Shed Geek Podcast

Concrete Partnerships: Building Success Beyond Steel

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 61

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Forging powerful business partnerships might be the key to unlocking growth you never imagined possible. When metal building dealers Jared Ledford and Eric Olson (the Steel Kings) faced customers walking away because they couldn't provide concrete services or pole barn options, they didn't just accept these limitations—they transformed them into opportunities through strategic collaboration.

Meet Caleb Grimes, owner of GCM Construction and the missing piece in their business puzzle. What started as a simple contractor referral relationship evolved into something far more valuable. Caleb shares how his concrete expertise complemented the Steel Kings' building knowledge, creating a seamless experience for customers who previously had to coordinate multiple contractors themselves.

The trio reveals the pivotal moment that changed everything: losing a substantial project because they couldn't offer post-frame buildings. Rather than continuing to turn customers away, they formed a partnership to expand their offerings, effectively capturing an entirely new market segment while maintaining their steel building foundation.

This conversation goes beyond mere business strategy, touching on the personal growth required when venturing into new territory. "If you're not willing to get uncomfortable and learn something new, then it's not for you," Eric notes, highlighting how progress demands pushing beyond comfort zones. Caleb adds that local knowledge of building codes and permitting processes creates the trust necessary for customers to move forward confidently with larger projects.

Perhaps the most profound insight comes near the end when Jared observes that success without collaboration leads to isolation: "Even if you are successful and you're not taking advice or working alongside others, you're going to be lonely, and lonely is not a good place to be, even if you're successful."

Looking to grow your construction business? Listen to how one partnership transformed potential losses into exciting new ventures, and consider what connections might help you capture opportunities you're currently missing.


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

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC

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Realworks Labs

Jared:

What's going on, guys? How are you today? Eric, what's good? All right, we're back with another episode of the Steel Kings podcast. I am Jared, and this right over here is my main man, Eric, and we are going to get into it here shortly. Right up front, this episode of Steel Kings Podcast is brought to you by none other than J Money, the financing partner built by builders for builders. Founded by Joel Oney, he was a farm kid from Northern Ohio with 25 years in banking and a passion for craftsmanship. J Money was created to solve a real problem. Most homeowners need improvements. You don't always have to cash up front for those right. Whether you're selling steel buildings, wood sheds, windows, doors, roofing pools, or you're a contractor, dealer or manufacturer, J Money gives your customers an easy, affordable way to pay and helps you choose more jobs Easy application, fast approvals, multiple payment solutions. J Money is on a mission to grow your business with payment solutions, because the need is there and now so is the money. Head to jmoneyllc. com and start offering financing networks.

Jared:

All right, Eric, brother, we are jumping into a really cool topic. Today we are going to be interviewing one of our business partners, one of our really good, close friends. Caleb Grimes is here. Caleb is part of GCN Construction. He's the owner and principal of that company, amongst other avenues, and we'll get into that too. Is this episode 20? I think so, man. It's somewhere. You know we keep losing track. I think somewhere along the way, but I think we're around episode 20 now. It's hard to believe that we've come this far, but here we are back with another episode for you guys.

Eric:

Eric, how have you been this week, man bro? Wow, pretty good. Just spent a week on Santa Bella island with my wife and, uh, it's hot there and it rains just like Ohio. It's hot today and raining, it's not different.

Jared:

There's just not an ocean yeah yeah we don't have any ocean views here in Ohio.

Eric:

No ocean views, I'm looking across the street at my neighbor who is obsessed with their garden. Right now they are hands and knees.

Jared:

for the past couple weeks, Well, it could definitely be worse. I think, man, we could definitely be in a worse situation. I'm currently at the office like normal and hanging out here with the team. It's the first of the month, so you guys are probably going to get this in a couple of weeks, but hope you guys had a really strong month of June and getting started for a first part of July. We've got 4th of July coming up, so, before I forget, I hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July. Keep those fireworks away from other people's homes. They start fires. A little PSA there. Yeah, yeah. So, I'm not a firework guy, just FYI. So, we've got Caleb here with us. Man, I'm not going to waste any more time. I'm going to bring him into the studio here and bring him on board, and there he is and all of his glory. Yeah, what's up, dude? How are you man? Hey, man.

Jared:

How are you guys doing?

Caleb Grimes:

Oh, we're doing pretty good Awesome.

Eric:

Awesome. I'm in the end year of being Ohio Boy. That music is great.

Jared:

Caleb is jamming. Is that me?

Caleb Grimes:

Yeah.

Jared:

Hold on.

Jared:

Let me see.

Jared:

We're going to turn off.

Eric:

The world's longest intro.

Jared:

Oh, I see, I can't hear that on my side.

Eric:

Bro, it's so loud. Oh there, it is the world's longest intro.

Jared:

It's the same, Okay so a quick peek behind the curtain. Jared is now. You know, I do the directing on the show so I can see everybody's cameras and things. Now I do the directing on the show so I can see everybody's cameras and things. But I got new headphones and clearly the new headphones don't play the music in them. So oops. So, eric, for everybody out there listening, I'm sorry I blew your eardrums. So yeah, that's on me, so yeah.

Jared:

So, we are pretty proud of the relationship that we have got with you, Caleb. It's been a couple of years in the journey. Just to give you guys a heads up, Caleb owns a company called GCM Construction and he got his hands on a little bit of everything here in the Dayton Ohio market concrete and lots of other things. But he came to us through one of our employees. So, Caleb Fogle, who's, you know I went to school with his older brother, I've known his family for years, you know approached me a couple of years ago about coming on board and it was a quick hire for me and he's been great for the team. But I think probably the biggest thing that he's brought to our team is this gentleman here, Caleb. So, Caleb, why don't you introduce yourself to the team and then we'll jump into some hot topics and just riff for a little bit. How's that?

Caleb Grimes:

Absolutely Like you said. My name is Caleb Grimes. I'm the owner of GCM Construction. We specialize in concrete flat work and ADA compliance. We kind of dabble into a little bit of the outdoor amenity things and pools as well Anything that has to do with concrete. We're kind of your guys.

Jared:

We've been working with you guys now for, I'd say, going on three years through Caleb Fogle, just helping out the process of getting the building down and making sure it's a seamless process for customers yeah yeah, yeah, man, it's been great and I'll tell you, you know, for our, for our fellows out there that are dealing steel buildings or working in and around the industry probably the number one objection that we get at least that I personally get, and Eric can touch on this too the one thing that we always get thrown at us is do you guys help with the foundation, do you guys help with the concrete? What's the process there? And that's kind of where Caleb Grimes came into the fold for us. And they work with a customer and customer says, yeah, you know, so-and-so did my concrete for me and it was great.

Jared:

But at the end of the day, you know, working alongside someone and kind of getting them into your business model doesn't always necessarily work out the way you had planned. So, when you start to work alongside somebody, you're only as good as they are. All of a sudden, if we're recommending the concrete guy, that's not any good. Then all of a sudden, Dayton Barns is not any good either. And that's where Caleb really shined above the rest. I mean, Caleb was brought in kind of as a fill-in. At first, we had a guy that we had been using for some time come to find out that he had some issues and was causing our customers some grief. So, Caleb stepped up and has been the primary concrete contact for us now for some time. Was that?

Eric:

the Irish guy.

Jared:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure was, and he was a super nice guy, don't get me wrong. He did a great job. We just ran into some issues, right, and it just became a situation where, as our business scaled, we needed to have a concrete contact and a partner that was on the same level that we wanted to go to, because in a lot of ways, I feel like Caleb, you were more established at the time than we were as far as just making sure that the customers were properly taken care of. You had a thriving business. You didn't need our help, but we needed yours, and I think, at the end of the day, we've brought you some pretty sizable projects over the last few years. And I mean we'll talk a little bit here, yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about where that relationship's gone. But man, you know, Eric, jump in here. Man. I mean you know you've been doing this longer than me. You started the company, so I mean, how important is concrete to the finished product of a building?

Eric:

and I want to hear Caleb's opinion on that too you know, I kind of feel like when I first started, my first exposure to like this is a speed bump. Like a speed bump, it's an obstacle you overcome. Every customer. Yeah, you can sell a steel building to anybody, but the bigger problem is not necessarily the build, it's who can do the concrete. And then who can you trust for the concrete? Because, okay, not only are you buying a metal building for the first time, you're probably pouring a pad for the first time as well.

Eric:

Not having the all-in-one solution is difficult because customers are now going to go. They naturally are going to rely on the building salesman to basically speak on behalf of people like Caleb. And it's always good. I mean, gosh, I can't even tell you how many lists I started. I have 160 plus metal buildings Every probably once a week I get a hey man, if you're in San Antonio, I can do a nine mile radius concrete guy, and so we've, over the years, people say that and you try to accrue a list and you call them and they don't call you back and you can't develop any trust with them.

Eric:

So, it's been nice to and there's so many connections outside of doing concrete that we concrete that I believe are is the reason for the connection. But when you have a good concrete guy, reliable, you better relationship build with them. That guy was nice, that guy we're talking about. I think he's had some issues, you're right, he couldn't keep workers and he was taking on too much and he was basically doing anything about himself. Caleb's well established.

Eric:

Like you said, I think it's important to be able to immediately say to a person I don't have a person, it's GCM construction and we'll get into the second part of it, because a lot of people balk at concrete.

Eric:

I think the second thing okay, not only overcoming, okay, I need concrete, who do I go to? But now that cost is more than the building most of the time, especially if it's like a 30 by 40 and the building is 15K or something, that concrete is going to cost probably 15, 15k too, or if not more, um. So, it's, it's created some top tracks for the reps able to speak on pricing, um. So, it's not really being able to pass it off, but being able to kind of pre-warm the customer up for what. You know, we, we know what Caleb's gonna go and discuss with the person. It's good for us to be able to know him and be able to speak on behalf of like, so. So, not only providing the solution, but understanding what that solution is, be able to talk about it before passing Caleb. It weeds people out and we're blessed, bro, that's it. We're just blessed to have him.

Jared:

So, um yeah, concrete, Caleb, Caleb. Tell us, tell us a little bit about how important it is the concrete solution for a metal building. You've done a lot of them for us now.

Caleb Grimes:

Absolutely. We've done gosh more than I can count building slabs for metal buildings. At this point, really, the biggest key is just knowing your area, knowing your local codes, regulations and permitting processes. Every area you're in in county, municipality and city is different and just having those connections with each person, each county and city in your area to know what their requirements are, what they expect from you as the contractor, and just that that in turn provides a seamless process for your customers. So that's been something we've been able, I feel, to help out with.

Caleb Grimes:

Dayton Barns is just getting the reps up to speed so they can answer some of those questions while people are still in the process of buying a building, of knowing hey, in your area, this is what you're going to be required to do, and just helping that process go smooth. I feel like that's one thing we do well at and making that a smooth transition from buying the building to having a site visit and going over a plan of action on how we're going to get this project completed for you. It's gone pretty well. We've done lots of them, haven't really had any issues and had a lot of big ones, a lot of small ones and all the in-between.

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Jared:

Yeah, I think it's. It's made it extremely easy for us to close deals. I think that that's one thing. A lot of you are probably sitting on listening to the podcast or watching us on YouTube or whatever, thinking why are we talking to this guy? The why behind it is simple Don't ever overlook an opportunity that can help you build your business or make your job easier.

Jared:

Okay, that's why I wanted to interview Caleb today, because that's the first step in this relationship that we built for, you know, for Dayton Barns and for GCM construction was to make my job here, make my reps jobs, make Eric's jobs easier. You know, and I think that that's a situation where you know if you can really start to produce a end product for your customer, that is something that they will talk to their friends, their family, their coworkers about. That's when you really start to see those referrals come in on a really, really quick basis. And you know, Eric, I mean I know you've got a couple of contractor buddies who send you leads on buildings, one specifically in Florida. That's done really well for us and helped us out a lot. But Caleb's been that guy. You know, not only does Caleb do our concrete and help us out on concrete in the area, but he's quick to send us a lead man and you know it's led us to the other topic, but yeah, yeah, so yeah other topic.

Eric:

But yeah, yeah. So yeah, the guy in Florida was unique because on the flip side it's like hey, do you guys do concrete? We pass them to Caleb. The guy in Florida is like, hey, I'll pour your pad, do you have a guy to build a building? And so I normally get those deals like the second, because he's like, hey, I'm dealing I'm not gonna say a guy's name, but it's like um tbl construction in Saint Augustine's the name of that company and they call and they're like man, I got a pad plan for Tyler and a permit already, or, as I said, his name. I'm like, I'm like, oh, okay, all you need to do is give me money for a building. Sounds great. Like what's your credit card number? So, like that's an easy. You know, we've got an even easier process now because Caleb's on the site quoting a concrete and, uh, when they go, oh, that's too expensive, Caleb like goes right into the you know some more ideas and you know yeah so we talked about.

Jared:

We talked about it on a previous episode. I think you're gonna have uh, you're gonna have Eric testimonial. That's the one we're coming off of this coming week, so you would have just heard Eric's testimonial. Um, previous to that, Eric and I hung out, we quoted some buildings. We just kind of shot from the hip, but on that episode we kind of let the cat out of the bag that we started something else.

Jared:

Um, with steel, you know, with steel buildings being what they are, it's a limited market. I can tell you our core audience so if you're listening to this podcast and watching us on YouTube, from what our analytics say with Shannon, our podcast father there over at the Shed Geek Podcast is a majority of our listeners sell wood sheds and produce wood sheds, and that's great. And if you are selling wood sheds or producing wood sheds and not selling metal buildings, my story is the same as it has been since day one. You are missing out on some additional foot traffic, some additional leads, some additional opportunities, all of the above. But when you graduate and you go from sheds to metal buildings, there's not a whole lot left. You've got ibeam, you've got post frame, a couple other avenues to go. So what? What Eric and I discussed and really with Caleb's push um, was we're taking a leap into post frame and we're going to start doing pole barns, we're going to start doing some kits, we're going to start doing some, uh, fully finished turnkey type projects here in Ohio and it's just getting off the ground. It's something that Caleb and his team have been working on and you know it helps Caleb's bandwidth by working with someone like Dayton Barns to come along and say, hey, can these guys generate leads for me, can these guys sell buildings for me, for my team to install?

Jared:

So that's really where Eric, Jared and Caleb entered into a actual partnership, started an actual business and became business partners and that's, you know, to bring it full circle. Look at how important that relationship was. It's a relationship that was birthed with a coworker, with someone that I hired and someone that you know was important to the Dayton Barns team and he felt like his relationship with Caleb Grimes was important enough to bring to the table to help us. And now that one action, one action from one really good employee, has created a, you know, a pretty, pretty large thing going on in our lives, right, guys, Absolutely, you know, don't miss these opportunities, right?

Jared:

I mean, these are the things that we talk about every week on the podcast, and I know this one's a little bit more serious and it's a little bit more kind of in your face, but I mean it's meant to be right, it's meant to be a call to action. We talk about this stuff on the on the podcast all the time, and we would not have been in the situation that we're in had we not been approached by a co-worker. So, if you have somebody in the office that's making a suggestion, probably not a bad idea to discuss that with them. You know what I'm saying, because it can birth big things, right? I see you smiling, Eric. I mean that's. You know. We don't turn away. We don't turn away ideas from our staff.

Eric:

That's true, and I'm the king of weird ideas, you know, I feel like, okay, I want to hear something. Like you know, we a couple of years ago we met the pole barn team. I don't want to say it was premature, I just think we didn't strike then because we didn't have a builder yet and so, but that was the seed that was planted, because we always knew we could circle back to that topic, kind of what, like give us your. Like, when did you first hear about pole barns? And like, why? Like, why did it take so long? Just like, talk about that. Like you're, you don't want to tell a customer no.

Eric:

And I guess, before you respond, Jared and I have talked about this. A ton on our episodes is that if you don't have more than just wood sheds on your property, like you, you're letting people come in and leave you. You know, if they don't want a woodshed or a metal building, you gotta have options and you gotta flow with the business needs. So, it's not like we're going to do it this way forever and that's a prideful sentence. Basically, it's like we're just going to take what, we're just going to listen to what's going on, and, and so that's where you come in, cause you're. You're really the one that soft served us at first with the idea and then, kind of like, over the course of time, we got that big rejection in Germantown and so, kind of like, walk us through your view of like man I always knew we were going to do pole barns. Just kind of like walk us through that.

Eric:

I guess yeah, we'll hear the story about it.

Caleb Grimes:

Absolutely. Yeah, want to hear the story about it, absolutely. So, one of the biggest things with a steel build is the footer requirements and slab On a smaller scale building it's not really too much of a financial burden to the customer. But as you get into these larger buildings those footer costs start to rise. And what I was running into on my end is being able to get a lead from Dayton Barns from one of the sales reps to going out to do a site visit, for them to be shocked, with their jaw on the ground, on the price of what that would take to do and knowing that there are better options out there for some of these larger scale projects that could help not necessarily save money in all aspects but help make it a more customizable building for what they're needing.

Caleb Grimes:

And so that's when I approached Jared and yourself about hey guys, there's other options out here to where a sale that might at one point have walked away is still an open door, and being able to offer post frame buildings and stud frame structures to our customers has really, I feel like, opened that door to where, at this point, Dayton Barns is offering all aspects of a shop, of a garage workspace and even now kind of dabbling into like a barn dominium type of area, and that's something I'm excited about too. It's kind of a big hot thing right now. That's the new flavor is the barn dominiums and those are something that's kind of it's not undoable, but it gets a little tougher to do in a steel structure. So having those options open for our customers I think is great and it just made sense for us to partner up together and provide that for the customer yeah, I think that.

Jared:

Uh, I think the initial conversation for us started. Uh, you know Dayton Barns had been looking into, had been looking into post frame for some time. You know it was on my radar, of course you guys know, you know Jay Money's our title sponsor. But I used to do some dabbling over there, used to work with Joel hands on and went to a couple of post frame shows. For those of you who don't know, check out shield wall Media. The team over there does a really good job with post-frame shows and role-forming shows and things like that as well. But I can tell you I was very interested in pole structures.

Jared:

I think that if concrete is the number one, question number two is do y'all do pole barns? I mean, we get that question nonstop and some people and rightfully so want a pole barn. They just do. They want a wood frame, they want it all. They want posts and that's it. They don't want to deal with steel, they don't want to do tubular steel and we didn't have an option for them and I had been kind of scouring and scouring to see what we could do. I had reached out to some other dealers, just wasn't getting anywhere with it. Had a meeting with a manufacturing partner and it was something that Eric and I just didn't feel was the right time for us. We didn't have the ability to scale, and I think what it was for us, Caleb, was it was a specific deal that you and I were working on a rather large building and I think I had pretty much had that guy sold. But he was one of those guys that's like man, I really want to post frame, really want to do a pole barn. And again, this is why you work with good folks and good partners.

Jared:

Caleb goes to the job site, does a site visit and realizes that indeed the customer does want a pole barn. He doesn't want to do a metal building, especially once he sees the price on the concrete for the footer and all of that. So, we proceeded to touch base again. We unfortunately lost that deal to a pole barn outfit which, unfortunately for that customer he had a lot of issues with that was. You know, Caleb can get into that if he wants. But it was a pick the right contractor kind of moment for that guy. Caleb calls me and says, hey, we're going to lose that deal. We really ought to think about doing pole barns. We shelved it over the wintertime, picked it back up in the spring and said man, we really need to do this and again working with the right people who stay motivated and task focused. Caleb never forgot about it, neither did I, and we brought it to Eric and that's the birth.

Jared:

I mean that really, that single customer, in my opinion, is the one that turned the tide, because I think Caleb probably lost I don't know probably 30, 30 to $40,000 worth of concrete work minimum, and we lost out on an $80,000 metal building project.

Jared:

That's 10 minutes from my house. And if you guys don't know, I do not like losing deals 10 minutes from my house Because if you sell buildings, so let me give you this, let me give you this tidbit If you sell metal buildings where you live, you will become the metal building guy. So whether I sell a metal building in Brookville, Ohio or somebody else does, if there is a single issue with that metal building, you can bet I'm getting a call from somebody and I love the times when I can say well, unfortunately I didn't sell you the building, but I can still get you some help, and that's why I love to sell you the building, but I can still get you some help. You know, and that's why I love to sell buildings close by, because they're easy. They're easy, people know me, you know, people know Eric and Caleb. It's easy to sell buildings where you live, especially if you talk it up all the time.

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Jared:

Caleb, do you see it any different? I mean it was just low hanging fruit, right? I mean, these are, these are deals that we already had kind of on the table that we were missing out on with the answer of, I can't help you.

Caleb Grimes:

Yeah, it was tough walking away from that site visit with that customer knowing that we weren't going to be able to help him with his needs but we had the capability to do it. And then getting a just building a relationship with the customer and having him actually call me to come out to walk through some issues of what he ran into with his experience and then in turn, being asked to come out and fix issues, knowing that if we did that ourselves that we could have mitigated those problems from the start and been able to keep that sale on the table and, like you said, with it being in your backyard, nobody likes to see a building go up in their backyard when by some, when you know it could be you. So that was tough but through that we've been able to blossom into what we are now and being able to offer, offer these post frame buildings to customers and it's, it's been a cool match. I feel like organic thing for us just to go into yeah, we had the leads right, Eric?

Jared:

I mean, we had the leads, we had the opportunity to gain the leads. What we needed was a way to actually drive sales we didn't have a builder.

Eric:

The issue was a fella from okay, so the original pole barn was a fella from the okay so the original pole barn, okay so. So that company up there in Montgomery County, that guy that owns it, knew we was causing a scene with metal buildings and he showed up at our headquarters just rant randomly one day. He had called a couple of times but I always duck people calling. I never really honestly like care about it. Um, but that guy he just showed up started talking to him that that one wasn't right, because we was going to be a dealer for a dealer and that's not how we want to do business. Um, we just want to deal with direct.

Eric:

And so the fellow from church, I brokered the deal, but it was too complicated because the guy in that sales office didn't want to give up his builder's info. So basically I just was like bro, if you're not trying to help us out, like this guy came and tried to bring us on and you're holding your info super tight, so like how can we even so, I basically just passed the deal. We didn't make any money off it. But the guy got like a like a 28 by 50, like Hayburn out there in West Alex somewhere and, um, and I knew there was a possibility at that timeframe, it wasn't the right one. But then when the second guy came, it was like a third time or a second time. Um, a guy that used to work with us basically was like, well, we're not going to care about this because I don't even remember why. He just didn't like the guy's demeanor.

Jared:

The training style, yeah, the training style. And believe me, believe me, let me preface this, don't interrupt. Selling a pole barn is much more complicated than selling a metal building.

Eric:

I agree.

Jared:

It's a graduated sales process. This is something where a customer can get up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars pretty quickly and pretty easily and it's not going to be something that you can just regurgitate and do over and over and over again. For those of you that sell steel know what I'm talking about. List 150 buildings, like Eric did on Facebook, and you're getting 20 chats a day and out of those 20 chats a day can you sell a building? That's basically the formula of being successful marketing on Facebook marketplace.

Jared:

That's about it, and you know you can't do that with pole barns. Let me just tell you that right now. If you think you can, you're foolish. And let me be the first one to tell you it takes a little bit of time to learn, and the gentleman that we're working with at our manufacturing partner knows that he's been doing pole barns a lot longer than me and Eric have been doing steel buildings probably longer than Caleb's been doing concrete, quite honestly, and it's one of those things where Eric and I specifically and I know Caleb's probably the same way when somebody's trying to teach me something I'll soak in every word they have to say because I want to do it like they do it. They're there to teach me how to do it like them, so that they don't have to do it for me. I didn't mean to cut you off there, Eric, but to me that's the main difference. That was the reason we didn't go with it. We didn't have the bandwidth at the time.

Eric:

Well, and also, at the same time, if you're not willing to get uncomfortable and this is like a business lesson here if you're not willing to get uncomfortable and learn something new, then it's not for you. And so, at that time I think we could have solved it. I think bandwidth, we could have handled it. I just think that we gave up before we gave it a shot. Honestly, I wasn't vibing it. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't vibing it. I'm not. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't vibing it Cause I didn't want to.

Eric:

I'm like well, this is where you know. Obviously, like in Caleb you probably agree here Like in in in Jared, we all own businesses. We're like, if you're just doing repetitively like the same thing over and over again, it's hard to want to learn a new thing because, like, the thing you're currently doing is working. So that's like wood sheds to mastering, metal buildings. Now we're on the pole barns. I think if it was just one of us, it would be difficult. If Caleb's like, yeah, I could do it, like it will be tough for and we can't do it because we need a builder, I just think that, man, we got uncomfortable. We've placed a couple orders, we're putting them up. Can't wait to share pictures with everybody. I think there's so many nuggets of why you need to progress. There are no wood tariffs, yeah.

Eric:

There are not one wood tariff out there. I can't find one. I Googled it. There's not one search result.

Caleb Grimes:

I think, just as a business owner, having the right partners whether that be in business, referral partners or even manufacturer reps and vendors is just key. And sometimes people like to try to have the whole pie and not just a slice, and sometimes just having that slice and having the right people connected to be able to connect the dots is really where it's going to make a seamless process and it's where it's where you're going to succeed the most. Yeah, and like with Jared, if, if, if you guys hadn't called on, called me on concrete, you guys still might be looking for somebody who can provide that service for your customers and who knows there's knows there's plenty of concrete people out there, but who knows if you could have found one that can handle all the permitting and just make it seamless. So having a good connection, good referral partners and just good connections with your vendors is key.

Jared:

Making the most out of the relationships has a lot to do with it. I mean, I love that you said that, because we've talked about that in previous episodes. Right, if you're a shed seller working with the right shed manufacturer, if you're a steel dealer working with the right steel manufacturer, real quick. I want to give props to our friends over at Cold Spring Enterprises. If you're still bending bows the old school way, the VersaBend is what you need. Three bends, that's it. It works with up to two and a half inch tubing, even the two by three rectangular. It's super fast and easy to use. No tools are needed to switch sizes, it just does it on its own. It's $19,500. It ships for around $600. And if you're outside the state of South Carolina, there is no tax. So that's another savings there. Head over to csecarport. supply or

Jared:

call 864-446-3645. Make sure to tell those guys over at VersaBend and Cold Spring that the Steel Kings sent you.

Jared:

I wanted to jump in there because that's another thing that we've really got. I mean, we've been blessed far beyond what we deserve, Eric and I, both with the right partners at the right time, the right connections when we need them. You know, I think that our relationship with you, Caleb, is just getting started, and I think that it's one that we want to make sure that we talk more about. Bring you back on. We're right at that moment where it's like you know what, we've got another episode in us and we're going to save some content for next time. We're right at that 35 minute window, Caleb.

Jared:

What do you want to say? You know I know you don't do this very often. You're not a super out there, kind of a public figure, but you know what do you want to say? I mean, there's a lot of shed manufacturers on the phone, uh, and on the call here listening to us. There's a lot of steel dealers and manufacturers listening. Anything you want to share about the industry or concrete, just as a touching point on the way out, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Caleb Grimes:

I would say the biggest key to closing every deal is just make sure you guys out there have the right connections with a builder and a contractor in your area who can help you through all the ifs, ands or buts with permitting and site visits. Every site's different and you can put a building anywhere. It's just about knowing the right person to do it. So that's a very key thing. Have good referral partners, Keep those connections and you'll succeed from there.

Jared:

Honestly, yeah, I couldn't echo that more. Eric, you got anything as we finish up this week and, Caleb, we're going to have you back. Brother, I know you've got a tight line today.

Eric:

I think every move that we've made has been, yes, business decisions, but really relationship building. That's all it is. And if you are keeping things to your chest and you just want to do it, that's not going to work out. It'll work for some time. But you've want to do it like that's not going to work out. It'll work for some time. But you got to mold and shape and allow people to speak into your life in a different area that you don't know of and like that is what really honestly get, pulls the best parts out of me, who is just a creative weirdo, and uh, and go full, full force. I'm not afraid of anything and that, and him, when you, when you guys brought the complex problem of pole barns to me and officials, like man, man, I suck at that. But like I was telling Jared, like I say this a lot, I want to master everything that I'm not good at, and so you know, we've got a little baby to to. So, man, yeah, get uncomfortable if you're trying to grow.

Jared:

Yeah, I think for me. You know, I'll echo off what Eric said. The only thing I will add is that even if you are successful and you're not taking advice or working alongside others, you're going to be lonely, and lonely is not a good place to be, even if you're successful. So, I can tell you that right now, um, it's always better to ride with your friends and your confidants. I can't think of two people that I have more respect for than these two guys.

Jared:

We are going to finish up this episode of Steel Kings Podcast. Give a quick shout out to the guys over at J Money. Check them out. If you're in need of financing, they will be ready to help you out. Contact Joel and the team over there at jmoneyllc. com. We are going to head out for this week, but we will be back at you next week with another episode. Check us out at thesteelkings. com. Website's up and running. Website's up and running, so give us some feedback. I'm Jared at the Steel Kings. He is Eric at the Steel Kings. We are out for this week and y'all have yourselves a blessed and happy week, all right go Cincinnati reds yeah, yeah, be good to your friends and neighbors all right, go do something nice for your community.

Jared:

Have a great week, guys. We'll talk at you later.