have to get corrected. So no, it is it is about me winning.

Ben Couch 12:32

Sorry that I didn't mean to throw shade.

Stefanie Couch 12:34

Wow, this podcast took a turn very quickly. But yeah, I wanted to win uh that statistic over so we could be top one percent in the world, which meant absolutely nothing um to anyone but me. But I think that's the thing, is like I don't really care. I'm only competing against me.

Recording 20 Interviews Upfront

Ben Couch 12:50

So But it turns out that actually was helpful because we shot 20 episodes. We started editing those, which we'll talk about that, but it gave us a buffer. So it's like, okay, we shot these 20, we're getting them edited, we can start putting them out, and in the meantime, we'll start shooting more. And it kind of helped give us a buffer as we were getting started because podcasting, I don't know, may seem easy, but it's not. And one of the biggest struggles with it is editing.

Stefanie Couch 13:19

Yeah, I mean, I think it was good and it was bad. So, what was good about it is that we started it and we didn't quit. Um, I think if we hadn't have recorded so many, then what happened after with the editing probably would have been like, why are we doing this and we aren't going to do it anymore? Uh, but the idea around the starting of the podcast was that I was going to highlight, I started with 20 women. The first 20 interviews I did were women. And I kind of had a theme around the questions of like how women rise, because I was partnering with Sally Hilginson, amazing best-selling author, who I've actually spent a little time with. She's a really wonderful human being. And I wanted to highlight the things that women did that they were struggling with from that book, and then also highlight their stories. So the first 20 episodes were around that. Um, now obviously what it's shifted to is broadened out a lot and more around what we're doing at Grit Blueprint. Um, you know, that was just so beginners of like, this is something I could talk about. It's important to me. And I think I could do 20 episodes. And I also knew 20 amazing women that agreed to do an interview. So that was easy to grab people that I knew would want to support, honestly, just support me, but hopefully it enlightened and enlifted their name a little bit too. So that's where it really where it started. So the first 20 episodes, like they were good, but I sucked. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know the balance of like talking about myself versus talking about them. Um, I asked the same questions because of that kind of programming I was trying to do. Like, I ask a lot of the same questions. So I feel like even though their stories were unique, the way I positioned it probably didn't make it very interesting because it was the same thing over and over. But like you kind of start somewhere.

Ben Couch 14:58

I mean, yeah, well, and that was one of the downsides of doing that. And what we learned is there's so much you don't know in podcasting and getting started. Just in general and business. And when you when you record like 20 episodes, if you're doing something wrong or doing something that's not the best way, you don't really figure it out until you're like 20 something episodes.

Stefanie Couch 15:21

You're like, oh crap, now I have to listen to this horrible thing I did 20 times before I can fix it.

Ben Couch 15:26

Yep.

Stefanie Couch 15:26

I still wouldn't change it though. And because of the fact that I think volume negates luck, that's an Alex Hermose saying that I love. I think doing something consistently and having the discipline, even though it took me, I think, two months to record those 20 episodes, doing that 10 times in one month and 10 times in the next month. And even now, the way we do things where okay, we go to a show, we record five or 10 episodes. That rep that that you get in like that is really cool early to have those. So I I mean, I think it could have taken me a year to do 20 episodes. It took me two months. So it gave me some reps, and then it definitely highlighted some things that are really sucked at that I hated, and then I had to watch them.

Ben Couch 16:05

A lot of it wasn't even that you sucked, it's just like we didn't have we weren't optimized with our equipment and our workflow. And I think there were so we were broke too.

Stefanie Couch 16:14

I mean, we were we were in the stage in our business where like it was just me and him. I think the month uh my sister was working for us at the time. Um, so it was me and him and my sister, but she had no experience in any of that. Um, you know, and so it was like we were just trying to do what we could with no equipment. I think we had one good camera.

Ben Couch 16:36

Maybe.

Stefanie Couch 16:37

Yeah, we did. We had one good camera. Um, I think I had like a maybe a Yeti mic or something. I don't know. We'd have to go back and look. But you know, not great equipment, but that doesn't even matter. Like that's the thing is I think you if you're interested in doing this, telling your story, telling other people's stories. Um, the thing I would say is you don't really need to have a ton of equipment. You don't need to be fully optimized, but you need to have enough good like gumption that this is going to take a while. And probably no one's going to care about this for a long time. Like, I mean, we got past those first 20 episodes. It took us forever to get them out because we didn't have the editing figured out, which we're going to talk about more. But um even then, like everybody was like, Hey, when's my episode coming out? I'm like, I don't know, maybe 2028, like in the future, you know. But um, even then, it I'm glad we started, you know.

Ben Couch 17:25

Well, you gotta, like you said, you gotta start somewhere, and it's a good point. Like we've we talk about if you're waiting for the perfect moment or you're waiting for the right time, or you're waiting until you have all the stuff you need or all the equipment, like you'll never start.

Stefanie Couch 17:38

Yeah, I think one thing that I would say to anyone wanting to do any kind of content or any kind of media is courage is what it takes first. You are not going to be good and you're not going to be confident, even if you have natural skills. Like I had been singing and performing my whole life. I'd already done keynote speaking. Podcasting is different. It's not just you on stage. It's even if you're singing in like a group context, it's not just you that's controlling your part. You gotta kind of manage another person's, you know, how they look, their positioning, your talk ratio versus questioning ratio. I mean, it's there is an art to it. I still haven't perfected it. I think I have a lot more that I can gain on, but I feel like also having people who have a really interesting story helps, but sometimes you don't know them as well as other times. You know, when you know someone really well, it's easy to riff off each other. Like with me and you. I mean, we got 20 something, 20, 20 something years because we met when we were 12.

Ben Couch 18:41

So Yeah, actually, it's funny you say that. I was on a telephone call this morning with uh my buddy Garrett while you were getting ready, and we were talking about some stuff, and I he said he asked like what we had going on today, and I said we were going to shoot our hundredth episode, and he's like, How did he he said, Does Stefanie like uh know everything she's going to talk about beforehand? Does she like take notes? And I said, Well, uh uh sometimes. I said recently she's started doing more like notes in her hand or questions, but I said the best ones are the ones where we have 10 or 12 questions and she only gets through one if or two. But then he would he was talking more about how you uh like it was one, it was a podcast you did a while back, and I think you talked about Kennedy like this space race going to the moon. And he's like, it was a perfect like uh injection into the conversation. Like, did she plan that? And I was like, No. He's like, How does she remember all that? And I was like, Well, basically, when you spend three years and all you do is read like business books and podcasts and research that and look at that and like you know, eat, live, and breathe that, like it comes natural.

Stefanie Couch 19:45

And I think for me, I love to learn, but I like to learn to be able to put it into action some way. And I read a book by Brad Jacobs, um, and he also is in our our building industry space now. And I think I listened to maybe his founder's podcast where he said that he goes to school on people. And I've always liked to do that, even before I heard it said that way. Um, I want to know everything there is to know about people that I'm talking to from a sales perspective. Obviously, that was extremely helpful when I was in sales, but really just from a humanities perspective of connecting with other people. Um, I have this trait in my Clifton Strengths called woo, which means winning others over. And I want people to like me and I want, you know, to have a connection with them. And so knowing about them and how to interject things that they would care about is important to me. So I think maybe that's what it is, uh, that practice of that. But, you know, I didn't know anything when we started this business. I thought I knew a lot because I'd been in business for 20 something years, but there was a lot of things from a perspective of business building and even like obviously media that I had no clue. So I've tried to ingest everything I can.

Ben Couch 20:56

Well, that connection stuff and going to school on people, it's important too because not everybody's comfortable in a podcast. With that in mind, people are a lot more comfortable typically when they're talking about themselves or things they're familiar with. And so even if you have a set of questions, knowing enough about somebody to where you can you can make the questions or make the conversation steer toward them and their past and their history will, I feel like, make them more comfortable and more open in the podcast.

Stefanie Couch 21:26

Absolutely. And I think when you have things in common with people, even if you're not very similar to them, like I interview a lot of people that their personalities are extremely different than me, but finding a few things like, hey, we both like dogs, or hey, we both like pink, or hey, we both hate this sports team, like the Florida Gators, or you know, whatever go dogs. Um, but at the end of the day, like what you like and what you don't like, and one or two little small commonalities is really all it takes to connect with other people. And I think that's really what it's all about. I've studied a lot of great interviewers, and I think about that a lot. Like, how do I Become the Oprah or the Barbara Walters or whoever, you know, and I I think that there's an importance to that. I watch a lot of podcasts too.

Staying Motivated With Slow Growth

Ben Couch 22:10

So we've already talked about how difficult it can be to start a podcast, but there's another side of that difficulty. And I think it has to do with gaining traction as a podcast, especially on something like YouTube. Because you can go on YouTube and you can see channels that have millions of subscribers and or millions of views on a any given video or podcast. And taking nothing from them, sometimes those are sensational in the sense of the things they're doing, the videos they're creating, you can't help but get views. Just because when you scroll and see that, like oh my gosh, they're about to blow up a $300,000 car in a cornfield, like I'm going to watch. But also I think people see a lot of that. And so when we say we're celebrating our hundredth episode, I don't know how as if that's as impactful seeing that from the outside looking in as it has for us going to from zero to a hundred. Yeah. And one of the struggles, or not even a struggle, but one of the things early on is the analytics and watching the the growth of the channel because uh if you're not paying for a lot of viewership, it is a it's a slow thing. Like you have every viewer that comes in, you're having to reach them through the algorithm organically, you're not paying for them to come see your channel. Yeah. How do you stay motivated? How did you stay motivated uh through that you know, the first hundred episodes? And we're obviously getting better traction now, but through that slow growth initially, where it's like, I may put this podcast out and two people may watch it, and but you kept doing it and we kept doing it. Like, how did you stay motivated?

Stefanie Couch 24:09

A few things I'll say is number one thing is I had researched ahead of time to figure out that basically everyone who has a really big podcast or a really big following did this for so long before anybody gave a crap at all. Like, for instance, Alex Hermozzi, who's one of my favorite business entrepreneurs, him and his wife Layla. Um, he I think he released like literally four to five years worth of podcasts almost every day. I think he was literally doing an episode a day because he does solo episodes. So four to five hundred podcasts before anyone cared at all. He also had a 40 to 50 million dollar exit in a business before anybody cared. So um, okay, that's one example. Uh, Jimmy, Mr. Beast, uh Jimmy Donaldson, I think he released all like 455 YouTube videos before he had one pop. He literally started when he was 12 years old or something. And he does sensational stuff, and it still took that long for him to really hit. I think one of the things that was positive for me is that I knew I was in a very niche market. And so I tried to think about, and I do the same thing when I'm speaking, and I would give this advice to anyone. If you go to an event and there's 20 people standing there, or there's 50 people standing there, if you're in a really niche market, especially in a high-end type selling, maybe your services are expensive, you don't need to win over a million people. Like if a million people said yes to what we're doing right now, I mean, I would probably try to my best to figure it out, but I couldn't service a million people doing the model we're doing right now. Um, there are other models we could build that would be more scalable, but I can't service a million people. So I think for me, it was thinking, okay, I don't have to win over everyone. I just need to impact and hopefully influence and help some people that are in my very niche B2B building materials market. And if it's a hundred people that listen, 300 people that listen, I if I would go and do that on stage and be okay with 100 people being there, which I do pretty, pretty openly, pretty regularly, then I'd be okay with only 100 people listening to this episode, or even only 10 people listening.

Ben Couch 26:14

That's a good point because when you were we were at the do it best show in Denver a couple weeks ago, and I think your first room had like 200-ish people.

Stefanie Couch 26:24

Yeah, there's about 200 chairs in there.

Ben Couch 26:26

So when you like look at it, when you're in a room full of 200 people, you're like, that's a lot of people.

Stefanie Couch 26:29

Yeah.

Ben Couch 26:30

Now, when you look at it through the lens of YouTube, that that doesn't feel the same to me. But when you see 200 people in a room, you're like, that is a lot of people.

Stefanie Couch 26:38

Yeah, you got to think about what you're selling, and not that necessarily the podcast is about selling per se, but everything in life is sales. What are you selling and who are you selling it to? And so if I'm trying to sell to people in the building materials industry that are either manufacturers, distributors, or dealers, and my service is, you know, five figures a month or four figures a month, whatever we're doing, websites, things like that. Everybody in the world is not going to be able to buy my service. I don't want to sell people that aren't in my industry necessarily because I feel like we're best at helping people in our niche. I feel like we're world class at that. I don't want to do every type of service. I only want to do certain things. And as we grow, I believe that will actually narrow down because what we want to do is going to be more niche and more narrow so we can get better at those things. So, how many people do I need to sell for this to be a Hallmark home run for year one, year two, year three? Um, you know, I'd love to be an eight figures already. We're not there yet, but I feel like we have a trajectory to get there. My goal when we started this business was to build a hundred million dollar enterprise value. Um now that might be on an exit. So I feel like, you know, with a media type business, you're looking at a like four to six times um multiplier, somewhere in that range. If we add a SaaS component, it could be eight to 10. So I need to get to 20 million a year revenue to be able to sell this thing, if that is the goal, which I don't know that it is, but I would still like it to be worth that. So that's where we would be able to get to $100 million valuation, which was always my goal. You don't do that overnight. Um, when I was at the other place that I worked, we got from like, I don't know, we were around $4 million a location with that one location with doors, and we got to around 200 million in 10 years, and they had pretty much unlimited capital and a huge, huge team. And it still took us 10 years to get to 200 million with that business, and it was a product-based business. And so, like, I knew how long it would take. I knew how hard my dad worked and where he was at when he exited. So, I guess in my mind, I just knew like I'm impatient, but I'm not stupid. And so I I think good things take time, great things take more time. World-class, unmistakable things take so much more than you'd ever be willing to give most of the time, and take way longer than you want it to.

Becoming Unmistakable In B2B

Ben Couch 28:55

Yeah. Well, and you see that throughout the business and even with some of our clients, like you you try to explain how things take time, especially if you're doing it organically and you're doing it the right way. Like, you're not going to get to the top of the list on week two. Like you if you're starting from scratch or from nearly from scratch, like you have to build this thing day after day after day. I believe on the organic side of building things, though, you're building such a good foundation. I think it's a lot it lasts a lot longer. I know you know we're not we do some ad stuff that's not like our bread and butter, but I've seen so many horror stories of like pay-to-play stuff with people with companies where they cut that off or they change an algorithm and your whole business structure basically goes flat because you invested it all in somebody else's platform doing ads. Yeah. Whereas like organically creating traffic and interest and brand, I feel like that's more resilient in the long run, and it's not as reliant on people's algorithms or companies' algorithms or platforms.

Stefanie Couch 30:01

Yeah, I think one of the things that's always funny is you realize like stuff's starting to really work when people start recognizing you. Obviously, I wear a pink hat everywhere I go, pretty much. Um, and I look, you know, different than a lot of people in our industry. So that that does catch attention, but it's still taking me like four years of doing that as openly and outwardly as I can and as many places as will let me. Um, and I still feel like there's so many people that have no idea who we are, what we do, how we can help them, if we even can help them. And so there's still so much more to do. I mean, that's my takeaway is like, okay, we're almost four years in. I don't even feel like we've scratched like a little tiny bit of the surface.

Ben Couch 30:42

I think we've both had a c the conversation here recently where we feel like it's starting, it's really starting to gain traction. And I compare the shows we went to like early on versus the last couple we've gone to, and I feel I feel there's been a shift there. Like you've always were getting noticed at these shows and all. I just feel like it's more now. And it's funny, I tell Stefanie being behind the camera at these shows, like we're walking around and I'm filming, and then I go back and pull the media up and I'm watching it. And like when Stefanie walks through and with the pink and the the hat on and everything, like pretty much everyone looks at her. And it just depends on the person. You can kind of see what they're thinking, but like there's no denying like everyone is paying attention to you when you're in the show because you're so different, and yeah, you're you're they don't you're not the same look going down the the convention center as as everyone else.

Stefanie Couch 31:37

Well, and we turn that into like how can we help our customers do the same thing?

Ben Couch 31:41

Right.

Stefanie Couch 31:42

Because unfortunately, everyone in our industry kind of I mean, this is a generalization, but they kind of look the same, they sound the same, they market the same, they go out and do everything the same, even the products, like you may have a small competitive differentiator, and maybe it's super important to you, but how obvious is that to your market, to the people that are buying your products? And so figuring out how to help them become unmistakable, and then really how do we help highlight other leaders and companies in our space that are doing great things, but just kind of invisible? And unfortunately, they've been on word of mouth marketing for a hundred years, and the next hundred years, that's not going to work. Just like radio was what happened, and then TV took over, and then now it's been social media, all of that shifts in time, and like the sands of time are changing our industry, how people buy and how they find you.

Ben Couch 32:31

And even, you know, it's men and women, but the amount of women that come up to you at these shows and they're like, I love your dress, or I love what you're doing, or and what we've discovered recently, and this is a good point for like the YouTube stuff, like our viewership has been going up. And I like we've had uh what was it this last month, like 60,000 or something impressions or views on a on a video or what so it's like all going up, but the amount of people that come up to us at shows and they're like, I saw your podcast about XYZ or I listen or I watch your podcast all the time, it's like wow, like we and you don't know this person, like it's not a person that you know, and they're out there like ingesting the content, watching the content, getting something from it.

Stefanie Couch 33:11

Yeah, I think knowing that LinkedIn has worked for the last three years, like I have you know, a pretty good group on LinkedIn that are engaged, they see stuff. Um, the podcast was like a secondary platform, the YouTube, and I think if you're going to choose like for B2B in our space, LinkedIn is definitely my number one choice. That's where people are. And then YouTube, secondly, because a few reasons it indexes on AI, YouTube indexes on you know, search for Google because Google owns YouTube. And then thirdly, it just stays out there. Like with LinkedIn, it's hard to find old posts. I mean, they they do index now on AI, but I don't think it's near as good as Google with YouTube. But that's why I think shooting these long forms and then posting them on LinkedIn and kind of using it omnichannel is big. But yeah, I mean, knowing that LinkedIn was working helped me stay, stay to the course. Um, I would just say pick a platform or two and go all in on those because you just can't, especially as a small business as one person, you can't manage everything all at once. It's too much. Even with a team, it's still really hard to own that many platforms unless you have a team like Alex or Gary V or you know, somebody that has a million dollar content team a year, which I would I hope we have one day. But it's still hard to manage that if you don't have a real team saying, hey, your YouTube, your Instagram, your TikTok, you know.

Ben Couch 34:30

But even with like YouTube, like how many nights are we sitting there and we're flipping through like some of the streaming platforms and like there's nothing on, and we go to YouTube and start watching something, like YouTube has become or is becoming the go-to destination for people when they're finding stuff to watch a lot of times. And so being on there, like you're basically given an opportunity to create your own TV show entertainment station, not even a show, like an entire station. And it's pretty cool. A lot of them outperform major networks now.

AI, Authenticity, And Real Content

Stefanie Couch 35:00

So yeah, I think people want something real. I don't think people want something that seems like it's been produced by some Hollywood producer and it took 17 years and a hundred million dollars to make. They want something that seems like they could have been there because it's real life, especially in the construction industry.

Ben Couch 35:16

That's part of the conversation we've been having around AI. Like we're an AI uh first company, or we use AI a lot in our company. We teach others how to use it. We we encourage people to use it, but we've been discussing how that AI is going to affect people going forward, and how we think part of it is going to be people wanting real content and wanting content that they know is real that isn't AI, that isn't generated by AI.

Stefanie Couch 35:43

I think it's going to make in-person events and in-person like dinners and conversations and stuff like that even more important.

Ben Couch 35:49

And I think behind the scenes stuff or behind the scenes stuff in conjunction with the main product you're putting out is going to be important. Um but and that's it's like we tell people use AI for the things in your business that you can use it for. That are it's a tool, it's like don't don't hammer with a rock if you have a hammer, but like at the same time, not everything needs to be hit with a hammer. So, like, understand that with AI, and I think it is going to push people toward consumption of real or content that feels real and genuine.

Stefanie Couch 36:21

Yeah. Do you want to tell people about the time when I beat you in a nail driving contest when we were 12? And that's why you hate me and why you don't want to scale the words. No, you've only I mean, you don't want to talk about it. Okay. Next question. Sorry, don't want to I don't want to derail the interview.

Ben Couch 36:37

I mean, open the door for it. We went to church together. It was like a fall festival. There was a nail driving contest. I had not driven that many nails in my life at that point. I was probably like what, 10, 11, something like that. 12, I think. Um, Stefanie, who grew up in a lumber yard, obviously had far more experience in that realm and she beat me at the end.

Stefanie Couch 36:58

Did I have a lot of experience driving nails? No. The answer is no.

Ben Couch 37:02

Well, I don't know.

Stefanie Couch 37:03

What I had experience in was beating boys at games at the church.

Ben Couch 37:06

And uh I guess I liked it because we got married. You didn't like it.

Stefanie Couch 37:09

And in fact, when I told you I wanted to kiss about a week later, you said, get away from me, you're bossy. So you were holding a pretty good grudge there, buddy.

Ben Couch 37:18

I wasn't a grudge, I just calls them how I seize them.

Stefanie Couch 37:21

All right, well, obviously you got over that.

Ben Couch 37:24

Next question. Don't forget who is hosting this podcast, please.

Stefanie Couch 37:29

All right. I captain.

Ben Couch 37:31

So I won't make you choose a favorite guest. Um, we've had a lot of guests, and I know they're all your favorite. But I would ask, do you have any, like a few of your favorite moments? Uh, it could be guests, but I was thinking more moments or or whatever in the last 100 episodes.

Favorite Moments And Live Shows

Stefanie Couch 37:47

Well, I would say interviewing Marion and her ending up on the team and being such a big part of it is pretty good. Um, hard to believe that that was our first episode. She actually forgot. Forgot that she was our first. She's like, I forgot it was on your podcast. So it must not have been too memorable to Marion, but it was to me. I interviewed, actually, this one's recent. I really love doing the shows where we're like at an event and we interview a bunch of people. It's just really lively. It's fun. Last week I interviewed Nick Tallerico, the president of Do It Best, and talked him into at the end doing a duet with me in September at the next show. So I'm pretty excited about that. Uh, just moments of really connecting with people on stuff that's unplanned. I think that's the funnest part for me. And then um giving people a way to showcase and spotlight themselves that maybe like they're super, super nervous about it and they like really don't want to look bad or whatever it is. And then at the end they look awesome and they're like, that was so fun, you know. I really love that. That wasn't bad at all. And so I think giving people a chance to get out of their comfort zone, but also still trying to make them comfortable while we're doing it is one is probably my favorite part of this.

Ben Couch 38:59

So we've shot podcasts at a lot of different locations. Uh, obviously, we're in the studio today, but we shoot them at conventions and shows and on-site at places. Do you have a favorite place you shoot? Or what is do you prefer the shows versus the studio, or how do you feel about that?

Stefanie Couch 39:16

I like both. I like a mix. So I'm really excited about this studio, Grit Studios in Clayton, Georgia. We aren't fully 100% where the set's going to be, but this is kind of the set with a few model modifications we're going to add. Um, I'm real pumped about this because it'll make it easier. It'll make it, you know, more memorable. But I do really enjoy the on-site stuff, and I think that's one of the best. One fun place I got to film last year was Nation's Best uh invited me to come out to a really amazing ranch called Rough Creek Ranch in Texas, in a little uh town called Glenrose, Texas, in the middle of nowhere. I love Texas. Texas is my favorite place to go, like out, you know, into a different environment that I've lived. So we went to Glen Rose, Texas and filmed at this ranch that had 9,000 acres or something crazy. And the ranch was in, I got this amazing room. They upgraded me because I was speaking and gave me this really cool room to record in. And I felt like I was basically at the Ponderosa recording a podcast, and like I was pretty into it. It was really fun. I was wearing pink boots too. So, I mean, got to win in Texas.

Ben Couch 40:23

I think I know what your answer is going to be for this question.

Stefanie Couch 40:26

You don't know me.

Ben Couch 40:27

I do know you better than anybody. But what part of this whole process do you think has been the hardest?

Stefanie Couch 40:33

Oh, definitely the editing. Shout out to Jim and our editing team. We have several other people that help us with episodes too. We recorded these suckers, we got those 20 recorded. I mean, pretty easily. Like I made a guest list, I made questions, we recorded them online on Riverside, got the footage, and then it was like, oh, we want this to look like diary of a CEO.

Ben Couch 40:55

It should be easy to miss.

Stefanie Couch 40:57

You know, I should change the answer from editing just to being broke. I think that's the problem that money solves a lot of issues when because you can find talent which solves most issues, uh, which is why we need to keep growing this business so we can keep hiring amazing talent to scale it. But it's really one of those things where like we didn't know what the heck we were doing. So then we wanted it to look like these podcasts we were watching on YouTube that have a million-dollar content team around them and like $500,000 worth of equipment in a great studio, and we did not have any of that. No money, no studio, no cameras, no editor. So I think that was the learning curve of like just complete ignorance is bliss.

Ben Couch 41:35

You will send me videos on Instagram or YouTube or from YouTube of like sets or shots, and now like we have a pretty good setup, but still I would see it and I would be like, I can do that with like 50 grand of equipment and like cinema cameras and 10 different lights.

Stefanie Couch 41:59

Yeah, but see, that's where I have the vision, and I'm going to go keep making more money in the business so we can make that vision reality. And then once I give you said money to make it reality, you are going to make it reality.

Ben Couch 42:13

Easy, easy peasy.

Stefanie Couch 42:14

So, I mean, I think that's the thing is like you love this stuff, you love the cameras. I mean, if you want to see Ben go down a rabbit hole, give him a camera expedition to go search on this lens or this camera thing.

Ben Couch 42:26

Nothing makes me happier than when we're at a show and somebody asks me about my cameras.

Stefanie Couch 42:29

Oh my god, people are people are you thinking? People ask me about my hats and my outfits, uh as many people ask him about his camera equipment. Very fascinated by it, which is really cool because it's your thing that you love.

Ben Couch 42:40

I'm on a time clock, like gotta have to get something going. Like, I'll talk to you for hours about it.

Stefanie Couch 42:44

Yeah, so if you guys want to know what to talk to Bit about dogs, number one topic, number two topic is camera equipment. Number three topics, probably conspiracy theories. But this podcast is not about that, so we won't go into that. But he does like to talk about that too.

Ben Couch 42:59

Grid after dark. Maybe we'll start that channel and it'll be we'll go down some rad holes and if we can put that on here.

Stefanie Couch 43:06

That sounds like a whole nother business model.

Simple Gear And Starter Advice

Ben Couch 43:13

So we talk to our clients a lot about visibility and getting out there, and a lot of them some of them want to, some of them are resistant, some of them are kind of cautious. But let's say somebody is listening and they've thought about shooting a podcast, because just like my camera equipment, I have a lot of people ask me about podcasts, and they say, like, I've been thinking about podcasting. So if that person is listening now, what kind of advice would you give that person on starting a podcast?

Stefanie Couch 43:39

I would say there's a lot of software and a lot of things now that have come out, even since we've started, that have made it a lot easier and better to use. Like, for instance, Riverside that we use is substantially better now with all the AI stuff they've added and editing stuff they've added than it was two years ago. So I would say start with a cell phone and a good microphone. Audio quality is very important, um, especially if it's an audio only podcast, but even on YouTube, but I would go ahead and say do video and audio because you're you got a cell phone. So video is important. You can use it for clips and just have an outline of what you want to talk about and just start talking. Knowing that no one is going to care for a long time, probably. And so, like, your mom will listen. My mom didn't even listen. I don't even know if my mom still listens, but I think she does now. But my mom didn't listen for a long time. My dad didn't listen for a long time. So it's like your family doesn't even care about this, just keep doing it. And then eventually you're going to get better. And by the time anyone cares, you'll be better. So great, great, you know. But I would say the tools have gotten easier to make it um startable and not so impossible.

Ben Couch 44:46

Yeah, and I second the audio thing. Like I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. It would be easy for us to fill our show with Zoom calls of like inviting guests on Zoom, and we have done that, and we plan on probably doing that some more. Yeah, but the quality difference is dramatic.

Stefanie Couch 45:05

Yeah, it's more about the fact that most people just don't have the right camera or really the right audio setup at their place. Because you can do it on Riverside as long as they have a good mic. That's the issue, is when you're using it, you know, you're in an office, there's echo, there's background noise, and then you've got just your phone or your cell phone, I mean your speaker on your Mac or your Dell computer that's picking up. It just doesn't sound very good.

Ben Couch 45:29

And like these mics, they're not even like the top of the line mics. I think we probably pay a hundred something bucks for each one of these.

Stefanie Couch 45:37

And I think these are more than that, but I don't know.

Ben Couch 45:40

I don't think so. I mean, they're not crazy, maybe 200. They're not they're not insane, but what I'm saying is they're not Joe Rogan's mics. Like he's using, I think, a different, a different model.

Stefanie Couch 45:49

We just gotta keep going and we can get a lot of money.

Ben Couch 45:51

Well, what I'm saying is like the quality is really good though. Like it does you, you don't have to invest thousands and thousands of dollars. I mean, I think I could probably get somebody minus the camera, like a thousand bucks. You could have a really good mic set up, a mixer, you know, even probably a camera if you got a yeah, I don't even think you need all that with Riverside.

Stefanie Couch 46:10

You just need like a cell phone camera and a good mic, and you're good, you're ready to go. Especially if you're going to do a solo podcast, which you know, I think that's a little bit harder to do because a lot of times people can't conversate with themselves as easy as someone else. But if you're wanting to be more tactical and more educational content, then I think you can, and you'll just you'll get better. You'll edit out the the parts where you get off track and you know show visuals.

Ben Couch 46:36

And a lot of these AI editors like they get pretty good, like they'll take out the ums and uhs and pauses and they can do a pretty good job for sure. So we've shot a hundred and we've made a lot of progress, we've gotten a lot better at it. Where do you see the next 100 episodes going? Are we going to keep doing similar style episodes? Are you thinking about changing things up? I know we've done a few behind the builds, which aren't technically podcasts, I guess, but they're on YouTube. Um, what are your feelings on that?

Stefanie Couch 47:07

Well, my thought and plan at this moment in March 2026 is to get to 200 episodes a lot faster than we got to 100. So I want to continue to have more volume. In fact, in the last six months, I think we've released well over 50 episodes. So we really put on the gas the last few months. I want to shoot at more shows. I would love to do more in person because it's really cool, fun, and a quick way to get people that are interested in in person when they're already somewhere. So that's a big goal. Uh, I want to do more episodes with you because I really love doing this. I think you're very great. People enjoy hearing your candor and our um, you know, back and forth as a married couple that's also trying to build a business empire together. And then I would love to be more tactical in certain episodes of hey, this is talking about like Jason Blair and I recorded one at Do It Best last week that was around sales or sales support, like how you're either in sales or you're in sales support. And we talked a little bit about certain things around that with him running his 250 million or 225 million dollar business, Tau Holdings. So that's the type of stuff I want to do more of because I think it really helps people. And then more storytelling, obviously. But if you can listen to an episode and say, hey, there's this one thing in my business that I've been trying to solve. I listened to this podcast, I figured out how to solve it, which I've literally been doing the last four years every week. There's certain things that I listen to, and I'm like, holy cow, that was so valuable. I take notes, I listen to it more than one time sometimes. And sometimes it's like an eight-minute podcast. It's not like a four-hour podcast. You like the four-hour podcast. I like the four podcast. I can't do that. I mean, I gotta have I can do an hour and then I'm out.

Ben Couch 48:49

Nothing makes me happier. Then you know, like when you go on Apple Podcasts and you have like your shows you're subscribed to, and you click on one and there's a new episode, and it's like three and a half, four hours.

Stefanie Couch 48:59

I'm like, Yeah, I'm like, I'm out. I that's when I'm put it, put the transcript into chat GPT and say, tell me what I need to know from this for my business. Or I ask Ben because he basically is child GPT summary.

Ben Couch 49:11

That's my happy time at during the day is our night walks, which are getting harder now because the times changed. But me and Heidi Pearl go on our last walk of the day after sunset, so it's at night, put in a podcast, and me and her go out and go for a little night walk and see the critters out and about and try not to get run over. So we're here in the studio. Yep. And you may have seen our our other podcast was actually here too. It looks a little bit different today, but we're it's uh we've made a lot of progress since January when we got in here, but we have more in store. So for the viewers that are just looking at the setup right now, tell them what to expect that is going to be different, or what we're going to do different, or what we have to come here, knowing that we may change what we think as we build.

Stefanie Couch 49:58

Well, we're in Grit Studios right now on the stage area. So we have a stage that was already here. This was actually a music venue because there's a music store next door, which is really cool because I'm also musical, and I was like, this is my spot when I walked in. Um, so we got new carpet up here recently. Behind here, we're actually going to put walnut acoustic wall paneling behind this cabinet. Probably going to paint the sidewalls a blue color, maybe do a little bit of a molding, a pleak or something pretty much.

Ben Couch 50:27

I'm just going to say we will repaint because I've already painted it once.

Stefanie Couch 50:32

No one cares about that, hon. Like honestly, only you. And you even said yesterday, oh, it's easy, easy wall. It's always easy. Don't try to call me out on camera. It's rude. Anyways, so once Ben repaints the wall blue, um, that'll probably be most of the changes up here. But then down in the actual studio, we have some pretty big open spaces, and you know, we've kind of been trying to live with it to fill out what we're doing. We're going to definitely do what we call a cyclorama wall, which is a big white wall that has kind of no curves for white or black backdrop for photography and videography. And then I want to create some really cool sets. Um, I call them vignettes. Ben said that doesn't sound like a real thing.

Ben Couch 51:12

No, I said that sounds like something you eat. Oh, yeah.

Stefanie Couch 51:23

It's vignettes.

Ben Couch 51:23

Let's eat some vignettes, and you just get like one bite of whatever it is.

Stefanie Couch 51:28

Anyways, um, and then we're going to create like a library. I want to create like a little music scene. I'm going to get a baby grand piano for in here. Umlegedly. We have grit garage coming in the kitchen area. Someone told me last week at the Do It Best show that they were going to give me some pink, hot pink custom cabinets for the grit studio. So if you're listening and you're interested in participating as a vendor partner with us, we are looking for people to help us create really cool spaces that will be on camera a lot because our goal is to film a ton of content in here in the next year with us and with clients. And we will have, you know, certain partners that we're going to feature as featured partners, and we're going to be put posting a lot more content on different places of the internet, including it could be your website.

Ben Couch 52:17

And I'll take that a step further because you probably can't hear it right now, but it has started to rain.

Stefanie Couch 52:22

Yes.

Ben Couch 52:23

And one thing you can't anticipate is all the sounds that happen in a studio, and we it's a metal building. We found this out about three weeks ago. We were shooting some stuff in here, and it started raining harder than it is right now, and it was deafening.

Stefanie Couch 52:38

Yeah, so I did talk to uh an insulation vendor at Do It Best who was it really excited about doing this, and they make something that really cuts the sound big time. So we're probably going to have to frame up a booth that's soundproof for the real true podcast.

Ben Couch 52:53

If you got something out there that you think is good enough to stop the sound of North Georgia rain on a metal building roof, I am interested to talk because I don't know that you can see the the ceiling and the shot of the ACAM, but it's like uh blown in or not blown in, sprayed in insulation up top, so there's not a ton of buffer, and it's it's weird how the sh the not trusses, but like the cross members of the metal roof are and metal trusses.

Stefanie Couch 53:20

Trusses and yeah, the cool part about this building though is that it's basically wide open where we can build what we want. So as we continue to grow this thing and partner with the right people and get every little nook and cranny figured out, it'll turn into something very different. I have a lot of dreams for it. We're getting our signs this week. Um, you know, everything's going to have a little hit touch of hot pink. I don't want to go too crazy, um, but I want it to be the kiss on top of the decor. I'm obviously into uh glam Hollywood Regency style. So it's kind of a modern Hollywood Regency in here, which is completely not construction industry at all, which I love.

Ben Couch 53:58

And as much as I love the stage, like I think, like you said, we're eventually out in the bigger area going to have to just build this is going to be my music stage. We're going to have to build a podcast booth. Like that's the only way we're going to be able to sound insulate it well because we do have a major road here down the hill from us, and you can hear cars and siders.

Stefanie Couch 54:15

Jake break goes by and we have to pause.

Ben Couch 54:17

Yeah, air breaks.

Stefanie Couch 54:18

But you know what? I just think about it, it's like we got a space to record, we've got all this amazing equipment. Look how far we've come in in the two years that we've been doing this, and um I know in two more years it's going to be a whole different ball game in the most baller way.

Influences, Subscribing, And Closing

Ben Couch 54:34

Baller. Well, you mentioned a few of these uh so far, but we've consumed a lot of podcasts and books and things. If somebody likes your show, what are some of the podcasts that you like that kind of influenced you or helped you along in your journey?

Stefanie Couch 54:53

I love Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett, one of my favorites for sure. He interviews different experts in um a lot of subjects, so that's cool. I've listened to that one a lot. I like Alex Hermozzi's podcast, The Game. I also like his wife's podcast called Build. Her name's Layla. I love Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson. I've listened to that one a lot. Our first thumbnail design was kind of a little bit of a rift on his thumbnail for YouTube. Gary V, I like he doesn't do like a podcast per se. He does a bunch of little shows. I love the Founders podcast. That's probably my favorite one with David Sinra. Sometimes when I listen to it, I feel like I understand these people he's talking about so much, their obsession, their uh weirdness, their just flat out determination and grit and just the failures they've endured. Most of the time it's biographies or autobiographies of people that are dead. Sometimes they're still alive, but great founders basically. And I really resonate with that and hope one day that there's an episode um of me on Founders Podcast. And a I mean, hopefully not by him, because that'll mean I'm dead quicker than he does have a living founders podcast now. So he started that. Maybe that's a goal. What about you? What podcast do you love?

Ben Couch 56:11

I like Jocko's podcast.

Stefanie Couch 56:12

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Jocko.

Ben Couch 56:14

I like Sean Ryan's. Uh I like Chris's. Those are probably the main ones. I like Rogan still.

Stefanie Couch 56:21

Um Rogan's too long for me. I mean, it's a great there's some great people he interviews, but I have to take like the only the parts that I'm interested in.

Ben Couch 56:29

I go through a lot of mine depend on just kind of how I feel. Like I go through stages where sometimes I listen to Jocko more and then I won't listen for like two months.

Stefanie Couch 56:38

I like Cody Sanchez's podcast, Big Deal too. She interviews some good people, and hers is more recent, but that shows you what can happen when you already have fame and money and a great platform. Like, yeah, you can launch a platform and a podcast and do a lot with it. But I mean, it's a great podcast. She she does a lot of cool stuff, but like she launched and just pretty much skyrocketed right to the top of the entrepreneur charts. Yeah. We're like, oh, you know, we're just trying to get four downloads the first year.

Ben Couch 57:07

Well, we're getting there, and um, it's fun to look at the analytics every week. And yeah, I feel like over the course of the hundred episodes, they've trended up consistently. Some sometimes it's flatter than others, but you see big spikes and you see the subscribers go up. And if you do listen to this podcast and you haven't subscribed yet, like please, it would be nice. Like it's a good idea.

Stefanie Couch 57:28

Yeah, we'd love to subscribe and a like and a follow.

Ben Couch 57:31

Yeah, it helps big time.

Stefanie Couch 57:33

We need all the love we can get. Please subscribe to our podcast.

Ben Couch 57:36

I'm bad about that too. Like, I'll watch something on YouTube and forget to like it and then go back the next week and like it because I was like, I watched two hours of it, like obviously I liked it. So I'm just as guilty about that, but we we would appreciate it. Um and of course, share it. Like if you if you're like if you like it, and whether you're in the building industry or not, if you like it and you think somebody else would enjoy it, send them an episode. Preferably one with me in it, because um I'm trying to get my my ratings up really high.

Stefanie Couch 58:05

Um Well, the other thing is we're interested in what you want to hear about. So if there's a certain episode topic or something that you're interested in.

Ben Couch 58:14

The funniest part about this not the funniest part, but a funny part about this is we had an episode that, or maybe it was a short, that got a bunch of comments. And the whole reason it got comments was because you had mentioned something about dogs, and I think it may have been It was a man who took a dog to his hardware store. To his hardware store, and there ended up being a bunch of back and forth comments about some people saying dogs don't belong in public and some saying they do, and one saying that it it upset their emotional support cat.

Stefanie Couch 58:48

That's not real.

Ben Couch 58:49

No, well, that was a comment. So um, yeah.

Stefanie Couch 58:52

I think if you're going to do something like this, one piece of advice I would have is just don't care too much about what other people think. You want to take advice from people that have either done what you're trying to do or that really you like maybe they're your target audience, like very specifically. But overall, some people are going to love you, some people are going to hate you, and honestly, who cares? Because the ones that love you probably love you for the same reason those people hate you. I mean, you know, like people that love my outfits and my pink hat and my makeup probably other people hate that. They think I'm obnoxious, and I just don't care.

Ben Couch 59:25

Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Couch 59:28

That's true.

Ben Couch 59:29

A hundred in the bag.

Stefanie Couch 59:31

In the bag, Bub. Here's to a hundred more. Well, a thousand more, but we gotta get to the first hundred first.

Ben Couch 59:43

We will. We're already on our way. We got excited. We got 'em in edit in edits right now.

Stefanie Couch 59:47

Yeah, I think we've got like thirteen more already recorded, so we'll be at a hundred and thirteen-ish by the time these that are recorded get released. Maybe more than that, maybe like 120 something, I think.

Ben Couch 59:57

We're going to continue to do guests, we're going to continue to do on on-site podcasts, which are all always fun on at the shows. Um, I think we're going to try to do more, like you said, of me and you, but also just you talking about things more in depth that are more tactical and specific. Um so yeah. Be on the lookout. Join us for the next 100 episodes on the grit blueprint. Thank you for joining us today. And I promise um after this episode, your true host will be back to hosting, and I will be back to the other side of the cameras where I maybe where I lurk and push buttons and turn dials.

Stefanie Couch 1:00:33

Probably not going to promise that one.

Ben Couch 1:00:34

So thank you for joining us on the grit blueprint podcast, and we will see you on the next episode.

Stefanie Couch 1:00:41

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.