Shed Geek Podcast

Revolutionizing the Shed and Steel Building Industries: Insights from Steel Kings PART 2

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 4 • Episode 107

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Unlock the secrets of successful metal building sales and marketing with insights that can transform your business approach. Discover how a knowledgeable salesperson can be your greatest ally, and learn why investing in quality details like color match screws can set you apart in the industry. We share our personal tales of unexpected benefits and common challenges, such as dealing with mismatched screws, and how these small yet crucial details can make or break customer satisfaction. Whether you're navigating the surprises of remote delivery or streamlining your sales process to overcome customer hesitations, this episode offers valuable lessons to elevate your strategy.

Journey with us through the dynamic landscape of the carport and metal building industry, where tools like the VersaBend Tube Bender and the rise of digital marketing are reshaping opportunities. We recount our transition from traditional rent-to-own services to the modern realms of podcasting and advertising, highlighting the importance of open dialogue and competition. Delve into the strategic considerations dealers must weigh when negotiating commissions with manufacturers, and discover why collaboration and transparency are your keys to thriving amid constant market changes.

Explore the complexities of vertical integration and the potential for growth within the shed industry. We discuss the delicate balance of dealer-manufacturer relationships and the emotional journeys of business owners contemplating their next steps in a booming market. With a spotlight on the impressive production of 100 sheds in just two weeks, we reflect on how reputation and strategic consolidation can impact your path to becoming a national brand. This episode offers a comprehensive view of both the challenges and exciting possibilities within the shed and carport industries.

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

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

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

To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber

Cardinal Manufacturing
Versabend
Shed Challenger
Cardinal Leasing

Sambassador:

Welcome back to part two of a two-part episode. Be sure to go back and listen to part one. You might have missed something. Hope you enjoy the conversation today.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

People, you know. Ultimately the people don't know what they're getting. I would say almost everybody who buys a metal building is somewhat surprised at the end result, unless they have either bought one before or they know someone who bought one. I would say almost everyone is surprised, and some people are surprised in a really good way, like, oh man, you know, this is much like me. I was blown away by what I got for the cost I paid. I was expecting this thing. I went to buy a woodshed. I put a concrete pad down. I'm like you know what I'm buying a woodshed. I knew exactly what brand I wanted and that's how I met Eric. It was the brand and in my area at the time it was a certain brand and it was the hot ticket and wanted one period. It was a status thing for me.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

And I went to a. I went to a random shed lot to look at this building and he said man, you know you got a concrete pad. Why would? Why in the world would you want a wood shed? It's going to be elevated off the ground. You're going to have to have a ramp, blah, blah, blah. Didn't know a thing about carport buildings, didn't know anything about tubular steel nothing. And he's like man I got. There's a guy in Huber Heights, Ohio, that sells. That sells the same brand as I do. Why don't you go check his building out and come back and we'll talk about it? Well, I went to Huber Heights and never went back.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

Once I met Eric, I was like this guy is speaking my language and he explained to me how they fastened to the to the concrete. If you, you know, if you put a little bit, a little bit of silicone under the base row, you can create an air pocket and all these things that were kind of overcoming my objections and overcoming my concerns. And when I got it, it was blew me away, because a 12 by 16 metal building 12 by 16 metal building can be really bad. It can be really bad. But I went with the vertical sides. I had a vertical roof. I had all the things, all the bells and whistles that I could get, and it's. You know, five years later, almost it's a great building. It is way outvalued. Its utility, as far as I'm concerned, couldn't have been happier with it.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

But I know that some customers get them. They're like man, the screws don't match on this thing. Why didn't you tell me the screws were going to be galvanized on my green building? Well, I tried. Remember we talked about color match screws. You didn't want to pay the 3% additional, or maybe we forgot to mention it.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

But I know there's little funny nuances, right when, if every metal building that was sold just had color match screws and everybody just charged for color match screws, boy, wouldn't that be a renaissance idea. If we just decided one day, hey, we're all gonna have color match screws, no more galvanized screws in this industry, we'd have a lot more satisfied customers. That is not an easy fix. Sam can attest to this. That is the one thing. If you're listening to me and you're selling metal buildings, sell the color match screws, even if you got to eat it. So, yes, I am telling you. I am telling you color match screws. Is it that if you if there's no galvanized gunshot holes in your, your brand-new building. Trust me, you've won that is the number one.

Shed Geek:

That's the number one it comes back to being like that qualified salesperson that understands it, gets it, has the right attitude for the customer. Because you can overcome so many things with a good sales process that even a subpar product you know like. If we just talked about you know, impulsive shopping, I mean some of the worst I got were the guys who stood at the door, one foot in, one foot out. Guy down the road's got one this much, how much is yours? And it's like whoa, I got to be willing to lose that guy before I even try to convince him to. You know, because if I can't get them to come in and sit down and understand that this sales process is going to take an hour at least of your time.

Shed Geek:

If you're price shopping to the point to where you're, you, you're, you're not allowing me to talk about how that what they have down there is actually a you know, vertical roof. You know it's a circular. You know circular tube as opposed to a square tube. Or you know like, or on sheds. You know that's a 18 on center. You know single top plate. You know that's a 20- year metal roof. Like they look the same. You know single top plate. You know that's a 20- year metal roof Like I. They look the same, you know. But just because it's got stripes don't mean it's a zebra, you know. It's give me a chance to sit down and talk to you and explain to you what, what I, what I have here in comparison, because we can probably meet or beat if that's really what we want.

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Jared Ledford (Steel King):

We're big at taking the deal off the table. Let me give you a little bit of my sales approach. I'm going to give it to you straight we take the deal off the table. We don't get into a bickering match over price. We are selling you a quality product at a fair price. We are telling you who's making it to the best of our ability, how quick it'll be there. Do you have all this information from this other person on Facebook Messenger, or do you not? And if, then we can do, if we can do, a true apples to apples comparison on price, then we'll get into it. But until then, if I don't see it, it doesn't exist and my guys operate that way you will spend more time chasing a deal that's going nowhere, when you could be conquesting further deals.

Sambassador:

In my opinion, yeah, I'll take Shannon's stripe thing one step further. Just because it's black and white with stripes doesn't mean it's a zebra.

Sambassador:

That'll tell you what the other side actually is. I had a guy one time he just sometimes you just catch me on a bad day, I guess he did that half foot in the door, half foot out and said, hey, can you price match that guy down the road and I looked at him. I'm like, is that the same way you bought that pickup truck you drove up in? You know what he did? He walked in the door and sat down because he's like, uh, no, this guy's actually serious about what he does because, no, I would never buy a pickup truck like that.

Sambassador:

And the fact of the matter is, uh, customer education on steel is just as important as it is on sheds. You know, they all look like sheds, they all look like steel, like steel. Um, but do you want a Chevette or do you want a corvette? I mean, there's a difference there. We all know that difference. But that little old lady doesn't know the difference and somebody has to educate her to the difference of it.

Sambassador:

Um, what are we going to do? Uh, so when I scroll Facebook, now it'll, it's going to. Yeah, you guys have absolutely killed my algorithm here. I promise you, the next two days I'm not going to see anything except carport ads again, and I'm not going to be a happy camper, other than the fact that I don't even have time to scroll Facebook anymore. There is a limited four or five people that I follow that I'm able to keep up with right now because my notifications are most times between 150 and 250 from my posts on what's going on in Carolinas and Tennessee, so I don't even get to scroll. Yesterday I got back out of the mountains, and I had 100 text messages I had to get through. So, my scrolling is very limited right now, but it'll blow up the Carport posts again.

Sambassador:

And here's what I'm going to ask what are we doing? And this is kind of not just on the side of what I'm seeing on Facebook when I scroll, but I'm hearing this more and more online from our private pages that the, the national push from carport manufacturers. Um, you mentioned American Steel. I don't know that much about them, but some of the other ones I'm seeing they're doing their own advertising on Facebook and now it's starting to follow into the sales professional pages. Hey, you know, if you go with that company, they're actually going to compete against you. Shannon's already backing up. He's like man. I know he didn't just ask this question, but what are? What are you doing as a dealer? What do you tell other dealers? How are you dealing with the fact that the very people you're selling for are competing with you with huge budgets nationally? I could name four or five of them, but I sure don't want them to show up on my Facebook again. I know that are dealers that are pushing.

Sambassador:

What are we doing with this? Do you have a?

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

solution to this. My solution is exactly what we talked about earlier. It's a W2 sales team that is dedicated to selling good products at a good price, to selling good products at a good price. I have continued, and Shannon knows this. My goal is to bring leads into my sales team. If I can hook my pitch up to someone and bring leads into my team, I don't much mind who I sell for. I'm not loyal to anybody. I do have a handful of people that I would jump through a hoop to sell a building for.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

But I think for me, I would love to see at some point the industry move towards larger scale dealers, similar to what you see with larger scale manufacturers. Even the biggest players are not that big, are not that big. You know, the most successful online dealers have very small footprints. They're not really that. You know. There's probably I mean Sam, you could correct me if I'm wrong there's probably like 10, five to 10 online major dealers, something like that. All these other, all these other, you know, are startups or one or two man operations and there's nothing wrong with that. But if the industry does not correct itself and if conglomerates don't like, if Dayton Barnes got approached by another online sales company that was doing the same thing as us. We would be absolutely foolish not to have a discussion about that.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

And that's the kind of things that Shannon and I have talked about right, just having the discussions. There are a ton of buildings to be sold. I'm not selling all of them. I can't sell all of them right now. I don't have the bandwidth or the utility to do it, but I can tell you from my perspective there's a lot of people that do it the right way and there's a lot of people that are doing it the wrong way, and I would leave it at that.

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Shed Geek:

It happens to us, Jared, because we have a podcast in the industry, but we work in the industry. So initially, whenever I came out, I was working in RTO, but then took a hiatus from that for a long time to sort of find myself. I found myself unemployed and having to make a living off of the podcast and selling advertising, and I feel like we did a good job. I feel like we still do a good job. You know, we're shifting our focus to almost go more toward product, because one of the problems that we're having is the opportunity in the digital world, you know is getting very confusing because there's a lot of people starting to compete at a higher level that all offer multiple solutions. We do as well too, right? So, you know. So. So, you know I got, I got one, I think I got one negative review, if you will, that didn't go public and it was kind of somebody saying you know, I don't like the idea that you're in rent to own and you do a podcast.

Shed Geek:

You know, now that you're, now that you're in rent-to-own and you do a podcast, you know, now that you're in rent-to-own and I'm like, okay, well, explain to me what your feelings are. It's like, well, you're biased because you can provide RTO services. Now you're biased and I'm like you know, explain how. So, because I want to be a good listener, not just a good talker. And it's like, well, if you're educational, how do we know that you're not educating them to use you or holding back information? I'm like, well, how do you remedy that? The only one way to remedy that is for you to come on and talk about it. I've not eliminated anyone's opportunity, minus possibly one company, from being able to advertise with us, but I've certainly not blacklisted anyone from coming on, including our competitors, because good conversation happens when your competitors come on.

Shed Geek:

So, to me, Mr. Gentleman, who complained you took the wrong approach and you said well, you know, I can't come on there, I'm giving more credibility to your platform. So now I have to go out and compete with you and I'm like well, we're competing to begin with, but why can't we talk, even if we have different ideas? Because different ideas are things that the industry needs to hear. We just happen to have a platform that reaches them. So why not come on and disagree? I wouldn't put anything on that you're not okay with. I'll send you the edited copy ahead of time. So let's have that good, deep conversation and if you challenge me and persuade me to change on my opinion. That just shows your credibility, because you know what? Wait a minute, that idea is actually better than mine, but we won't know it exists until you come on and discuss it.

Shed Geek:

So, my position was I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm not. I'm not telling someone they can't come on and share their feelings, even if they disagree. In neither conversation with you guys have I told you guys to blacklist anyone or don't have someone come on. I never would. I mean there's no, it's not beneficial, you know, for the industry. So, you know like I guess, yeah, I'm perfectly fine with the conversation, no matter what. It is Right If it's a rising tide rising, tide raises all ships Right.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I mean, you know competition wise, you know, from my perspective to answer Sam's question directly we have to become so valuable as dealers they don't need to do that, I think. If let's use this as a perspective, if you're a really successful dealer and you did let's just say you did two million dollars last year with a manufacturer. And now that manufacturer you've gone to that manufacturer and said hey, you know what I was making 15% last year, I'd really like to make 17%. I'm getting offered 17% by this other company. If they tell you no, and you immediately go with that new company at 17%, not necessarily knowing what the end result for you is, you know what you did the previous year. You did $2 million at 15%.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

Commission, my argument to you would be maybe set another timeline, maybe give them a little bit longer, because when manufacturers lose $2 million in revenue from a dealer, what do we expect them to do? That would be my kind of retort back is what do the dealers expect the manufacturers to do when they have payrolls to meet? I mean, I know, competing on a national level, I get that, but if you've been to a large scale metal manufacturer, it's not just one guy with one piece of equipment, it's several people that keep this chain going and if you can't do the job that you were hired to do at a commission rate that's acceptable you have to expect that the manufacturer will step up and introduce training and hire people that are only going to sell their buildings. Period the end. End of discussion. It's the misinformation.

Shed Geek:

The misinformation and the assumed misinformation is really really, really like oh, it's tiresome, you know, because you're like do I defend myself? Do I not say nothing? I met with someone the other day. I don't want to tell who he was or who they were talking about, but his comments were yeah, we were warned not to use Shed Geek Marketing because they're just going to take all of our dealer network. Not to use Shed Geek Marketing because they're just going to take all of our dealer network.

Shed Geek:

And I was like I was scratching my head because I was just like it's so far off that I can't even comprehend where they came up with the idea. Like you could call me out on that publicly, on Facebook, on a podcast, on anything. I don't even know where that idea came from. And I have this person out here spreading this misinformation to simple minds who are going to agree with it. And I'm bewildered, going. I've got to go defend that position. Do I do it on the podcast? Do I do nothing at all, say nothing and just be who I am. It's wild because I'd rather that that gentleman call me up and say is this the case? And I'd say no, and this is why it doesn't even make sense. Why would I? Why would I want your dealer network Like your dealer, like especially in Shed Geek Marketing?

Shed Geek:

Because most dealers you know I mean this in a kind way they're not in a financial position at 10% to pay for adequate marketing. It is really the manufacturer who's going to have a better like path forward to applying three to 4% of the revenue towards a marketing budget for everyone. Like that's the struggle that we have. Now we have dealers call us and they're like can you work with us? And we're like maybe we can put out a masterclass where it's, you know you can do it yourself and you can simply talk about that. You know what I mean and so we talked about that and if we can find time we can do it where you can learn how to do it yourself. But to give away all of our value, right?

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

We can't do that. I mean we do a lot of that on the podcast for free, you know, if you just have the ears to listen. But so it's. It's filtering the misinformation. You know more than I will tell you.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

This, Sam, to go off what you said, I have a manufacturer that gives me leads regionally, based on my location, when they get certain leads in my area and I would encourage metal manufacturers to partner. I think if you're a metal manufacturer and you're listening to this podcast, you are wasting time and money and energy doing something you're not particularly good at, which is selling the product, because you've had dealers for years do it for you. You're not going to want to hire a sales manager. You're not going to want to hire and train however many reps you're going to have in the office. That's not something you want to take responsibility for. My encouragement to ask would be trust the dealers that you have that are doing a really good job for you, especially someone like me that has a team of people here that eat and sleep and breathe metal buildings, and I mean I've said this to Shannon if I could find a manufacturer that touches all the states I need to service, I would work exclusively if I got the leads paid for.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

My advertising is the single biggest expense I have outside payroll period. To stay competitive, I have to advertise constantly. It is expensive and we are competing against the people we are selling for. That's the biggest issue that I have. I could care less if they want to sell them themselves. I beat manufacturers all the time and I know it happens. I've gotten calls from customers Well, I got a quote directly from the manufacturer that you quoted me with and it's the same price. Why wouldn't I just buy from them? Well, what happens if something goes wrong with the building? Is there anybody going to go to bat for you? I do several million dollars with this said manufacturer and I can cut that off like a faucet. I can turn off the flow right now if I don't feel like they're doing you a good service.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

What do you think is going to happen if, for some reason, something goes wrong and you're dealing with one person? It's always good to have an advocate. I'd pay for an advocate and, by the way, I can also save you $500 on that down deposit, because that's the ability that I have as a dealer to negotiate my rate. Now, am I going to race to the bottom? Am I going to give them all my commission? Absolutely not.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I will not do that um some of my guys, some of my guys do

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Shed Geek:

Manufacturers want their dealers to do well.

Shed Geek:

I know that might be hard to believe, but manufacturers could eliminate a dealer network and go 100% digital and may even have more success or may have a less than positive experience. However, that's one cool thing about the Shed side is they have stuck to their dealer network. The question is, are you sticking with your manufacturer? We can really probably show pros and cons to both sides, but they have. They have left their dealer network. Most of them have left their dealer network alone.

Shed Geek:

The only problem becomes when the dealer's not willing to participate in the additions that they're bringing to the table. That manufacturer is going to assume that responsibility of their self. You know, if I was a manufacturer and I paid for your leads and you didn't pick up the phone or follow up the lead, I'm probably going to quit sending you those leads and I'm probably going to get them myself. And some of those that I know have still sold it and either sent the full commission or half commission to that dealer and I'm like that's dedication to your dealer network right there, Cause they really don't deserve that if they're not willing to learn or invest I mean, Jared, anything you're going to be good at, be good at it. You know, like that's right, that's right, yeah.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I think Shannon and I, Shannon knows I feel this way about with sheds. We have constantly looked for somebody who will send us shed leads. I've put feelers out there about potentially having other avenues to do that. We're really happy with our current shed manufacturer, but I can tell you some of the reasons why we switched from a dealer perspective was the manufacturer we might have worked with five years ago wasn't cool with us selling metal buildings. They didn't like that. It made them uncomfortable. So, we sat out for a year. We sat out for a year on wood so that we could get out of our, you know, non-compete and all of that. We sat out for a year and then we signed back up with another manufacturer.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I would challenge dealers to not be put into controlled boxes by people that aren't controlling your end. You know manufacturers do a great job most of the time, no doubt I, I think you're a lot better off in the shed space and you're on the metal building side Currently. I think that shed, I think the sheds are put together manufactured dealer network wise I agree with you a hundred percent, Shannon. I think that they are put together Manufactured dealer network-wise I agree with you 100%, Shannon. I think that they are pretty darn loyal and you should be loyal to your manufacturers if you can be.

Shed Geek:

Sam, sorry, we just kind of.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

Yeah, you were going to say something there, Sam.

Shed Geek:

We just kind of took over. I'm sorry.

Sambassador:

Well, no, it's. So, there's two things I'm tracking here on that I want to follow up on. The first thing is Shannon and I have sat in offices and seen the leads that weren't followed up on. I'm not talking about 10. I'm not talking about 20. I'm not talking about 20. I'm not talking about a couple dozen, hundreds of leads that were handed to dealers that were never followed up on. So, I get the whole argument about you can have a national company that can do some of your marketing stuff. They have the power, they have the ability to do it Turn them over to dealers.

Sambassador:

When I asked you that question, that was already in my mind before you even answered. It was when I hear these conversations on the. You know some of the sales professional pages. It's you know. I know the answer. I see it in the back. I see it all the time in the back office. It's like well, I mean those leads you know. Were you given any leads? Did you follow up on them? Did you follow up on them twice, three times? Where'd they go? That's the first thing. The second thing so if you would have asked me I want to hide under my hat on this one If you would have asked me two years ago what is the perfect shed company?

Sambassador:

What's the best way If I had $10 million to burn? What's the best way to do it in the shed industry? I would have told you I'm going to put me a plant up, I'm going to get me two rigs and I'm going to put me five lots in and I'm going to have my own backing for my rent done. In other words, I'm going to do all of it in-house. Less than 5% of people have the capability of doing that, because we've got to a point to where our customers um, I think I can blame the customer we do enough research as customers. We watch, we look at reviews, we follow what's going on before we ever get to that lot. We've already done a bunch of research.

Sambassador:

Um, if I'm really good at building a shed, there's no way I'm good enough to sell a shed. There's no way I'm good enough to haul a shed. There's no way. I know of very few companies that can run all of them at the best of their abilities. We have professionals at every level that can do it better. And not only that the risk it takes out of your company.

Sambassador:

I think I can say this If you're a national shed company right now and you're hauling your own sheds, you're crazy, absolutely crazy. You're running a hundred- million- dollar company and you have a driver out there that's having a bad day. Your company is having a worse day from the risk it's at Right. It blows my mind, and I don't care how many LLCs you start.

Sambassador:

There's a case in Georgia right now to where they're going back and they're looking at the LLCs involved and they're saying, hey, this LLC was paid 80% of what you were doing. That's still tied to you. They're not. It's limited liability corporation. That should give you a hint. Right there you can go build all the LLCs you want to and if you're still showing, you know you're talking about the W-9 versus the W-2 guys. You know I grew up in construction. We played that game for years and years and it's all good and fine until your best friend falls down the elevator shaft and dies and then OSHA shows up and then everybody shows up. They're like what's a ghost policy? You know that's a true story.

Sambassador:

That's what happens in these cases. Now can you use the 1099s if you want to? Sure, you can. There's ways to do it. There's legit ways that you can. I got a guy that works for me. You can. There's ways to do it. There's legit ways that you can. I got a guy that works for me right now. He's 1099. I don't control his hours, I don't control what he does. He can go work for other people he does. You know what I'm saying? There's legit ways to use subcontractors. There is better ways, as Apostle Paul says, and yet I show you a better way.

Sambassador:

So, where I'm going with my whole mini rant here is the fact that you can't do it all as good as it could be done. You can do it, and if that's the way you want to do it, my hat's off to you. You run a good company. I love it, but at some point you're going to get to a place. Oh, I'm there right now. I'm running at 250% capacity right now. I am way past where I need to be right now. But I said I'm going to do it, I'm going to follow up on it and in this case I'm doing it for free. So, I can't go hire the people I need. But I don't understand why we get into this frame that, hey, you know what, we're good at building sheds. I bet we know how to haul sheds. Hey, we're good at hauling sheds and building sheds.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I bet we're good at doing our own, rent own. I can't stress that. I can't stress my agreement enough.

Shed Geek:

Any vertically integrated shed company knows the battles and the struggles that come with that, because you're not just starting one company, you're now starting five or six and you're trying to make it all work under one umbrella. And I mean we know that at Shed Geek because of all of our affiliates and what we've done. But what we've done is tried to let them be good at what they do and let's just be good at what we do. So, marketing call today. That's the way it went. We've always done our own Facebook. We've boosted posts, we've run our ads and we're. So, the next thing, you know, we're in a conversation about running ads on Facebook ads manager or like what's that? Okay? Well, that's a totally different thing. Sponsored posts versus boosted posts. They're like ads are ads, right, advertisement, Facebook's Facebook. And you're like no, now we're consulting. Now we're no longer a marketing company, because now we're taking an hour in the customer acquisition phase to be like let's break all of it down for you so that you understand it. If you don't, you know nothing, saying you can't go, do any of this better than us, just saying this is where we at in our value prop, this is what we offer.

Shed Geek:

And the gentleman said you know, you guys just know what you're doing, and we've heard that. Well, we were thankful for that. That's a good thing to know and to hear. But we were like, well, hey, you know what you're doing, and we've heard that too, but if we tried to do what you do, we would look less than stellar at it. Right, if you want me to build a shed, I'm going to do an okay job. It's going to simulate a shed. It'll look pretty close, but I can't do all things well. I can't haul a shed well, but I bet I can get it there. It just ain't going to be what it needs to be once it happens, right.

Shed Geek:

So, the way I relate it is to a customer who comes in and says I can build it myself, of course. Of course you can. Maybe let's get through the conversation to be like I mean, you could, you can cook all of your own meals at home, but you choose to go eat for a reason. I mean you could do anything that you want, you're right, but you will run out of time because you're one man in 24 hours and whenever you're a small company, you're wearing a lot of hats. You realize that really quick.

Shed Geek:

So, you got to ask yourself how do I set my business up in a way that I budget toward the appropriate things that I need? I'm only supposed to be living off a percentage of it anyway. Oh, I made a million in sales Doesn't mean you made a million dollars. Look at your P&Ls. You made, you know, $200,000 or whatever it was. That's your spending budget, you know. So it's just, I don't know you got to.

Shed Geek:

To answer your question, I don't know. There's some companies that do it well to stay vertically integrated and I'm sure if you had $10 million, Sam, that's probably true, and the caveat to that would be like who's going to possibly give you $10 million without wanting to earn something back on that right? Vertical integration definitely is the way to go, but I think this conversation almost leads into a bigger one about acquisitions and the destiny of the shed and carport business long-term, and like who's going to emerge as a, as a national brand that you'll know, like Bucky's or John Deere or Harley Davidson, you know? Do we have one of those already? And if not, who's it going to be? Because there's a couple guys out there, hungry, that are going for it right now and you want to sell. I? I mean, do you do you? What do you want to do? You know, like you know, figure out what, hey, find your, why, Simon Sinek, figure out what you want to do.

Shed Geek:

If you've been building sheds for 40 years or 30 or 20, and you wake up one day and you go, I don't even know why I'm doing this anymore. I don't know why I want to do this. Ain't even my heart, my heart's ministry. I want to go do something. You know I'm going to go serve the Lord and save souls, and yeah, right, well, you can use your business to do it. Or maybe you want to sell out and go jump into it full time. But that's. Those are struggles we all have. That's why the podcast bro it gets, it talks about more than sheds and carports. Guys, I mean, we're deep in it. At this point I can't even. I don't even know where we started. I don't even know what you asked and then we got to see here somehow. But I do.

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Sambassador:

Yeah, so I actually had a phone call today. It's funny that you brought up acquisitions. I get a phone call today. I have got it's mind-blowing the phone calls I've gotten the last week. So, I said from day one that if we do 100 sheds in 30 days. It is straight up a God thing, because there's nobody that could pull this off. We did 100 sheds in almost two weeks. We did 100 sheds in almost two weeks and after that first two weeks it is just. It's like it's just everywhere.

Sambassador:

I'm getting phone calls from numbers and they're like hey, I heard you're doing this shed thing. We're so-and-so shed company over here. We want to send some sheds. So, I'm talking to a guy today and I'm like well, he's like yeah, I've seen you at the expos and stuff. You always got people talking to you. You know which is one of my pet peeves? I'm like don't ever walk past me. If you want to say something to me, I try to. I don't care if there's 10 guys standing around. You wait through the middle of them. If you have to shake my hand, I don't care. He said A couple of years ago he called this guy up and the guy's like you know what? This is my 25th year, yeah, let's do something. And he buys them out because it's just like you know he had found a number that worked for him 25 years. That's pretty good, why not? If somebody wants to buy you out, you know we're going to see that.

Sambassador:

We've been talking about this for a couple of years already. We've seen some big ones. Cook's deal was a big deal. It looks like it's been fairly good. Come out of it.

Sambassador:

You know, when you say John Deere, you say Ford, you say Dodge, you say Chevy. You know, on the hauler page, you know, I don't care what carport company you name, there's going to be haters and lovers. I don't care what shed company you name, somebody had a bad experience, somebody had a good experience. Shannon and I are to the point where it's like, okay, it's all good, we don't care, let's just go on, let's talk about it and move on. I get that.

Sambassador:

That's why I guess I was kind of bouncing back on the reviews thing, because I know when I find something. So, a couple of years ago I wanted a crossbow. I've just got it in my head that I want something lethal that doesn't make any noise. You know, suppressor is not good enough. It's not a silencer, it's a suppressor, you know. And it goes ding, ding, ding, which is a lot better than boom, boom, boom. But I'm like you know what I want. I want to crossbow. I want the best crossbow that there is, and I start digging around and I'm looking at reviews and look at this one and that one. You know that the best product out there has bad reviews. It's mind boggling, I can't. It's perfect. So, it's the. I've learned if something has a perfect five-star review, I'm like, wait a minute, and we talked about this earlier. You can buy likes. Oh, you beat me to it.

Shed Geek:

It's an inside joke. It's an inside joke, Jared. You can beat me to it. It's an inside joke. It's an inside joke, Jared.

Sambassador:

You beat me to it.

Shed Geek:

I love you, Sam, but you beat me to it. I had a look back at my head and I was going to do it.

Sambassador:

And you know what happened. It came totally natural. I had no plan on using it, but it's like I watch, I follow people on Facebook, I follow and you can apparently you can buy reviews, because if you start looking up the five-star reviews, it's like there's no way this guy bought this product. You can even on Google um, you know, you see stuff and it's like man. So I've got to where I'm pretty happy in my 4.2, 4.3, somewhere in that range, and every once in a while if I'm really gung ho about something, I'll even find a lower one and I'll go through some of the reviews and I'll be like OK, what actually? And you know they went to this restaurant. They didn't like the way the chair sat.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, I can't. Even With every user experience, you're going to have something. That's just what it boils down to it's. You know, and I don't know there's a reason why, you know, we find friends that we kind of mesh with, maybe kind of the nature of the way that we're, you know. I mean, it's why it was such an easy decision to talk with you guys right To be on the podcast and hosting it. We had a lot of like-minded ideas and stuff and conversation.

Shed Geek:

You know, it's kind of hard if, if, if I'm struggling, you know, to have someone on who's, you know, thinking in a totally different direction. It's kind of like I don't mind being challenged, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make sense. So, you know, I think I saw a Facebook post and we're getting way out in the weeds here now. That said, I don't know it's weird how you just find a human and say I really like this one, I want to be friends with this one for a long time, but I think there's a little something in there that you just you develop, you know, this back and forth with these, these friendships, and we know we're not going to please them all. You know we don't, we don't. We're not trying to take over the industry or anything like that. We know there's room for others. There's others that do good jobs. We encourage them, we, we, we just want to be part of the process.

Shed Geek:

And you know, hey, if we can put in the work and the effort, we're now 400 episodes or four years in 300 episodes in. We're putting in the work, we're doing it. We want to talk to people, we want to have conversations. These things bring about good. In my opinion. I think nothing comes from silent or suppressing any of that conversation. You know, I feel like you want to have that and I'm willing to have that transparently in front of people. That's why I feel like these talks right here do something really good. Sam, you're getting to Joe Rogan territory. Every one of them is turning into a two-parter because we're just getting in so deep. But I'm going to have to bounce out of here-parter because we're just getting in so deep.

Sambassador:

I'm going to have to bounce out of here soon.

Shed Geek:

I've got to go to my in-laws. Yeah, I've got to get out of here Sometimes I look like I'm falling asleep. I'm sure Jared's got things he's got to do too. The weekend's up on us.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I'm actually currently staring at the.

Shed Geek:

Amazon man wanting to bring a package inside. Go get it, man. Go get it, you're good. I'll be up there next week chatting with you. We're hoping to get the Steel Kings rolling, maybe January, February. I hope people will tune in and listen. This is a sample of what to expect, you see.

Sambassador:

Jeff.

Shed Geek:

Who knows, maybe we'll do some cross communications on each other, podcasts back and forth, like this from time to time.

Sambassador:

Absolutely.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

Yep, that sounds like fun guys. Yeah, I look forward to it Well it was.

Sambassador:

Yeah, it's definitely a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for letting me grill you pretty good there. I look forward to many more good episodes. Can't wait to meet you and buy dinner for you. I appreciate that. That's another inside joke that we'll let ride for now and you'll figure out later. But yeah, thanks for being on, absolutely guys.

Sambassador:

Welcome to the best industry on planet Earth as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, there's, like you said, we have our ripples, but I still love this industry. It's still where my heart's at, it's why I'm still here and to see how this industry has stepped up the last six weeks. When a catastrophic event hits us, it's just crazy how these people have stepped up. And now I'm getting random phone calls from all over the place um, people, just they want to get involved. It's the heart of the industry that they they're still about helping people. They still want to treat their customers right the way they want to be treated, want to treat their customers right the way they want to be treated, and I think that's huge so thank you guys for being on today.

Sambassador:

Um, to everybody out there in, uh techno land, I guess, thanks for being with us today. Um, Shannon, you, yeah, you can give the shout out to where all we are. I don't even know where all we are anymore. I listen on Spotify and YouTube. I know we have all the other stuff that we use.

Shed Geek:

Any major you know media outlet Pandora, Spotify, apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. We're on YouTube. We have a call-in landline for the playing community to listen, so they just dial in. They can save their place, go back and listen later. And then, of course, we do the newsletter every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's got a link to today's episode and a link to a lot of people who support us, encourage you guys to go click on their stuff, take a look at it, buy something from them, give them a shout out, tell them Shed Geek or one of us sent you over there, and that means a lot that they would invest into us. So, we want to invest into them.

Sambassador:

Yeah, that's true, and you can always email us at sam@shedgeekcom, shannon's at info@s hedg eek. com, and I'm guessing Jared's gonna be jared@shedgeek. com Got it. That's how you get a hold of all of us. Yes, sir, thank you. Yes sir, thank you guys for being on Jared. Welcome aboard. We're going to have some good times. Yes, sir, until next time.

Jared Ledford (Steel King):

I'm talking to you guys.