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 Future of Metal Buildings: Navigating Change and Opportunity
Welcome to the Steel Kings Podcast, where we dive deep into the evolving world of metal buildings with industry experts Jared Ledford and Eric Olson. The inaugural episode sets the stage for what listeners can expect: candid discussions about friendships forged in business, the significance of customer service, and the strategies behind successful partnerships.
As seasoned professionals, Jared and Eric share their evolution from providing wooden sheds to becoming advocates for metal structures, revealing the unique challenges and opportunities in the industry. With a focus on building strong relationships with customers, they offer insights into why understanding client needs is pivotal in making informed purchasing decisions. By reframing the conversation around pricing, they encourage listeners to pursue quality over cost, emphasizing that investing in a solid product pays dividends in the long run.
Listeners also gain a glimpse into the future as the hosts outline their vision for upcoming episodes, which will delve into actionable strategies and success stories in the metal building arena. Whether you're a seasoned dealer or someone looking to explore the world of metal buildings, there's something valuable in this conversation for everyone. Join us on this journey and don’t forget to subscribe! Your engagement means everything as we grow our community of industry advocates together.
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: J Money LLC
Shed Geek Marketing
Hey, this is Joel Oney at the J Money Studio in the heart of the Buckeye State, and I want to personally welcome you to today's episode of the Steel Kings Podcast with my good friends Jared Ledford and Eric Olson, better known to you as the Steel Kings. Be sure to check out jmoneyllc. com for financing solutions for your buildings. And now let's get back to the Steel Kings podcast.
Jared Ledford:Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the first episode of the Steel Kings podcast. I am Jared.
Jared Ledford:Ledford and we are excited to you know. You all know me. I've been on a couple podcasts with our friend Shannon and the guys over at Shed Geek Podcast, and we are honored and privileged to be joining their team here with a new podcast called Steel Kings. And I just want to give a quick shout out to our title sponsor, the guys over at J Money, doing a great job with financing. Hit those guys up. Joel is a really good guy. He will help you with your financing needs. And, without further ado, I want to introduce to you my best friend, my business partner, a huge advocate for me and I'm a huge advocate for him, Eric Olson. How are you doing today, my friend?
Eric Olson:Hi, Mr. Jared man, it's not going too bad, yeah, trying to weather that blizzard that we had last week and the sun is shining. And not a better day for episode one of something we've been talking about for gosh. It seems like a couple of years at this point.
Jared Ledford:Yeah, yeah, I think, uh, I think there's nothing more that I'd rather be doing on a uh, you know we're recording on a Friday, um, so you guys should start seeing this content around the first week of March. So, we just had some pretty severe snow here in Ohio. We're both home based out of Ohio and, uh, you know, just excited, um, this is something that the two of us have been on this journey for about four years now together, just really trying to soak up the industry, soak up some new friends and partners, and really just excited to have this opportunity to come to you guys as a team, as a tandem, as a combined force of guys that really just want to share some experiences with you and maybe give you guys some insight into the steel building industry. So, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself, Eric. I know you're going to be a partner on the podcast every week, so they're going to need to get to know you pretty quickly.
Eric Olson:Yeah, and I'm sure honestly, I've heard probably of most of the people who know the Shed Geek podcast as well as you and you've been to some trade shows I have not made it to. I've talked about it a million times, but I think my day-to-day role at our company is uh logs most of my time and uh and uh but, but the partnerships I've developed, so hopefully I get to meet everybody there. Um, but again, my name is Eric and I'm based in Dayton, Ohio. I started a business called Dayton Barnes and All Steel Buildings over five years ago and started out slinging sheds if you want to call it like that for a company, pretty well-known national company and built that business really on the principle of good customer service, follow through, telling the truth, high quality product and a lot of five- star reviews. That was really when the woodshed industry was getting into it.
Eric Olson:The business I started actually had some older carports there and kind of along the way in between the woodsheds, which was like the majority part of our business and revenue stream, started to kind of talk a little bit more about the carport industry and you know, I really didn't know too much about it.
Eric Olson:I had a carport, an RV port, and I had an 18 by 26 by 8 metal garage with two roll or with a single roll door and a walk in. And some random guy came in the shop one day and said, hey man, I'd like to buy one of those. And I really didn't know anything about it because I was so busy with wood that I kind of stumbled through that and obviously, Jared, you agree, I'm a fighter, so I just try to figure it out as quickly as I could. And one thing led to the next. I built an online presence on Facebook and a variety of other places and kind of taught myself how to do advertising, and so our local shed business turned into somewhat a regional and then national metal building sales company that supplemented the wood sales. Both are very important. I'd say we do a little bit more metal on the sales just because the ticket items are a little bit more pricey, but the coverage area is huge.
Eric Olson:You only take yeah, you know you can only take a shed so far um that's right, that's right yes, you can put together a shed, you know, 10 hours down the road and it might be worth it. So that's been kind of a unique challenge to sort through. And you know what, what are best practices for, uh, you know, selling a building to somebody in Nebraska when you we're like, honestly, how are we really going to meet them? And so similar to overcome in the wood industry. But kind of tie that back, started that lot, ended up with two, ended up with three, moved to Arizona, planted one, and now we're down, we're shimmied out of 2024, and now we're down, we're shimmied out of 2024. And now we're kind of landing.
Eric Olson:Here. We've got three locations in Ohio, we've got an affiliate location elsewhere. That's another business, but, um, big things coming and, uh, super excited conquest, um, more partnerships. And really my plan now, as in our plan, obviously our business model is we want to get, we want to tackle some of the bigger issues and challenges that the metal building industry is presented.
Eric Olson:Like I said, we're sure it has its challenges as well, but metal definitely has a lot of challenges and for sure, so um, we've got a that that's, yeah, that's the thing I think is really interesting about you.
Jared Ledford:So obviously we're talking to a lot of uh of shed dealers, manufacturers, haulers, things like that. You know we're joining a team that is very well versed in the wood space, and I think our goal, you know, as a, as a team here, is to collectively inform that audience that the steel building market is ripe for the picking. There is more than enough. You know, meat on the bone. Um, I think Eric and I are both, you know, testaments to that and open book to that. Um, you know, I think the thing that most people don't know unless they've talked to us personally.
Jared Ledford:I met you as a customer, right, and I was looking for the wood shed. I had a specific, that national brand that you were carrying at the time. I had a specific idea in my mind of what I wanted and I remember going to the shed lot and meeting a really nice guy and telling him, you know, I had a brand new home that we had built and I was working on a concrete pad and he said well, why would you put a wood shed on a concrete pad? It makes no sense. It's going to be way up off the ground. It's going to cause a lot of problems for you. And I'm like, well, you know, tell me more about you know what the issue is.
Jared Ledford:And he said have you ever heard of like a steel building, or at that, at that point we were still really calling them carport buildings and uh, one of the companies that you know that guy was working with just happens to work with Eric and he said I don't have any demos on my lot, but I'll tell you what a guy that I know does and he's out, you know, on the other side of town. You should go check out the buildings and come back and talk to me. Well, I went and checked the buildings out, gave Eric a phone call and the rest of it's pretty much history from there. Um, I think I was probably one of Eric's easiest closes. I knew exactly what I wanted and we just struck up a friendship. Eric, tell me, you know, tell me, and tell our friends, you know, your recollection of that how you earned my business and how we became, you know, really good friends, best friends.
Eric Olson:Well, well, I think, I think, um, I would be a fool if I said things don't happen for a reason. So, uh, sure, I think, thinking back, it was like the beginning of COVID. It was like somewhat around COVID 2020, something like that.
Jared Ledford:and then we, you know, we talked back and forth just a handful of times and all of a sudden the world turned upside down on us, right, yeah, and Eric's like well, you know, you know, are you comfortable coming out? I'm comfortable coming out, and you know, tell them, tell everybody where we actually met. We didn't actually mean it a lot I remember, I remember quoting you.
Eric Olson:I had the wrong quote because you had horizontal sides on your building, and you wanted vertical. And I made a boo-boo. So, I called the guy at the cardboard company and was like dang, you want vertical panels, and I couldn't believe that they were more pricey. I didn't understand what the difference was at the time and so I was nervous. I was willing to do anything. So, I just asked you, I think, straight up, where are you at? I can just come to you. I've got the order form filled out, and I think you were with your daughters somewhere over there off of uh, you know, Vandalia area in uh, and we met at a speedway parking lot in like almost this, this sprinkling down rain and I remember I remember parking and approaching you and I remember you being suit because you know it's a little weird to approach. You know we're doing some sort of shed deal in a parking lot here.
Eric Olson:It's like sure we were shady yeah, but I had a clipboard, so it was kind of. You know, it's somewhat professional looking, but you made it easy because you rolled the window down. I made it easy. I think it was 600 bucks as a down payment and you were, you were very, you were very chipper, so it made the transaction go smooth. And I remember you said you said verbatim, I think you said something like hey man, let me know if you need any help sometime, and I'm like boy. Was that not a prophecy, you know?
Jared Ledford:coming through through. Yeah, yeah, I wish I would have said yes.
Jared Ledford:I was at home working at the time. I actually, right after, right after I met Eric, I, you know, lost my job. I was displaced with COVID, like everybody else was, and you know it was working from home and trying to pick up you know little odd jobs that I could. Everybody's locked in their house. We couldn't do anything.
Jared Ledford:And you know, I just remember Eric, you know you reached out to me probably once every other month or once every six weeks, like you know. Hey, man, you know how's the building holding up, like you're trying to do market research to understand how these buildings hold up, so you can get ahead of the curve to understand. Well, you know, if Jared's having a problem, it's good chance that Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones or the next customer you know coming on down the line might have that same problem. And you know, in the meantime we're finally getting the sod laid and we're finally getting landscaping done. And you know we're just going back and forth, the two of us and we're having these conversations about, man, it looks a lot different back there and oh, man, the building's coming along nice.
Jared Ledford:And I just remember you being very customer focused and that you know it caught me off guard because, quite frankly, with my years in customer service and sales, I didn't expect that you were very above, I mean, you were so far above average that it blew me away, right, and I think we went back and forth, you know, I think it was a situation where you weren't ready for the, you weren't ready for the business to be where you really wanted it to be. You couldn't make me a promise you couldn't keep, and it was. You know, just like a lot of guys, we were contractors. You know you were, you were the, you were the OG contractor for Dayton Barnes and All Steel Buildings and everything that that company has done and produced has really been on your shoulders. But tell me why, the why behind that drive, that determination to really want to earn the customer experience and own it from start to finish. What drove you to that?
Eric Olson:I think, man, that's a good question. I think, if I look back at my life and the jobs that I've had, I've always strived to somewhat stand out. I think I'm super prideful in my work ethic. Unfortunately, if you work really hard and you make 20 bucks an hour, you're going to make 20 bucks an hour, whether you're lazy or you're not. I finally found a thing that if you actually put positive energy or over the top energy into it, like, you're actually going to get more back, not just the 20. So, I think, at the end of the day, I found that I was directly influencing my own life by the person I was becoming, and I think the Barnes. The Barnes honestly shaped who I've become, because it's allowed me to be the real version of myself, which is, which is really just a nice.
Eric Olson:I want everyone to win. I want to give you the best deal. You know I want to be chummy with you. I spend hours on the phone with customers, even if they don't buy the building. I just want to make an impact, like you know, as best I can, because I know sales will come, and so I I think there's this, an internal drive for me to make somebody less stressed about the thing that they're trying to do and, in many ways, buying a shed, buying a shed stressful. Buying a metal building can be stressful because most people only do it once, um, and that one time is important, you know, for reputation.
Jared Ledford:You know the need yeah, the needed desire behind it's what's stressful, right. You know, whatever the customers, you know there's a why behind why they're asking for a shed or a storage building or whatever they need. You know it might be to park two cars inside that have been parked outside for a long time. It might be that they have a side hustle or a hobby that they want to get into a self-contained space. It may be that they just have overflowing storage in their garage and they need to get something into an outbuilding. You know we've so many different needs and desires from customers that you know. That's why I picked up on it personally and watching you and learning from you on how to sell a metal building, how to really ask for the close.
Jared Ledford:I think that that's one thing that I really picked up from you, and this is a totally different industry. I was no greenhorn. I had been in sales for 15 years before I met you. I had been with multiple companies and been successful, but it was your ability to be good in the space and really own and occupy where you were at the time. How have things changed since that time, you know, not just for you personally, but for the industry. How have you. How do you see things transforming from 2020, let's say May 2020 to present day, 2025, January?
Eric Olson:So, I mean, obviously things change within the barns. I think we established we've brought in our first workers and had a second location. So, we were managing two different areas at once. Managing, you know, we brought on financing Joel at J Money. Wonderful guy, I'd encourage you, if you want to hear a good story, call Joel. Joel's a great advocate for people. He brought Dayton Barnes financing. So, just along the way you just meet people that help you expand your business, yeah, the way you just meet people that that help you expand your business, um, yeah. So I think I think organizing corporately, um in that in every department advertising, sales team, sales, training, um, website development, you know you, you name it, you just go name a vertical and you just try to hammer it down, um, so it's a typical trek for us for a small business, um.
ADVERTISEMENT:Hello Shed and Carport industry. I'm Cord Cook, chief Brand Strategist here at Shed Geek Marketing. Did you know that Shed Geek Marketing works with 45 shed companies and counting and we are not slowing down in 2025. One of the neat benefits to working with Shed Geek Marketing is working with an agency as opposed to just an individual. When you work with Shed Geek Marketing, you have a team of professionals working diligently to ensure your success from branding guidelines and brand books to websites, google and meta tag tracking that measures the traffic to your website and social media pages, CRM setup and full automation, build outs, lead funnel integration and so much more.
ADVERTISEMENT:Worried about whether or not we can serve you, don't be. Shed Geek Marketing works with manufacturers ranging from $1 million a year in sales up to $80 million a year in sales. There is no manufacturer too big or too small. Remember, marketing is an investment that should be making you money. That's why nearly 50 companies have decided to work with Shed Geek Marketing. So, for more information, go to www. shedgeek. com and submit some basic information and we'll reach out with a discovery call and patiently walk you through how we can best serve you. Thank you for your time and look forward to working with you.
Eric Olson:The industry, though, what I've noticed in the past five years there are less manufacturers. There's the same amount of manufacturers, I feel Dealers are rapidly popping up, particularly in the past couple years. They've popped up A lot of online dealers and a lot of online sales is happening, and so the competition's grown. I would say, as an industry advocate like you are, customer service across the board's plummeted. I mean it's really not that great across the board. I mean, everybody's littered with one-star, two-star reviews and it's tough to find good help. I'd say prices are a little bit more pricey than five years ago, but not by much. We bought a building at my parents' house and it was $16,000. I think now it would probably be $18,500 or $19,000. Really, inflation hasn't been too much.
Eric Olson:Um, not a lot of organization on the metal industry. Uh, you know what industry seems. You know you know the key players there's. There's trade shows, people show up there's. You know there's a ton of dealers and metal buildings. Not so much organization, not, not a lot of brand advocates out there. No governing body um, yeah that type.
Jared Ledford:I think you know it's wild west, the wild west I think, for you know, from my perspective, you know, as we've, you know, grown the business together, I think what I've seen change in the industry is the need for there to be key players at the table, for people to be advocating for each other. Obviously, there's not one single company that crosses every T and dots every I. Some companies do one thing the right way, some companies do another thing the right way. I don't know that we've found anybody that and this is from a comprehensive standpoint. They may manufacture really good buildings, they may have the best install crews, but they don't cover every single state and every single zip code and every single territorial region. Right, I think that's probably from a sales perspective for the shed guys out there that are listening, you know, I think you have to find the right partner. The most common feedback that I've gotten as I've worked with Shannon and gone to trade shows is we just didn't have a lot of luck with our supplier. We were having customer service issues and we're really above reproach when it comes to our sheds, but we're not responsible for the end product with the metal and we're just not willing to take that risk.
Jared Ledford:I think what I would encourage everyone listening to do is do a fair amount of market research. Try to find somebody in the industry that you trust. I mean, that's why we're here, right? We want to be advocates for you, just like we want to be advocates for our manufacturing friends and our partners that we have three or four manufacturers across the United States that do an exceptional job at what they do 99% of the time, and if you can get up to bat and hit 99 home runs out of 100 swings, you're doing pretty good. But there are manufacturers out there and dealers, for that matter that are really leaving a lot to be desired. And I think for those people that might be listening, for those steel guys that are coming in and listening to us for the first time with this, or you know anybody that comes and listens to us that may have never heard anything from Shannon or the shed geek guys, what I can tell you is, if you're part of the problem, you can be also part of the solution.
Jared Ledford:There is industry information out there. There are friends. There are not everybody in this industry. I think the one thing that I take away more often than not is the wood side of things seems to be a little bit more buttoned up, like you said, Eric, but I think that there's more information to be shared through the trade shows, through the organizations that kind of help distribute information. Again, big shout out to the guys at Shed Geek, the whole team there, the podcast team, the marketing team, the finance team. They've got everything that you can ever really want to start a shed dealership or a lot, without really force feeding you with inventory, because they're not the manufacturers, they're just giving you information. I think that's where, on the seal side, it's lacking. I don't know that there's any type of friendly working relationship. We have really good relationships with our manufacturers, but dealers tend to undercut each other and it's a race to the bottom. How do you see the race to the bottom? Let's talk about that for a little bit.
Jared Ledford:I think that might be where we focus our energy on the race to the bottom. Here for a few minutes, Tell me what you think about the race to the bottom when you hear that. I want to hear your opinion on it.
Eric Olson:Well, I think we've all been outbid. Sure, who can give the lowest price? A couple of things about that. I tend to it happens, but I tend to put education on the table first. I think people should be informed first, because cheaper doesn't mean better. Cheaper actually doesn't mean anything. It just means it's cheaper. Less expensive doesn't make it a better, a good solution for you.
Eric Olson:And so, let's, let's just, let's just give an example like, like a sixteen thousand, our building, versus an eighteen. Let's say it's the exact same specs. Let's say one building you know the in in really doing some research on who's doing the 16K versus the 18. What's the reputation? I mean, that's the job of the salesperson. You know, if you ask for the cheapest price, we can get you the cheapest price. Someone will give you the cheapest price. It might be a rust bucket. It might be a building that they tore down and are putting back up. It might be an example. An example I always I go run into is that, um, there's this big myth about, uh, galvanization and companies saying that their buildings are galvanized, and the tube framing is galvanized, without actually providing proof that it is, and then, and then, one year later, your buildings rusty.
Eric Olson:You don't want to you don't want a rusty building, especially if it's a man cave and you've got people coming over to watch games or playing cornhole or having the kids over. It's like you don't want to be in a rusty building after a year and so the race to the bottom. You said it best. Like the it's. It's forcing the customer to think that the best price is the best solution for them, is not true? Um, yeah, it's an easy sell to say oh yeah, this building is, you know? Sure the facts are is. Put the cards on the table and explain what the good, better, best model is. And, like you said, we have a couple manufacturers we can go in between.
Eric Olson:They're all really good manufacturers. And then there's those subpar manufacturers that that are, that are cutting you out. You know, maybe that 16k buildings is more like 14k. Um yeah, it's hard to overcome somebody who has tunnel vision on price without telling them why, without trying, without making with them, not thinking in their mind that this person's just trying to bash the 14k project because they want me to buy the 16, and so there's like a song and dance that's like well, you know, we can go into tactics for that.
Jared Ledford:Well, I, I, I think my play on it is it's not just a race to the bottom in price. I think you're right on the money in your forethought. I think for me I'll add on this piece I think it's a race to the bottom not only in price, not only in expectations, but it lowers the overall value of the product that we all sell. If we all work against each other and we're constantly bickering and fighting and I know there's, you know we always want to close a deal. Where we're at period the end, we will lower a price. I don't think Eric and I are going to sit here and be prideful and lie and tell you that we haven't lowered our price or lowered our down deposit to get a sale. We've all done it. But or lowered our down deposit to get a sale We've all done it. But I think the thing that Eric and I have done exceptionally well and trained our teammates to do with us is that we typically will only do it once. We'll give them a first and final and we'll walk a customer hand in hand.
Jared Ledford:I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a quote from a customer and that quote is from a random address in the middle of a cornfield in Timbuktu and there's nothing to show for it. If you're a customer and you happen to listen to this, the more research you can do on who you're buying from and the end product that you're getting is really it. There's a thousand dealers out there that all do the exact same thing as far as the simple task of selling a metal building or a woodshed. When it comes down to the end products, you want to know from that person who's manufacturing that end product, whether it be a woodshed, steel building, etc. You want to know who's manufacturing it and their lead times. And then you want to take a look at their reputation in the industry. Are they even accredited with the Better Business Bureau? How many Google reviews do they have? Do they have a presence on social media, things like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?
Jared Ledford:These are all things that are validation for you as a customer or really for our shed friends. They're validation for you to potentially become a client and a customer and an associate of these manufacturing companies, and really, we want to advocate for that. If you're listening to us, we are an open book. We can get you in contact with a manufacturer in your area that would probably be more than happy to maybe set up a demo for you if you're willing to sell their product, to maybe set up a demo for you, if you're willing to sell their product. At the end of the day, if you can offer a Pepsi and a hot coffee rather than just offering Pepsi, are you going to sell more product? Probably, if you're selling sheds right now and you're successful, I think the first question I'd ask you past are you selling metal buildings? Depending on your answer, would be why or why not?
Jared Ledford:How successful are you if you're selling them, and if you're not selling them, why not? Eric, what do you tell people I mean, I know that you've talked to some people that are woodshed dealers that when we've tried to court them right, we've tried different things, we've tried to bring on our own shed dealers as to be contractors for us. What do you tell people as to be contractors for?
Eric Olson:us? What do you tell people? I actually had a guy message me on LinkedIn today. He messaged me on LinkedIn. He wants to do a video call with me. It's a person I've known. I've known him for a year or two. He wants to sell our buildings as an option for his other business that he has, which is not wood sheds, like outdoor stuff.
Eric Olson:Um, yeah, what I do know is people want to sell them. They're not sure how to marry them the way that we have married them. We've married them very well together. Um, it's not one or the other. Um, sometimes people buy both. Um, in your case, I moved a sale from one to the other because of what you wanted, and that was more important to me, and so being able to offer both actually made sense at that time.
Eric Olson:It doesn't take away from the wood, though, because this is a good topic. I like this topic a lot because having some lot models having 30 sheds or 20 sheds and then two metal buildings, you're having two different customers. So, if you have somebody that's got chickens and also wants to park two sports cars in, you can package that up so you can. You can sell them a chicken coop and while they're there looking at the chicken coop. Hey, what do you know about these metal buildings? It's like to me.
Eric Olson:I ran into it because the guy who lived in Troy, he came down to the shop. He said I like this carport. And I looked at him like I didn't. I didn't know what to, and so it would be. It was rough, you know, obviously the first go, but I just had to teach myself how to do it. And now that we have both I mean the online presence, I mean having the wood on our properties is great because we can local advertise, but having the metal there opens up the door for, like national sales too. So, it's like you know. Of course I can't sell a shed in Nebraska, like I said, but you know.
Jared Ledford:The industry's come such a long way, right. And then I started the conversation with let's talk about, you know, may of 2020 to now. Right, and I remember, you know, I remember when I made my model, the manufacturer that you were using at the time had a really rudimentary 3d designer, right, really just, it was crude, but it was good. I mean, I can remember sending you pictures of the building and it wasn't smart enough to know things like door placement, window placement I don't know if you remember or not, but I originally had the door in the center and the two windows on the outside and they ended up having to switch it on site because of the leg spacing. But I think one of the things that we've been able to do from again, Dayton Barnes, the company that we run together, started as a woodshed company, was really center focused on woodsheds and has transitioned to more of a metal building sales company, while doing both at the same time very successfully. But I think one of the things that you started very early, you were, and I'll give a shout out and a plug to Idea Room. I think Idea Room has been great for our business, you know.
Jared Ledford:Unfortunately, if you're not using Idea Room, you should be. You know you should be with a 3D designer. There's lots of 3D design tools. We just happen to use Idea Room where we're at and we really like it. A lot of our manufacturing friends use it too. But what I can tell you is, Eric, you were early to the game. When I've when I've seen the guys at idea room out at the expos and stuff, we were a really early client for them and we've been with them a long time. How do you think that you know? You mentioned shed dealers versus metal building dealers and maybe bringing them together or making them one. How do you feel like technology and the advancement from 2020 to 2025 makes it easier to become a metal building dealer now than it did then?
Eric Olson:I think both wood and metal both need technology on the design front, because it's a good way to communicate with someone not standing in front of you, and the only reason I even I used to only use the design tool for to show someone a picture of it. And then our bit, one of our bigger partners they added a pricing tool to it, and the only reason I honestly started using it all the time was I was in Huber Heights at our Huber Heights location. There was a woman in Cincinnati and I had two people coming in to buy wood sheds at the shop and I had to be, and she only had one day and I could not go see her and I thought in my mind let me just Google meet her. And then I shared my screen with her, built a thing, sold the building literally in the same day, and so then I realized, wow, this is a very amazing tool to use for somebody who's willing to buy the building from me. I just didn't have a vehicle to like, show her what the possibilities were without going to her. So that's kind of like when the door open. That was about.
Eric Olson:I would say that was about three years ago, probably about a little over three years ago. It is an instrumental part of our business, and you can go faster, you can do options, it teaches sales reps quicker. Heck. Customers submit design tools. We probably get a dozen of those every day, and so some customers are like they just want to do it themselves and then also kind of come from behind.
Eric Olson:And so I would say that from where we've been to where we are, um, I think we're right where we should be. I think the next layer to it is is offering fight, like either offering finance through the builder or actually being able to put some sort of deposit down with an incentive where, like, a person can come in and, you know, maybe just wrap up the design, make sure everything's crystal clear and um, yeah, and I think that that's. I think, honestly, that's where it's kind of going. Um, hope to be a part of that, honestly, um, but, but I think it's probably the number one tool that we have um in this industry is being able to put that thing.
Jared Ledford:I think about. I think about.
Jared Ledford:Yeah, I think about from a five- year window, right, you know, I think about meeting you and really let's just call it what it is, and you might be sitting in one right now. It was a dumpy shed lot. I mean, there's no two ways about it. It was a dumpy shed lot. I mean, there's no two ways about it. It was a dumpy shed lot. There was nothing very unique about it. It was very run of the mill. It was very everybody has a shed lot, probably within 10 miles of their home, and with our shed guys, you probably are at a shed lot and you take a lot of pride in your location. Right, Eric took a ton of pride, but he was very early in his in his journey and it's not that it was dumpy because of him. It was just an older building with some sheds and that was really all and what Eric's been able to do with help from others, myself included, but really with his vision. Right, he cast the vision for what we have here and you know I'm standing in a corporate office building in a downtown environment in Urbana, Ohio, and I'm blessed to be doing that.
Jared Ledford:I think the one thing that I want to try to help people understand is that if you're listening to us and you're thinking, man, I've done steel before, I just don't want to do it, it's not interesting to me, I just don't want to do it. It's not interesting to me. The industry has changed in so many ways over five years, over three years, over two and over one, that there's opportunities that might not have been there for you when you tried it before. There's advocates like myself and Eric and Shannon and Joel and guys like that who have a lot of experience in the industry, know a lot of friends and have a lot of contacts and, honestly, you know Eric and I are doing this as a labor of love. You know we just love hanging out and talking and you know we honestly, I met Shannon at the garage shed and expo garage shed it's so confusing Shannon will correct me one of these days but at one of the expos and we just got to talking and we had a really good conversation.
Jared Ledford:I've been on the podcast a couple times, but I think what I want to get across to you, our new friends, our new viewers, our new listeners if you are not trying to sell steel, at least locally, where you're at, I would really encourage you to give it a shot. I think it's one of those things where you're not going to know unless you try. And you're going to watch other people do it, you're going to watch other shed lots do it and then you're going to be trying to play catch up and I can tell you from our perspective. We want the more, the merrier, but what we want is we want people that are sharing like minds and like spirits and saying we're going to work together to better this industry and take it up a step.
Jared Ledford:We're going to wrap up this episode today but, Eric, we're going to talk again. So, the next episode that you guys hear, we're going to talk more about the origin story of Eric and Jared, the vision for what we're going to do in the future and maybe how we can help you guys accomplish some things, not just with your businesses, but maybe in your personal life. We're going to bring some guests in. I am super excited for what we're going to be doing here on the Steel Kings podcast. This is just the beginning of a long journey and we're going to bring you lots of good content, Eric. Leave us with a good thought going into the following week.
Eric Olson:All right. Well, it's Friday, moving into final couple weeks of January, it's a good time to like, follow, share the Steel Kings podcast. Shout out to Shannon, Shed Geek. I met him physically, uh, for the first time recently. Um talked to him many times on the phone, um, if you're at the trade show or you're a wood guy, wood manufacturer thank you so much for listening.
Eric Olson:Um, this is day one. So, we want to, we want to, we want to take our day one-ers with us. Um, we are definitely going to be at the next trade show. I know you guys are down in South Carolina but, um, if you guys want to come, uh, wrap back and forth about metal, um, we'll be launching these episodes in March. But you know, um, and you're hearing this, in March, it's not too late. Reach out to us. We'll have a one-on-one chat with you about who we are and what we're trying to do. But Godspeed to you guys and man, I hope 2025 is literally the best sales season that you guys have ever had, and it could be partnering both wood and metal. And either way, thank you for tuning in and God bless you guys. I will echo that, eric, very much. We wish you for tuning in and uh, God bless you guys.
Jared Ledford:I will echo that, Eric, very much. We wish you guys a good and healthy 2025 kickoff. This is the official first episode of the steel Kings podcast. I want to give one more thanks to our official sponsors at the Shed Geek Podcast and Shed Geek Marketing, our title sponsor, the guys over at J money. We'll get you hooked up with financing on your metal building projects. If you're a manufacturer, if you are a dealer, give the guys at J Money a call and tell them the Steel Kings podcast is in ship. We will see you guys on the next one and we'll continue this conversation from there. In the meantime, God bless you guys and we'll talk to you soon. Peace.
Outro:Before you go, the J Money team wants to thank you for listening to today's Steel Kings podcast. Remember, money is king. If you need a financing option on your portable wood sheds or steel buildings, we are here to help. Just check out jmoneyllc. com for more information. Don't forget to catch the next episode. We'll still be here. Have a great day.