How a 70 Year Custom Millwork Shop Operates: Behind The Build at Magbee Contractors Supply Part 1

How a 70 Year Custom Millwork Shop Operates: Behind The Build at Magbee Contractors Supply Part 1

Most lumber yards sell what their suppliers stock. Magbee Contractors Supply builds it. In this episode of Behind the Build, I head to Winder, Georgia with owner Bob Magbee, VP of Sales Stewart Brandon, and inside sales manager Melissa McDougald to walk a 20-acre, rail-served yard and the custom millwork shop that sits at the heart of the operation. You will see how Magbee runs a real custom wood door shop. We find door slabs in white oak, poplar, and maple, raised panels, shaker designs, and a 48-inch wide door with a custom lattice grid built in-house, that you will not find at a big box. You’ll learn about multi-point hardware, flush glaze exteriors, direct set vs sash set transoms, and the difference between true divided lite and simulated divided lite. These are the small details that separate a custom home from a cookie-cutter look. Bob shares how his dad and uncle started the company in Decatur in 1954 and why rail access still matters in 2026 when most framing lumber comes down from Canada. Stewart breaks down the rise of thermally modified wood, a heat-treated, chemical-free option that holds straighter, lasts longer, and gives clients the stain-grade look they want with very little maintenance. We also get a sneak peek at the Lew Oliver Collection, a curated set of doors, crowns, trim, casings, and plinth blocks designed by one of the Southeast's most respected designers, Lew Oliver, and built by Magbee Contractors Supply. What you'll take away today: A custom millwork shop can run custom wood doors, knives, moldings, and trim packages that most yards cannot offer. Thermally modified wood gives clients a chemical-free, low-maintenance option that lasts longer. True divided lite and simulated divided lite look similar, but solve very different jobs for high-end home building materials. The Lew Oliver Collection gives builders and homeowners a curated path to custom without starting from scratch. A 20-acre rail-served yard with custom wood doors built on site is how a family business competes with the giants. Explore Magbee Luxury's Beautiful Products: https://magbeeluxury.com/ 👉 Subscribe to Built to Win [https://stefaniecouch.kit.com/ae221e2ce6] Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie. 👉 Book a Strategy Call [https://calendly.com/stefaniecouch/grit-blueprint-strategy-call] Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk. Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com [https://gritblueprint.com]YouTube: Stefanie Couch [https://youtube.com/@StefanieCouch]Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial [https://instagram.com/stefaniecouchofficial]LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch [https://linkedin.com/in/stefaniecouch]Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com [https://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.

Designing The Future: Modular Homes, Custom Millwork, And Walkable Communities with Lew Oliver

Lew Oliver has spent decades doing something most designers never attempt. He does not just draw homes. He plans entire towns. From Seaside to Rosemary Beach to the first expansion of Edinburgh since 1805, his work has shaped some of the most loved communities in the world. In this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast, I sit down with Lew at his studio in Clarksville, Georgia, to talk about what real community building looks like and why so many developers miss it. We walk through his philosophy on vernacular architecture, why a home should feel like it belongs to the land, and how the early settlers of the South shaped a building tradition still worth studying today. You’ll learn the principles of new urbanism and walkable community planning, including how a hundred houses can sit on fifteen acres instead of one hundred, and what that does for both people and profit. We also break down two collections Grit Blueprint helped bring to life. The MOD Modular Home Design Collection is built to make stylish, well planned neighborhoods attainable for teachers, families, and first time buyers. The Lew Oliver Collection with Magbee Contractors Supply is a curated millwork, molding, and door collection that ends the twenty year drought of soulless trim and doors, and brings real detail back into homes. Lew shares why labor shortages are pushing modular forward, why details create the moments people remember, and what most developers get wrong when they try to manufacture a sense of place. If you are a builder, dealer, designer, or developer in the building industry, this conversation will sharpen your thinking about scale, materiality, and affordable home design. What you'll take away: Why vernacular architecture creates homes that feel like they belong on the land and sell faster because of it. How walkable community planning lets you fit one hundred homes on fifteen acres, raise margins, and preserve land. Why modular home design is the path to affordable home design without losing style or quality. How the Lew Oliver Collection with Magbee Contractors Supply ends the era of boring trim and brings detail back into homes. What most developers get wrong about new urbanism, and what it takes to build communities people refuse to leave. 👉 Subscribe to Built to Win [https://stefaniecouch.kit.com/ae221e2ce6] Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie. 👉 Book a Strategy Call [https://calendly.com/stefaniecouch/grit-blueprint-strategy-call] Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk. Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com [https://gritblueprint.com]YouTube: Stefanie Couch [https://youtube.com/@StefanieCouch]Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial [https://instagram.com/stefaniecouchofficial]LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch [https://linkedin.com/in/stefaniecouch]Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com [https://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.

How To Start Using AI In Your Business: Proven AI Tips That Help Businesses Grow with Jason Blair

Most leaders in the building industry know AI is going to change the game. Very few have a real plan for what to do about it. This episode is a working playbook on how to use AI in your business from a CEO who is already doing it. Jason Blair runs Tal Building Centers, a family-owned company with 28 locations in the Pacific Northwest. Fifteen months ago, he started an internal AI committee with people from across his organization. Not just IT. Not just leadership. A real cross-section of his team. The goal was simple. Define what AI means for Tal, set governance, and put it to work as an augmentation tool, not a replacement for people. In this episode, I sit down with Jason at the Do it Best Market to break down the real moves. You’ll learn how he used ChatGPT as a thinking partner on a project he called Project Clarity, which solved months of friction between three of his departments. Jason shares how he uses AI to help write board updates in five minutes, how his AP department runs a 225 million dollar business with two people, and how he handled the youngest leader on his team who was the most resistant to AI. This is not theory. This is AI for small business owners in action. You’ll learn how to keep sensitive data safe, why Loom is one of the smartest tools for training your team, and what the next 12 months look like for AI in the building materials industry. If you have been waiting for a sign to start using AI at work, this is it. What you'll take away: - AI works best when you treat it like a thousand dollar an hour consultant, not a search engine. - You can get started with AI in your business with simple tasks like writing emails, summarizing financials, and verifying POs. - Using AI as a thinking partner can help you spot leadership blind spots and find friction between teams that you cannot put your finger on. - AI automation is already helping 225 million dollar companies run AP departments with only two people. - How you start using AI at work matters less than the fact that you start. Pay the 20 dollars a month, turn off data sharing, and ask it to help with tasks that you do every day. 👉 Subscribe to Built to Win [https://stefaniecouch.kit.com/ae221e2ce6] Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie. 👉 Book a Strategy Call [https://calendly.com/stefaniecouch/grit-blueprint-strategy-call] Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk. Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com [https://gritblueprint.com]YouTube: Stefanie Couch [https://youtube.com/@StefanieCouch]Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial [https://instagram.com/stefaniecouchofficial]LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch [https://linkedin.com/in/stefaniecouch]Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com [https://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.

How Custom Design And Millwork Transform Spaces: Inside Chip Wade's Stunning Luxury Treehouse Rentals

In this episode of Behind the Build I'm in Chatsworth, Georgia, with Chip Wade at The Perch Treehouses. The three luxury treehouses are located in the North Georgia mountains and have stunning views of their wild surroundings. The Jenny, The Tom, and The Jake, share the same square footage and the same engineered foundation. But the second you walk through the front door of each one, the feel is completely different. That's what custom design and real millwork do for a home. I'm a door nerd, so the front doors are where I start. The pink Dutch door on The Jenny was something Chip called me about. We drew it on a napkin at lunch, and Magbee Contractor Supply turned that sketch into a real shop drawing and a real door. The Jake has a solid mahogany gothic arch double door that I had only ever seen in my dreams. These doors set the tone for the entire build, and they prove what's possible when you work with a dealer who can actually deliver custom. I grew up in this industry, and I've walked through a lot of houses. This one stopped me. Standing inside, the arches line up. The hardware feels heavy in your hand. The colors connect across rooms. That's what a custom luxury build feels like, and it's the reason guests pay a premium to stay.  Chip brought in partners who could deliver: Magbee on custom doors, Daltile on countertops, Oltre on cast fireplaces, John Boos on butcher block, Murphy Door, and so many more. These are the manufacturers and dealers who make a design vision real. Living in a space like this hits different. For builders and dealers watching, the takeaway is simple: pick the right partners, commit to custom, and the build sells itself. 👉 Subscribe to Built to Win [https://stefaniecouch.kit.com/ae221e2ce6] Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie. 👉 Book a Strategy Call [https://calendly.com/stefaniecouch/grit-blueprint-strategy-call] Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk. Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com [https://gritblueprint.com]YouTube: Stefanie Couch [https://youtube.com/@StefanieCouch]Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial [https://instagram.com/stefaniecouchofficial]LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch [https://linkedin.com/in/stefaniecouch]Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com [https://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.

How To Modernize Custom Manufacturing With Powerful Software: Dori Shoshan, Panda Windows & Doors

I sit down with Dori Shoshan, head of Innovation and Business Development at Panda Windows & Doors, inside the Las Vegas showroom of one of the most respected custom luxury windows and doors manufacturers in North America. Dori is a working radiologist and the son of Panda's founders, Avi and Tiranit Shoshan, who started the family business in 1991 in Israel, where his father chose to start with the hardest product in the category, radius curve multi-slide doors, and built his own bending machine to do it. Dori walks through how a family-owned window manufacturer is rebuilding the engine room of the company. He breaks down the multi-year rollout of Paradigm’s building industry software, including how it has cut quote turnaround from several days to about one hour and turned a one-week shop drawing process into a one-click output. He explains why he chose Paradigm over European systems, how it now runs configure price quote, cut optimization, packing slips, and CNC manufacturing instructions on one seamless platform, and how it will give dealers self-serve quoting of Panda’s products for the first time. Dori and I also dig into AI in the building industry, why slim profile multi-slide and lift and slide doors are taking over the high-end market, and why Panda is considering a broader go-to-market strategy. You’ll learn the story behind the Panda name, how the team protects the founder's standards as they scale, and what he hopes the next ten years look like for the family. If you build, sell, or specify windows and doors, this conversation is a clear look at how to modernize your processes without losing the human element. This podcast was produced alongside an episode of our Behind The Build series, where we toured Panda's factory floor with Dori's sister, Noya Shoshan. Watch the full tour and see why Panda doors are showing up in casinos, hotels, and dream homes across the country: https://youtu.be/BoecyLZwhD4 Thank you to Panda Window & Doors for hosting us. See more of their cutting-edge luxury products:  https://www.panda-windows.com/  This Behind the Build episode was sponsored by Paradigm.  Paradigm’s software solutions help organizations throughout the building industry supply chain to boost sales, reduce costs, and become more competitive.  Learn more: https://myparadigm.com/  👉 Subscribe to Built to Win [https://stefaniecouch.kit.com/ae221e2ce6] Real talk, strategies, and tools from Stefanie. 👉 Book a Strategy Call [https://calendly.com/stefaniecouch/grit-blueprint-strategy-call] Ready to grow your brand or business? Let’s talk. Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com [https://gritblueprint.com]YouTube: Stefanie Couch [https://youtube.com/@StefanieCouch]Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial [https://instagram.com/stefaniecouchofficial]LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch [https://linkedin.com/in/stefaniecouch]Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com [https://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.