Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Honoring the Past and Embracing the Future
What if understanding the complexities of podcast production could reshape your perspective on accountability and creativity? Join me as I share a personal monologue on the Shed Geek Podcast. I navigate the emotional waters of parting ways with Susan, while celebrating her many contributions and emphasizing the transparency that guides our decisions. Alongside these reflections, you'll get to know the family behind the microphone and catch a sneak peek at a heartwarming project I'm considering for my granddaughter, Cecilia Rose.
Embark on a journey through the intricate world of marketing in a conservative industry with insights from my collaboration with Dylan. We unravel the art of long-term customer relationships and brand authority, exploring how even small investments in platforms like ShedHub can yield significant returns. The conversation underscores the vital role of team members like Deanna, Troy, and Aaliyah, whose dedication paves the way for exciting new ventures, including a podcast focused on carports and steel buildings.
The essence of entrepreneurship comes alive as I share my faith-driven approach to growth in the rent-to-own sector, relying on private investments over volatile bank loans. Reflecting on the origins and purpose of the podcast, I renew my commitment to this platform amidst offers to sell. Gratitude fills the air as I extend blessings to the industry, family, and even competitors, acknowledging the shared journey and the power of guidance and wisdom. As Thanksgiving nears, I offer heartfelt thanks and appreciating the opportunity to connect with you on this meaningful path.
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
Shed Geek Marketing
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. I welcome you here today to my humble abode although you guys cannot see it because we've got the background on which, hopefully, although this will remain my humble abode, hopefully we're going to have a new office pretty soon, or at least that is the plan. I can get into a little detail on that. I'll talk to you about that.
SHED GEEK:Normally, this is where I welcome a podcast guest, where we interview somebody, and we're not doing that today. We're doing a monologue today and we've been doing this for a little bit. I've been doing a monologue, I guess, at least one a year, sometimes two a year, and I'm really trying to figure out if I should increase that. I don't know. I haven't really had much feedback. So, feel free to give some feedback. Message me, email me, text me, call me, uh, get on the website, fill out a lead form and, uh, let me know your thoughts. Um, I got a little encouragement from the last time I'd done one, where somebody said hey, I just enjoyed you kind of getting on there and just riff a little bit, just uh, just chat through, sort of like, your thoughts on what you're seeing in the industry and, uh, you know, that's the cool thing about having the platform is you get the opportunity to kind of um address the listener one-on-one, so to speak, which is which has kind of been awesome, it's been kind of fun. So, uh, while I'm much more comfortable interviewing somebody, uh, it gives them a chance to talk, gives me a chance to think and be quiet and try to ask good questions that you guys would want to know the answers to um, it's probably my most vulnerable moment is actually getting on here and doing these as an individual.
SHED GEEK:Uh, so, first things first. Why are you hearing me? This is Monday. Why are you hearing me? The first reason is we take ownership of everything that we do at the podcast. It's been our brand, it's been sort of what we've built ourself on, and that is full accountability, full transparency.
SHED GEEK:The reason you're hearing me today is because we did release Susan from the Monday episode. No hard feelings, no fallout or anything like that. Susan's great. She's welcome back anytime as a host, as a co-host. Uh, she's welcome back to be on any episodes.
SHED GEEK:Uh, it's a powerful person, um, that really cares about the industry and really cares about um you can tell those that she works with and things like that.
SHED GEEK:So she's super personable and really just an overall awesome person.
SHED GEEK:And we still work together, we're still very much affiliated, but we did make the hard decision and, uh, the hard decision, we weren't uh, you know, we just weren't getting the episodes and uh and I think that's got a lot to do with like a good example of what opportunity will do for you uh, and Susan has as much as anybody in terms of opportunity and I'm super happy for her and proud of her to be able to do that. But between, between the feedback and just the, the lack of listener base or whatever it might be, and sort of our struggles we just wanted we felt like we had a due diligence to you, the audience, to make sure to put things out timely and, um, and to create content that um creates a good listener experience, and what it boils down to is we just had to make that decision. We did so. We take full accountability. So, uh, you know, um, if you don't, if you don't like it, you don't like the decision that I made.
SHED GEEK:So, moving on, that's real simple, real easy. Still love Susan, happy to still be working with her and happy to have her on any time. She's been great. We even bought back the equipment and we're even going to work on a new show host. We're going to take our time a little bit more this time and kind of vet the process and try to set you know, set clear expectations.
SHED GEEK:Just in case we didn't meet that, that we didn't set any clear expectations, um, uh, a lot of you guys probably don't. You probably figure hey, you just hop on to a podcast. It's real simple. Uh, typically, the content you guys are seeing is like four to six weeks ahead of time. Uh, we've got, I don't know, today's October 29th and I've got show content till January 1st, right now, uh, for the Wednesday show. So, like we try to stay way ahead. Uh, you know, we schedule people in to do the auditing, uh, the editing, um, and there's just a whole, whole network of people working behind the scenes that you guys probably don't see is, in fact, there's four people who work full time with just the podcast side um, me, Deanna, my wife, uh, my son, Troy, which many of you guys have met, and then actually, uh, my daughter alia is working part-time. Uh, she's, she's putting in some full-time hours sometimes, but she's working part-time and we consider it full-time because she brings a grandbaby over and so we get to spend time with her, and that's something that I haven't even addressed yet.
SHED GEEK:I should address that. What my plan is there, I'm really wanting to write a kid's book. So, I'm letting the cat out of the bag here. I've been talking about it for a year, but I really want to do something for Cece, my grandbaby, Cecilia Rose. I want to write like a little shed kids book because I felt like that would be fun and I felt, like others in the industry, especially children, they would just get it, they would love it.
SHED GEEK:You know, whether their dad's a shed hauler, selling sheds, building sheds, whatever it is, we just try to make it fun, make it something interesting that hopefully you guys would enjoy. And what a cool thing to be able to sit down with her and read a book that we're kind of writing about her, that I hope that she'll enjoy. So, cats out of the bag, we want to try to get that project done.
SHED GEEK:Guys, there is never a shortage of ideas. I promise you there's always something more to do. It's just a matter of being able to cast the vision and then also create the systems and processes and integrate that idea into a reality and bring it forth in a in a way that everybody understands it. And I say that all the time and that's one thing I didn't put on my notes I got all my little, my little notes here. You know the things I want to talk about for today, and one thing I did not talk about was creativity in the shed industry and I felt like we should address that at some point so maybe I can come back to that.
SHED GEEK:Um, new show host, you know. So, the plan is to focus on a Monday show. Hopefully we can get this launched as early as January 2025. We'll be going into season five. Technically, we didn't start this on the calendar year back whenever we started in 2021. I wanted to get this out in January. It didn't get out until March. Technically, March 2025 will be the start of our fifth year for the Shed Geek podcast.
SHED GEEK:We've got Wednesday lined out. You know, a lot of what we're doing is kind of established talking about sales and marketing, just interviewing people, getting different stories, product lines and things like that Really heavily Shed-centric, shed-focused. Sam is doing a Friday show. He's doing an excellent job. He's brought, you know, advertisers to excellent job. He's brought advertisers to the table. He's brought listeners to the table, some that I couldn't have got on my own, and he's just overall just a really good dude. And he's been taking care of Fridays, obviously with a focus on hauling, which is sort of like a niche for him. But Sam's really so much more than just even a representative of shed hauling. He is, um, you know, he, he understands the sales process. He's, he's, um, he's just a larger than life kind of guy.
SHED GEEK:We pulled up to the South uh, what was it? Southern Indiana shed hauler barbecue, cliff net uh, the one that they put on up there, and the first person I heard was Sam. The first person we saw was Sam, and he was loud, and uh, we me and my wife laughed on our walk all the way up there, and my wife said you could really just sell your silhouette and people would know who it is. Uh, like a little Bigfoot statue or something in people's yard Sam Byler statue. Um, honestly, though and I don't want to steal his thunder because I think he's doing a couple of monologues and I really don't want to steal his opportunity but I mean, just looking at his heart and what he's doing on Facebook, seeing who Sam is, you know, it's a perfect example of like we're all flawed, we're all not perfect.
SHED GEEK:He'd be the first to say that, but I mean, look at what he's doing. He's raising like 300 grand, or something like that, to help families in North Carolina and Tennessee. It just really really, truly amazing. And it'll never happen, cause I really don't play the lottery, so it'll never happen. But if I ever did win or found a ticket, I promise you, all I really want to do is hire Sam to go, do, go do these jobs, uh, you know, all over America because it's obvious that that that's a big part of his heart and a big part of his ministry and I can't say enough for him and what he does is really awesome.
SHED GEEK:Um, and that's, that's the thing. There's a lot of good people in this industry, um, and, and some of the guys that are just dropping thousands of dollars on their offering to haul them, uh, guys, giving up sheds, major discounts or free or whatever it's like, look, that goes beyond anything that a podcast could, could do, a sales industry could do, like these. These those just; those are from the heart and they're great projects and they're a great ministry and I couldn't endorse it more. Encourage you guys to get behind it. So, again, without getting into the details of it or stealing any of his opportunity to present that to you guys, I just want to say you know public thank you for him, what he's done, how he's done it and, um, you know he's been a welcome addition to the show. I think I said before his uh show still, whenever he was a guest, was the number one most listened to episode, and that that tells me that you guys want to hear from him. And now you can, by just simply going to fun Fridays every Friday, listen to Sam, Sam Byler, and you know, we hope to have him on for a long time, should it work out. We really, really appreciate him and the value that he brings to the, to the table, and the content he brings is really good and he has a crowd that just follows him everywhere and it's pretty amazing.
SHED GEEK:Uh, moving on. So obviously you guys know that we jumped into marketing. Um, you know, I even asked a couple of opinions before we jumped into it. You know some that said, um, it'll never work. People in the industry just don't understand marketing. Um, those guys are doing marketing now, by the way, and I'll tease them about it, so I don't mind to call them out publicly, but I won't.
SHED GEEK:You know, here's the thing it's not the marketing doesn't work. Yes, we are in a conservative industry. Yes, we are in a somewhat an industry that is a bit tech insufficient, in the sense that they didn't grow up with tech. A lot of us didn't. So, here's the thing, though, what we've done, and I don't mind giving my secret away because it's also a strength and it's a, it's an asset for us and that is that we took Dylan and me, specifically Dylan Street. Many of you guys have seen and know Dylan awesome guy. I really want to brag on him quite a bit, but what we did is we took a long-term customer acquisition approach to marketing.
SHED GEEK:What I mean by that is, like you know, we weren't just getting on to simply just price shop. You know like, or try to get those who are price shopping. Somebody who comes in says, oh, you could do some Google ads, how much does it cost this, that and another? You know it's like selling, selling a shed. I really wanted to take the time to have some conversation with you. If you just simply came in and said, hey, the guy down the street's got a, you know, 10 by 16, it's 5800. How much is yours? Um, and I'm gonna buy it.
SHED GEEK:Based off of that, we've taken a longer approach. It's saying sit down with us, talk with, call us. Fill out a submission form on our website, shedgeek. com. Contact me. Info@ shedgeek. com. Contact Dylan, Dylan shedgeek. com. Message one of us and let's get on a Zoom call, let's hop on a video chat for about an hour and let's let you ask all of your marketing questions in the broken language in which you understand it.
SHED GEEK:Cause, um, the biggest, the biggest problem is feeling like you're calling to ask for something, um, and you don't really understand it well enough, and the person on the other hand, just makes you feel worse for not knowing it, not understanding what SEO is in great detail, not understanding how a website is necessary in today's digital storefront, like, what are you doing with building a digital storefront? Um, you know, for those guys that can't, you know they can't offer up a website because you know, whatever reason. We understand that. We're not trying to convince you to do it. We're just trying to tell you why it works, should you choose to do it, and if so, we'd like to throw our hat in the ring at the opportunity to be able to build you a website. But then how that leads into all your tags and tracking opportunities through Google, through Meta, and to the point to where you're running ads and you know, video. There's so many more things that we can go into. You hear enough about that all the time. Now, I figure, if you have questions.
SHED GEEK:Here's something I will point out, and this is really exciting because we're starting to really see some big accounts, like huge accounts in terms of marketing in the multi, multi millions, which means you know that changes a lot of stuff for you. It changes your budget for your account, it changes your ability to invest into sponsored ads, what your ad budget might be. So, it's like this big whole conversation. So, like for some people that are like, well, we want exclusivity. We've not really went down that road because we've kind of focused on the budget being the winner. If you will, we're not going like do less work or more work for someone. We're going to do what you're getting paid for. So, anyway, without giving too much of that away, feel free to call us.
SHED GEEK:The point I'm trying to go on, like those larger accounts, is it's a lot easier to work with a manufacturer and marketing who wants to sort of franchise their digital storefront from Facebook to you know their website to ads. You know getting a better SEO value out of that. Because when you, when you have a large model, that's kind of like you know, consignment dealers of like 300 dealers and each one of those are an independent contractor going out and creating their own brand. In other words, if I were doing like consultation for the dealer, I would say maintain your own brand authority because you're a 10 99.
SHED GEEK:However, you got to remember at a consignment situation they're bringing you a hundred to $200,000 in free buildings. So, like, this is not a floor plan. So, in other words, you, you're not paying for it, you don't, you're not purchasing the inventory. So, if I was consulting the manufacturer, I would say maintain as much authority over your product as possible and there's a lot of value in that. That actually works to the dealer's benefit. If they actually, if the manufacturer's on and then they're willing to submit to that, it actually creates a lot more value for you in the digital storefront which is today's age and we could just get into a lot of that detail.
SHED GEEK:Where am I trying to go with that? Long story short? We get a lot of calls from a lot of dealers, a lot of dealers. We're really trying to work on a program because that's one of the hardest ways to help you in marketing From a budget perspective. We always encourage 4% of your total revenue and for a dealer, that can be very hard. I mean even trying to sell other products.
SHED GEEK:I'm on the board with Shed Hub and one of the things we talked about is pricing. As a good example, that $400 price point initially was you know to me is a little bit steep after being a previous dealer. But that $40 price point is its money. Uh, it's, it's right. On the money, you know, like $480 a year. If you get one sale, um, you broke. Even if you get two sales, you're already in the in the black and, trust me, the SEO value that they're providing is better than anyone I've seen in the industry. Still, so they get in front of people. It's really just showing you guys how you get in front of people and that's really something that I think they're working heavily on right now. I don't mind giving those details away, Dylan, Dylan and Wyatt, specifically CRM implementation. Wyatt is a boss on this. I mean, he is just doing a phenomenal job. As a matter of fact, we're automating the process. Whenever you reach out to us at shed geek, uh, whether you're asking about finance, rent to own marketing, um, we can automate those processes to get you answers quicker and get it to the right person quicker. So that's what automation does, ai, that's what a lot of these tools do.
SHED GEEK:You guys might be thinking, oh no, this is, you know, an unfair advantage. Listen, you can call me anytime, 618-309-3648. I get calls every day, all day. It's all I do spend time on the phone video chats, um, and things like that. So, um, you're welcome to call anytime. We're not trying to eliminate the process of real time user. You know like I'm. I'm available, Dylan's available. Why it's available? We've just figured out how to work this system to get you the information as quick as possible. So, when you go and you fill out for information, you're going to get an immediate response and you know some, it's going to prompt someone to call you like we're going to. It's increasing efficiency, it's increasing systems and processes. So, anyway, a rabbit trail.
SHED GEEK:Uh, Dylan, Dylan is what I'm referring to as a generational talent. I didn't even know he possessed this talent until you know, really, the Lord brought us together on a mutual project of trying to build a faith-based drug and alcohol center in our community, which is still something that I feel very tasked to do, and I hope that eventually I can make enough money to be able to do that. But that's how we connected. You know, he started in in the shed lot where we were selling sheds, uh, and then really blew up and this guy's just done amazing. As a matter of fact, most people have come and tried to offer him a job or hire him away, uh, and I'm super happy that, uh, I found loyalty in in in d, loyalty in Dylan, where I haven't always found that, and he's been great, him and his whole team just really amazing. You will not go wrong getting to know him more and Wyatt, and then really the whole team over there David, Nick, Nathaniel, everything that they're doing. It's just really it's.
SHED GEEK:You know, I can't wait till we can start getting video infiltrated into the industry, cause I don't think it's used near enough and I think you guys would really appreciate Nick, uh, and what he does Uh, some of you guys have seen that. You know, uh, the shed challenger. It's a good example. We built that website, did some video for them. If you're curious about their work, you know, go check that out. Um, really exciting to see those those guys come on board, cause I think competition's healthy, although we're super excited, uh as well, that Cardinals uh um sponsored.
SHED GEEK:now on the Friday episodes were, you know, been talking to Steve and those guys for years and just super excited to really see where it's all going. But anyway, I'm what maybe three or four down on my list of 20 things to talk about and I'm 20 minutes in already. Dylan and Wyatt just can't say enough. Super excellent guys, you will not go wrong.
SHED GEEK:40 plus clients at this point and we haven't lost anybody and I would encourage you, we encourage those who are using our services to promote that you do, because if somebody's looking to get information from you guys to find out, hey, you know how this goes Like, hey, we was thinking about switching over to these guys, we was thinking about using them, but we want to know your experience.
SHED GEEK:We encourage you to talk to people that we work with, because we are full, transparent. Uh, we don't want, we want you to get the real deal from them. Uh, we want them to tell you how they really feel, the things they like, the things they don't like, and we want to know those things too, because one of the worst things about the shed industry is, if there's a complaint, you know they're, they're and this is probably all industries. This is probably just people is they'll? They'll complain about it, but not to the source, you know. So, like a perfect example, a impact, great company, great company. They have given us leads in terms of like podcasts and things like that. They've just been excellent to work with. We know that they are a great company.
SHED GEEK:We've interviewed them here on the podcast. They're welcome to come back anytime. Great guys over there James Charles, you know, chris like they've just been good people. So, a good example is this you know, if we get a somebody call us and say you know, man, he impacts, stinking it up, we really want to think about switching to you guys. We would not embrace that because we know that's not true. They're a good company and our fear would be it's just a matter of time before you're unhappy with us too. So maybe you know there's some educational segments there that are missing, but typically speaking, we know that no one's going to come from that company because they're doing a bad job. You know, if they were to come over, hopefully it's because they see that we're providing some kind of service or opportunity that they don't. But we're generally pretty apprehensive on most of that, you know, because they are just such, a such a good company.
ADVERTISEMENT:Hi, I'm Dylan from the Shed Geek marketing team and I want to address a common misconception about marketing. Often, people approach us for just one service, like social media management, where we plan and schedule your monthly posts. While this is a valuable time saver, it's just one piece of your complete marketing strategy, much like a shed with its various components. Let's simplify it. Think of your social media channels and Google my Business as the foundation. Similar to the runners of a shed, they support your digital storefront, your website, which is like the floor joists and band boards. To enhance your marketing, you'll need tools like Google Analytics, facebook Pixel and Google Tags, which are like the walls. These tools help track the success of your campaigns, measuring form submissions, 3d shed creations and phone calls generated by our ads.
ADVERTISEMENT:Now let's talk about the roof, meta and Google ad campaigns. These are the top layers that complete your marketing shed. While you may inquire about one specific service, remember they all contribute to the overall structure of your marketing strategy. At Shed Geek Marketing, we're happy to work on one individual aspect, but our goal is to build a comprehensive marketing shed that will truly stand out in the digital landscape. If you're ready to talk about your marketing strategy, that will take your shed business to the next level. Just go to shedgeek. com and fill out a submission form, or contact the Shed Geek for more information.
SHED GEEK:Deanna and Troy want to say super thank you, because they're probably going to be one of them's going to be or maybe even Aaliyah is going to be editing this episode, and I don't say it enough that they are. You know, Deanna runs the show. Man. Deanna, since coming to work over here with me, has added so much value to the podcast in terms of, like, bringing her um skills to the to the table as an implementer specifically. You know, she kind of keeps us all in line over here.
SHED GEEK:She's the office manager and, uh, she puts everything on the schedule, gets everything done, um, from editing, you know, Sam's videos you know Susan's videos in the past, the future videos and uh, what we're hoping to do there which, by the way, I never did focus on that is going to be a carport steel focused podcast on Mondays, if we can get it launched by January, that's the hope is to really branch into the first cousin of the shed industry, which is the carport and the steel building side. So, like we really want to bring some heavy content focused on that area. So look forward to it. Hopefully it'll be great. I think it will be, because I know the guys who are going to be doing it and I think it's just going to be really good. Back to Deanna, Troy, Aaliyah Love you guys.
SHED GEEK:Thank you, you're not just family, you're great to work with too, and that's always scary whenever you work with your family. Um, we actually love it. As a matter of fact, when I talked about the beginning of this, we're looking at a new office. There's a uh, it's like a I don't know four or 5,000 square foot church here in metropolis that is abandoned, uh, and we're actually looking at purchasing that for the purpose of future growth and, um, putting offices in there, getting our offices out of our house, because currently we, we, uh, travel in the rv many of you guys have seen this while we're out and about or we work from home and, uh, some of our bedrooms serve as the office and we're trying to get out of that so the spare bedrooms can be turned back into maybe a room for the grandbaby or something. But we want to get. We want to get in this office because we're just seeing growth, we're seeing opportunity, we see some cool things ahead, some things we think that we might be able to do, maybe creating an actual podcast studio, which is really hard, because then I gotta ask people to come to me, uh, and we're just so willing to travel to those people. But maybe we can do a mixture of both. Uh, that's the plan. Um, oh, what else do I want to address here? Uh, shed expo, shed business journal. Uh, thank you Super big Thank you to those guys, uh, for allowing me to write in a magazine. Uh, I'm super thankful to be able to come to you guys not only on the podcast, but come to you and my thoughts that I can put down in writing. I hope you guys enjoy that. I've had good feedback so far. Really awesome to see you guys at the expo it's going to be in Knoxville next year. I can't wait Writing in the garage shed carport builder magazine as well. Gary Reichert and those guys appreciate them giving us that opportunity and, um, yeah, I look forward to seeing you guys at that show as well.
SHED GEEK:Uh, we just try to support everything in the industry, including all the shed hauler events and barbecues. We can't always make it. I feel so bad about not being able to make it to Texas. It's been several years a row now. It's the only one I haven't been to. We've been to JD Perry and Travis Parks and Melody Troutman's out in Oklahoma, cliff Knapp, you know, and Indiana oh gosh, where else I don't know? Utah, North Carolina, Georgia, the southeast Georgia, like all of them, like, we've tried to make it to all of them. Support them and when we can we give to the calls RTO, RTO and finance? Let's address those things. Yes, we jumped into RTO when the show launched four years ago.
SHED GEEK:I was in Rent to own, I was a rep and one of the reasons that I started the podcast was because I was on the road and sometimes it's hard to knock on doors and get in and sort of introduce yourself. And the one thing I realized early on is that this industry was a relationship-based industry and that's great. I'm not knocking it by any means, I think it's awesome. But Rent not knocking it by any means, I think it's awesome, um, but rent owns a highly competitive world. You know, our marketing segment is not nearly as competitive Like. We usually don't run into other marketers. Very often it's fairly rare, um. So, I felt like we're still bringing awareness in the in the marketing side.
SHED GEEK:Uh, and education rent to own. It's been around for so long and it's highly competitive. I mean, you guys know this, most people don't want to switch away and if they do switch, you know it's only for an added benefit or feature, typically. Or now you've got these dealer premiums. There's really so much you could talk about. You know, I want to continue to do more episodes on that.
SHED GEEK:You know, when we jumped in, we kind of expected to lose a few advertisers. We did Um, we didn't think we were going to, but uh, they switched up and, and I get that, I'm okay with that. Uh, I didn't really get any negative feedback. I will tell you, without uh getting in the weeds, uh, I got one negative feedback, one negative comment that said that have changed the trajectory of the podcast from being educational to more self-serving One. I want to remind you that I was doing this whenever I started. I got away from it. I had no issues with coming back to do this we all have to make a living to.
SHED GEEK:What was more interesting is that, although this company manages contracts, they called me a competitor, which I think is interesting. That they wouldn't see me as a potential client initially, as opposed to a competitor which, kind of you know, also told me things I needed to know. Um, listen, I'm just gonna be transparent. If you're, if you're a competitor in marketing, if you're a competitor in finance, if you're a competitor in rent to own I can't be any more clear on this you are welcome on the show. You are welcome on the show. You are welcome on the show. I'm tired of hearing the little rumors about you know, couldn't get on there or can't be on there.
SHED GEEK:Never true, not true. I don't care who you are, from the biggest to the smallest, you're welcome on as a matter of fact, I highly suggest it, if we compete, to come together to have conversation. That is, even if it's difficult, difficult, as long as you do it with class, as long as you do it with morality, uh, it makes for a better listener experience and it actually extends, uh, and in my opinion, the goodness of the industry, uh, to be able to come together. So, you know what about advertising? Of course, if you compete with me, fine, advertise. I can't win them all guys. I I don't know how to be more clear on it, but I don't want to let manipulation win out. Of course, if you compete with me, fine, advertise. I can't win them all guys. I don't know how to be more clear on it, but I don't want to let manipulation win out. I'm not saying that's happening, I'm just saying I'm not going to let it win out. You're welcome on the show. You can come on the show. You can discuss difficult things. I'll answer difficult questions. I don't mind.
SHED GEEK:I think that hard conversations have to happen for growth to happen. I think when you avoid conversations? Um, yeah, I'm not. You know, I'm I'm not a fan of that. I'm I'm just a fan of transparency and let's talk it out. Even if we disagree, let's disagree publicly. I'm fine with it. I'm a big boy, I can take it.
SHED GEEK:Um, some of these companies are amazing. I mean, some of these companies are bigger than we'll ever be. Like, I don't know how to be more transparent on that. Like I don't think we have a growth trajectory or desire to be that big, maybe even so. So, it's one of those things where I'm like it's for the user experience and the best user experience. So, with RTO, I love that. It's competitive. It does it times, but we tried to create a unique product by offering our dealer premium that so many of you guys are familiar with, and what we did was we figured we would just out-service everybody. We would take that same percentage and apply it toward your marketing. So, if you're looking for free marketing, you know there's a perfect way of possibly getting that by just working with us on RTO. That's a competitive advantage that we created. Um, I'm seeing some follow suit. That's fine, it's no problem.
SHED GEEK:First mover's advantage doesn't stay for long. We have to go out and be creative and come up with a new idea. It's the same as whenever people say, what if somebody starts a podcast? What if someone starts a podcast? Like, good, I hope they do well and, matter of fact, if they do better than me, then I need to improve. I like to think I know the audience. I feel like I know what you guys want, or like just listening to the feedback. But if you're happy or listening to someone else, then like I need to improve or maybe move on or whatever. It is like yeah, I just don't get the mentality of like ownership, yeah, like, or exclusivity, like I can do this. You can't do this. It's not me. I welcome any of you guys to be involved in whatever you feel led to do.
SHED GEEK:Finance Perfect example. You guys are familiar with Jay Money. I'm super happy to be partnered with Joel using the upgrade partnership we've brought on oh gosh, I don't know maybe 15 clients or so far to the finance side. So, if you're interested, more about Shed Geek Finance that's powered by J Money. Ultimately, that is a upgrade product. I really looked around and I feel like that's just the the best product currently in the industry. Um, uh, you know it was servicing tiny homes that you can't now. We had to pull that because of some disclosure, uh, issues for primary residency. But, man, if you're looking for an alternative for those customers who are, you know, 680 FICO and above, why not? Why not sign up for the program, go through the process and have a solution for customers who come in? There's a reason I went down that road is because I really feel like, with the competitiveness of RTO, people were going to kind of gravitate towards that finance sector. That's what they're hoping to see. But, as you guys know, not everybody is a finance client. There's a lot of RTO clients out there and it's just a matter of understanding the process. Well, I'm not saying we do, but we feel like we do. Okay, we're learning.
SHED GEEK:What I'm probably most surprised at and this is maybe more vulnerable than I want to be, but I'm most surprised at is the value we've been able to bring to the table from the podcast through networking. You said what do you mean? Lines of credit through banks, those who want to invest in the program? I think you guys know my story. I was on with Jonathan Owerk about three years ago and I said you know, the podcast was worth like 60 grand in total value or something like that. You know it's, it's amazing.
SHED GEEK:You know, the other day I asked for 8 million in RTO investment. I didn't get it but I asked for it because that's a place I would have never been and I still kind of am amazed at myself for like being able to just put my head down, nose to the grindstone, and go make these things happen. So it's been super exciting. So, um, yeah, we, we, we focus a lot of our rent to own on private investment and not bank loans, because you know that market is volatile. Uh, in some ways we do have a line of credit, but we really don't like to use those. Yeah, I can get into the details of it, but again, it's just full transparency, it's just it's not hiding anything, it's not.
SHED GEEK:You know, it's amazing to see the growth that we've seen in that sector not even really looking for major growth, not even really looking for major growth. So I'm really excited about where the future goes with that and being able to find new investment opportunities. And hey, holler at me if you guys are in the neighborhood, you know, and that's a conversation that you want to have. It's really odd asking people for millions of dollars, but I've somehow gotten an act for it. And anyway, moving on, uh, march 5th start a five year. I think I told you that I just wrote down here believing in yourself and and pushing forward. Um, this kind of you know almost maybe segues perfectly from the rto conversation. Whenever I I started this, I had no idea what to expect. Um, um, I also think it's fair to mention not to you know, overcast a negative tone to the, to the episode here today, but I think it's fair to mention. You know, uh and I don't want to get into the weeds on this, because there's a, it's a catch-22, there's a no situation, but the podcast was not co-founded, it was founded. Does that really mean a whole lot? No, I just don't want misinformation out there. It was founded, it was co -hosted and then I'll just leave that conversation there. There's no reason to expand on it any. But I will tell you this Um, you know it was, it was, it was a leap of faith and it was a leap of faith that I took that I really felt like was. I really felt like God was in the in the decision. Uh, not just in it, but leading the decision. I, matter of fact, I feel like the moment he tells me to get out of it, I, you know obedience is greater than sacrifice. I've I've said that many times on the show. You have to listen. Uh, right now, I feel like we've got a good trajectory another five years of doing this. Hopefully, if I can, you know, hang up my hat after 10 years of podcasting, that's pretty amazing, that's. That's awesome to get on here and have conversation that you guys would tune into and listen to. I can't say thank you enough. I don't feel like I'm deserving of that enough at all and and I probably never even addressed it and I don't want to on a large level again, it's a catch 22,. But you know how much do I love the podcast.
SHED GEEK:Um, three months in. I was offered $250,000 for it and I didn't take it. I had $7,000 in it. So just in case you guys are wondering how much I enjoy it, how much I like it and how much I wanted to do what I felt like I was supposed to be doing. I turned that down and it ended up costing me quite a bit of money, actually before I started making money. So I genuinely enjoy this. I can't say that enough.
SHED GEEK:I would love to do more podcasts, even outside of the shed industry, and I'm really praying on God to open up those doors. It's been three years now I've been praying on that and it hasn't. It hasn't materialized, but that doesn't mean it won't. So, I just want to give you an encouragement. You know there's been, there's been so much in 2024 like I feel like conversations I've had with people that are just like wrought with negativity or downtrodden, or you know, this is a terrible year in sales, so like we had to close up doors, we had to do this, we had to do that. There's just there's just so much angst, and I don't know we're at the height of political season and all that good stuff, but I just want to encourage someone today that if you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, if you are in prayer and if you are listening and you feel like you know the direction that you're supposed to go, you're not going to get all the answers in the moment. That's why it's faith, that's why you step out into faith.
SHED GEEK:I can't say enough, over and over and over, that I do not deserve this opportunity. I do not deserve it. I do not feel like, um, if you would have picked me out of a handful of people, that that I would have had the opportunity to have a platform to speak to you guys, and I'm so thankful for it. I don't want to mess it up. You know I don't want to do anything that would, um, even have the appearance, uh, you know, of evil or messing something up, or however you want to say that. You know I don't want that. I appreciate you guys. It's been great. It's been great A great four years. That's fed my soul on a level beyond what you guys know in terms of purpose and finding purpose and things like that. So I just want to encourage someone today step out in faith. If you're thinking about doing something today, it's totally worth it.
SHED GEEK:41 minutes in. Uh, gosh opportunities. Um, I can't say enough about the cool things that have happened, the job opportunities and all that. I thank every one of you guys for that. I really feel like and unless God moves me out of this, I don't I'm not going to take any, any of that. Uh, I'm just staying right where I'm at. It's awesome, thank you, but I'm going to stay in, I'm going to stay in the lane that I feel like the Lord has me Suggestions.
SHED GEEK:I want suggestions. Always suggest. Don't ever hesitate to. You know, this show is as much yours as it is mine. It speaks to the industry in which you love and which you work. What feeds your family Email, which you work? What feeds your family email text. Call, get on the website again, fill out a form and you know I welcome suggestions. You know we actually didn't have much time. I put it on Facebook and said, hey, does anybody have any suggestions for this monologue? I would love to address them. We had a podcast cancel or reschedule for later today and basically I didn't have time here. Let's get on this. I got just got back on.
SHED GEEK:So, you know, James Lynn, with you being out and about in front of a lot of people. I'm sure you get asked a lot of things. Has the nature of these questions changed much since you started and, if so, do you have any reflection on where, on where it was, to what it is, to what it to? What is a common thought to many currently, and possibly a glimpse into your magic eight ball of what you think the hot topics are in the future? Has the nature of the questions changed? You know, James, appreciate you, buddy and the blog that you wrote and just communicating with you regularly. Yeah, maybe. So initially, four years ago.
SHED GEEK:You know, I think I'm still seeing the like what are you seeing out there? What else do you guys experience? What do you see when you're on the road? Um, I'm pretty transparent with that. I, you know finance, marketing. There's a reason I got into those things, because I kind of felt like I could do look into that magic eight ball and sort of see what people needed. Um, yeah, good question. I don't. I don't. I don't think that they've really changed much. Uh, I think people are still looking for answers. I think that we need to go to a new level. I mean, I'm getting, I've gotten contacted by different services like a, like a CPA service who wants to do some exclusive, you know rights to really address the industry and sort of use the podcast to launch that. There are some lumber manufacturers that have sort of come to the table, big guys, and I'm just trying to think a lot of those things through how not only do they make me look, but how does it benefit the industry? Right, because I have to put the industry before myself. So good questions. I'll get back to you on that.
SHED GEEK:And let's see newsletter. I can't stress enough. I probably need to quit saying I can't stress enough. I feel like I say that a lot. But the newsletter if you're a industry professional, it just seems to me like if you were in cars, if you were in motorcycles, if you're into guns, like, and that's what you did for a living, you'd want to learn everything about it. The newsletter is a good place, along with the shed business journal, garage shed, carport builder. If you're looking for resources, if you're looking for advertisers, you know Sam's got. You know Versa bend on there. We got Cardinal. We got Challenger. You know I'm super excited to have a plethora of opportunity in 3D configurators, especially how they relate to marketing. You know great relationship with James Price and his team over at Shed Pro and all the different things they're doing. Idea Room gave away a thousand dollars in Shed Geek marketing at the expo. Can't say thank you enough for that.
SHED GEEK:Winners of that Jason, Stephanie, Smith, a former client of mine, uh, down in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Uh, you know my shed Matthew Black, what they have built over there, you should really take a look at the depth of that process. It's really a lot. Shed suite, obviously. You know Jason Graber is a leader and what he's done and he's just been a great person to work with and alongside uh cal. You know Tristan Klesick. You know they, they even built the pos for shed geek rental so endorsed them completely. Digital shed builder, um, and those guys have been great, new to the process and just what a great graphic and you know vision for really what they want to do. So, I mean, like there's so many good friends you know so like it's really hard to like. Uh, I've struggled with probably having so many of these guys good friends that like I can't really jump into like that exclusive bubble or haven't, haven't yet and I don't know if I ever really will from our marketing perspective because there's a lot of guys that are really doing a lot of good things and doing them well and it's exciting. So, yeah, I mentioned a lot of the advertisers. Liftify, Zach Garrett.
SHED GEEK:You guys heard the episode if you didn't go back and listen to it. Reputation management, reviews and what influence means and I'm trying to hurry this conversation up because I'm getting long-winded and 47 minutes into this, um, you know, whenever you ask for a review, you're essentially asking a customer to suggest your services, because people might tend to take the suggestion of a stranger who purchased your product or service and had a pleasant experience than if you, as the company, promote your product or service through marketing and what I guess. What I mean is, like, you know, we all possess some level of influence. It's why you tell someone who bought hey, tell all your neighbors because they're going to trust that they had a good experience. It's as that's as good a salesperson as anybody ever would be, is a satisfied customer. So I can't, you know, tell you enough. Go check out these guys. Lift a five. They're the real deal. They're doing a tremendous job. They were at the expo this year.
SHED GEEK:You will go wrong. Tell them shed geek sent you any of these guys. Tell them. Shed geek sent you over there. Hey, you know, sometimes it might make me a dollar, sometimes it might just make me a friend, you know. But tell them that we sent you. You know, like we're, we're supporting these guys because they're supporting the industry and we really try to take a close look at what they do and what they do well, and we even do some consultation that we don't even charge for, just to kind of, I don't know, get through your process and what you're trying to do. Products, the product lines like Lux Guard.
SHED GEEK:I'm doing an interview today with Solar Blaster fans. You guys remember this guy from season one, Dan Reumes. I'm saying his last name, totally wrong, but Dan Ream, ream or however he says it Look, go, check it out. Like, uh, go to Solar Blaster fans, don't just don't just look at it, don't just hear it. Go and try and figure out.
SHED GEEK:Like you know, why are we not, when we say we're building a quality shed, why are we not adding features and benefits and products to the shed that add for a better user experience ultimately, which is what we're going to talk about later on the podcast today? Um, that's just so important to me. Like the, you know the Zula system. You know my buddy Arez. You know Identigrow. If you're not plating your sheds like, why not? That is one of your best sales tools. Whenever you're not there, people see the shed, you know. Yeah, I can't say enough. Identigrow has really owned that space. Great people.
SHED GEEK:Luxguard, added features and benefits help sell sheds. It's about the consumer. It's about the end user. It's not about you or what you want to provide. I'll get away from that. I'm 49 minutes in State of the podcast. What is the state of the podcast? It Nine minutes in State of the podcast. What is the state of the podcast? It's really simple. We're going into year five in March. We're hoping to have a metal representative on the Monday episodes. I'll continue to do Wednesdays. I can't foresee that changing in the immediate future and Sam's going to continue to do Fridays.
SHED GEEK:We have talked about. You know, if that goes really well, could we put something out every day of the week and expand? Yeah, we could. I mean, the truth is we really could. For those who say well, it's too much content, I can't take it all in, we don't expect you to. We don't expect you to. We're putting out content and you take in what you want. You know I'm no Rush Limbaugh, but you know he was on five days a week, you know, adding political content to you know your, your, your for discourse and your circles and all that.
SHED GEEK:We're just doing this in a niche down industry, and that's what a podcast is. You know it's not a broadcast, it's a podcast. It's a niche market. Uh, we're really focused heavily on it. But beyond sheds, you guys know that it goes into the metal, the post frame, it goes into the carports, the furniture, gazebos, chicken coops, all these other things. So, if we can add value we don't expect you to listen to every show, we don't expect you to listen to any show we hope to provide good value and the value is good enough that you want to listen to it. And if we become just an everyday part of your process for an hour each day, great, that's awesome. If not, and you say, hey, I clicked on this one and this one's not for me, I totally get it. You know I have some favorite podcasters I listen to and I don't listen to every episode, so we totally get it. You know there's no expectations, but we may. We may expand in the future Things that I'm eyeballing and this may come back to James Lynn's question things.
SHED GEEK:I'm eyeballing, James, I'll tell you I don't. I don't even care to give this away and that's creating possibly some kind of online sales process at some point. One of the biggest things that we've experienced, even in marketing, is bringing leads to the table for unqualified sales managers or salespeople, and you know. So what we've done is just help them out. Help them out by giving them advice, suggestions, consultation. But, man, what an opportunity for somebody out there right now to understand how to work a CRM if you're getting 100 leads, 200 leads, 300 leads, a thousand leads, and you're not able to keep up with them or follow up correctly. If there was a team out there and there just may be, I think there's a few people in the works working on this currently, so I don't even know if we're first mover advantage, we may be fifth mover, I'm not sure.
SHED GEEK:But creating an online sales process for those who are like, hey, I just want to build sheds, I don't want to be drug into the world of CRMs and SEO and online sales and all that good stuff Great opportunity out there for somebody right now who can actually manage that and do it well and create the systems and processes necessary to do a good job on that. Um, state of the industry is the only other thing I had and uh, you know, if you got in during COVID you're probably disappointed right now, but this is the real world. Uh, now and uh, this is where you know. People are looking for sales and I give all the credibility to the builders for being amazing, the shed haulers for being the hardest working people in the industry. I do, and you may disagree with this, it's just my position. Nothing happens without a sale. You can build all you want and you can't haul nothing until you have a sale.
SHED GEEK:And you could probably say, well, you can't sell anything you don't have built, which I would probably disagree with, but nothing happens without the sale. So, like a heavy focus on the sales process, education, education, education. Learning more about not just product knowledge but how the sales process works, the marketing process works, combining the two, recognizing that a company that's $60 million a year has a totally different sales and marketing strategy than a company that sells $2 million a year, which probably you wear both of those hats, trying to figure out where you want to go, creating your business plan. That's unique, that's set up with some benchmarks, I mean all of these things super important.
SHED GEEK:Um, I can't say enough about putting your nose to the grindstone and just getting it done over this next year. Sales has ebbs and flows. You guys know this. There's ups and downs constantly and it will bounce back. So if you're having a bad year, you got to set your business plan up in such a way that you can hang on, hang in there until it comes back around. That's about it.
SHED GEEK:I don't really have any grand looking to my magic eight ball, as James says. I don't have any grand, uh, uh, knowledge or something to give to you guys. Um, we do talk to a lot of people, so we feel like we're. We're not just talkers and podcasters, we are listeners. We listen to what you're saying and, um, that kind of determines our future as well. We've grown in opportunity beyond what I ever expected. It seems to continue to grow and I'm thankful as long as the Lord has me on that path.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, I can't say enough other than I'm content, and I've not always been able to find a level of contentment in my heart, and this industry has really been a big part of that. So, even if the podcast falls off, if listeners quit listening, we hope that that doesn't happen. We try to focus heavily on the content. We're not flashy, you know, it's just that. We are who we are. You know, it's just we are who we are. You know we are the definition of, of being ourselves and being unique, and we all believe that we are built unique and this is just the, the approach that we decide to take. I appreciate this being a cowboy boots and blue jeans kind of industry for the most part, for those who aren't a fan of that and think it should be more dignified. I hear you, I understand, but I feel like that's who we are, what we are, and I don't necessarily see it changing quickly or anytime soon. So thank you guys for listening, thank you guys for giving me your ear, the opportunity to even come into your homes. Your radios speak to your family. Any of that the messages we've gotten, the friendships we've built has been really, really exciting.
SHED GEEK:I don't want to ramble too much longer, just appreciate you guys and hope this hour was worth your time listening. We're still a fan over here of prayer at the podcast, so if you guys don't care, I'll pray. And yeah, I just want to say thank you with a true heart of gratitude as we end this close to this fourth calendar year, almost the fourth season of the Shed Geek podcast. So, lord, thank you for this day, thank you for the opportunity, the platform.
SHED GEEK:Let me always be mindful to encourage those who would tune in to listen to me, to listen to you that you are ultimately sovereign and we have all that we have because of you and nothing because of what we've done on our own, and we're thankful for that. I ask that you would continue to guide us, give us wisdom in our words, give us wisdom in our body language, give us wisdom in the way that we speak, what we say. Let us know when to speak up and be bold and fight, and let us know when to be quiet and be meek and be mindful and peaceful. I thank you, lord, for my family, I thank you for this industry. I ask that you continue to bless those that listen and, lord, bless those that don't Bless the industry and your people as a whole.
SHED GEEK:We want to see good. We want to see increase. The industry and your people as a, as a as a whole. We want to see good. We want to see increase. We even want to see increase for our competitors. We want to see increase for our so-called enemies, lord, we know that they are ultimately your children and that you want what's best for us and what's best for them. So, we're thankful to be able to pray that prayer today.
SHED GEEK:Keep a close watch over the industry, those who are struggling financially, those who are struggling with vision, those who are struggling with understanding um, forgiveness, any of those things uh, just ask that you would be a light to their path, show them the direction, the steps they should take, help them to be sensitive to the words and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide them, lead them, direct them, and do that in all of us, lord, as we move forward throughout the day. I thank you so much for continuing to see any value in me, although I feel I continue to fail or let you down. I'm thankful that you would give me the chance to speak to so many people and just really find a heart of contentment through this whole process. So thank you and thank you, shed Industry, for all you do. I'm hoping that you have the best 2025 that you've ever had. Amen. Thank you, guys.
SHED GEEK:I'm sorry if I seemed rambly on this one, maybe kind of in my head a little bit doing a monologue. It's a lot easier whenever you interview somebody because you can be quiet and think, and I have to talk and think at the same time and I hope you saw the best in me and I certainly hope you guys continue to listen. I hope it was worth your time. Appreciate you guys always. It really means so much to be doing this.