How Sports Provide Strong Work Ethics and Values for the Workplace: A Conversation With Mark “Munch” Bishop
Note: this is a transcript from our recent AHA interview. If you would like to watch the video, check out our content studio page. This interview is also available as a Podcast episode – find it here.
Steve Stack:
Brought to you direct from Studio 3B at Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods, American Hardwood Advisor is your source for trends, tips, and insights into how the building industry has evolved.
Join me, Steve Stack, along with guest builders and industry leaders, as we talk shop and go in-depth on what it takes to be the best of the best.
Dive into topics like architecture, industry trends, project plans, historical tools, tricks of the trade, and life lessons from more than six decades of experience in the hardwood lumber business.
Gaining Good Work Ethic Skills From Playing Sports
Steve Stack:
Hello again from Studio 3B here at Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods in Canfield, Ohio. This is Steve Stack and I am here with a very special guest, my friend, Baird Brothers’ friend, northeast Ohio’s friend, Mr. Mark “Munch” Bishop. We are really excited to have you. Munch, how are you doing, bud?
Mark Bishop:
I am superb. Thank you so much. And when I come out to Canfield, to Baird Brothers, I’m doing even better, man, because it’s comfortable; it’s family. And you know what’s cool, too? We haven’t even gotten rolling yet. I love pulling in and seeing (and kudos to them), but I love seeing a lineup of seven or eight different trucks from other lumber companies coming here to get their goods. This is the hub, baby. This is it. And I say, not just nationally, but internationally craved products. And I get to hang out here with you, man. I feel part of the family at Baird Brothers.
Steve Stack:
You know it, man. We think of you as family and we just love having you down here.
Mark Bishop:
Thanks, man. I appreciate that.
Steve Stack:
Every time you’re down here, we have great conversations. And I’m going to say it, it’s no BS. It’s straight off the cuff.
Mark Bishop:
Thanks, man. I appreciate that. I feel the same way. And thank you, too, because you gave me a new way to get here. I don’t mind going out through the country and looking at the ball diamonds. It breaks my heart to drive by the ball diamond in the middle of January since we can’t do a dang thing about it. Because you know what? I always have a baseball mitt in the truck of my car. You know that. Always.
Steve Stack:
You’ve told me that before. What’s better than that?
Mark Bishop:
That’s what it’s all about!
Steve Stack:
Stopping on a little league dirt field, right?
Mark Bishop:
Right.
Steve Stack:
Doesn’t that bring back memories?
Mark Bishop:
Occasionally I’ll get grilled by somebody on the air, because baseball will come up. One of the things I always say is, “Do you know where your baseball mitt is?” And when people say “No”, I have to hang up on them. You should at least know where it is. You know what I mean? That’s American, man.
Steve Stack:
I know where mine’s at, the first one.
Mark Bishop:
What? Wait a minute.
Steve Stack:
I was a bat boy.
Mark Bishop:
Okay. Come on.
Steve Stack:
I have an old wool matching uniform for the team that I bat boy’d from.
Mark Bishop:
Wool. Could you imagine that? It’s 90 degrees and you’re wearing wool.
Steve Stack:
Gray wool with blue pin stripes down the legs and down the sleeves.
Mark Bishop:
It didn’t matter if you were hot. You just sweated it out.
Steve Stack:
Bat boy letters are sewn on the back.
Mark Bishop:
Really?
Steve Stack:
My mom saved it all these years.
Mark Bishop:
You know what? You got to save stuff like that. I’ve got one from when I played for a team called Solon Buyer Papers. It was a printing company. And it was the same thing; it’s wool. And you’re saying, “I caught with the gear on and had that thing on…” But you know what? You never once thought twice about it, because you got to play a game you loved.
Steve Stack:
Exactly. They were some of the best times. Childhood should be that fun.
Fun Work Environments Encourage Hard Work
Mark Bishop:
Amen. So maybe we should pass it on to the owners of Major League Baseball and the players right now. Just sit down. We don’t care. It’s billionaires against billionaires. Just settle what you need to do. We want to watch baseball.
Steve Stack:
And when those guys (the major leaguers) are having fun, they’re winning.
Mark Bishop:
Thank you, just look at the guys laughing. Although, there’s an intensity involved and there is a bottom line because there are two columns: One on the left with a “W” and one on the right with an “L.” You want most of your games to go on the “W” side. You see the guys that are smiling and laughing. It’s interesting, some of the old school guys don’t like that. Remember the Indians had a second baseman named Brandon Phillips?
Steve Stack:
Yeah.
Mark Bishop:
He didn’t get along with the manager, Eric Wedge, because Wedge said, “You’re not supposed to be having fun out there.” Phillips said, “Pardon me? I’m a black kid from the ghetto. I’m making millions of dollars. I’m having fun.” So they traded him to Cincinnati and he was only an allstar six years in a row.
Meanwhile, the Indians didn’t have a second baseman. But you know what else, though? When I come here, whether it’s guys making dowel rods, whether it’s somebody putting together pieces for a stairwell, whether it’s somebody just planing some wood, people here have fun, too, with what they’re doing. They’re serious. They know that the jobs need to be perfect, because you don’t want a piece of wood a quarter inch short or something like that. But they enjoy what they’re doing. If you enjoy what you’re doing, it comes off that way. You know that, Steve?
Steve Stack:
That’s it. And your product, whether it be a “W” in the win column or the quality work of the product you’re producing, it’s reflective of that mentality.
Mark Bishop:
Right. Here’s something else that I love about Baird Brothers: people take ownership. Now, they don’t take advantage of that, but they take ownership. It’s as if everybody here, from somebody that’s sweeping up some sawdust after something is done to Steve or Scott up in the office, everyone takes ownership from somebody in the sales room.
I had a listener pop in the other day, actually it was the infamous Mr. Gullible from Stow. He’s the guy that always ends his calls with an “aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.” He comes in and he goes, “I felt like I’d been in that showroom 50 times. I walked up and said, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’” He got some tools that he wanted to do some carving with. And that’s what it is, people take ownership and they do it in a good way. You know what that means? Pride. Isn’t that something, Steve? So much pride.
Steve Stack:
It’s pride and it’s not just the approach to your job. It’s when we go home at night to our respective families. It’s the approach that you take with them, also.
Mark Bishop:
It all ties in together.
Steve Stack:
Hey, life’s too short.
Mark Bishop:
Amen, brother. I know that for a fact.
Munch’s Radio Career Development
Steve Stack:
With that said, we’re jumping out to the Baird Brothers audience all around the country. If you’re from northeast Ohio, everybody knows who Mark “Munch” Bishop is.
Mark Bishop:
Well, thank you. I hope in a good way.
Steve Stack:
If it involves sports and radio.
Mark Bishop:
I don’t owe anyone money, I want you to know that (except the bank).
Steve Stack:
You’ve already set that bar high, friend.
Mark Bishop:
Thanks.
Steve Stack:
But in all seriousness, I know a ton of your background. A lot of people listening do. But a lot of people don’t. Give us a short bio of where Munch is from, how he came up through the ranks and how you’ve kept yourself busy for the last 43 years.
Mark Bishop:
It’ll be 44 years in the business on August 15th.
Steve Stack:
How did it happen?
Mark Bishop:
It was really a lot of divine intervention in my life. I’m an inner city Cleveland kid from 53rd and Ham Avenue in Slavic Village. Then we moved to the Lee Harvard area (I thought I was moving to a gated community in Gates Mills or something like that). Then I moved out to Solon for high school. I went to, and I’ve got to say it this way, The Ohio State University for undergrad. I was going to grad school. Believe it or not, my major was sociology and criminology because I was going to go to law school. I was at Capital Law School and they’re saying, “Why not Ohio State?” The counselors even told me, “You know what? You’ve been here for your undergrad, for your masters. Go to a different college for your law school, just to get a little bit more.”
Capital University had a great law school in Columbus. So I was in Capital Law School finishing up my second year. There was a relatively new radio station in Columbus, QFM96. It’s a rock station, a sister station of 610 WTVN. Every city has your WTM 1100 like in Cleveland. You can go all across the country. Cincinnati has WLW, which you can probably even get up here at 700 with a booming signal, the big talk AM station.
So QFM came around and I’m going to Capital Law School, which was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I was working my way through law school. There was a famous deli in downtown Columbus for years called Bernie’s Bagels and Deli. I was managing the deli. So if I had classes in the afternoon, I’d open the deli at 6:00 AM for breakfast. I’d manage them, then head off to class. If I had classes in the morning, my schedule was the opposite. Well, these radio stations happened to be in a building right across the street. The program director, the general manager, the sales manager, and a couple other people would come in three or four days a week to get a corned beef sandwich.
Steve Stack:
Into the restaurant.
Mark Bishop:
Into Bernie’s Bagels. They’d get a corned beef sandwich, have a beer with it and chit chat. Being a manager (being very conscious of payroll), if it was kind of slow, I’d send a bartender home. I could put an order in for a corned beef sandwich and draw a beer, no problem. We started talking and out of the clear blue sky, the program director said to me, “You know what? You know a lot of sports.” And I said, “You know, yeah, if I wasn’t going to law school, I’d always wanted to be a sports announcer.” And I actually had some broadcast journalism courses because you need to get eight more hours for-
Steve Stack:
Some of your electives.
Mark Bishop:
Electives, yeah. Once you have all your requirements done,”Okay. I’ll take a couple of those.” And he goes, “You know? I want a sports guy for the new rock station.” Because we’re in Columbus and what rules Columbus? Ohio State.”
Steve Stack:
Definitely.
Mark Bishop:
People want to talk about Ohio State football in the middle of March. The season starts when? At the end of August. So he goes, “How’d you like to make a few extra bucks?” I said, “I don’t really have time for that.” He goes, “Well, we’ll work around it. I’d like you to do a couple reports in the morning. What time are you here?” This and that. “You could do it on the phone if you want.” So he goes, “Well, we could swing a 6:10 and a 7:10 report in the morning, and we could just replay one of those at 8:10.” I said, “Okay.” Now, picture it. This is 1979. You weren’t even born yet, were you?
Steve Stack:
I was right behind you. I started college in ’79.
Mark Bishop:
I said, “Well, what’s it going to be?” They go, “For two reports a morning, we’re thinking 70 bucks a week.” I’m thinking, “Wait a second. That’s a couple tanks of gas.” And back then, what kind of food were you eating? Macaroni and cheese in different ways, and maybe some Chef Boyardee in a can. I said, “You know what? Let me try it.” He goes, “One thing, I want you to talk sports not like, ‘And last night the Indians up ended the White Sox.'” He goes, “No, no, no. I want you to talk sports like you’re talking to me across the bar, like you’re talking to us. Like we’re sitting down.” Or when I talk to Scott, something to that nature. So I said, “I’ll try and do it.” I went and did a couple dry runs, then he goes, “You’re hired.”
I go, “Okay.” I figured I’d do it for a few months, make a few extra bucks. Well, then the guy in the afternoon — and we all know the name Dan Patrick, internationally known sportscaster. It was his younger brother. Here’s a little scoop for you here at the Baird Brothers podcast: Dan’s real name is Pugh, P-U-G-H, from Mason, Ohio (before Mason became a booming suburb of Cincinnati) and they all went to the University of Dayton.
So Bill, knowing his brother was off to ESPN, said, “You know what? I want that guy at my show in the afternoon.” So it’s like, “Okay.” At the time he wanted me, he wanted me at 5:10.” I was always free. So he told the owner of the deli, “Hey, if he could walk across the street, we’ll give the deli a plug.”
He goes, “Yeah, fine. Free commercial.” So I started doing an afternoon drive. Are you ready for this? Don’t fall out of your seat. For an extra 30 bucks a week, baby. I was up to a hundo a week for that. I was living large. And all of a sudden, it kept going, and it kept going, and it kept going. Morning shows would change and quit. After doing it for about a year, I was finishing up my second year in law school. They said, “We hate to do this to you.” And I’m thinking, “Okay, here it comes. ‘We’re not going to use you anymore.'” But they said, “We know you’re in law school. We’d like to add you full time.” And I started thinking, “You know what? I really enjoyed myself and I see people enjoying themselves. I see people putting in work, but it’s not really work. Let me go talk to somebody.”
Steve Stack:
I’m going to interject. And you’re still enjoying yourself?
Mark Bishop:
I’ve never worked a day in my life. Never. Next week, I’ll be doing 1100 in the mornings. Since that show starts at 5:00 a.m., I get up at about 3:00 a.m. for that. You have to remember, for a couple of years over at ESPN, I was starting at 4:30 a.m., so my wake up call was at 2:45 a.m.. That’s not right. Think about it. It’s not right to be getting up at 2:45 in the morning, but I still haven’t worked a day in my life.
The most interesting thing is that I went to my law school counselor. He goes, “You know, you’re finishing up your hardest year.” I said, “I know. But you know what? I could always come back.” And he was one of those scholarly types with the quarter waist sports coat and patches on the elbows. He looked at me and actually tapped his hand on my back. He goes, “You know what? You won’t be back. But that’s not a bad thing.” He goes, “You’ll have a good career.” And it’s been there ever since. Anything from doing national Fox, national ESPN, calling games on down the line. Take it this way, when I say I phased out a little bit, I’m only going to do about 300 shows this year.
Core Values Within the Family
Steve Stack:
In the same timeframe, you live out there on the west side of Cleveland. How about your family? Tell us about your family.
Mark Bishop:
My family is superb. My wife is my hero. I don’t mind getting a little emotional. She’s a breast cancer survivor and she keeps me in line. How she’s put up with me, I don’t know. My son is 28. Tell me if this isn’t pride. He’s a physics major and played football in high school and college. You don’t see too many physics majors playing football. He programs microscopes for hospitals. In fact, he’s got one of those space suits for COVID research. He will program microscopes for the bureau of criminal investigation in the state of Ohio. Actually, he was just down programming microscopes for the Stark County Sheriff’s department for products like that. So that’s what he does. My 26 year old daughter said to me the other day, all excited. Everybody will like this. She said, “I’m going to be the first woman on the cover of Forbes.” She does investments in Manhattan and loves New York City.
Steve Stack:
Wow.
Mark Bishop:
It’s either plus or minus, and she just loves it. She loves the hustle and bustle, loves what she does. My 24 year old daughter is in global outsourcing for Cardinal Health. She sends surgical supplies all over the country. And my youngest son just finished up college, thank golly. After four going through, he is a finance and accounting major. And it’s interesting you ask because he’s got an interview coming up with Key Bank in Cleveland.
Steve Stack:
There you go. Based downtown.
Mark Bishop:
He’ll graduate in the fall. And then you got me, I play with the dog most of the time.
Steve Stack:
So it’s obvious that the kids were paying attention to mom and dad because you don’t have any underachievers.
Mark Bishop:
No, it doesn’t seem that way. Like the oldest says, he’s always grinding. Now, they do have her looks and brains and they have my endurance. I go back to the old Woody Hayes school of thought that it’s obvious I’m not the smartest guy around, but no one’s ever outworked me. And that’s just the way you go.
Steve Stack:
A lot to be said for that, buddy.
Mark Bishop:
That comes from some of my mental shortcomings. So there you go, in a nutshell.
Steve Stack:
I tell you what, that was a big nutshell because you’ve experienced so much with your celebrated radio career. We became acquaintances three years, four years-
Mark Bishop:
Actually, 2017 is when my show was syndicated when I was doing 1390 in Youngstown, along with Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Ashland. It was very cool to be, on a daily basis, around the top third of the state.
Team Member Dependability and Workplace Ethics
Steve Stack:
Four or five years ago, we became acquaintances. Shortly after that natural process, we became friends. I can still remember the day that you came in with a mutual friend of ours, Larry Ward.
Mark Bishop:
God bless him, man. We miss Larry, you know that?
Steve Stack:
Right.
Mark Bishop:
You know what? He is so retired, it takes me two weeks to get a phone call back from him.
Steve Stack:
I think he’s enjoying it.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah. He goes, “There’s no business anymore, so I’ll get you when I get to you.”
Steve Stack:
You think those are some spoiled grandkids?
Mark Bishop:
That’s Larry.
Steve Stack:
You came in, we had a great conversation with Larry, Scott Baird, yourself, and me. I love sharing this story. We went for, what we call, a nickel tour. I’ve done it hundreds of times with prospective customers, vendors, media partners. You carried a yellow legal pad along with you that day. We got done with the tour and never before had I seen, nor have I seen since, you had two and a half to three pages of notes. We were talking and walking and you were taking dictation down.
Mark Bishop:
There’s little things you see that may be inconspicuous. But it’s like, “Wait a minute. That’s why this place is great.” And that’s why seeing somebody rubbing their hand over the… Dowel Rod Dale, right?
Steve Stack:
Dowel Rod Dale, yep.
Mark Bishop:
Making the dowel rods. People like that. The pride people put into it. Noticing the little things, it was immaculate. I joke, but you know what? If we’re going to have lunch, just dump it on the floor. I can eat it off the floor because the floor is clean. Thank you.
Steve Stack:
Thank you for giving those recognitions. Bairds (the family) completely appreciate their work staff.
Mark Bishop:
They are family, right?
Steve Stack:
Right? Exactly. And they’re treated that way. We all have ups and downs, but the family’s always there to help get you back up when you’re down. And you know what? From an ownership standpoint, they recognize it. It comes back to them tenfold.
Mark Bishop:
Because people take pride. They take care. They have respect. And do you know what else is cool, too? There is longevity. Every time I come here, I meet somebody else that’s walking around and they’ve been here for decades working. “Why would I be anywhere else? They take care of me.”
Steve Stack:
That’s true. That’s very true. So we have this meeting, this nickel tour.
Mark Bishop:
I got the 50 cent tour, I want you to know.
Steve Stack:
It might have been a dime. I don’t know if it was 50. We began a relationship. Take us through that.
Mark Bishop:
The bottom line is that you said, “We’d like you to represent Baird Brothers, not just to the fans.” They’re not just listeners. They’re my family, too. Everybody that listens, I’m their fan, because without them, we couldn’t be doing this. So it’s like, “You know, let’s give this a whirl. Let’s give this a go.” So pretty much, if you would carve out the top third of the state, we expanded and we were everywhere. Whether it be Moraine County, whether it be Trumbull County. Heck, whether or not people over at the Times Square Restaurant in Kinsman, who by the way, make the best cream pies around. You know that.
Steve Stack:
Yep. Great little community.
Mark Bishop:
Mansfield. Ashland. Everywhere. I had Dan from Ashland shoot me a picture saying, “Dude, there’s a Baird Brother truck in Ashland today.” People would see it and there was a buzz. Well, there already was one, but it seemed like we got to another segment of folks (not just woodworkers themselves putting up some chair rail or something like that), but to actual home builders, to people doing bigger jobs down the line and they came.
You know what that’s like? Every time there’s a baseball home series. Well, I have to say the Guardians now, right?
Steve Stack:
Mm-hmm.
Mark Bishop:
Everyone’s looking for a nickname for them. Actually, the best nickname I’ve seen so far is from Terry Pluto. He called them “G Men”. I’ve heard people say “Gardos”. “G Men” seemed to make it. We were looking at that segment of the population and all of a sudden, it just blew up. It blossomed with the sports fan. If there’s a three or four game series, I try to go to one game out of every series, if not all of them because when you experience it, it means much, much more.
Sure, you can say, “When you’re watching it on TV, you get this camera angle. You’ve got that camera angle.” But you know what? When you have those camera angles, you don’t see the guy walking to the dugout, jumping over the third base line. Then some of the guys, as they do, grab the bill of their hat. So that’s the game. If you ask him, he’ll go, “I’m just paying homage to people that played the game before me, because this guy used to do that, too.” You don’t see little things like guys coming in from right field, always kicking second base, things of that nature. That’s what it’s like when you experience Baird Brothers. And it’s true, look at your credibility with This Old House. That is the penultimate peak of home building, of restoration, of character and dignity. And you represent them. They came to you. That’s why I say, it’s not just nationally, but internationally craved right here in Canfield, Ohio.
A Company Culture With a Set of Values
Steve Stack:
There are so many truths in what you just said. I go back and I still attach a character to someone by how they walk across our parking lot, if it’s an employee or prospective employee at a job interview. Going back to that little sandlot dirt field, you were taught the same thing that I was taught. You run onto the field, you run off of the field.
Mark Bishop:
Baby, at every play, you play like the game depends on it. People say, “You can’t do that.” Oh, yes you can. Winning teams do that.
Steve Stack:
That’s right. And that sets your character.
Mark Bishop:
There’s a mindset, you know that? That we’re here to win every day.
Steve Stack:
The same way that you approach your job is the same way we at Baird Brothers approach our daily tasks. If you think you’re at the top of the game, the guy behind you is taking his shots at you, so you better perform.
Mark Bishop:
What do the Marines say? Carpe diem. Seize the day.
Steve Stack:
You mentioned This Old House. We’ve been fortunate over the past four, four and a half years to have a fantastic relationship with This Old House.
Mark Bishop:
You’ve done nine shows with them? Think about that.
Steve Stack:
We just completed our ninth. We feel the same about partnering with Munch Bishop in that the profiles match, if that makes sense.
Mark Bishop:
Oh, wow. Thank you.
Steve Stack:
The profiles match.
Mark Bishop:
Our goals are the same, to represent. My dad was a Marine. He was a factory worker. His car didn’t start half the time, so we always lived on a bus route. We’d grab that old lunch box with the curved top where the thermos sat in. But the little things he taught me about respecting others, respecting people older than you, younger than you, smaller than you. I told you I was from the inner city. It’s like, you’re going to get into a fight? You got to pick the biggest guy in the crowd because you’ll get respect that way. Yeah, you’re going to get the bejeebers beaten out of you, but you’ll get respect that way. But it’s just interesting how you’re brought up.
You know what else about how I was brought up? I talk a lot to kids in grade school, junior high, high school. I talk to fortune 500 companies and I go, “Think about this. At the end of the day, when you’re looking in the mirror, brushing your teeth, splashing water on your face, who are you accounting to? The man upstairs and yourself. Once the day is over, just leave it behind, move on. Don’t dwell on it.” But every day I want to say, “You know what? Dang, I did good today.” Or, “You know what? Should have picked that up just a little bit more.” That kind of thing. If you’re not held accountable by yourself, then bang, you’ve got problems.
Work Habits for Your Overall Well-Being
Steve Stack:
Listening to you made me think of a story. I think I saw it in cartoon form. A husband and wife celebrating 65 years of marriage. And they asked the wife, “How do you survive 65 years of marriage?”
Mark Bishop:
See, I need to hear this to tell my wife.
Steve Stack:
So she gave the obvious answer: “We fell in love as young kids and we’ve been in love ever since.” And they turned to the husband, “What do you account for the longevity of marriage and how you’ve been such a successful couple over the years?” And he said, “I’ll tell you this. You see that big tree out in the front yard? Right along the driveway there.” The fella who asked him, he says, “Yeah, I see it.” And he says, “Well, that tree wasn’t always that big. It’s kind of representative of our marriage. It’s grown, but I learned early on… That tree was only four or five foot tall when we planted it. Every night when I came home, I hung my work problems on that tree before I came into the house.”
Mark Bishop:
Leave it there. Wow. See, even today I’ve just learned something new. I love that.
Steve Stack:
Whether it’s the business or anything. When you go home, you and I both know, we take stuff home with us every day.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, you do.
Steve Stack:
But you put it in perspective. I know that is your business approach. I know that is our business approach. Business is important, but family is at the top of the list.
Mark Bishop:
Oh, there’s no doubt. Family roots are right up there. I appreciate that. I like learning something new every day.
Steve Stack:
Not to oversimplify it, but it’s easy. How hard is it to hold a door open for someone, like you were taught?
Mark Bishop:
Thank you. It’s not hard at all. It’s called kindness. It’s called respect. You do a little something every day. It’s pretty dang easy, isn’t it? And people appreciate that, too.
Steve Stack:
Yeah.
Mark Bishop:
Lessons in life. I love this.
Steve Stack:
Back to the Baird and Mr. Bishop relationship.
Mark Bishop:
Can I call this Baird University? It’s not 101. This is the advanced course. This is like Baird University, the 300 level of classes. Thank you.
Steve Stack:
We’re doing what we do every time we get together.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah. Share wisdom and learn a little bit of something new.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. And it’s off the cuff. I know, and you’ve alluded to it, you love when you have your audience give you feedback. Say, “Hey, I was down at Baird Brothers. You got to experience the place. Saw a Baird truck. I was down there picking lumber up. I’m doing a little project at home.”
Advertising Partnerships with Moral Principles
Mark Bishop:
Getting a response is the highest tribute you can have. That means people are listening to you and suggesting something, too. But there’s something else, Steve. We’re having fun. But I want to be serious about something. If I don’t believe in something, I don’t believe in the people, don’t believe in the product and don’t believe that they’re the very best for the fans of the show, then I can not be an endorser, an influencer or talk about it. So I just want folks to know that it has to be as good as it gets, because I’m not going to be a phony about that. I have never been a phony in 43 years. Now, sometimes I’ll say things that people are like, “Ugh.” But I won’t say it unless I mean it. So thank you.
Steve Stack:
Thank you, we greatly appreciate that. Again, you meet a lot of people in this life. I’ve experienced it over the years in outside sales. I’ve met and made a lot of good friends. Sometimes personalities clash.
Mark Bishop:
Oh, yeah. That’s what makes people.
Steve Stack:
And so you don’t go at it in a straight line, you kind of go roundabout a little bit.
Mark Bishop:
You’re still going to get to your destination.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. But you go about it a little bit differently. But when personalities approach a line and a parallel, it’s easy. And it’s been easy between Munch and Baird Brothers. To your point, you appreciate what we do. We greatly appreciate how you go about your business. It’s a two way street.
Mark Bishop:
Thank you, man. But it works together.
Steve Stack:
It works.
Mark Bishop:
We all come together.
Steve Stack:
It’s easy.
Mark Bishop:
It’s natural. It’s organic. You know what it’s like? I’m a dog guy. If you try to force a name on a dog, it doesn’t work. We lost our dog of 11 years in early March. A month went by and the kids showed up one day. They go, “We have a surprise.” They knew we were miserable, and brought us a new puppy. And by the way, sometimes puppies are more work than kids. They’re like, “Okay, what do you want to name him, dad?” I go, “I don’t know.”
It ended up being Rosco, by the way, because he’s a rascal and I thought it went well. But if you’re like, “Okay, that dog is going to be Charlie.” No, it’s got to just come organically. That’s what happens with us. You give me so many great ideas that it just flows. Think about it. I love it because I’ll ask you, I’ll ask Scott, give me some bullet points to hit. But then you’ll give me one bullet point and I can go off for a half hour on it because I’ve experienced it. Because you know what? Nothing’s more boring than reading from a piece of paper.
Steve Stack:
Our approach to media in general is that whether it’s radio, television cable, newspaper, print, whatever the case may be, it’s teamwork and it’s a chain. And you are a very strong link in that chain of our teammates and it’s greatly appreciated. I’ve got to tell you, I know you’re aware of it, being here today, experiencing Studio 3B for the second or time at different stages.
Mark Bishop:
The completed Studio 3B.
Steve Stack:
Completed Studio 3B. Here’s some news as new as yesterday or the day before: we’ve rearranged our BairdBrothers.com homepage. There’s a new tile in there about a third of the way down the page, and it’s a direct link to contentstudio.bairdbrothers.com.
Mark Bishop:
That’s good that you have that out there. That’s so cool.
Steve Stack:
So now when you’re looking for your bullet points, you yourself are going to go to the content studio right off the main website page, off the homepage. And bam, you’re going to see all of the content that we’ve been creating and it’s just going to load your guns. I know you’re going to have a blast with it.
Mark Bishop:
I can’t wait.
Steve Stack:
But just as importantly, our end consumer, the guy that we want to communicate to, wants to know something about Baird Brothers. You go to that page.
Mark Bishop:
There you go. It sums it up.
Steve Stack:
Watch us complete projects on Build it with Baird. Listen to American Hardwood Advisor. Everything from Studio 3B. The Planning Page. Another link to our relationship with the good folks at… You know who I’m talking about.
Mark Bishop:
Steve Stack:
This Old House.
Mark Bishop:
You could get lost just looking at all that stuff.
Steve Stack:
I know when we introduced this idea to you about a year and a half to two years ago, we said, “Well, we’ve got this little idea and these are the reasons we’re doing it. We want to reach the people, and we want to reach them for a couple different reasons. We want to educate them on a lot of different subjects. We want to introduce them to a lot of good people, like yourself. There’s going to be instruction. We’re going to talk about different species of lumber.” I have another gentleman who will talk about antique tools. There’s a segment of our society that’s all about antique tools.
Mark Bishop:
I got to jump in on something real quick. You pique my interest every time we talk. We’ve got all this great new technology, this and that, but I look at buildings that were built and I look at handy work. I still go to a church in my old neighborhood. Those places were built 100 years ago when we didn’t have micrometers hooked up to a computer to tell you this and that. I’ll bet you still get some of the top of the line, if not the very best, handcrafted products with the antique tools. Am I right?
Steve Stack:
Yes, and it’s a different approach. But to follow your story, you just hit me with an idea. I had some of your industry coworkers in yesterday and they were taking the nickel tour. At the end of it, after I introduced our CNC routing machine and the big blue donut back on our rip line, our optimizing line, they were taken aback by the technology at our facility here. And I said, “It’s impressive, but you know the two most important assets, as far as equipment, that we have on this property?”
Mark Bishop:
I got to hear this.
Steve Stack:
I said, “It’s that guy there, or that guy there, it’s his eyes and his hands.”
Team-Oriented Work Culture
Mark Bishop:
Wait a second. You know what? You’re going to love this. And again, I treasure the 21st century, especially me, modern medicine and things like that. However, I will never forget, to me, analytics has a place in all sports, but it’s overused, and I’ll tell you how I got it. A), it doesn’t judge the character of a man. I’ll never forget when the Browns first started using analytics in our drafts. That’s when the team went, honest to golly, seven and nine, three and 13, one and 15, 0 and 16, relying mainly on that. We all know the name, Sam Rutigliano. I was with coach Sam and he has some great sayings.
This is what Baird Brothers is about. I’m going to sweep up this floor, give me a brand new broom with the clean bristles. But guess what? The old broom gets in the corners. The new broom doesn’t get in the corners. You want it done, so keep an old broom around. But you know what he told me? He goes, “You know what, Munch? This guy’s not going to make it. This guy’s not going to make it.” I go, “How do you know that, coach?” He goes, “What did he say he was going to do on draft night? Go out and party with his buddies. No, no. That’s not how you should celebrate.” He would start talking about that team member, that family member, that employee, that employee. He said, “My analytics are up here [pointing to the head], up here [pointing to the eyes] and in here [pointing to the heart].” And that’s exactly what you bring to the table. Isn’t that amazing? It’s the same thing. That’s what makes you successful.
Steve Stack:
There is, and the Bairds will be the first one to make mention of it, coming through these last couple years with this worldwide pandemic-
Mark Bishop:
It can’t be easy.
Steve Stack:
With all the other challenges in day to day, we shut down. A couple years ago, we shut down the last week of March and the first week of April. We shut it down so we could regroup and rethink. When we came back after that second week, we had just over 85% of our employees come back voluntarily. And a few short months after that, we were back up to 97 to 98%.
Mark Bishop:
Isn’t that amazing?
Steve Stack:
Bairds will be the first one to tell you that story. And without the people behind the wall in the showroom there, we’re nothing.
Mark Bishop:
But think about this. This is what Baird stands for, is that how many places do you see everywhere, they’ve got to curtail hours or close certain days because people didn’t come back. You had people come back because this was part of them, part of what they did, because this was family. Once again, hence the success and the high quality of the product.
Steve Stack:
We’ve been very, very fortunate as a work family. We’ve got nicked up a little bit throughout this whole thing, but again, the support’s there. I mentioned earlier, when you’re down, there’s going to be somebody there to help you up, and it holds true. From the guys in the very back building at this facility, doing maintenance on our delivery trucks, maintenance on our tow motors, our forklifts, electrical issues, whatever, from the maintenance crew to the guys who run the dry kilns to the guys back in the optimizing line, the guys over in the sticker shed putting lumber on sticks, to the men on the mill room floor, guys in our big warehouse, you’ve walked that warehouse, keeping that in order, to the sales staff, right to the ownership, every person on that roster is important.
Mark Bishop:
See, you know that. You treat them that way, and they realize that. And you know what? Tell me the feeling they have when they leave in the evening. It makes them want to come back the next day and perform even better than the time before.
Steve Stack:
You touched on it earlier, and I’m sitting here listening, thinking, and my mind’s going a mile a minute like yours is. It goes back to something that you said, the word pride. We put together, not including the last couple years because of the situation we find ourselves in with the pandemic, but up to that point, for lack of a better word or better description, we put together a festival the last weekend in September. It’s called Red, White, and True.
Mark Bishop:
Love it.
Steve Stack:
A celebration of American craftsmanship.
Mark Bishop:
Amen.
Steve Stack:
So we have roughly 120 people at the facility, maybe more. When Red, White and True comes around, it’s a task to organize it. It’s a glorified open house. We invite folks out and we greet them at the gate, assist them in parking, and get them headed in the right direction. When we make the announcement, “Okay, Red, White, and True is set for September whatever, whatever.” Whatever the day is, that afternoon or that next day, I have guys from the shop coming up and approaching me, “Steve, put me on the list. I want to work it.”
Mark Bishop:
So those are the guys cooking the grill, cooking the dogs, cooking the burgers.
Steve Stack:
Exactly.
Mark Bishop:
Wow.
Steve Stack:
Giving the tours, standing by a piece of equipment, taking people through what they do day in and day out. We coach them. “You guys are ambassadors at Baird Brothers that day.” But we don’t need to coach them. They volunteer to work that day because they’re proud of what they do.
Mark Bishop:
And they want to share.
Steve Stack:
Exactly.
Mark Bishop:
And don’t neglect an important aspect. This is what Baird Brothers means, you collect food for the food bank.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. Our friends over at Second Harvest. That day is special. We have the Mahoning County Sheriff’s department out.
Mark Bishop:
God bless them, by the way. The heroes that are out there taking care of us every day.
Steve Stack:
Every day, man. Whether they’re in a Sheriff’s uniform, state highway patrol uniform, EMT’s uniform, they’ve had a tough couple of years. We’re fortunate in this country to have them.
Mark Bishop:
Amen. They’re heroes, every day.
Steve Stack:
Every day.
Mark Bishop:
Can I have a little speech here about that?
Steve Stack:
Go ahead.
Mark Bishop:
I don’t know if you knew this or not. I was honored to be nominated for, and we just finished up, the FBI Citizens Academy in Cleveland. We had weekly classes for three months. Three, three and a half hour classes. And the things that you learn that they teach you… Now, some of them make you laugh. There was this little anecdote.
They talked about a sting operation for somebody with illegal cigarettes. They said, “These guys, they were criminals. They were making a million dollars a year, but they actually weren’t bad guys.” I go, “What do you mean?” They go, “There was a sting operation. A female agent and a male agent acted like they were a couple and they infiltrated. They never once felt in danger.” Are you ready for this? They liked these guys so much. They even staged that they were going to get married. The two guys that were behind this multimillion dollar cigarette thing, fake cigarettes, the packages looked real, this and that and everything. They were in the wedding and they were on their way to the “wedding”. There was really no wedding. They were in the limos when the suburbans came pulling in with the tinted windows.
Steve Stack:
Closed in on them.
Mark Bishop:
One of the guys even said, “Can’t you at least let them get married before you take them away?” And she goes, “It’s the only time I ever felt bad locking somebody up.” That’s on the funny side, but the chilling side is the little things you learn. I don’t want everybody to go over the speed limit to test this, but this is where you talked about the Sheriff’s department in Mahoning County and Trumbull County and in the area, in the local police department. I never knew this before, that every time they walk up after they pull you over, think about this, what’s going through their mind, they always touch your left rear taillight.
And why is that? This might even bring tears to your eye. It’s so their fingerprints are on there in case something happens to them. And they tell you, they go, “This is chilling. Whether you’re a Canfield police officer or state highway patrol sheriff is that every time you walk up to a car…” This is heavy stuff. “You don’t know if it’s going to be your last time.” So they go, “So sure, sometimes we don’t have a positive attitude coming up if you’re not…” I don’t mind sharing this with you, on my way to one of the Michael Stanley tribute shows we lost in 2021, is that yes, one of the fine officers from Oakland caught me going 45 in a 35.
And there’s a new saying I want to share with you because he came with a friend in the highway patrol. Remember it used to be you could be five to ten over?
Steve Stack:
Yeah.
Mark Bishop:
Not anymore. “Eight, you’re fine. Nine, you’re mine.” So remember that little rhyme. I’m not trying to cost any money for the conference and tickets. But when he came up, and I just so happened to have my Citizen’s Academy card with me that I handed him with my license and an FLB card, he goes, “You did it the right way.” And I said, “I’m sorry. I’m a knucklehead for you pulling me over.” But I realized what they’re going through. So that’s why I just had to toss it in when you talked about them being here. They don’t know. They don’t know if they’re ever coming back to their family when they’re pulling you over. So I’m sorry, I want people to know that.
Steve Stack:
No, and it’s so very important. We find ourselves in these United States and we’ve got to mention all of our armed forces. Same scenario. They don’t know if it might be their last day.
Mark Bishop:
You want to talk about pride? I have my godson, who at 35 achieved the rank of major in the US Army. And at 41, he is going to be a Lieutenant Colonel.
Steve Stack:
There you go. Congratulations.
Mark Bishop:
I’m going to head down to Virginia for the ceremony here in a couple weeks.
Steve Stack:
We’ve been having a fantastic day talking with Mark “Munch” Bishop today. Munch, thanks for coming in, man.
Mark Bishop:
You’re welcome. And thank you for having me. To be in Studio 3B at the great Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods, this is it, baby. This is living. That’s all I can say.
Steve Stack:
We covered some ground today. In one of our segments, we talked about life lessons.
Mark Bishop:
Yes, we did. They’re important.
Steve Stack:
I want to invite you back to sit down and do this again. We’re going to talk about the influence radio advertising has and how important our partnerships are.
Mark Bishop:
All right, great.
Steve Stack:
And how it serves our consumers.
Mark Bishop:
Let’s do it.
Steve Stack:
Until then, buddy, I appreciate it.
Mark Bishop:
Always a pleasure, my friend.
Steve Stack:
Thank you. Stay tuned, folks. contentstudio.bairdbrothers.com. Keep following us on all the social media platforms. There’s a lot of good stuff coming at you soon.
Learn New Skills From Our Content Studio
Steve Stack:
For all you folks listening, thanks for talking shop with Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and wanted to stay up-to-date with the American Hardwood Advisor podcast series, give us a like and subscribe. For more tips, projects, and inspiration, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, read our tweets, or visit bairdbrothers.com. Until next time.
