Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
From First Cold Call to 950% Growth: Brandon Tobin's Journey of Passion, Resilience, and Innovation
What if your first cold call could set the trajectory for an extraordinary career? Join us as we welcome Brandon Tobin, the newest consultant at Knowledge Gap Company, who shares his incredible journey from making his first cold call at age three to driving a staggering 950% profit growth for businesses. Brandon's story isn't just about numbers; it’s a tale of passion and a fervent belief that business services are pivotal investments for success. Expect to be inspired as Brandon’s enthusiasm shines through, showing us the true power of aligning personal passion with professional goals.
Ever wondered how a bullied child with ADHD can transform into a high-performing salesperson? This episode explores a heartening story of resilience and personal growth. From the struggles of medication and isolation to the surprising opportunity of selling books door-to-door during college, this narrative demonstrates how self-improvement and the right mentorship can turn average performance into remarkable success. The journey is a testament to the power of faith and the relentless pursuit of self-betterment.
But that's not all—this episode also dives into the intriguing world of the shed industry, where faith and business intersect. Discover how questioning beliefs can lead to stronger convictions and hear about the technical innovations like 3D configurators and SaaS tools transforming the industry. We also discuss the importance of data analysis, the emotional challenges of scaling businesses, and the invaluable role of mentorship. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with personal anecdotes, professional insights, and heartfelt stories about building relationships through shared experiences and genuine appreciation.
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To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast and really excited to continue doing this series with the good folks over at the Knowledge Gap Joe Ignace and a lot of his group over there, Great partners, great people to work with and doing a lot of cool things for a lot of his, uh, his group over there, great partners, great people to work with and, uh, doing a lot of cool things for a lot of businesses. And, uh, man, we just got through saying this was, like you know, somewhere between two to 300 podcasts and I'm excited, Brandon, that that that, like this, is your first podcast, or like at least one of them. So I'm excited
BRANDON TOBIN:I'm excited too man. man. Thanks,
SHED GEEK:to the audience a little bit about who you are, what you do, kind of how we've connected.
BRANDON TOBIN:Sure, first of all, thanks so much, really appreciate it, super excited and just grateful to be here. So my name is Brandon Tobin. Most people call me Tobin. It's my last name. There's usually only one of those, but there's always like three Brandons. So and then, uh, if I, if I start selling and doing real well, sometimes they'll call me Tobinator.
SHED GEEK:I love it, the Tobinator.
BRANDON TOBIN:Yes, that's um, a nickname I borrowed from my old man. He was a air force guy, a corrections officer, just built big guy. They called him Tobinator, but anyway, uh, I went a different path. I actually wanted to join the military and fly jets and be Maverick basically, but my parents were like no, you need to go to college. And so I was actually kind of a natural born salesperson.
BRANDON TOBIN:I'll tell you a little bit more about that part of the story later, but kind of as far as what I'm doing now, I'm one of the newer guys working with Joe and Woody at the Knowledge Gap Company as one of the consultants, super excited to help business owners grow their revenue, help coach their salespeople, develop scripts for them and presentations, things like that that are going to really help move the needle and if it's not like the top line growth that we help them with.
BRANDON TOBIN:Just going through Joe with a, it was like a P&L statement for one of his clients and just in like five or 10 minutes he was able to show me he's like look, they're spending way too much money here. They're not charging enough money there. He helped them grow their profit by like 950% from now and a year ago just by like 950%, but from now and a year ago, um, just by like kind of looking at the numbers too and and the um, the processes and systems. So that's that's what we help people do here. Um, but I can I kind of plan to talk a little bit about how I got into sales, why I'm so grateful that I did, and kind of what it's done for me, um, things that have helped me be successful, and, um, a little, a little bit more about that. So just let me know where to start.
SHED GEEK:You got me on the edge of my seat already.
SHED GEEK:I'm already excited to learn more about it.
SHED GEEK:I feel like Joe really knows how to recruit some really great talent over there and what you guys are doing is cool, and what business doesn't want growth? And sometimes it's? We've discussed this sort of in our marketing efforts. We like to say hey guys, we're an investment tool, like you know, if you're in the shed industry which you know is most of my audience you know, like you buy a cardinal mule or you buy lumber, you buy truck and trailer, whatever it is. You're investing in those things to kind of help you make money.
SHED GEEK:It's like that's the way we should look at business services, consulting, marketing. You know they should be making you more than they're costing you because the purpose of them is to add value to you at the end of the day. So, uh, it's really that the biggest disconnect is. That is that the gap no pun intended the gap between like will. Will I take that leap, you know, to trust the process, you know, and see that it's going to work. So, man, it's been kind of cool and I feel like I I get front row seats to kind of learn through these conversations right, which is kind of fun, and build a lot of friends in the process and and I know that you're you're a person of faith, so we want to get into all those you know conversations as well too. So I'm just I'm excited, looking forward to it. So tell me, tell me why you got into sales and why you're grateful. I want to know that story.
BRANDON TOBIN:Yeah, so I was kind of a natural born salesperson. I made my first cold call at three years old. Okay, all right, and I put that on my resume and people would always ask about it in interviews. It was so funny.
BRANDON TOBIN:But it's true I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, like my younger sister wasn't much for conversation. You know, she was like one years old, I was like three years old, and so I would just pick up the phone and dial random numbers, hoping to have someone to talk to, just to make a friend, and my mom didn't think it was you know anything to worry about. Until one day I was like actually having a conversation with someone and she's like let me give me the phone. Who is this? Yeah, she picks up the phone. She's like who's talking to my son and it's like a kid answering back like this is Byron. I'm five years old, I live in so-and-so street and my mom's like wow, that's, that's around the corner from our house. And so our moms ended up being friends together. Me and Byron ended up being friends. It worked out. So that was my first cold calling experience at three.
SHED GEEK:I'll tell you what. Cold calling man, it's not for the faint of heart. You know what I mean. You got to take on like a whole new attitude whenever you address it.
BRANDON TOBIN:It can be fun though it can, you can either get a laugh, make a friend something, even if it's not a sale. Someone that helps you out gets you pointed in the right direction. I really believe every no gets you closer to a yes. There's a lot of truth to that, in more ways than one.
SHED GEEK:When you've got to work the leads. That's something that we preach a lot of times. You've got to work the leads. You don't want to be high pressure. I get high pressure, I get it. You don't want to, but, man, you don't want to leave anything on the table in terms of service, like I. In specific to the shed industry, one story I always like to say you don't tell people is like um, you know, no one ever came back and said like you sold me, you know, uh, too big of a shed.
SHED GEEK:They always want more storage, so they're always like I wish you just sold me something bigger and it's like oh man, I was probably being conservative because I didn't want to seem like I was overselling to you. I just wanted to get you what you felt like you needed. But you know good customer service, by the way, I'm in the market for a shed. Oh, you're going to get some calls now, for sure.
BRANDON TOBIN:I mean I'm in the Tri-Cities area a little more east of Knoxoxville but around johnson city, jonesboro. If you got anybody out there, anybody listening, right here trying to build a shed, there's some good there's some good shed companies around too, so I don't, I don't you leave your.
SHED GEEK:You drop your phone number on here. You'll get a call. You'll find out who's working, their leads and who's listening if somebody calls you, right? No kidding, so right right so uh, so that's a. That's a cool story. I like your code call. So then what? As you got older, you said natural born sales guy.
BRANDON TOBIN:I always like to ask Go ahead, you take it, I'll raise you one more. This is really funny. So my sister, I'm a first time uncle and I'm from California originally but I fled, I escaped as my father calls it communist China, Chinaf ornia. So it was really that's like the taxes and COVID really is kind of what was like the straw that broke our camel's back. So my dad's like, hey, I found this pretty place.
BRANDON TOBIN:Some real estate agents YouTube channel just made Johnson city look like the garden of Eden compared to the you know hot, dusty central Valley of California where we're from. So he talked me into moving. That was about two years ago. But to kind of back up, just a week ago, I was visiting my sister and her two-month-old baby boy and so we were also going through baby photo albums and stuff of us and stuff that we made when we were kids. So I found my first marketing brochure that I made when I was probably like seven years old. So it's kind of hard to tell, but it says the lost lake and there's like a waterfall pouring out of the east.
BRANDON TOBIN:And, and you know, I've drawn like some fishes and like a cabin and stuff on it and the copy is not bad, you know, for a seven-year-old.
BRANDON TOBIN:Let me tell you I've got a guarantee in there. I almost spelled guarantee, right, I said a guarantee. You'll leave with a smile or your money back. You could rent boats and camping stuff for $5 each and there's no tax. It's no sales tax. And I even had a call to action with urgency. I was like if you come within the next month and rent the boats and the camping tents and things, uh, you get five dollars off wait a minute, so it just cost me five dollars.
SHED GEEK:But if I just call me the day where's? This place I've got to find out about the lost lake is that what it? Was lake. I gotta find the lost lake.
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BRANDON TOBIN:Um, so I was really into this stuff when I was a kid and what happened was I had ADHD and so my teachers strongly recommended Ritalin, adderall, stuff like that, to my parents, and like that's what every kid got put on in the nineties. That couldn't sit still to the end of the class. You know, the girls were nice and well-behaved, they were happy to like sit there quietly. I wanted to get up and run around and like I was finished with my work and anyway Ritalin was way too much for like a six year old, seven year old kid and I just turned into like a really quiet introverted. It killed my appetite too, and I was always the youngest person in school. So I ended up getting bullied a lot and really fell out of love with the gift of gab for quite a while.
BRANDON TOBIN:Just like played a lot of video games. You know, by the time I was a teenager in high school I was just like addicted to video games, doing my schoolwork, taking the hardest classes I could like, fully planning to go to college, and I think I wanted to be a lawyer. You know, like I was into politics, I wanted to argue with people for a living and I was just like a really skeptical, negative kind of guy, and I was like an atheist too. I thought anybody that believes in religion or God was like stupid or weak. I still didn't have a lot of friends, needless to say, in high school and, like I said, I wanted to go to college to become a lawyer, but my parents strongly insisted that I sell books door to door instead.
SHED GEEK:I'm just kidding. This is what you have to do Tobin. This is the path forward.
BRANDON TOBIN:Yes, they were dead set against it. Actually, I told them what I wanted to do for my freshman year of college. Somebody recruited me. They came into my class with a flyer and they're like I made $10,000 last summer, you can do it too. And my parents were like getting divorced and like declaring bankruptcy and losing their house. This was like the 08 housing market crash, like that was my first year going to school at UC Berkeley where the whole university of California system was also raising tuition like 25% every year. So I was like I need to make money, no matter what it is, um, and I kind of thought it was a scam. The whole time. The whole time I thought it was a scam, and so did my dad. He tried to talk me out of it, but he's like sorry, I can't tell you not to go because you can't come home either.
BRANDON TOBIN:So I went to a different state. They sent us to Nashville first for training. That's kind of how I got a little bit of taste to Tennessee and learned to like it and love it. But I was surprised to find out it was like 150 year old company that started out selling Bibles like during the civil war. So all of my leaders were Christians. You know, like all the top salespeople, the sales managers, the people who'd been there for five, 10 years, who did the best, and I looked up to them because they were so successful and so cool 10 years who did the best. And I looked up to them because they were so successful and so cool and I was just like, again, I had negative skills in sales at this point, like worse than zero, you know, like not a talker was really good at doing math and schoolwork and stuff like that. I didn't even study my sales talk or prepare.
BRANDON TOBIN:But when I got there I realized, oh shoot, this is not a scam, it's actually real. I better start catching up on studying right now and just drink all the Kool-Aid, like whatever they tell me to do Cold shower, fine, tell myself positive things in the mirror while brushing my teeth Sure, sounds crazy. Whatever I'm going to do, whatever they tell me to do, because I'm so behind the eight ball right now, so I was drinking the Kool-Aid do because, like, I'm so behind the eight ball right now, so I was drinking the Kool-Aid, doing everything they told me to, had a short first summer and did like average, basically like working 80 hours a week to end up doing average. And I wasn't really satisfied with that and so I wanted to treat it like a class and I blocked off time to study sales and become a student of the game. Like I unfollowed all the video game dudes on Twitter and YouTube that I was subscribed to.
BRANDON TOBIN:Like I stopped listening to music for just like a year or two straight. Like if I was in my car or if I was, you know, not studying or in class. Like I was listening to Zig Ziglar or Brian Tracy or like all the old school greats. Yeah, and Zig Ziglar said something that stuck with me. He said like you are not a professional salesperson if you don't have a tape recorder, he's like if you don't record and listen to yourself, you're just casually winging it for fun. Like you're not a professional. He's like that's, that's like a football player that doesn't watch game tape. You know they're just playing a game for fun. They tape. They're just playing a game for fun, they're not a professional. And so I recorded myself, listened to it, played with the tonality and pausing and things like that, and it was really coachable and did everything that my mentors told me to do.
BRANDON TOBIN:Having a list of all my customers was something I didn't do my first summer and the second summer was so much easier. I was just like, here's all your kids' friends and they're like, oh sweet, we want to buy those books if they're going to help us in school and if our friends have them. So I learned about the power of like customer testimonials and actually following a script and like the cycle of the sale and like learning about whoever you're talking to before you go talk to them, kind of like doing your research, having a good intro and a buying atmosphere and how to run a discovery basically having a good intro and a buying atmosphere and how to run a discovery. Basically, I learned about how to demo. You know, not, it's not like reading the owner's manual, right, it's just more like you, you want to hit them with the sizzle, not the steak, you know, ask them some questions and be like how did you like that so far? So there was a lot of really good sales training and I just really fell in love with it. I doubled my sales the second summer. I did it Third summer my younger sister actually came out with me and she did fantastic and all of her roommates did great.
BRANDON TOBIN:I had like four or five other people on my team and I thought I was going to be at that company forever and probably about like the third or fourth year of doing it is kind of when I started like my heart started to change when God started speaking to me and I started going to church and reading the Bible. But then I kind of fell out of it for a while until I met some folks again later that got me going back to church again studying the Bible. I think I just really didn't like religion was the thing, and I had some bad experiences with folks that weren't really good Christians.
SHED GEEK:So did Jesus Right, so did Jesus the Pharisees.
BRANDON TOBIN:The religion didn't like him either. So, yeah, I figured out that I love God, I love Jesus. I just couldn't find a good church community that I liked. But that's one of the things I love so much about moving to Tennessee is it's the Bible belt. And when I got here I hadn't really been baptized yet and I found Grace Meadows Church in Jonesboro. So big shout out to the pastor, Dallas Crouch. The first day that I decided to go back to church in a long time, he said hey, everyone, this is a little awkward being the leader of your church and all, but I'm going to go ahead and get baptized today. And he's like you know, I did it when I was eight years old, feel like it didn't really count. So hopefully this inspires someone. But this is just what I got to do for me. I was like, wow, that's a sign. So I got baptized at their pond, actually, wow, about a year ago on Father's Day. So it's coming up on my one year. One year anniversary Baptism anniversary yeah.
BRANDON TOBIN:Yeah,
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SHED GEEK:Man, what a cool story. Like you know, I think a lot of people we live very faith forward on the podcast. We've talked for many years about how, like you know, I've had some people say, well, it's not a good look, you don't really want to bring politics and religion into your world or things like that. And I'm like well, listen, you know, like, politics and religion are part of my world. Matter of fact, I don't even really know where you know you begin to separate your faith in your work and your family. To me it's just all one big thing and I think for a lot of people it's kind of like oh, I've got Jesus in this box and work in this box, and you know what I mean. And I'm like hey, I think we read the same Bible or similar Bible anyway, and it seems to me like it could be wrong. But maybe we don't put them in boxes, maybe we just kind of blend them together and Like, maybe we don't put them in boxes, maybe we just kind of blend them together, and it's just who, like you know what life is and who we are. You just kind of, you know, I've prayed with customers and I haven't been, like you know, like, hey, no, it's not Sunday, so we can't do that.
SHED GEEK:You know, like it's you know what I mean Like I don't understand sort of putting it in a box. But I did it for years and I've had my own doubts. I mean I've had. You know, I believe that challenging your beliefs is only what's going to make you stronger. You know Socrates was stoned to death for the purposes of supposedly, you know, causing causing children to question their parents. But I think that to me, it's okay to question your parents. It's even okay to question your faith. I don't believe that you follow blindly. I believe that testing your faith builds the perseverance of it. So I actually think that it's okay to sort of have challenging thought and questions and things like that, and I've had to have those in my own life and all I've done is built my convictions deeper as to why I believe what I believe. It's like my pastor says. He says oh, you're an atheist Gosh, you got more faith than I do.
SHED GEEK:I said what do you mean?
SHED GEEK:He says well, I don't know. You know, to believe what you believe really takes a lot more faith than to believe what I believe. If you actually start to study and view the history of who God is and what he is, my story actually makes a lot more sense. You have some pretty amazing faith to believe that all this came from nothing. No kidding.
SHED GEEK:It's interesting to and you hear a lot of those stories. You know, I've definitely been in some of those deep conversations so I always appreciate that. I appreciate that about the shed industry, that they, you know that Jesus is not hidden in what we do because, um, you know, people say it was a contra, controversial character, but I don't think that that describes the nature of jesus. I think he didn't come to be controversial. I think controversy surrounds itself by recognizing a sovereign god, because it's we have to go internally within ourselves to believe. Is that true? Something's bigger than us and it tears at our ego and all these different things. So, uh, man, I love your story. I, yeah, I'm enjoying this already more than what I, what I had anticipated, and not not because I didn't think that I would enjoy it, but we never met so far. Right, we had not had a conversation before. Today. I've met joe, met woody, even had those guys on the show interviewed, interviewed Woody again this morning. We'll have another interview to get out of the way at some point as well on a reschedule. But, dude, I really enjoy this.
SHED GEEK:So how can you help shed dealers, shed manufacturers? We're a very fragmented industry. We have shed manufacturers who sell a million a year and sell 300 million a year and, I'm quite certain, quite a bit more than that. Um so, so my question is you? You run the gambit with so many different things shed manufacturing, shed sales uh. Consignment dealers, wholesale retailers uh, shed haulers, shed haulers, that thaters that have multiple fleet or that have a fleet of multiple trucks. I mean, we're just, we have a lot going on and it's a way bigger industry. And then all the ancillary products, tobin, like you know, greenhouses that complement what we do. The steel industry, the car carports most shed dealers sell some kind of a carport or garage structure or metal structure. Square tubing uh, some do.
BRANDON TOBIN:Post frame uh, chicken coops, I'm looking for a covered porch too I'm trying to make a covered porch. You know if anyone can help out with that?
SHED GEEK:yeah, we've got guys that you know the, and most of what we do is portable storage. The purpose of it is to sort of like house excess American dream. We want more, we want more, we want more.
SHED GEEK:And we've got a place for you to store it. I guess is what we do. But that's the tiny home market. Many shed builders also sort of venture over and into that that finished out model. So like I mean we're, we're a much bigger industry and then what people see than just like a typical shed in your backyard. But where does the knowledge gap come in? Where does Tobin come in? What do you do? How do you, how do you help a company increase?
BRANDON TOBIN:Yeah, great question. Thanks for the setup there. Sure, no-transcript, like that was kind of. The latter part of my career was software technology sales About the most godless people you could think of that, and bankers you know.
BRANDON TOBIN:But this has been such a nice refreshing change of pace because I was just with Joe this morning kind of shadowing him. I'm one of the newer people on the team this morning kind of shadowing him. I'm one of the newer people on the team, so I was kind of seeing how it's done and he was meeting with these guys in construction, champion construction and power washing and that was one of the first things they asked. They're like do you guys believe in Jesus? Do you love God? Because there's three guys and two of them had done full-time ministry before and I was just like man, how did they find us? Or how did we find them Like what a great match. And kind of as we were going through, you know what their strengths and weaknesses were. They were telling us you know that they're so personable and so good at selling. That's one of their big strengths, right, but it was also kind of a weakness because they both felt like man, I really couldn't teach somebody. My process doesn't feel duplicatable. That's kind of how they were coming across. They're like I don't know how to teach what I know. And we're like, well, do you have any sales scripts or do you have anything like that? And they're like, honestly, no, not really. And we're like, okay, well, we want to help you be able to duplicate yourself, duplicate your process, be able to scale and build those kinds of systems and assets, whether it's scripts for salespeople or, you know, a presentation, a PowerPoint or whatever it is or even just like shadowing and listening, seeing how, how they could improve, either make the sale faster or bigger, or how to get more referrals. Hiring and firing is something that they need a lot of help with.
BRANDON TOBIN:Not just the folks that we met this morning, but I think in general, when we meet with companies, a lot of business owners seem to be like I mean not all of them, but a lot of them can feel like emotionally, like too close almost with their employees, especially the early ones. So the point where it's even if it's not working out, you know, if they have such a good heart for their people like they have a hard time having those tough conversations, and that's one of the things that's so valuable about bringing in like a third party, you know, somebody that's not, you know, emotionally involved or too close or like in the picture. We can see the whole picture by meeting with the people and also kind of, like I mentioned earlier, like looking at the numbers, kind of doing an audit or an analysis of their P&L statement, for example.
BRANDON TOBIN:That was one of the other things they said they struggled with was tracking their expenses. They're like you know, we got QuickBooks and a bookkeeper so we're okay for taxes and stuff. But he's like shoot, I honestly have no idea how much my guys spend on fuel for the trucks or any of those other kinds of expenses. He's just like I just put like a thousand bucks a month in the account and that could be twice as much as they need. Maybe they're just keeping the rest, I don't know. So we're like well, we got something to help you out there too. Then that was kind of the world that I came from most recently was like software for tax and accounting, tracking expenses, employee purchase cards, tracking accounts, payable things like that, and being able to really minimize your expenses and maybe even earn points or rebates or something on whatever it is that you're spending on. So I think kind of like the people and the numbers in the business is where we can help out the most.
BRANDON TOBIN:Hopefully I didn't say too much, but you know, also like content and like kind of marketing and branding that's not so much my forte, but we have really good people here that help out with that. Like a YouTube channel branding, you know, content marketing, that kind of stuff too.
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SHED GEEK:Yeah, man, uh, no, I, I love it. There's so the sky's kind of the limit. And uh, the one thing that I realize whenever you talk to a lot of companies you know we had uh one of our previous guests on here, jonathan ulrich. He's uh very well known in the in the shed industry. Uh, he's got a company, a finance company, and uh shed company and all kinds of other stuff. He's just a busy guy. He was talking on one of the episodes previously about that exact thing is like knowing your numbers. Knowing your numbers, you know, being able to understand your P and L, being able to understand that just because you see a lot of revenue coming in doesn't mean you're making a lot of money. It means that there's a lot of money coming in but there's a. There's a an money coming in, but there's a. There's a. An equation to that you know there's a the.
SHED GEEK:The quality to that is like you have a lot of expenses typically, and like we've experienced that even on our own growth, trying to figure out like when, when are you doing well? And I think the idea is like slow, steady growth. That's typically what I like to see. Um, you know, we've actually had an abundance this year which is kind of like challenged us, but in a in a good way, because it's challenged us to be prepared for success. It seems like we're always prepared for failure because we're just so used to it. Right, when's the other?
SHED GEEK:shoe going to drop.
SHED GEEK:It's going to be here any minute. But preparing for success is a whole different ball game, because you have to. You have to believe in yourself and you have to believe in the process. You have to believe that it's going to work and what you're putting in is going to yield some results. And, uh, there's always that doubt in the back of your mind, if not. So, knowing your numbers and being able to access you know, understand your P and L's, being able to go through the analytics and the data it's one thing that we understand in our own marketing company is that you know, know the numbers and then know what those numbers mean. Right, so like understanding what they, what the analytics are, whenever people bring something to you and say, here you go, you know you had this many impressions. What does that mean? Break that down, break that down, is it?
BRANDON TOBIN:actually worth anything? What's the value right?
SHED GEEK:Yes, what's the value? Cause there is value. You just have to understand it. You know, and and as you understand it. But you know, james, one five any person who has knowledge, let him, let him ask and he'll receive. That's sort of my story. You know, tobin, like man, I always felt undervalued. I always felt like I didn't have purpose. I felt like sort of a failure as a husband, a father, all these different things. So we've all went through these struggles Well, maybe not all, but everybody struggles different. But I remember that and I remember saying God, if only I were smarter, I'd be able to make better decisions. And I need to be smarter and I, if only I were smarter, I'd be able to make better decisions. And, like you know, I need to be smarter and I need knowledge, I need to understand. Well, a lot of that comes with experience.
BRANDON TOBIN:For one, but, if I may chime in there and use that as a segue, that's something I meant to mention is that I paid a lot for knowledge and to learn from somebody else's experience, more than I ever have over the past year or so. Yes, I mean like tens of thousands of dollars like different companies, seminars, conferences, the live in person stuff, small group coaching, where it's like you're going through a course together over you know a period of weeks, like one on one coaching. I paid a lot more than I ever have before, like invested, you know, and, uh, some of it I probably should have done a little bit more research on, not not just like oh, this Instagram ad looks great. Yeah, you know some of it I could have done a little more research on. So I'll take responsibility. Um, but the the impressive I mean it's still.
BRANDON TOBIN:I still believe in it. So much like investing in your education and and having good mentors where you can learn from their experience to really shortens the learning curve, as opposed to making all the same mistakes yourself, when at least you could have been making newer, different ones that are ahead of the guy that can teach you, you know, or, or, or woman, or whoever. But that was one of the things that impressed me. When I met Joe and started shadowing him and working with him, just listening to him run a team meeting, I was like, man, this is kind of better and exactly what I was looking for than all that stuff I paid for all year. Yeah, I got it.
SHED GEEK:I got it much cheaper here because now I'm getting paid to do it, whereas before I was investing into, but that's, that's how I knew I was like.
BRANDON TOBIN:this is where I need to be.
SHED GEEK:I like what you said, though you know I paid a lot to learn from other people's experience, and that's ultimately what we're doing whenever we go and try to educate ourself Right Is like we're.
SHED GEEK:You know where. Is there enough value in their experience and their office authenticity and expertise that I can see value in my own life whenever I attend a event, totally. There's one in particular that I was going to go to a couple years ago. I don't remember what it was like $10,000. And I was like man. Can you imagine sitting and having to try and make the decision Like, is that valuable? Some people would be like I'll do it, no problem, let's go all day, every day. Let's make it happen. For me, that was like I ended up not going. I was like you know, am I going to see that value perceived through this process, or is there other outlets and avenues in which I can do that?
BRANDON TOBIN:There's a time to invest.
SHED GEEK:There's a time to restrain, you know, yourself, from spending man, I don't know about you, but I try to listen to the Holy Spirit. Man, like you know, the Word says that obedience is greater than sacrifice, and it's one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. Because, you know, it really doesn't matter what man says. You know, what matters is what God says, even if you're going to have to sacrifice something. You know that's the part I don't like to. You know, I don't want to lose something in the process. It's like.
SHED GEEK:I'm trying to gain and now sometimes you realize letting go makes you stronger, right? Yeah, I don't know when we got into this philosophical uh, you know conversation, but uh, you drew me in, you drew me in so tell me more about what you do. Tell me more about the knowledge gap, believe it or not. We're 30 minutes in and it happens so quick, but you know what else? What else we got for the audience here today?
BRANDON TOBIN:Sure, I mean I'll give you another quick story Started working with a larger company that does, I'm going to say, like sandblasting kind of.
BRANDON TOBIN:You know they have they have a lot of trucks, they're trying to sell a lot of trucks worth of their blasting material and it's very complicated. It's like a very highly engineered new type of product for their industry. So they're kind of like the little guy versus the big guy. You know there's all these other companies have been selling their stuff big billion dollar companies selling to, like the Navy, you know, to blast the rust and barnacles off their ships and things like that, and so they're trying to break into this industry and they've been kind of trending down from what I heard over the past year or so, and a lot of their salespeople kind of think of themselves more like engineers. So that was one of the mindset shifts that I watched Joe help them with was to really fall in love with and take pride in being a salesperson, because that is something that's kind of shunned sometimes, and if you're in any kind of business at all, whether you're selling a service or a product, you're in sales.
BRANDON TOBIN:If you're running a business and trying to get customers to give you their money in return for something, you can call it business, you can call it marketing. However you want to dress it up, you're in sales. And so, just kind of helping them take ownership of that and fall in love with it and designing, like, oh my gosh, their PowerPoint presentation. It was like 45 slides long. It was so long, and so I watched Joe like all right, let's shorten that down to maybe like 14 or 20 at the most, and and people will buy from you faster and like wrote a script for him. And I got to shadow and and listen to this.
BRANDON TOBIN:Uh, this lady who really her first time like using the new PowerPoint, using the new script so she was not, you know, super well-practiced, a little bit nervous, um, but she was really funny. Uh, she was like clearly a great salesperson, like very talented and stuck to the process, like got through everything and I was just like so pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. The guy was just like jumping in ready to buy. Basically, by the end of it. He had like a few objections and she did a really good job of overcoming them. Um, and three different times she had to ask for the next steps and I was like man, that's some good persistence right there.
BRANDON TOBIN:But it was really cool to see it in action and of course, that guy ended up buying, being a huge customer for her, and that whole business has turned around. They basically like doubled their profit and revenues just over the past few months, like as of 2024. I think they started working with the knowledge gap in like January, february. So that was just like one of their five or six salespeople, so that was just like a kind of a cool success story. I guess really, really neat seeing that.
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SHED GEEK:You know, you mentioned something earlier. One of my friends down in Georgia, you know, anthony, always says you know they offer legendary customer service. But he says you know, where is the? Where's the mentality change? Where? Where does the paradigm shift? Where a salesperson doesn't have to be? You know, like always come with a negative connotation Like, like. I think a salesperson ranks lower than a politician in terms of like, trustworthiness and and, and and think about that, if you think about that for a minute and try to break down the science of that, and you ask yourself okay, well, why?
SHED GEEK:why is that, though? Why would people think that? Because that that proves that people, you know, think that there was like a jedi mind trick or something like pulled on them, or the buyer's remorse. Afterwards, you know how much of it's justified, how much of it isn't. Oh no, after the fact, I didn't. I wish I didn't buy it, but now I've signed this contract and that's the whole purpose of a contract is like, we agree on this, you know, it doesn't allow for any recourse later on. And then, if you really think about it, it's like what? Why would sales people have that such a negative connotation? Because it would be really good if we could begin to build up the salesperson's role as a person of integrity and a person of character.
BRANDON TOBIN:Amen, totally. That's the only way to be successful in business for a long period of time. Maybe you can pull the wool over on someone's eyes and maybe trick a few, but you're not going to last long. You're going to have a terrible reputation. Your customers will not refer you, they will not buy from you again. So really like integrity, honesty, being ethical is, for sure, number one, especially if you want to be successful. You know the golden rule treat people right for a long time. And If you want to be successful, you know the golden rule treat people right for a long time. And I mean honestly.
BRANDON TOBIN:I think Jesus was the greatest salesperson in the world. His whole message was like love each other, love God. Super simple, not that controversial, and he got, I'd say, probably a good billion people or so on board with that by now. Maybe a few billion, you know, I don't know how many it is, but there's actually a book called the Greatest Salesperson in the World that I'm a really big fan of and kind of has a story that ties into Jesus, something about the robe that he wore. That's kind of the story part, but the real meat of it is the 10 scrolls that helped this character become the greatest salesperson in the world. I'm sure you're familiar with the story, but for the listeners that maybe aren't check it out, it's super short and fun, easy read, but they're helpful lessons like I will laugh at the world. I won't take myself too seriously. I will greet each person with love in my heart and get to know them and love them and not try to trick them or corner them into buying. Corner them into buying and uh, just so many good, like, helpful life lessons. I think maybe, uh, giving a makeover to the image of all the whole profession of selling. Maybe that's a job too big for us, but I think we could definitely help people uh at least elevate themselves in their own brand as a person that's really trustworthy and great to work with.
BRANDON TOBIN:I think, um, I mean I I'm not an expert in the shed industry, but I imagine it's maybe similar to like selling a car, for example, because that's something I have been in the market for. I bought two vehicles recently and some salespeople were just so bad they would just come in and start selling whatever it was that they wanted to sell because it was something they needed to get off the lot or it made them the most profit. They were like a waiter you a waiter hawking the specials when that's not what I was there for. Or they would tell me about how fast and awesome it was and how great. And I was like, honestly, I was looking for something that's better, gas mileage and safer.
BRANDON TOBIN:And they didn't ask who are you shopping for?
BRANDON TOBIN:Because one of the times I wasn't buying for me, nobody asked me that who are you shopping for?
BRANDON TOBIN:Like, because one of the times I wasn't buying for me, like, nobody asked me that, like, who are you looking for? Uh, you know, um, or like why are you looking for this right in the first place? Um, like now that I'm like thinking about sheds, I'm trying to figure out metal, wood, like do I want it to look nice or do I want it to last forever and not have any maintenance? You know, really I just want to keep, like, my garden tools and stuff in there so I can expand my home gym in my garage. That's really all it is is to hold stuff.
BRANDON TOBIN:But I think, if you keep that kind of stuff in mind, like asking your customer like who, who they're purchasing something for, why they're buying something, why they're not happy with what they're doing right now, like getting them to talk about their pain with their current situation and to be emotional so that they're motivated enough to make a change, but then also giving them like enough proof and evidence of why you're trustworthy. You know, see all of our happy customers. Look at the great work that we've done so that they have enough logical reasons to not have buyer's remorse. I think that's the key. If I just kind of summarize it hopefully end on some value.
SHED GEEK:I love it. You know they say sales is a transfer of enthusiasm, and if that's true, I think it's just super important to be enthusiastic about your product, and you do that through good service. So like you're not selling service, you know you're selling a product, you know. That being said, we do have a lot. We have some SaaS products. You know what I mean.
SHED GEEK:Like, uh, in the shed industry, you might be kind of surprised to find that there are, like you know, the amazon of of sheds. You know what I mean. Like we have, uh, shed hub and sheds for sale. Uh, we've we've worked really closely with shed hub over the years do a tremendous job and their seo is just just it's off the charts, like I've not seen anything like it. So like he's doing an amazing job.
SHED GEEK:But then we have, you know, point-of-sale systems. You know we have our 3D configurators. We have our friends at ShedPro and IdeaRoom Digital Shed Builder. We have, you know, jason Graber at ShedSuite with my buddy down in Nashville, outside of Nashville, there in Lebanon, between you guys and Nashville, matt Black at my shed and just some cool stuff. You know what I mean.
SHED GEEK:Like there's software's kind of hit our industry because we're just not immune to it and things like that. So it's kind of crazy how relevant things like this are and we've sort of found even our home in that through marketing and and and uh now offering rto services. And we want to do more. We want to keep partnering with guys like joe and all of you good folks over at the knowledge gap and seeing what you guys are doing, the business services that you're able to provide, the help that you're able to help with companies. I think joe woody was saying that you guys are over like 65 plus clients now at this point. So 65 plus businesses that you're helping take to a new level. That's pretty awesome and uh, we want to, we want to make the phone ring. Hopefully we can kind of help be part of uh sending people your way. I don't know no promises, but we'll give it our best and you know can I give them my?
SHED GEEK:number. Oh, absolutely, man. Share your, your number any way that they can contact you.
BRANDON TOBIN:So I've still got the uh, the Bay area, California. You know, don't hold that against me, but it's 5 1, 0, 6, 0, 2 0, 0, 3, 2. And my first name again is Brandon. So it's my first initial last name B Tobin@ knowledge gap consulting. com.
SHED GEEK:That's awesome man. So I always give the guest an opportunity to turn the microphone around and play host for just a moment. So it doesn't matter what it is. If it's a podcasting, if it's shed related, life related, whatever spiritual doesn't really matter. Podcasting. If it's shed related, life related, whatever spiritual doesn't really matter. Full transparency. Opportunity for you to be the host. A question or two for the shed geek and I'll do my best to answer it and make it entertaining and educational thanks, shannon.
BRANDON TOBIN:Um, and there's so many good questions I want to ask you, uh is it just one or go.
SHED GEEK:Go for it, we'll see what kind of time we got.
BRANDON TOBIN:Go for it who was just like a really great mentor kind of somebody that had a good impact or influence in your life, whether that's spiritually business, whatever.
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SHED GEEK:Yeah, one of the most impactful people of my entire life is absolutely unknown to every single podcast listener. He is gone now. He's passed away, but it was a fellow by the name of Norman Barg. I like to say his name every now and then because I feel like no one ever remembers, ever remembers. He was such a kind soul.
SHED GEEK:Whenever I was a teenager he was, my parents went through a divorce and Norman was a family friend. My mom had worked for him through Department of Rehabilitation Services. I think she started that job making a whopping $3 an hour or something like that back in the 90s and, uh, he was just super, super kind. He was a great mentor, great spiritual mentor, a great listener. Uh, he was someone who, um, um dealt with teenage stress well by just listening. So what?
SHED GEEK:What people don't know is he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. That from the time he was born and he wasn't supposed to live past 16 and he was about 60, uh, when he passed and uh grew up in the Chicago area. Um, his wife had polio, so they were both in a wheelchair and that's why my mom would work for them through the state doing like house cleaning and things like that, and I, you know, we started mowing their grass and he just became this really cool dude that just, uh, would always listen no ulterior motive to just listening and being a friend. And uh, he became a great family friend until his passing. And uh, he, he treated my kids even like a, like a grandpa. He was just such a such a good guy.
SHED GEEK:So from a spiritual perspective I always like to mention him. I've got some keepsake stuff that I go through from time to time, along with some baseball cards, and I'll go through and look at my stuff from my, from my youth, and he's been gone. Oh gosh, he's been gone now 10 plus years, so it's kind of crazy. But he instilled in me spiritual and emotional intelligence that would not be realized until after he was long gone and he knew he was putting those spiritual and emotional stops in, those seeds in that would be harvested later and I can never go back and thank him and that's terrible Until I see him again, hopefully one day in heaven. I I cannot say thank you enough for the maturity that he helped build in me through those teenage years. So that is definitely one um gosh, there's probably a lot of, was it?
BRANDON TOBIN:yeah, Norman
SHED GEEK:Bard Norman Barg b-a-r-g.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, awesome guy yeah had had muscular dystrophy. He had some, had some bodily deformations from losing a lot of the muscle over the years and he never complained.
SHED GEEK:Never complained, had the patience of oh, I've never seen patience like that man and, yeah, he was awesome and I still think of him often and I can't thank him enough even though he's not here to say thank you to for the things that he, the seed that he planted that he knew I would get eventually, but I didn't get it while I was a teenager. It wasn't until I got my 20s and 30s and realized the things he was yeah.
BRANDON TOBIN:I know exactly what you mean, man. What a blessing that's. That's a really cool story. I had a similarly impactful kind of mentor in my teenage years. He was the football coach in my high school, but I didn't play football, but he was also the chess coach and I started the chess club and got him to host us in his classroom and for my graduation present he gave me like an archaeology themed Bible.
BRANDON TOBIN:It was like a regular Bible but it had a bunch of like historical proof and evidence in there and he's like here. I think somebody that's very logical and analytical like you is going to need this to ever have a chance of believing. I hope you at least look at it, you know, and he planted those same seeds and he's still around, thank God.
SHED GEEK:I should tell him. Thank you, hey, man, send a. You know my buddy, Travis Beachy, down in uh Robinson, Texas Farm + Yard to send him a text the other day and it wasn't meant to come out, but I'll say it now. I sent him. I said I had just got on Tik TOK recently and I that's one of the socials I hadn't really gotten on I said, man, you kill it.
SHED GEEK:You do such an amazing job on Tik TOK and it's like I've been married for 24 years and sometimes I'll look at my wife and be like man, she's really pretty, but I won't say it to her and I'm like you know what? One of the biggest things you can do is if you think it, you can tell somebody. And I sent Travis a message and said I just want you to know you do a great job on TikTok. You know what I mean. I shouldn't just think it, I should actually send something to encourage you. And he received it very well. And he received it very well and I appreciated that. Another question you got anything else before we go?
BRANDON TOBIN:You kind of answered the other one I was thinking of, which was when was the last time you did or said something nice for somebody that just wasn't expecting it? It wasn't to get anything out of it, like you just wanted to do a kind thing for a stranger or someone. That was cool.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, that was it. I really wanted to tell Travis that for sure, because he really does do a good job on TikTok and it sort of inspires me. And so I believe iron sharpens iron and we should, if you're thinking something, pick up a phone, send somebody a text. You'd be amazed at what it would do for them. Because, yeah, we get these messages quite often and I'm going to tell you guys, I can't say thank you enough. Messages quite often and I'm going to tell you guys, I can't say thank you enough.
SHED GEEK:Coming from a guy who felt like he had no value in life at one point to having so many. I got a message today from a realtor in missouri and he's like I know I sound crazy, but I listen to your podcast and I love it. And he's like you know, I just want to. I just want tell you that and I don't want to scare you off or nothing like that, I don't. You know, I've built a couple of sheds. But he said you know, feel free to give me a call sometime, but I love it. And I don't think people realize how important those messages are when you get them, how much they help you out. You don't want to become egotistical about it, but you do appreciate it. I think I do For sure. Dude, I'll tell you what. Are you a fan of public prayer? Do you like to pray?
SHED GEEK:Are you comfortable praying I?
SHED GEEK:should ask that.
BRANDON TOBIN:I'd probably say you lead the charge there.
SHED GEEK:Okay, I'll go, I'll go, that's okay, I didn't ask beforehand and I usually do. But if you don't care, I'll pray us out of here, and then, uh, awesome, yeah, well, let's do that. Lord, thank you for this day, thank you for this opportunity and thank you for this conversation. I ask that you would bless Tobin and, uh. All the folks over at the knowledge cab and all of his efforts ask that you would just lead, guide and direct them, be a lamp to their path, be a light to their feet. Lord, just show them how to be successful and how to keep you in focus of all of our successes, in spite of our own efforts not to daily. I just ask that you'd continue to bless the industry, bless the podcast, and just give us direction in all that we do, help, keep us mindful to keep you in front of everything that we put out, and we owe everything to you and your son. In Jesus' name, amen. I appreciate you, Tobin, so much.
SHED GEEK:Bro, I enjoyed this thoroughly. We have. You're not gonna believe this, but I live in the only town called Metropolis, called metropolis in all of the country. It's in Illinois, it's actually literally the hometown superman um. So we have the superman festival going on right now, so I'm about to head uptown and get me some good old fair food, in spite of the fact I've been walking two miles three days a week and I'm down 10 pounds and I feel great. I'm about to go get me some good old, fair food, in spite of the fact I've been walking two miles three days a week and I'm down 10 pounds and I feel great. I'm about to go get me a funnel cake and some ribbon fries absolutely enjoy that.
BRANDON TOBIN:Yeah, man, that's so cool. I'm a huge, uh, superman, batman, just like a huge fan. That's super cool. I hope you have a great time.
SHED GEEK:It's uh it's, it's neat. They got a little museum and they got a big old superman statue. So, uh, if you ever make it up, I'll buy you lunch and uh hey I appreciate what you guys are doing and I want to try to do my best to send people your way. I believe in these systems and processes when you and when you instill them and, uh, the knowledge gap is definitely on top of their game, and I can tell by the people Joe's hiring over there.
BRANDON TOBIN:Much appreciated.
SHED GEEK:Hey, I will talk to you soon and I'll let Joe know when the episode comes out. But I appreciate. Today it was a blast.
BRANDON TOBIN:Sounds good, me too.
SHED GEEK:God bless, have a good one. Yeah, you too. See you soon, take care. Hey, this is Mo Lunsford in sunny Union Grove, north Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners.