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The Bell Board Podcast

The Bell Board Podcast

Av: Neil Bell
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The Bell Board Podcast is the outdoor advertising industry's go-to show for candid conversations, hard-won insights, and straight talk from the people building, buying, and selling billboards. Hosted by Neil Bell — operator, developer, and guy who still can't drive past a billboard without doing math in his head — each episode goes beyond the numbers to explore the deals, the decisions, and the lessons that define a life in OOH.Neil Bell Management & Leadership Ökonomie
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  • Building a Billboard Business That Lasts | Hal & Diana Stevenson

    Building a Billboard Business That Lasts | Hal & Diana Stevenson
    Sep 8 2026
    How do you build an independent billboard company that can grow without depending on one person to run everything? Diana Stevenson (CEO) and Hal Stevenson (Chief Development Officer) of Grace Outdoor Advertising join Neil Bell to share the lessons behind building, operating, and preparing their outdoor advertising business for the next generation.Hal and Diana trace their path through billboard leasing and development in Oklahoma, Texas, and Southern California, an early and costly bet on digital billboards years before the ad industry was ready for them, and the recession that brought them back to South Carolina to rebuild Grace Outdoor from the ground up. Diana explains how she came back to run the company on one condition — she'd be in charge — and then rebuilt its systems, its team, and its client base from scratch.They also dig into some of the biggest challenges facing independent OOH operators today: multi-year permitting fights, managing thousands of digital-billboard contracts a year, servicing national advertisers, and training the next generation to run the business without them.For independent billboard owners and outdoor advertising professionals, this is a firsthand look at what it takes to turn decades of industry knowledge into a company that can run beyond its founders.LINKSGrace Outdoor Advertising: https://graceoutdoor.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/graceoutdooradvertising/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grace-Outdoor/109527645755004Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceoutdooradvertising/KEY TAKEAWAYS• Grace Outdoor Advertising manages billboard inventory for roughly 30 different entities — family LLCs, longtime partners, and small companies whose owners live nowhere near the signs• Diana Stevenson came back to run the company on one condition — that she'd be in charge — then rebuilt its systems from scratch, starting by learning who their clients were and how they paid• A single digital billboard face can generate thousands of contracts a year, versus about 24 for a static sign — software like Apparatix, integrated with their accounting system, is what makes that volume manageable• National advertisers make up an estimated 25-35% of Grace Outdoor's business; they pay reliably but slowly (often around four months), which rewards operators with strong back-office systems• One billboard permit took 3.5 years and only came through after Grace Outdoor won an appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals 4-1, after planning staff had recommended denial with no clear legal reason• Hal's approach to difficult zoning fights is persistence over litigation — suing a municipality tends to end the relationship for every permit after it• Every excavation carries real risk: Grace Outdoor has hit a pressurized sewer line and a 36-inch water main on separate builds, with the water-main repair costing roughly half that project's profit• Grace Outdoor grows only at the edges of its existing South Carolina/North Carolina footprint, since a single sign in a distant market is hard to sell without a local presence• The company's name, "Grace," came from Hal's brother Danny, half-jokingly, after a territorial conflict with Lamar Advertising split their earlier business ventureSUMMARYHal and Diana Stevenson met while he was a fill-in bank branch manager and she was a part-time teller in Columbia, South Carolina. Hal's billboard career started through a mentor's company, Omni Outdoor Advertising, and took the couple through leasing and permitting jobs in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Southern California — including an early, expensive bet on digital billboards on LA's 405 freeway (roughly $800,000 for one face) that the advertising industry wasn't yet equipped to buy into. When the recession hit and the bank pressure on the business mounted, Hal asked Diana to come back and run things. She agreed, on one condition: she'd be in charge.From there, Diana rebuilt the company from the ground up — literally starting by getting the mail and learning how every client paid — and used that ground-level knowledge to redesign the company's systems, team, and client relationships. The company took the name "Grace" at the suggestion of Hal's brother Danny, after a territorial dispute with Lamar Advertising split an earlier venture the brothers were both involved in. Today, Grace Outdoor manages billboard inventory for around 30 different entities, from family LLCs to small companies whose owners have no local presence, and does an estimated 25-35% of its business with national advertisers — relationships that pay reliably but slowly, and that reward operators with strong back-office systems like Apparatix, integrated with their accounting software, to keep thousands of digital-billboard contracts a year organized.The conversation also covers the operational realities of running an independent OOH company: permitting and zoning fights that can take years and ...
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    47 min
  • How Trailhead Media Scaled Through 44 Billboard Acquisitions | John Murrow

    How Trailhead Media Scaled Through 44 Billboard Acquisitions | John Murrow
    Aug 11 2026


    Podcast Description:

    How do you complete 44 billboard acquisitions while building a scalable outdoor advertising company? Trailhead Media CEO John Murrow shares the strategies, mistakes, systems, and leadership lessons behind the company’s rapid growth.


    John explains how Trailhead Media launched during COVID, completed multiple acquisitions within its first few months, and grew to approximately 3,300 billboard faces across the Southeast.


    The conversation covers billboard lease negotiations, acquisition due diligence, remote operations, digital billboard investments, programmatic advertising, private equity, company culture, and the challenges of integrating billboard assets quickly.


    This episode is for billboard operators, outdoor advertising professionals, independent media owners, sales leaders, and anyone interested in scaling an out-of-home advertising company.


    Guest Website: https://trailheadmedia.com/


    Time Stamps / Chapters:

    00:00 Meet John Murrow of Trailhead Media

    00:57 Launching Trailhead Media during COVID

    03:07 John’s career in billboard real estate

    03:47 Reducing billboard lease costs

    06:11 Relationships and landowner negotiations

    08:12 Moving from operations into the CEO role

    11:20 Completing 44 billboard acquisitions

    13:39 Acquisition mistakes and due diligence lessons

    15:58 Trailhead’s more strategic acquisition approach

    17:28 Building a remote billboard operating model

    20:57 Growing outdoor advertising’s share of media

    23:01 Billboard attribution and the 95-5 rule

    27:48 Digital billboards and programmatic advertising

    36:09 Building culture through acquisitions

    42:20 What private equity misunderstands about billboards

    46:28 John’s biggest leadership lesson

    50:24 Why John loves the billboard industry

    53:02 Final advice for building great teams



    Tags:


    billboard acquisitions, outdoor advertising, billboard industry, Trailhead Media, John Murrow, out of home advertising, OOH advertising, billboard company growth, billboard operations, digital billboards, programmatic advertising, billboard lease negotiations, billboard sales, outdoor media acquisitions, billboard business, remote operations, private equity billboard companies, billboard leadership



    Hashtags:


    #OutdoorAdvertising #BillboardIndustry #OOHAdvertising



    Keywords:


    billboard acquisitions

    outdoor advertising growth

    billboard company operations

    Trailhead Media CEO

    John Morrow interview

    billboard lease negotiations

    digital billboard investment

    programmatic billboard advertising

    remote billboard operations

    outdoor advertising leadership

    billboard acquisition strategy

    out-of-home advertising

    billboard company culture

    billboard due diligence

    private equity billboards
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    58 min
  • From Bear Suit to Billboard Vet: Matt Schulze's 30+ Years in OOH

    From Bear Suit to Billboard Vet: Matt Schulze's 30+ Years in OOH
    Jul 28 2026

    Building a successful billboard company takes far more than finding a good location. In this episode of The Bell Board Podcast, Neil Bell sits down with Matt Schulze of Selective Structures to talk billboard construction, digital billboard strategy, and the lessons of a 30+ year career in out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

    Matt shares the wild story of how a bear costume unexpectedly launched his career, wood-pole vs. steel-monopole construction, why billboard maintenance gets overlooked, what makes a billboard truly "digital-ready," building stadium scoreboards and major sign projects, and what he believes the next generation of OOH operators needs to focus on.

    Guest: Matt Schulze — Selective Structures (selectivestructures.com)
    Host: Neil Bell — New South Outdoor (newsouthoutdoor.com)

    0:00 Introduction & meet Matt Schulze (Selective Structures)
    1:03 The bear costume story that started a billboard career
    4:24 Leaving radio for the billboard business
    7:31 Tommy Teepell's influence & finding success in billboards
    9:21 Why billboard companies should work together
    11:10 How the billboard industry has changed over 30 years
    14:55 Why every billboard should be built digital-ready
    17:30 Wood pole vs. steel monopole billboards
    20:04 Common mistakes new billboard owners make
    27:29 Billboard maintenance: paint, head bolts & longevity
    32:04 Billboard safety & protecting installation crews
    39:57 Wind frames vs. panels for hurricane-prone markets
    41:27 Rising steel costs & how to compare billboard structures
    45:00 Building stadium scoreboards & major sign projects
    47:32 Digital billboard strategy & buying the right equipment
    55:10 Billboard advertising around the world
    59:23 Creative billboard permitting & using AI responsibly
    1:02:24 Economic cycles in the billboard industry
    1:04:08 Billboard investing & return on investment (ROI)
    1:05:43 Matt's biggest career lesson
    1:08:02 Advice for the next generation of billboard operators
    1:10:36 Closing thoughts

    This episode is supported by:
    Drachman M&A Co. — the outdoor advertising industry's M&A advisory firm. drachmanco.com
    SignDash — billboard sales & inventory management software for independent OOH operators. signdash.com

    #Billboards #OutdoorAdvertising #OOH #DigitalBillboards #BillboardConstruction
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    1 tim och 11 min
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