In this episode of Strong Conversations, host Sam Marcoux sits down with Amy Grant, Vice President and Publisher of Hardware & Building Supply Dealer, to discuss the rapid growth and impact of the industry's Top Women in Hardware & Building Supply program. What started as a virtual event in 2020 has grown into one of the industry's most influential platforms for recognizing, attracting, and retaining women in the building materials industry. Together, they explore leadership, mentorship, career opportunities, and how the industry continues to evolve by creating space for more diverse voices and future generations of leaders.
This episode includes:
and we knew that we wanted to celebrate the women that were in the industry but we also knew we
wanted to get one step further and that one step further was um attracting women to this industry
yes and then helping retain them showing them that there's this incredible industry that you can
have a very strong career path and actually make real impact Right.
So what we're all doing here is we're building shelter, we're building homes, we're building
careers. And there's a place at the table for women.
Welcome back to another episode of Strong Conversations, Real Stories with the leaders, innovators
and changemakers here in the building industry. I am Sam Marcoux. I'm always Sam Marcoux. And
joining me now is Amy Grant. Amy, thank you for joining us. Thank you.
Nice to be here. No, thank you for being here. We were just talking off air about so many different
things. But before we get into that, let's get your street crate going here. Street crate. Who do
you work for? What do you do? Let everybody know why you're sitting on the couch. Yeah, absolutely.
So as you mentioned, I'm Amy Grant. I'm with Hardware and Building Supply Dealer.
It's a media platform for exactly that, the hardware and building supply industry. We're a news
organization. It has a great platform that shares the voices and the trends of the industry.
We're here because HBS Steeler and myself launched a great event called the Top Women in Hardware
and Building Supply. And it's really... It's grown to be this amazing event that's embedded in the
industry. Not only has it grown, it's grown like it has scaled quickly.
I mean, it caught fire, this event, right? I mean, this just started in 2020.
Is that right? Yeah. So I hate to use this phrase, but my editor-in-chief loves to say lightning
in a bottle. Lightning in a bottle. And I've told him several times we can't use that anymore, but
here I am saying it. So really, it's that. The time was right for this topic and this,
you know, mission to help grow the industry, people in the industry,
voices in the industry, and obviously women in the industry. Yeah. So it's been amazing.
So we launched it in 2020 virtually, which is, you know, nobody likes virtual. At least most people
in this industry. We hate it. We absolutely hate it. I mean, we're sitting here,
we're talking live and in person here. And you even asked me just a side note, you said, so with
this podcast, do you guys ever do this in the virtual environment? And my answer was no, not yet.
We want to be in this industry. We want to be together. We want to sit in the room and have that
conversation. And here you are launching this platform in a virtual environment in an industry that
doesn't want to do that. I mean, that's challenging upon challenging right there.
It is. I guess I can say, thankfully, HBS Dealer has a wide audience that we could speak to with
our magazine and our daily newsletter and our website to kind of promote the fact that, hey, we
want to hear from you. Who's top women in the industry that we need to know? So we kind of promoted
the heck out of it. And we were soliciting nominations. We wanted to know from the industry,
who do you know? That's your rising stars. That's your business excellence that you would like to
nominate. And, you know, we had 100, maybe 200 in that first year.
And we really kind of launched it with a week of panel discussions with top women around,
you know, certain topics that made sense, whether it male allyship, mentorship, just kind of
bringing women to the table. And then fast forward.
2025 every year since then it was live, right? And so fast forward to 2025, we had 1,066
nominations for those rising stars in business excellence. So, boy,
we were really challenged to read all of those nominations. We also started to accept nominations
in a video format, which really allowed us to hear from the nominator. see the nominator and really
get a feeling of why this person made sense to get nominated. So not only did we have that jump
from like 100-ish nominations to over 1,000, but the industry really showed up and embraced it.
They wanted to be there. And one of the questions that we got, can men come to this?
And we said, yes, please, please, please come. And so we've started to see not only were there
nominations from men, but men wanted to come and support that person being honored and sometimes
bring their team and sometimes bring their daughter, right? So USLBM, I credit LT Gibson for this.
All the women, I think, that were honored. Got to bring their daughters.
Oh, my gosh. To really show, right? So some of the things we say, like, if you can see it, you can
become it. And that's been the challenge for this industry. And, like, as I'm doing this,
I'm floored. The women are here. There just hasn't always been a way for them to have their voices
heard, for the spotlight to be on them. And this is really something that's allowed that,
right? So if you come to a Top Women event, you're in awe. of the four to 500 people that are
there, it's like IBS in reverse, right? So when you see IBS, I'm looking, there's a lot of men.
Yes. When you go to tap women, you're like, boy, there's a lot of women. And then there's a
sprinkling of men. And I love that. I love the idea of bringing the daughters so they can see it.
Almost made me cry like it was beautiful. And they deserve that. The daughters deserve it and the
mothers deserve it. Because what a powerful moment. So truth be told, I grew up with two sisters.
I have an older sister and a younger sister. Single mom, worked multiple jobs to put a roof over
her head. All that fun stuff. So what you're talking about is near and dear to me. By the way, I
have a daughter and I have two stepdaughters. I'm always looking for everyday heroes to be able to
hold up for them and say, this is something you can do. Because it is so difficult on young women
and ladies to find. tangible role models, especially in today's environment where you have social
media, you have these phones, you have this communication network that they have access to called
the internet that shoves all of these things in front of them that are unrealistic and completely
toxic in many, many ways. So being able to find, you know, everyday business women,
innovators, engineers, smart individuals, and they're doing this and they're doing it in a male
dominated environment and they're succeeding and they're thriving. I, in my opinion, you know,
the right time at the right, it was lightning in a bottle and it is now an explosion that it cannot
be contained. Yeah. And one of the things that I love is the men that have come up to me and said,
thank you so much for doing this. And then when we end 2025, they're like.
This has to be on my calendar. Tell me when 2026 is. They try to block it out.
And that's one of the reasons why we have the event in November. Right. Because we're typically not
competing with trade shows. We don't want to compete. um and so people can mark it on their
calendar and so you know we had 400 and some people attend last year it's in chicago we want to
make it really easy to get there we don't want there to be an obstacle a barrier yes for attending
right and so we try to remove as much as that women And I don't, I think I'm like most women,
we don't want to feel pity or whatever, but there are obstacles that we definitely have that the
rest of, you know, the other half of the world doesn't have.
Yeah. A hundred percent. And so, you know, we've tried to always find a keynote speaker that speaks
to that, right? That is a amazing woman in a male dominated industry.
you know last year we had odessa jenkins she was uh she started the women's national football
conference yeah and so everybody was cheering for her like here she is a woman of color a woman
yeah that wants to play football right and tackle football tackle football we're not talking flag
football yeah and so everybody just gave her such high remarks so we're always trying to find that
woman in male-dominated industries outside of our industry that can really speak to And just kind
of, you know, shine that light that if you can see it, you can do it and you can become it. So how
long have you been in this industry now? Yes. So you're going to age me here, but it's going on 26
years. OK, so we're parallel then. OK, so there's no aging here. Yeah,
no, we're we're young and hip and cool. We're just we're just two people who have a little bit of
experience under our belt that can remember a different time in this industry. Yeah. And this is
something I'm going to quote you on our pre-call. OK. And you talked about the journey of women
through our industry and where we were 26 years ago. And I think and I'd forgotten about this.
And I shared a story with you because I was I was I was a teenager when I started here. Eyes wide
open, not really knowing anything. And you talked about we have gone from the booth babes. Yeah.
Where women are basically used, quite frankly, as a prop. Some eye candy.
Some eye candy. Sure. And here we are now where they're running boardrooms. They're running
companies. And they're just the evolution of women in our industry over the past,
call it two decades. I hadn't thought about it. And as somebody who I like to consider myself a
champion and doing the right things, I hadn't put it in that term until you said that. And I
immediately went back to being 19, 20 years old, going to trade shows. And that's exactly. where
the women were at those trade shows yeah so a lot has changed right it's been slow though but i
mean this industry is slow to adopt a lot of things right from technology to you know all sorts of
stuff so it doesn't it's not surprising but what what i love is where we are today yes and the
journey that we've taken today there are no booth babes Um, every woman in all these booths are,
you know, knowledgeable about the products and the services being offered. And, um,
you know, some things I do still hear though. I don't, a lot of women that, that own some lumber
yards that they'll be at the counter and men still kind of peek around to see if there's a man they
can talk to, you know, the owner. Right. So some of this stuff is still, still there, still there
that, that will change for sure. Um, but it is changing and we're seeing it at this show.
that you can talk to anybody in the booth and they're knowledgeable. And I think that's what's so
incredible about what you have helped start is that it is a slow change. Most change is incremental
and takes a long time. And you have to kind of look over a decade or two and say, look how far
we've come. But with your event, I mean, we're talking five years and this thing has exploded into
the thousands of nominees. You guys have added categories. I mean, it has grown and expanded.
You've got hundreds of people coming to the event in November in Chicago every single year to
support this thing. I was talking about that event yesterday with Russ Cathrine, a friend of ours.
He was glowing about this event. He's like, that's the event you got to go to. And I love Russ for
that, for sure. And do it best. I mean, what's great is like, you know,
HBS dealer. Our audience is those hardware and building supply dealers and the vendors who supports
a lot of things we do. This is one event that the dealers are supporting too.
And so from, you know, a lot of the big guys like Do It Best and 84 Lumber and Lowe's and,
you know, they're all supportive along with the manufacturers. So to hear something from Russ,
Russ's been in the industry for a long time with Alexander Lumber and Now Do It Best. And so to
hear that from him, I love that. And they send lots of people. you know 30 people maybe so it's
it's not only like important to them in terms of the branding and the mission but for the time
we're asking people to spend a couple days out of the office um and we knew that we wanted to
celebrate the women that were in the industry but we also knew we wanted to get one step further
and that one step further was um attracting women to this industry yes and then helping retain them
showing them that there's this incredible industry that you can have a very strong career path and
actually make real impact right so what we're all doing here is we're building shelter we're
building homes we're building careers and there's a place at the table for women 100 you don't need
to be able to lift you know 100 pounds of stuff right you can use your brain and be all parts of
the organization whether it's sales or operations or what have you so it really is bigger than
celebrating the people that are here but it's really trying to help attract and retain those folks
in this industry Let me ask you a personal question. When you eventually move on from what we're
doing in this industry and you look back when you retired, what do you want your legacy to be?
I know that's a very heavy question. That is a big question. It wasn't on the pre-question list.
You know what? I think women are tough.
Sometimes women are really tough to each other. And I hope my legacy is I wasn't.
I hope I was like, you know, they always say straightening out the crown of other women. I hope I
was one of those people that I always was supportive and not feeling like that,
you know.
I don't know. Some women are tough on other women. I just hope that I'm not that person. I hope I'm
always lifting up other people, especially women. Yeah. Just because I, you know, I started my
career at 26. Right. So young, you know, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Right. And so I just hope I give other people those future industry women that they can see that we
paved the path for them to experience a great a great life and career in this industry.
I think if it all ended tomorrow, that that legacy, that hope that you have is fulfilled. And
you're going to do nothing but continue that going forward because it isn't going to end tomorrow.
But speaking of tomorrow. near future the midterm future of our industry what are you excited about
uh what's coming up what are you working on what should we be looking forward to we're going to see
amy grant next yeah so i mean so we're working on this year's event right so when you talk about
some of the awards that we we only added one award last year and that was a hall of fame and that
was just you know thinking about all these rising stars and business excellence there's women that
have reached that pinnacle of their career And so we kind of scoured it. We had a short list that
we were thinking about. And I think the person that, you know, the inaugural Hall of Fame award
that we bestowed was Gina Schaefer. If you don't know her,
there couldn't have been a better person to deserve this award. She started one hardware store
outside of the D.C. area, grew it to 13. She also...
hired people, gave them second chances. So she hired a lot of people from like a a drug
rehabilitation center that was down the street. And so she kind of became the recovery hardware.
That was what she was known for, giving people second chances. She wrote a book. So she really kind
of did everything for community, for the industry, and also for women. She started Women in
Hardware at Ace Hardware. So just really... All of the stars aligned. Sounds like a Hall of Famer
to me. To give that award. So if you know of anybody, we are looking for that next Hall of Fame
recipient. So we're working on that. And then, of course, with success comes, you know,
people want to see it get bigger and better. Right. So we're trying to fulfill that kind of
expectation. Who's going to be our keynote speaker? How we're going to provide all the content
information that makes it continues it to be so. special we've got some ideas for keynote speakers
there's some there's some storytellers out there that are truly motivation moving everything else
so you and i will talk because i have some ideas that i'd love to throw your way i love that and
the other thing that i think is so important to this mission is in every issue of hbs dealer we do
a woman's spotlight yes And we've done that for Simpson. We've done that just for anybody in the
industry that's been nominated and honored. We kind of give them that additional platform to keep
this mission moving. And you can read all about these women and HBS dealers.
We love that. Keeping the mission alive every month and every issue to kind of fulfill that mission
that we're working towards. Well, Amy, thank you for being here on Strong Conversations. Thank you
for everything you're doing for the industry. That legacy is going to be a fantastic one to look
back on one day. And you should be very proud of everything you're doing and everything you're
about to do and will continue to do. And I want to thank all of you for joining us here on Strong
Conversations. Remember, like, subscribe, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. We got more great
content coming soon. See you guys next time.