Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with The Alaska MEP and GC Handrail

Curt Anderson  00:00

Hey, Damon dude, I didn’t already see you today.

Damon Pistulka  00:03

I did. We did. We’re here again.

Curt Anderson  00:07

We’re here again, man. Just we’re a glutton for punishment here. We are just so excited. We are so thrilled. Man, we’re it’s a doubleheader today. So guys, welcome to manufacturing eCommerce success. Man. Do we have a juicy topic for you today? And we are here with our friends, man. We’re Damon. We’re on the way. We’re up to your neighbors to the north. Right? We’re signing up in the north. We’re headed up to Alaska. So I have my dear friend, just a fearless relentless entrepreneur. We have Stacey Dean from GC handrail, Stacey, happy Monday. How are you today?

Stacey Dean  00:38

Happy Monday. Yes, everything’s great. How are you?

Curt Anderson  00:41

Oh, my goodness gracious. We couldn’t be doing any better. If you if we were you’d have to call 911 Right Damon? Yep. Yep. So I hate this handsome devil to the north of me up here is Kassim Kurani from the Alaska MEP. How

Kassim Kurani  00:55

are you my friend? Doing good doing good this morning. Well, welcome

Curt Anderson  00:59

to the show. And I know, Kassim, you’ve been preparing for this for like weeks upon or maybe minutes, right, minutes or

Kassim Kurani  01:07

hours. About an hour’s heads up. So yeah, that was fantastic. Well, you

Curt Anderson  01:12

are what a what a good sport you are. Thank you for joining us here on LinkedIn live today. And we’re going to be digging deep into how the Alaska MEP is helping manufacturers throughout the state of Alaska. So Damon, let’s kick things off. You and I have had the honor. We’ve had the privilege of actually being on site at GC Handrail what a you know, what a privilege that was hanging out with Stacy. Right?

Damon Pistulka  01:35

Awesome stuff. I didn’t know I’ll never look at handrails the same again.

Curt Anderson  01:42

And you’re not kidding. You take it for granted until you see like the Ferrari version of handrails. Yes. So Stacy, let’s go here, my friend. Let’s get things started. Can you share a little bit about what and who is GC Handrail? How do you guys make the world a better place?

Stacey Dean  01:57

Well, first, we started out as grayling construction. We’re a local remodeling company in the anchorage area. And we’ve been in business for 26 years. And so there’s a product that most of us use, and that’s handrails. And unfortunately, the cable handrails that were on the market for so long, were really poor quality, very poor customer service, and a whole host of other issues. So we have good fabrication ability. So we manufactured our own for our own use for quite a few years. And then we decided that maybe we would offer it for sale. Other people had seen it and said, where do we get it? We said, well, we made it ourselves, you know. So we went ahead and came up with the process for how to manufacture, we went ahead and decided we needed to make sure we had all our ducks in a row before we ran out and decided to sell something. Because we’ve all been on the other side, we’re marketing came up with this great idea, and had zero support on how to sell it, how to service it, everything else. So nobody talks to manufacturing either and how to actually get the product out. So we made videos on how to put it together. You know, we tried to make sure that the average person could put it together. So that was our goal. And we thought that worked out really well. Everybody responded to it really well you know, just really thought that if you could watch a video on how to plan, how to die and how to build that was the way to go. So that’s how we started out

Curt Anderson  03:37

absolute absolutely love it. There’s always a great story behind the success. You know, Damon, we always like to say success leaves clues. And when you start 26 years ago, you know, big leap of faith, a lot of courage for you guys to take that step and went away. You know, it was within your your umbrella, if you will, Stacey. But you and your husband Cody took a leap and diversified and just, you know, can you go back 26 years ago, like when you first started? Did you think that? Did you have any idea that would be what it is today.

Stacey Dean  04:06

We actually thought we’d end up building houses. So we never ever thought remodeling would be where we would stay. And so we stayed here. And we have a really nice clientele in Anchorage. It’s a very nice community to work. And, and my background actually is in manufacturing. That’s where I came from. And my husband came from the building supply industry. And so the two of us understood all the steps involved, you know, and making it all work. So it’s it you know, 26 years ago and we think we are where we are today. No I didn’t think I’d make 360 Back to manufacturing for sure. Well,

Curt Anderson  04:48

everything goes full circle. So let’s go here. So you we are connected. We’ve been fast friends for many years now, thanks to our friends at the Alaska MEP. So Kassim let’s pull you on stage my friend. I know you been preparing for this for weeks? Can you please share with the folks who in what is the MEP network? And specifically, what do you guys do? How do you guys make the world a better place at the Alaska MEP?

Kassim Kurani  05:12

Nice, narrow question there just paint everything with a broad brush. It is the Alaska repeat, which I’ll be honest, I didn’t learn about it until just a couple years ago. Yeah. And so right now one of the problem is we’re a well kept secret, and that that’s a challenge. But we are really full business advising, specific to manufacturing. There’s an MEP in every single state. This is a federally mandated group. But it has to be state by state, because as Stacey talked about earlier, and earlier conversations, Alaska kind of has its own unique sets of challenges. And so somebody from somewhere else on big stroke items can help, but maybe not on the details. Because today, as an example, if you had to drive somewhere, the roads were basically a sheet of ice this morning. And how do you deal with that? If you’re dealing with someone who’s grown up their whole life in California, especially in LA, they’re not going to know how you deal with that. Yeah. And so that’s kind of how I came, I was personally a business owner before much like Stacey is. And so it’s a great opportunity to be able to take that experience and help manufacturers, I think Stacey hit the nail on the head when she started off today, with making sure she had the product before the marketing and before that went out to deal with her clients. And it’s little things like that, that we can help people with all the way through building their websites, making sure that their manufacturing is in a proper order, because she talked about setting it up. And with her history in it. She did a fantastic job with that. But not everybody knows that reduction of steps equals cash in the bank. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that that might be that answered the question. I went a full envelope.

Curt Anderson  07:00

That was our first drop the mic moment right there.

Damon Pistulka  07:04

The excess cash in the bank? Yeah,

Curt Anderson  07:06

that’s our Damon, we got a quote that one on cast. And we might be re repeating that one here and there. So Stacy, let’s go here. So manufacturing background, you guys were, you know, looking both houses, you can’t you know, you had your construction business. And you create and discover that, you know, for many manufacturers that coveted proprietary product, if you will, right. And the beauty here is like, and I have some examples. So when we dig into it, I’m going to pull up your website. And I’m going to show folks some of the beautiful, amazing work that you’re that you guys are doing there. Share a little bit about like, what makes your product so unique, so special? How did you figure out the secret sauce that other people just can’t figure out?

Stacey Dean  07:48

Well, you know, one of the things that it seems like there’s a lack of understanding, they have an engineer, and then they have a marketing person. And then they don’t have the person actually built it and understands how it works and fits together. And there’s just a real disconnect. So one of the things we did was simplify everything. We weld everything together versus expecting people to assemble things on site. Let’s face it, if you have to go 100 miles to the nearest hardware store in Alaska, where you are, we have customers that fly into their location that they’re doing, they don’t have that ability they need everything is cut and dried as possible. So there’s as little assembly as possible. We also came up with a tool that we designed so we could tension all of our cables at the same time. And stead of doing them individually. We also got rid of all the extraneous hardware that became makes everything very expensive and complex and difficult and time consuming to install. My husband’s in airplane guy, and he chose to crimp the cables, which I thought was great instead of using all this complex hardware, and the simpler and faster you can make it for people, especially when it’s a DIY, we’re a big DIY state or contractors out in the field, you know, they need to be able to make things happen quickly. And so by making our own tools, and we also pre cut all of our cables to length instead of sending you a 500 foot roller cable. And you know what do you do with the other 200 feet that you don’t need for your project? Sell it on Facebook marketplace that’s about it, you know, so we pre cut all the individual cables to link so that everything is as straightforward as possible. And we also take back all the trash to any trash you have. We take it all back so we recycle everything. But um you know, just trying to simplify everything it seems like that’s I think then the biggest thing make it simple

Curt Anderson  10:00

Okay, Damon, that might be dropped to Mike number two, right? Yes,

Damon Pistulka  10:05

I just love the attention to detail. I mean, thinking all the way through thinking of not only ease of, you know, shipping, ease of assembly, ease all the way through, and then ease and design from the beginning to reduce the number of components and reduce cost and complexity. It’s just the attention to details really cool.

Stacey Dean  10:27

Yeah, there’s, I’ve watched other manufacturers videos, and there’s a million pieces and parts, you drop something in the grass? How the hell are you going to find it again? You know?

Curt Anderson  10:36

Yes. So let’s go there. I make it simple. And the thing is, like, there’s a famous scene or I don’t know, I don’t know who said it. But you know, it’s, it’s, it’s simple, but it’s not always easy, right? It’s simple to, you know, it’s simple to eat healthy, but it’s not always easy. It’s simple to work out everyday. But it’s not always easy. Right. Damon, we were talking about that earlier today. So, you know, Stacy, was there a lot of challenge air where there’s a lot of customer feedback, like, it’s, you know, was there was this an evolution over 26 years and walk us through like that customer that attention to customer detail?

Stacey Dean  11:09

For, um, you know, that the handle business and customer detail, both of my husband and I come from, you know, of course heavy, you know, being in people’s homes. Yes, remodelers, you know, we’re in the middle of people’s lives day in and day out. So we’re used to being able to connect with people on every level, because you call us in and we’re there every day to 430, Monday through Friday, and you’re, you know, so it’s a connection that you make with people when you’re remodeling, that, that you wouldn’t get an other situation. So you understand, I think human psychology a little differently. Because you’ve been in people’s homes day in and day out. But um, you know, one of the things that we both did, we both taught a lot of stuff and how to people to do things. For example, when my husband was at the local building supplier, he used to teach the classes, you know, for homeowners to come in, or contractors to come in and learn how to do things. And so when you teach classes, it really helps you a whole lot, already. So when we did our videos, we really tried to make them as straightforward for people to understand, we did lots of little short video, so that you only had to hone in on exactly what you needed, not the hour and a half of you know, you needed two minutes out of that hour and a half. So that was really nice to be able to do that. Now we don’t have a lot of video experience. But, you know, we, we, we figured it out. And it’s kind of a lame video, you know, with lots of stops and starts and kind of awkward. You know, that’s just, you gotta get over yourself and go Well, it is what it is. We got our information to the people, and that’s the most important thing. Yeah, couple

Curt Anderson  12:59

of golden nuggets, right, there is like being that fierce educator, you know, like, Damon, we love using that line, when we did our workshop with you costume, you know, how do you out teach the competition? So you’re catching this program, and you’re a manufacturer, you know, like, we just can never take for granted that your customer understands your product, your service, your solution, the way that you do, you know, and I think it’s very easy to take that for granted. And you know, Stacy, what? What kick started what really inspired you and Cody to start doing the classes to start doing the videos like how go there?

Stacey Dean  13:36

Because other our competitors already had that. Okay, and they did such a poor job of it. Got it. And you said we could do it better? You could do it better.

Curt Anderson  13:45

I love it. I absolutely love it. Kassim. Let’s get you on stage here, my friend. So you have a long history of entrepreneur ship runs in your blood in your family you’ve had, you know, like Stacey somewhere like boy that customer facing because a lot of manufacturers, they don’t see their customers maybe if they’re in Anchorage, maybe they’re shipping the aerospace down in Northwest Washington, you know, in the Northwest or in Seattle or whatever. Or maybe their customers are in the lower 48 or whatever it might look like, you know, you’ve had years decades of experience customer facing, what are some tips strategies that you found even in your walk in life that you could share with manufacturers? Like how could they enhance their customer service strategies, any tips or strategies, anything that you want to share there?

Kassim Kurani  14:26

Well, I think Stacey actually already answered to kind of buy big points. So so that would have been fantastic. And it with what you had said about, you know, out, educate, make sure that you’re always there to help make sure that you are teaching them the value of what you’re doing. Because sometimes, hey, you know, with a handrail, a metal rail is a metal rail. Why is GC handrail different? Well, because GC handrail understands the end user, they know what you’re going through. Therefore, that was kind of one of the biggest things I just took from what Stacy’s setup got it. I was taking notes all of a sudden become a call. That’s fantastic. It was understand the end user. Something that. And it reminded me of a quote that my dad used to say all the time. And it was kind of a fill in the blank, right? He used to say we are in Remember, no matter what you do, we are in the people business, we just happen to sell light, right? The blank doesn’t matter. Whether it’s handhelds, whether it’s tires, whether it’s microchips, whether it doesn’t really matter where at the end of the day, we’re in the people business. And Stacey just absolutely, in her demonstration a moment ago, knocked that one out of the park. And it’s often difficult when like she said earlier, sometimes you’re dealing with just the engineer and the salesperson, well, you’re dealing with the person who is designing it, and you’re dealing with the person whose goal is to just move it through, you never deal with that human connection, that’s when they fail. The fact that I gotta point this way so that it’s pointing in the right direction on that screen that Stacy just absolutely nailed with talking about, hey, we don’t send extra cable because that’s a pain for people. We don’t. So we only sell what they need. We’re not trying to pad by giving them things that they don’t need. We just tell them what they need. We make sure that we know the person, we know what the end user is going through. She was very, very nice. And example of Oh no, you drop this in the grass. And what are you going to do that you hope you’re doing that construction in the summer? Because if you dump that bolt in three feet of snow, you’re never gonna find

Curt Anderson  16:42

not till next spring, right? You’re lucky. You’re lucky. You know what? Man, multiple job Mike’s Damon. So you know what I love and think about this. For any manufacturer out there is Stacy as your point is just so profound and Kassim, we I don’t care what the product is what the solution is what you know, your services. We are all in the people business. In what are we selling or selling one word, one word only trust. Like, you know, I trust that this handrail is not going to you know fall off and people are going to be injured. You know, I trust that when I come to Damon, he’s going to help me sell my business I trust when it comes to the last MVP that can enhance my my company. So in the other takeaway, Stacy, I’d love to dig into is understanding your customers, customer. And Daymond, as you just pointed out, like Stacey and Cody have defined such a deep and attention of detail. It’s just it’s such a delight. It’s so delightful to hear how you’ve taken it on. Because if you’re dealing with the engineer, and you’re dealing with the you know the installer or contractor, whatever that might be, who’s the abuser? It’s the family. It’s the parents, it’s the child. It’s the memories. It’s, you know, holidays, Thanksgiving, spring birthdays, on the deck in the home or whatever you’re buying, you’re beautifying a home, and you’re just in your delivering family memories. Cece, can you just talk a little bit about like, how you know, that customers customer? How important it is, for other manufacturers out there? Maybe they’ve never thought of it that way? Like, no, the engineers, my customer, not realizing that the end user is really my customer. Can you just talk about that a little bit from your perspective? Yeah, I

Stacey Dean  18:25

mean, let’s talk about as a remodeling contractor, we work in existing homes, you know, you’ll look at everybody else’s literature, and it’s all these spectacular new homes that are incredibly contemporary and everything else. I’m not, that’s not the home that I have here. And that’s a one of a kind home. You know, I’m talking about the split level, the 1970 split level that we bring from the bell bottoms to the current, you know, yeah, I mean, it’s amazing, the world has changed tremendously in the last 50 years. And let’s bring people into the current decade, you know, and, and they really enjoy it, because now all of a sudden, they really enjoy their home so much more. And they get so much more out of staying versus looking at buying something else. I mean, let’s face it, interest rates, climb dramatically, why not stay in your home now. And in this way, we can provide a product, that little elbow grease you and your husband can do in a weekend, and your kids get to see you working on your home too, and figuring things out. It’s really important for kids to see that too. And the whole family together. It’s it’s it’s it’s a nice package together and then we rent the tools too. So you don’t have to go buy a bunch of specialty stuff you’re going to use once. So yeah, it’s it’s a nice thing. I think it’s a great family activity. Had a lot of people come back and say they had the grandkids over, you know, they went to the grandparents lake house and yeah, so grandkids got to help too. And that’s really what we like hearing.

Curt Anderson  20:03

That’s fantastic. And that’s, you know, I’m Damon, I’m going to attempt to share my screen.

Damon Pistulka  20:08

Let’s do it.

Curt Anderson  20:09

Let’s see, because I want to give everybody a visual because like we’re ranting and raving. We’ve kind of built up the excitement here. So I think it’s time. So let me see if I can get this going correctly. And how about now? Can you guys see my race can see your

Damon Pistulka  20:21

screen, but it’s the video?

Curt Anderson  20:23

There we go.

Stacey Dean  20:24

How about this? Oh, yeah. Perfect. Okay,

Curt Anderson  20:26

let’s make this a little bit bigger. Stacy walk, I’m going to I’m going to kind of navigate through your website, and then I have your Instagram page pulled up. But just share a little bit with folks like, what are they seeing here? What’s going on with your website here talking about the handrail kit, if you would, please.

Stacey Dean  20:41

Yeah, we don’t make you figure out all your pieces and parts in what you’re going to need. You just give me a drawing and a couple of photos, I figure it out, I send you a quote. And it also includes the rental, the tools, and shipping. And so everything is all, you know, one thing, you don’t have to think about a whole bunch of different stuff. I don’t also list out all the pieces and parts you’re gonna get because there’s no point in and that but so we go ahead and and and that particular page we’re looking at is we’re trying to make the purchase as easy and quick as possible. And simple.

Curt Anderson  21:19

Gosh, let’s we’ll pop into some different examples. And then and then I want to come back to that page again, Stacey on how what you guys have done. And again, it doesn’t matter what product you sell what solution you’re providing. Stacey and her husband have just really teed this up. And you know, again, she said earlier, our goal is just to make this easy. But Damon dude, like, how fantastic does this stuff? Look here?

Damon Pistulka  21:43

I know. Yeah, it’s it’s incredible inside outside the different the different actually railing cover on the top of it, you know, the different materials you can use, it’s really something.

Stacey Dean  21:55

Now these pictures are from our customers, these are pictures that we’ve taken. So we, you know, because people are renting the tools, they have to return the tools back to us. And if they have pictures on their phone, or they can send them to me in some method, I take those pictures, that’s where they end up. And then I give them a $50 gift card to a local hardware store. So for their next project for two, you know, for tools for the next project. So all these have come from our customers. These are not stuff we’ve gone out and taken. I don’t have that much time to take all these different photos. But yeah, it’s it’s really fun what people come up with to Senate, they’ll say, Oh, my house, isn’t that nice or whatever. And it’s like, you know, people don’t care. They want to see what you came up with, you know, there. Yeah, so it’s fun.

Curt Anderson  22:50

And you see people are sending pictures of the tools and they’re sending pictures of the input and process. And I just absolutely love it. And again, if you’re out there, you’re if you feel like man, our house is looking a little 70s boy Stacy can like bring it right into the 21st century here. Absolutely love it. Kasam What do you have any feedback? Any thoughts that you want to share? As you’re as you’re scrolling through all these pictures here?

Kassim Kurani  23:13

I think something’s they said just a minute ago, it absolutely blew my mind. And Oh my I’m kind of reeling through it right now with the idea of, oh, we went to the grandparents lake house and we installed this, or, you know, my I got my kids to do this. Because I’ve actually been working my oldest son is 16 years old. And we’ve been doing a whole bunch of work on little things around the house, trying to teach them to be able to be a little more mechanical things that both my father and grandfather taught me. And now I’m thinking we might have to do some handrails.

Curt Anderson  23:48

I absolutely love it. Let’s come back in. Can you guys see the Instagram page? Are you seeing? Yes, yes. Okay. And so again, you know, I love and so let’s throw in our social media hat. You know, you’re a manufacturer out there, you know what Stacy’s doing a great job posting pictures, given a nice visual, she has nearly 3000 followers or 1000 followers, I’m sorry, 1000 followers here. But I want to come back to you know, on her website, and Daymond this is you know, we’re constantly preaching on you know, manufacturing ecommerce success, how you can make it as easy as possible. CC walk us through now you’ve done an enormous amount of work on the website here. Very impressive. Walk us through like your step by step and how, you know, again, like, just in that spirit of making it easier. How did you bring that same concept to your website?

Stacey Dean  24:34

Well, we wanted to make it as few pages as possible. And so we said, okay, let’s you know how many pages can actually fit easily at the top of the screen. And so we came up with five that’s about you know, as far as you want to go 5056 So I wanted to keep it Okay, break it down into three steps. And so we brainstormed and came up with plan, buy and build As our three steps, and so we came up with and said, Okay, what do you need to do to plan? What do you need to do to buy? And what do you need to do to build? And so we came up with those videos, and photos and drawings and lots of you know, just I think I probably could simplify the website even a little bit more. Um, but yeah, I’m trying to make it as simple as possible for people. Because really, that’s really what you’re doing. You’re planning you’re buying, you’re building pretty much most projects. So yeah. And all the things you need to do. So yeah, well, I vividly

Curt Anderson  25:42

remember the original website when we started working together. And what you’ve done here is just nothing short of phenomenal. So like, you know, tips for a smooth build. In here it is step by step just again, you know, telling your customer Hey, we have your back, we’re going to make this as easy and simple. You know, nobody wants to look foolish, nobody wants to look dumb. And like what you guys have you just made it just so easy for everybody. You’ve got to download here of do’s and don’ts. You’ve got to setting the post for the debt deck mount. And just you know, I absolutely love how you’ve just walked everybody through that simple process. And Stacey, my friend, did you make your life a little bit easier? Did you see a drop in questions by providing all this information? Oh,

Stacey Dean  26:26

absolutely. Absolutely. I have people walk in the showroom. They’ve already been to the website, they’ve already watched the videos. They know what they need. They’ve, they’ve got it figured out. It’s really nice. And I’m just, you know, blown away by how people spend the time. If it’s out there, they will absorb the information before they walk in the door.

Curt Anderson  26:48

Well, I think it’s fantastic. And again, for manufacturers out there, you know, think about those questions. Damon, like one of your favorite books, right? They ask you answer. And that’s exactly what Stacey and Cody have done is like they the the attention to detail again, is just so impressive. And like, you know, every question that they could possibly think of, there’s a video on the website, and you’ve put it on YouTube, which is a great search engine for SEO purposes. So now you’ve created sales enablement, tools, you’ve made your life easier. So you’re not constantly trying to answer questions one at a time. So even if that question does come in, you probably have your whole arsenal archive of videos that you can just shoot over to a client at any given time. Correct? Right,

Stacey Dean  27:27

exactly. And I send them photos of what their house, I can almost always find a photo of a finished project that’s super similar to or exactly the same that they want to do. So it just really is nice. All the photos we’ve received over time have just been amazing. But, you know, taking the classes that the MEP offered, really helped us step it up a notch, or many notches, I should say. Without that help. Without, you know, it was one thing to be a remodeling company and put a few post photos on your website, it’s another thing to manufacture a product and have to follow through with all of the things you have to do as a manufacturer. And and, um, you know, getting, you know, having a report that runs on our website, what are we lacking on, you know, what do we need to hit on? You know, the classes that have been offered, have really changed the way we do business. It’s really fleshed out our business and given us the look of being a much bigger business. And we are, yeah, we look very professional. I think, well,

Curt Anderson  28:38

big shout out to our friends at the Alaska MEP. And I know Stacey, you’ve been an amazing, incredible student you and I’ve met multiple times in person even though it were a few states away. And it’s just been an honor privilege. You’ve come to our live workshops, you came to our cohort. I know like our dear friend who we love immensely Wesleyne, you’re besties. With Wesleyne , you’ve gone through any first sales processes. You’ve come through our like our SEO and eCommerce strategy cohort together, just for any manufacturers out there your thoughts? What should they be? Would you recommend your friends, your family, your dog to the Alaska MEP, or what are your thoughts? Absolutely.

Stacey Dean  29:15

Absolutely. I always recommend you guys. I’m always, you know. Yeah, absolutely. I’ve sent quite a few people your way. And, you know, we’re stronger in numbers. You know, the more people that are involved, the better the organization will be. And the better manufacturing will be Alaska.

Curt Anderson  29:38

Yeah, great point. So, Kassim, let’s go here. Just share with the folks that might be new to the MEP network as a whole or it’s Alaska MEP. Stacy’s ranting and raving and Stacey Thank you, you know, and one thing I want to share, like you know, Damon, we love having a good time, but boy, we never take these relationships for granted. You know when when an entrepreneur an entrepreneur allows us To come into their life, and whether, regardless what the topic is, boy, we take that we never take that lightly take it very seriously. Because you know, as entrepreneurs, like we’re counting on people to help us along that way. We talked about that word, the costume, you said, like, we’re all in the people business. It’s all about trust, and how can we help each other? But Carson, please share with the folks that might be new to the MVP network or to Alaska MVP, specifically, shared some of like just a powerhouse examples. I know you have an incredible team in Alaska, some of the services, some of the solutions, courses that Stacy’s referring to what are some of the offerings that you guys provide?

Kassim Kurani  30:36

Oh, that’s, you know, there’s a laundry list of services that we can provide. But really, I think the big thing that we do is we connect you with the right people. And sometimes it’s in house, sometimes it’s things we can do, because we have a level of expertise in house, whether it’s business planning, or things of that nature, or direct connection with the SBDC, I often have clients come to me that, hey, this is what I need. And the number one thing I do is, well, yes, I can do it for you. But right next door to me is the SBDC. And they can do it for you for free. Let’s go talk to them. So making sure that we’re getting all of our clients the most cost effective, because really, we’re in it to grow manufacturing, there is no profit or loss to us on that project. So can we help manufacturers get better. And so that spirit, really going through and being a core to the team is one of those, it’s one of the things that attracted me to join, is that it’s really core in helping people. But it’s, it’s about the connection. So it’s not only be connection with your customer, that the connection with other manufacturers, because you can only understand so much have you’ve not been in those trenches. And so being able to grab clients and say, Hey, go talk to Stacy, she can help you out. Let’s have this conversation, because she understands that much deeper. If I’m dealing with food manufacturers, a lot of them I tend to sit down with because that’s where my history is, is in restaurants and food manufacturing. But if they’re so kind of depending on where they’re coming from, to solve the problem, but it’s anywhere from hooking up with you guys, when they need e commerce when they need to plan. In fact, I had a conversation. And I’ve got to get with Daymond here because I had a conversation just the other day with a customer, potential customer. I actually haven’t worked with him yet. And his big problem right now is how does he transition his business to his son. And I was talking to him about a plan, he doesn’t have a plan. Those are things that people don’t think about, they think about us helping with, Hey, is my equipment in the right place? And yes, we can do that. But also, we can help you with your website we can help you with Hey, have you planned because as I’m sure Damien can talk about, number one reason businesses don’t fail is they didn’t have a plan to get out. And so how do you do that? With enough runway left to execute it. So all of these things are things that we can help out with. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  33:16

and again, so check out the Alaska MEP website, you guys help with Lean operational excellence, HR issues, you have tons of you guys have been doing a live stream just like this with Brent we’re bringing on a lot of subject matter experts all sorts of different topics you guys offer webinars, you have live trainings so you guys are just offer a wealth of information shout out to the team we’ve got Payton Sammy Jo, Dr. Alyssa Rodriguez in our love to the entire team. We’ve got Bentley, we’ve got Megan who just came on the team in September elevated oats she’s an absolute powerhouse. So you guys I really put together the Dream Team cast them in, you know speaking for you, you can plug your ears, you know, lifetime entrepreneur, you know, hugely successful in you are very passionate, very well connected in the best community. And so I just absolutely love what you bring to the table. And so let’s go here and stasis a little bit.

Kassim Kurani  34:15

A business business, right? This is a very you take care of business.

Damon Pistulka  34:21

That’s the way you do it. That’s the way you’re taking care of business. Awesome.

Curt Anderson  34:25

Well start Hey, we’ll start winding down guys. I know everybody here is super busy. Let’s go here. Stacey, what are you we’re coming into the end of the year. Gosh, I cannot believe 20 I don’t know the 23. But I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like it was just January like yesterday. We’re coming into the end of 2023 states. What are you excited about looking over the horizon into the next year?

Stacey Dean  34:46

Well, we purchased two and a half acres of industrial property halfway between Anchorage and the next biggest place which is West sulla. And we’re going to be able to expand our manufacturing. So that’s our biggest thing right now.

Curt Anderson  35:00

Nice. And when David and I were there in June, you shared that with us, and we got to wonderful, we got to meet with you in person. And just we are just so inspired and just so excited for you on what’s on the horizon. So we just wish you and Cody, just massive, massive success. And Kassim, how about you and the team at the Alaskan MEP, is we’re looking into the next year, what are you excited about?

Kassim Kurani  35:27

Well, really just continued growth of being able to work with manufacturers. You said, you mentioned all of the team members. A year ago it was two people full time on today, it’s six. And so really, it was there was a lot of intention that went into how we built our team, the skill sets we have within our team in order to be more helpful, you know, being able to expand so everybody that Stacy keeps telling the call us we can answer that call and give them service that they deserve.

Curt Anderson  35:58

I absolutely love it. So alright guys, we’ll start winding down. Damon any thoughts takeaways that you want to share from his awesome chat with our friends, Kassim and Stacey,

Damon Pistulka  36:06

I just I just love seeing good things happen with the MEP, and then people like Stacey, their GC Handrail, I mean, taking in the resource education and man turning it into real world results in your business. So so happy for it. Just cool stuff. Cool stuff

Curt Anderson  36:25

and Stacey parting thoughts, words of wisdom, anything that you want to share with folks as we start winding down?

Stacey Dean  36:33

Just keep trying. Just

Curt Anderson  36:35

keep trying. 26 years, 26 years. And Damon, what do we like to say right? Four out of five businesses fail in the first five years. Four out of five businesses fail in the first five years that number compounds every five years. Stacy, you and your husband have made it through what? You’re in your sixth, fifth year cycle. That is nothing short of miraculous. We salute you. We applaud you. We congratulate you. we tip our hat to you. That is just such an impressive accomplishment. I think a lot of entrepreneurs might take that for granted, because it’s just their job. But that is such an improvement. That will wind down check with Checkout. Awesome at the Alaska MEP. You want to hook up with Stacey at GC Handrail. They can find you social media, LinkedIn, where would it be? What’s the best place to find us?

Stacey Dean  37:25

I’m Stacey. GC handrail.com. That’s good. Yeah, we’re also on Facebook, Instagram. YouTube, of course.

Curt Anderson  37:36

Yeah. Yeah. And LinkedIn. So I guess we will wind down connect with Kassim and the team at the last game up on LinkedIn. Connect with Damon that crazy guy connect with him on LinkedIn. I’d love to connect with you as well. So guys, thank you for joining us today. I encourage you I invite you I welcome you just be someone’s inspiration man, just like this team here is today. And what an honor privilege to learn more about Stacey and what the great work that the Alaska MEP is doing. So, guys, we’re gonna close out Kassim Stacey hanging out with us for one second. And we will see you guys we have a great guest coming up on Friday doughnuts. We will see you soon.