Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Building Trust, One Backyard at a Time
A former chef turned licensed builder might be the last person you’d expect to challenge big shed brands—until you see how he does it. We sit down with Russell Odom of Shedscape to unpack how a late-career pivot, a deck-builder’s eye for detail, and a relentless focus on SEO created a thriving on‑site shed business in the tight, fast-growing neighborhoods of Greenville, South Carolina.
Russell walks us through the practical “why” behind on‑site sheds: fences, narrow lots, AC units, and zero access for prebuilt delivery. His answer is simple and powerful—hand-carry materials, frame from scratch, and build floors like standalone decks on proper footings so sheds look intentional in sloped yards. That visible craft, backed by licensed carpenters and clean job sites, becomes the differentiator customers can feel. Then he pairs it with a digital engine: local SEO tuned to rank in the Google map pack, a modern website that converts, steady review building, and targeted Facebook and Google Ads to smooth the schedule. The result is months of booked work without a single display lot.
We also dig into trust-based selling, the real admin grind of scaling, and why small teams can outmaneuver larger players by investing in systems, not just inventory. Russell shares what’s next—fully insulated backyard offices with mini splits, plus a curated lineup of pergolas, pavilions, decks, and fences—all riding the same formula of digital discovery plus human credibility. If you’re rethinking how to grow in a crowded market, this conversation lays out a practical playbook: make it easy to find you online, show your process, and let quality carpentry close the loop.
If this episode sparks ideas, share it with a builder friend, subscribe for more smart conversations, and leave a review to help others find the show.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Would you like to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up here.
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: Shed Pro
Hello and welcome back to the Check Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our 2025 Studios Sponsor. Let's be real. Running a check business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all filling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers, while expectations keep climbing. And yet, I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website lead to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth payments. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co/ shed geek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.
Sam Byler:Alright, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Friday Funday with Sambassador. I'm your host, Sam Byler. It's good to be back with you guys. As you've probably heard by now, Shannon has decided that I do way too much work and he has cut me way back. So now I'm just a little humble once-a-month guy. I don't see you guys every week. Um, it's not Shannon's fault at all. We just get busy and um we needed more content and more people to interview, so we said we're just gonna cut it back a little so we don't stress out as much. And I'm honored to have Shannon in with us today. He's gonna step in and uh join us today. He gives me two thumbs up. And I'm excited to be here with a just as I found out, a local guy to me, Russell Odom with Shedscape. He was introduced to me through a mutual friend we have. And Nicole, and it was not, well, I call her Nicole. I guess she actually goes by Heather, but for some reason I've always known her as Nicole. Um, I guess because her Facebook's probably Heather Nicole, and I have too many Heathers, so I call her Nicole. Um, Mr. Russell, how are we doing today? Yeah, doing very good. Thanks for having me on.
Shannon Latham:Absolutely, Shannon. How are you? I am doing well. I cannot complain. Uh life's good. Life's good.
Sam Byler:Well, that's a good start. Are you in your new office back there? Or what kind of background you got going on there?
Shannon Latham:I am camouflaging myself uh in full transparency. Uh appreciate you calling me out suddenly there. Um I'm at home. I'm actually in my spare bedroom uh because we're having a new door installed at the house, so we just figured we'd stay and work from home. And for all you construction guys out there, you're probably saying, Why aren't you putting the door in yourself? Um to which I would say, that's none of your business.
Sam Byler:I like that answer better than the one you gave me.
Shannon Latham:I've installed a mini door, I promise you. But uh yeah, so that's what we're doing. We're working from home today, and this is actually the bed. This is in our spare bedroom, but it makes for nice.
Sam Byler:No way, that's some cool raised panel stuff going on there, dude.
Shannon Latham:It kind of fools you, doesn't it? Like yes, it does. It's very nice. That was my intention until you called me out here.
Sam Byler:So well, you I you know, you could have gone with my new office at the house or something. I just all of a sudden noticed that it's like, man, he's got some nice raised panel. Look, maybe he's got like a I thought maybe this is the new Shed Geek library that's coming that nobody knows about where all the books and the knowledge are for you know keeping up with everything, Sheddy.
Shannon Latham:I'll tell you what, all that's on the podcast. All you guys that interview like Russell are the the knowledge here and uh and yourself. And you are a busy guy. Like that's the biggest thing. You are a busy guy. I see you everywhere, and you know that. And uh I'll tell you what was funny to me is like whenever we got to talking about this interview, like I've actually met Russell before. We chatted in well, out in South Carolina, right?
Russell Odom:Yeah, that was down at the uh Shed uh Carport and Garage Builder Show in Greenville.
Sam Byler:Oh yeah, yeah.
Shannon Latham:Nice. Yeah, we met with Chris Ashman and and uh and a bunch of other guys and talking about how everybody was getting started. And uh uh Russell, I'm curious at your story because I know we talked about it some then, but sure, you know, uh nice to know a little bit more about it, put it out to the to the public to kind of see how you landed in the shed space.
Russell Odom:Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Um, so um I did not have a long time in sheds. In fact, uh I'm in my third year of business uh right now with sheds. Uh had no experience with it prior to that. Um, you know, actually, my background is varied. I've had quite a um you know career uh doing different things. Uh part of it might be because I have ADHD. Uh also part of it might just be because of you know markets and uh you know ups and downs and just trying to make uh uh a way through the world. Uh but yeah, I mean I started off in in uh food service. I actually have a culinary arts degree and worked in food service for a couple years, realized uh I actually hated working in two kitchens. Um and uh spent four years in the military after that because I wanted to go back to college, um, was promoted to sergeant after a couple years, uh, spent eight months in Afghanistan, uh got out, went to college, got my degree, and graduated just in time for the 2008 market crash. And so that that kind of forced me into trying to find work at the time. I, you know, I was I was actually looking for something in like real estate investment analysis, um, but you know, that that industry just blew up, um or imploded, I should say. Um, and then um it just kind of forced me to do whatever I can to survive. And at the time, all I could find was sales jobs and commission-only jobs for a while. Um, and it was not something I was comfortable with or even liked doing, uh, but it's something that I just had to do to live. And I had different jobs, some worked out, some didn't. Um eventually I landed a job with Sherman Williams, luckily, got through their management training program. Uh, I was with them for five years uh as a store manager, um, and then decided I wanted to get into construction and learn, you know, how to how to do this stuff. And, you know, that I actually started a paint contracting company of all things, um, did it for a little bit, really realized I didn't know what I was doing. I was following a program that taught how to do marketing, management, and sales, and then subbing out the painters. Well, you know, I didn't since I didn't know much about it, I had some painters that worked out, some that didn't, some jobs that went okay, some that didn't go well. Uh, and then I realized I don't know what I'm doing, I shouldn't be operating the space until I learn more. So um, you know, I'm 46, almost 47 now, and uh I had no construction experience prior to 40. Um, and at that time my wife and I had moved when we were at into a new city, and um luckily I had the opportunity just to try to start from the ground up again. So I passed out my resume to a lot of different contractors saying, hey, I don't have experience in this, but I have a lot of accomplishments in my career. Um, I'm very interested in learning. I'll I'll sweep your floor, I'll do whatever you want me to do, or whatever you want to do. So um, I eventually got an offer and worked for someone doing cabinets, some custom cabinet installs and building, uh, kitchen and bathroom models. Uh, worked for him for about a year and a half. Um, and then worked for another employer for another couple years, doing something similar, kitchen, bathroom models, custom cabinet building. And I was actually planning on doing the same, starting a business doing the same. Um, I studied to get my license, my residential builder's license, and uh passed the exam. It's like an eight-hour exam. Okay. Um, South Carolina is a very tough state to get licensed in. Um, and at the time I came across uh John Feely's um you know shed academy program. And something about it interested me. It was like, well, you know, starting a small business, there's a lot of liability, there's a lot of things that might go wrong. You know, you're in someone's house, if you accidentally scratch the floor, you got to pay for that. And so I thought, well, if I'm trying to start a construction company, why not do uh the simple a simple building? It's the simplest, one of the simplest buildings you can do as a builder. Um, build up the clientele, build up the infrastructure of a business, and then try to leverage that into other things. So that's what brought me to where I'm at now, and now I'm at the part where I'm ready to leverage into other things. So we have currently building sheds? No, we're building sheds. I mean, we're doing a lot. I'm doing probably 10 to 12 every month, custom built on site. Uh, so that's that's our bread and butter right now. Um, but I get a lot of requests from people that want office sheds or an office space in their backyard. Um, so I've been working on plans and um pricing for that, putting together a package. So pretty soon we'll be launching that and offering fully insulated office spaces, um, you know, with mini splits and everything else. Um, and then also, you know, I see this company growing into kind of like a backyard structure contracting company. So um I have a lot of ambitions, I can't do everything at once. I'm trying to like incorporate one thing at a time, but I see eventually we'll be probably doing decks, fences, perglos, pavilions, sheds, maybe even detached garages, uh, and stuff like that.
Shannon Latham:So, we have that mutual friend John Feely there, mutual acquaintance. I call him a friend, I hope you do, but uh and we had him on the show. I got a chance with his new program to go on and like do like a little interview with him on his on uh some of the things he's rolling out and uh really like John, got a chance to go up to Long Island to meet him uh in person while we were out running around uh uh probably a couple years ago. So, and a lot of you guys connected that way, Chris and some other guys down there in South Carolina, and that's why we got a chance to sit and eat with you guys and just talk and share in like what it looks like. You know, you're like the opposite of Sam. Like Sam's been in the industry for five hundred years. You know, he's been around doing this for so long, you know. Like, I mean, his like his uncle has one of like the oldest or had, you know, like one of the oldest companies, you know, that we can kind of trace back, at least to this point, that's involved in sheds. And here you are post-40 saying, I'm gonna come in and like gain this construction experience. And what's really cool is that you're offering on-site, uh, which is a part of the market for many of the prefab guys that are like, we need to offer that. But it's kind of something that you specialize in as opposed to prefab, at least I guess to this point. Do you see that growing? Do you see like getting into prefab and then moving the sheds, or do you want to stick with building them on site?
Russell Odom:Well, I see value in both. Um, if I had a facility large enough, you know, I could see you know building them in a facility and trying to hybrid it. Um, right now in the area I live in, uh, it's expensive for any kind of place. I mean, you know, my rent here is expensive. I got a 2,000 square foot warehouse and a thousand square feet of office, um, and the doors just aren't big enough to build a building inside and take it out. And it's really hard to find places like that, and they're just very pricey in this area. Um, but you know, I can see as the business grows to offer stuff like that. I mean, I've been eyeballing similar companies that are kind of a similar place where I want to be, like Weaver Barns is one. You know, they do they do sheds, they do garages, they do pavilions, all sorts of stuff. There's some other companies I've seen that do in that space. So that that's kind of my inspiration. So yeah, at some point I can see expanding into that. And I think that's where the bigger profit is. I mean, site build sheds, I mean, there's decent profit in it, but I mean, you know, we are at the mercy of weather. If it if it's raining or super hot, it's really hard to build. You know, whereas if you have a facility and pre-build them in a conditioned space, well, I can see that being a lot more profitable in the long run. Um, but you know, for me, it's it's a starting point. Um, we do get a lot of business. Um and especially in this area, there's a lot of um a lot of new development. I mean, Greenville's growing. I think you know, maybe in other areas they're more condensed population. Uh, we're finding that you know there's a lot of houses that are built close together. Uh, there's fences that are already put up. Um, you know, very difficult to get a pre-built shed in those backyards. Uh so I especially with all the newer developments going out, you cannot get a pre-built shed back there. It's just it's impossible. You know, houses are you know 10 feet apart, and there's a um, you know, there's an AC unit in the way and other things.
ADVERTISEMENT:I got a big day tomorrow. I have a fully finished 18 by 40 cabin that's going to require two to three mills to get it delivered. Way back in the sticks and down a dirt lane. With all the rain we've had lately, it's gonna be a mess. Well, it needs a bigger mule. Well, when you talk, Cardinal listens and you ask for it. With its diesel-powered 69-horse engine and capacity to move 40,000 pound sheds, the Mule 9069 is ready to turn your big days into just another day in the good life. Ah, that's right. You're talking about the one they had up at Michigan at the shed show. That monster mule, that man, that thing was awesome. That's right. It's the one you've seen at all the shed hauler barbecues. Man, yeah, there's nothing like a little diesel donkey to make my day go so much better.
Russell Odom:So uh, yeah, I mean, that's that's the market that that we serve best. You know, there's a lot of customers that they need a shed, they can't get a pre-built one. So, I mean, we hand carry material in the back, we and we stick build it. I mean, at this point, we're not even pre-building wall panels or anything. Everything is 100% stick built on site. And um I I'm lucky that I've found some good employees that are very talented, you know. Um, I have one in particular who's been in in the um you know building custom decks for 30 plus years, another one who's been doing custom home building for 15 years, you know, another one that's you know been doing similar work, you know, not as experienced, but very good. Um, you know, I've you know, and I get resumes from people that are looking to do good work, and they want a place where you know try something different, or maybe they're tired of doing really big projects and want to try something smaller. Um so it's nice finding that talent and being able to do good projects that they're proud of.
Sam Byler:I mean, you're not you're there's three things you said in that little paragraph right there that I want to address. Number one is it's Greenville, South Carolina. What are you talking about hot weather? It doesn't get hot here until this year. Yeah. You go 42 days straight of 90 something plus degrees and the heat index over 100. I don't know where that, I mean, you know how it is. You got to work out in that. I work out in it, you know, much as I don't want to be anymore. I'm um the second thing was that you actually were blessed to find good health. Um we are in such a high-growing area that if you like if you if you don't have a job or can't find a job, there's just something wrong with you because there is work everywhere around here. Um the third most important one is you talk you talk about houses going in ten feet apart, and Shannon's like, what? Ain't never heard of such. We have subdivisions going in of hundreds of houses, and they are just I mean, you talk about little boxes on the hill, the old song, these are little boxes on the hill. They are just jammed in, slammed right on top of each other. My question to you about that is I know somebody asked, in fact, I had a builder here this morning, and uh he asked me how many builders, shed builder, and he asked me how many shed builders, manufacturers that I know. And I said, I know 15, well now it's 16. Shed manufacturers within 60 miles of me. He said, Well, how many dealers do you know? I said, 56 dealerships that I know of. Um, so my question to you is in what most people would assume is a highly saturated market for our area, um, where are you finding, like, where are you finding these jobs from? How are you are you hooked up with a prefab company and saying, look, I'll do on sites for you? Have you thought about going and talking to all these different manufacturers saying, look, I'll do on sites for you? And have you thought about teaming up with the quality level that you're building on-site to have to be able to offer their prefab units, like sell prefabs for them through their group?
Russell Odom:Um, I I've thought of all those things. Um, you know, I'm looking for the money. Where's the profit? Where's the opportunity? I'm constantly combing and looking for stuff. Um I would say um I don't think I'm not interested in in working for another company to build their sheds on site. You know, I haven't asked them, but I gathered they don't pay very well. You know, I I'm trying to be, you know, eventually the one that is, you know, um spending some time at the golf course and not the one always scrambling for the next job. Uh and I feel like that's probably the type of person they're uh hiring is someone who's you know scrambling for the job, and they get paid enough. I actually talked to uh someone who worked for a, I'm not gonna name it, but a large uh shed uh manufacturer um and he has to pick up panels in Charlotte and ship them. He takes them all over all of South Carolina and some other states, and he's like, I just don't get paid a lot for these, and I and I put these up as fast as possible because that's how I make my money and I move on. And you look at them, they don't look good. I mean, honestly, I've had a lot of customers comment, they've shopped around at all my competitors, they've looked at them all. Yeah, and they don't even see my shed until I build it. I don't have displays, there's nothing to display. I'm a contractor, I build on site, I have my reputation online, I have pictures and video. Um, but then they decide to buy with me or buy for me, and then after they see it, they're like, wow, this is built much better than anything else we've seen out there. Nice because I'm a contractor, you know, we are carpenters. Uh, and I'm not trying to talk down about other companies, but I mean if you're if you're a uh manufacturing facility and you're trying to squeeze out every little bit of profit and you're skimping on your materials, and you're not you don't have you know the most talented you know staff building them, you know, some people in the factory is kind of throwing nails in there. Like my guys, they're precise, they're measuring every little detail. They're they want to make sure it's perfect. Custom home builders building sheds, you know. So that that's the type of quality that that we're offering uh for that. Uh, you know, as far as you know being a dealer for another company, yeah, I don't I don't think so. Um I did contact Juan saying, hey, you know, I get traffic, I get traffic, and uh you know, I would be happy to throw your 3D builder on my thing if I can get you know some kind of commission off the sales. They weren't interested in it, they uh didn't understand it because they think the shed industry is more or less like you know, car dealership. They expect, well, you got to see my wares, right? Like, well, you know, I'm selling a ton of sheds, no one sees my shed before I build it for them. No one.
Sam Byler:Yeah, it's not there.
Russell Odom:Yeah, so you don't know, you don't have to have a lot. Uh, it might be helpful for foot traffic. Uh but to ask answer your other question, how do I get work? I mean, I so I'm self-studied in everything I do. I mean, I actually grew up home, I grew up homeschooled, so I learned how to study things on my own. Um, so like I learned SEO. I took a deep dive into understanding SEO, understanding keyword optimization and all sorts of tips and tricks on that. I've done a deep dive in Facebook marketing and Google marketing. Um, and I believe in promotion. Promote, promote, promote. I mean, I'm not, yes, I'm a contractor, but I feel like I am a marketer first. I'm a I promote what I do. Um and also I've been so busy recently, I don't even have time to do that anymore. Uh, but um, you know, starting off, it's like all I do is you take pictures and video of everything I do. I post it, I you know, repost it, I you know, do what I can to get the word out. Um, and actually, if you look at my website for a lot of different keyword phrases related to sheds, and I've only been in business for two and a half years, I outrank the big dudes. Nice. I show up above all the big guys on the Google local pack. I usually show up as one of the first organic results uh for most keyword phrases. And I got that just a few months in. That's how I started growing my business. I just, you know, I at first, at first I posted flyers everywhere, I put yard sides everywhere, I put some stuff on Facebook Marketplace, I started getting a couple leads in. Meanwhile, I'm building my website and my SEO. And then before I know it, I'm ranking at the top, and I'm just getting leads. I'm just leads are just kind of coming in organically through searches. Um, and in fact, I got enough leads that way to keep three or four people on staff last summer, and uh I've been incorporating more uh Facebook ads and Google ads. Uh so if I feel like I need more business, I can up my budget. If I feel like hey, we're good enough, I bring it down. I mean, right now we're booked out into mid-November.
Shannon Latham:Yeah, I almost don't want to get too busy. I mean, like we were on, I'm gonna open up two can of worms, uh, or they've kind of been open, at least to some extent. Um uh the first can being, you know, we were on a marketing call this morning with a company that does seven to nine million. Uh and what we were telling them specifically was you have, I was gonna save this to the Shed Cell Summit, but it's just too good. I've already started letting the cat out of the bag. But you know, I can't help myself, you know. I really wanted to hold something powerful to the to the Q & A panel time. And you know, I got to telling him, I said, you know, if you really think about it, well, there's a there's a probably three can of worms here, but if you if you really think about the potential that you have as a seven nine million dollar a year company right now to unseat the hundred plus million, two hundred plus million a year in sales right now, you can do it. And the tragedy of it is because they don't believe in systems and processes, I don't know if I want to say they don't believe in it. That's a blanket statement that everyone doesn't believe in it. But if you don't invest in it, oh that sounds like a sales pitch. But like I talked to you once before today, right? Like I didn't like I didn't like have to poke you to be like Google and Facebook leads and SEO works. Like I didn't have to like coach you on that or pay you under the table to say good things like Sam set the interview up. So, it's one of those things where I'm like, I'm so happy that it happened organically, uh, that that we could discuss that too. You know, I'm really studying hard, Sam, on the idea of like what it means to be in the shed industry at this point um and doing prefab versus on-site. I the only thing I say about um company names specifically on the podcast are positive things. So let's say let's say something positive. One of, if not the largest names in the shed industry is Tough Shed. It had some massive success. I mean, it doesn't matter what you know happens on private Facebook pages or people's thoughts or opinions, right? They've still had the success nonetheless. But here's the thing, here's the point I'm trying to draw, and not a focus on who they are, their quality, or anything. I'm trying to draw a focus on they build off a display model. They don't pre-fab sheds, and yet they're one of the most successful in the industry. And we have so much inventory on the ground. It was a good thing during COVID, but other than COVID happening every other year, like most people are telling me, not all, but most people are telling me when we try to do some data-driven research is that you know, like we build mostly custom sheds. So for me, I'm like, unless you have a super lot with like three to four hundred sheds to shop from, like most people seem to be buying custom built sheds. Um the third can of worms I done forgot. Um, but I'll we'll get back to it. Um I'm focused on that, the ability to unseat, whether you do it as custom built or whether you do it as prefab, the ability to unseat uh the larger players, it's so available right now. And not because I want to see larger players unseated, like we interview them, we're friends of them too. This is just discussion. My point being if you will invest in your systems and processes, you have the opportunity to be successful as even a small shed manufacturer right now. But you have to invest in these things and instead of criticizing them, do what Russell's did and be self-taught and learn them if you can. If not, hire somebody. Hello, salesman, or you know, but I'm just saying, like, if you want to do it yourself, you can. Um and look and look at the success you've had already. I'm not gonna ask you how many sheds you sell or what your numbers are, but I mean you're out ranking larger players quickly, and you've got so many leads that you're like, hey, let's just scale back on some of it. Like, how many people are saying that right now? Like, we don't need more leads. You're like, hey, this is where we're comfortable growing. Um, oh, that's the third can of worms. Success. Success like breeds its own problems. Yeah. If you guys start being like so successful and you're doing 1.1 million a year in sales your first year out of the gate, and all of a sudden, through good marketing or whatever you're using, you go to five million and you're not ready to scale, it's its own set of problems.
ADVERTISEMENT:Unlock the power of productivity with cardinal leasing. Are you looking to elevate your business operations with top-tier equipment? Look no further than Cardinal Leasing. We offer a wide range of reliable and high-quality equipment tailored to meet your unique needs. Flexible leasing options. Whether you need short-term rentals or long-term solutions, our customizable leasing plans are designed to provide maximum flexibility and affordability. Conventional financing available. Cardinal Leasing also offers great conventional finance options for those of you that prefer that over-lease purchase options. Expert support. Our team of experienced professionals is here to guide you every step of the way, ensuring a seamless leasing experience. Boost efficiency. With our top-of-the-line equipment, you can enhance productivity, reduce downtime, and achieve your business goals faster. Why choose Cardinal Leasing? Competitive rates, exceptional customer service, hassle-free process, quick and easy approvals. Don't let outdated equipment hold you back. Partner with Cardinal Leasing today and take your business to the next level. Contact us now. Visit our website at equipment.cardinaleasing.us or call us at 618-803-4086 to get started.
Russell Odom:Yeah, I mean certainly I feel like one of the things as a small business owner, um, I my time is taken up by noise, by like things that keep coming my way that it's not necessarily even that profitable, or even what I want to spend my time doing is just like little admin tasks that just add up like crazy. When I was working my first artist. Business. I worked with by myself for the first year. It's pretty simple. You know, as I start trying to grow, like I have to bring in payment processors and you know, um, payroll and legal things come up. And you know, next thing I know, I'm just I'm just chipping away like little like arrows of things trying to hit me, you know, that's it's not profitable for me, but I have to do it in order to uh keep the business going. So that's why I hired Heather. You know, she's helping to take someone off my off my back. But I think that's part of just business growth. I mean, you have to outgrow your britches, you have to get to the point where it's too much for me, you know, and I can't hire someone ahead of that because I don't have investment dollars or anything. I'm paying for all this, you know, with my profit. So, I have to wait until it's just too much of a load for me, then I can start bringing people to off offload that stuff to try to keep growing.
Shannon Latham:You remember those days, Sam?
Sam Byler:I'm sure when you were the uh don't even get me started. He said something about ADD a little while ago, and uh as you well know, I could probably be the president of that whole thing for a long, long time. Um the problem for me is I don't seem to ever get smart enough to offload it to other people enough. Um yeah, I got good guys working for me. I've got good help, I got good subs and stuff like that, or whatever you want to call them, but the admin work seems to always land right there. And you know, he brings up something that's and it's very important to me. Um, you know, I've got the ability to work. I went and passed my South Carolina builders test, just like he did. I don't have the ability to go learn an SEO. I'm just there's like there's a I can take a diesel apart and tell you how it all works and put it back together and make it work. But this this whole, you know, I'm still old school. Give me a lot on the corner of 123 and 153, and if I'm running that lot, I can sell as good as anybody. Um I one of the things he said that he has never, I don't know, maybe he listened to the podcast and got all the dirty background work on us or whatever. I don't think he did, but one of the things he said was, you know, he mentions Facebook and Google, and I wanted to ask him, you know, if you had to give up one of them, which one would you give up? But he's already proven to me that he uses both to the highest of his advantage for both of them, which is important. Oh, yeah. Um for me, my lot is just as important because I have to have that based on me. And that's why going back to what you said, you're not trying to dethrone the national guys because we're not. But I've always, always said that regionally you can compete with all those guys. Because those guys have a system that works for them based on national. I have a system that works for me based on regional. It's two different systems. They're going to be fine, even if I, you know, can beat them in a small market. That's no different than Yoder's building supply down the road from me here, doing astronomical numbers out of one location that would make Home Depot and Lowe's look silly in this whole area. But the fact is, Home Depot is still huge. You know, twice as big as Lowe's. Most people are like, what? And the fact is, Lowe's is still probably 20 times bigger than Yoder's building supply is. But in a region right here, there isn't 15 Lowe's that can keep up with them. That's what I like to see individuals pull themselves up by their bootstraps and say, I can do this and I can do it in a regional area and I can make it happen. And we need these stories right now because, as you well know, there is so many people that are questioning right now can we even survive the shed industry? Can the shed industry even survive in a local area over the next two to five years? And here we got a guy right here that's saying, absolutely you can. Why can't you?
Russell Odom:Right. I, you know, I I'm I'm not gonna put um tough shed out of business. So, you know, I not not even close. I'm sure the volume of business I'm doing doesn't touch what they do, um, you know, but I'm happy to take a little sliver, you know, and that's all I'm trying to do. And um and to bring up something you said before, you know, how how do you compete in that space? I mean, people buy from people. Um, I've worked for a large corporation before, actually, a couple of them. And really, um, yeah, there's a certain level of trust because of the brand, and you expect that the brand's gonna take care of you, but it's really the person that you're talking to across that counter, across the phone. Um, you know, you have to trust that person. That is a salesperson, you know. Um, so and that's where my sales experience comes in, you know, even though I wasn't great at it when I had to do it, working for someone else, and I didn't really love it, it serves me now. I understand it, and I'm not convincing people to do something they don't want to do. I'm just I'm friendly, you know, and I feel like to have sales success for me, the step one is to get to know the person. You know, it's not about the product. I mean, the you know, when a customer approaches you, first thing we know is what's your price? What's your price? Well, you know, you know, it's like selling a car. What's the price of a car? It's 4,000 bucks. Now what? Well, what car? What make? What model? How many miles? Like there's so many questions. So price means nothing. So when people ask me price, I know that that's what the customer wants to know. That's their agenda. My agenda is it's like I just met my neighbor and I'm trying to get a I'm trying to get to know my neighbor, and and I try to have those conversations. It doesn't last long, it's not like I'm talking for hours with them. It might be five minutes or ten minutes, but I'm trying to like elicit something from them that's personal that that I can relate to and just talk to them on a human level. And then at that point, you know, they start building trust and they're not their guards not up, and you know, I have to like differentiate what we do from our competitors. Like one thing that we do that our competitors are not ever gonna do is that we build our floor framing like a standalone deck. We use deck footings and peer uh you know, peer post put into it. We bit we can build on a sloping yard, and it looks like a deck is built in place with a shed put on top. You know, big tech companies are not doing that. You're not licensed to. You can't do that. You know, I'm a I'm a I'm a licensed builder. You know, maybe in some states they can, you know, I don't know. Um, but uh that that's a custom build product in in place. And a lot of customers they like the idea of that. They think, oh, that looks good, it looks better than you know, placed on a bunch of you know bricks and some scrap wood put in there to make it level. You know, we actually have carpenters building this. So that that's to me that that distinguishes it. So I try to let my customers know how we're building it, the quality that we put into it, the care. Um, at that point, you know, and they look at my reputation. I got you know 50 plus five-star reviews, a lot of happy customers buying for me. So, like, well, you know, they build good stuff, you know, he seems trustworthy. Other people, you know, vouch for him. I'm sold. They're sold. And then, you know, with the Facebook marketing campaign I do, um, it actually helps to create a lot of that trust uh before I even talk to anybody. Um, and so by the time they do call, a lot of times they've already done their research. I've got people like I don't have to overcome price, they're they're sold. Like, okay, you know, this is what I want, this is what I want. You know, what do what do we do to get on your schedule? And that's how a lot of my conversations go. It serves a lot of it, Sam.
Sam Byler:Isn't it crazy that he brings up, isn't it crazy he brings up cars after literally just yesterday someone made the comment about are you wanting to buy a Chevette or a Corvette? And then some of the guys actually said they don't even know what a Chevette is. Um, because that that has always been my go-to when somebody comes up and they're price, price, price, price. I'm like, well, what do you want me to build you? You want me to build you a Chevette or a Corvette? Do you want a Hyundai or do you want a BMW? You know, um go ahead.
Shannon Latham:I just wanted to make sure even from a marketing perspective. I mean, what's the age old, you know, why doesn't Lamborghini advertise? You know, people who buy Lamborghinis aren't watching TV. You know, people who people who buy Lamborghinis aren't influenced by a television commercial, right? Like consumerism's uh a study in its own. And when you're when you're in business, you're in all of the business, not just some of it. So, you've got to be able to be moderately familiar with SEO, moderately familiar with why double top plate might be better uh or the differentiation in that in a single top plate. But to your point, Russell, I think like, you know, if you can get the people to you, you can sell. And I think too many times we rest on that crux because it's the getting people to you that is the I don't want to say the difficult part, but that is the competitive nature of any retail. Whether you get out of this and start selling motorcycles or sandals or you know, matchbox cars, it's getting in front of people, and that's really what the digital platform and the digital landscape has brought to the table. Of course, people still buy from people, but their journey often starts online. So you've got to build credibility from the offset. You know, you've got to you've got to get them to trust you enough to even get to you.
ADVERTISEMENT:Introducing the Challenger, the revolutionary new shed mover that's taking the industry by storm. The Challenger features a touchless design, ensuring it only makes contact at the end of the skids and the bottom of the floor joists. So, rest easy knowing your gable walls will remain pristine. Worried about reliability? Fear not, the challenger is always up for the challenge and will not overturn or scuff your shed. Harness the power of innovative wireless technology. Remotely control the Challenger via your smartphone. No cell service needed. And guess what? The cell phone remote comes standard with every Challenger at no extra cost. Featuring floating forks, a four-directional tilting mast, and sliding weight transfer, move the shed weight precisely where you need it to get ultimate traction. With self-loading capability, straight onto your truck. Say goodbye to the need for a hydraulic carriage. The Challenger makes your job easy and more efficient. Choose from two machine sizes, 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds. Perfect for any job. Visit www.shedchallenger.com or email us at info at shedchallenger.com or call or text 828-220-3508 for more information. Experience the future of Shed Moving with the Challenger.
Shannon Latham:Because it used to be they just drive by the corner of 123 and 153. But how many people are you missing that's 20 miles away that never take that route? So they get online and then they want to look for something. They see you, didn't even know that guy was there. And your social media presence, your Facebook uh presence, your website presence, um, you know, and then how does your workflow look once they land on your website? You know, do you have a website from 1997? You know, because uh, you know, if you do, people are gonna see that as probably low quality, right? They're just gonna see that and go, is this scammy? Uh it isn't meant to be. It's just like, well, then when people say, Well, build me a beautiful website, I'm like, cool. That's like building you a website that sets in the middle of a cornfield, so nobody ever drives by it. So, we've got to get it trafficked. You know, you were talking about keyword integration and just different things that you do for your own local SEO and things like that. You know, uh, Dylan's been on here talking about Reddit, you know, Reddit's a big thing right now. Why people aren't running ads on Reddit? I'm surprised because with the advance of AI technology, people are kind of seeking like real life, like Sam said, I can take an engine apart and put it together. My dad was the same way, Sam. Like he can take an 86 Toyota transmission out and put it back in an hour. Gonna take me a couple of days, but I can use a QR code to read a menu, and my dad thinks I'm a wizard. He's just like, holy cow, how did you manage to do that? You're smart. And I'm like, eh, you know, I'd I'd I'd make the argument your talent's better than mine. You're able to actually put hands on something. I'm just uh leveraging what the digital world's giving us. And and Google and Facebook are doing all that stuff anyway, right, Russell? They're they're harvesting information on us to sell to us.
Sam Byler:Yes.
Shannon Latham:That's all they're doing, and so we're leveraging that information because it's available to anybody. Um also, Sam, you should look at studies on ADHD and entrepreneurship. They go hand in hand, just saying. That's true.
Russell Odom:That's true. I mean, yeah, yeah, for me, it yeah, I mean, that's kind of ADHD rant, but I mean, um, I feel like it I have a lot of different interests and a lot of different things, and I end up doing a lot of things, and they all kind of come together and help me with what I'm doing. Uh, whereas, you know, there's a lot of people that they're very focused on one task. I mean, those are type types of people I end up hiring, you know, people that are like they're very good at their thing. They might not be as diverse um into other things like I am, but it had life has led me through a diverse amount of experience, uh, and it's all kind of coming together. I mean, it's weird, you know, a lot of different jobs I've had, I wouldn't think that are related ever in my career, but now for some reason, a lot of the pieces of those things come in handy and uh are helping me with my success.
Sam Byler:Yeah.
Shannon Latham:Gosh, Sam, what a good, what a good like conversation from on-site build to prefab to the digital landscape. Like, where's the shed industry going? Are we gonna see more? Like I'm harp, I'm harping on this prefab thing just because I'm so perplexed on why we're putting so much money into a dealer location, you know, 200 grand into a dealer location and like what can 200 grand get you in the digital landscape? And that's not as I've been accused of removing your dealer uh model. I don't want to take dealers away. I think dealers are great. I think you know I'm happy to have more of them. Um I'm just the kind of person, I think you guys might be you know cut from the same cloth that um if you want to hire a guy that's retired that just kind of wants to do something, he's a good old boy and he sets there and he sells sheds. There's nothing wrong with that if you've come to that conclusion. But if you say, well, the shed industry's falling apart because we're constantly going down, probably not. There's a young, what my what my dad would call young whippersnapper out here, you know, using the digital landscape to pull leads away from you that you never even see. They're just taking a bigger market share because they're soaking up all the leads in the area through the digital landscape. Does that mean they're as good of a salesperson as the old retired fellow? Probably not. Probably a lot less life experience. Maybe they're just not as sharp or relatable or personable, but they're getting the lead, and that's the key. They're getting the lead. You don't even get to talk to the people because they're soaking up the lead. And what I've learned is that Sam, you're different, you're different than a lot of people. A lot of people, if they don't understand SEO, best thing to do is criticize it. At least you're saying, you know, yeah, it works. I just don't understand it. Most people are like, them, them fangled computers ain't never gonna make it. Websites are never gonna take off. You know, and it's just like, well, okay, we can ignore reality. But this isn't this isn't just specific to sheds.
Sam Byler:No, you just drug the whole universe in now because now you now you made it religious in the fact that you're talking about what my kids, you know. You know, I made a comment the other day that I have twice as much fun with my adult kids as I ever had with them little, and everybody seems to think that means I hated them when they were little. It's nothing to do with that. It's just the fact I really enjoy where they're at right now. But they are so removed from what I grew up in or whatever. And my son, 33 years old, one of his favorite things is, you know, religious people, if they don't understand it, it's just automatically from the devil. That's a mouthful. Because you can apply that to just about anything. You know, my grandma, bless her heart, Amish behind the horse and buggy, she would apply that to a car. And then we come along and we're like, oh no, not a car. It can't be a car, never a car. So then my dad says, Well, it's a computer. I remember in the 78, 79, we were still living in Missouri building jets, believe it or not. And he's like, Oh, we can't have computers. You can take computer and you can make it be 666, and you know, well, whatever. That's from the devil. Well, now we've moved on to now it's SEO. It's whatever you want to put up there. If we don't understand it, it's bad. Um, that's just human nature. And you know what? I'll even take it a step further. This me this is gonna hurt some people. If we don't understand it, then um obviously it's you know, we're intellectually competent enough to where, if we don't understand it, we don't need it because we, you know, everything we need, we understand. Oops. And then you got a guy like this that says, no, I'm gonna go figure out how it works and I'm gonna use it. And he uses it to bring, yeah, to build his business to where it's like we need these small success success stories. I want them every week. Like, I want to go find all these guys that are scattered everywhere and say, look, you can still build a shed business, you can still be successful in your shed business because here's something that I grasp with a lot. 56 shed dealers that I know of in a Ford County region up here, and yet I can walk into a restaurant. I promise you, we can go down to Pete's on 25, we can walk in there, and we can interview the guys in there, and half of the people in that place eating today do not know where to go buy a shed. Right. We used to do this. We'd walk into a restaurant, we'd be like, hey, what's that thing in your backyard? Oh, what do you mean what's in my backyard? The thing you store stuff in. Where do you go buy one? I don't know. Home Depot. Oh, yeah. Russell, you know what I'm getting at? We have a huge market up here, and even though all of us are spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to get these eyeballs in front of our businesses, the huge majority of the people out there, if you stop and interview them, hey, where are you going to buy a shed from? They have no idea.
Russell Odom:Right. And I, you know, and that's the thing about being online is is it does equalize that playing field a bit. You know, you know, Tough Shed, you know, or other companies, they might be a big name brand that that people might potentially recognize, but if you're not really in the shed industry and you're not really shopping that often, you probably don't even think about it. You know, you might see my, oh, I think I've seen that before. But in reality, you know, if they people are searching online for stuff and they see a bunch of different companies come up and you know, they look at the website and they look at the quality, look at the reviews, you know, they try to look for social media content. Um, and that's one of the things I try to incorporate is you know, I have a bunch of videos on YouTube, and that when I first started, I'd shoot videos of me building, you know, and set like it's like me walking around hammering and nailing things, like I'm the guy building this, you know. So, and I think for people, they connect with that, like, oh, this is a person, you know, doing stuff. So that's why it doesn't matter how big or small you are, you can be a small person and still say, hey, I'm proud about what I'm doing, and I do a good job at it, and I want to do this for you too. And at that point, it doesn't matter if there's a bigger company, you know. They just, I've never had a hard time overcoming that. No one ever said anything about well, how long you've been in business. I mean, people have asked me, I'm like, uh, two and a half years. Yeah, I'm growing, and you know, I tell my background, and then they're sold on me. They're like, Oh, this is like a great guy. I'd like to buy from him, you know. So, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, you know, you just have to, you know.
Shannon Latham:Well, the reality is it's hard to like while everybody, well, several are competing to achieve that national brand status. I would make the argument like you to piggyback off what you said. Most people don't like you know, I one out of ten might be able to name a company, and that's because their cousin works there or something like that. But uh they just can't, they couldn't tell you, and let's be honest, like to me, Tough Shed's a it's a well-branded, like a company and a well-branded name. I mean, just I don't even have to say much for you to know anything about it to hear Tough Shed. You're like, well, that's what I want. Want something tough, want something that'll stand up, you know. Weather King, you know, just kind of says, hey, we'll stand up against the weather. We'll build something, you know. That's why a lot of people want with quality built, you know, it's because people just want to know can I get a quality-built shed, a quality-built structure? Um I I'm impressed after talking with you in South Carolina to kind of see how you've infiltrated the industry in such a small time and use the tools that are available to you that others might not even be using to already gain an impact, if nothing else, for you and your family and in your local market. Um, you don't have to know all the things. That's the biggest thing. You don't have to be an expert in every area, uh, whether it's building, hauling, selling, marketing, rent own, finance, uh, but you should be pursuing education, and the Apostle Paul talks about that, and I believe that's biblical. You should be pursuing education uh constantly. You should be wanting to learn. I think it only hurts whenever you've got it all figured out. To which I usually probably sound very critical to the ones who already have it all figured out, because I'm here to learn, so teach me if you've got it figured out. You know, you won't insult me with your knowledge. I'll learn, I'll learn from it to be better. So um do you have a responsibility to give back? You know, go start a program that helps others. Uh, maybe that's your new business model. Maybe you're not selling sheds or building sheds anymore. But congratulations on your success. If I don't say anything else today, it's congratulations on using what's available to like you, dude. You had a culinary arts degree.
Sam Byler:Yeah, like I was just thinking about that. I want to open a restaurant before I die. And he's the guy that says, I don't want to be in a restaurant anymore.
Russell Odom:Yeah. Well, no, no, that that was, you know, um, I liked cooking and I cooked at home, uh, but doing it as a profession, it's a lot different than you know, having fun at home. It's more like um, it's kind of interesting with any kind of career you get into, um, you know, you look it on the surface, it seems like a certain way, but when actually you do it, it's something different. So, like culinary arts, you're working in a hot kitchen, you're in it uh, you know, nights, weekends, holidays, you know, you stink of food, you're working at such a fast pace, you can't work any faster, and it's still not fast enough to keep up with all the tickets, and then you're exhausted. And it to me, it's just like I didn't like it. I just I don't like this type of work. Do I like cooking? Sure. Do I like eating well? Most definitely. Uh, do I like working in a fast-paced kitchen? Not one bit. You know, so I didn't that's what I got out of that. What's your specialty? What area do you do you do best in in food? Oh man, I did a lot of different things. I mean, I work for um you know, catering company, uh fine dining restaurant, and other stuff. But what do I what's my go-to personally? Would I like cooking? Uh it's either breakfast food or tacos. I could probably start a fantastic taco restaurant. Um in fact, if anyone wants to look at uh the food we eat as seen uh on Instagram, I have a bunch of posts of food that I make at home. Me and my wife.
Shannon Latham:I'm a fan already. Like I'm a fan. Um yeah, I think it's great. I got one question that'll get him in trouble, Sam. Uh, maybe I shouldn't ask this, but uh all your time at Sherwin Williams, what paint do you use?
Sam Byler:I was gonna ask that and I forgot.
Russell Odom:Um, the one I use is super paint. That's kind of my go-to. Honestly, um, I mean, A100 is a little bit below that, and that's very much a commercial paint a lot of commercial contractors use. It's a fine product. Um, I like the idea of super paint because I just think it covers a little bit better. Um, you go above that, you're not really getting your money's worth. You they essentially have you know ingredients that are considered good in premium, and some that are like less premium, and then their premium paints that have a higher percentage of that stuff. It's supposed to cover better. Uh, but in application, I haven't really seen that much of a difference. You know, they'll pay double the price per gallon, and you're still putting two coats on. Um, so I feel like their super paint is a great product. That's what I'm using.
Shannon Latham:You are using Sherwin Williams, so that that alone says that you believe in the product that you worked fo r a long time.
Russell Odom:So yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's a great company, it's a great product. I understand it.
Shannon Latham:Yeah, I've been after them to advertise for a while, but I haven't gotten anywhere yet. So I'll keep at them. But uh yeah, uh what do you got, Sam?
Sam Byler:I'm good, man. I've it's just the success story coming from a completely different background. Um, I want to use this one over and over again when people are like, you know, are we done? Is this is this thing folded? Are we about to go out of business? Or I can't, you know, we hear it all the time because we're in the industry. Um, we hear it behind the scenes, we hear it on the pages, you know, all the different pages we have. Um I really hate to just tell somebody to chalk it up to pure laziness, but most days that's almost where I land because after I dig around for five minutes, you know, what are you doing for this? What are you doing for that? And it's like, well, you know, I mean you kind of get what you put into it. Um so to see a guy like Russell just come in out of nowhere and put it put in the time and the effort to learn what he has to do to make it work. Um I love it. Absolutely love it. It's like, look, you can still do it. Um it's you know, I've I know a couple other smaller companies around here that have done very well. Um, some people say, well, yeah, they're doing good because they started, you know, pre-COVID and they were already big, so when the COVID thing hit, you know, they were able to ride back and grow good. Um to be able to see somebody come in after that and grow it, that's kind of like I felt, you know, my story was when I quit building houses after 2008 and I got back into sheds, I started a shed company and succeeded with it during the worst years possible, you would think. 2009, 2010, 2011, you know, when housing was just garbage. You know, we went from zero to a million, you know, in the first year went to two and a half million, went to five million, and it was like, you know, it's like I don't know, but to me, it's almost like not only is it recession proof, but it's actually it helps in a recession because people still that they can't afford that two-car garage anymore. They can't afford to build a big barn or they can't afford to move up to the next house they want. So, what do they do? They need somewhere to put their stuff, they get a shed, they put in the backyard. They can't put grandpa or grandma or mama or daddy in the, you know, in the dude, he I don't know how much Russell knows about our community here, but you want to talk about a nightmare? Try to put a 76 year old male or female in assisted living right now in this area. Good luck. I don't care how many dollars you have.
Shannon Latham:You need a dotty house.
Sam Byler:Yep, you need a dotty house. Not enough all. It's a Daughty House. Daughty House. Daughty House.
Shannon Latham:Yeah, I'm never gonna get it. It's like a I call them Granny Pod. It is.
Sam Byler:It's a Granny Pod. Oh, well, no. In this case, it's Grampy. Because Daughty is grandpa. You could, if you want a Granny pad, then you gotta call it the Mommy Hoss.
Shannon Latham:You know any Pennsylvania Dutch, Russell?
Russell Odom:I can't say I do. No, I don't.
Shannon Latham:Well, you're in the same boat as me then. But I try.
Sam Byler:Uh yeah, he tries hard.
Shannon Latham:I try.
Sam Byler:No, it's like uh, yeah, I guess we need to wrap this thing up. We're gonna get to where we gotta we gotta split him up. I don't want to do that. So, Russell, what would you tell? So Shed Geek has a lot of listeners, um, manufacturers, salespeople, haulers, he covers everybody pretty good. Um how do you say, Shannon? This is his time. What do you what do you want to throw out there for people like what people know about?
Russell Odom:Yeah, good question. I uh, you know, like I said, I don't have any experience in uh you know a lot of the other shed industry, a lot of the listeners listen to. I haven't spent the time in that space. You know, I do custom builds, uh I'm a contractor, so that's a space I'm in. Um, you know, I feel like I can at least say with I know with my customers, you know, they they're just having a harder, harder time being able to get a pre-built shed, you know. So having those options of um you know custom built sheds uh on site is definitely good. Um uh but just depends on the market. You know, I know some places that are more rural probably doesn't matter, you know, places that are more condensed, it might matter more. Um but yeah, I mean I I'm grateful to be on this with you guys. Thank you so much for inviting me. Uh, you know, I do uh hope that if my customers hear this, you know, I'm here to provide a great service. I'm here to uh you know build you a structure that that you're proud of and that I'm proud of, um, that you want to show off uh to your friends and neighbors, um, and hopefully, you know, get some repeat business off of that. Um, you know, we are venturing into other backyard structures, like I mentioned, um, we're gonna be doing office sheds very soon. I also signed up as an installer slash dealer for a um manufacturer of screen enclosures and sunrooms and uh perglos and pavilions. So we'll be rolling those out soon. Thanks! Yeah, I'm gonna see down the road, you know, I'm gonna incorporate backyard structures. We'll be doing fences, decks, kind of all that stuff that there's just a lot of demand for, and uh I just feel like it's easy to kind of like once we have a few pieces that we're doing well, I think it's easier just to start incorporating other things into the business.
Sam Byler:Absolutely.
Shannon Latham:I'm gonna say one more thing before we go, Sam. I know we're tough on time, but one thing I really appreciate about Russell, and this is a pitch for the podcast for those of you who listen, especially those of you who say, Oh, I don't want to come on the podcast. I don't want to brag. First and foremost, you're not bragging. You're helping people out through your testimony, you're helping people out through your story. People like Russell who come on uh sometimes end up being some of the best podcast results we get because they're either high in listens or the they're high in people reaching out to me or even him and saying, you know, tell me more, they get to know each other, you build community. Uh that's first. You know, we know that uh all is all everything that we have is by the grace of God. So, we do not, even here at the podcast, it is his, it's not ours. Uh, and if we don't pay homage to our maker uh and the one who's sovereign and who gives us these opportunities, then we would be wrong for that. So we don't take any of that credit for ourselves. So I'm saying it for this reason. I mentioned to Russell well early on, I said, um, you know, even being on the podcast, if you ask how does it help you, it's an hour of your time, it's an hour of your day. And we link this to things like your website. For instance, Russell's website at Shedscape. Uh, and that creates SEO opportunity for you. In fact, some of the people we've interviewed who do not actually participate in any SEO in their website or very minimal West uh minimal SEO, we have found that even being on the podcast sometimes is their is their largest pool uh in terms of keyword search whenever people pull up Shedscape. Sometimes uh it actually generates them and indexes them to the top of Google quicker because they've simply done nothing and there's a lot of opportunity there. Uh so that's one. It actually helps you to be on the podcast if you have a website or a social media page that we can link to. And I think Russell said before we even got to talking, I'll use any of the SEO uh that you can that you can give me. This is free. Come on, chat about the shed industry. And if you like listening to other people's stories, then just be cognizant that they might like listening to yours. Providing great content uh through simple conversation is what we're shooting for here. We're not trying to solve uh you know uh major problems here. Uh we're talking about what we do and uh how we can help each other and build community through that. So that's my pitch, Sam.
Sam Byler:That's a good pitch. So I do have one final hard question for Russell um coming out of the food industry or whatever. So the next time Shannon comes into town, where are we gonna where are you gonna let him buy you dinner at?
Russell Odom:Oh boy, that's a good question. There's a lot of good places in town. I mean, this this place is kind of a culinary hub. Uh you have some great barbecue, you have some great culinary places. Um I'd hate to, you know, just say one, you know, but my house, you'll get some of the best tacos you've ever had. That's an invite right there.
Shannon Latham:Did you get that, Shannon? I'll tell you what. We're gonna eat tacos. We'll go out to eat one day, and we'll cover tacos at your house the next.
Sam Byler:Sure. I'm really curious since you brought it up. I'm really curious as to what you think is good barbecue in Greenville.
Russell Odom:Oh boy, I've had a few of them, and um I gotta say, I like Bobby's barbecue and fountain in.
Sam Byler:Oh, really? Yep.
Russell Odom:I like his food's good, his sides are good. Um, I think everything he does is good. I've tried some other places, and I feel like they use canned stuff. You know, the barbecue's okay, you know, the sauce is okay. I don't I don't want to name them, but um I would say Bobby's is is my go-to. I I love Bobby's.
Sam Byler:That's cool. Good shout-out.
Shannon Latham:Old Bobby's at Fountain End's gonna get some SEO through AI generated content here.
Sam Byler:I hope I can't help it.
Shannon Latham:I had to find out where Shannon's gonna spend his money when he comes to town. Hey, look, the only thing I know, I went to eat with Mott's one time in North Carolina, and look, I'm gonna get all I'm gonna accept all the hate mail you'll give me. Like, I don't know about putting coleslaw on barbecue. Like, I got a beef with you fellas that's doing that. I don't look, it's not my thing. I'm just being honest with you. Texas barbecue, St. Louis barbecue. That's my jam. I'm just saying.
Sam Byler:That's awesome. All right, guys. Well, thank you for everyone for tuning back in today. Thank you, Russell. Odom for being on from Shedscape, Shannon for joining me today. Thank you, guys, all. Um, make sure you follow the newsletter, make sure you check out all our different channels YouTube, Spotify. I don't know. Shannon knows where all we are, but you read the email, you'll catch all of that in there. Um, I am really looking forward, Russell, to meeting you in person somewhere in the very near future because we're going to get some food because I love eating good food. And you're right, Greenville has a ton of it. Uh, we got a little place down there called Gather Greenville that's in the top five in the United States now for food courts. I don't know if you knew that or not, but incredible place. So, thank you guys for joining in today. Um, once again, I am Sam Biler, Friday Funday host. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll see you next time.
OUTRO:Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor for 2025. If you need any more information about ShedPro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@shedgeek.com or just go to our website, www.shedgeek.com, and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.