Shed Geek Podcast

Thriving in the Shed Industry: Insights from Dave Miller and the NBSRA

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 4 • Episode 75

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Unlock the secrets to thriving in the shed industry with our special guest, Dave Miller from SmartPay and the National Barn and Storage Rental Association (NBSRA). This episode is jam-packed with insights from Dave, who shares his gratitude for SmartPay's positive influence on his career and offers a glimpse into the NBSRA's mission to unite and uplift rent-to-own companies. Get excited for the upcoming NBSRA conference, featuring an impressive lineup of speakers and sessions designed to enhance your business practices and industry knowledge.

Hear from Colonel Mark Tillman, the Air Force One pilot during 9/11, who will be sharing his remarkable experiences at the upcoming NBSRA event. Discover the essential business principles that drive success in the shed hauling and manufacturing industry. We discuss the importance of quality service, fair compensation, and effective communication between haulers and manufacturers.

Join us as we emphasize the vital role of education and networking in the shed industry. Learn about the benefits of attending industry events like the Midwest barbecue and Shed Builder Expo, where you can network, learn, and build a sense of community. We also tackle misconceptions about rent-to-own programs, especially for millennials and newer generations. Get ready for a wealth of knowledge that will help you navigate and excel in the shed industry.

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.

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber

Cardinal Manufacturing
Cardinal Leasing
Shed Challenger

Sambassador:

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Friday fun day with Sam Bassete style. I'm your host, Sam Byler, and I am so excited to be here today because not only do I have a very special guest, Dave Miller with SmartPay and the MBSRA with us today, but I've got the Shed Geek on with us. He says this sounds like so much fun, he's going to hop in and have some fun with us. So Shed Geek say hey, and then we'll reach out to Dave over there and we'll get him cranking so he can get off of here and I'm sure he wants to go eat his dinner too.

Shed Geek:

I'm sure Super excited to be here and appreciate the applause. I like to tell people, being a Shed Geek, if you take that and you add a coin with it, you can probably get on a bus somewhere. It doesn't really mean a whole lot, but you know what? I'm a legend in my own mind anyway. So, uh, I'll take that. I'll live in my own, in my own little world, but it's awesome, uh, being on here. Love what you're doing, Sam, love the Friday episodes. Uh, you're just a big personality and it's perfect to have you as part of it. And look at this me, you and Dave right here in the same screen, like what's matter of fact. You know, I feel like this brings up an old Dave, right?

Sambassador:

here in the same screen like what's.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, matter of fact, you know, I feel like this brings up an old... Dave, I don't know if you remember the uh, smart pay, smart pay, smart pay, smart pay episode

Sambassador:

are we going to get paid 20 bucks every time we say smart pay

Sambassador:

Today?

Shed Geek:

yeah, we were trying to work you for 20 bucks every time we said Smart Pay.

Dave Miller:

So that was still, by hands down, the best episode you guys ever had

Sambassador:

best episode for somebody you know

Sambassador:

the other thing that's cool about that is, you know when I always talk about you know it's kind of funny that I'm on this thing anyway, because I'm the guy that first told you that it'll never work, and I use the story that I know exactly where we were at riding up I-77 and we were working for SmartPay. We were in a little red car working for Dave, going up to see Dave and it was man. It was a good time, we had a blast.

Shed Geek:

I always had a lot of fun working with you guys and I still tell people a lot of times, had I not really had an offer. Smartpay was really and, Dave I think it's good to say this publicly it was one of the best places. It was like six months. The first six months were like some of the happiest months of my life in terms of finding purpose and finding the shed industry and then like just connecting with you. You're excellent, the company was excellent and it's obvious why you guys have lots of success, because you've just been great in all the moves that you've made. So congrats on all of that and a special thank you, a big time thank you, for like mentoring me and giving me opportunity, because it really helped and it means a lot for me and my family.

Sambassador:

So you know, same here. All right, Dave, we'll jump into it. I'm going to basically turn it over to you. You can say whatever bad stuff you want to say about either one of us. I'm sure we can edit it out. The Facebook people will just have to hear it.

Shed Geek:

We just need your mouth moving like this and it'll be boy. Shannon and Sam were the best people ever.

Sambassador:

And then yeah, and then just let us know what you're thinking, what's the NBSRA looking like? And for some people they don't even know what that is. So just give a brief introduction to what the NBSRA is, what you guys are doing, and, yeah, what's coming up? Take it away.

Dave Miller:

Sure, awesome, yeah, hey, thanks for having me. I'm here on behalf of the NBSRA today. The NBSRA is the National Barn and Storage Rental Association. This was started about 14 or so years ago and its mission and goal is to bring rent-to-own companies together, to work together to improve the industry.

Dave Miller:

I know Shannon uses this line all the time that you know, rising tides lift all ships and that's the goal is, what can we do together better than we can do alone? So Once a year we have a conference. That's the biggest part of the event. There's other things that go on behind the scenes and a little bit of legislative work here or there, but the biggest thing is is this and I think it was after covid over covid, we didn't have the event, just like there was no shed expo that year and then the next year we always had separate events and they were like two weeks apart and finally it was like hey, hey, we're going to do these things. Why don't we combine them? And they're not combined in the sense that they're together, but let's at least plan them together.

Dave Miller:

And so the NBSRA is the day before the Shed Expo and it is an all-day event, starts at 8 o'clock in the morning and goes to about five in the evening. It's just jam packed with speakers on various topics within the rent to own world. We bring in some big keynote speakers that are talking more about general concepts that are not industry specific but good business principles. Then we have people breaking things down and we'll do these breakout sessions that you can pick which one you want to go to, and those are usually geared towards a specific subject matter within the industry, and then we end up with another keynote in the end. So that's what we ended up doing. Does that give you a brief overview, or?

Shed Geek:

does that?

Dave Miller:

give a good idea. Yeah, so, so, yeah, this year, I mean we're as excited about the lineup this year, what? What is really great is this thing has been growing, and as you grow and as you have more money to put on a better event, that's been happening. We've been bringing in some really good speakers. We're bringing in Harris III.

Dave Miller:

He's the opening keynote and he's really good at making you open your mind. Uh, I think he calls it the wonder switch and he's actually an illusionist, so he's a magician that he does that. But he realized that when people are in this sense of wonder, that they're going what is this Like? How'd you do that? And that they start to view the world differently and they start to expand their mind and try to figure things out. So he's become a keynote speaker on the subject of this sense of wonder, and so that's the opening keynote is like open this thing up and say, hey, open your minds to all of these people around you. You've got good people. Learn today, be here to learn. And so, yeah, we're super excited to have Harris the third being our opening keynote, and then he'll do our edutainment at lunch too. That's when I said go ahead, pull some rabbits out of some hats and you know all of that good fun stuff.

Sambassador:

So, he can make Shannon disappear for me.

Dave Miller:

Possibly. See if you can slide him in a pony and make that happen for me.

Dave Miller:

We can probably still hear him, oh no that won't do us any good so yeah, then then we one of the things and this is when you were talking the other night about you know, you were talking to the shed haulers and I'm like, hey, yeah, the one we're hitting this year is we have one subject that is dedicated to the whole shed hauler subject, and I don't know if it's going to happen or not yet, but the committee has the title, one of the title, and then tanner wanted to change the tanner's going to talk tanner, livey and um, so I don't know if I'll get, I don't think I'll get my title, but I want the title to be why Too Fitty Ain't Enough?

Sambassador:

Hey, sounds good to me. I'm all about that.

Dave Miller:

Yeah, and it is. He'll be talking to the shed manufacturers and those people, but the big thing that he's going to be driving home is being the cheapest guy isn't the best result for anyone for the hauler or for the manufacturer. If we want a high level of service when we have people out picking up a shed because we still care for the people when we're out picking up the shed all of the other things apply. We still care for the people. When we're out picking up the shed All of the other things apply good service, quality of work, don't tear the fence down, you know all of those things. Then pay the people well and pay them reasonably, but then you can also expect good and quality service also. So, I think that there has to be communication both ways that say, hey, we'll, we'll pay for a good service, but we also expect a good service.

Sambassador:

Did you? Did you like cheat and look at my notes and see what I was talking about last week on the hauler page and what I'm talking about today? No, I didn't you just, I mean, absolutely nailed it.

Shed Geek:

Yep, I agree. One thing I try to talk about the NBSRA every chance we get and I owe a deep apology to the NBSRA because we actually had a chance to interview Ed Wynn at the last one and there was just so much background noise we couldn't even hear him. And it's terrible because that would have been an excellent interview and it was an excellent. Sam, we even talked about dogs and whenever that whole fiasco was going on, so it was actually made for a really good conversation. That never got to air and my apologies to Ed and the NBSRA. We just didn't think it through. When there was a crowd of people around us and it was muffled, there was so much noise it would have made for a terrible episode.

Shed Geek:

But why is it like? I like to ask the questions, Dave, like why is it important for not just rent owned companies to come, but also even salespeople that work for organizations, whether they work for a consignment or they retail, and they're wholesale buyers or even haulers? The NBSRA event is not just an event as I understand it correct me if I'm wrong for just rent-owned people. It's an event that is open to anyone to come to in the industry to help learn more, educate their self more and do better. To be able to explain rent to own is that, is that an accurate description?

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What was that?

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you heard that too, Sam. What was, what was that? Oh, that wasn't supposed to come out. What?

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is it?

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Sam, I was given some confidential information. Not sure what I'm supposed to do now that you heard that, though.

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Well, what was it, Sam? You gotta tell us.

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Well, you can't tell anyone. But the Cardinal engineers, the mule guys, have been at it again. They heard all the hollers bellyaching about a bigger machine. You know how they're always fussing about it ain't big enough. Well, guess what? They've got a bigger mule, a lot bigger. How about a mule with a 70 horsepower diesel engine that's built to move 40,000 pound sheds? You ought to see it. It's a real beast of a mule and it's up to any shed challenge. No way, sam, a diesel donkey like you had. That's fantastic.

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Yeah a diesel donkey like I used to have. Hey, there's a lot more stuff coming, but I've said enough. I'll get in trouble soon if I say any more. Just come to the Shed Show and see it all at booth 217.

Dave Miller:

yeah, and absolutely so. It is, you know, geared towards, and when it gets down to the little specifics of things, sure, it is geared towards that. But all good business principles are just that they're good business principles and you can apply them to your own business, whatever that is, but you're probably in the shed industry anyway. So is it good to know more about the rent tone industry while you're doing it? Yeah, absolutely, that's, that's part of it. You have to understand other aspects of the industry. So yeah, it is.

Dave Miller:

And there again, like we're bringing in Harris the third. Is he talking about rent to own? No, but he's going to give people good, tangible things to take home, even though he's an illusionist. He likes to make us believe that things aren't tangible and they just disappear. But you get it. And actually, in the end, we have Mark Tillman coming, Colonel Mark Tillman.

Dave Miller:

Colonel Mark Tillman was the Air Force One pilot and he was the pilot on 9-11 that flew Bush up from Florida to I don't even know wherever. And he's drilling down and talking about having systems and processes that sometimes you forget they're even there. But you need to have protocol, you need to have systems and processes in place, because crap hits the fan. You need to something, you need that fallback. And he, when I was chatting with him a little bit, he's like and he told the story. Yeah, I'll tell the story about I don't know exactly what it was like when we were trying to get out of Baghdad and you know, these people all had to go rely on their protocols that they'd kind of forgotten about, but they were there. So, are those good principles for rent-to-own companies? Yes. Are they good principles for business people? Yes, all of those things.

Sambassador:

Cool. What are you most excited about?

Dave Miller:

What am I most excited about? What am I most excited about? Um, so I'm on the event uh, I'm the I guess we call the event champion this year. So, kind of was a lot of it was my vision and so forth. So I'm excited to get it done well and not have a you know, and be past all the butterflies. So, I'm kind of carrying the weight of um those things. But, um, what am I most excited? Harris, the third. I'm super excited about him and that's probably that's probably the highlight for me is like I just think he's gonna be great. I just listened to his book and called The Wonder Switch and I'm like, yeah, this is good, solid stuff. Um, that's probably the most.

Dave Miller:

But gentleman, we got other um, other guys. You know there'll be accounting guys there, always the boring accounting guys. We have a guy on business valuations. We have I do have a fitness guy this year. So, and this is probably part of my journey I may or may not have lost about 25 pounds in the last half year and I hired a fitness coach and this guy's talking about and talking especially a lot of these office guys. Do we think about our fitness or are we sitting behind a desk and how to just practically do it. It's not that hard Get more steps in, do a little bit more. So, we got that. We have Ed Wynn, of course, Ed Wynn's always there, Always.

Sambassador:

That's always one of my favorites. I mean I can listen to that dude for a long time. It's fun to listen to him so.

Dave Miller:

I did throw on the messages there. The link to it says Wild Apricot, NBSRA, wild Apricot. We're still selling tickets. I think we closed registration here in a week or two because this is just around the corner.

Sambassador:

Yep, coming right up two, three weeks, three weeks two and a half, 24th.

Dave Miller:

Yeah, so sign up, get your tickets. Uh, there's still tickets available and that's what I'm here. So, I pitching, but I'm not pitching for myself. That's the fun part, it's bigger than me, that's fun. Buy 10 tickets.

Sambassador:

So, for the ones that aren't on the hauler page and got that link, how do we find you?

Dave Miller:

Okay, yeah, good question. So nbsra. com, and that would be the landing page to the NBSRA, and then after that I think there's a button that says attend conference and then from there there's a register page. But NBSRA. com I better just make sure this all works to the page Top right-hand corner attend conference and then there's a register now button and that goes to the exact same link that I send on the comments.

Sambassador:

Okay, September 24th, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Anything else you want to throw in there, be there.

Dave Miller:

I agree, be there um, and then yeah, I love the fact.

Sambassador:

I love the fact we can double up. You roll from that straight into the expo. Um, you just make a week out of it. Come hang out, man. There's so many good people around there, good food, uh, it's man, the whole it's. It's always a blast.

Dave Miller:

It's just good to be there it absolutely is, and here's if you signed up after today, make sure you thank Shannon and Sam for putting this on there and then tell me too. I want to know if this was all worth it, say, hey, I bought a ticket.

Shed Geek:

We'll throw a link on there. This episode will go out next Friday so I don't know if tickets will still be for sale, but we'll link the NBSRA website and try to link where people can just go and sign up. So maybe you'll get a few last minute rushes, but I can't encourage people to go enough. Like education is something that's just sort of near and dear to my heart. It wasn't originally whenever I was a youth, but it has become and as the industry grows up and matures and becomes a bigger industry, like that educational section is really needed, especially whenever you visit dealers and they have questions, basic questions about NBSRA. Sometimes we language barrier, just a lot of different things that I feel like they bring a solution to the problem.

Shed Geek:

And I would even think for anybody looking to get into rent to own I mean, don't get me wrong it looking to get into rent to own, I mean, don't get me wrong. It's incredibly, or seems to be, the word is saturated, but the industry is still growing and there seems to be room for more and for those who want to be vertically integrated. Maybe they have questions to the pros like yourself, to ask hey, Dave, what do I need to do? How do I get started? Who knows how it's going to change and things over the years, but I endorse it. I think it's awesome. I think that we should all be trying to further education. So, dealer, hauler, it doesn't matter what your title is, be there and you'll. You'll enjoy it. It's, it's definitely worth it. I've never regretted going myself, so Love to see you guys there.

Sambassador:

All right, cool deal. You can hop off if you want to or you can stay on, I don't care. I want to move on to some of the other dates. You going to stay or you going to leave, I'm going to let you carry on. Unless you want me here, you're good to go. Thanks a bunch. Thank you so much, good to see you, Dave.

Dave Miller:

Thank you, We'll see you.

Sambassador:

I got to figure out where my Zoom meeting went there. I mean, my Facebook Live went there. I lost my. Never mind, I'm back again, all right. For some reason the thing had paused for a minute. So, yeah, I want to just run through the rest of this. You know, this is the time of year when it just gets crazy busy, like we aren't busy enough already. You guys in Facebook land, I lost a bunch of them because I wasn't paying attention to them. Well, I don't know how many is on here. It says I got a bunch watching, but currently I only have two eyeballs showing, so I don't know where they went. But it's this time of year, just man, it gets crazy. Next weekend we have the Midwest barbecue coming up in Indiana. We're going to that, turn around and come home, be home for a little bit. Then it's back all the way up to Michigan and that turns into. I mean, it's pretty much a whole week ordeal to uh, to get that in. You're going to Indiana, right?

Shed Geek:

going to Indiana and then I did a little impromptu trip to London and Knoxville and Crossville, Tennessee, to get a couple episodes in before the expo. Uh, I saw that and then, yeah, leaving basically Sunday, we're, we're taking the rv up so we're gonna get a, an rv spot and be there Monday through Friday because, like you said, it's a whole week and uh, we can just set up shop and try to do work from there and then also go and attend the NBSRA, go to our booth, uh, attend the expo. So I'm, I'm looking forward to it. It's like, um, you know, I've said for years, I feel like it's like a family reunion, you know yes, it is and it actually is good work for several

Sambassador:

people it actually is yeah literally that's a good way to say it yeah, um, oh, I mean, the food's crazy. Like we're going back to the Rock Steakhouse place where you cook your own steak on a rock. You know, and I wouldn't be surprised if we'll actually like. I think that place held like 68 to 75 people and we had like 33 people in there and I wouldn't be surprised at all this year if we max the thing out. You know, so it is. There's always good food, good fellowship, a lot of fun and it is family. It's like you get to just go hang out with all you people.

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Shed Geek:

You know what else too it is. That's really, really underrated, in my opinion, Sam, this little word called networking. It's not net not working, it's networking. And when you cast your net and you go out and you set with people, whether it's a shed expo, NBSRA event, a shed hauler barbecue event, like Cliff Knepp is putting on there in southern Indiana, it won't be long. We'll be down in Georgia for the South. Oh yeah, you know well, Texas is coming up too, I think.

Sambassador:

Yeah, I got those on my list too. After we get done with the Expo, we get a couple weeks and then we're in Texas. I think that's October 19th, whatever the week. If it's not the 19th, it's the dayth, it's the date. It's the Saturday of that week, but I'm pretty sure it's the 19th. And then I had put on facebook the southeast barbecue in Montezuma, Georgia. I had the date wrong. On that. It's November the 2nd, not the 4th.

Sambassador:

Um, so there there's so many opportunities and this goes back to we're a little bit, you know, 2020, 21, 22. Everybody's so crazy busy and stuff, and now we're a little bit back, more to normal, but it's even more. I get calls all the time from guys that are they're just like you can tell they're in the trenches, yeah, and they just want to talk to somebody. And I'm like you guys, you got to come to these events. It's crazy not to. We have such a huge batch of new people that have come on to the hauler page that are they're legit haulers and they're hauling, but they don't know anybody and they don't. You know. They look at these events. They look at other Facebook. You know I got a couple other groups on Facebook that they do events and people show up and it's whatever it is, what it is. But it's hard for you know, if you haven't been on the hauler page for more than the last two years, you just don't understand the camaraderie that's there, the family, and, like you said, it's like going to a reunion.

Sambassador:

In my opinion, it's more important now than ever to show up at events, and I know people are like well, I mean, does he get paid to get people to events? No, I don't get paid anything. That's just where you got to be and where you got to go. People are like does he get paid to get people to events? No, I don't get paid anything. That's just where you got to be and where you got to go. Birds of a feather flock together. You want to be around successful people. That's where they're at.

Shed Geek:

I was taught a long time ago and I know there's a book that addresses this and I just can't get it to come to mind for whatever reason right now maybe because it's Friday and I've got my mind on the weekend. But you know, there's uh principles that talk about it, doesn't matter your job, uh. So, like you know, if the if the best thing you got is going for you is a mop bucket and a mop, and uh, and you're ashamed of, or maybe not even ashamed, but you just don't feel like you're wildly successful because your title's custodian. It's the way you go about your work. If you do it, you know, with the mindset of I'm going to walk in and I'm going to be the best custodian I could possibly be. Whatever your job is, your job's to mow the grass around here. Okay, well, I'm going to mow it and people are going to comment on how nice the grass looks, because that's how I'm going to take my job.

Shed Geek:

I'm segueing here into something with this, sam, if you are in an industry and you're not trying to gather as much information and education as you can to be better for yourself, but also to better the industry that you're in, Because we're only as strong as our weakest chain, right, if you're not doing something to better the industry that you're in so like? It always amazes me whenever I get around somebody and say you know, you read Shed Business Journal? And they're like no, and I'm like why not? Why not? This is the industry you picked to be in. Why wouldn't you want to know as much about it as you can? Because it gives you opportunity to do more the more you learn.

Shed Geek:

Like why don't you subscribe to a newsletter? Why don't you subscribe to an email blast? Listen to the podcast, a little self-promotion. But whatever it is that's happening in the industry, get on the Facebook pages, get in the private groups. We just happen to be in the shed industry. You can take all of us and put us over in the bicycle industry. Oh yeah, same thing. Same thing. It's the guys and gals who are absolutely taking it serious and wanting to do their best and learn the most and work together to together, you know, to better our industry. So you're not going to find success because you say, oh well, this silly shit industry, it's, it's saturated, and there's, there's this, that and another. Listen you go. You're going to go find the same problems in the car industry.

Sambassador:

Oh yeah.

Shed Geek:

Or wherever it is that you go Wherever it is, yeah. It's who you are and how you, how you network and change things. And, Sam, you are one of the best you and Susan both at doing that and that's why I'm excited to have you guys on the podcast. Yep.

Sambassador:

That's, that's it. It's like, that's, that's, uh, it's like, uh, you know it's, it's not just something. Uh, how do you say this? It's not something that I even just enjoy doing, it's a calling, like it. It's just, it just becomes part of who you are and, and you know, having Dave on like that's that just ties it all full circle together for me.

Sambassador:

And then he brings up the fact that you know they're, he wants to talk, he's talking about service and we're in the service industry. Shed's just happens to be what we're doing, but it's the service industry. And you know, after Josh called me the other day and was talking to me about you know why, why do we not talk more about the service side and all the things that we could offer Exceptional service, extraordinary service, over the top service you know why do we not talk about that more? And that's a huge thing to me. And he just like he just went right into that and I'm like that's exactly what I, what I wanted to get at today was to follow up.

Sambassador:

You know, you want to learn how to be really good at what you do. Come, come, hang around people who are really good at doing that's. That's the best way you can learn. I mean sure you can learn off of a Facebook page, but it's so much more when you meet those people in person. And then you start seeing them on the hauler page or on the shed sales professional, but any of the pages it's like you have a connection to those people. They're not just somebody over there in you know social media land. You actually know these people.

Shed Geek:

I was going to save some of this for my monologue with you talking about service and I may still bring it up on there whenever I do it. But you know, I've been trying to get some gravel work done here at the house looking for an excavator. We've got a local guy, a couple of them here in town. I started on June 30th text messaging and allowing for the reality that people are busy. Now it's now September 6th and I don't have anybody coming to the second week of October. But what's interesting is literally had a guy. We went back and forth for a month and he was like I've just been busy, I'm sorry. And I'm like, hey man, I want to give the local business to you, but I need to know if you're going to show up. He says I'll be right there. He gets there on Friday, says I'll get you a quote on Monday. Guess what doesn't happen on Monday I got no quote. So I messaged him the next day. He said, oh, I'll get it right over to you. I let a week go by.

Shed Geek:

Now, all of a sudden, I'm the bad guy when I say, hey man, I'm sorry, we're just going to move on. And now he wants to right the wrong. Get a recommendation from another buddy. He says got the guy, he's the one you want to talk to Call him up. Answers right away. Hey dude, I'll be there at six o'clock. Let's get this thing knocked out. Great, I stay home till six o'clock. He doesn't show up. I call him, I text him. No show won't answer his phone. I put on Facebook. I'm looking for bare minimum here. Guys, I'm looking for someone who would just answer their phone, like my expectations, as the consumer has become so low. Right, and this is a small project. I mean, I'm not made of money. This is $15,000 worth of work.

Sambassador:

Yeah, yeah. Nobody wants to do it. No one wants to.

Shed Geek:

I can't give it away and there's guys saying I can't make it. And the difference, sam, is customer service. The guy who finally decided to come out took it serious and said I just want to be realistic with you. I can't get to it to the second week of October, but I will do it, I'll make sure it's done and I'll get you a quote tonight. And he got me a quote that night. And I think about how many times we think as a a business owner well, I'm doing okay, so I don't have to cross all the T's or dot all the I's because I'm doing well, so I don't really have to take customer service to that next level right now. It's not necessary. I've got money in the bank, I'm okay. How bad is that hurting the reputation of your business? And it won't be long before you won't be.

Sambassador:

Yeah we've seen that. We've seen that before.

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Sambassador:

Kyle Summers says what's up, fellas? Oh no, he says hey, fellas. We know he doesn't say what's up fellas. Oh no, he says hey, fellas, we know he doesn't say what's up, fellas.

Sambassador:

I'm scrolling through my Facebook post here oh crap, now where'd it go? There we go, I'm back again.

Shed Geek:

Another old SmartPay connection. That's funny yeah.

Sambassador:

We got the whole SmartPay bunch. Well, we're missing Richard. Richard is probably stuck in Missouri yet somewhere.

Shed Geek:

Barn raising. I hope everybody's seen that on Facebook, oh yeah.

Sambassador:

The barn raising from Richard's bunch. That was phenomenal out there. I hate it, I couldn't be there. But I think it's actually going to work out better for Richard and for me if I come out there once everybody's gone and I can help him with some of his interior stuff or whatever. But I was going to ask Dave about you know, is Richard going to be at the NBSRA? We know he is, but I wanted to get that shout out in on there for that because, uh, Richard is one of one of my top tier guys on the rent known side that, um, um, well, I mean, his episode is still one of the highest ones out there to listen to and it's I refer people to that episode all the time when they say, you know, oh, what's the point of rent down?

Sambassador:

You know, rent to own to rip off, and, dude, we still hear this stuff. It's the last couple of weeks it's like a renewed energy against the rent known community about man, they were calling loan sharks and all the stuff gone, and I'm like, guys, come on, have you not been through this? I mean, wait, where is nobody listening anymore or what's going on?

Shed Geek:

you know, to me I I'm speaking for me here, but it just comes down to an educational side Because, like we, you know and Richard said this in his episode, so I'm going to kind of piggyback off what he said you know, if you were to go and rent a home and if you think about, like the modern day, millennials and whatever the I'm getting so old I don't even know what the generation is after the millennials.

Sambassador:

Oh, don't get me started on this right now. Yeah.

Shed Geek:

So so, whatever they are, you know they're they like renting?

Shed Geek:

They don't want to be tied into long-term. You know things. So like rent, you know works really good for them and you know here in our little town it's hard to find something for rent anymore for less than 600. And I know a lot of people are listening, are like what you can actually get something to rent for $600. Well, we still live in a fairly low income area, but but 600 to $1,200. And there's like one or two houses in our little town of 6500 people that's up for rent. The most part they're. You know they're. But here's the thing we don't. We don't criticize anyone whenever they go to rent a home and say it's best for me financially to rent this house and save up money until I want to own a home. Maybe I don't want to own a starter home, maybe I do, but what about the $20 billion self-storage industry, sam, that are going up like like clockwork?

Sambassador:

everywhere.

Shed Geek:

I like to use this all the time. Does anybody know and anybody who's ever had me come speak at their events has heard this Anybody know who the richest lady in Kentucky is? I hope she don't come after me, tamara, something or another. They own public storage. It's worth like 45 billion dollars or something ridiculous. I don't know. Know, but I mean if she sees it as worthy to be in the storage space. The difference is they're they're just doing these self-storage, and the way I try to like to explain it to people is like, hey, we sell stealth self-storage too. We're just breaking one of those units apart and bringing it right to your house yes but you're renting, you're renting it.

Shed Geek:

that it's the same thing. But people have confused renting to own a building with a traditional finance credit sale.

Shed Geek:

Oh, yeah, yeah and for the dealers and manufacturers who aren't separating that and educating the customer. They're just trying to hurry up and get the sale. That's what's allowing people to think that it's expensive because they see $5,000 for the shed, $10,000 for the total price. They don't consider that you're renting it Risk-free, no credit check, no hard pull, no debt to income. You can get rid of it next month and just turn it back in. They're not seeing it that way. They're seeing it as a traditional loan.

Sambassador:

Yeah.

Dave Miller:

Yeah.

Sambassador:

Hey, I hate to move on, but I got to move on. I got dinner coming and we can literally talk about that for an hour. I mean it's you know, we should do one of these live ones when we go golfing and it takes us five hours for a round of golf. Maybe we could actually get all the way through the whole rent to own spiel if we did it that way. Suffice it enough to say that rent to own is a great option in our current market. Um, if you don't, if you don't believe that or you disagree with me on that, you just flat out don't understand what it's there for. You need to go to the Shed Geek podcast. You need to find the Richard Miller episode. You need to listen to it. I've used the rent to own multiple times and it has saved my butt, and there was times you know Richard talks about the whole. Well, I can't even get into it like him. Go listen to it. By the way, Dave had put on here.

Sambassador:

Richard and Kyle will both be speaking, so there's another reason to go. Anytime you get to hear those guys talk. I'm going to call out. I don't know why he's saying Kyle says he's got 50 bucks. I don't know why he's getting 50 bucks, but I'm going to call him out and say I'll get that. If he's speaking he has to do a Trump impersonation. We have heard him do it so many times. It is phenomenal. So, call Summers, you're on my podcast here plugging up my line. You got to do a Trump thing Cause you do it better than anybody. You're the best man you can do it. See, because you do it better than anybody, you're the best man you can do it.

Shed Geek:

See, I can't do it, I suck at it, but you can do it. I think you sound like Kermit the Frog I'm not sure what was going on there.

Sambassador:

So, I've got one more thing I want to talk about a little bit today, since I'm on the hauler page and we're going back to these events that are coming up and I'm tying the events that are coming up and I'm tying the events that are coming up in with my current sponsors that I have for the podcast the current sponsors. By the way, if you want to sponsor my podcast, I have plenty of openings yet. We can always use more help, but the current ones I have are all people that are involved in these events. They're going to the events. They'll be there. You'll get to see them. You'll get to see all the cool new stuff they have For sure at the Expo.

Sambassador:

You want to be there. Cardinal Leasing is one of my biggest buddies. Jonathan Miller he always supports us in the Brotherhood. He always supports us in all our events, at the bashes and everything. Phenomenal, dude, you got to be there. Challenger came on board with us. Great guys, you know. We got to do an interview with them. I got to hang out with them. I even got to play around with their machine and get on the YouTube channel with them and stuff. They're going to be there. It's great you got to be there, cardinal Manufacturing off the chains. They have supported us from day one. I love those guys. Steve is a great dude. I can sit and talk to him for a long time. They have got some phenomenal stuff coming out at the Expo. We talk about one a little bit in our commercial we did for them, which, by the way, was a blast. Um, we had a total.

Shed Geek:

How, putting that commercial together, you can do fun commercials that just you know you remember why you're doing this while you're podcasting, and even even uh shows like this Sam, sometimes like just because I know you so well being able to get on here and feel like just very nonchalant, just get on here and chat, I think people enjoy that, but it reminds you of what you're doing and you're selling fun and people love to buy fun, there's no doubt. So, yeah, big sponsors and I know you got to eat. But I want to make a quick point and mention to them we usually try to, for those that don't understand, we usually try to limit those to about 10 per show, uh, or 10, you know, 10 for Sam, 10 for me, 10, 10 for Susan. And the reason for that we limit them, uh, is because we don't want to just inundate you guys with commercials while you're listening to an episode. So we do take that into consideration.

Shed Geek:

Instead of, like, taking everybody's money and just making it happen, we we want to, you know, do a show that's, that's valuable, that leaves a lot of room for the content and we don't just hammer you. But it does take those sponsors to help keep this thing going. I mean, we can't travel around and do all these things and hotel rooms and food and equipment and all that stuff without some help. So for those that want to get some love shown on their business, by all means give us a holler. We'll get you through the details of it. But we want to thrive.

Sambassador:

So, I just I think it's so cool that they don't just support us, they support the whole industry and if you come to the events, you get to meet all of them. Yeah, you know, if you ever wonder who Cardinal Leasing is, who Cardinal Manufacturing is, who the Challenger guys are, show up at the events. You'll get to meet them, you'll find out who they are. Yeah, um, and I think that's the greatest thing um, it's uh, oh, Kyle says it'll be huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway, I'm, uh, yes, I'm, I'm excited. I can't wait to see everybody at the, at all the events. Um, we'll be in Indiana, both of us will be there. So show up at Indiana, come hang out there, meet Cliff Knapp and his whole team. Joe, oh, I just had a complete brain fart.

Shed Geek:

I don't know if Howie's going to be there, howie.

Sambassador:

I don't know. Yeah, that's who I was looking for, though. Joe and Howie's going to be there. Howie, I don't know. Yeah, that's who I was looking for, though, joe and Howie To get to hang out with those guys. There's a whole bunch of guys show up for that event. That's cool. The guys that won the Mule in North Carolina they'll be there. I'll finally get to reconnect with them again. Great guys. And then the Expo. We'll all be there. Everybody will be at the expo, so make sure you come to that and hang out, and then, yeah, see you in Texas and Georgia.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, we've got a lot coming up. I'm super excited about it, appreciate you and I know you've got a weekend ahead of you and things you've got to do. Go eat and have fun, and it looks like I'm getting ready to do the same. We're going to head over to the big old city of Paducah.

Sambassador:

Oh, you're going to Paducah. I'm going about five miles down the road to a barbecue joint that on Thursday, Friday and Saturday he does smoked ribeyes and I just, man, I love if I'm not going to cook them myself. I've actually got a fire going here tonight and I said if I'm not cooking a steak myself here, I want to run down there and we're going to grab steaks. Come back, sit around the fire and chill out. I had to build fence today and it kicked my tail, so I'm glad that's over with and done, but hopefully the neighbor's dogs will stay out of my backyard now.

Shed Geek:

Hey. I appreciate all that you're doing. I love the idea of these live events on the podcast. So we'll try to get. We'll get this thing out on Friday. We'll show some love, send some stuff over to the NBSRA. I certainly hope people will will be there because if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be in any business, why not do it with zeal? And so if you're going to be in the shed world, might as well get involved in in all of it.

Sambassador:

I agree, absolutely. All right, I'll sign us off. Thanks again for listening to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Friday fun day Always gets more fun as we go along with Sam Vassar. Don't forget to look us up on. Hey, I'm going to let you do the shout out to the newsletter and Shed Geek channels and stuff you want to do on. Hey, you, I'm going to let you do the shout out to the newsletter and uh, shed, uh shed geek channels and stuff you want to do that.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, absolutely. If you guys, uh, if you don't receive the newsletter, just go to shed geek. com. You can sign up, or you can message me at info INFO@ shed N@shed geek. com Uh, just give me your name and your email, we'll get you added. And on that guys are is a whole list of, like the sponsors that Sam's talking about. So on Fridays you can go through. You can click on the shed challenger. You can find out more information there. You can click on the Cardinal mule manufacturing. You can click on Cardinal leasing to know more. You know it'd be a direct link to their website. We do, we do shout outs occasionally on Facebook and things like that, but what we're really trying to do is be a connecting point and a source of connection for many people. So always feel free to reach out at info@ shedgeek. com or just go to shedgeek. com for the, for the website. And uh, yeah, there's, there's just a ton of information out there. We've, you know we're, we're uh, growing all the time and trying to do more.

Sambassador:

So Cool deal Till next time.

Shed Geek:

See you, buddy, have a good weekend.