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
The Heart of the Shed Business with Brian Cope
What if the key to success in the shed industry lies in community, commitment, and a little bit of AI magic? Join us for an engaging conversation with Brian Cope from Patriot Portable Buildings, as we uncover his fascinating journey from building sheds in Graves County, Kentucky, to becoming a leading dealer of portable buildings and carports. Brian's rich experiences with renowned companies like Dirksen and Graceland Portable Buildings offer a unique perspective on the evolution of the shed industry, enriched by personal stories and professional insights.
Discover the powerful role of community in the face of adversity, through a touching narrative of resilience following a devastating tornado. From lending a generator to leading a significant fundraising effort, we explore how acts of kindness can spark broader relief efforts and demonstrate the strength of community bonds. Alongside these stories, we discuss the importance of authenticity, passion, and teamwork in achieving success, and how work ethics shaped by agricultural roots and large families underpin the shed industry.
As we explore the future of the shed business, we touch on marketing strategies, the role of AI in shaping industry standards, and the influence of brand loyalty and customer trust. Brian sheds light on the significance of commitment in dealership and the power of reviews and referrals, alongside the contributions of key industry figures in expanding from sheds to trailers. This episode is packed with insights for anyone interested in the shed industry or entrepreneurship, and offers a heartfelt appreciation for the teamwork and support that fuel professional achievements.
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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
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Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast and looking forward to today's podcast. But I got to tell you, man, this trip has been a short trip Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, event running out, getting three of them before the, the expo. That way I've got plenty of content and things to put out.
Shed Geek:And, man, I'm so disappointed because, like, I don't know if yesterday's show is ever going to make it to light, and I've been stressing on it and, guys, after 250 of these, it's still. You know, I say it's easy to make mistakes, but like the equipment has failed me here and I got to go searching for this file and I can't find this SD card and I'm like, oh man, people are. I really felt like I was an excellent podcast and now I'm sad, like that it might not go out. But today's a new day and an old friend on the show, I'll tell you what I think you'll do best to introduce yourself. So, Brian, if you will, maybe your name, your business, just kind of a little bit about who you are, what you do, so people know what you do in the shed industry.
Brian Cope:Yeah, so my name is Brian Cope. With Patriot Portable Buildings I'm a premier dealer. I do carports, trailers, portable buildings From Mayfield, Kentucky. Grew up in Graves County, been around the shed business for many years. Started building sheds back in the early 2000s, built over at Dirksen Portable Buildings and started hauling for Graceland. Hauled for them for many years and then I had the opportunity to work and sell and haul for Premier Portable Buildings. Been with them since 2016,. I think Been had a couple of sales lots since about 2018 and pretty much here I am.
Shed Geek:I've pretty much like I said, I've built, hauled and sold buildings, you know, and sheds have been a big part of my life for at least the last 25 years I kind of feel like if you grew up in like the Mayfield area, Graves County area, it's easy to say sheds have sort of been a sure a part of my world for a long time.
Brian Cope:Yeah, so we lived for years right there in Lowe's, Kentucky, which was about two miles from the main Dirksen manufacturer. So yeah, sheds have been a part of my life. Even before I got into sheds I was all around the shed business and around the people you know. So, I'd say half the people in that area has some kind of relationship with sheds.
Shed Geek:It's even just sitting here reminiscing with you talking about your history in sheds and mine and you've been in it way longer. It's nice to hear some common names just show up in conversation and kind of revisit experiences we've had and things like that with them and some thank yous and things like that with them. And uh, some thank yous and things like that to those guys who've you know, come before us but yeah, you've, you've been in it for a long time, so, like you, you got your start building is that, is that where you started?
Brian Cope:So, yeah, that's uh. It kind of happened with uh, um, I guess you would say there was a guy there. He actually was kind of private, privately contracted out through the builders that were at Dirksen and he had a shop there and he asked me if I wanted to come in and work and help him, just out of the way. I ended up buying him out, just building certain parts for him, like the gables and different things for the builders that were over at Dirksen. And then that grew and grew and I started building for more builders and doing more things, and that was back in the early 2000s. I did that for I don't know a couple years there and then, like I said, I had the opportunity to buy some trucks, trailers and started hauling for Graceland Portable Buildings and did that up until right at 2018. 2016 to 2018, I was also doing some help for Premier and then I had the opportunity to come up here.
Shed Geek:So, I'd say, you know, 2000, 2001, until now I've been doing something in sheds yeah Well, and you came to East Tennessee here, so I guess are we technically in Knoxville addresses.
Brian Cope:Knoxville? Yeah, Not Knoxville Zip, but you know, in that area I tell everybody Knoxville, because we're about 15 minutes away from Knoxville yeah and then I've also got a place down in Athens which is close to Chattanooga. Okay, down in that area, yeah well, this works out.
Shed Geek:Perfect, man, because, like who wouldn't want to live in east tennessee?
Brian Cope:I mean Knoxville and the surrounding areas are absolutely gorgeous yeah, I've been all over the country and it's beautiful here yeah, I always said I'd never leave, uh, western Kentucky, never leave Graves County. You know, growing up, grew up on a farm. We worked in tobacco. I said I'd never leave the farm, never. But if I was going to move anywhere besides there, it would be here if you, if people want to know the split.
Shed Geek:This is what's funny. I have a buddy, who's, uh, stepdad man, you're his long lost son. I swear you guys talk, look sound alike. All that good stuff. This what's funny. I mean, you were talking about this in the beginning. If you really want to understand the difference in in uh, where, like Illinois meets Kentucky, me and Brian are about as good example as that as could possibly be. I, I've been told. When I go north, I sound southern. As good example as that as could possibly be. I, I've been told. When I go north, I sound southern. I've been told. Whenever I go south, I sound northern. Uh, I have no home, basically, you know so. So what's funny is but like I love hearing you say you worked in tobacco, because that's a.
Shed Geek:To me, that's a perfect example of like that split me and you were joking about this. It's like a whole new world entering over a perfect example of like that split Me and you were joking about this. It's like a whole new world entering over that bridge into Illinois versus Kentucky and the guys who are local understand that, but for the rest of the nation or anybody listening, they're probably like what are you talking about, man? When you cross that bridge on I-24 in Illinois, it becomes a different world. We even sound different.
Brian Cope:Like I told you the short time I worked at us food service, we had a lot of people from Illinois yeah, that worked over there and I could tell. I said, hey, I know exactly where you're from. You don't even have to introduce yourself that, hey, I'm from across the bridge there. I know exactly where you're from and it's so weird because it's 10 minutes away from each other it is and people talk different.
Shed Geek:But yeah, well, it's uh you know southern Illinois kind of you had its fair share of shed business. You know I mean the Cardinal Mule's there. You know what I mean. There's a lot of RTO presence and things like that. There's some you know some different things that have come out of there, so it's hard to know what's branched off of each other. But it's served the industry well and it's just like this little mecca of like shed people so like it well and it's just like this little mecca of like shed people so like it's. It's funny, even in your personal circle, if you will, or your churches or things like that, you run into all kinds of different people in the shed world, you got cook.
Shed Geek:I think they're in Anna yeah, I mean they've been since the early 80s or maybe before then yeah, I think their sign says 86 maybe, but man, that just the name like cook. You know, I think I've told this story before, but whenever we were selling, we were selling for summit portable buildings and, um, I don't know when it changed from like sheds to like the portable. The word portable building became sort of there's like this.
Shed Geek:You know, I'd love to correct name for it yeah, I'd love to kind of go back and like figure out who kind of started with that and what changed. But, um, cook sheds is whatever I call them, because you know like most of the time people just call them like outbuildings. Like you know all your local county, like I know where I grew up, Pulaski county they talk about, you know it's, it's an outbuilding. You know another county commissioner there and they said, well, you can have an outbuilding, but that was sort of synonymous with the name cook shed, right, you know, like whenever we sold cook, I remember we had I mean we I remember we had a guy come up to us and he was like, so what kind of sheds?
Shed Geek:You got here and I was like, oh sir, these are Summit Portable Buildings. And he said, man, I've never heard of a Summit Cook building. And I was like no, no, no, it's like you know, they got so stuck in their head that, like any out building is called a Cook shed. So, like they did a good job branding, you know, and they've been around for a long time and you know, seem to be, I know some friends that work there and they seem to be a really good company.
Brian Cope:Yeah, same way. You know, when I was growing up, if you got a Coke, if you had RC in the refrigerator or whatever, it was always, hey, go get me a Coke.
Shed Geek:Get me a Coke.
Brian Cope:And nobody put that together. A Pepsi RC is all Coke yeah.
Shed Geek:Well, Kleenex, Weed Eater, I got to go weed eat, you know it's really a trimmer. We talk about branding and things like that and maybe that'll segue into a really good conversation here about Premier. I love their colors. Oh yeah, I know a Premier building probably quicker than I know any other building, and kudos to you, who's been a big champion. I see you on the Shed Sales Professionals page. I see you on the Shed Haulers page and you are always what I would call an excellent brand ambassador for Premier. Like I'm trying to get you a pay raise here. I don't know what I can do, but like these guys are these guys you know, like you're always championing them, their quality and what they do.
Brian Cope:Yeah, well, and that was something that when I was at Graceland Portable Buildings, I always would tell people hey, I haul for everybody. When you're a hauler, you haul for all kinds of companies privately. People want you to move their sheds so you're able to see the quality of a building when you're hauling and you have whether it's the building's swaying or what the structure is. I mean, you know what buildings are made out of, and every hauler out there knows there's certain, maybe, buildings that you look at and you're like I don't really want to haul that. I've not had good experience with that.
Brian Cope:And so therefore, you know, when I first hooked up to a premier portable building, it was an 8x12 or 8x16, and I was taking down power lines. You know the building. You know I couldn't believe that an 8x16 would be that tall, because every building that I'd haulx16 would be that tall, because every building that I'd hauled previously wasn't that tall. And I started thinking, hey, you know, because I was strictly a Graceland guy, like, don't even talk to me about anything else. You know, that's my company I work for. Hey, they're my bread and butter, I love this company. And so I started looking at the construction of it.
Brian Cope:And man, even the small buildings had two-by-sixes in the floors. You got four-by-fours or two-two-by-four sandwiches, double-top plate and super tall moisture. I mean, I just, I was like oh, you became a fan.
Shed Geek:I'm a super fan. I'm reading a book right now. I think I told you this I'm reading for like the third time I've listed time of listed on audiobook. I'm not saying I'm his biggest fan, because I'm not. There's some things I agree with, things I don't, or whatever. I guess we all have that. But I'm reading a book by Grant Cardone called seller be sold and he talks about. One of the things he does talk about is being bought in, bought in on your product, no matter where you're at. You know you were bought in with you at Graceland, you were bought in your premiere, both great companies, so good, good buildings and uh. But you, but you, you are you to me, you are the brand ambassador or have become essentially for the, for the company.
Brian Cope:But now when you hauled, you hauled uh down south and a lot of different areas so I always lived in grace county area and I hauled for Graceland Portable Buildings, like I said, for you know, to say exactly I you know I'd be lying, but it was for many, many years yeah and, and you know, I worked on there all week. I'd leave on Sundays, coming back on Saturdays and probably eight years, maybe ten years, something like that.
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Shed Geek:We were there at the same time, we just didn't know each other.
Brian Cope:We crossed paths a lot of times you know I've been all over Metropolis, been all over Southern Illinois, you know, all over Paducah. I mean use it dip and dots. I was with R&L cares for a short time going in the dip and dots.
Brian Cope:So, we probably had bumped shoulders with each other I would say, and time going in the dip and die. So, we probably had bumped shoulders. Yeah, with, for sure with each other. I would say, and the shed business has fortunately brought us together and again, but yeah, and you know we was talking about earlier I guess we can kind of go to that area when we was doing the work in the tornado relief, yeah and doing the generators, and then that also got me into, you know, helping, uh, other people with generators. So, I stayed there about a week after that.
Shed Geek:Yeah, I said, I just learned that today. So, what a lot of people don't know is, like you know, I don't know if I've told this story before or not, but it's a good time to tell it, why not? Um, I had a friend who posted that she needed a uh generator for a friend who had went through tornado damage. And I got one sitting in the garage right and it's unused, and I'm like man, if I had loaned that out, I'll never get it back, like selfishly right. Well, I guess that must have ate at my conscious. Because I got up the next morning and I was like man, if that storm would have came 30 miles north, you know, like that would have wiped out our little town and it's like, well, you know, I don't need this, so if I don't get it back. So I messaged her and she's like, oh, they found one already.
Shed Geek:And then I felt even more bad and a new Byler was in Metropolis that day. He had been through Mayfield that day and he'd been, he'd been at my house. So, I messaged him, and I messaged Kyle and I was like, hey, you know, you guys want to like what do you think? Do you think we can come up with money. You know, Matthew dowdy was uh former Graceland employee that I'd worked with and he had. He was working at the uh tractor supply there in Mayfield as gm and I saw where they got like 800 the shipment of 800 generators in, and I just like messaged him. I was like why don't we try to raise some money for the shed industry? See if we can give away five or ten generators? So that was me trying to overcome right, like that was me trying to overcome my selfishness to not do one. It was like I'm gonna have to find a way to like reconcile that. So maybe if we can give five or ten of them away, I think we raised like 25 grand in 24 hours and 50 within 48 and we were able to give away 50 generators.
Shed Geek:Right, and you were helping us on that mission. You met us down there, we were going around, but then you guys took it farther. That's what's amazing. Yeah, it's like you guys took it farther. You were there for another 10 days giving away generators. Premier had pitched in and you were helping, you know, with them and I think, Sam, you know, put together a whole crew and they were building homes and rebuilding stuff and clearing brush. It's amazing how an idea of snowballs, you know, and I didn't stick around. Admittedly, like you know, hey guys, I didn't stick around for any of that. I helped for two days and I had to get back to work, but yeah how cool that you know yeah.
Brian Cope:Yeah, sure, and you know, like with us I mean it was personal with us, because you know, like I said, we'd lost three properties my grandmother's house, you know, the house I grew up in and the house my kids grew up in.
Shed Geek:So they was all gone.
Brian Cope:So, you know, and you guys come in, and then that allowed me to you know, to get in with you guys, and then somehow, I don't even remember exactly how that happened but somehow, I got put in charge with, you know, distributing all these generators.
Brian Cope:So, you know I was able to go out and talk to these people and, you know, lend a hand. So, it just, man, it worked out great, you know. And then I mean, of course, Sam being there, you know, in Metropolis, I mean, he showed up just in time right, pardon the pun, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's right, you know but uh, he showed up and all of it just worked out. It did, it did work out.
Shed Geek:It worked out good. We was able to run everything through the Shad Hauler Brotherhood because they were a nonprofit and like, really it was a God thing. It just you know it worked out. And then you know we were able to help a lot of people. Kyle even tweeted I think I told you this. He tweeted to like Chip Gaines, just on a whim, and he's like, hey man, why don't you donate to this? It's a good cause. And he actually reaches out, donates 10 grand and people are like what chip?
Shed Geek:And you know we had heard a story from our buddy, Travis Beachy, down in Waco, because he had he had done a building for chip and he was like you know, I don't know how good of friends they were, but you know, and so like Chip's, this big national celebrity, people love them, they understand what he stands for. You know he, he stands for, you know, God and moving his kingdom forward. So, like I was handing these generators out and I was like shed geek. Nobody know who shed geek is. Nobody cares.
Shed Geek:You know, I like to tell people, tell you to tell people I'm the Shed Geek. And between that, that plus a coin to get me on a bus. You know most people don't care, but they knew who chip was and like what he stood for. So, I was handing these generators out and I was like, hey, Chip Gaines bought this generator for you Cause it's like you know, I felt like that message would go farther. So, like dude, it was only two days, but it was a very impactful two days. You were there with us and you know you, you went on to do more and your company went on to see that and add value into it, and isn't that really what it's all about? Oh yeah, the community was hurting. We can put down, you know, we don't have to think about any of our differences, our competitiveness.
Brian Cope:Let's just go help you think about the influence of social media. 15 years ago, even 10 years ago, something like that happened versus now. I mean, you're able to, there's gofundme, you know all these ways to donate, all these ways to get support. I mean, it's just like you know, there's a lot of good and bad, but, man, there's, exceptionally, I'd say, the good outweighs the bad. As far as you know things like that. I mean even what we're doing right now, educational to people you know, and, like I told you, you know me and you talked for two hours and I was thinking, man, everything, okay, everything I'm telling him. That's what I wanted to say on the podcast.
Shed Geek:Yeah.
Brian Cope:But you know I don't try to come across as the guy that's been there done that Because, like I told you, there's a lot I haven't done. There's some sides of the shed business that I know nothing about. You know, I wear my work boots every day because my entire life I grew up on a tobacco farm. I've a farm I've worked in.
Brian Cope:You know over 100 acres at the back of every year. You know, I know what it's like to work. That's, that's me. I like to get out and work. So the the more you know financial and the sales side of it. Uh, I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even have predicted 10 years ago that I'd be sitting here selling sheds. I said I would always be out doing the grunt work, the rough.
Brian Cope:You know hauling sheds or throwing block, or you know driving anchors or whatever it is I'm gonna be out in the sun, you know yeah, and so, uh, and I told you, when I'm here, uh out, even on, you know, even at my lots, I'm always trying to be out, either cutting grass, setting up buildings on blocks to try to make them look better, you know, but something outside and, and like I told you is, it seems like when you're outside and you're doing stuff and people see you outside, they're more apt to stop in and talk to you because they know you're real quick to pull in. You look at two gas stations on each side. One gas station will have all the people in the world. The next gas station they never get business Accessibility, they're easy to pull. The one that gets all the business easy to pull into.
Brian Cope:That's 100% the reason I yeah people want to pull in, get gas pull out. They don't want to have to go across the bridge, turn left, you're just like me.
Shed Geek:You think just like me on that. If I'm going down the, whether I have to, if I'm going to have to turn left and go across traffic, I would typically go down to the next exit. But If it's not an interstate, if I'm on a two-lane road, I'm always going to pull off on the right side of the road, if I can help it. I'm not going to go across traffic, no matter how nice the gas station is it's a weird thing with me.
Brian Cope:And that's even more for shed haulers, especially wide load haulers, but even just your typical truck driver.
Brian Cope:We talked about Charleston, Missouri. There's a truck stop here is always packed, the one across the road. It's kind of hard to get into, it's. It's a little bit, you know, out of the way. You never see people there. I mean, I went across there for you know, for my entire life going back and forth and you always seen people at the one on the on the south side of the interstate versus the north and I think it's and it's the same way. I think it's readily available for people, it's quick, and so when I'm out there working and stuff and I'm out in front people all the time, they'll pull off the side of the road. Hey man, how much is that shed? Tell me, I get to tell them about it. You know they see me there. So, it's just that's a big thing for me. I'm not an indoors person either.
Shed Geek:Being too. Yeah, which I think is what you know. A lot of your point is like um, people know you're open, they know you're there, activity, like it feels like it breeds more activity. Yeah, you know, uh, if you're doing something, you know people just want to stop. You seem approachable, yeah, you know, maybe because you're out here, you're, you're, you're landscaping, you're, you're doing something with your buildings. Hey, you have.
Shed Geek:But you have an advantage over a lot of sales people too. Now, I don't know if you, you know, have any like shed moving equipment or anything here that you keep uh, on your lot or whatever to move your lot around, but you're able to do that if you, if you had to, like you have the knowledge of being able to, because you've built right, you've hauled, now you're selling, and I kind of feel like that gives you, in my opinion, like a bit of a competitive advantage. Sure, because, like, there's a lot of shed sales people out there that I know that I've talked to, have been like I gotta get my hauler here, I get them to move these buildings around, want this building to look a little bit better, and you're like you know, I feel like you're the kind of guy. That'd be like hey, forget that, I'm gonna get out there and do that, right, right.
Brian Cope:Yeah, and you know, when I set my displays up I just had to go get blocked. The other day and I've got a shed. That I said, man, we've got a new color, it's natural clay and it's a beautiful shed. I said I want to put that up on blocks. I'm going to put some steps on it. I want to, you know. And so the old me kicked in as far getting the blocks perfect and I'm thinking, okay, if I've got to put underpinning or I want to put lattice around this thing, that block needs to be in far enough.
Brian Cope:If a block sticks out, you know they're calling you and saying, hey, I need you to put these blocks in because you stuck them out too far, and I learned that from experience. That's not something that the average, you know rep is going to know. He's not going to know that you I mean a customer calls him complaining and says, hey, the driver put my blocks out too far. They're like, okay, you know. Just, you know, deal with it, it's not a big deal, but it is a big deal. Yeah, you know. Yeah, and uh, that's what I tell my driver. I got great drivers. So, I'm a champion of my drivers. I got two great drivers. Uh, couldn't ask for any better. And it, I mean it works out great, you know.
Shed Geek:And so, uh, they, they do it right, I see and they probably appreciate you based off your experience your prior hauling experience that you know, like you said, you can be able to come to terms with the customer on some details that maybe would be missing otherwise you can tell the customers so they'll be ready.
Brian Cope:And uh, a lot of these guys around here that work for other companies, they haul their own blocks, you know. And I tell them I say, look, I saw a lot buildings and I said we're not going to put a block on all four corners or whatnot. We're going to put blocks, you know, we're going to space them out right and we're going to do it right.
Brian Cope:We can't carry that many blocks on our truck, you know if you just need a couple blocks for maybe a 10 by 12 shed or something. That's one thing. But you know, when you're buying a big cabin, you know they supply their own blocks. We do the rest. You just have them sitting there. You know, I'll try to make it. I'll even help you. I'll help you find your blocks. I send them pictures of blocks. This is what you're going to need.
Shed Geek:This is why you're going to need it All these things.
Brian Cope:And it strictly goes back to we talked about. You know right, but there's not, yeah, and just about everybody in the shed. Business is come up the same way I did. You know, they've either built, they've hauled, they've got something involved in it right, you know, and that's our education, that's our hard knocks school that's right is. Uh is just being doing the grunt work for all them years
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Shed Geek:Well, it might not be polished and book learning, but it's an education nonetheless being able to have all the years of service and learning that Well, this area here it's more of a mountain people.
Shed Geek:Yeah.
Brian Cope:Mountain people. They appreciate seeing me come out in work boots. So, I'm like, hey, man, that's great, because I couldn't be the guy that comes out in a short tie. And there's some people that do that and that's awesome. I just can't be that guy. It's just not me. I think a lot of people here they appreciate that, that I can relate with them. I know what it's like to work. So, I tell them I say look, if you're looking for me to close this deal, if you're looking for me to come up with some kind of sales pitch or this, that and the other, there is none I said. But what I can tell you is that I have built, I have hauled and I'm going to make sure everything's right for you.
Brian Cope:You know, I know what it's like to work hard yeah I know what it's like for me to buy something at, you know, one of these big box stores, get it home and six months later it tear up. You know I said the last thing I want you to do is call me back in six months and say, hey, my building man, the floor is messing up. And I say that's why I'm with Premier. You know, I'm with Premier because I feel that we have the best product out there for the customer. I never have people call me back and say my building. I never have people call me back and say my building. I never have. I can't tell you a repair that I've put in since 2018 to come out and fix a building that a roof is leaking. Anything I can't.
Shed Geek:I love that you're such an honest brand ambassador for the company that you work with. Man, I think you have to be sold on your product before you can sell your product. I think that you have to be convinced that it is the best thing, because if you're not, you're gonna have some, you know, you're gonna have some concerns and some questions in your own you. You talked about something that, hey, we're, I work hard. Uh, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna do that. I feel like you know, maybe this isn't shed related, but man, uh, uh, how many, how many things do we do in the shed industry? That touches, uh, other stuff. And you know, we, we talk about our faith here, we talk about all kinds of different avenues and I want to go on a bit of a rabbit trail. Like, what do you think has changed? You know, like it's such an odd thing to hear anymore, like to me, you're the kind of guy that I remember like it seemed like in the 80s growing up, there was still like a pride in your taking, pride in your work, taking pride in your image of like who you are, as you know, in your family, then also in your work. That's one of the first questions that men will ask each other whenever they sit together.
Shed Geek:If any conversation takes place for any period of time, it doesn't take long before you start asking what do you do? Because we're, we're almost judging, whether we admit it or not, we're almost judging, yeah, that person on, like what they do, right, you know, like, you know you. Oh, you sat at a computer all day like nerd, you know what I mean. Then, like, hey, I'm a bit of a nerd, so I get it. I'm, I'm literally a geek, right, but it's kind of like, you know, there's, like you said, grunt work. I mean, I remember being in the military. You know like the non-commission always made fun of the commission and you know the commission was like we don't matter because we're getting the big bucks and right you know. But like, what's changed, Brian? Like in society, that like that's, that's just not there. It seems to be missing, because it reminds me of like my dad and it reminds me of like his friends. It's like there's a certain pride in our work yeah, I think that.
Brian Cope:Uh, I mean from you know, it seems like anybody that's maybe 1990 and earlier they get called boomers or they get called that generation or those people, and so I don't want to come across as a boomer and say hey, these kids, these days, these kids, this.
Brian Cope:I do think there's a lot of stuff that folks have to do, especially kids coming up and the generation that this past 20 years has to deal with, and that is strictly social media, the Internet. You look on a lot of things and there's a lot of people you know well. You shouldn't work for this unless you get paid this. You shouldn't do this. It's always, you know, I shouldn't do this unless it's more of an entitled or an entitlement mentality that seems that there wasn't back then. It was hey, I'm willing to do anything there is, or maybe just do what I'm told you know I worked in tobacco.
Brian Cope:Um, I think I made, I think it was four or six dollars an hour. You know, working in I mean work day and night four to six dollars an hour, uh, we, we run a hay crew and maybe $0.05 a bale is what we made, $0.06 a bale, and you know it was tobacco and hay every summer. But I was an active kid, had a lot of energy, always looking to work to make money. We didn't have money, that was it.
Shed Geek:We did not have money, you had to go make it.
Brian Cope:I was considered spoiled back then, you know. Yeah, you had to go make it. I was considered spoiled back then, you know, because I got a new pair of tennis shoes at my birthday, which is in June and Christmas. So my mother made sure I had, you know, shoes and that was it. I mean, if I wore dress clothes I wore the same shoes, you know. I mean, I had high-top tennis shoes you know, like Reeboks back then oh, yeah, yeah and.
Brian Cope:I don't care what. I wore them shoes Right, and you know, and I remember my grandmother and granddaddy like you're spoiled, you're spoiled, you know, but you know we just didn't have a whole lot, so we worked for a lot, yeah, but you know, those were the great. Like it never was a burden for me to hold a whole 10-acre field of tobacco or whatever. We loved doing it. We were very active, we worked hard and it's just something that I think people nowadays they're not as outdoors-minded Maybe not, as I mean, I was in an agricultural area so everybody worked.
Brian Cope:My friends worked. You know, if we wanted this phone and I say phone, not cell phone, I'm talking. Well, we want a phone for our room. We worked for it. You know, back then we had what we called jam boxes. You know the big radios.
Shed Geek:Oh yeah.
Brian Cope:We worked for it. You know, it was no exception. Hey mom, I want a radio. Can you go get it for me? You know, well, you know, put that on your Christmas list and we'll see if we can order it from the catalog.
Shed Geek:You know you remember free phone calls after nine or weekends. Do you remember any of that? Like I remember that was a big thing for us whenever we were like, hey, we can't wait and talk to our you know, know certain people, because even within our area code it was considered long-distance callings but after 9 o'clock it was free. Like I remember there was times that we would be like I have to wait until after 9 o'clock to be able to talk because it's free, it's just little stuff like that is the same way.
Shed Geek:You know, I don't know if I've ever disclosed this on the podcast or anything, but like you know my parents, I felt like even know what that generation, you know, dealt with even more. My dad is one of 16, my mom's one of nine. Oh yeah, you know, like she's the only girl out of nine you know what I mean.
Shed Geek:Like, so, like she's, she's tough, you know what I mean. Like she had to take on eight brothers and she was like next to the youngest. So uh, it's they. They definitely neither one of them graduated high school. There was not. Like I always was amazed when people talk about college, you know what I mean, and that kind of lifestyle. I was like I don't even know what that means. We, we just didn't hear that talk right growing up. But we sell a product I don't know if you call it an agricultural product, but we sell an outdoor product, we sell storage, we sell something that goes in your backyard, or maybe you sell carports or whatever, I don't really know. But uh, you know, we like that's. It helps to kind of have some of that mindset to be able to under understand your customer and relate to them a little bit, I think.
Brian Cope:I learned real quick that I think everything's inside of a person. And when I say that there was a kid when I was in Kentucky there that went to my church and he was very smart, he did not strike me. As a matter of fact, when I would be driving a truck in the morning, when I worked for R&L Carriers, him and his dad would pass me going to Calvert City and they worked at a plant there. He was always asleep. They would pass me going to calvert city and they worked at a plant there. He was always asleep. He would pass. They passed me almost every morning. He was sound asleep. So, when he came to me and wanted a job building, I was like I'm gonna help him out, you know, but it's probably not gonna work out yeah listen you know, he was a heavy set guy, he was a book smart guy.
Brian Cope:he never struck me as the kind of guy that would be a hard worker. But you know, his parents raised him right and they raised him to hey, if you get a job for somebody, if they hire you, you don't own that company. You work for him. So don't go in and start telling him all these things that you need him to do. You go in and do what you say.
Brian Cope:And I think that's the difference now and then, not with everybody, but he came in and I'm telling you that guy, out of eight workers, he outworked everyone. I would sit back sometime, I would sneak over there and just watch him. Yeah, and he would work by himself late at night because we worked all night over there. You know, when I was at Dirksen we worked all night long because a lot of times we had jobs during the day, yeah, so we was just making extra money and he was busy as a bee and he did it right and he worked hard. And that put me, uh, in a point, or it made me realize then that you cannot look at somebody and profile them until whether they're going to work hard or not. You know, a lot of times if you shake someone's hand, you know I would always judge. If they didn't have rough hands, yeah, I say, hey, you know, that's a city boy, that's an office boy or whatnot this, that and the other.
Brian Cope:But that wasn't the case with him. He didn't have rough hands, but he did after he was done working for us, and I was really proud of him and that changed a whole lot. I realized that it's just in a person's heart whether how hard they work or not.
Shed Geek:I don't think you're just building sheds. Whenever you're doing that hard, they work or not. I don't think you're just building sheds.
Brian Cope:Whenever you're doing that, I think you're building character. Yeah, as well too, you know during the process.
Shed Geek:So uh, you got somebody.
Brian Cope:Oh, that's my, yeah, that's my daughter there, she, we gotta. We gotta pick the uh, the granddaughter up today so yeah, so later on today, so you gotta have a pass. So yeah, she's there yeah, I got you.
Shed Geek:Um, well, tell me about, tell me about premiere a little bit. One thing that is uh kind of noticeable for me immediately is that premier's kind of taking the lead on, in my opinion, getting into not just, you know, shed sales, which is excellent, but they're not transitioning. I don't think you can. Maybe you know, if you're, if you're being a brand advocate for them, maybe you can speak for them here um, but trailers, oh yeah, dude, what is the deal with trailers? Because I see them like everywhere now.
Brian Cope:Oh yeah, big time, yeah, yeah. So yeah, premier Trailers is you know? I'd say it started really coming on four years ago. Maybe Forgive me if I can't remember exactly.
Shed Geek:You know, our age.
Brian Cope:Two months is what a year used to be.
Shed Geek:So it may have been longer than that. I don't know.
Brian Cope:Kyle McCord. He's been kind of the mastermind in all that and I'm telling you he's taken the trailer business with Premier and Tyson and Sam and all them guys just all work together. But it seemed like Kyle he's the more spokesperson for it, kind of the, I would say and again forgive me if I'm wrong has become the mastermind behind getting all that together and stuff. But man, what they've done with the trailers is if you go to Fulton and you go to their location, their facility, it's pretty amazing and no way transitioning from sheds to trailers but to give somebody an opportunity which never before and you're talking about the difference between now and then nobody would have ever RTO'd a trailer. Right, and I would say that people in the beginning was like that's crazy. People tell me, how in the world do you RTL a trailer? You know I mean somebody to come in here and they leave with a trailer.
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Brian Cope:And, as you and me both know, with sheds it's hard to get somebody to come and take a shed and haul it away, you know, without finding out.
Brian Cope:That's a little bit bigger thing With a trailer. You know it's a sticky situation, so you've got to really be smart, you've got to run your business right or you're going to have thousands and thousands and thousands of trailers out there. You have no idea where they are. Yeah, and so to be able to do that is allowing people you know to come in. They got to haul something to get a trailer right then, and that's what we've done. We've made it accessible for anybody to come in and just like portable buildings for anybody. You know, we got our 12x40s, our 250 down. Not the first month's rent up, the 250 down today, your first month's due 30 days later.
Shed Geek:A lot of people said you can't do that.
Brian Cope:There's no way you could do that. We do it and it works. And it's worked for me since I've been here and that's what I get excited about. And a lot of people are like man know that it's killing us or it would kill us to do that, but it don't with us. And same way with trailers. We make them affordable for people and these are good trailers. I could take you out and show you these trailers yeah, you know they're good built.
Brian Cope:They're not cheap trailers that they're putting out. They're building high and that's premier. That is our brand. I tell everybody that's my brand. Okay, everybody's got to a brand. You have to stand out in some way. We don't do fancy. We don't do shutters. You know the flower boxes. We don't do the fancy railings. We build strong buildings, we build strong trailers and that's our brand.
Shed Geek:And.
Brian Cope:I put that out to everybody and I can show you. I tell people, I say I'm going to show you and I told you, I'm going to show you and I told you, I'm not in the business to run other companies down. I never, when a customer comes in, say, so-and-so does this, so-and-so does this, I show them what we got and I give them a checklist and when they leave they can compare and I'm confident that 80% will be back.
Brian Cope:And so same way with trailers, same way with buildings they're high quality, easy to access or easy, accessible or affordable and uh I love it yeah yeah, and, and you know, you can tell I'm passionate about it, because these people come in here and they're doubtful when they come you have to be.
Shed Geek:Yeah, they're doubtful, you know, if you're, if you're, if you're showing doubt in this and this. I was talking about this yesterday and you know I'm so sad if this podcast never comes to air and we have to redo it. Like Lord help me. I hope we can find this SD card. I've been stressed about it for 24 hours now. Uh and also because it was such a, just such a good podcast.
Shed Geek:But one thing he mentioned on it was like he remembers whenever RTL came even to the shed world and he was like man, got laughed at, made fun of almost pretty much. You know that, like, what people are going to be able to take these buildings and just pay for them on payments? They're not gonna have to pay for them outright. So, like someone has to be a visionary, someone has to be a creator, someone has to be the one to go out and, like you know, first movers advantage, take the chance, you know, make it happen, and you know, and then what so much of the shed industry is good at is like following suit, right, you know.
Brian Cope:Exactly yeah.
Shed Geek:You know we're. I guess are we a copycat industry, or is it just that way?
Brian Cope:everywhere, I don't know. Even more so with Facebook and social media. Like I said, I got Facebook in 2018, but it was just strictly to sell. It was more 2020, 2019, 2020 that I kind of really started getting into different stuff, trying to really market and stuff. And I remember the first time when I posted an ad and man, like 30 or 40 people commented on it.
Shed Geek:I called my rep. I said man, can you?
Brian Cope:believe that, like 20, they tell me they're interested in my style.
Shed Geek:I knew nothing, you know oh yeah, I knew newspaper ads, yeah you know, in west Kentucky we have vci yeah, oh, I remember vci classified, yeah, I was vci fan, you know is that still around, dude? I?
Brian Cope:used to get on that all the time I think so, if I needed to find my every side by side four-wheeler I bought was off, that's great dude, I like I have not heard that in 10 years just the fact that you mentioned that right now is a pleasant memory for me, because I was
Brian Cope:on that site all the time, yeah, and I download. There was an app at uh, I think it's changed now, but I cannot think what it was but I would advertise on that app. I'd get 100 promises and stuff. Nobody ever show up, you know, oh, it's so disappointing, you know. I mean, I had all these names. I was excited man for a salesperson, for a new salesperson.
Shed Geek:Those are particularly the, the emotional part of sales that you're just not prepared for, not equipped. Equipped for, if you get into this for the first time, and sheds may be your first exposure to that. But how true is it to be like, oh my goodness, these guys said they're gonna run to the bank and they're gonna bring money back. Now I remember staying late. Oh yeah, because there was a guy that said he was running to the bank right now. Like I feel like this guy was just a perfect troll, like he must have been trolling me completely, because he's like I'm actually going to the bank, right, how late are you open? Oh man, I'll be here at 5, but I'll stick around, you know, if you need me to. And 6 o'clock comes and you're like this guy got me, didn't he? It's that emotional part of sales.
Brian Cope:And you're like, oh no, what did I do wrong? What happened I'll tell you. You know, I could tell he had a good head on his shoulders asking me about my buildings. I mean trailing me about my buildings. You know, and I'm thinking, you know this guy. He's probably going to buy, he's going to be a repeat customer, and so you know this went on for like six months, you know, stopping in asking me if I wanted to see brochures and this, that, and you know everything else. And so you know it went on, like I said, around six months. Well, I didn't see him for a long time, for about a year.
Brian Cope:One of the local companies around here, the owner of that company, actually stopped in and talked to me and he was, you know, inquiring. He said hey, man, you know I like the way you do things, like the way you set up buildings. He said you've been real impressionable. He said, uh, would, would you consider coming and working for us? And you know I told him right off the bat. You know I'm a premier guy. Like you know, I love my company. Well, just come talk to us. This, that and the other, you know. Well, I didn't go and talk to him. But they also sell swing sets and I wanted to get a couple. They got real nice swing sets.
Brian Cope:You know the gliders and all that yeah so I knew, and one of my friends worked for him. So I messaged him and I said, hey, uh, where's you know? Where do y'all sell the swing sets, do you have any? Because he owns a dealership also. I said no. He said no, we don't have, uh, any here, but you can go up to the plant. So I go up to the plant, walk inside the main plant the guy that had been coming for six months and asking me all these questions, he worked at the front desk of that company, so he'd been coming. So that was really disappointing and he just kind of like shook my hand. He's like hey, he apologized to me. He said look man, I was just sent on a mission. He said don't blame me, I was sent on a mission. But that's something and you know that happens to everybody.
Brian Cope:There's no telling how many people have come in here and have worked for other companies, just trying to get you know. And so and I will I'll go out on Sunday sometime and see what the competition is Again, not to run them down but just to see you know the points that I can magnify about my company that maybe I see that they're missing.
Shed Geek:So I know when I magnify.
Brian Cope:You know, and I make that checklist to customers. This is what we do, and when I do that, that I know they're going to go elsewhere and they're going to ask those questions and hopefully they'll be back, you know. But the reason you know you asked me earlier the reason I'm so passionate and you know I'm a spokesman for my company is because I couldn't sell. I couldn't sell, I couldn't give water away to us to a thirsty man, you know. I mean, I have not been able to sell anything my entire life. I could put a truck out there and just about have to pay somebody to take it. I come here and the buildings, the quality of these buildings, they sell themselves. All you've got to do is point it out, that's it. It's pretty easy to me.
Shed Geek:Well, you believe in it and whenever you believe in it, it's natural, it's easy, you're not having to stress or struggle to. Yeah, you know what I mean. Um, no, I I've watched you for a couple of years being a, a brand ambassador and I feel like you're the loudest voice for premiere and, like I said, I, you know I'll try to get you paid a little more. I don't know, but uh, you know you, you have done, you have done well, you have done well and uh, it was nice to met you in so many other, just small circumstances and I really think that's awesome about our little small industry. You know where so many different paths cross. Uh, in some of the smallest stuff, um, where do you think it's going, man? Where do you think like the shed industry is going? Will we see more products like trailers or like other things come to to be? Will we see larger national brands, acquisitions? I don't know what's the future hold, man.
Brian Cope:You know, in that area, you know I heard that RTO vehicles were coming along. I don't think it worked out really well. I think that's an area that somebody would really have to be. They'd have really have to be sharp to make that work. Uh, with vehicles, I've got.
Shed Geek:There's a couple of guys that's been in the rto world that I know of that have also jumped into the vehicle world and I actually know a vehicle guy who's been in it for for years 30 years or more who also sold sheds. Yeah, I mean him kind of talk somewhat regularly and he's like you know, man, I had a nice little buy here, pay here, going until the shed rto guys jumped into it and, yeah, I said kind of kind of changed up my you know everything I was doing and it seems like they've gotten out of it as quick as they've gotten into it, though yeah, yeah, and that's the thing.
Brian Cope:Uh, you know, premier has evolved. Evolved in just information that we take down and the way that we do the business. That kind of guarantees us, hey, if this don't work out with this trailer, with this shed, we're going to get that building back, we're going to get the trailer back, whatever if it don't work out. And you've got to have that safety net. And if you're going into a company and you're going to be in RTO or whatever finance or whatever you're in, you've got to have some way to recover your property.
Brian Cope:I mean that's got to happen or you're going to fail.
Brian Cope:And you know, like I said, I think we have a great system that allows trailers to, you know, be as popular with us as they are, to be as popular with us as they are. And as far as asking where it's going, and you look at AI now, I never heard of AI. I've heard of artificial intelligence, but you hear AI everywhere now. And my brother actually. He actually works for Blue House Rentals. I give a shout out, his name's Cody Escher. He works for Blue House Rentals. I'll give a shout out, his name is Cody Escher. He works for Blue House Rentals in Fulton. There.
Brian Cope:He sent me some links to a couple of websites where these people are creating music through AI and selling it to Spotify. They've got their music. They're not even people. He follows a group and they've got awesome music. They're not even people singing, not even people playing. It's all artificial. I'm a songwriter, I play, I'm like hey look, I don't have the best voice, but I'm sure I could find some kind of ai on there maybe to, you know, to sing my songs and stuff, you know. And so, uh, with that being said, where's that going to take us in the shed business, you know?
Brian Cope:yeah I mean? I mean you just don't know. I mean, Elon Musk was saying the other day like if I told you everything about AI, it would absolutely scare you. So, who knows? I never would have thought that I'd be on a Facebook podcast 10 years ago. Like I said, I didn't get Facebook until maybe five years ago. So, who knows, in 10 years from now, I'm excited about it. I hope I'm selling sheds when I'm sick. A lot of people want to retire. I hope I'm selling sheds. I love doing this. Uh, this is it's like retirement for me. When you do something that you love, it's really. They say it's not work.
Shed Geek:It's still work, but you just enjoy it you know, yeah, well, I, you know, if I, if I gave up every single thing that I do, like, the last thing I'd want to give up is is is podcasting. I mean, I enjoy this so much that I, you know, I'm even looking at, you know, hopefully if it would work out, and I have to be patient and figure out if it will. But if so, uh, even doing some podcasting, even outside of the shed industry, not cause I don't love the shed industry, but just finding the things that you're passionate about. And one thing I've been talking about doing is, like you know, a lot more localized podcast for, like our community, cause I, you know, I believe that. You know, podcasting is just that to me, it's small and it's niche. You know, broadcasting is totally different things. Like you know, I didn't, I didn't expect to be talking to people all across the States, but it's, it's kind of set a journey up for me and my family. You know, go out and get podcasting in the, in the rv, and we come back home, we edit and do all this stuff. It's, it's weird, but yeah, like ai, like I mean, if you'd have told me I was going to be doing this, so who else knows what we're going to be doing, but in our, in our, in our marketing world, we've began to see the impact of ai and what it can do and um.
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Shed Geek:One of my favorite examples, as a perfect example, guys and I hate to burst your bubble if you're listening to this and you thought I was just this smart Sometimes artificial intelligence maybe is better than like real intelligence. I don't know, but um show notes, like I do a description for every single show we'll put in there on this one, like, hey, this was you know, Brian Cope at Patriot Building sales for premiere, to go through all of these details. Uh, when we record this and we upload it into our hosting site, there's actually a transcript and we have to go through and correct that transcript. So, like you could go read the transcript if you want. We have to just be really careful about it because ai hasn't caught up to certain things yet. Like, oh, a good example is every time the word shed comes across for some reason, it will occasionally change it to something else. Use your imaginations, if you will. And we have to change that because we don't want that to be going out branded from us. We're not actually typing out the transcript of everyone. Ai is doing it, and then we go in and try to fix it because we don't want that coming across to something we said. But when we put it out there, we want it to be clean. Beyond that, the show notes. Like I will put show notes in and it'll say like here's brian, this is what he does, blah, blah, blah.
Shed Geek:I used to write those myself. I'd actually take the time right on myself and while sometimes it sounds more personal, I've noticed that we signed up for a service where ai generates those automatically and it sounds so much more poised, it sounds so much better. It just works so much nicer. It says everything I want to say because I type it out in my words and then it what I like to call it churches it up a little bit, it cleans it up, it makes it look better. It does you know what I mean. It does a better job of my, what I'm trying to portray.
Shed Geek:And I actually got a uh for those of you listening and on the call-in lines in the in the anabaptist world, the Amish communities, who, who, who call in and listen to the podcast. I actually got a call from an Amish listener friend of mine, and he said man, I don't know what you've been doing. This is about the time I changed over from writing the description myself to letting ai do it. And he said I don't know what you've been doing to the descriptions, but I always read the descriptions and I make a determination on if I want to listen to the show or watch the show based off of what you write. And your writing skills have just really improved all of a sudden because the stuff you're writing makes me want to go listen to every podcast now, where I didn't before. And I him, I said I know that that that, um, you know, Amish is sometimes synonymous in the English world with being anti, uh, uh, uh, technical.
Shed Geek:And I don't think that's the case. I think it's just, you know, they're concerned about how it has an effect on us. And I was like, oh, believe me, in the English world we're, we're concerned about those things too. But I said, actually that's ai writing it, I'm writing it in my words, but they're taking it and doing it as more justice. And he's like, oh, I didn't realize that.
Shed Geek:So it's, it's, it's full circle. It's become a really it's really cool story about what else is it going to do? I mean it's not just making ai pictures of your buildings, not just taking an AI voice and creating it for your songs, right, but I mean the sky's the limit, oh gosh. The political scene, yeah, you know, like I mean I could go probably on a big rant, oh yeah, but it's affecting our world, good and bad. And the truth is like my son's a super techie type of kid and I tell him we need people who understand it well, certainly who don't mean to use it for harm, right. So you know, I told him, I said the more you can learn about it the better, because in 10 years it's going to be a big job, a big opportunity for you.
Brian Cope:So oh, no doubt. And you know, even now, if you, if you get on social media, especially TikTok, you've got a well-known social media influencer with a million followers. They have him her up there speaking about a product. Okay, and they're at a far enough distance where you can't see their lips moving, but AI has copied their voice, their accent right and they are promoting this company that they have nothing to do with yeah, it's not even them, it's not even them.
Brian Cope:And you know people, people are buying stuff because they think that that she, you know, here she's promoting these things, yeah, especially health, you know healthy thing well, it could be anything, but I, I've noticed it in the health, you know health bill.
Brian Cope:So, yeah, I think, uh, you know healthy thing Well, it could be anything. But I, I've noticed it in the health, you know health bill. So, yeah, I think, uh, you know. Again, we're circling back to how, in 10 years, I think that's going to be a big part and how you adapt to it. I think it's going to it's going to absolutely affect you know how well you're doing 10 years from now.
Shed Geek:That's why you well, you know influence. So, let's, let's we got a little bit of time, we probably need to wrap up here soon but influence. So, I run from the word influence. Typically, most that know me personally know in my personal life I'm actually much more introverted than what people realize. Like, me and my wife are very private people, right. Um, however, I'm on this public podcast and my intentions was to like, go out and like, promote other people, talk to other people, get their thoughts, opinions and things like that. We've somehow become sort of like this, this brand ourself, you know, in the industry and that's cool and that's, that's awesome and it's exciting. But, like, I run from the word influence, like, anytime somebody calls it, calls you a person of influence, I'm like, yeah, I don't, I don't want that to be a negative thing, right, right because like, but we get influenced everywhere.
Shed Geek:Why do we want google reviews? Mean, you were talking about that before we got on the air. Like, why do we want google reviews? Because google reviews help to influence. Why do we want referrals? Because your neighbor can help you, can help influence you on where to go buy a building. You know, like you, you talk to your friends all the time and you're like, oh man, you got. You just bought a new smoker. Gotta try out this new smoker right, this thing's excellent I've already posted it.
Shed Geek:I'm excited about it yeah, next thing, you know, I'm like hey, I like Brian, I trust Brian. Brian says this is a good smoker.
Brian Cope:I'm probably gonna go get that smoker, right yeah, you can look at it smoking out there now. Yeah, it's blaring. I'm excited. I'm like, hey man, we gotta wrap this up. I got a boston butt on the grill.
Shed Geek:You gotta wrap this thing up it's so like, but I I typically run from it, but it is, it is true. And now all of a sudden they're using it in a negative way, you know to, to promote. You know like, hey, let's put this person's face on there, but it's really just an artificial. And then you, unless there's like some damage, repair that you can do there, there's got to be like some kind of like walking that back. It's complicated because, you know, one person says, oh, I saw this person promoting it. And the next time it's like no, that's not actually how they feel and how do we know the truth?
Brian Cope:Yeah, how do we know the truth? Yeah, how do you know the truth? And you know again, from when I first started Facebook until now, there's a lot of fact-checking, you know, and fact-checking is good You've got to have, I mean, as long as it's not one-sided. Right, as long as it's not biased yeah exactly, and you know, as long as it's like you said, I think it's good. There's a lot of we deserve to know. If it's false, Somebody says it, and so that's good. Where are?
Shed Geek:we at whenever we can't even come to like what the truth is. Yeah, because, like you know, now it's not even like the truth. It's like my truth, your truth, and I'm like what does that mean?
Brian Cope:Like truth is just truth and everything's questioned.
Shed Geek:So it's kind of like it's one of those things where, like, we at least have to have a, a center to work off of so that we can all. You know, I like I love these conversations and I don't know how shed related they are. We probably need to wrap up soon. A couple things, first one, um, anything that you want to share, shout outs, anything that you just want to put out there before we go, feel, feel free to.
Brian Cope:Yeah, you know. I just say you know and again, I'm still a novice as a salesperson. Like I said, my whole life I've been a worker. I would say to any sales rep out there you know just, and you know I've learned that sometimes the best person to teach somebody is somebody that just learned it their self, besides the guy that's been doing it 30 years. You know, somebody is somebody that just learned it their self, besides the guy that's been doing it 30 years. So, I would say to them is build a dream for somebody.
Brian Cope:When somebody comes in, make it your point to create their dreams, ask them what they're going to be doing with it and try to be creative and help them see their dreams. And then, whenever you're showing them whatever product you've got, whatever it is, you need to somehow let them relate and show them and give them a vision of their dream. And that's what I do with every single person. If it's just storage, building or whatever, I try to present it at their place, putting stuff in it. I mean, what do you like to do? I like to ride motorcycles. Man, this shed here would be great.
Brian Cope:You try to create their dreams. And again, hard work, faith, be honest and be passionate about. If you can't be passionate about your company, get with a company you can be passionate with, because I'm passionate about my company I believe, in them, and you know I'm here to stay, so I guess that's about the only encouragement.
Shed Geek:I love it. Uh, any questions that you have always tell people, or at least I have been for the last six months or so. Is there any questions you have for me, podcasting-related, shed-related, just anything that's on your mind, and full transparency. I love to answer as best I can. If you don't, that's fine. If you do, go for it.
Brian Cope:I would just say I would ask what you think that that you see is the best. Um, all around, you know, I guess you would say idea that you know you travel everywhere. If you was going to give advice to us, you know, as, as dealers, as you know, being in the shed industry, of course, right now I'm asking you because I'm a dealer, okay, so you know, if I was a shed hauler, I would say, hey, you know what do you think about hauling sheds? But you go to dealers, you go mostly to dealers and companies and stuff. What advice would you give that that you see that you say, hey, you've pulled away from places. This works. This is great. I love this idea. I love this idea. But if you put it all together, what you know, what would you say? It's a, it's a bit of a selfish answer.
Shed Geek:If you put it all together, what would you say? It's a bit of a selfish answer, if you don't mind, and I'll answer that by saying you know, I heard a sermon recently that said you know, and I posted this on Facebook God doesn't give you the chair, he doesn't give you the bench. He doesn't give you that, you know, tv, stand over there. He gives you the tree. You know you got to figure it out from there. He gives you, know you gotta, you gotta figure it out from there. He, he gives you what you need. It doesn't necessarily give you everything that you want. There's some work that's required in that. Uh, there's a reason I I tend to try to get into the things I'm getting into is the reason why I've got my eye on finance. There's a reason I got my eye on marketing, because I feel like, uh, just my own area of expertise, if you will, is like listening to people, listening to them and listen what they want. The only reason the podcast exists today is because I listened to a customer I was an rto rep asking questions and trying to figure out what they want. The one thing that he said is like where can I get more resources, information. I need more knowledge in the shed industry. I can't get it. And I was like man. We're going around time from place to place talking to all these people. Why don't somebody record this and put it out there to be helpful? So like there's a reason why I'm going into those, those directions, because I do think that some of those things can or will be part of the future.
Shed Geek:Uh, I think, covid, you know years are over, easy money's gone and you got to find a way to ramp it up and sometimes that means you got to spend some money to make money. But I think that those that are going to begin to take a lead in the industry, they're going to be dedicated to their craft, they're going to be at their lots. I think they're going to be investing in themselves. You know and this is a shameless plug, but this is something that we use all the time in our marketing conversations is I say we're supposed to be making you more money than we're costing you. We're an investment, just like a trailer is to haul sheds. We're an investment like a two by four is to build sheds, like marketing is an investment to be able to make more money if we're not making you more money, then we're not doing a good job.
Shed Geek:So, like I believe in these things, I believe that you that, the way that you believe in your company, I believe that much of these things are the way of the future. So there's a reason why I wanted to invest into these things, because it does help us to be more financially stable. But, at the end of the day, the podcast is still my heart. This is still what I love to do. If you ask me what gives me satisfaction, it's this. Those things are a means to an end still what I love to do. If you ask me what gives me satisfaction it's, it's this.
Shed Geek:You know those things are a means to an end.
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Brian Cope:Do you see something at a similarity in every lot that you go to? When you see a lot that looks like hey, they're doing well, versus a lot that looks like they're struggling, would you say that there's one thing that you notice with them, versus the ones that you feel that struggle?
Shed Geek:I don't think this is always the case. So it's not fair and I've been really hesitant in four years to mention it on the podcast. But I I question the idea of where the consignment dealer is going to be at some point. Uh, because you know, every product you go and purchase out here is on a net 30, net 90 or some kind of floor plan or something. Uh, what concerns me the most is whenever a dealer becomes a dealer and they get two hundred thousand dollars worth of inventory brought in for free. They don't hardly invest much of their self. Matter of fact, as a sales rep.
Shed Geek:Those of you who are going through this, you'll hear this and you'll understand it. You almost got to convince some companies. Whenever you show up like hey, they, they're a body shop, they got 10 acres of spot. Hey, you want to make some extra money, what's the catch? What's the catch? The catch is bring you $200,000 worth of inventory.
Shed Geek:The question is are you going to take the time to understand how rent-to-own works? Are you going to sell it the right way? Are you going to be a professional salesperson? You know what I mean. Like, are you going to promote my product? You're all in, right, you're all in and I don't know what your arrangement is here and it doesn't matter, we don't have to talk about it. What I'm saying is I get concerned about the guys who are like I have no investment and then, at the drop of a hat, the company makes them mad. And then they go and they call up the other guy, right, and guess what? Unfortunately, the other guy is like oh xyz, company couldn't, couldn't take care of you, or we'll take care of you, we'll bring you even more buildings right, and like I feel like if we, if we do that, it's just a matter of time before they're upset.
Shed Geek:So, like you need bought in people right I don't care if they're consignment, I don't care if they're you need bought in people and you can tell when you show up to a lot if they're bought into their product and they're bought into this industry or if it's a side gig for them. And if it's a side gig for you, I don't know that you're you're going to yield the best results, represent the industry the best. So, like I'm I tend to be I don't know if there's one thing that I I could pick on Brian to say you know, obviously, the way you display your lot yourself, all of those things. But what really matters is not that you wear cowboy boots and jeans and that he wears, you know, nice shoes and a suit coat. Those things are important to me.
Shed Geek:But what really matters is are you bought in? Are you bought in? Do you treat it like you own it? Do you become a sub-owner of the company? And you have their best interest in mind, because it they're your best interest for them is going to yield the best interest for yourself as well, too. Right? So like that's just I. That's my thought. I don't know if I'm right or wrong, it's just kind of.
Brian Cope:What comes to my mind is you have to be bought in and you can tell whenever a dealer is or not a lot, a lot of companies, you know, I think they depend your bigger companies depend on the representative or the reps in that area to start the new lots. And a lot of times I feel and I'm not a rep, so I'm not speaking for the rep but just from seeing things around the country you know for hauling up north, down, so everywhere, it seems like that a lot of people that have shed dealerships lots, they've got something else going on. So that simply tells me that the rep is pulled in and says, like you said, do you want to make some extra money? Well, they're already invested 100% in their car dealership or whatever it is.
Brian Cope:And so are they really going to, like I said, go all in. And so are they really going to, like I said, go all in. I think the more it would be harder for a rep to actually find somebody that says, hey, I just want to do this and this is going to be my, and that's hard to get somebody to do that, but I think you could find, because that's what I mean.
Brian Cope:you know I was hauling at the time and I had a dealership. So I said, hey, if that doesn't work out, you know I could still haul, I know I know I can make money hauling, you know.
Brian Cope:But I was all in because if I didn't sell, I didn't haul. So therefore I was 100 in. So, I think you just gotta, you know, and I think it would be hard, I don't know how that you know. Like you know, a person could go about it. But if you found somebody, this is their bread and butter, you know, is, is this company going to be their bread and butter, or just their 10 of their income? Yeah, if you could find those people that's going to be dedicated and say this is how I feed my kids, I think they'll.
Shed Geek:I think they'll produce for you depends on your business model, for sure, so much you know what I mean. It depends on your business model and that's, that's just that. I probably. That's where, if I'm being honest with you, an opportunity for consultation. You know, like you know, I believe that there's a great opportunity in this industry for the next 10 years in in consultation.
Shed Geek:You know, like, we're basically consultative sales. Whenever we approach our RTO marketing or finance or anything like that, we like to take the time, speak to the customer, think, think about long term. So you know, for me, but I, you know, I don't own a consultation business, but I think it's completely plausible for somebody to have massively wild success in this industry, because people do have questions. So, like, even whenever I get them from traveling, I'm like, hey, I'm going to give you my best guess, I'm going to give you what, what I think you know, um, but it's like leading a horse to water, like you're the one who's got to drink, you're the one who's got to figure out how deep am I going to go, how hard am I going to go in this? So, like, I love having these conversations. It's almost reminiscent of something that we would talk about off the air. We're a minute hour seven in. It goes way faster than ever expected.
Brian Cope:What else am I going to say after we talk for two hours?
Shed Geek:Yeah, we could. I tell people all the time. These conversations could go on and on, and on and on. We've got to stop somewhere. Appreciate you, I'll tell you what I do want to find out. I don't know what I've got to do. Who do I got to pay around here to get one of those nice-looking premier hats Tell me do who got who?
Brian Cope:do I gotta pay around here? Get one of those nice looking premier hats, tell me you, tell me you got one.
Shed Geek:This is it right here.
Brian Cope:You got one, if you got one Brett Hoskins if he's listening to this when it comes out. We need, we need some hats hey, some premier.
Shed Geek:That's a sharp looking hat dude and I'm sitting here looking at my hat hey, this shirt, check his shirt out, oh no, I know, I know you guys brand well. Yeah, like you always like your colors. I'm sitting here looking at my hat and I'm going man, I think their hat looks better than my hat and like that's not good from a marketing perspective.
Brian Cope:But it looks sharp, dude, I love it. Yeah, they got some good stuff. Yeah, premiere's great all around. Like I said, I'm a Premiere guy. I I'm saying that because we're on here. Everybody knows. Everybody around here knows I'm a premier guy, you know.
Shed Geek:Appreciate your brand loyalty and appreciate you being on the show. We better let these people go and we need to get back to work.
Brian Cope:Hey, I appreciate you coming and, just like I said, thank my company and thank all those that you know that has helped me through the years to come up, and I appreciate everybody.
Shed Geek:You got it, man.
Brian Cope:Talk to you soon.