Hire Smarter™ with Tony Misura Tony Misura

In this episode, Tony dives into Matt Semonik's unexpected journey into the LBM industry and Arnold Lumber’s legacy as a fourth-generation family-owned business. Matt elaborates on the company’s niche in serving high-end custom home builders in Rhode Island, its diverse offerings, and its growth trajectory. The conversation shifts to non-compete agreements, with Matt discussing their evolving landscape in the US and the importance of cultivating strong relationships with employees and customers to mitigate their necessity.
They explore Arnold Lumber's innovative approaches, such as video content creation, supplier collaborations for customer training, and e-commerce integration, highlighting their beneficial effects on employee involvement, customer contentment, and sales expansion.
Matt also highlights the company's focus on internal process enhancement and technology utilization for improved efficiency and customer service.

This episode of Hire Smarter dives into the questions to help listeners understand what the cutting edge supply chain tactics are and how first principles can challenge the status quo and help your organization move forward.
 
The sharpest supply chain leaders start from a cultural perspective in creating a place where there is a more progressive think, challenging teams with best practices and innovation that impact the P&L.
 
Our guest today is Matt Wolf, recently the director of Supply Chain with Agorus. He claims to have improved profits by 35%, strictly through a better supply chain approach. He and his team focused on changing the industry's view of offsite manufacturing through a variety of tactics. Here are the big topics Matt helps break down in this podcast:
 
How focused is your supply chain team at impacting your customer's value proposition? How does your team implement best practices to deliver an industrialized process? How do you currently approach the expense vs inventory conundrum around purchasing? What are the opportunities moving from CAD to BOM? How do the table stakes change in hiring talent from outside the industry?

The best step any company can take to become excellent at recruiting is to be excellent at marketing. At its roots, recruiting is a marketing problem. Scott Ericson, Owner of Wheelhouse 20/20, takes pride in having created a full-service marketing resource exclusively for the building supply channel. They specialize in developing and executing strategies that weave together the building industry, sales, and marketing. 
Listen in as Scott shares some of his most important takeaways when it comes to building a strong, successful brand with a lasting legacy. 

The greatest leaders take on the toughest challenges. Successfully driving cutting-edge innovation in the home building industry is an enormous challenge. Garrett Moore, the CEO of Agorus, has a mission of building homes from permits to keys in 30 days. How does a leader maintain the level of intensity and focus needed to tackle the boldest initiatives?
Mantras help teams effectively maintain focus through the white noise and distractions life throws at them.  
Some of Garrett’s favorite mantras:
Team, Teammate, Self – In priority order.
No one is too big to pick up a broom – Humility starts at the top.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – The simplest plan is the best plan.
The only easy day was yesterday – Never rest on your laurels.
Two is one, one is none – You need to have a backup.

Our guest today is Chalmers Brothers, a best-selling author, certified executive coach, consultant, and speaker. In this episode, Chalmers shares that we don’t need to be psychologists to be effective leaders - but to be emotionally literate and capable of utilizing our most effective tool, “the power of language,” does require a dedicated effort.
We all have heroes, people who have held themselves to a higher standard whose level of success and how they achieved that success earns our respect. Chalmers Brothers is one of my heroes. We met at a Vistage event several years ago and read his book Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence. I found his methods to be simple, effective, and actionable. I hope you learn as much as I have from Chalmers. 

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