Shed Geek Podcast

Unlocking Digital Success and Balancing Work-Life in the Shed Industry with James Price

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 4 • Episode 74

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Ready to unlock the secrets of thriving in the shed industry amidst a digital revolution? Join us on the Shed Geek Podcast as we welcome back James Price, co-founder of ShedPro, who shares his expert insights on navigating the industry's shift towards digital solutions. Discover how the pandemic has driven the adoption of innovative tools like 3D configurators, Google Ads, and optimized websites, and learn the importance of mastering marketing strategies to keep your business growing even in challenging times.

Exciting news ahead! We introduce the ShedPro platform, a game-changer in the shed business, designed to revolutionize the post-sale process. From customizable tiny home interiors to streamlined contract and inventory management, James takes us through the features that can boost customer satisfaction and drive additional revenue. Plus, uncover the power of maintaining strong customer relationships and embedding core values into your business practices for exceptional service.

Hear stories of entrepreneurial growth and the personal side of running a family business, blending professional pursuits with family time. We wrap up with heartfelt reflections on managing business and personal relationships, the power of positive influence, and a light-hearted discussion about the irresistible temptation of delicious foods. Tune in for an episode packed with valuable lessons, humor, and heartfelt moments.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.

To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.

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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Shed Geek:

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast with a familiar, uh favorite of uh the podcast here today. James, thinking back about like even our first conversation, you know, like my, how much things have grown for you and I. Um, yes, it's just wild. You know to continue to watch the changes of different things. But, uh, for those who don't know you and those who do know you, maybe introduce or reintroduce yourself to the uh listeners, just tell them a little bit about your business and what you do.

James Price:

Sure, yeah, thank you. It's great to be back on the Shed Geek podcast, and so I'm James Price. I'm the co-founder of Shed Pro, so we do 3D shed designer, google ads websites helping the shed industry sell more sheds.

Shed Geek:

It's a worthy cause, because people always want more sales, and it seems like you know this post-COVID era, election year, waiting for things to break loose after November, maybe increase in. You know every area of spending that we can see at least what the news is telling us, depending on which one you listen to. It's interesting, though, but I think we all feel sort of the squeeze. But yet there are some businesses based off their business model, continuing to see growth and success even in down era and a more of a stressed economy. Um, what do you? What do you think's uh causing that? Is it because they're using ShedPros pro 3d configurator?

James Price:

yeah, well, we, we tell people, uh, like during covid, it's like nobody needed help with sales, it was just things were coming through the door. So, they used our services to kind of smooth out that sales process. But now, as COVID has ended, there's that drive to figure out how to generate more leads, more opportunities. So, we do see an increase in inquiries, people contacting us for help with generating those leads and those opportunities. And so, we do see a lot of people even though it's a down economy, we see them. They're using all of the services, whether that's the ads, the website, the 3D designer or even going with some of these other platforms Sheds for Sale or Shed Hub, as we had talked about. So, they're using all these things to their advantage and a lot of them are saying, hey, sales are doing great right now and they're not seeing the necessary downturn that some of the companies are experiencing. So, yeah, taking advantage of the tools and what's out there can really help with the sales.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, it's well. This, this digital storefront, is just a different beast, especially for guys who got in for the manufacturing purposes, right, they got in and now all of a sudden they're drug into the retail market and all that goes with it, from all the acronyms Think of everyone you want, from CRMs to SEO to PPC ads and everybody's like what are you talking about? This all sounds like a foreign language and it's like, yeah, I get it. It just seems to be where the direction that the world is chasing is, not just in sheds. We're just not immune to the rest of the world. So, it's kind of like understanding the retail market and a lot of guys are like, hey, I don't know that, I want to learn everything about virtual reality and 3D configurators and all these details, but it's kind of become imperative now in the sense of having a digital storefront. Would you agree?

James Price:

Yeah Well, just interesting. You mentioned the acronyms A lot of times I'll tell people we're in the shed industry and they'll go oh, what does shed stand for?

Shed Geek:

And they're looking for that as an acronym, Like no, just sheds.

James Price:

Affordable buildings. But, yeah, what we tell people is we love, we live and breathe this stuff all the time. So, allow us to focus on that for you so you don't have to necessarily go out and learn. Okay, what are all these acronyms? What is the best way to target your Vua ads? What's the best way to structure a website?

James Price:

Of course, we do see that the people that do go out and get that foundation understanding, then they can have a little bit more success. As we have those conversations, we'll have monthly or quarterly check-ins and if you do have some of that background, then you can dig into the data a little bit more and better understand what your customers are seeing on a Google Ads side, and then you can apply that to your other sales strategy, your other marketing strategy. But if you don't want to dig into it, then we are happy more than happy to dig into it for you because we love it, we live it, we breathe it more than happy to dig into it for you because we love it, we live it, we breathe it. And that's kind of our excitement to see those trends, to see the data figure out what's getting your potential customers to click. We love that part of the business.

Shed Geek:

I saw a Facebook meme recently that said I no longer believe communication is the key. That said I no longer believe communication is the key.

Shed Geek:

Comprehension is the key and I love that comment because we can communicate but oftentimes, we can miss the mark whenever it comes to comprehending. And I stopped more in my tracks recently whenever somebody was discussing these acronyms and SEO and different things, and it made me think of a late friend of ours that I just wrote about in Shed Business Journal my inaugural article for them. I discussed sort of my time at Graceland when I got started and part of that was Bertus Bright, who also went to church with us, attended some men's conferences with him, and he always talked about a paradigm shift. It was always such a great story and like. I think my personal paradigm shift came whenever we were discussing marketing with a client and we were. We were saying like CRM and SEO and all this stuff, and the guy said, listen, you can keep saying all of these words and acronyms all you want, but like until you explain to me what SEO means like it's not really registering.

Shed Geek:

It's not just enough to communicate it, it's enough that I need to comprehend it Right, like I need you to spend the time with me to sort of break down how it works so I can be educated on my purchases. Or you know what, what, what, what it is I'm missing. And like I, or you know what, what, what, what it is I'm missing. And like I appreciate the guys who like want to know. They, they want to know and ask questions. Um, because you know, if they, if they already have a bias of it, we don't have an opportunity to really, you know, work, our area of expertise or whatever. Uh, so, so I'm excited'm excited. Uh, you know about the analytics as well, the understanding it like not just that they're here, but what do they mean? 1.2 million impressions, what does that mean? What does that help?

Shed Geek:

you know, that's really where people get to is like how does that help me? Uh? So I understand, I understand the world and uh, yeah.

James Price:

And even for us it's going beyond that, because a lot of companies they'll put out those numbers Okay, you got this number of likes, you got this number of impressions, but ultimately it comes down to okay, what's the revenue that's generated from this?

James Price:

So, that's what we like to point to is okay, here's the end result, here's the customer that's buying the building, here's the customer that's buying the building, here's the revenue that's been generated. And then you can work it backwards to go okay, what's the return on this investment that I'm putting into it and that's to us? I mean, that's where we want to take every customer to show that not just okay, you've got a million impressions this month. We want to get down to okay, what? What does this translate to? As far as a sale, uh, or as far as a solid lead, where you're, you're working it now to work that through the sale cycle.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, the, uh, the, the leg bones connected to the knee bone right, like, how does this affect this? And that's ultimately. What people want to know is like if I spin this, what do I gain here? What's my ROI, because we need another acronym what's?

Shed Geek:

another. What's, what's my ROI?

Shed Geek:

uh, I. I think we could make a healthy song on just all the acronyms that we have to use on a daily basis, but that that's really what it comes down to is, as the way I explain it is like hey, um, it's just the. You can turn the tables around real quick. Just put me out there building a shed with your best shed builder and like I can build something that looks like a shed. It'll be similar to have a lot of the parts that are necessary.

Shed Geek:

You know what I mean, like an entryway, maybe a window, a floor we'll have a roof on there, I'll get by, but you'll notice the obvious differences in the quality and that's one of the ways that we sort of sell the services for, like the PPC campaigns you were talking about, like Google and Meta ads. It's like you're essentially betting on the idea that if you know, the ad budget is ad budget. Right. It was like that's Google's money and that's meta's money, that's Facebook and Instagram money.

Shed Geek:

They're going to get theirs because that's the service they're providing on their platform. But you're essentially betting on our service fee that we can spend a smaller amount of money and obtain more results than you can by spending more money, because there again, you're not a you know, a marketer or you're not someone doing this every day, just the same as we're not shed builders. We can build something that looks like a shed, but it may not be as good, and I bet, if I just pay you to build the shed, it would look a lot better than if I go do it myself. Right, that's ultimately the thought process we go through.

Shed Geek:

I don't know about you guys

James Price:

yep, yeah, well, and two, uh kind of similar, where we can do the 3d designer and shed geek marketing, does the, the advertising and the website. I mean it's playing nicely together. Uh, some two strengths of ours. Um, so yeah, I mean just putting everyone in the place that they have the greatest value, the greatest strength, and then, uh, from that, the maximizing the impact or the, the influence on the market, uh can really win out for, for all of us

Shed Geek:

yeah, taking people down those journeys of website designs, like you said, and really just understanding that digital storefront and being able to, like, talk, talk to them and take the time to explain it.

Shed Geek:

It's, it's a, it's become a real passion of mine and these phone calls are getting along, uh, sometimes with us, just because we, we, we feel like it's necessary. You know it's service based and you know you have to create that. Anthony Mitchell calls it legendary, legendary customer service. You have to be able to present that and I owe him royalties for that.

Shed Geek:

So, I'll have to send him a check so, but I love it that he says that we've tried to acquire that ourselves.

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Shed Geek:

So, James, I remember seeing you guys at the at the Shed Expo maybe the first time that I've seen you guys and met you there and you guys are really unveiling this, the virtual reality thing which I think we talked about in the previous podcast and, man, I just loved it. I love being able to like, go through with your team, manage, like you know, looking at the shed, the backyard. But uh, I'm curious, and maybe the listeners are curious what's new? What?

Shed Geek:

else are we doing that? Uh, that you know is ShedP ro rearing up to do some really neat and fun stuff. You guys will be at the Expo this year. We're in August now, so you'll be there in September in Michigan.

James Price:

That's right. Yeah, I think our booths are almost neighbors to each other, so we can wave to each other at the show.

Shed Geek:

Bring snacks, James. Bring snacks. There you go.

James Price:

You'll earn a friend from our booth but yeah, we, uh, so, yeah, we, we really enjoyed that first expo that we had gone to and did the augmented reality and showing that virtual shed that you could walk through, um, and so we realized, hey, we, hey, we need to have a bigger splash at the show this year. So, we are releasing a few new things. The first one is that we do want to release a tiny home configurator. So, what we've seen on the market as far as tiny homes is there's not a whole lot of tiny home configurations, and that's one of the questions that we just constantly get from our customers saying, hey, can I do more on the interior? So, we are releasing that. So that will include the interior walls and it will allow to do cabinets and appliances and different layouts that you would have for the tiny home. So, we're excited about releasing that and I think it's a great way for the shed businesses to earn some additional revenue and also some great profit margins for those tiny homes. And then the second thing that we're really excited about is, I guess, last year's expo, finishing that expo.

James Price:

I always love going to the expo because it allows you to kind of see, okay, what's the trend, what are people needing. What do people want? And so the biggest takeaway that I had had from last year's show was that people were really looking for some of what we kind of call the post-sale solution. So, after someone goes from the Google Ads to a website, to the 3D designer and they've made that purchase, okay, how do you manage that going forward? So, it's the contracts, it's the managing inventory of these buildings on your lot, it's getting the e-signatures, it's the RTO and all the way down to getting this building actually delivered to the customer. So, what we're releasing is we're calling it the Shed Pro platform, and so that will include everything post-sale. So, of course, we still offer the services that we have up to this point the Google Ads, the website and the 3D Designer.

James Price:

But then, in addition to that, we are doing point of sale. So you can do cash, credit card, RTO, allow for better management of quotes and contracts and e-signatures all those things that you just need to do to finalize a sale, all those things that you just need to do to finalize a sale, and then afterwards, okay, giving the customers more management of their inventory, whether that's inventory on one single lot or you're managing multiple lots or it's a manufacturer with multiple dealers, so you need to spread that inventory across multiple lots and then finally work orders and managing that through that production process. So, it's going through flooring, it's going to roofing, so you have all of that better management and then finally ending with delivery. So, we'll have an app for the drivers, so then they can track deliveries and take photos after it's delivered and put a GPS stamp on it. So, we're super excited to release the whole platform. So then that way we can really help the Shed business go from A to Z all the way through the process.

Shed Geek:

So Shed Pro platforms, what I should be watching for, that's the.

James Price:

There the well, yeah, yeah, okay, all right.

Shed Geek:

Well, that's no, it's super exciting because you know, like with any business, you want to see growth. You know um uh, what you guys have done, you know, in offering a 3d configurator to the, to the, the, the industry has been pretty phenomenal, pretty awesome. I mean, I hear compliments about the graphics and different things all the time, but probably what you were hearing is one of those where it's like, yeah, what next?

Shed Geek:

Now I have to you know, attach to a third party, and nothing wrong with that. There's tons of collaborative efforts. I mean, you have a collaborative effort as well underway and it's going great. We enjoy it, um. But yeah, sometimes like having sort of that internal drive to want to be able to help your customer, like you said, from a to z. You know we're getting halfway there, uh, but we want to be able to finish this process post-sale. So, it sounds like a pretty complex uh software and this uh, uh, this, this panel that you'll have behind you, will have a lot of functionality.

James Price:

Exactly. Yeah, it's uh. I mean we we think it's. It'll be competitive to anything that's on the market currently. Um, and it's uh what.

James Price:

What we kind of pride ourselves in is not only, like you said, the best quality graphic design, but also just the relational side of the business Making sure that when someone calls and says, hey, I need some help with this or can you get this updated.

James Price:

So, we want to take that forward into this. So, it's not just the software, but it's the people behind the software and providing that customer service. So that's number one for us and it's one of our core values is love, people in the community. So, as we offer this software, then we want to make sure that it's coming with the same customer service that people have come to expect when they are working with Shed Pro. So, we're excited about that as well, just to be able to have more interactions with our existing customers and provide better solutions to the people that maybe they're not quite ready to do the 3D but they need help with managing all the process of selling a shed. So, we'd love to start having those relationships as well all the process of selling a shed. So, we'd love to start having those relationships as well.

Shed Geek:

That's one thing that you have been super consistent on since the first time I've met you is these long discussions that me and you often have about relationship and business relationship, how that fits into your, if you want to say into your, ministry. You know, like, how do you separate business and work and then how do you like tie them in also together where they're so interwoven that you don't know One of my favorite sayings like you know, if someone had to convict you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence for your conviction.

Shed Geek:

You know, that's kind of the way it is like even in your business, like how do you do business? But then also still tie in those very integral parts of, like, your deep-rooted faith, where they're no longer just separated and church is church or work is work, or you know, and then like it's, it's just all.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, it all kind of works together where you're trying to be the best person, best business partner, best, uh, all of that and that's quite the feat, James, but it's always been a consistency thing with you that you've always made that a paramount part of your, uh, your value prop yeah, well, I've, uh, I've learned from some great people and I've loved our conversations that we have and, like you said, they go, they go long but it's always encouraging.

James Price:

But I've had some great people that have blazed the trail ahead of me, that I've been able to just reach out to and have as coaches and mentors along the way.

James Price:

And the number one thing that I've learned through all this is like in the beginning I struggled, like you said, the balance of going okay. Am I, am I a business owner? Am I loving people? It's like feeling like I always had to keep that balanced, but I had some great people that said, hey, stop balancing it, just mash it all together, integrate it together and as you do work, it's like doing excellent work is a way to bless other people, basically, just live life together caring for customers, caring for clients, for our employees, employees, family members all of those things that we really feel like our calling on our heart. At least we're trying along the way and have some great people that can let me know if I need to do any better in that effort and mentors ahead of us helping us to keep our eyes on the right prizes along the way and make sure that we are blessing the community and blessing the people that we're in relationship with.

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Shed Geek:

Yeah for sure.

Shed Geek:

Man, I appreciate the consistency on and off air always in the way that you approach business, use the word balance in there, and it's always one I like to kind of throw in there because it's an easy topic to discuss work-life balance and all these different things. And I'm reading a book. I was kind of pleased that me and you brought up in the conversation preemptively, discussing sort of a joint book that we had read, Simon Sinek, leaders Eat Last, and we were sort of discussing some of the details of that. Just finished that book last week. I'm a big Sinek fan, know one I don't remember if it was there or another book I was reading recently.

Shed Geek:

Uh, that was talking about the, the word balance and how often it shows up in our lives and how sometimes it's okay to be perfectly um, off balance to correct sort of a problem. So, you're struggling financially, you know, um, you need to focus your attention on, you know, gaining more, more financial benefit in your life. So, you need to be somewhat out of balance, you, you know. Or if you're extremely overweight, you're trying to fix that. You need to get unbalanced, you know, to go to the gym and like focus more on that until you can find a point of routine and more steady balance and like this, it really changed sort of like my mindset at looking at different things on like the areas that I find weakness in, that I need to.

Shed Geek:

And I always go back to the story with of like going to Cape Girardeau and pastor Bolin, who runs a um teen challenge over there and we were involved with you know, different teen challenges and things like that and faith-based drug and alcohol recovery for a while, and I think I've told this story before but I remember, like you know, this guy was so revered and it's like overseeing like a place for like 300 men sleep and things like that.

Shed Geek:

And he says you know, this was getting ready to shut down whenever I got here. You know, teen was founded in 1959. This one was open in 69 and it was donated, like several hundred acres by a local family to the organization because they had saw what it did in their son's life. And blah, blah, blah. And he says, uh, when I got here, it was almost shut down. And uh, I said, oh my goodness, what did you do? You know, and I was like expecting this like big move and act of God, and he was going to tell me this thing that like blew my mind and like, oh my goodness, God really came through. And I remember he held his hand up and he said, well, when I got here, like the debt was up here and like the income was like down here.

Shed Geek:

And I was like, yeah, man, what, what? Tell me, what did God do? And he said, oh man, we just switched those two. It. Oh man, we just switched those two. It was just like. It was so uninspiring, it was just kind of like what you know? Like you're telling me the most common thing that I learned as a child, like don't spend more than you make solved all of your problems. And it's like, yeah, it doesn't matter for a multimillion dollar industry, or, or, or, or, uh, you know uh business or ministry, all the way down to like my kids and their allowance, like you know what, you know, you spend this. You ain't got no more.

Shed Geek:

That's just the way it goes so yeah, I love to tell the yeah, I love to tell the story and I know that you'd appreciate it from your, your heart as a, as a Christian. So, a tiny home configurator. Let's jump back onto that big need for that industry Not something I see a lot of, but it's definitely something that people want, especially as you see the transition of sheds no longer just being shed right, we do the shed geek podcast, James, but, my goodness, what does it turn into? Tiny homes?

Shed Geek:

post frame carports. Where does it stop? I don't know. But you know turned into Tiny homes, post frame carports? Where does it stop? I don't know, but you're seeing more call for this. So, what kind of led you?

James Price:

down that path For sure. Yeah, I mean we've talked and maybe we picked the wrong name Shed Pro. It should have been something a little bit more broad as we go into some of these other ideas, but that's where we are now Shed Pro. But so, tiny homes in the past six months that has been probably the number one question that we've been getting from some of our existing customers, but also prospect customers that are calling us. So, what we recognize is that's a real need and that's what people are looking for and what we've seen. Also, at least I guess we've gotten some more contacts through Canada recently and so, as a result, Canada is releasing different incentives to help with the housing challenges that they face.

James Price:

So, okay, tiny homes or ADUs they're offering incentives, grants or pre-approved plans. So, we just see that not only is it a need from the customers that we have, but also from some of the cities they're going okay, how do we solve some of our housing crises that we're facing? So, we started kind of tiptoeing into it and testing, as far as the technical side, okay, what would be required for us to do this, and it wasn't too hard of a transition to go from the software solution that we have. We kind of always knew that we might be heading towards something more complicated than a shed shell, and so the way that we had structured the code and the solution allowed us to pretty easily adapt it to have the tiny home configuration built into it. So, the nice thing is you don't have to go out and get a whole new, separate configurator. It'll be all built into one configurator with options that you can turn on and off based on each person's particular needs.

Shed Geek:

That's great. So many customers come in and that's like the different Facebook groups we see out there, the shed-to all these different things. You know looking for affordable housing. I know in our little town you know one of the city councilman's also owns a construction company and he actually built a smaller ADU kind of here to test out the theory, to kind of see what that still meet code. But then you know, meet where that like single family. You know housing. Then you know meet where that like single family. Uh, you know housing looks.

Shed Geek:

You know maybe it's a, maybe it's a uh um just a mom and her, her kids, or maybe it's an elderly, you know uh person just looking for a home, or maybe it's a new family let's just get started and maybe they can't afford that 2,500 square foot home or whatever it looks like, but they need something smaller, a lower introductory rate. But it just seems like more and more shed. Lots are getting these questions constantly about tiny homes and I'll tell you from a marketing perspective, I'll give you a little free tidbit here. It's like if you go and you're a shed company and you're thinking about getting that modular certification or whatever it is in your state that meets code so that you can build ADUs, homes, tiny homes, whatever it looks like I don't know the details on it from each one, so forgive me if I'm butchering it, but from a marketing perspective it is amazing at what you can do, especially with ads, because it goes into a whole different level of category whenever you're talking about homes.

James Price:

I don't know, what are you guys seeing? Exactly, that's exactly right. Exactly, that's exactly right. And it's not too far of a transition to jump from marketing, from a shed to a tiny home, but I mean, it opens up a whole lot of doors for you. And again, the profit margins it's like the marketing budget that you're spending on a shed and then you're selling a $5,000 or $10,000 shed where now you can transition that to selling a tiny home that's $70,000.

James Price:

Of course, it presents some challenges with that, but also, at the same time, that marketing budget is going to generate a greater return for you. Marketing budget is going to generate a greater return for you. And then the profit margins are better too. So, you're not needing to produce and get quite as many customers through the door with these tiny homes, and so that's what we're seeing. And so, the people that are selling tiny homes within our customer base, they're having some great progress, and so we hope to come alongside that and just go okay, now here's a configurator, go with it and help that buying process as they capture some of those interests already that they're seeing. Help them go through it a little bit smoother and really get to that decision point where they're going. Okay, this is the tiny home I want to buy.

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Shed Geek:

You know it'd be really interesting to find out how many of these uh companies uh overlay into some of these other areas like we discussed. You know name a million companies that have shed in it. You know Shed Pro, Shed Geek.

Shed Geek:

You know Sheds For Sale, Shed Hub, you know what I mean. Uh, um Shed averse like,

James Price:

and we all have orange colors to our logos

Shed Geek:

we could just keep going Shed Suite, I don't know, like there's probably like I laugh in the Shed Business Journal right, or like it has all the listings and then you get to Shed and it's just like tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick and it's the same on my email folders. Right, the overall encompassing businesses are, from you know, going to going to the post frame show recently in Branson where I heard that like something like 41 of like um post frame builders also build sheds you know, so like now

Shed Geek:

you're like well, what level of post frame you know are they involved in? Are they? You know, if they're post frame, they're typically doing wood. But like, are people getting into the metal? They're getting into the red iron. How big does that go? Where does it stop? What about the aluminum side? Um, then, you know, I see a lot of shed guys who are like, hey, it's, it's, it's worth going out and like purchasing equipment that's going to help me with my shed business. It ultimately leads into another business adventure all together um you know.

Shed Geek:

So, it. It is kind of interesting like we say sheds, but like that word comes with like a caveat where I don't know construction geek just doesn't ring quite like you know construction geek and I and I am I construction geek. I'm not into homes and all these you know larger projects, so I'm like I don't really know what I don't want to you know, pretend to be an expert but I like having experts on to talk about it, so it's just an interesting thought.

Shed Geek:

But, um, obviously the business is growing and I don't know where they overlap, where guys do tiny homes and also do sheds. But what's cool and I mentioned this before too. So, at the risk of redundancy, you know we can service both markets. It's kind of cool, the minimalistic crowd who's like you know, I just want to downsize and want a tiny home. What's up? Small, something simple. We got you Yep Storage. That way I can store all of my extra and excess stuff that we've purchased outside of my home. We got you, we can take care of you, we can. We can service multiple industries with a construction arm.

James Price:

Right.

Shed Geek:

So, I don't know. I think it's cool, I think it's awesome. We got so many requests for tiny homes when we were selling, so like to be able to have a configurator to like walk through the customizations with that. It's pretty phenomenal. And are you first to the market with this? I mean, is that fair to say?

James Price:

Yeah, well, I think with our level of detail. Yes, I mean, there's some configurators that are out there that will accomplish portions of it, but I think ours will be the first, uh, to have a little bit more flexibility. Um, what we've seen is just some basic layout changes, uh, but we want to be able to give that flexibility to really configure things within it and see it from all angles, move the 3d design around, um, so I think it's going to be a first in the market for that whole solution that we've seen.

Shed Geek:

So, let's get this sold, let's get people on the Shed Pro platform, let's get them on being able to see the tiny home designer. We're not sharing any of that in the episode today, but you know what? That just always gives us a reason to have you back on for another episode so we can discuss that. But in the meantime and we've still got plenty of time left here, but I just want to give a plug In the meantime where would they go if they wanted to demo this, to see this information? What's? Some places, I don't know, give some shout-outs here on how to actually collect on the revenue here.

James Price:

Sure, so you can go to our website, Shedpro. co, and from there there'll be some links in the top right or multiple places on the page to schedule a meeting with one of our teammates. So, you could do it that way or send us an email at hello@ shedpro. co. And so we would love to have those initial conversations, demo some of what we have and then also do want to just throw it out there that if anyone is listening to this podcast and then they do reach out to us, just mention that to us, that you've heard about this on the shed geek podcast and we will be providing some good discounts to any of the listeners of shed geek that does mention that as we, as you reach out to us, we'd be happy to just honor the relationship that we have, Shannon and all the listeners here. So just give us a call and mention that you heard it here first on Shed Geek.

Shed Geek:

Hey, that's excellent. I love saving people money.

Shed Geek:

It always seems to earn you some favor when you can save people a little money. I'm costing you, though, money, James. So, hey, let's tell these people. We're a fan of the industry and we like to work with those who not only come on the show but collaborate with us. So, give me a call, we'll make a connection with you. We'll figure it out, but the main thing is get you a demo, do a demo. You don't know what you're missing until you take a look at it, and, James, I'm sure you'll welcome that if we can make a connection somehow.

James Price:

Yep, definitely Any way. Contact us directly or go call Shannon. That's completely fine with us. We'd just love to give a demo to anybody that's interested.

Shed Geek:

I think it's going to go great because it's one of those first-to-the-table kind of things, like you said, the level of detail of those first to the to the table kind of things.

Shed Geek:

Like you said, the level of detail. But then you know also the it. It states, like your solvency and position right now with, like your, you know, uh, dedication to your product in the industry by growing and doing this, this, uh, this multi-level functionality that exists in, in, in the back end now of ShedP ro, after the sale, why, why is that stuff important? We can talk about what it does and the details of all of that, but, as our, as our one of our favorite authors, Simon Sinek, says, you know why, why are you doing that and how does how does this help? Why should a customer be interested? Even current customers who are using ShedP ro, but even new customers who want to come to the table and not just use the configurator or any of the other services that you offer, but like this, this, this back-end system that's going to make things easier for them. Why should they do?

James Price:

that, yeah, for me. Um, one of the big driving factors for me is, um, I mean, as we've done business, uh, we've. We've had to use so many different solutions to accomplish everything that we want. It's project management, task management, HR, payroll, so many different tools and we're working with so many different vendors. And so, as we've just done natural business, we're always just looking for ways to simplify that life as much as possible for ourselves. So, we know we want to have something that would be the same for our customers. So, you don't necessarily have to go to all these different vendors to get the full solution vendors to get the full solution. So that's a big driving factor to our why is being able to provide the best possible solution to our customers at the easiest way possible. So that's huge.

James Price:

But also, for us it's again going to that sale.

James Price:

So if we can help kind of connect the dots all the way through that sale where right now we'll do our 3D designer and then we're connecting into other solutions to manage the sale afterwards, and we don't always get accurate data from that, and so we want to make sure that we're getting the most accurate data to say, okay, here's our efforts, that we're doing for you and here's the sales that are being generated from it.

James Price:

So, again, we want to kind of have that full circle so we can show exactly to our customers here's the here's the value that we're adding to you and that's ultimately to us, is managing that sale. So, connecting the full cycle allows us to better do that, have the right data and then we can, we can give better advice to our customers to say, hey, here's, here's the trends that we're seeing in your business, here's the trends that we're seeing on industry wide. Here's some areas that you can improve and we, we suggest that you, whatever focus on these areas, like you said, whatever focus on these areas, like you said, to gain some more sales or more leads, more opportunities. So, I think that's again the data.

Shed Geek:

I love the data connecting it all to a data and to the final sale at the end,

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Shed Geek:

Well, success brings growth. My friend and, like you guys, have been seeing more success over the last couple of years and it's just natural to see that growth and it's.

Shed Geek:

It's really awesome. Uh, you know there's some great companies out there that that do things, but I relate it to sort of like being a shed dealer and uh, uh, you know, wanting to sell carports and like listening to the complaints. I get back that says, you know, we can't control the install, we can't control this, we don't have any control over that. And it's not control for the purpose of wanting to control, but more wanting to ensure that a satisfactory service is being provided to your customer and you just have more functionality to be able to do that whenever you vertically integrate sort of everything inside of your own offices with your own people who learn routines. We've experienced that ourself here with the podcast.

Shed Geek:

You know my wife is now working with me, my son is working full time, my daughter's working part time, so like here they are editing videos and like different and they're learning all the jargon or they're learning, like, all the different people and personalities of the industry and then whenever they see them, when they go to a trade show, uh, or see them out in the field or something like that, they're kind of, hey, I know that guy or I listen to that guy talk for an hour, you know, and I sit and listen. I picked up on all the little nuances and everything, but I tried to edit everything. People oftentimes don't see the full back end, you know, of everything that's going on.

James Price:

So I'm curious, like on family holidays, do you all work? Are you doing Shed Geek stuff? Are you able to pull away from it?

Shed Geek:

You know, we're getting ready to go to Colorado. We're leaving tomorrow and we'll be out for two weeks, and part of that is wanting to be able to spend a little time together and then wanting to do some work as well. So, it's going to be really exciting to go down into some areas that we've just wanted to see Telluride, Durango, go up into Moab, go down to the Four Corners and just spend some time together. But then also it's really cool because we get to, you know, get some podcasts while we're there or, you know, visit some shed guys or some shed related products. Um, so, to answer your question, you know it is. It is kind of difficult because we're working out of the house right now. We've got, you know, four desks spread out through the house and, uh, you know, we're all in our little rooms and we're tasking away every day, um, but we have a good routine and it's. It's really a blessed life, James, and that I get to spend this much time with my family yeah, you know get to.

Shed Geek:

I get to see the grandbaby because, uh, you know, my daughter comes over and she, she works, while also we get to spoil the, the, the grandbaby, Cecilia. So, um, yeah, it's, you know. All in all, um, it's hard to know when you're not, when you're working and when you're not. So, like, one of the things I was talking to someone about today is like we'd really like to eventually invest in a, maybe a business for long term here in our own hometown of some way shape or form, because we're doing so much traveling now, uh, that I got a feeling that, come closer toward retirement, I'm going to want to stay home a bunch and we sort of want some meaningful adventure that we can invest into.

Shed Geek:

So that's really what's got my attention for the next five years. Not completely, I mean. My shed world is my world. It's just it'll be nice to have like something that you know. If we decide to ever step away, uh, you know, who knows how long can a podcast go? I don't know. We got three shows a week going. Now. We got Sam and Susan, got someone else who is possibly going to join the show, like you know, and it's kind of one of those things like, can we run this thing five days a week? Are we? Are we trying to Rush Limbaugh the shed industry here? What's going on?

Shed Geek:

But we enjoy these conversations and I feel like sometimes these conversations are really helpful because I've seen the emails and the phone calls where people say I know that guy, I like that guy or that gal, or I love the conversation you had with them, or the discussion that you had sort of helped me, and I think that's why you should be going to shed hauler events, sales events, that's why you should be going to, you know, the expos and trade shows and things like that that you know happen around the industry, because you're invested in your craft and if you're doing it as just a sidekick, I get it, but also don't get it right Like I invest myself completely into whatever I'm doing and like the shed industry has really paid dividends through not just financial gain but relationships that will just sort of be there and where you do life together.

Shed Geek:

You know, and that's really I don't know that's maybe that's the pinnacle of what you're trying to accomplish in success is if you can be happy and content and satisfied but also feel financially secure. But maybe my most important and my favorite thing is that I feel what I didn't feel for a long time that I think a lot of people are looking for James and that's free.

Shed Geek:

You want freedom, to be able to choose freedom to be able to go here and do these different things and sort of be in control of your destiny, as God allows, and that that he gives us that free will, you know, and so it's so, it's so nice to have that, you know. I can go in there with this calls over and we're going there. I'm going to kiss on my grandbaby, that's great.

James Price:

I would never have this opportunity without the shed industry, and for that I'm eternally grateful. Yeah Well, I'm looking forward to when my kids are old enough to join me in this. That'll be fun. And I realize now my dad. He always had business that he was doing, and he would always hire me and I just thought it was for cheap labor. But I think I think it was just more, more times that we could be together, and we could be working together and talking. So, I realized then that it wasn't just a cheap labor but a way for us to connect, and so I'm looking forward to that for with my kids as well yeah, well, man, you know, at the rate you guys are going, that that is, that is definitely in the cards and uh, yeah, I just really enjoy our relationship.

Shed Geek:

You know we've been able to suggest or send a few people over, uh, to Shed Pro and it's, it's just been, you know, nice and uh, you know we, we have, uh, we've. I'll open pandora's box a bit on this, even though we're close here. You know, we've sort of stayed away from different exclusivity and things like that, to try to just be fair.

Shed Geek:

And I don't know if I'm being unfair if we do something that's exclusive. You know, a lot of listeners today are selling one type of shed or moving one type of shed. It's no different than what they're doing. It's a different than what they're doing. It's a. It's a, it's a strategic business move, but definitely with opportunities have come. It makes me think about stuff like that more and more all the time and, uh, my main thing is the, the thing that's important to you too, and that's maintaining relationships even as you try to grow, and not having to apologize for your success and growth, but also wanting to see good for yourself and good for others. And that can be a very hard, tight rope to walk as you begin to expand and grow. But you guys seem to be doing it well and I wish you nothing but success and luck as you continue to do it. Shed Pro is highly endorsed here at Shed Geek Podcast. We appreciate you guys and your approach. Yeah, well, and we appreciate Shed Geek Podcast. We appreciate you guys and your approach.

James Price:

Yeah, well, and we appreciate, Shed Geek, like you said, the clients that we've worked together with. I think it was a great collaboration, playing to our strengths, and so, yeah, looking forward to more of those collaborations together and figuring out how we can again just be a blessing to you and to your customers, and I think you guys have the same heart to do it the same way. So that's why I love the conversations we have, and so that foundation of the relationship and being a blessing is always there.

Shed Geek:

Yeah,

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Shed Geek:

Well, hey, believe it or not, we're, we're into it.

Shed Geek:

50 minutes, it happens really quick. But I don't know if we did this on the last podcast, but I'm just doing it on every one. Um and you've maybe have heard me say this before, like, uh, if you've listened to other episodes uh, any questions you want for me, since I'm spending so much time asking you questions and you're telling us about all that you're doing. Any questions that you have about podcasting? Uh, our marketing adventure, rent to Own soon to be, I don't know. I guess it's okay to put this out there. We're officially doing this Shed Geek Finance. So, by the time this comes out whether this is the first time someone hears about it or not, we're going to get it out there. We won't have that booth at the expo this year, but that's okay, we'll figure it out. But any questions you have that you want to ask and I'll answer them full transparency, no matter the conversation or topic. Okay good.

James Price:

That's dangerous, isn't it? I've been waiting for this. Oh no, You've been planning. That's dangerous, isn't it?

Shed Geek:

I've been waiting for this? Oh no.

James Price:

You've been planning, I think well, we had talked about this previously about, I mean, it doesn't always go the way that we expect. We face bumps in the roads. So, we'd love to kind of hear, when things are looking down for you or it's going sideways from the way you were expecting, how do you deal with that personally? What's that look like? How do you stay positive? I mean, yeah, how do you get through those down times and any techniques or tips that you can help for those that have kind of gone through some of those challenges?

Shed Geek:

Gosh, what a great question. Do we have another hour? I don't know there you go.

Shed Geek:

So, there's ebbs and flows in business, but then there seems to be ebbs and flows in relationships too, right, probably one of the hardest things for me is, like most of my childhood friends, you know, I've never lost.

Shed Geek:

You know they've always just drifted apart because life happened to us. You know, I married, you know, my wife, who was my girlfriend since we were 15 years old, so we were sophomore or something in high school, so like I never even really went through a bad breakup or had my heart broke or anything like that. You know, it was just like. You know, uh, we, we married and we've been married for 24 years, been together 28, 29 years, um, and it's kind of wild, uh, that whenever you do have a traumatizing situation in business or friendship, that that's been new to me, mainly as an adult and to be perfectly clear with you as a Christian and that's not a diss towards Jesus or church or anything I've had probably a harder time with relationships since I've become a Christian than I had before, because maybe I sort of, maybe I knew what to expect of the world.

Shed Geek:

You know what I mean.

James Price:

The world is the world.

Shed Geek:

You know what I mean, but we forget that Christians are part of this world too, and that we're imperfect and that we are flawed and that we are not sovereign, but we are following a sovereign leader. So, like you know, it's real easy to expect grace and mercy for all of your you know sins and misgivings and wrongdoings and things like that, but how often are we so quick to ask God to not offer the same forgiveness to others or not extend forgiveness? You know when something goes awry, you know, without God in your life, I don't know how you subsequently, like, manage those processes to get through them goes awry. You know, without God in your life, I don't.

Shed Geek:

I don't know how you I don't know how you subsequently, like, like, manage those processes to get through them without allowing bitterness to just take sort of like this deep root inside you because, like it affects us all, it affects me and sometimes it's really hard to like navigate those relationships, especially if you're still in in a, in an industry together where you have something happen. If you can sort of like let that natural progression of like distance happen, then it's okay because you're just kind of like I don't have to see you things like that.

Shed Geek:

But I think that the only thing you can really do is check yourself internally in the sense that, like, does this have any eternal value? Curtis Creason would tell me. I wrote about him from Graceland now with Union Grove I think, and Curtis said his wife would tell him does this have any eternal value? Get mad at the lady in Wendy's drive-thru Does this?

James Price:

you know is telling her off going to hold any eternal value.

Shed Geek:

So, I think you've got to measure some things against that. For me, James, learn to embrace the challenge. Just quit seeing the difficulty as something that you want to avoid. Me and you are types of guys we've talked about this where we don't really necessarily want the confrontation. If we can stay away from confrontation, it's better. You know, try not to burn any bridges, man. It's really hard to do business and even in the shed industry and not creep up on either a burnt bridge or you know, just like a difficult situation where it really pulls us out of our comfort zone to have the opportunity to grow.

Shed Geek:

It's where we look back and we see most muscle develop. Being, you know, lifting the heavy stuff. And the heavy stuff that's weighing us down is so often that the day-to-day, um, I make jokes all the time and uh, I'm getting, I'm getting long winded here, but forgive me, but um, I make jokes all the time about if we were on a plane and the plane was going down and everyone was like freaking out, I'd probably be the guy to be like. You know, I just didn't see this coming.

Shed Geek:

I didn't say I thought it'd be something different, you know, because it's outside of my control. It's so funny how like the big stuff that's outside of my control. I just don't stress over it is. Instead, it's the nuance and the details of the day to day. It's like, oh, the plane's going down and, hey, this guy got crossways with you in an email. I'm like, oh, no.

Shed Geek:

I'm going to stress on that Cause I don't want a bent relationship, but I'm, and then I'm going to overcorrect and I'm going to make a lot of mistakes and do a lot of more damage before we get it right. So, like those are, I'll be careful with my emails to you. Yeah, no you're, you're all good it's just it's one of those things where you know you think oh, no, uh, how do I?

James Price:

how do I?

Shed Geek:

how do I?

James Price:

yeah, how do I fix this bridge? Yes, how do I?

Shed Geek:

yeah, how do, I do that and uh, man, we're all on this journey and that's what's great about just keeping open dialogue, I think. First, communication. Communication is terribly important. When you shut off communication, you shut off the opportunity for a discussion to happen, where healing happens as well. So, I struggle with that. We have to be able to communicate. But I also understand being guarded because you don't want to open up the door and get punched three times. They open up the fourth time, you're probably going to duck, you know.

James Price:

So, I, I get it you know, I get it, but um yeah, I don't know what.

Shed Geek:

What's your thoughts? How do you navigate it? What you know there's a lot of it in the shed industry that we don't talk about and I don't talk about it on here because we try to stay positive, but there's a lot of it yeah, yeah, I, I think, um, I think what I?

James Price:

I think it was, uh, Patrick Lencioni, one of his books, uh, and it talks about good conflict and the communication that you're talking about. And so, I think it's the realization that conflict can be good done in the right way. If both sides are actively seeking to find something better in the end result for both sides, then that conflict can be good. And so, I think that for me is just learning to balance that and being willing to go into the conflict.

James Price:

My nature would be kind of like what you're saying. It's like, hey, let's just let distance solve this and time solve this, but just realizing, okay, we can't let that fester, we need to go in and have those conversations, dig into it and talk about it. And maybe the outcome isn't always the way that I want it to go, but having that conversation and talking about it as quick as possible and as early as possible just allows God to do new things in those conversations, in that relationship. So not running from the conflict is my lessons learned over the years and going into it, and a lot of times some of those conflicts turn into some of the best relationships afterwards turn into some of the best relationships afterwards and kind of getting down in the trenches together really helps to heal and restore and grow the relationship.

James Price:

So I'm starting to learn to face that head on and be open to what God might want to do with the situation.

Shed Geek:

God might want to do with the situation, and just transparency. Man, even this conversation here today is not just all sheds. It serves as an example that there's a bigger purpose in conversation and communication and what we do with our work, and this is why I always appreciate our conversation so much. I applaud you for who you are and what you're doing and that you always keep your ministry first. For those that don't know, you're full-time in missions in Vietnam, so we didn't even discuss that really, but we just need to have you back on so we can go through the details again. We'll make that happen at some time. In the meantime, if someone wants to know more about Shed Pro and all we talked about here today once again, where can they find you?

James Price:

Yeah, so reach out directly to us. Go to our website, shedpro. co, or email us. Hello@ shedpro. co, or reach out to Shannon if you want to. He can help connect the dots here for us as well. He can help connect the dots here for us as well. And, like we said, as far as our platform and the Tiny Home Configurator, let us know that you heard it first on the Shed Geek podcast and we will be providing some great discounts to any of the listeners.

Shed Geek:

Excellent, and you guys will be at the Shed Expo coming up here in five or six weeks.

James Price:

Yes, that's correct. We will be there and looking forward to it, Uh, and we'll be. We'll be demoing, uh, the new products that we have there at the, at the show.

Shed Geek:

Excellent, James. I appreciate you so much. Your heart, your team, uh, all of it Wish you nothing but continued success. Um, would you, would you be okay with praying us out of here today? Would that be too much to?

James Price:

ask.

Shed Geek:

Just maybe a prayer over the industry.

James Price:

Definitely yeah, and thanks for having us on the show. Like you said, conversations are always a pleasure and enjoyment, encouragement. So, thank you for allowing us to be here, and I will pray, Lord. We do thank you for this time that we've had here, and we just ask, ord, that your blessing would be over each of our businesses, but it wouldn't be only about selling sheds, but it would be about being a blessing to our community, to our teammates, our employees, our customers and the families that we interact with. So, lord, just allow us to be a greater blessing and honor and glorify you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Shed Geek:

Amen. Appreciate you, brother, can't wait to see you at the Expo this year. I'll bring food to share. Oh man, you know, I've been trying to watch my figure. I don't know if I'm watching it doing anything. It may be watching it get bigger. But somebody told me recently round is a shape. If you're getting into shape, you know, but donuts.

Shed Geek:

I'm telling you, man, you just can't go wrong with donuts, James, that's my weakness. But hey, listen, I appreciate you so much. And yeah, I appreciate you so much. And, yeah, encourage everybody to go and get a demo today. Yep, great, thank you, I appreciate the time.