Shed Geek Podcast

Stroke of Faith: How One Woman's Near-Death Experience Led to Her True Calling-Part 2

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 39

Share episode

Send us a text

What happens when the world seems to move on after a devastating loss, but you're left picking up the pieces while simultaneously caring for grieving children? In this heartfelt conversation, we explore the critical work of Widowed Parent Relief Project (WPRP) and how they're transforming support for families experiencing profound loss.

Kelly, WPRP's founder, reveals the science-backed approach behind their services, explaining that the number one predictor of how well children adjust to losing a parent is directly tied to the functioning level of the surviving parent. This crucial insight drives their mission to alleviate everyday stressors through practical services like home cleaning and organizing, while simultaneously building enduring support systems that prevent the isolation so many widowed parents experience.

The discussion takes us deep into the rarely discussed "secondary losses" that accompany the death of a spouse – the 20-50 additional losses that cascade through a family's life, from social connections to practical skills the deceased partner handled. We learn how simple things like maintaining a yard, organizing paperwork, or even operating electronic devices can become painful reminders of absence and sources of overwhelming stress. As Kelly notes, "When you have this big grief, the things that ordinarily are life's burdens feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Beyond exploring these challenges, the conversation offers hope through WPRP's innovative two-pronged approach: providing paid services to reduce practical burdens while assigning family friend volunteers who serve as liaisons between widowed parents and communities that want to help but don't know how. These compassionate strategies create breathing room for grief while ensuring families don't face their journey alone.

Whether you're personally touched by loss, know someone who is, or simply believe in the power of community support during life's most challenging moments, this episode will transform how you think about grief, parenting, and what it truly means to help when help is needed most. Visit wprp.org to learn how you can support this vital mission.

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

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

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

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

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber

Shed Geek Marketing
Shed Hub
Shed Suite
IdentiGrow
CAL

Shed Geek:

Thank you for listening to part two of a two-part series here at the Shed Geek podcast. If you missed part one, just go back to last week and listen for more engaging conversation here at the Shed Geek podcast conversation here at the Shed Geek podcast.

Kelly Orrico:

Our mission is to alleviate everyday stressors and help build an enduring support system for widowed parents so that they can spend more time with their children and focus on their family's mental health and healing. So, we partner with moms or dads who've lost their spouse and have children living with them in the home under the age of 18 and have lost their spouse within the children living with them in the home under the age of 18 and have lost their spouse within the last three years. We pick that number because the um everything's research-based Um the mental health in those first three years are critical and that's really why we pick three years. Um, the number one predictor of how well a child will adjust to the loss of their parent is the functioning level of the surviving spouse. So, it's like, okay, well, how can we help our parents function as best as they can while they're grieving and their children are grieving to help them through this time Right and so that? So, what we do?

Kelly Orrico:

We have really two arms to what we do. We have paid services that help alleviate those stressors and then we also have a family friend volunteer program that does the other part. So, the paid services that we offer. We walk alongside our families for one year or more, but at minimum one, and we pay for monthly cleaning services. We pay for home organizing. Both of those things are research-based about what, what a clean house, what decluttering can do for your cortisol levels. It's actually proven that, if you like, clutter and depression are kind of cyclical and go together. So it's like clean house, clean mind kind of thing.

Kelly Orrico:

it's all science I love that because I'm like cj it's scientifically proven.

Kelly Orrico:

We should get a cleaning lady I operate the same way.

Shed Geek:

My wife will, will tell you I. You know, some people can have a cluttered desk and they know where everything's at. They don't want anybody to touch it. When everything's orderly for me, I just that's when I know where things are at and, yeah, I clean, house clean, mind clean, whatever it is, I just feel I feel better. So, yeah, I believe in the science behind that. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm just obsessive, compulsive, I'm not really sure, Kelly, maybe. But if you saw my desk right now, you would see that papers are not slanted at angles, they're straight up and down. There. I'm a little bit OCD. I've got things in their little spots and they they're squared off and I just love that.

Shed Geek:

I feel like I can breathe whenever I operate under that. So, I totally get the science. Whether it's the science or not, it makes sense to me.

Kelly Orrico:

Exactly Well, and I wish I had one 10th of that, actually. But now think about if you didn't, if you weren't naturally that person just start there and your spouse was the one that helped organize and clean. And all of a sudden now, every time you look at something that is a mess, it's a reminder that your spouse is gone. This goes for, like the lawn care. You know, looking outside and seeing your all the bushes are overgrown and there's weeds growing and that's embarrassing to you for the neighbors to see, and you know, but you don't. Everything becomes so big Every when you're, when you have this big grief, the things that, like ordinarily, are like life's burdens. They feel like the weight of the world on your shoulder, and so grief has this buildup of things in someone's home a lot you know, and then it becomes so big that you don't you don't even have the energy to tackle it. And so, a clean house and you know, clean sheets for the kids, and like that's. There's a healthiness part of that too, right, so but the and then the home organizing. It's like we've helped people. I've got my husband's office. It's been sitting there. I don't can't bring myself to go through it and we could use that space for a playroom or move the teenager into their own space or whatever. Fill in the blank, there's always things so we've sent.

Kelly Orrico:

Many parents have come to us and like we bought this home and we were going to rebuild, we were going to, you know, renovate it, and then he died and now it's like half renovated. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, there's just so much going on and so that can really help with that kind of thing. And then we also pay for self-care stipends and so oftentimes this is again for anyone really grieving the first thing that goes out the window is really caring for yourself. But now, if you're a parent, all your energy is going to your kid and you feel bad stepping away for yourself to go out with friends. You feel bad about that.

Kelly Orrico:

You feel bad about spending money on yourself because, also, you might not know where your finances are. Everything's in like limbo, right, a lot going on there, and so oftentimes they're not spending any money on themselves and they don't want to get a babysitter and whatnot. So it's like, hey, here's some funds and we want you to spend that money because if you're refreshed, you're going to be a better parent. And so how are you going to make sure that you spend that money? Oh, we have a family friend, volunteer who's going to walk alongside you, and not only are they going to look out for your self-care, but they're also going to ask you about all the other challenges that you have going on in your life.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Hello Shed and Carport Industry. I'm Cord Coch, chief Brand Strategist here at Shed Geek Marketing. Did you know that Shed Geek Marketing works with 45 shed companies and county 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.

Kelly Orrico:

A widow again at any age will experience 20 to 50 secondary losses. So, honestly, it's no, it's no wonder that we don't know what to do and how to help somebody. So, it's like I mean I could help her with that, but does she need that? I don't know, maybe she's good at that and she doesn't need that. I mean, if CJ died, it'd be like someone come over here and tell me how to turn my TV on. I'm like I, Frankie, my turn two and I handed my kid my remote and CJ did it the other time. I haven't touched a remote in 20 years. Like you know how much TVs have changed in 20 years. Like I wouldn't have a clue. So, I probably would just never watch TV again. Like I would need someone for just something as simple as turning a television on. And I feel like I'm technologically savvy, but TVs scare me.

Kelly Orrico:

So, anyways, the family friend is going to ask these questions. They're gonna be like what are your challenges? What's burdening you? And then they're going to reach out to the community, the people who want to help you but don't know how and or what you need, and they're going to say, hey, could you help with this? And everyone's going to go? Yeah, because we want help, and so we do that.

Kelly Orrico:

And what's awesome is some of our families don't have anybody. They moved here during COVID husband got sick, died, and they don't have anybody. They don't have family, not friends. It's like you know they're starting from scratch. Other people have a support system, but remember what studies show oftentimes they lose their friends and family. This chasm forms because they don't know what to say, because there's a parent, who does have a role in this, needs to be able to say what they need, and most people don't. We as humans, just don't. We just don't. It's just. It's oftentimes we don't. If you do, God bless you, because that is what you should be doing, because people want to help, right?

Kelly Orrico:

So, this family friend is a liaison between this already community that loves you and doesn't want to leave you and the parent, and they'll prevent that chasm from happening, which is really awesome. So, there's that too. But sometimes parents come on too late in that element it's never too late to come on, but like that part, that has already happened to them and so again they're alone, they feel alone, or maybe they just don't want to talk to those people anymore because there was a tragic death and they, they need to separate themselves from that community. Now, like that happens too, everything's understandable and everything's your own, feel grieved. There's no wrong way to grieve. So, it's like, listen, we just want to meet you where you're at and help build this enduring support system for you, how that looks to you Right. And so, we engage the community, we engage friends, and that's part of our mission, is to do that.

Shed Geek:

I'll tell you what I. I love it because I think I told you before coming on here, a couple of things. One you know just how immersed we are in, like the Anabaptist community, the plain community, there's a huge amount of Amish and Mennonite culture that's inside our industry and I don't know, you know, anybody who does culture or who does community better. They just have. I mean, every time I talk to somebody they're like you know they've attended like 30 weddings this year. You know what I mean. They're like we go to this one and this one and this one and, like funerals and just support groups and just the internal workings and mechanisms that they create. And this is one thing that, for those of us who weren't raised into that world, you know, in that culture the world's, the world's a little bit harsh, it's a little bit hard, it's a little bit cold. And you know, community seems to be a far, far and away removed from what I felt like it was for me growing up. You know, we grew up around all of our cousins, you know, and that wasn't near what my mom talks about, the closeness of family for them. And I know my kids just haven't got to experience quite the same. We're always in demand, working trying to make a living, can't make it to this, can't make it to that, miss a wedding, miss something or another, and we don't prioritize necessarily a lot of the right things. And I think that that's happening more and more to the nuclear family in many ways, shapes and forms.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Introducing ShedHub, your ultimate shed marketplace. Are you in the shed business and looking to connect with more buyers? Look no farther than ShedHub. Buyers, look no farther than ShedHub. ShedHub is a game-changing two-sided marketplace that brings shed sellers and buyers together in one easy-to-use platform. Think of it as the Amazon of sheds. ShedHub isn't just any ordinary marketplace. It's a powerhouse that ranks on the first page of Google search results in 91% of US cities, with over 1.2 million impressions on our website last month alone. ShedHub is where you want to be to showcase your sheds to a wider audience. And here's the best part For a limited time, you can join our exclusive Next 500 plan for just $39 per month. Simply head over to geek. shedhub. com to sign up and start attracting more shoppers to your shed listings. As the Shed Geek, I am here to endorse Shed Hub and invite you to join me on this journey to boost your shed business. Whether you're struggling with website visibility or simply want more eyes on your product, ShedHub has got you covered. Don't miss out on this opportunity to supercharge your shed sales. Visit geek. shedhub. com today and make your mark in the shed industry with Shed Hub.

Shed Geek:

So, you know, I knew whenever we got to talking, I just I loved your testimony to begin with. We have a, you know we have a ministry. I believe God gives us all the ministry I've talked about for a long time. You know there's a little farther to get into Hebrews, and Hebrews 13, 3 says be with those in prison, as though you're in prison yourself, and we've done a lot of faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation and even prison ministry in our time, and I'm in a bit of a desert there. I believe that that is and always will be, because I don't think a calling that's placed on your life leaves your life. But I'm in a bit of a desert moment for that and we just haven't found the right outlet. But the one thing I know is that either you know, like when God brings you success and we've just had, you know, just some really cool moments in the last four years because of the podcast connecting with people learning people's stories.

Shed Geek:

This networking works. Right, it starts to meet more people. You throw out a net. We met Joe Next thing you know. Through Joe, we met Kelly. Right, it starts to meet more people. You throw out a net. We met Joe Next thing you know. Through Joe, we met Kelly. Right, maybe Kelly meets someone because of the podcast, I don't know, but I think that's how God, sort of like, made it work and none of us get to sit back and be like we're the reason, we're the, we're the reason, like you know the reason, and it's God and I love it. So I hope someone's blessed by your story.

Shed Geek:

But us, as a company Shed Geek, you know, I just really wanted a place that we could publicly talk about who and where we're helping and who we line ourselves up with and what we do as a company. And when I heard your story I was just really so touched by it. I mean the magic, you know, of your mom going home, you know, on May 3rd, and your stroke a year later on May 2nd, and you know the day to celebrate mothers and orphans being May 3rd. Just listen to the whole story. We got a chance to be there. It was very emotional. It was. It's very emotional, it was very raw and it was very real and it was something that we just took away.

Shed Geek:

Uh, there were so many good stories there. You know there were so many other people that that talked and, uh, and, and we're connected with a lot of people that have a lot of uh. You know things that they, you know, believe in. Um, you know couldn't be any more proud of. You know, Sam. I know you don't know Sam, you know believe in. You know couldn't be any more proud of. You know, Sam. I know you don't know Sam, but you know I was telling you about what they're doing with, you know sheds in North Carolina and being able to give those away the tornado relief here near our home in West Kentucky whenever it came through Mayfield last year. You know last year has been a couple of years now.

Shed Geek:

You know we were able to come together with Sam between the podcast and the shuttle at brotherhood. I think we raised something like $50,000 in in 24 hours. We even hey, we even did a uh uh, a shout out to um uh, chip gains on Instagram and chip actually answered on Instagram and he gave us $10,000 towards the calls of and you know, you know, you know it was the most awesome thing Kelly is like whenever we would go and we would give away these generators. I knew that a lot of these folks in the Mayfield community before the tornado probably watched the learning channel or Magnolia network or whatever it was Right, and they knew who chip and Joanna were.

Shed Geek:

Most people do A lot of people really do and and I knew that if I said, hey, these were donated to you by the shed geek, people would be like, okay, great, don't know what that means. But instead I was able to say, well, I'm not exactly sure which of his $10,000 went towards which generator, so I just assumed any generator I grabbed was donated by him. And it gave me the authority to say, hey, have you ever heard of Chip Gaines? And they were like, yeah, like on the Learning Channel. And I was like, yeah, he donated this generator to you.

Kelly Orrico:

I love that.

Shed Geek:

And that was so powerful because I was like, oh God, bless him, tell him. We said thank you and I was like I don't really have that kind of access to him, but it was just kind of nice to be like. You know, what he stands for as a brand is his walk with Christ and he lives that publicly. And because he gave you know what I mean, I didn't need the glory, you know what I mean. Like that's not what it was about. It was about the ability to give.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Are you ready to elevate your shed business to new heights? Your pathway to success just got a whole lot smoother with shed suites innovative marketing platform. Shed Suite , we like to think we understand the shed industry at least a little bit, and over the last seven years, we've been building awesome software for shed businesses. We focus first on building easy-to-use software to help you create and track orders, like the point-of-sale and after-the-sale order fulfillment, and now we're excited to announce our full feature CRM All things pre-sale, you know, like prospecting and follow-up All to empower your shed company to market better and sell more efficiently.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Our platform empowers you with a marketing toolkit designed to amplify your online presence, engage your audience and drive sales like never before. Enjoy the ease of conversion, tracking, email marketing, centralized lead communication and so much more. Oh, and guess what? It even comes with an iPhone and an Android app. With Shed Suite's marketing platform, crafting and deploying effective marketing campaigns is a breeze. The advanced reporting functionality allows your team to analyze real-time conversion data so you can make informed decisions and watch your business flourish. There's no better time than now to join the community of Shed business owners who are scaling up with Shed Suite. It's time to turn your marketing efforts into real trackable results. Visit shed suite. com forward slash marketing to get pricing, explore the features and book a demo. Shed suite is committed to building top quality software to empower your shed business to thrive.

Shed Geek:

Right now, we just have not. I mean, hey, we support Sam, we support all of these different endeavors, the tornado cleanups, storm, storm cleanups, all these things. But I heard your story and I thought, man, we just really need to get behind something. So we're going to dedicate something Me and Deanna will dedicate something ourselves to your effort, but and you know, and I don't know what that'll be, but we're going to donate and but, more than anything, we're going to put a link, uh, for those of you get the newsletter, uh, the email newsletter that comes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we'll put a link. Not only there'll be that one there, today's episode that might've been how you heard about it, but we'll put it. We'll put a link to Kelly's website here www. wprp. org. So Widowed Parent Relief Project W-P-R-P.

Shed Geek:

And there is a donate button right on here that you can give. I encourage you to go and give. Hey, listen, I'm not going to wear you guys out the listeners with this. I try not to do that. I always tell you guys we're starting year five. This week starts year five of the podcast. We're over 300 episodes in and we don't ask for money. We ask our advertisers for money. So, we don't ask for money unless it's some charitable event or something.

Shed Geek:

But if you've ever wanted to support me, shed Geek, we do this for free. This shows up in your email. You turn on Spotify, boom, there we are. You get on YouTube, there we are. We put a lot of effort into this. We really want you guys to go celebrate. Vendors and advertisers, sponsors who support our show by all means go Tell them. Shed Geek sent you.

Shed Geek:

If you ever wanted to support something that has no calls tied to the shed industry, there's no, there's no back door into hoping that. You know if you guys celebrate what shed pro. Or you know uh, uh, you know the zula or any of these different things. You know union grove lumber. You know this has nothing to do with the shed industry. This is just a noble cause on my behalf and that might be nothing, Kelly, and I don't know that might be a lot on my behalf If you have not pledged your personal conviction, your business, your business. If your business does not tithe, if you have something that you're just inspired today, if you're not inspired by the podcast, maybe you'll be inspired by calling Kelly, talking to her, hearing her story, getting to meet her team, ask this is something we want to support and I would ask that if you were ever considering in any way shape or form, call her, click on the link, donate something today.

Shed Geek:

I promise you $5 is welcome, I guarantee it. I've never found an organization that says too little is not enough. There's no such thing. So, you know, feel free to give and don't find yourself falling into the trap that Kelly was talking about earlier. That we all do, we all say the same thing. We all fall into that trap, right, we all fall into that trap of like. If there's anything I can do, let me know. If there's any way I can help, let me know. And it's like then one in one ear and out the next. And it's really hard to beg on behalf of people, right, and really you shouldn't have to, because they should give the free heart and I, and I believe that if God convicts them, they will give them the free heart. But I want to leave you with a couple thoughts here. This is one of my favorite thing about Simon Sinek and I'm on this kick, uh, and you guys may have heard me talking about, you know, being a giver versus being a taker in this world and what that means. And Simon Sinek talks about this. He said he did an experiment. There's a YouTube video out there where he's talking about this.

Shed Geek:

He said to the homeless person. He said you know, when you're a homeless person, we've all done this, we all walk by someone and you've seen the sign. You know, if you want to give, you don't want to give whatever. You know. Give to me because I'm poor, give to me because I'm hungry. Give to me because I'm a vet, give to me because I'm hungry. Giving me because I'm a vet, giving me because I have a dog, kids, whatever it is.

Shed Geek:

If you give, you pay for that feeling that you get that feeling of goodwill. When you give, you're paying for that feeling. It's a commercial transaction. He says You're paying for that feeling of goodwill. If you don't give, you can't feel good. You either feel bad or you feel nothing. You know, you, you, but you don't feel good about not giving. So, and, and.

Shed Geek:

The question is it's like you know, uh, he talked about the soulless person. He said you know, they typically make about $40 or so a day by sitting there selling this feeling of goodwill, selling this feeling of goodwill. If you'll give to me, you'll feel good. So, if you just give to me, you bought that feeling. You feel good, you, you, you, you know and he says you know, but I found that sometimes you can change the narrative. And he said what I did was you know, I changed the sign and this homeless lady made $40 in two hours as opposed to $40 in eight. Eight sign and this homeless lady made $40 in two hours as opposed to $40 in eight hours. And he said what did the sign say? He said I just changed the sign to simply say this, I know you can't give to everyone, so if you can only give once a month, please conside

ADVERTISEMENT:

Oh no. Sam, what's going on? Are you okay?

ADVERTISEMENT:

Yes, I'm fine, Lisa. I was just trying to get a screwdriver and all this other stuff fell down. I'm ready to go buy a shed so we can have some space in this garage again.

ADVERTISEMENT:

I agree, I keep looking at the shed Mr Jenkins bought. Let's ask him where I got his.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Howdy neighbor, we're wondering how do you like your shed?

ADVERTISEMENT:

I love it. It's exactly what I needed, and I couldn't have asked for a better service. And where did you get it? Hmm, I can't remember, but let me check Something. This nice will probably have the builder's name on it somewhere. Hmm, no, I'm sorry, I can't find a name anywhere. Well, we finally got a shed.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Yes, I just hope we're happy. The thing is a lot more shoddy than I expected, and I'm sure I told them I wanted a window, but they didn't have it in the paperwork so I couldn't argue. Boy is this a lousy shed. We haven't even had it two years, have we?

ADVERTISEMENT:

Barely. It was just a bad deal all the way around. Mr Jenkins told me the other day that he likes his shed so much he wants to get a second one, but he still can't remember where he got it.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Your product is your best advertising. At IdentiGrow, we provide nameplates that ensure your quality products are never forgotten. Identify your products, grow your business. For more information, visit identigrow. com.

Shed Geek:

It's all about the giver and it's nothing about the taker. It's nothing about who I am. I'm a vet. He says corporations do the same thing, don't we? You know, we're the biggest, the baddest, the fastest, we've been around, the longest. We're this, we're that, we're that, blah, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me, me, me. He says, you know, but when you take thinking about the giver, you know you've addressed their concerns. Well, I can only give once a month. I just ask that you would consider me next time. And because of that, we want to extend the offer to put an ad in our newsletter for your project and hope to keep it in front of people constantly when, if you don't give immediately, maybe you'll give eventually, maybe you'll consider going and you say what's this got to do with sheds? Nothing, nothing. This is not about. This is not about what you can take from the podcast. This is four years and 300 episodes where we've never asked you to do anything more than give to the people who help, sponsor and keep us on the air. But in this situation, I want to. I want to call you guys to consider giving to this cause, because this cause is valuable. And if you don't give every time and you can't give every time. I would ask you, please consider Kelly's cause. It'll always be here, available. Make sure to put something on the newsletter. A few things that I want to point out, and I spoke about this in our keynote speech recently.

Shed Geek:

Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life, saddleback Church, he says there's more promises related to generosity than any other promises in the Bible. More promises related to generosity. Why does God want us to give? Because you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. One of the most important Bible verses, according to our faith, is what it's John 3.16. For God so loved the world, what did he do? For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. It's better to what than what. Everyone knows that it's better to give than to receive.

Shed Geek:

Keywords in the Bible. Everybody can believe that the word believe is important to the Bible. It's mentioned 272 times in the Bible. The word love extremely important 714 times, but the word give 2,152 times it's mentioned in the Bible. So, we are called to give and I won't pander, I won't ask for your money, because your money is not mine, it's not Kelly's, it's not her cause, it's the Lord's anyway. So, if you feel convicted to give to this cause. This is something we want to support.

Shed Geek:

I was so touched me and Deanna were personally by your story that we said, as a business, we need to find a reason to give, and I've always been so drawn to prison and those who are in prison and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. But I love what you said. You know the Bible verse that you know the best form of religion it doesn't matter what denomination, what culture you are to be able to give to widows, to be able to help children, to be able to help those who can't help themselves. So, we believe in your cause. We don't know you well, just to be clear, we're not trying to sell people on. You know me and Kelly are buddies and grew up together. I'll tell you what we got. Some things in common Both married our high school sweethearts. You know me and Deanna's been married for 25 years and we just celebrated our anniversary and we started at 15 years old in high school.

Shed Geek:

You talked about being vulnerable. I'm not perfect. I was very vulnerable when we started a podcast. We're still vulnerable to this day because we have to put thoughts and opinions out there and others get the opportunity to keep it to themselves and we're not. We're actually out there and we're loud about our thoughts and we hope that those thoughts align with people. And this came to me while you were doing your testimony there, doing your testimony there being a good person costs nothing, but not being generous, generous or charitable costs you everything. It's something that God just put on my heart while we were here talking. So, you know again, we don't pander for, for giving hearts, we ask for giving hearts. But if you've ever wanted to support us four years of our endeavors and who knows, Kelly, maybe it's going to be another four years of trying to sign on, to work with you as a, as a destination for us to be able to point people to.

Shed Geek:

I believe businesses should do that. I think it's part of your mission, your vision, mission, vision and values. It should be part of your statement. You should care about more than making a profit. I think Simon Sinek says it. It's right here, and I'll leave you with this thought it said the fact of the matter is 100% of customers are people and 100% of clients are people and 100% of employees are people. I don't care how good your product is, I don't care how good your marketing is. I don't care how good your design is, if you don't understand people, you don't understand business.

Kelly Orrico:

Oh yeah, I love that.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Are you a dealer who sells multiple products at your shed lot? Are you tired of sifting through clunky or overcomplicated softwares to simply sell a product? If so, it's time to call Cal. Consumer Aligned Logistics is the affordable, simplified and scalable solution for your shed carport or even RTO company. We are partnered with Idea Room and ShedPro for configurators and have multiple RTO partners to choose from, from JMAG to Heartland to Shed Geek Rentals and Scott's RTO. And if your partner isn't listed here, just ask. We are happy to add more. Give us a call at 425-359-3279 or visit calcanhelp. com. That's C-A-L-C-A-N-H-E-L-P. com.

Kelly Orrico:

And I'll tell you one thing, like with businesses specifically, it's one of the things we do for our families, you know, being a vulnerable population, I mean I just think as a woman walking into a car, an auto body shop, and it's like they ask you oh, you got to change your filter. You're like, okay, you just trust him, right. And like the very, very vulnerable population. And there's a lot of anxiety that exists with our, with our women, especially that when, when things need to be done on the home and they have to hire people to do things, they have to make these choices by themselves. Now and I've heard nightmare stories of them being taken advantage of I mean nightmare stories, it stories of them being taken advantage of, I mean nightmare stories. It makes me so sad that people exist like that in the world. And so, one of the things that we do is we partner with good businesses.

Kelly Orrico:

And when I say good, I mean people who care about people.

Kelly Orrico:

I know that you might not do the best job in fixing their debt, but you're not going to take advantage of our parent. You're going to be loving and careful and do the best you can and you'll be honest, Right, and so we. We have a whole thing we call Knoxville resources database and it's full of businesses that we know have good hearts, good character. That aligns with our mission and that's what we want to do. We want to refer good companies that are going to do good business as good people.

Shed Geek:

That's awesome, Kelly. We're going to actually be in Knoxville, I think, in August or September at the Shed Expo this year, so maybe we can connect while we're down there. I think Joe's going to be there, so we'll try to find a way to make it work. But I'm going to do something, because I always do this for every guest and I didn't even prepare you for this and I know we've ran long on time and that's OK. I feel like it's God's time anyway. But. But I always give the guest an opportunity to ask a question, because normally I will spend a whole bunch of time interviewing you, asking you a bunch of questions.

Shed Geek:

I was so happy that we just wound you up today and you took off and you did great. It was amazing. We were so, so happy that you were able to share your testimony. But we always give you a chance to ask a question to me, Shed Geek, whether it's Shed related, podcast related or just life in general. If you had a question to ask me about anything, what would it be? Or do you have one at all?

Kelly Orrico:

Oh, that's great. Well, first of all, I want to thank you so much, Shannon, for having me on here and allowing me to tell the story and willing to share what Widow Parent Relief Project does. Like, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Like, I really have a question about, like, how, how you got started in this. Like, what possessed you to decide I want to do this podcast and electronic. You know, help within the shed industry. Like, how did that come to be?

Shed Geek:

I just so. I, yeah, I started working in the shed industry. I sort of found it through a mutual acquaintance who was an old friend who worked in the industry. So, when I found myself in a depression at the lowest, I reached out to him. He got me a job and then started going to church, found God myself and was like, wow, I was on this mission all of a sudden, and it's been a wild ride.

Shed Geek:

I'm thankful that God has given me this, but I like to think I'm a people person. We build a big brand on trust. You talked about that, about companies you partner with. It's huge for us. I'd rather, again, you do a mediocre job with 100% trust than an excellent job, and I feel like I got to watch out for you or something.

Shed Geek:

And I just, yeah, I was driving around all over the country talking to these people trying to get them signed up for services and I was like you know what I'm getting in my car listening to these people trying to get them signed up for services, and I was like you know what I'm getting in my car listening to podcasts, listening to audiobooks, and I'm like I know this is crazy, but could we talk about sheds? And then I come to realize like, yes, we can. Not only can we talk about sheds, but the conversations have a lot of times, and so some of the listeners will agree with this. Uh, some will say I tune in because I like the parts that's not about sheds. Even so, we talk about faith, family, everything here. We don't.

Shed Geek:

We try to bring it back to sheds as best we can, but the reality is I just love to be a conversationalist. I'm very interested in people and their stories and their mission and what drives them. I can drive from here to Michigan, to Utah, and I'll see a house on the side of the road. I'll be like wonder what those people do, you know? And my wife would tell you, give me five minutes and I'll find out, cause if I see them, I'll just pull up and be like tell me your story. And they're like get out of here, you weirdo. And I'm just like I believe this thought. I believe that there's enough food in the world today to feed everybody, right? Now.

Shed Geek:

And for some reason that's not happening, why we're not communicating, why Somehow something's getting in the way of that. So, I believe we can do better, be better as people. So yeah, that's really my story. I'm just interested in others and somehow I became like this guy in the industry that's like, oh, you're the shed geek. And I'm like, oh man, it's not about me, it's one, it's about him and it's about our guests. I want to shine that light on you guys.

Kelly Orrico:

So, people a lot of times will say, and I and I get this cause I? You know my story of looking for my purpose and feeling like I need to have my work aligned with God's mission, right? Well, not every job is that clear in that and it's like you can love people wherever you're at and make a difference in anything that you're doing with the people right in front of you and the job in front of you, and so you're. I love that about your, your story. That's really cool, the difference you're making.

Shed Geek:

It's been great Just talking to you, getting to know you. Deanna will probably reach out to you. We'll try to get you a date set up for when this is coming out.

Kelly Orrico:

Let me know for sure when that is.

Shed Geek:

Absolutely Well. We'll connect with you when we're down there again. For you guys, be sure to go to the website, check it out. If you're not sure, make sure to sign up for our newsletter. You'll be able to see the link there. If you get the newsletter, you'll be able to see. We'll eventually get a. If we don't have it already by the time this comes out, we'll have the link there to the website. Go give, go give. Be a giver today 2,152 times. The Lord commands us to give. We're going to give. We ask that you would give. So, if you ever wanted to do something to help me, if you're not doing business with me, if we're not somehow working together and you're like, oh man, go get five or 10 bucks today, that would mean the world to me.

Kelly Orrico:

So, um make a big difference. I appreciate that. Thank you, Thank you.

Shed Geek:

Absolutely Well. Thank you for being on today. Uh nice, just nice to meet you.

Kelly Orrico:

Nice to get to know you Likewise, Right right back at you.

Shed Geek:

I appreciate you. Thank you.