Chris Schroeter: Thank you for having me.

CS: No choice. Not at the beginning.

CS: My brother and I started in the business very young. I think my parents were grooming us—looking at our attributes through elementary school and high school, figuring out what we were good at and what our interests were. And like most entrepreneurs, they just threw us in.

The first summer, I remember doing lawn maintenance and all types of crazy things outside—probably not very safe by today’s standards. But it was a great summer. I was about 13. At the end of the summer, somebody asked me, “So how much did you make?” And I said, “I didn’t ask.” It was just fun.

As we grew through university, we started taking on different jobs. I remember one summer building the company’s first website. My parents said, “Do we need a website? It’s going to take you a lot of time.” I said, “I think it’s pretty important.” So we built it and started putting documents and manuals online so people could access them faster—just adding easy value. My brother was working on advertising, changing the Napoleon look from that eighties-nineties feel to something more modern, more streamlined and minimalistic.

We were doing things our parents weren’t trained in. They were the entrepreneur types, and we were taking their ideas to the next level. We’d look at best practices from other industries—automotive, music, whatever—and translate those into what our customers needed.

CS: From a young age. I’ve watched every single episode of How It’s Made. I love that show. That’s how I started to figure out materials and how tooling works. And my dad’s background as a tool and die maker—he taught me over the years how to put things together. We’d be out at a restaurant and he’d say, “How do you think they make this?” I’d say, “I don’t know.” And he’d quiz me on it. It was a constant learning process.

When I got into CAD and computer science in school, I started figuring out how to do things faster. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was extending the company faster than other companies were moving. I took engineering in school, so that helped with the R&D side. I still do it today—maybe a little too passionate about it sometimes. But it’s fun.

CS: I wouldn’t say hard. I’d say it was challenging to see what we could do. We always had a high drive and a high work ethic, and I kept getting the right people on board at the right times. For some reason, it just clicked.

It wasn’t without a lot of help from our associates along the way, whether it was a general manager, a salesperson, or marketing in certain areas. Opening up new markets to go global was really the key, and that meant finding partnerships and building trust with those people. That was the big transition our family went through: learning to trust our managers to do what they do best and giving them a little rope to see what they can accomplish.

CS: I’ll be honest: Twenty years ago, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about knowing things better than other people. Over time, with help from my parents, my friends, my wife—I’ve grown that out of me. I think I’m a different person today. And that’s based on the trust I have with my staff, with the retailers and distributors we work with around the world. It’s really changed me. You have to grow or you’re going to get stale.

CS: You have to work on the business, not in the business. And working on the business means trusting your people. You have to grow yourself. You have to keep yourself sane, keep your mental health straight, and keep moving forward—because you’re accountable to all of your associates’ jobs. Your goal is to give people work, give them dollars to bring home to their families so they can grow and have the life they’ve always dreamed of. That’s what we keep in mind as a family.

CS: Electric. Electric is a huge one. Even at a certain size, having an electrician on staff makes sense. I have a friend who very recently put a full-time electrician on staff—because electrical is part of the gas fireplace, part of the electric fireplace, part of the pellet stove. It’s part of everything. You need that diagnosis done quickly, and an electrician is that person.

Putting stovepipe up, making the flame and the logs look perfect—we’re great at that. That’s not a problem. It’s that next step. And that’s the expansion part I think people need to look at. As homes change in the future, there’ll be more apps, more Bluetooth, more connected devices. That electrician will evolve into more of an electronics person. I’m looking 10 years out, but that’s what I see in most other industries. Everything’s connected, and it’ll just keep moving that direction.

CS: There are still a few who won’t do it, but I’m actually surprised by how many are now. And it hasn’t gone to other places except maybe big box stores. Lighting companies haven’t taken it on. Furniture companies haven’t taken it on. So it’s really up to the hearth retailer to grow the business, especially at the higher price points.

CS: You’re absolutely right, and the automotive industry is fantastic at this. You go in to buy a V6 truck and walk out with a V8. That’s upselling, and our industry needs to take some of those steps. Look at other industries and how they do it—not just your own. You can learn a lot about how to grow that wallet share, whether it’s another electric in the home, a larger fireplace, or service that leads to their cottage or their friend’s place. That loyalty factor is so overlooked today.

CS: I 100% agree. Two things here. First is awareness. Right now, somebody is only putting one fireplace in a home when they could be putting in two or three—electric, gas, or wood. When someone is building a home, how high does a fireplace rank on the list? Are they thinking about a hot tub first? A second dishwasher? Awareness is a huge factor. And more people selling in a marketplace actually drives more sales per store. That’s the end result.

We’ve seen it many times. We’ve opened a second dealer in a city where the existing dealer wasn’t happy about it—and we’ve had lots of those who are still fantastic dealers today. What actually happened was the first dealer started selling double over three years. Because the new dealer was maybe better at marketing or better at service, and the first dealer picked up the offset sales the other one couldn’t handle. There were more sales in that market than anyone realized.

CS: Exactly. Everyone’s doing a web search. Everyone’s asking AI about it. If you’re relevant, you might get an at-bat. The rising tide lifts every boat.

And fireplaces aren’t as low-margin as they used to be. We’re not seeing a complete install for $3,000 where the retailer was only making $500. These are $10,000 installs now. Luxury items. So if your competitor picks up a couple of those and you miss a couple sales, it’s not as painful—because you’re still booked, and you’ve got another $10,000 sale coming through if you know the potential of your marketplace.

CS: It’s just curiosity. Like I said earlier, I want to benchmark against the best. I want to make sure we understand what our competitors are doing, and what companies outside our industry are doing. But we also need to know the details of what’s happening. And unlocking someone with great experience like yourself and finding out those things—I think that’s really important.

We have a saying now: We listen, we react, and we change. We do things for the end consumer and the customers we have, and we try to make it easy for them. But honestly, it’s just the way my parents brought us up. They said, “Make sure you ask questions. Make sure you understand in detail what’s going on and what’s changing. And make sure you can react to it.”

CS: Leadership is a game of . . . trust. At the end of the day. There are many other words that come to mind—empowerment, all of those—but they’re all based on trust. If you can’t trust people to do what they do best, and better than you can do it yourself, you’re not going to move forward. You’re going to be the limiting factor for the entire company, for your store, for whatever it is. So don’t be the limiting factor. Trust—and keep moving forward.

CS: Thank you, Tim. It was fun.