Shed Geek Podcast

The Steel Kings: Crafting Your Building Legacy

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 20

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The February lead rush is here - and Steel Kings Jared and Eric are sharing their excitement about the flood of building inquiries that arrives like clockwork each tax season. This surge of potential customers with fresh refunds and springtime dreams creates the perfect opportunity for dealers to convert leads into sales.

But are you leaving money on the table by limiting your product offerings? The hosts make a compelling case for wood shed dealers to expand into steel buildings, revealing how these complementary product lines can dramatically increase your customer base without changing your core business model. Drawing from their experience selling in 45 states, they explain why customers who aren't interested in wood structures might still purchase from you if you offer metal alternatives.

Technology has transformed the building sales process, and the Steel Kings pull back the curtain on how they use 3D design tools to win customer trust and close deals. These powerful configurators allow real-time customization that both impresses potential buyers and ensures their vision matches the final product. For on-lot sellers and online marketers alike, this technology has become essential for staying competitive in today's market.

The episode also explores the critical importance of manufacturer relationships, with candid discussions about finding reliable partners who deliver quality buildings on schedule. The hosts share personal experiences working with various manufacturers, offering listeners valuable insights for developing their own network of dependable suppliers.

Looking ahead, Jared and Eric preview upcoming podcast guests, including Joel from J Money, who revolutionized their business by providing financing solutions for larger building purchases. They close with a powerful reminder that spring selling season waits for no one - the time to address business challenges and prepare for success is now.

Whether you're a seasoned building dealer or considering expanding your product line, this episode delivers practical wisdom from industry veterans who understand what it takes to thrive in the competitive world of shed and steel building sales. Connect with the hosts at JaredatDaytonBarnes.com or EricatDaytonBarnes.com for personalized advice on growing your building business.

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

Jared:

Hey hey, it's Jared and Eric. We are the Steel Kings. Back for episode number three of the.

Eric:

Steel.

Jared:

Kings podcast. We are back Going to talk some things today. Eric, you're pretty excited. We were talking a little bit offline and you were pumping me up, man.

Eric:

Tell me what's going on. I've got a way I'm collecting leads. It seems like literally every year around February 10th or 11th that I just get and pretty much everybody else just get bombarded with messages. Let me get a quote. Let me get a quote. Can you do this? Can you do this? Show me this man. I'm so deep. I've had 28 messages, I think I counted, got one. I'm closing in Nebraska a little 24 by 30. And then this guy's asking about framing for Barn Dominion. I was wondering if we could do the frame for it. Oregon guy apparently owns a property in Oregon and Washington. I'm like, okay. So, I'm like, you know, I'm geeked up because when the middle of February starts hitting, that's when everyone starts kicking tires and nothing's more fun than closing a deal man.

Jared:

It's really good for taxes, right. So, we're all looking forward to getting our taxes filed. Maybe you get a refund, maybe you don't. This case this year I think I'm going to get a really small return, so I'm actually feeling pretty good about that. But that means, at the end of the day, that there's a lot of customers out there who are looking, who now have maybe some free cash. The people who are looking, uh, maybe end of last year that you weren't able to close. We're reaching back out. We're touching cold leads. We're going after those potential hot customers for the spring of 2025.

Jared:

So, you know, as always, we sell steel buildings and wood sheds here, Atlantic coastline up through the Midwest and metal buildings, just like the one you see behind. Eric, really nationwide man, we're up to 45 states pretty comfortably. We can probably tuck a building just about anywhere. I will tell you if you need help with a manufacturer. If you need some advice, we're available. I'm Jared at daytonbarnes. com on an email address available. I'm Jared@ DaytonBarnes. com on an email address. He is Eric@ DaytonBarnes. com on an email address. I can tell you. If you're out there and you're listening to me, and you are a steel manufacturer or partner in the Dakotas. Call to action for you guys. We need you. We'd love to have some better coverage in North and South Dakota. We'd love to get some solid coverage in the main area.

Jared:

I mean, we're really down to just a handful of states.

Jared:

Yeah, northeast is pretty rough. So, we've got the Mid-Atlantic, we've got the Midwest, we've got the West, we've got the Southeast and Southwest, pretty much all covered, ready to go. But I'm feeling pretty good. How about you, Eric? I mean going into another week, another sales week strong.

Eric:

We talked about the thriving part in podcasts too, about when we're the slower months we like to build, and then it's almost like we've spoken into existence. The 30 plus messages I've got in the past 24 hours is just outstanding. So, it kind of seems like we've turned a corner with Episode 3. Yeah, hopefully Episode 4, I've closed a couple deals and can kind of share some of those experiences with everybody too.

Jared:

But yeah, I feel great I feel great.

Eric:

It's Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Jared:

Yeah. So, you guys are probably going to be listening to this. You guys are going to be listening to this sometime middle March, last part of March, so you know we're shooting February the 13th. Today it's kind of a gloomy, dreary day here in Ohio, but tomorrow is Valentine's Day and it's always good when Valentine's Day falls on a Friday. I feel like that's an advantage. That doesn't always go your way. It's hard when Valentine's Day falls in the middle of the week, for sure.

Eric:

That's right.

Jared:

I think we're having a hair of difficulty on Eric's stream side. I'm going to keep talking for a few and we may end up editing this out in post. We may not. We're going to talk a little bit today. There you go, Eric. We're going to talk a little bit today about what we do as a business. As what we do as a business, everybody knows that we're in the wood sheds and steel buildings we kind of want to show you guys a behind the scenes kind of a little sneaky peek if you want to say that.

Jared:

We've spent a lot of time this last year really focusing on our why, why are we doing this, how we're going to get to where we want to go, really setting out the course no different than if you're going from point A to point B, we are trying to figure out the best course, the best path, the best walking strategy. In a lot of cases, me and Eric like to run more than walk. Figuratively, I don't run at all. Eric can probably run, but not me. But yeah, I mean, we want to enter this year. We're trying to pay it forward a little bit. So, for those of you who are sitting on a woodshed lot, which is a majority of the people that are listening to this podcast right now. If you're a shed hauler, if you are a manufacturer, never a bad time to start trying to sell some steel buildings, and that's what we want to talk to you a little bit about today.

Jared:

But I wanted to pull up, Eric, and I hope it's all right with you, man, I think we can. Our friends are here with us right now. I feel like, so let's maybe try something new on our Steel Kings podcast here. I'm going to show you just a little bit. Look at that pretty little thing. Yeah, and for those of you that are not watching along, we're not going to go into deep, deep dives on this. But for those of you that are watching rather than listening, we're Dayton Barnes and All Steel Buildings. We're pretty transparent about that. We're very forward facing. You know, obviously. You know we use SEO. We use a lot of different strategies and avenues to navigate our website and things like that, but I wanted to show you a little bit from a wood perspective. 3d designs always help If you're not using a 3D designer. There are a lot of really good 3D design companies out there. You know, Eric, how do you utilize the 3D design process to sell a woodshed. What's your process look like?

Eric:

I'll tell you what I think from a on-lot perspective. The you know our guys are required. You go out and meet the person with the brochure or something to hand them, give them an action item right off the bat, introduce yourself and I think, just from a general talking standpoint, a person's like you know you want to break the ice and develop some sort of super short-term trust and relationship building there, um, with the thought that you, you want them to come inside, not so that you can hound them with something, but, um, because you know you have this at your disposal and this is a nice looking shed here, um, and color options, and I'm kind of looking for a reason to uh, let's get them inside, let's put some colors on it, let me see if we can fit that door where you want it. Let's see what you know kind of capabilities we are, because it kind of takes the pressure off of me having to know every answer right on. You know, right on cue, um, different color tones and and kind of give them a little bit more of a professional vibe, cause I think I think trust is big Cause most people haven't you know most.

Eric:

I think trust is big because most people haven't. You know, most people haven't bought a shed before like in their life, and so, uh, and most people that buy a shed are like forties, fifties, 60 years old Um, they're going into a kind of hesitant anyway, you know, unless they bought one before, obviously. So, I think the technology is really like icing on the cake. I mean, look at that, this is uh, you can even take a look. You add some interior stuff like a bench or um, and rip man and God, I can't.

Jared:

I know we said it last week, but I love sheds, direct builder, honestly, yeah, they are uh, yeah, we give our, we give our weekly shout out to our, to our shed partner, shed direct, sheds direct um, they'll supply you with wood sheds here, kind of mid-Atlantic up through the Midwest. Those guys are really fair to us, and they'll be fair to you if you want to become a dealer in your local area. We utilize Sheds Direct 3D Builder. We've utilized, we've worked alongside the guys at Shed Pro. If you're looking for a 3D designer or you're a 3D designer company and you want to get out to a new clientele, we're always looking for advertisers too, right? So, if you've got a product out there that you feel like, hey, these guys might be able to benefit from it, we'll take a look at it and we're happy to kind of rep your stuff. We don't necessarily need payback for that, but you know we're always looking for sponsors to help us out.

Jared:

I agree with you, Eric. I'm super happy with what we've got with the shed builder. It is a super nice platform. It works well. It really seems to do the trick. As far as you know, whether you're working on a PC or Mac, whatever you're working on, you know, obviously we can do something like this where let me exit this out. We can screenshot this building, all American shed, 10 by 16. And now, all of a sudden, we've got a working, we've got a working screenshot or a working presentation piece for that customer and take that actual mock-up and use it as a sales tool. I think this is something that's come a long way in the last probably three years or so. Most everybody that's selling at a high volume has some sort of 3d design and configurator, whether it be through their manufacturer or through a partner like IdeaRoom, Shed Hub, sensei, something like that. Wouldn't you say so, Eric? I mean, most of the people that we are competing against and most of the people in this space are utilizing some sort of 3D configurator right, I think the big players.

Eric:

Yeah, I still think it's underused, but I think that most you know, if you're if you're doing any sort of substantial sales, you are definitely using this as a tool um to design and finalize a person's order.

Eric:

Honestly, I mean, there's no, that's right I can't even imagine, honestly can't even imagine trying to sell someone a shed, unless they just want the one that's there. You know, without this to be truthful, because this checks your work too to make sure you got everything on there, so you can kind of comb over the order with them like, okay, we wanted this six inches from here and um, oh, yeah, yeah for me for me.

Jared:

It. For me, it's one of those things where it really starts to take shape for the customer when you can provide them exactly what they might be seeing in their backyard or, you know, on their property, something like that. I think it's hard, you know, especially so. One of the things that we do pretty well here at Dayton barns is we sell pretty much a majority of our buildings at this point. Online, you do not meet or see a lot of these customers, and I think that's probably another call to action for those of you that are sitting on a shed lot or maybe selling from home. If you're not in the online marketplace whether it be through meta or maybe a small Google ad spend or something like that you're not going to be competitive right now.

Jared:

Unfortunately, in this marketplace it is. It is as cutthroat as it's ever been, and I think that's probably one of the things, too, that we want to give back. So if we're calling to action on hey, you're a wood dealer or someone who's selling wood sheds, we want you to maybe consider selling metal, but we also want you to consider know other avenues of advertising, consider different ways to be successful in selling the product that you're doing well selling already, because I can tell you I think it's a next level user that's listening to this podcast. Anyway, you know what I mean, Eric. I think we've got a high class clientele right off the rip. That are like. I know I not only really like selling sheds right, but I really liked the industry as a whole. That's why I'm listening to a podcast on a random Monday with these two guys. Yeah.

Jared:

And you know, considering additional options like steel buildings.

Eric:

Right. And you know, in a next, next level, you know from like, you know, ok, so let's, let's talk to the guy at the shed lot by himself. This is your best friend, I mean knowing it. And then this is your best friend to close it from a from a bit, let's say, let's say you're on a couple locations and you've got, let's say, you're using a backend system. So, this can actually become a tool for you to let customers build their own thing and then you can plug it into your backend system, and I believe that you can just have them email it too. But we've got ours, we've got ours connected to our backend system and they, they just come in as a wood lead, we send it to where it needs to go. It's got all the design link and everything. So, yeah, you know, that's that is another level. I think most people actually don't think of it that way. I think most people just use it as what I said, from a sales perspective, but from a marketing standpoint, it's good too.

Jared:

Lead gen is a passion of mine. I know that that's something that you've always been passionate about too. But I feel like I brought a really laser focus from our Barnes perspective of we have to generate the leads to sell buildings, right? So, when you go to Dayton Barnes's website, you know, imagine if you're on your own website. We're forward facing with wood sheds and metal buildings and garages and carports, all of that. But we have our 3d shed builder linked directly from our manufacturer onto our homepage. Same thing with our 3d designer for our buildings. We do those up here in the design and price now button and that'll load that bad boy right up. And you know, here's another quick plug for our guys over at Idea Room. We've been with them a long time, like six years, and six years they get a lot of flack. So, I know a lot of you guys.

Jared:

the Shed Sales.

Jared:

Professional.

Jared:

I like them too. So, the Shed Sales Professionals group kind of blew up this week. Eric, I don't know if you're in there or not, but we got to get you in there. It's a Facebook group with a lot of different Shed Sales Professionals, and there was some discussion about Idea Room and I have to make a comment. So again, take this with a grain of salt. It's February the 13th here. You're probably hearing this mid to late March. There's no guarantee that.

Jared:

I don't think anything was really negative, but you know, it does cost money to make money, and if you'd like to make a little bit more money, you might want to throw a few hundred bucks or a couple thousand bucks, depending on what your expected return on that give out is, and do something like a 3d designer. This is one that I did recently for a customer who came in through our website. For those of you that are listening along, we're looking at a 60 wide gabled end by 60 long commercial trust style building, kind of like an oversized commercial carport, with a couple of lean twos In this case, both 20 wide lean twos. There's a short side and there's a long side, but this is just something that we toy around with. This is probably the tool that we use the most in our sales process for metal buildings, and the reason we wanted to bring that up is because, again, if you're a wood sales professional, in whatever aspect, we want to draw the correlates line between wood and steel. We want to show you just how unique each product line is, but how they're really married right, Eric?

Jared:

I mean, that's really what we're here to do is is be good spokesmen for the industry, for those of you that are listening probably have had at least somewhat of an experience with steel buildings, and if you're not selling them, um, you know, give us some feedback on why. We'd love to know why you're not selling steel buildings. But we would honestly probably be the first ones to tell you you're really missing out. I think you're missing. I mean, you're really missing out. Yeah, you're really missing out.

Jared:

So, you know, like I said, our buddies over at Idea Room put together this 3D designer for us. It features, you know, our Dayton Barnes logos. It features all kinds of different pricing breakdowns from multiple manufacturers across the United States. And again, we'll give a quick plug to our really our preferred guys over at American Steel. You know, here in the Midwest. We're in Ohio, we do a lot of business with American Steel. We work with Carolina Carports, eagle Carports some of the major players in the industry, and we're lucky to have them as partners, in my opinion, I mean what do you think, Eric, I've a shout out Brandon Falls.

Eric:

He's been. You know they. We went through a kind of a and if you've been in the industry for some time you know uh kind of what happened with the, a company and it used to be called all steel carports and we got bailed out on some orders uh with American steel and man Brandon fall saved the day. We've known him for five years now and I think we're one of their top dealers uh in the country. They sent us a nice gift to put up at the shop for me, which is lovely, honestly, great partner Americans. We scratch, they scratch. You know they've never not held their word. I mean, like everything, it's pretty, pretty, probably the most consistent company from a sales to install. Quality versus price, customer service versus, um kind of what we're doing on the sales side.

Jared:

Certainly, from our perspective, right? I mean, we love the guys. Um, we, and we're going to do a relatively good job of not name dropping too often, we. I think we've been a little bit wordy about dropping free plugs for people today, but that's okay, Because again, we want to give you guys the tools of the trade, right.

Jared:

So again, we're full transparency. We're going to talk about the things we like and don't like and right now I mean honestly I can tell you on this particular episode of the Steel Kings podcast February 13th, it's 2.18 pm in the afternoon we have one official sponsor and that sponsor is J Money. I forgot to give them a plug at the beginning of the show, so I'm going to give them a plug right now. Those guys over at J Money talk to Joel or Katie. They are happy to help you with your contracting financing needs, whether it be a woodshed, a steel building. Those guys are just fantastic for that. They have absolutely helped us revolutionize our business through offering direct financing to customers. So, I want to start being wordy. No, no, not you, brother, I'm dropping, I'm dropping, We've dropped idea Carolina Carpools, Eagle American Steel I'm right there with you and, trust me, we wouldn't be talking about anybody if we didn't love them so much, and that's a fact.

Eric:

We love all of our partners.

Jared:

We are lucky and blessed to have the partners that we have and you know, I think I try to tie everything that I'm going to talk to you guys about on the podcast. It's kind of a call to action and I think that sometimes you get stuck in the mud with well, I am only going to sell for this manufacturer and this manufacturer only. They are the only ones that work for me, and then the manufacturer wants to kind of keep that. If you have a good relationship with your manufacturer, they're never going to turn down an order.

Jared:

What I can tell you about the partnerships that we have and I agree with you, Eric, wholeheartedly we are lucky and blessed to be working with reputable companies that have been around a long time in an industry that has been around a long time and, honestly, still feels fresh and new kind of every day I'm working in it. There's new companies, there's new sales companies, there's new manufacturers, but these particular companies that we're working with have been around a long time and I think if you really are looking for a metal manufacturer, do your due diligence. Look at Better Business Bureau, Look at Google Reviews.

Jared:

Look for customer feedback on social media. Let me jump in there.

Eric:

There was a guy that we know and I'm not going to say names, but he owns a mower business locally and he was selling a boatload of woodsheds and um, and had and had a, and I wouldn't. I want to say, right, I don't think he had a bad taste in his mouth about metal buildings. I think he, just like you've used the word plug, he didn't have a plug for him and um, yeah, we, we somewhat did some. We did a couple deals, deals, and then um, and then I think, ended up just plugging him in with a manufacturer himself and that guy got some demos in his front lawn of his business and man did it. I mean, you know so, so, but he was stoic about it. I remember we're talking to him, maybe I can elaborate a little bit more on that but I think he was a little more like no, it's going, it's going good, I'm fine, fine, selling 25 sheds a month.

Eric:

I'm like, okay, you know you can have like five more thousand bucks or eight more thousand Like. Why would you say no to that?

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Jared:

So, we've gone through we've gone through different iterations. We've gone through different iterations right On what Dayton Barns is doing, what we're doing, to try to scale the business. So, a couple of years ago at this point we were working and you guys know the history by now. You guys have listened to episode one and two. If you haven't go back and check them out. We talk a little bit more at length about where we are, where we came from, that kind of a thing. We talk a little bit more at length about where we are, where we came from, that kind of a thing.

Jared:

But what I can tell you in this particular instance is this is a guy who we really liked. He was a personal referral, we kind of knew. You know six degrees of separation from this guy, but super nice guy had a really nice kind of like Eric said lawnmower company and honestly, there are probably some people listening right now in this same type situation where you're selling for a national brand or a semi-national, you know, regional brand if you will, and you're doing well selling wood sheds, and you're thinking to yourself can I sell metal buildings? The answer to that question is yes. I mean you need to. You need to. In my opinion, it's a complimentary product and some people just don't want a wood shed. Some people might just want a 12 by 20 carport just to roof in some legs. Some people might want a 30 by 40 by 15 metal building.

Jared:

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you need to have as many options as you can to be as well versed in the space as possible. In my opinion. Now, if you're happy selling wood sheds and you don't ever want to look at a steel building, great, keep listening to us, because we're going to talk a lot about wood sheds too. That's a fact. But what ended up happening with this gentleman was we were actually going to try to create kind of a quasi Dayton Barnes another Dayton Barnes location utilizing this gentleman's property. And everything was going well. But we honestly kind of came together, Eric and I, and felt like man this, we honestly kind of came together, Eric and I, and felt like man, this guy might be able to do it better just by himself and we really had to weigh the options of did we want to expel our bandwidth to try to help this guy grow his business? That was already number one successful, number two, exactly where he wanted it to be, and we were good stewards to him and, I think, good stewards to ourselves by not taking it further than it needed to. We helped him broker a couple deals, got him a new manufacturer for steel. He had been like a lot of you guys, burned by his previous manufacturer. I think maybe five, six years ago at this point he had been selling some carports for a national, well-known carport company. It just didn't work out. I don't know if it was his process or the manufacturer, I can't speak to that. He just wasn't happy with the end result for his customers. We got him hooked up with American steel and really the rest is kind of history for that guy. He's still selling wood sheds.

Jared:

Um, he's a competitor of ours and we wish him all the best because, uh, you know that's who we are. We don't go after people. We're not looking to cut anybody's legs out from under them. We want to be competitive, right, you know he is a competition to us and he knows it right and we have a lot of fun kind of going back and forth. But you know, it's one of those situations where, kind of looking at everything in its initial form, when Eric brought it to me it looked great and once he and I kind of sought it a little bit more and went in and kind of deep dive, we were like, yeah, this maybe isn't for us. So you know, I think that kind of lines up with what you were talking about, Eric.

Jared:

As far as pulling the story together, I think, again, call to action, don't go with your gut all the time. I mean, in this industry, in this industry right here, your gut is going to talk to you probably at least a handful of times a day, and we talked about kind of pinpointing and swerving on a dime right. Are we going to change what we're doing in this moment to better our tomorrow? Are we going to stay doing what we're doing to maybe be steady, Eddie, and win the race right? And this case, it was just one of those things. We're having a good business partner, having a really good friend and Eric and he and I had, you know, we were just able to come together and say, you know what we're going to better this guy and we're going to move on from this. And it was, it was easy, it was an easy decision yeah.

Eric:

So, a lot, a lot of shed, lots out. There could use a little jolt, just like that, and uh that's right.

Jared:

That's right. If you got a neighboring shed lot, it's not going to hurt you to go over and say hello. I can tell you right now you're going to attract a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. I can tell you right now I've got good relationships with manufacturers and dealers alike pretty much nationwide at this point that I'm an open book man. You can ask anybody. That's how we're on this podcast.

Jared:

To begin with, we are blessed and honored every day to walk a path that we're proud of walking. I mean, I can tell you I'm proud of what I do every day. I love my job, I love going to work and you know, every time I meet somebody I always try to end the conversation once I meet them with. How many people in this industry have you met like me? And they I mean Eric's watched me do it? It's one of those things where a lot of times I get told no one or very few. And that's what I want. I want everybody to kind of collectively come together and say we're going to be 1% better than we were yesterday, because being nice, being nice goes a long way. So, what do you think, Eric? I mean honestly, you've been in the industry longer than me. Neither one of us are our senior citizens or anything in this industry. We're both still pretty, pretty green in a lot of ways, but I mean, you've seen more than I have.

Eric:

What I can say is that the wood industry is a little more in the know. It seems like every person I've talked to knows everybody else knows what they've been doing. It's a little bit easier to figure out the jigsaw puzzle of the wood industry. Uh, it's got trade shows too, so, like you got to think, there's a lot of that going on too. Um, and it's super competitive. Um, the metal building industry, man, you know over the seasons that we do like I'm hoping to bring some light to it. So, I I'm like you know it isn't he's. You know this company is better than the next. It's really.

Eric:

I think customers are less informed and more reliant on the salesperson to make the decision for them or with them. But there's rarely bad any comment about any company. Now you go down to mount airy different story. So, you know, Mount Airy is a little bit uh, a little bit more um, oh yeah, that guy, he worked everywhere. You know like that type of you know, um, but from a, from a business standpoint, shadlock standpoint, you know you don't get sales people stopping by. You know we, we had, uh, you don't get sales people stop like, hey, you want to get some metal bit like that. That's a thing that there's no um, I don't know what the word is. It's just not as as deep and rooted, I would say. I I think that there's a lot more, I think there's a lot more unknown in the steel industry.

Jared:

Everything in the steel industry is kind of the end product varies so much from manufacturer to manufacturer, from state to state. The regulations are so much different in Michigan than they are in Florida or in California than they are on the coast of North Carolina or South Carolina, something like that. So there's a lot of knowledge and product knowledge that has to go into being a top level steel and metal building salesperson and, honestly, you know if you're selling I-beam or you're selling tube steel or you're selling kits or you're selling fully assembled, delivered buildings like we do, you know or even pole barns, you know, you know, I know there's a lot of people out there that are doing all kinds of different things and it really comes down to, I think what I want to help provide the steel industry is. I know so many people in the wood space that I love and care about that are really genuinely good people. A lot of those people are listening right now, right, and I want the steel industry to have more of those people, and not that the people that are in the steel industry are bad, but I feel like there is so much confusion and everything is so kind of all over the place, all the time we need to put up, we need to put a cap on it. We've talked about, you know, trade association. We've talked about some sort of accountability, I think from two guys who have a team of people that are doing it right.

Jared:

You know Eric sells more buildings than anybody in the company. That is a fact. It's been a fact since day one. Even on my best day, I probably haven't sold to the extent that Eric has. I've had several exceptional months. I have had 16, 17, 18 building months. I know Eric's had several of those. I've had 16, 17, 18 building months. I know Eric's had several of those. When you start talking about selling 18 metal buildings in a month, it is grind time. Eric and I have been on Facebook Messenger at 1 o'clock in the morning selling buildings to people Not even kidding you people, not even kidding you.

Jared:

You know, if you really want to take it to a next level online marketing with, with Steel buildings, metal buildings, um consignment, dealer model, with sheds you're in a great space and if nobody's told you this week, hear it from the Steel Kings. You're in a good place. If something's going on. If something's going on, find, find a solution. Reach out to somebody at your manufacturer, your, your supplying partner, whatever, but don't sit idle. Do not sit idle, man, cause I'm telling you there is so much good stuff going on in our industry. Sounds like you want to jump in here. Go ahead.

Eric:

Oh, I was going to say it, it just came to me and I'm going to say it because it's kind of funny. But when we first started doing building sales, like we'd have like a big day, and I wanted to say, like you know what happens when you sell 16 buildings in a month? You literally get to door, dash your favorite Mexican food restaurant to your office right, like that's right. The next day you said it last time.

Jared:

It's the little things that make you keep going, you know you said it last time, so I remember the door dashing, the five guys. I think you guys were door dashing five guys, so you know for those of you guys go back and check it out.

Jared:

But Eric started this whole thing as really as a youth group project. Right at the time Eric was a youth pastor and he starts really seeing the need for additional workforce. He's like, well, great, what. What better project can I do than provide the youth at the church and outlet to come and hang out? We'll get them door dash five guys and we can work on the sheds and steel.

Eric:

It was like. It was like. It was like, hey, hey, you, here's a hundred bucks. Go to the post office, go pick up a sack of burgers. You, you're going to the bank with this bag of money and they're like 16 years old, like okay, I'll be right back and I'm like extra cheese on my sandwich. It's all good, you guys come back and we'll keep saying you know, man, it just turned into, you know, speaking of you, I've got you tonight. So I'm back in the back in the biz there too.

Jared:

So yeah, so you know, for those of you that don't- have fun at work too yeah, man, I I think you know, I think we're to. I wanted to close up today a little bit. We're going to get long-winded. Some of these conversations we might take out to two and three part episodes, but some of them are going to hit you right in the face.

Jared:

Today's call to action is if you're a wood dealer, become a steel dealer, or at least consider it. If you need help, reach out to Eric and I. We're happy to help Jared@ DaytonBarnes. com, Eric@ DaytonBarnes. com, but I want to talk to you guys a little bit about what to expect, right? So we're on episode three. We're still getting our feet under us, we're still learning the process, but Eric and I have been in really deep discussion, thought and prayer about what we want to do with the steel Kings podcast. Part of that's going to be we're creating a social media outlet. We're going to be on all the social media platforms Facebook, uh X, Instagram. We'll be out there, you know, amongst you guys. We want you guys to reach out. We want you guys to comment, tag us, hashtag, questions, comments, concerns. We want to know what you want to hear about.

Jared:

We're the open book in this and you guys are the reader and we want to make sure that we write chapters that you all are interested in reading, if that makes sense. We're going to do interviews. We're going to talk to guys from each one of our preferred manufacturing partners. Those will be some plugging episodes, not going to talk to guys from each one of our preferred manufacturing partners. Those will be some plugging episodes, not not going to lie to you, but we're going to show you guys kind of how to do both and from a manufacturing standpoint. On the wood, we're going to talk to some wood manufacturers and some steel manufacturers. You might get a monologue from me a half an hour, 45 minutes. You might get the same from Eric. Um, one thing I wanted to give a shout out to Eric is we're going to talk to, we're going to talk to Joel next week. I don't know if you knew that yet, but we're actually going to. We're going to bring Joel into the Steel.

Jared:

Kings podcast. That's right, we're going to bring Joel in from J Money. We're going to talk to him a little bit, and Katie, I think we're going to try to get both of them here. Nice, you know, just to give you guys kind of an overview. Thank you for that. Yeah, we have been friends with Joel. Eric's been friends with him longer than me. Eric, give us kind of your best overview, your best couple minutes, on Joel as we prep for next week.

Eric:

You know Joel is the yes, he owns the money. His knowledge of sheds, his banking, his ability to create a solution that's, in my opinion, somewhat complicated, and he's got the right skill set. So, the steel industry before it's been dominated by RTO. The steel industry before um, you know it's been dominated by rto and there really hasn't been a company out there willing to take a risk on financing these large 20 to 30 000 projects 50, 60 k um. And so, Joel walked into our life. Thank God, he walked into our life because um, um, and he was asking about rto stuff and we were pretty buttoned up there and I remember and I'll plant this seed, we'll just go into depth about it next time. But you know he said, well, what, what, what is it? You know you got, he was, we were charismatic and kind of was jiving and he said, well, what, what, what is a need that you guys have? I said, dude, if you can finance a $30,000 project, you know, know for us with, with decent monthly payments, you know I'll sell you a million. I mean it, it will never end, just bring it.

Eric:

You know, and that was a year before he came back to us with the answer to that and so we stayed in touch a little bit and man, we'll dive into the story about how and what that looks like and let him kind of touch on it. But man, he, he kept us in mind and so we keep him in mind too. And man, man, we've, he's got us. He, he got us some golf tournament tickets in Columbus and spent trap traveled with man. I was in Texas with him rolling around. So I've been on some trips with the guy. I went to North Carolina with the guy I've been in boardrooms with, with high level profile people and, yeah, he's just a great guy. He's a good advocate for Dayton Barnes and yeah, we can't, we cannot thank him enough about being.

Jared:

We cannot thank him enough for being the studio sponsor for this podcast. The whole reason that we're able to do this right now and talk to all of you and have a platform, um. Shout out to Shannon over at shed geek. Shout out to Joel over at the j money team um, we've been partners with the guy, we've been friends with the guy. Um, now we're kind of getting into advocacy and we are going to be kind of a profound speaker on the behalf of the J Money brand. It has absolutely revolutionized our business and what we do here on a day to day and we've been able to help our friends revolutionize their business doing the same thing. Revolutionize their business doing the same thing.

Jared:

Yeah, and I'm excited to talk to him because we have a really deep dive story to tell you all about. It's about friendship, it's about staying true to yourself, it's about really taking advantage. And again, eric, I met Eric when he sold me a metal building and now, all these years later, we're on a podcast together called the steel Kings and we've got a. I mean, I'm so thankful for the team that we have here and all the opportunities that we've been blessed with. I can't tell you, I want you to think about this, I want you to be excited to hear the story. So, Eric will attest to this. Eric will absolutely tell you.

Jared:

Jared Ledford does not miss work. Jared Ledford goes to work every day. He loves going to work. The one day, the one day, the one day that Jared Ledford was sick and I mean sick, bro, I was sick was the day that Jared, Eric and Joel had to drive one day there and back to North Carolina from Ohio and Jared was dying in the front seat while Eric was speeding to North Carolina and I think Joel might have been holding on to the seat bottom in the back.

Jared:

I think we were all over it. So, I mean, we're going to talk about a 12-hour journey that cemented our friendship with frankly, we were talking to one of the biggest metal building manufacturers in the United States. I felt like I got ran over by a freight train. I don't know what was wrong with me and these two guys pulled me through and we had a great meeting right. I mean we did great.

Eric:

We had a great meeting. We hit, we hit the mountains, and he says, and he said, uh, play that old, uh rock, you play that song, that song that. And he said play that old rock, he played that song, that song that we play. He said out of nowhere. He's like, you know what I think this moment is. Let's put on that song.

Jared:

West Virginia. You know that.

Eric:

Take Me Home. Country Roads by John Denver. Take Me Home.

Jared:

Country Home by John Denver, and I think John Denver yeah, I think I was dying in the front seat by the time. So, another little tidbit about me. For those of you who don't know Car sickness I get car sick right now. So, we're going to talk about a lot of things. I'm going to plant another seed for another car story, because Eric and I did a journey, oh man. We flew from Ohio to Phoenix Arizona. We had a store there and it's another long story. You know we're going to have so much fun.

Jared:

Yeah, yeah, once we get once we get unbuttoned and we start to really loosen up and become the steel Kings for you guys. You know there's some nerves. I'm not going to lie to you. We're on a pretty strict schedule and I'll tell you. If Eric and I could just sit down and podcast all day, we would love it. So, but right now we are in laser focused mode, like all of you. We are getting ready for that spring sales season. We're going to wrap up today.

Jared:

I'm going to do the call to action. Right, if you're sitting idly by, get off your butt and start moving. Right, get into game mode, because right now you're listening to us and it's the third or fourth week in March. It is time to start selling. And if you've got an issue, don't wait till July to address it, because by that time you're going to look up and it's going to be up, and it's going to be October and it's going to be winter time and you're going to be like where'd my busy season go? You have got to get up off your butt and start moving. Um, Eric, you got anything on the way out this week, brother no, man, I'm super excited for Joel's podcast and the next one.

Eric:

We've got one. We didn't mention who it was coming, but, man, super excited about that one too. It is middle of March, man, look, post ads. Be real, go online, share your story. It's going to work out. Then hit here and an eye up If you guys have a question about metal buildings. Man, maybe just want to do a Q&A session with us. We're not shy. We will point you in the right direction. That's right. Many blessings for you guys in sales in March and April. Absolutely, absolutely.

Jared:

Stay safe, my friends. We will catch you next week on the Steel Kings podcast Again we are talking to the man, the myth, the legend, the J Money himself, Joel M Oney. So, for all of you that don't know, that's how we get J Money himself, Joel M Oney. So, Eric, I'm out. Brother, how about you? Have a great week, my man and we'll talk to you guys soon, later on, guys.