Speaking
I give six or eight talks a year, mostly to dealer and distributor groups, plant leadership teams and engineering and trades students. I bring a few slides at most and leave half the time for questions.
Topics
Lean without the binder
How we took header changeovers from ninety minutes to twenty-two, and why a fifteen-minute meeting at a whiteboard did more for us than any consultant.
The guard that came off
How a careful crew ends up living with a dangerous shortcut, and what changed our injury rate from 5.6 to 1.2. Includes why we stopped paying bonuses for low injury counts.
Buying rod in a market that won’t sit still
Index-linked pricing, a fixed number of days of safety stock, and the 2021 allocation decision distributors still bring up.
Five years as the customer
What I saw manufacturers get wrong when I ran sixteen lumber yards, from Friday price letters to pallets too tall for the racking.
Recent appearances
| Date | Event | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | Plant tour and Q&A for a regional plant managers’ groupDanville, Illinois | Tour and discussion |
| Mar 2026 | Heartland LBM Leadership Forum“Price letters and lead times,” St. Louis, Missouri | Keynote |
| Jan 2026 | Mississippi Valley Pro Dealer Conference“Buying through a tariff year,” Memphis, Tennessee | Panel |
| Oct 2025 | Annual meeting of a two-step distributor buying group“What a nail plant can and can’t promise,” Nashville, Tennessee | Talk and Q&A |
| Apr 2025 | Tamsen Lumber & Supply Pro Contractor Day“Where your nails come from,” Indianapolis, Indiana | Breakfast talk |
| Nov 2024 | Senior design class, industrial engineering“What I wish I’d known in my first plant job” | Guest lecture |
Practical details
Rooms of fifty to three hundred people work best for me. Forty-five minutes is about right, with Q&A included. I can also host groups at our plants in Danville or Jackson. We supply the safety glasses; bring your own steel-toes.
I don’t charge a speaking fee for industry associations, schools or nonprofit groups. For other events, I ask that a fee be donated to the Cordell Skilled Trades Scholarship. I appreciate help with travel costs when the event is more than a day’s drive from Danville.
Please send requests at least eight weeks ahead, with the date, audience and what you’d like people to walk away with.
Requests can go through the contact form.