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 Power Lines to Shed Design: Atlee's Story
Have you ever wondered what it takes to transition from a hazardous career to a more stable, fulfilling one? This week, we're thrilled to welcome Atlee Stewart from Burnett Affordable Buildings, who shares his unique journey from working as a lineman at a rural electric cooperative to becoming a key player in the shed industry. Atlee opens up about the emotional and physical challenges he faced in his previous role and how reflection and prayer guided him to embrace a new career path that brought significant positive changes to his work-life balance.
Listen as we uncover the growth of Burnett Affordable Buildings since its acquisition by Aaron Burnett in 2017. Atlee highlights the transformative impact of Shed Suite software, which revolutionized their operations and dealer integration. We also explore the evolving technological landscape within the shed and steel building industries, emphasizing the benefits of digital advancements over outdated systems and how they have enhanced efficiency and employee satisfaction.
In our conversation, Atlee provides valuable insights into leadership, market dynamics, and the increasing demand for tiny homes—trends that are shaping the future of the shed industry. We discuss the importance of knowledgeable sales managers, strategic decision-making, and the entrepreneurial spirit necessary for new dealers to thrive. Join us for a heartfelt and enlightening discussion filled with personal anecdotes, professional wisdom, and a touch of southern hospitality that will leave you inspired and informed about the ever-evolving shed industry.
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Versabend
Cold Spring Enterprises
Welcome to this week's episode of the Shed Geek podcast. I am Susan the Shed Gal and I am very excited for today's interview. I have Mr Atlee Stewart from Burnett Affordable Buildings. Welcome, Atlee, how are you?
Atlee Stewart:I'm doing excellent on this Monday.
Shed Gal:Wonderful. Let's talk about Burnett Affordable Buildings. How long have they been in business and where are you located at?
Atlee Stewart:The business has been here since, I think, 2008. Roger Wilson was the original founder of the business. He started the business in his backyard right across town here, and from all the stories I've heard and I wasn't there, but from the stories I heard he built the first one himself and he'd done the delivery and everything. He just started his own business, and so he built it from there to closer to what it is today, and then, in 2017, my father-in-law, Aaron Burnett, bought the business out, and he was he is in the RTO business, River Country Rentals, and he bought the business out to secure his you might say, secure the future for contracts for his RTO company.
Atlee Stewart:And so that was when I came in the picture, and he came to me approximately nine months before buying the business and asked me if I would be interested in trying to help operate the business, and I said no at the start. I don't know nothing about it, I've never been in sheds, I've never been anything to do with it, and so the honest truth is we talked about it and prayed about it for nine months before completely committing to do it, and so, anyway, from 2017, here we are today. We went a long ways down the road and it's been an eventful journey, some fun days and some not so fun days. I didn't say any bad days, I just said fun days, not so fun days.
Shed Gal:Yeah, I had heard that story before and I appreciate the fact that when you told it to me before and you told it to me now, when he came to you, you said no, it was, it wasn't. No is a complete sentence. And yet you know, through reflection and praying, and you came to the decision to come on board. But I love the fact that you were just like no, no, no, no. So let's back up. Where were you raised?
Atlee Stewart:So the business is here in Muldrow, Oklahoma, and I was born and raised in Vian, Oklahoma, which is 30 minutes from here back to the west, right on I-40. We're on the biggest travel corridor of America, right here in I-40. And just across the state line out of Arkansas, Fort Smith, Arkansas is our next door neighbor, but I was born and raised right here. I grew up at Vian and my dad has a still to this day has basically a tire shop, is what we called it Tires, brakes, front ends on all the cars, trucks, light duty stuff. It's not in the big equipment, but he's been in that. He started that job when I was less than a year old and I ended up 11 years later buying the business out from the owner then and so once I grew up and I got old enough to, I started working my summers and Saturdays with Dad and I did that until I finished school was dad and I did that until I finished school. When I finished school I went to work for him full time and I did that for three and a half years and me and dad had an excellent relationship and still do to this day.
Atlee Stewart:But it was not what I wanted to do, I just didn't enjoy it. I had some I wanted to do. I just didn't enjoy it. I had some growing up to do. It was really part of the story and I didn't know it at the time, but it was my dad's business. He needed help and he was out test driving customers' cars back and forth. Well, I just felt the responsibility. When a customer showed up and dad was out of the office at the moment, I felt like I was supposed to talk to them and help them. But I was an 18-year-old kid that was not interested in talking to people. I could do the work out of the shop, but I struggled so bad with just talking to customers Anyway.
Atlee Stewart:So that rocked on a little while for three and a half years and I was looking for something else to do. Didn't know what I was going to do, but I had a friend that worked at the local we call it REC, Rural Electric Cooperative, and they were just. It was a lady friend and she worked in the office there and she heard I was interested in a job and so she contacted me and said they had an opening as a warehouse assistant there at the co-op. And so I went, applied for the job and rocked on a little while and I got the job. And it's kind of funny looking back, because the manager that I talked to he's like uh, he's interviewing me. He's like what do you, what do you want to do with your life, what you're looking for in a career, you know, and I'm like I don't know. I just know I don't want to do what I'm doing right now.
Shed Gal:Not what I'm doing right now.
Atlee Stewart:Something else that's funny that I look back at is he asked me that day. He said do you want to be a lineman? Well, the honest truth is I didn't know what a lineman was, other than I'd heard of a lineman in football. It's the only thing I'm like. I don't really know. And so, I just said I just want to try something different. And so, he gave me the job and I worked there for two and a half years in the warehouse, just cleaning trucks, stocking shelves, on and on and on. And then there was opportunity opened up as an apprentice and by that time I knew what knew what alignment was.
Shed Gal:Of course, Of course yes.
Atlee Stewart:So, an apprenticeship position came open and I took it, or I applied for that and got the position and went in and done my five-year apprenticeship program and got my journeyman's license. I have a journeyman's license. I have a journeyman lineman's license today. I worked power lines for 12 years, worked ice, storms, tornadoes. I never did go on a hurricane storm, but that's just the stuff I've done, and it was just. I loved it. I looked at it as it was an opportunity that not everybody got to do something like that, and I absolutely loved the job. I loved the people that I worked with. It was a great group of guys and that was the reason, and it was like I said it had good benefits with the job. I had everything you could ask for good retirement and that was my reason. When my father-in-law came to me and said, do you want, would you like, to work for me to do this job? And that's when I said no. So why would I go do something like that when I'm rocking along having a good time?
Shed Gal:right anyway, so and we've talked about that a little bit before when you told me that story when we first met, did you enjoy being a lineman? I mean not out in the middle of an ice storm. I get that there's times that you're not going to enjoy it, but did you enjoy the actual work?
Atlee Stewart:Yes, I loved it. The ice storm no, it wasn't fun, it was just one of the things that just went along with the job. No, it wasn't fun, it was just one of the things that just went along with the job. And when you left your territory to go work another ice storm like that you worked anywhere from 14 to 16 hours every day and, of course, when you're in an ice storm, it automatically tells you that it's cold. So, it's cold, it's wet, its's nasty and that's just part of the job. But no, I overall I love the job, and I didn't want to leave. But opportunity I had to look at the opportunity down the road and there was different things. There's a lot of hazards, if you want to say it that way, with that job. There was multiple people that died, that were killed, not necessarily next to me, some of them was on jobs that I was associated with, you know, and I wasn't there and particularly watched anybody get hurt.
Shed Gal:But it happened and those were things that really played into the equation on why I ended up quitting, because just different things happened in the last year there that just made me really think about my family and if I want the rest of my days and if I mean, if you, I remember when I was down in Texas in fact it was that trip and then I, and then I flew up here, met with you, um, you know the kids, and I stopped and saw the tornado damage, you know, north of Fort Worth, and I just I've never seen the.
Shed Gal:It's not the same seeing it in person as it is seeing it on tv and, uh, you know, and then I went down to Canton, Texas, and they had had a bunch of problems and rain and hail and all the electrical trucks coming, I mean like just one after the other after the other, and I, I remember thinking, wow, you know they, they left home this morning and they may be home, who knows. You know, it's really, I think we linemen and line gals, I guess, don't get enough, really don't get enough credit, but we desperately need them in desperate times. So interesting. So, you, basically you begged your father-in-law for a job and he finally said yes, let me ask you this You've been married. Which wife's name?
Atlee Stewart:Melissa.
Shed Gal:Melissa and you've been married a couple of years right 19, to be exact 19 to be exact. How many kids do you?
Atlee Stewart:have Four. I've got two girls and two boys, two girls and two boys. My girls are the oldest, they're 17 and 16.
Shed Gal:And then I got a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old boy, and so Well, I would imagine that and I did meet Melissa the one time briefly. I imagine that she likes the fact that you can be home at night, unless you're going to the Shed Expo or something.
Atlee Stewart:But I mean, it's probably less risk, uh, doing what you're doing then than in that job. Um, yeah, yeah, there was a lot of a lot of nights that I wasn't home, a lot of weekends that I had to work in. In the job I had, I was on call for seven days every six weeks. Wow, every six weeks. He was on call for seven days every six weeks.
Atlee Stewart:Wow, every six weeks. He was on call for seven days, 24 hours a day, and so it seemed like six weeks is a long time apart, but when you're on call every sixth week, it comes around really fast.
Shed Gal:Oh, yeah, so like you could, literally, like, I mean so when you like, that you can get called out in the middle of the night where you just got to sleep, or yeah, yeah, that that's, that's rough. But I mean, when I'm thinking about it, we have to have those people handy, but I think they don't get enough credit. They don't get enough credit.
Atlee Stewart:So, the thrill that I got out of working out at night like that, because it was always fun when a storm would roll through. No, it wasn't fun when the storm came through, but it was fun to be out there at three o'clock in the morning and you go to turn somebody's power on and you throw the fuse in and you suppose that they were all in bed asleep, because that's what most people do at three o'clock in the morning. But they forgot to turn all the light switches off the evening before and you turned every light they had on at 3 o'clock in the morning. It was just I don't know.
Shed Gal:We just laughed about that yeah, and on one hand they were probably like darn it, but on the other hand they were probably like thank you, let there be light yeah, we'd turn them all on at whatever time of the morning.
Atlee Stewart:We just throw the switch in and fix them up.
Shed Gal:Yeah, let's transition over to more the shed industry, because now you're on board six and a half years ago and of course, that was prior to COVID. It's like we have three sections in our life before COVID, during COVID and now you know, and that's normal, I would imagine. It appears that the company has grown quite a bit since you guys, since your father-in-law bought the company, and so what's the biggest thing change that you've seen, you know, just since the day you started to now, as far as you know, facility or you know.
Atlee Stewart:I don't know where to start really on that. I guess one of the bigger changes that I've seen in here is just I don't know if we're supposed to shout out to Shed Suite or anybody like that, but there was a big change for us in here. Jason Graber's, my friend. I've talked to him, text him anytime I need to, basically, but that was a big change for us here. There was the previous owners. They used RTO Pro and there's nothing wrong with RTO Pro, but it's just a different program. It was a big change for us to go to Shed Suite and begin to use it and just the integration with your dealers and being able to use it for the whole system. It was a big improvement. I guess I would say you know one of the bigger ones that we've done.
Shed Gal:And how long ago was that that you brought Shed Suite on?
Atlee Stewart:So that was in. It was. July 1st of 2019 is when we started with Shed Suite. We went for you know, five years previously, you know, using the Rto pro version that we had then so I'm always one for whatever.
Shed Gal:Whatever I have, whatever tools I have are acceptable to me. I've always been that way. When I was in insurance, I you know other dealers would complain about, oh, the system, the system, the system. But I have to say, coming to the shed industry, it was very archaic, uh, in my in for my past life and I'm so glad to see that in the last five years there has been, I mean, not just little changes in the technology but really really big, big improvements and big changes that just make things. You know, nothing will ever be perfect. It doesn't have to be perfect and that just has to be more usable. And it seems like stuff is saving time, but it is.
Shed Gal:Technology is a big deal in this industry because, like when I started, so once a month, you know, we had our paper applications that they would sign and I would, you know, I would scan it to the plant where they would then input everything.
Shed Gal:So now we're both doing the same work twice and then once a month, you know, I I'd exchange those for my commission check and and it was it just. Even at the time it seemed very behind the times, yet it was just the way it was and now everything seems to be really much smoother, much easier. In fact, my son, who's going to be running our Phoenix operation, he went out to work with April at Five Star Sheds and they're putting their sheds on our lot out there and so my, my son, his team, will be selling them. So, he's training with April and he, he calls me and he's like you are not gonna believe how easy this system is compared to what we had to use and I'm like, oh, I know, he just had. You know he he's been out of it for three years. So just in the three years of, uh, the technology is really changing.
Atlee Stewart:We've had so many changes and adjustments that we've made just growing with Shed Suite. Even you know just that you get into it and thought, oh, this will work great for this part. And then the longer you're with it, the more you learn about it and the more, and also the more that shed suite puts into their program they're just you know, more and more transitions and changes that you can make and eliminate so much. Paperwork is the number one we eliminated, uh, we're saving trees, you know, and just piles of paperwork that was eliminated here and time. In addition to that, you know, and it might not be so much you know, out in the shops and everything else, but just in our office here, uh, just eliminated so much unnecessary time.
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Shed Gal:Our first lot and I've said this on here before we didn't even have. We had no source of power there for like 18 months. I mean, how we survived I don't have any idea, but we didn't have the option of electronic signatures. We didn't. So, what that meant was when someone would come in and they would give me their down payment, which was on a form that they signed because I couldn't run it. I would set up a second follow-up appointment to get their signatures and then I would go home that night, get all the paperwork done, print it out, meet them and sign it and then scan it in.
ADVERTISEMENT:In one year, just in sales. One year, that paperwork filled up a four drawer file cabinet that happened to be in my bedroom because my house was small and I was like this cannot continue because I wasn't going to leave it at the lot in case someone broke in and people's personal information. But it was. It was the craziest thing. And now I'm even looking back like how we did as well as we did in a two-step process, but customers didn't know any better. But I'm like, oh gosh, these days with I mean and that, so I'm just. You know, august 1st is the seven year anniversary of when I started selling sheds, so it's like this isn't 40 years ago that it was. You know, I was walking uphill both ways to school in the snow yeah, I love the technology.
Shed Gal:One of the things I've noticed too about your team is the longevity, is that you have folks that were with roger and prior owner and that in and of itself sometimes goes sideways like oh, new owner, they don't. You know, employees don't get treated well or don't or don't like the change and then they just they go work in a tire shop or where, where they become like or whatever. But you've had a lot of longevity. What do you? Why do you think that is?
Atlee Stewart:thankfully, the guys that we've had that came here. They had experience in it. That was here previously. They were already experienced and we've been able to work together and uh and just keep pushing on and they may not like me, but they ain't said so yet for the most part.
Shed Gal:Well, I haven't even heard any rumors behind the scenes that they don't like you. I think you know by now.
Atlee Stewart:You should you know if you find something.
Shed Gal:I'll have my people call your people no, but there's something to be said for that, the longevity and the. It feels like. I don't even like to necessarily like to use the word family, because sometimes people think that's a negative connotation. I don't mean that at all, like it's just cohesive, where everybody's got their roles and that, but they yet they work together. And I had asked one of the guys earlier if he could do something for me, and I'm the type of person if I want it done I should probably. I'll just do it myself before I'll even ask, and he's like oh, absolutely no problem, and it was. I was like whoa, like you know, it's not a us against them situation and you know I'm not speaking of just the chef industry or at all, but just business.
Atlee Stewart:It shouldn't be that way and in my opinion, I love it when we can all just chip in and help each other. I mean that's what I love to promote, that I'm not saying I'm always. I feel like I lack a lot of times in clarity. I've learned that in the last year. It's kind of come around that I understand I feel like I'm as clear as need to be on a lot of things. But I've learned even my wife has told me a few times, you know that you didn't say it like that.
Atlee Stewart:Well, that's what I mean right, yeah you know people and I've been thankful that the people that are here and just you know they know me well enough that they figure out what I mean, I guess, by what I say at times. So, I've seen things and listened to a lot more podcasts In the past year and a half. I'll tell you the first one that I really started thinking about, and it wasn't even a podcast that I knew of. He may not even have a podcast, but Steve Byler spoke at Shed Expo two years ago, I think. Man, he made me think so much about.
Atlee Stewart:He talked about clarity, clarity. Clarity that's just what he kept saying, and being clear to your people and it brings so much more unity and they know what you want, they know what you need, they know what needs to be done. It's just made me think a lot more about it. And there's a science to leadership and I was too dumb to know that previously, but and I sure ain't got it figured out but there there's things that can be done to help your leadership and to bring your people together and I I feel like I got a lot of work to do and I'm interested, because it was it made me think so much more that there's things to learn in this, things that can make you better I agree always, and I think you're not giving yourself credit because I heard you just say you know I was dumb.
Shed Gal:We're only born with the knowledge. We know nothing you know, and it's like searching out the information we need to get the job done. Is that well, I see you doing that, that's what you do and that that's smart. It isn't because I know there's others in the industry that are struggling with that, and I've seen some situations where the hierarchy is like, like you're the plant manager and I have my role, but I've got to go to two people to have a conversation through two people to have a conversation with you, and that is the most ridiculous thing in the world to me, like because it puts people in these spots of. It's just so weird and it's such a waste of time. It's such a waste of time for, um, you know, it's just no, you're, I think you're running a very wonderful operation.
Shed Gal:I know when I went through the plant and toured around and I just it was very impressive and I've seen, you know, not a ton of plants for from different companies, but numerous plants for several different companies and you know, each one has their more positive things or that sort of thing and I've seen much smaller and bigger, but it is boy, it looks very lean, um, as far as organized, and your folks seem happy. And I'm not kidding you and I'm not going to name the company because I would go sideways real quick. But I was at a plant last year and the people that worked there were just like just you could just tell they were just and I and I asked a guy, hey, how's it going? Because like this is me, I, I, and he's like I'm not really very good, and I was just like oh and uh, and then, and then what happened was there was this huge, those blow horn things and I literally like jumped a foot in the air because the gal screamed into the loudspeaker breaks over.
Shed Gal:And it was a very, it wasn't like breaks over, like saying it nicely, and I was like I said to her what are you doing? Like well, they don't come back from break on time and I'm like I don't know how you were taught to motivate, but I don't think it's talking that way through a loudspeaker that's going to work real well. And you know, he acted just exactly how he was being treated with absolutely no respect, and he could have cared less about that job and I think he was there about 20 more minutes before he quit. But I you know there is definitely a cause and effect of leader. You know leadership and the, the related, the relationships.
Atlee Stewart:You know that they have there's a lot of stuff out there, Susan, that's valuable for leaders to listen to, but one that I've really enjoyed listening to, and would highly encourage people to listen to it that are in leadership positions, is the John Maxwell Leadership I've listed. They've got two different podcasts. They have an executive leadership podcast and just a regular John Maxwell leadership podcast and those guys are amazing. I love to go listen to them. There's so much, so much value out there for people to listen to.
Shed Gal:I wasn't texting, I was making a note of that. I love that. Every day I'm myself, I'm trying to learn something that I can share with other people because there's so many tidbits. So COVID was an interesting time. We all know that sales skyrocketed for everybody. You know there was problems getting materials, production problems, delays we get that, we survived, we're here, right. Yeah, problems delays we get that. We, we survived, we're here, right. Um, you know, I hear a lot of reasons, uh, why you know so and so is less expensive down the road, or this and that, or this, and that I think that the times are just different now and I've said it and I'll say it again I could not replicate what I I did just seven years ago.
Shed Gal:If I did the same exact things today, I would not have the same results. I don't think times are necessarily harder, I think it's just different. What's the biggest thing that you're seeing? That because you guys offer a lot of products that there's still companies that don't offer those things the greenhouses and the so you've got a good set of products to offer. What do you, what do you see as the biggest challenges in 2024 that obviously were not related to COVID but are different maybe from before COVID we.
Atlee Stewart:We didn't sell that many buildings that you knew were basically people was going to live in. We sold sheds and we sold big sheds and I'm not saying people didn't live in them because I know. But there's so much more of a demand after COVID and it's just like you go farther and farther into seems like going into the tiny hump thing on a lot of things and I'm not real excited about it. Maybe that's not the way to look at it. There's just so much more detail that goes into it. It takes so much more time. There's so much more involved in that line of work. Yes, there's so much more involved in that line of work. We still sell a lot of sheds and I hope to continue. Can it go even more, you know stronger back into the sheds? I don't know how long this, this stage, will be and you know if it's an economy thing, I know that has a big play into it as well, but that's one change that I see out there a lot More requests and more demands for the tiny homes.
Shed Gal:Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I'm hearing it and I'm seeing it from others as well. That is interesting. And again, it's not that we didn't sell them before, but yeah, that is interesting. And I'm almost wondering and this isn't for necessarily your dealers or any other companies but I'm wondering if a lot of people aren't marketing them. You know, I don't know companies, but I'm wondering if a lot of people aren't marketing them. You know, I, I don't know, I don't know if there's any correlation between the way they're being marketed or if, um, you know, then it'll be another something I'll have to look into to see interesting.
Atlee Stewart:Yeah, I feel like that really plays into the equation that there you know, there are some other, you know local companies, and not just I say local, but there's a lot of companies that they're really marketing that option.
Atlee Stewart:So therefore, our customers are you know we, we follow suit to like, well, that's what they're doing, so that's what we need to do. But uh, I've talked with you enough to know that you don't altogether go that route, just because that's what we don't want to follow in everything that we do. You know, let's, let's do something different.
Shed Gal:Yeah, anyway. So, I don't know if you've seen I'm going to give a shout out to Kyten and he owns a hexapod, which is a new company. I don't know if you've seen hexagon shaped sheds.
Atlee Stewart:I think I've seen a post that you did
Shed Gal:yeah it, uh, and I thought, oh my gosh, that I'll say young man, he's a, he's a grown adult, but most people are young to me and, uh, I'm like he's on to something, because it's so, he's going to lead the pack. Now, we know there's going to be. In fact, someone mentioned to me yesterday hey, I'm going to talk to my builder and see if they can design it. And I'm like, oh, here we go already. But, boy, he's really leading the pack on that. It's an incredible building and they're portable. And then they can also be built on wheels. And I'm like, boy, he, I'll bet you, 24 months from now, everybody in the industry is going to have seen and heard about his product, or those that follow him and copy him, and they are really cool.
Atlee Stewart:Um, I'll say one thing Susan, about following someone else, and that don't necessarily pertain to those, the hexagon builds you're talking about. But I've seen ideas with other shed companies that I'm like, oh, that's the new rage, every boy that's really hitting that. Oh, that looks good. You know, and we've done some of them and, believe it or not, I've got some ideas that we've done that are still sitting on lots because it really wasn't as big a hit. It does look good at times and you think, well, that's the thing that's fixing to really sell. But that's kind of one of them. Follow the other guy. You really don't know if it works or not.
Shed Gal:Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. And I almost and I'm not saying for you, but I've heard it from other people in the industry that they, they thought the metal sided you know, the stick framed metal sided buildings would just be the biggest hit ever, and that it's not that they don't sell, but it's not the biggest hit that they, that people tend to still like the, the nice siding, and I thought that was interesting because I too thought, oh, that would be so great to be able to offer that.
Atlee Stewart:So, I'll give you a little tidbit on that part. So, when I came here in 2017, I don't have exact numbers but I can tell you that for a few years, the wood frame with the metal siding was close to 50% of our business, and it was that way, like I said, for a few years. I don't know what changed it altogether, but for sure through COVID, and then maybe it's the idea of you have more options in the wood side of buildings. And then one thing I'll say is metal went way up during that time as well, but it began to transition and we went down to as low as between 15% and 20% on our metal side of buildings selling versus the wood, on our metal side of buildings selling versus the wood and um today I'm gonna say we're at 25 the metal, but it used to definitely be different than that.
Shed Gal:Yeah, that is interesting. I mean there's so many things that you know the pr, it could be pricing, it could be marketing, you know I don't. Yeah, that's so interesting, having not had those options myself before. It was just, we just had to get scrappy with whatever we could offer and it worked out just fine. But yeah, I look, I look at the options, I'm like, oh my gosh, that would be so great, but then at the end of the day, wouldn't have, wouldn't have increased sales or would maybe just part of people have bought something different. It's definitely hard to say.
Atlee Stewart:The sales points on the metal ones is you don't have to repaint them in five or ten years. It's there forever. We use a fiberglass door that's going to last you forever. It's not going to rust or anything like that.
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Shed Gal:I was talking to a guy this morning from a sighting company and we were talking about how there are some sighting out sightings out there that have horrible wicking, you know where you, you know, and we, we saw it, I've seen it all over different places but and that theirs doesn't do that and that it's amazing within the industry, the different products that can be used, that I mean, honestly, I haven't. I haven't seen a shed in all my travels. That isn't a good shed. I mean everyone has just built. Every company builds it a little bit differently, but I mean, for the most part, they part. They're all really good sheds compared to the metal building. You remember no, you're probably too young but we all used to have the metal buildings in our backyard with the doors that we could barely open, and you know that was what our option was. Oh, those things were horrific.
Atlee Stewart:Maybe before my time, but you can buy those from Sears and Roebuck, I think.
Shed Gal:Yeah, or maybe even Montgomery Ward back in the day, you know who knows. But yeah, very, you know, it's interesting how quickly this industry has progressed and it just blows my mind. You know, when I was out with Jeremy Martin at Cabin Connections in Kentucky, I took Miss Kay out there and it's like shed lot, shed lot, shed lot, shed lot. But it wasn't only shed lot, it was the size of these shed lots where in Arizona and Washington we just don't see those, we just, you know, they're the kind of the run of the mill shed lots. And although there is a company that their number one dealer is in a town of 10,000 people in Arizona and year before last he did $5.6 million off of a lot that has, you know, on average 80 buildings at all times. So there is a direct correlation between he's able to attract people there.
Shed Gal:But it's so interesting how you know those dealers out in Kentucky that I saw they aren't all starving, they're all selling buildings and it's just that they're so much bigger than what I had seen and Kayla and I were the first time my eyes were this big, like what? Like this is incredible. So you know, I was just used to eight or ten on my lot. Yeah, if I had 15 or 20, I was really having a party and I think those days are passing. What are you seeing? As far as I know, some of your dealers display lots, and I haven't seen them all yet, but I know some of them are very large, very large, and I haven't seen them all yet, but I know some of them are very large, very large, are you?
Atlee Stewart:seeing that, you know, customers are appreciating the fact that they have more variety to actually choose from and see. So one thing I'll say is the dealer that has much more inventory. There's generally a reason, you know, and we have some kind of some boundaries in place, that kind of we're trying to work to hold X amount of inventory on a lot and it's based on sales. You know, the more capability you have of selling, the more inventory we're going to put on your lot.
Shed Gal:And so, and that totally makes sense and I've seen that in many, many, many other companies that you kind of have to earn it. I mean it totally makes sense and I think we selfishly as dealers forget that the manufacturers. It's not as much as it would be nice that you were just a bottomless pit of money, at the end of the day someone's money is sitting on that property and you know we forget that. So, I think that's pretty common in the industry.
Atlee Stewart:Yeah, we got in a tough if you want to say a tough place, because after COVID, sales didn't do what we always wanted them to do Come the next spring. We expected them to take off and they didn't do so as much. So we was building inventory, just like we always done, and so we ended up with excessive inventory.
Atlee Stewart:so, we had to try to sell off and reduce some of that and that's when we started Previously, we didn't have a big problem with having excessive inventory, and so we had really geared up during the COVID run, probably alongside with everybody else, because we was running eight and ten weeks out and that was a big deal to us. We wasn't used to or accustomed to running that kind of time frame, and so we was, we'd geared up and was running the full force and, you know, things slowed down and, uh, we just kept hammering away for a little while and we realized real soon that we had to do something different. You know, that bottomless pit that he was talking about was gonna he's gonna find the bottom of it pretty soon yeah, yeah, and you and you know you're not alone.
Shed Gal:I mean that that's. I mean that's that that happened with a lot of companies, because it's, it's uh, definitely, uh, the covid drop-off is, is, was, definitely, was, definitely a real, a real thing. What do you, you know, if you were to give advice to a brand new dealer and there's probably some people that that are listening, that are new, you know what advice can you give them from the manufacturing side that that might help them become be, help them be successful?
Atlee Stewart:just my first thoughts is they need to have someone in place and you might know where I'm going here but they need a manager behind them, a sales manager that's knowledgeable, that can take them places if that makes sense. Because if you don't, and you don't have the mentality to make something go the mentality to make something go and the ability possibly previous entrepreneurship or something like that that you're geared and know how to make something go Today you're not going to just set sheds out on the corner and do what you did five years ago or even two years ago. That matter it's yeah, I'm not saying it won't work at all, but you better not count on it for your primary source of living.
Shed Gal:For the most part, it won't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well. And I'm just thinking like if you said to me hey, Susan, I'm going to make you the manager of the shop, we would have the biggest inefficient mess that you could ever imagine, because I have no idea what I'm doing. I've seen a lot of sheds being built. I couldn't build one if my life depended on it. Now, it's not that I couldn't possibly learn, but I don't have enough years left in my life to want to do that. But I mean, but we do that to dealers in the industry, and I don't. I, you know, it's just the oftentimes, it's the way it's always been done. But when I, you know, and it's the metal building industry too, it's not just sheds, I think it's the way that it worked before that, hey, especially with the families that got involved with buildings, it's like, okay, well, how about you take the sales management role and I'll, and I'll take this role? And it's just. I think it comes down to putting the right person in the right position because, again, so to me it's just as it would be just as crazy to put me as a shop manager, as it would be to put someone who hasn't been successful selling sheds in a sales management position, but we see it all the time. It's interesting to me in this industry, but I think the industry is catching on.
Shed Gal:I've heard other inklings that companies saying you know, we're going to look at who we have training our dealers differently because it's not going to work the way it worked five years ago. It's not, it's not. It literally. You know, I, I, I've said it I put an ad up on. I put a post not even an ad, just a post in a few marketplace groups and I couldn't even keep up with the people and I can go back and prove that this happened. I'd never delete Facebook messages. It is not that way anymore.
Shed Gal:So, I think some people might have gotten into the industry around that time. I did, and it was easier and they figured it out, but today I don't think it's going to work for folks to not. You know, I'm all about that training and there's so many great people in this industry right now that, like, are so willing to help. Yeah, and you know that. That it's um I. It isn't that maybe they weren't around seven years ago, but I wasn't. I didn't know they were around, so how could I reach out to them, but yeah, I think that's a story that kind of went when we started here.
Atlee Stewart:When we came here, we had like 20, 21 lots, I think, when we my father-in-law bought the business out and he was like, let's grow it, grow it, grow it. You know, he's ready to go, ready to go. And we took off and we ended up with 41 lots. And you know, maybe two years later. And then, you know, we just got to looking at it and thinking about it and, you know, studying the numbers, what we was getting, and it's like the results ain't here, that what we should have, you know, and it was back. You could still basically put a shed lot on the corner.
Atlee Stewart:I guess at that time, you know, we thought make it go, a shed lot on the corner. I guess at that time, you know, we thought make it go. So we just started eliminating loss that weren't productive, you know, and moving our inventory to the more productive lots. And, man, we had amazing success. You know, at that point our sales went up with less inventory and on and on, and that was really. I mean, there's no great science to that, but that's that was really happened for us. And so, we're today, we're at 20, a little over 20 lots currently, you know. So we don't have to have 40 something lots to be productive. But right, 20 productive lots instead of 41, lots being not so productive?
Shed Gal:absolutely yeah, and we, we've talked about that. I, I don't know if you know Donnie Campbell and but, Donnie, I, the first time I met him was at the Washington state and he was talking to the, the owner of the plant, and we were having a conversation and he, he said to Doug, he said, told you, you only need one of her. And he's pointing at me and I was like what are they talking about? And he said you only need one of her because she'll carry the state for you, which I did.
Shed Gal:But here's the problem with that In my mind. I'm like well, let's teach them, let's give everybody else the tools too, and I mean certainly on our mission, Atlee, let's be completely transparent. We, you know, with Burnett, we want to be a leader in this industry and I hope that other companies will follow the training because it's you know, we're going to do what we need to do for our dealers. But I hope other companies will listen and follow and see the results over time that you know, if they implement changes, good things will happen and then the sales force can grow
Atlee Stewart:and let's see what results we can get. You know, with what we have.
Shed Gal:Yeah, absolutely,
Atlee Stewart:I'm super excited about our future, going forward and we're excited to have shed gal on our team.
Atlee Stewart:It's really it's exciting.
Shed Gal:Yeah, and I appreciate that and I told you but you got it anyway. What's that? Well, you know, hey, I mean you paid me to be on here. So I said okay, I'll do it. And you know, Shannon said he's asked you like 40 times and you said no, and you paid me to be, for you to be on here. So I'm like that's really cool. I didn't know guests were paying us, but hey. That's a joke people,
Atlee Stewart:Just for the record, I did not pay Susan to do it well, you know. Shannon and I have been good friends for a while, though.
Atlee Stewart:We met four years ago and man, we just I'd call him up, I'd text him, and then he lives in Metropolis, which is 20 minutes from my in-law's place, and so there's been many times that I go out there and we text each other. All right, where are we meeting for breakfast and we just go.
Shed Gal:Yeah, Shannon is a good guy and it was. It was interesting before we started, when I when I heard him say, um, you know that you guys will be friends forever and it's the exact same thing he had told me, you know, without you being in earshot. And he, he is a good guy. And Deanna is absolutely fantastic. And I have to tell you when, when they were with me and I was with Sam Byler and we spent a few days together a few months ago, I'm telling you that was one of the funnest few days of my life. I mean, we were in Burger King. I offered some gal in there a job because she was so great selling the burger.
Atlee Stewart:And that's the second story I've heard, actually not that you say that about hiring right out of Burger King.
Shed Gal:Well, I've heard another one about hiring out of McDonald's.
Shed Gal:I don't know what Burger King it has in correlation with Sheds, but that's the second person I've heard about hiring Well, it was so funny this gal at Burger King because she sold us cookies that none of us wanted. I mean, we all agreed to take the cookies, but none of us wanted cookies. And I was like you really need to come work for me. And she's like, hey, I'll come to work for you as long as you'll pay me more than they pay me here. And we laughed so hard. She was great. She was great and she gave Sam a free crown from Burger King, so that was special.
Atlee Stewart:It's crazy because Cookies was the reason the other guy hired out of Burger King as well.
Shed Gal:You have got to be kidding me, I'm serious.
Atlee Stewart:I can give you the guy's number and let you call him and talk to him.
Shed Gal:It was all over the cookies. That's so funny. Well, apparently they're best salespeople at Burger King. No, they're the ones that are pushing the cookies.
Atlee Stewart:It's not Burger King, but I've never liked Burger King, and so when he started talking to me about it and explaining to me he said I hired this guy last week out on Burger King I was like what was you doing at Burger King? I'm like there's better places to eat. And he said oh, but the cookies. You got to know the cookies. I'm like I'll have to take your word for it, I guess, because I've never been there and tried the cookies.
Shed Gal:So that's pretty funny. That is so funny. What do you look forward to most in the industry over the next? You know, we all know, in this industry there's ups and downs. That's with any business, I mean. There are times that are easier than others. But what do you look forward to in the future? Easier than others? What do you look forward to in?
Shed Gal:the future? What are you looking forward to?
Atlee Stewart:My dream, I guess, is that we together can substantially grow the business, and I guess that would be anybody's dream and that's not very specific, but I'm looking for the opportunity to grow the business. I feel like it's very evident that I can't do it on my own, so you gotta have people in place, and we kind of already talked about that. But you gotta have people in place that have the ability. And I'll say this uh, my father-in-law's talked to me and he talked to a man in another very large, very large, shed industry, shed business in the industry, and he was talking to him about his growth of his business and the success they've had. And the man spoke up and said it wasn't me, I didn't do this. He said it was the people I had around me.
Shed Gal:Yes.
Atlee Stewart:You got to, just you got to recognize that, you got to understand that it's not an individual that grows most generally.
Atlee Stewart:It's not an individual that grows the business or makes it a success, but it's in the team and the people that you can put around you.
Shed Gal:I, I, I, 100% agree. And you know, for the folks out there that are completely confused as to what's going on, you know Shed Gal, I have my Shed Gal business and we, we're going to be opening, for I'm not, they're not super centers, they're not Megalots, you can call them whatever you want. I haven't found the right word for them yet but four within 30 days and it's, you know, across the country, and I expect my dealerships to grow. You know I'd like to have 10, you know, within 24 months.
Shed Gal:I was presented with an opportunity by Atlee and Burnett Affordable Buildings to come in and work with training the dealers and trying some different things, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I could not be more thrilled to be here. I was and I'm and I I don't know if I've said this to you, Atlee, but I was presented with, prior to that, a couple of other opportunities and financially, I mean, yeah, the, the, you know, but it wasn't the right. It wasn't the right um position. I mean it wasn't the right place for me, not the position, because you're the first one that has said we're open to change, and I think if people are listening out here, please be open to change and ideas.
Shed Gal:We get so closed off on that. It's our way or no way, and you know I've been accused of that myself and I reflect on that. I am a sponge of information. I just want to gain information from others, take what works and share it with others. But I think we're going to see wonderful changes overall in this industry in the next few years and on the RTO side too, and training in different things and being more cohesive with our haulers and the people at the plant, the dealers working together and, and I see great things coming in the industry and I love this industry and it's a shed for crying out loud and you know, um years ago I had a really bad experience buying one.
Shed Gal:And here we are today and I'm interviewing Atlee.
Atlee Stewart:Legend believer out of it.
Shed Gal:Yeah, wonderful. Before we wrap up here, I'm going to ask you a couple of flash questions, as I like to do, and so you know whatever. However, you here, I'm going to ask you a couple of flash questions, as I like to do, and so you know whatever. However, you answer is fine. If money were not an issue and you could go anywhere tomorrow in the world for a vacation, where would you go?
Atlee Stewart:oh, of course that's a hard one, you might say, but there's two places that we have went and we thoroughly enjoy, and every other year my parents take us and my siblings all of us to Colorado and we have found a place out there. We love absolutely flat out more than any other place. We love Lake City, Colorado, and we went there probably half a dozen times. The main reason we like it there is because you can take your ATVs your side-by-sides and you can ride them right there in town.
Atlee Stewart:You can ride downtown to the barbecue place, to the pizza place. It's just a little community town right there. You can ride from there. It's a.
Atlee Stewart:There's a 45 mile loop, it's called the alpine loop and it comes it goes out of one side end of town there and it makes a loop over two mountain passes uh, cinnamon pass and engineer pass, at both 14, 000 feet, and circle back around and come back in the other end of town. If you can do it, if you're just driving like an idiot, you can do it in about two and a half hours probably. But we make a six-hour trip out of it about every time we do it and we just love that place. It's just a real laid-back town. You can do fly fishing there. We've done fly fishing, guided fishing trips. Oh, I had my first bear encounter in person while we was there
Shed Gal:all right, I can skip that part.
Shed Gal:Nope, I don't want to encounter any bears down a rabbit trail there.
Atlee Stewart:But yeah, that's, that's, that's fun, or we. We love to go to Florida, so we've done that a couple different times.
Shed Gal:So fun
Shed Gal:So, and it's interesting Susan because one's one Florida being a little more tropical and beachy and then Colorado being more the mountains and open air. I love that. Well, I know the answer to the next question. I just want to have you confirm that I'm correct. So, I was going to ask you what your, if money wasn't an issue and you could buy any vehicle out there, what that would be, but I know it would be a red Ford F-150. Is that correct?
Atlee Stewart:a Ford guy.
Shed Gal:It's a little Ford Chevy debate, you know. Okay, all kidding aside folks, you know I'm not a ford guy. It's a little ford chevy debate, you know. Okay, all kidding aside folks, he you know he might tease me behind my back about my red ford f-150, but ally of money were not an issue and you could drive any vehicle in the world, what would you do?
Atlee Stewart:I guess I have to say, because I'm not a rich guy, but I'm just still a GM guy and I just I like to drive my GM.
Shed Gal:Well, and it is a beautiful GM.
Atlee Stewart:And that brings up that question. You know, you just talking about the Ford GM thing. There's just a few things and you gotta have I'll say this little tidbit you gotta have fun with those people around you. So, if you got your personnel, your staff in your office, you got to have points to argue throughout the day and throughout the week, and it's ford and chevy. Here we've got one guy that's a ford guy all the way, and all the rest of us are gm, until Susan came along and so she joined the Ford crew and then he also got the iPhone versus Android that's right we were all team Android yeah,
Atlee Stewart:but we were all iPhone people, with the exception of one guy here and his name is Troy. I'll just call him out. And Susan shows up votes and guess what? I wasn't here on the job. Where was I, Susan? I went to Kentucky. Oh, that's right, you were in Kentucky. Yeah, came here for her first when she was moving here. And guess what? Troy texted me and just out of the blue said I'm not the only android person here. No more, she's a good one, she's android all the way. So, I just threw that in there because you got to have fun.
Atlee Stewart:It's just things we even put it on our the dry erase board. You know all the things this we put our boats up there. It's just something to have fun.
Shed Gal:I love it. I love it and I called it Chevy, but, pardon me, I corrected GM, put our boats up there, it's just something to have fun. I love it. I love it and I called it chevy, but part I didn't correct it. Gm, gm, they're basically the same yeah, I love it. That's great. Before we finish this, and this has been super fun and I really appreciate your time. Before we wrap this up, do you have any questions for me?
Atlee Stewart:uh, the only one that comes to mind right off hand is what were the biggest surprises to you, or surprise to you once you moved to Arkansas? I mean, what come to you as a big surprise, different from where he was at in Arizona, where all you've been, I guess?
Shed Gal:Yeah, the bugs.
Atlee Stewart:The bugs, bugs, the bugs.
Shed Gal:not telling you about that too no, I know, uh, no, I think maybe the biggest thing in in all seriousness is the people are very, very friendly and I was telling someone earlier today, it's not that people in phoenix or surprise Arizona, where I was, aren't friendly, it's very difficult to connect because it's so big.
Shed Gal:And here, like we went to a little place down the street to grab something to drink the other night and like the gal that took our order actually asked our names and you know we were in the Walmart parking lot and we were in Walmart and they complimented us on our nice accents and someone else said hi, like I'm. Like this is that has surprised me because I'm not used to it, but it's a very pleasant surprise. So, and the bugs are fine, I don't think you have anything more vicious here than we had in Phoenix. And as far as the humidity, you know, in Arizona right now when it's 113, 115, I'd be in my air-conditioned office and here I'm in my air-conditioned office, so we're good, I'm very glad to be here awesome.
Shed Gal:We're happy that you're here, wonderful well, thank you all for listening and watching. I'm assuming that you made it to the end of this week's Shed Geek podcast hosted by me, Susan the Shed Gal. I want to thank Atlee. Atlee, I appreciate you very much. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be with us today, and we will see you all very soon.