In this episode of Strong Conversations, Jodie Cook Redwood, Publisher of LBM Journal, shares her unexpected journey from aspiring presidential speechwriter to becoming one of the building materials industry's most respected media leaders. The conversation explores how publishing has evolved in the digital age, why marketing matters most during market downturns, and how relationships continue to be the industry's greatest competitive advantage.
In this episode:
00;00;00;28 - 00;00;11;23
Sam
Welcome back to Strong Conversations Real stories with the leaders, changemakers and innovators here in the building materials space. My name is Sam Marcoux, and joining me on this episode is Jody Cook. Read with Jody. Thank you very much for being here.
00;00;11;26 - 00;00;13;08
Jodie Cook
Thank you very much for having me.
00;00;13;13 - 00;00;21;10
Sam
For the uninitiated, because you're kind of a big deal for the uninitiated. What do you do in our industry?
00;00;21;14 - 00;00;26;33
Jodie Cook
I'm glad we're starting this off with a joke. That was good. I am the associate publisher of LBM journal.
00;00;26;47 - 00;00;35;33
Sam
For the LBM journal. So everyone who's watching this. Everyone who is listening to this, that is in our industry absolutely knows the journal.
00;00;35;38 - 00;00;42;35
Jodie Cook
I hope so, that's quite a big statement. But I would like to think that, at least in the lumber dealer part of this world where we're pretty well known.
00;00;42;40 - 00;00;45;37
Sam
Yeah, very much so. So how long have you been there?
00;00;45;42 - 00;00;58;06
Jodie Cook
I have been. Well, Rick Schumacher and I, with our designer, launched that magazine in 2020 and 2003, and I have been with Rick since 1998, so before inception. But we launched LBM Journal in 2003.
00;00;58;17 - 00;01;05;42
Sam
Okay. So 2003. So by my math, because I'm not I'm not an engineer, an architect, that's like over 20 years ago.
00;01;05;47 - 00;01;06;27
Jodie Cook
That is correct.
00;01;06;37 - 00;01;13;47
Sam
So you've been there since the inception. You and Rick have been working together five years prior to that? Yes. So you guys have been a team for a very long time?
00;01;13;49 - 00;01;14;36
Jodie Cook
Yes.
00;01;14;41 - 00;01;35;46
Sam
So you and I had a conversation not too long ago, and I will fully admit, I've been in this industry since I was a teenager. We were just talking about that off the air. But growing up, I never in my wildest dreams would have ever in my head said, I hope one day that I'm going to sell structural hardware in Northern California for the majority of my career.
00;01;35;47 - 00;01;51;56
Sam
It turned out to be a fantastic decision by me. I had lots of mentors and supporters, and this is my industry and this is my life now. But it wasn't what I thought I was going to do growing up was. What was your dream growing up? Because you had a pretty specific one from what you told?
00;01;51;58 - 00;01;55;36
Jodie Cook
I did. I wanted to be the president of the United States. That was always my dream.
00;01;55;39 - 00;01;56;17
Sam
Amazing.
00;01;56;24 - 00;02;04;37
Jodie Cook
I would definitely, if I if I were going to go back in time and say that now, I would never say that right. As an eight year old with high hopes. That was my dream job.
00;02;04;48 - 00;02;07;14
Sam
And then you. You like speechwriting too, right? It was that.
00;02;07;15 - 00;02;07;46
Jodie Cook
I did.
00;02;07;46 - 00;02;11;09
Sam
Yes. So that was like another thing. Or just like I want to be involved.
00;02;11;09 - 00;02;16;26
Jodie Cook
In the scene, but not necessarily the front man. Just kind of behind the scenes drafting, crafting the narrative.
00;02;16;28 - 00;02;19;35
Sam
If I won't be president, I will write the words that the president will say.
00;02;19;38 - 00;02;20;16
Jodie Cook
That is correct.
00;02;20;16 - 00;02;20;36
Sam
Yeah.
00;02;20;45 - 00;02;21;10
Jodie Cook
Yes.
00;02;21;17 - 00;02;29;05
Sam
So how did you make your way into publications? How did you make your way into advertising? How did you make your way into this industry?
00;02;29;10 - 00;02;49;06
Jodie Cook
I really kind of fell into it. Okay. I saw a job that was advertised in the Washington, DC area that was a chance to be published, is how it was advertised. So I went and applied for the job. And really, it was being an administrative assistant to someone who did advertising sales. And a chance to be published about writing up a little thing every month for the advertisers to say, hey, here's what's coming up.
00;02;49;11 - 00;03;07;46
Jodie Cook
So I started off doing that just because I took that job. And, a couple months into it, one of the magazines that was there was going to, cancel their contract with my boss then. And so I said, can I just play around with that magazine because you're going to get rid of it anyway. So if I do a terrible job, then it won't really matter.
00;03;07;46 - 00;03;16;07
Jodie Cook
So I sold one of those issues, and I apparently brought in more revenue than they had ever had before. And so she said, perhaps you should be in sales.
00;03;16;12 - 00;03;17;27
Sam
You are a sales person.
00;03;17;31 - 00;03;18;14
Jodie Cook
Perhaps that is.
00;03;18;14 - 00;03;19;31
Sam
Correct. Congratulations.
00;03;19;33 - 00;03;20;00
Jodie Cook
Thanks.
00;03;20;04 - 00;03;20;55
Sam
One of us?
00;03;20;59 - 00;03;21;40
Jodie Cook
Yes.
00;03;21;44 - 00;03;28;48
Sam
So, obviously, though, being over here and being a part of our industry, you've stayed.
00;03;28;53 - 00;03;29;06
Jodie Cook
Yeah.
00;03;29;07 - 00;03;34;09
Sam
So what is it about the industry that has made you say, yeah, this is home now?
00;03;34;14 - 00;03;37;31
Jodie Cook
Well, it's kind of funny because we all know that once you're in, you can't ever get out, right?
00;03;37;36 - 00;03;40;53
Sam
It's a it's a it's a contract. We all sign in blood. You don't even know.
00;03;40;53 - 00;03;55;16
Jodie Cook
But it's it's out there. Yeah. But, I think this industry is really kind of fascinating. I mean, this is an ever evolving industry. Kind of funny. A couple of years ago, somebody came in as a new advertiser and said, you know, how long have you been doing this? And I told him he said, why don't you do something else?
00;03;55;17 - 00;04;11;53
Jodie Cook
And I just said, this hasn't always been like this. This hasn't been the same job for 23 years. This is evolved over the course of time. I mean, the industry has evolved over the course of time. Publications have evolved over the course of time. So it's been an ever changing, landscape that's just been fun to be in and kind of go with the flow.
00;04;12;08 - 00;04;21;14
Sam
So what has changed in the publication side? You said it's evolved. The industry has evolved as well. But on the publication side, what's been the biggest evolution, the biggest change since you started?
00;04;21;23 - 00;04;22;28
Jodie Cook
Oh digital advertising.
00;04;22;32 - 00;04;23;06
Sam
Okay.
00;04;23;11 - 00;04;44;41
Jodie Cook
Anytime we were just a print magazine to start off and then, you know, digital advertising came into the pack and people weren't really sure what that meant right at the time. And now it is. We're talking about data. I mean, there's no way that I expect anyone to, quote unquote, buy into LBM journal without me giving you some facts as to why that's going to be beneficial for you to do so.
00;04;44;46 - 00;04;55;23
Jodie Cook
Or at least we can. I think it's hopefully beneficial for you to do so. And we just try to give as much third party data to say, here's where your investment is going and here's what it's doing for you as we possibly can.
00;04;55;28 - 00;05;12;26
Sam
Yeah. I want to I'm going to talk about that a little bit too. I want to circle back to that, because you had some pretty fascinating posts on your LinkedIn recently that I found very enlightening. And, I want to I want to get back to that in terms of the data and what advertising actually drives for businesses, because I think, well, let's just talk about it now.
00;05;12;26 - 00;05;30;39
Sam
So, you know, we're in an industry that is very cyclical in nature, as you know, and there's ups and downs, there's ebbs and flows. And when there's downs when we're when we're, you know, people start to pull back. And that means less spending in certain areas. And one of the first areas to go is probably gonna be your marketing and advertising budgets, right?
00;05;30;41 - 00;05;48;49
Sam
I mean, it feels like that's just what happens when we say, all right, we need to tighten the belt a little bit. So we're not going to advertise as much as we used to. But you had had some fascinating data that I read that you put on your, your LinkedIn that talked about that's the exact opposite of what you should be doing as a business.
00;05;48;49 - 00;05;50;08
Sam
Can you talk a little bit more about that?
00;05;50;22 - 00;06;11;46
Jodie Cook
Yeah, I mean, we know this anecdotally and we also know it just from watching kind of the research that we provide with people and from talking with other companies that do research. And so one of the things I think that we definitely learned during Covid, even during the downturn of, you know, 2008 ish, but especially during Covid, is in this industry, going back with our long history in this industry, dealers have preferences.
00;06;11;47 - 00;06;34;18
Jodie Cook
Builders have preferences. Everybody likes a certain brand, everybody likes a certain tool, that type of thing. However, when things happen, when the industry takes a downturn, when supplies or those products become hard to get, you know, that kind of stuff that happened during covet. People had to switch brands. So if your brand is an out there when you are in a downturn, you're not going to be top of mind.
00;06;34;23 - 00;06;53;54
Jodie Cook
And so the people who are top of mind are the people who are kind of keeping their name in front of all of the customers, during that downturn, because they're the people who are kind of sticking with them. Right? They're they're showing validity. They're showing steadfastness in this whole thing. And they are, investing in their customers over and over again.
00;06;53;55 - 00;07;06;06
Jodie Cook
So they're just trying to keep their name out there and show, hey, we're here for you, too. We're not going to leave you abandoned. We're not going to just give all of our product to one segment of the market, things like that. We're here to support you as well as you're supporting us.
00;07;06;13 - 00;07;24;37
Sam
And like you said, that psychological effect of like, look, everything's chaotic. We don't have a lot of control over parts of our business that we'd like to have control over. But seeing that same vendor or that same, you know, entity over and over again does give them a little bit of like, oh, they're still around. There is some normalcy here in a chaotic environment.
00;07;24;37 - 00;07;33;40
Sam
I feel like psychologically that's got to turn the corner for people to say they were here throughout this whole thing. We want to continue to invest in them like we know who they are. The brand recognition is there.
00;07;33;45 - 00;07;55;24
Jodie Cook
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And that top of mind is really where it's going to be. I mean, you know, especially in our world, in our part of the channel. I mean, we're dealing we're talking to the lumber dealer community and they are dealing with their pro customers is the time. And so, you know, if they have a sales rep come in that is spending money with with the manufacturer during that time and they're saying, hey, we're here for you kind of thing, they might switch over our product line.
00;07;55;24 - 00;08;09;48
Jodie Cook
And then when that builder comes in and says, I want this, they're going to go, well, we don't really have that, but we've got this over here, which is a similar product, and they're going to talk to you about it. Right. Nut builder who's got his you know, he's loyal to those people. He's loyal to that salesperson and has a line of credit and all of those other things he's going to say.
00;08;09;49 - 00;08;11;08
Jodie Cook
Sure, sure. With that, yeah.
00;08;11;08 - 00;08;12;07
Sam
I trust these people, right.
00;08;12;07 - 00;08;12;29
Jodie Cook
I trust.
00;08;12;29 - 00;08;15;11
Sam
It. And if you're telling me to go here, that's where I'm going to at least consider it.
00;08;15;23 - 00;08;22;53
Jodie Cook
Yeah, absolutely. It'll certainly be much more considerable at this point in time than it ever has been before. So that's why that recognition is really important.
00;08;23;02 - 00;08;40;27
Sam
100%. No. I found that fascinating. I was reading that like, this makes a lot of sense to me. And I think if you are the person that's advertising as well, I mean, think about the fact that everyone else is potentially pulling back. You have an opportunity for your your dollar to go even further because you are now standing out in a crowd that is perhaps smaller, too.
00;08;40;27 - 00;08;44;14
Jodie Cook
Yeah, absolutely. You're sure a voice is going to be even bigger a share?
00;08;44;19 - 00;08;58;13
Sam
I love that. See, this is why I learned this. This is just one big like lesson for me. I've never heard the term share of voice before, but I think I know what it means. And that's amazing. So I love that. So you talked about the publication side and the change that you've seen there, the evolution. What about the industry as a whole?
00;08;58;13 - 00;09;05;38
Sam
Because you have a very unique perspective as to where you guys are in our industry. What's the biggest change you've seen for the industry as a whole?
00;09;05;43 - 00;09;20;12
Jodie Cook
I think the biggest change in the industry has certainly got to be all of the technology that's come in here. I mean, computer aided design, types of technology is huge with, you know, whether or not you can like, look at a tech, whether or not you can put a new front door on a house and visualize it, whether or not you can put new siding on or windows on.
00;09;20;12 - 00;09;38;52
Jodie Cook
I mean, you could never see any of that before. So the fact that you can kind of do that is amazing. That whole design, factor that goes into what people are doing, even in lumber yards is huge. I mean, like, you know, design centers are huge in this industry. But the other part of what I think has happened is there's so many other forces that are at work in this industry.
00;09;38;52 - 00;09;57;43
Jodie Cook
So we've got major storms that are coming in and we've got fires that are raging and we've just got a little more chaotic ness. So building products have adapted to that. We see a lot more, resilient building products, products that are meant to stand the test of time. A lot more maintenance free products, and of course, a lot more products that can be used with less labor.
00;09;57;48 - 00;09;58;43
Jodie Cook
Okay.
00;09;58;48 - 00;10;15;26
Sam
So and I agree with all that. We talked about the changes both in publication as well as the industry, as flip it over, what is what has remained the same in terms of publication and what has remained the same in terms of the industry, in terms of just what you see day to day, you know, two decades in?
00;10;15;33 - 00;10;31;10
Jodie Cook
Well, I think it's kind of funny that we always joke that once you're in, you're in. Right. So I think that the whole handshake mentality in this industry is really huge. Yeah. And no one really wants to do something bad to someone else. I think that that handshake still means a lot. I think the personal relationships still mean a lot.
00;10;31;10 - 00;10;53;26
Jodie Cook
And I think that's really kind of unique for this industry, because you're certainly not I don't know, I've only been in this industry. However, I don't see it a lot in the tech industry, and I don't see it a lot in finance, and I don't see it a lot in those types of world. So I think the fact that we all live in an ever changing, evolving industry that still really values human relationships, I think is so unique and just so important.
00;10;53;31 - 00;10;59;40
Sam
You mentioned to me we were talking a couple of weeks back, and you mentioned and I wrote it down.
00;10;59;45 - 00;11;14;48
Sam
Do Good by people or something. I'm paraphrasing what you said, and I wrote it down and obviously, you know, it's stuck in there. What did you mean by that? I mean, you were talking more about what you do and we'll get into that. But that phrase really stuck on day two, right? I think it was do right by people is what you said.
00;11;14;48 - 00;11;16;22
Sam
And it's kind of like an ethos that you have.
00;11;16;29 - 00;11;31;51
Jodie Cook
Yeah. I mean, it's definitely part of our whole ethos, mantra, whatever you want to call it. At LBM Journal, it's kind of like we started out as a small magazine that should never have survived, and we really kind of built up our, our audience and our customer base, kind of just because we wanted to do the right thing.
00;11;31;51 - 00;11;45;33
Jodie Cook
So that doesn't always mean making the money, and it doesn't always mean, doing the simple way around it. But we really found that if you can really provide value and help people, that's really where they're going to not forget that.
00;11;45;48 - 00;11;57;24
Sam
So in your words, then, how is LBM providing value to the people? Because like by your own words, you said we should have survived, but you have. Yeah. So what's the formula? What's the elixir here that I have? Why have you.
00;11;57;29 - 00;12;19;58
Jodie Cook
I think it's just one of those, just like you just said. I think we try to have integrity as a publication. We try to stay as neutral as possible. We try to give back to our clients as much as they kind of give to us. So if you're investing with us, like we we have a strict policy that we're not really going to take, editorial pieces that are written by manufacturers, because who doesn't want to tell me that they're an expert and write an article?
00;12;20;07 - 00;12;37;35
Jodie Cook
And there are a lot of experts. There's plenty of experts in this industry. However, in order to keep it just very, informative for the audience, which is why the audience still engages with it all the time, because they don't feel like they're having information kind of sold to them through an editorial aspect. We we just try to remain completely neutral.
00;12;37;35 - 00;12;54;26
Jodie Cook
But when we do that, we try to talk to our customers as many times as possible to include them in that editorial because they are the expert. So it's kind of that work life balance of, you know, finding the right formula of, hey, we we totally get that. We can't succeed without you, and we can't succeed unless we're helping you succeed.
00;12;54;31 - 00;12;55;27
Jodie Cook
It has to be a balance.
00;12;55;41 - 00;13;10;34
Sam
So why is it important? This is going to sound like a really silly question, but why is it important for you guys to remain neutral in this in this place? Like you said, this whole industry is still very much a handshake. Word is our bond. We look at each other in the eye and say, we're going to go do this.
00;13;10;34 - 00;13;26;37
Sam
And I would say the vast majority of time the people have the intention of going and doing what they say they're going to do. And, and those instances where they don't, they're sussed out. Free play. Yeah. So, you know, if you have a lot of people saying, hey, I promise you I'll do this or I'll do that, why, why is neutrality for what you do?
00;13;26;38 - 00;13;28;39
Sam
So important to our industry?
00;13;28;43 - 00;13;49;59
Jodie Cook
I think the neutrality really keeps the audience engaged. I mean, really, we're if we don't have our readers and they're not engaged, and they don't look to us to be an information source, then that really just kind of drops off our entire purpose. Yeah. So for in order for us to remain a newsworthy type of publication that is truly there to what we're trying to do is help you run your business better.
00;13;50;04 - 00;14;06;04
Jodie Cook
So I think that's the whole the whole point of neutrality is to just say we're not pushing an angle at you. We want to give you all of the options you're going to be a small deal or medium deal or super large deal or whatever you can. You can figure out a way to scale what we're telling you and what we're the information we're giving you.
00;14;06;04 - 00;14;13;36
Jodie Cook
And that's going to work differently for everybody. But we just want it to be as simple as possible and as clean as possible and not skewed in any one direction.
00;14;13;41 - 00;14;31;17
Sam
So talk to me about what LBM is doing outside of the publication as well, because you guys have events. I mean, you guys are like a full blown, like full service entertainment sort of thing now. Like it's like it's not like we're not just doing a podcast and a video show. We've got all these different other options on the menu here.
00;14;31;17 - 00;14;43;45
Sam
So what are some I mean, you guys have so many different things that you're working on, so many things that you've given back to the industry beyond just the actual publication itself. Yeah. You talk about some of the different things that you guys have worked on and have successfully created.
00;14;43;56 - 00;14;57;55
Jodie Cook
Yeah, I mean, first of all, one of the things I think that is really great, that is like so much fun to have done in the past 20 whatever years is to grow that community. Right? Because when we when I was first in the industry, we knew a few dealers, several dealers, something like that. But it wasn't like this entire community of people.
00;14;57;59 - 00;15;17;08
Jodie Cook
Now we have social media, we've got the internet, we've got all these different things going on. So we did the IBM strategies conference, which is definitely like for dealers by dealers. Our speakers are people from the industry. They're there to say, hey, I run a lumber yard, too. And we have this challenge. And here's how we dealt with the challenge, which is typically kind of giving some best practices.
00;15;17;08 - 00;15;31;03
Jodie Cook
And it's like such a high level of information sharing with these people that I think that's really just so worthy. And it's also indicative of the industry. Right? It's like we're not some people are a little bit competitors, but it's not like you're not competitors. When you're in that room, you're there to learn.
00;15;31;04 - 00;15;38;30
Sam
We're all swimming in the same ocean, right? Yeah. You might have different levels of fish and all that other fun stuff, but by and large, it's an ecosystem that we all have to live in.
00;15;38;36 - 00;15;58;21
Jodie Cook
Yes. Right. And I think that the willingness to help out is always going to kind of be there. And then after that we've built some other things into the community as well. I mean, we do have a couple of podcasts that are out there. We've got our 40 under 40 program. We're, we're recognizing young leaders in the industry, which is always super exciting because, when I started out as a child and you started out as a child, there weren't many of us out there.
00;15;58;26 - 00;16;05;58
Jodie Cook
So it's really kind of fun to see some of these young people and that are in huge roles. I mean, they're doing big, big things in this industry. So that's always.
00;16;05;58 - 00;16;23;53
Sam
Exciting. I, a guy that used to work for me, shout out to Zach Page, he was actually on the 40 under 40 list last year. And was I was so excited for him to be a part of that list. Simply because you hit it on the head. When I was 19 years old, there wasn't a lot of 19 year olds running around in this industry.
00;16;23;54 - 00;16;36;00
Sam
No, I was the youngest guy in the room. I knew I was the youngest guy in the room. And you do have a little bit of this, like, you know, imposter syndrome of, I'm not supposed to be here. All these guys are ten, 15, 20 years older than me, if not older, at least.
00;16;36;02 - 00;16;36;12
Jodie Cook
Yeah.
00;16;36;14 - 00;16;54;13
Sam
What am I going to contribute here? So to have an actual publication that is well respected and just highlighting these young, because that's the other part of this too, is we're always trying to figure out how to get young people into our industry. Yeah. Like how do we get them away from tech? How do you know? It's a wonderful industry?
00;16;54;13 - 00;16;57;13
Sam
We just we have kind of a PR problem sometimes.
00;16;57;13 - 00;16;58;06
Jodie Cook
Totally. Right.
00;16;58;10 - 00;17;13;41
Sam
Yeah. So doing stuff like the 40 under 40 I think is amazing because it highlights who these people are. They are the future of the industry. Like you said, they're not going anywhere. They're here. And now that we're actually shining a light on what they're doing and who they're doing it for and how they're doing it, I think helps embolden them to be even better.
00;17;13;41 - 00;17;17;18
Sam
Leaders and better, you know, innovators and everything else in the industry.
00;17;17;22 - 00;17;33;13
Jodie Cook
Agreed. It's kind of funny because it's like it is a PR problem, because how do you explain what this industry is? I mean, how are you? You can't go to college and, and major in the building products channel, right? Like that's not out there. But it's so many different parts of the industry that's manufacturing. It is procurement. It's international travel.
00;17;33;13 - 00;17;50;36
Jodie Cook
It's it's supply chain management. It is, you know, it's just all over the map. And so it's all about these lumber yards. I mean, it used to be kind of a joke, right? Like I said to you, even before Bradley Hartman used the clip of, Oh, God, no, I can't think of the movie. But he gets there like, oh, if I can't get a real job, I'm going to go work at the lumber yard.
00;17;50;36 - 00;17;55;02
Jodie Cook
Right? So now it's like lumber yards are functioning as corporations.
00;17;55;03 - 00;17;56;40
Sam
Multibillion dollar.
00;17;56;45 - 00;18;10;05
Jodie Cook
Absolutely. And like, and and there's every channel of thing that you could possibly want to do there from again, the air to procurement to sales to all of it. And it's like it's just an all around fascinating industry to be in. It's constantly.
00;18;10;05 - 00;18;25;22
Sam
Changing. I agree, I a division president for a builder told me about a year and a half ago. He said, I can't think of too many industries where no matter what it is you want to do with your life, you can do it within the industry. And I started thinking about it and I'm like, he's right. He's 100% right.
00;18;25;22 - 00;18;42;58
Sam
No matter what you want to do, if you're into technology computers, guess what? That's the new frontier for everything that's happening here in the building materials and construction industry. You want to get your hands dirty and build stuff perfect? Absolutely. Yeah. You're good with numbers and want to do finance. You could do that. I mean, it's just, you know, it's it's it's not what people think it is.
00;18;43;00 - 00;19;03;10
Jodie Cook
No. Absolutely not. I mean, even on the publication side, you know, we go to publisher conferences all the time and it's like you meet these people that everybody has a vertical. Right? Because technically what we are is we're publishers, but we're a media company, I should say. But then you go out there and there's all of these other crazy verticals, but it's also like when I look at ours, ours is one of the most diverse and one of the more complicated ones, I mean, other than the tech ones.
00;19;03;10 - 00;19;09;45
Jodie Cook
But, you know, it's kind of like this is a huge industry with just like we just said, it's like a million different, different directions that you can go.
00;19;09;49 - 00;19;17;03
Sam
Well, tell me about LVMH's strategies. Where is it going to be held this year? And, what are you most excited about? I think maybe in the near future, call it the next 12 to 24 months.
00;19;17;08 - 00;19;39;03
Jodie Cook
So LVMH's strategy is is going to be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this year. And we will tour the lumber yard when we're there. Should be a great event. We always try to have a little special something on the, Thursday night. So, that's still in the works. I can't give out any details on that one. But for the next 12 to 24 months, I mean, I just see it evolving, communities growing.
00;19;39;17 - 00;19;58;15
Jodie Cook
We always move this conference around. We're always looking for innovative lumber cars that have things going on, and there's just never any shortage of that. So it's really fun for us to look at, see who's out there, who's doing what, and places that we can go and see how somebody is taking their business to the next level. And everybody, you know, we get in there and everybody walks around and they're like, oh my God, I can do this, I can do this.
00;19;58;15 - 00;20;02;33
Jodie Cook
I can take this home right now and put it into my lumber yard and do something better.
00;20;02;38 - 00;20;16;44
Sam
Well, we're glad that you did this podcast. We appreciate you being here. We appreciate everything you do at LBM, Journal, and LBM as a whole. In terms of all the events that we talked about, you want to share, how can people get in touch with their BM journal, or is there anything that you want to share in terms of social media?
00;20;16;48 - 00;20;29;11
Jodie Cook
Sure. If you are a follower, if you're not following us, we're on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, of course. You can always go to LBM, journal.com and subscribe to our daily newsletter, which is filled with information and of course, subscribe to the magazine.
00;20;29;20 - 00;20;35;20
Sam
Awesome. Well, Jody, thank you very much for being here on Strong Conversations. Thank all of you for joining us. Stay tuned. We got more conversations coming up.