More people, more stories

It’s a people business. That’s why HBSDealer’s editor in chief has vowed the following New Year’s resolution: Talk to more people (the more interesting the better), and tell more of their stories in the print and digital pages of HBSDealer. 

On cue, into my office walks LBM editor Andy Carlo, HBSDealer’s newest hire. Carlo and I worked together in the early 2000s at what was then Home Channel News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, before he left — “blown by such winds as scatters young men throughout the world, to seek their fortunes farther than at home,” as Shakespeare said. 

 

How’s it feel to be back?

It’s like going home again, but at the same time it’s a breath of fresh air. Many things have changed since I was last at Home Channel News. There’s a much greater digital focus than 10 years ago, and social media was pretty much non-existent. 

 

In the early 2000s, you were on the cover of a special issue on Lowe’s in the parking lot of a Lowe’s store in upstate New York. You were dressed like a Lowe’s employee. Remember that?

A brutally cold day.

 

In a recent interview, you asked an industry leader to list his favorite dive bars? Is that going to be one of your recurring questions?

Depends on who I am interviewing. In an industry where deals get done with a phone call or handshake, sometimes it’s applicable. If you’ve been to a good number of industry events you know that this industry knows how to have a good time and that frequently takes place at the bar once the work is done. 

As Neil Young said, “See the losers in the best bars, meet the winners in the dives. Where the people are the real stars, all the rest of their lives.” 

 

This column will quote Neil Young and William Shakespeare. What do you think of that?

Hmmm.

 

When we worked together last go around, you were a single man. Now you’re a father of two. Does it affect your reporting?

I have to get things done much more quickly and thoroughly during my “on” hours. Once the kids are home from daycare, they can be ruthless in putting me on their clock. It becomes full-on DadLife. But it’s all for the good — children are a miracle and astonish me one way or another every single day.