Shed Financing That Actually Fits

Cash buyers are great, but they’re not the whole market, and “cash only” is a fast way to watch good leads walk off your lot. We sit down with Joel Oney from J Money to get practical about shed financing and why the payment option you offer can matter more than the price tag. We break down where rent to own shines, where it hits real limits, and how unsecured consumer loans can help you close bigger projects like large storage sheds, post-frame buildings, and steel structures that don’t fit the usual RTO model.

We also talk directly to shed manufacturers who feel the squeeze on working capital. Scaling production means real money tied up in lumber, finished inventory, delivery capacity, and the manufacturing facility itself. Joel shares the two most common needs he sees in the field: inventory financing and facility financing, plus how lenders think about terms, collateral, and structure. We even get into bonus depreciation at a high level and why the way you finance a building can change how quickly you can expense parts of it, with the reminder to always confirm details with your CPA.

Then we zoom out to the stuff nobody can control: uncertainty, consumer sentiment, oil prices, and the way a jump at the gas pump can freeze buying decisions. The takeaway is simple and challenging: keep improving, keep offering more solutions, and keep doing the right things repeatedly until the numbers turn. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a shed dealer or builder who needs it, and leave a quick review. What financing question do you want us to tackle next?

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

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Three Oaks Lumber Co.
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Transcript

Sponsor: One Platform For Shed Sales

INTRO 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our Studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed 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 work. No more double entries, no more back and forth payments. If voting is faster, orders are clean. 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/ ShedGeek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.

Shannon 1:34

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Uh coming at you today from Metropolis, Illinois. Excited to have Joel back on the podcast today and some of the cool things that we are um stirring up here, trying to get done, trying to get accomplished. Um just a couple ways to stay plugged in with us. If you guys don't know, uh give us a call, 618-309-3648. Uh email us at info@ shedgeek.com. Uh go fill out a contact form at shedgeek.com and we'll be glad to get back with you. Uh check out our Facebook pages. Give us a like, give us a follow on uh YouTube, give us a like on and a follow on Facebook, and go check out the Shed Sales Professionals page where there's a lot of good information we try to help keep monitored uh throughout the industry. And for those who have playing community members who want to listen but they're not sure how, just uh give them this phone number to call in 330-997-3055 for the plain communities and hot item of the day. Well, I always like to go back to my hats and just give a shout out to a builder down in uh, I think it's is it Lot, Texas, where Mark Miller's from at Sunview Builders down there. Um he's uh he's uh been on the show before and he's a great guy and uh he has an awesome chicken suit that he puts on uh whenever he promotes his buildings, and you know what? He's just an overall uh great person to be around. And I thank him for uh giving me this hat so that we could uh uh talk about him here today on the podcast. But more than anything, uh Joel, welcome back. We've got some new and cool things that we're just kind of discussing, talking about, and that's why we wanted to get you back on the show today. But for those who just you know never heard of who you are, what you do, you know, give the audience a little bit about like an overview, maybe.

Joel Oney 3:27

Yeah, certainly. So, yeah, my name's Joel Oney, aka J Money. And for those that wonder where the name of my company came from, my middle initial is M. And when I was in banking for 25 years, I would sign my name, J M Oney, and it just became J Money. So, when we were figuring out what to call this company, when we were creating it, we decided real quickly, well, let's just use my nickname, and it was easy and it worked. So, that's where the name J Money comes from. Um, but uh yeah, I was in banking for a long time, got out of banking, and was helping some of my friends in the portable building space with financing options for their sheds. And uh next thing I knew, we uh have been financing thousands of many states. So I'm very excited to be back on the podcast. Thanks for having me today, Shannon, and uh really appreciate uh my relationship with you, the shared values that we have, the kind of friendship, business partnership, and just the way you conduct yourself and conduct your business fits well and aligns with us. And so, uh always glad to be affiliated with you.

Helping Manufacturers Beyond Consumer Loans

Shannon 4:38

Well, uh I echo those sentiments that uh learn so much from you. I've got my I've got my desk with a clear, you know, uh uh plexiglass cover over the top of it, and I stick all these papers underneath it. And one of them has the "Man in the Arena" poem that you shared with me because I remind my myself of that a lot too. And you've just been a great mentor, uh, just a great friend, and really a great resource and provider. And uh and you know, I love your ideas, and you're so far ahead of the game, uh, in my opinion, a lot of times, on like your thoughts and your ideas about watching business come together. And yeah, maybe that comes to from having years and years of experience in professional banking, which leads you to uh the ability to help a lot of people through knowledge and through uh you know networking. And uh you've done a great job. And of course, a lot of people know you from being on the Steel Kings podcast and also being a title sponsor there. And you know, we met you and uh and uh you know the guys over there some time back, you know, Jared, you know, met him down in Branson and this wonderful relationship blossomed, and we'll continue to be, you know, in conversation with him and love love uh love the you know uh the steel side of the business too, which you guys actually, you know, finance for. But you know, we can get into all those good old boring details about bonus depreciation and all the stuff that you have all this extended knowledge about. And I want to do that. I want to, but I think what we're really trying to do is talk today about how you get to know someone and you're working with them in business, and then you find out there's these other opportunities and lines of opportunities to help people in different ways, right? And that's what I want to talk about today is the shed manufacturer and what are their needs and how can you help?

Joel Oney 6:37

Yeah, that's a great uh that's a great question, you know, because I found in life that if I can help others to be successful, then it brings success into my life. And uh all the years in banking, you know, obviously we loaned, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to clients, and also had a tremendous number of team members and employees that worked for me in that world that I helped them to have wonderful careers where they can provide for the families. And so I don't know over the years what was more rewarding, all of the careers and uh um lives that I changed with the people that that worked with me or the you know folks that we had as customers that we helped uh to uh achieve their dreams through financing you know their businesses. But uh you know what's happened, I think, a lot of times in any business where you're trying to help folks, we put payment plans in the hands of shed builders, and then they're able to sell their sheds more easily, right? Um we started off an RTO and now offer a um more conventional consumer loan program. But what's happened is that uh as we've grown in closer relationships with the shed manufacturers, we found opportunities to help them with their own individual financing as well for their business and help them to find uh banks or lending relationships that can help them to grow, also. That's been just the next step in this uh rewarding journey that I've had in the shed business that started by kind of by accident helping some of my friends finance their sheds.

Shannon 8:26

Oh, it makes a lot of sense. You know, there's a lot of uh a lot of companies out there that got their start, you know, in unique ways, and they've come on the podcast and they've talked about that, whether it be a first, second, or third generation shed builder, shed seller, shed hauler that ran in it sometimes ran through all three of those verticals, sometimes worked in one and transferred over to the other. Uh and I think it depends on you know opportunities everywhere. So, I think it really depends on your flavor, right? Like what you prefer. Do you like to be swinging the hammers or do you like to be slinging the sheds, you know, out there on a truck? Do you do you want to be, you know, selling them from the office? I guess I don't know if you can sling one from the sales perspective, but we'll try to get that pun in there too. Um, so I just, you know, you take you take a lot of people, and that and this reminds me of like the origin story of the podcast where I remember one fellow told me, where do I get more information and resources in this industry? You know, and I was like, man, someone should be recording these things, right? Maybe make it a podcast or something. But it's like you then you can become a resource, you can become a network to try and help people. And the one thing I know about people is they like being helped. So, if you can help them, especially at no cost, you know, then it's a benefit. Um, what are those areas? I mean, what are the needs that you see most of the time? You feel like for a shed manufacturer or shed dealer who's needing to get to that next level and just don't know how to make that happen?

Joel Oney 9:57

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a good question. And really, it's been a pleasure to serve people in the shed industry. There's so many nice people in the shed world. I was speaking, you know, this morning with someone who uh sells sheds in in the state of New York, and uh she was saying how she had worked late into the night last night and how much she just absolutely loved it. She said she loves this business, and which makes it just uh a pleasure to work with people like that. But uh we we've seen that uh for shed manufacturers, especially, this business takes a lot of capital, it takes a lot of money to make a shed business, uh especially the shed manufacturing business run. And it's usually in the in two areas. One is how do I finance inventory? And the other area is how do I finance my manufacturing facility? And you know, some of these guys you know started off in some you know relatively simple surroundings, building sheds, but as their business grows, they've needed much larger, more complex uh manufacturing facilities. Uh, same with the financing, you know, when they started out maybe um buying uh a few loads of lumber here and there may not have stressed their working capital too much, but when you get you know multiple lots with inventory out on those lots, and uh as the sales grow and you need to build capacity in your you know inventory of lumber and sheds, that can be a stressor for an operation. And so, uh we've also helped some folks with some lines of credit uh using their shed um inventory as collateral. So those are the areas that that we're seeing where we can help people beyond just putting a payment plan in their hands for the consumer to buy their shed.

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Shannon 12:55

You know, I get calls. I've gotten several calls from people who are like, you know, I want to get into manufacturing. And I think it depends on, you know, your mindset. Are you a lot of folks might start out in like on-site builds and want to get into the prefab side and the lure, and I'm not, you know, I want to make sure that I frame this conversation the right way so that it's equally critical, but like equally uh promotional and fair because me and you have both worked, you know, in RTO space for some time. RTO is a very valuable like service offering for our industry. Um it's vital to the shed industry. It's very vital. It's very vital. And I would say, you know, uh some may make the argument that, you know, it could even be uh teeter-tottered one direction or the other. Now I don't know who gets to make that argument on you know where it's uh uh uh penetration rate needs to be inside of the industry. But what I will say is that like finance seems to be growing and becoming more conscientious to the manufacturer or the uh the dealer who's uh ultimately selling these products. So it's becoming, I believe, more competitive. Um, whereas, you know, uh we're at the I feel sometimes the maximum amount of competitiveness that the RTO can take. We're almost seeing you know portfolios moving and shifting. And yes, I'd love to talk with you about those things too. Or if you want to sell your company, like you know, like look, you know, whether it be the person who does the uh the actual evaluation of your company down to who's like helping you get money for it, we want to be there to be able to provide that service. Um but you know, I'm just thinking with rent to own and finance, like you need to see a little bit more of that come in. But the lure of the RTO company floor planning or maybe giving the person like some inventory or some, you know, in lieu of uh, you know, their rent-town services, very reasonable, you know, approach. Um but sometimes maybe they feel like it's not uh unconnected, disconnected enough, like is what you would with traditional financing. Like, you know, and I think that there's room for both, but I think that you're definitely working one side of that equation from the traditional financing route. And maybe, maybe not everybody just understands the difference in the federally regulated programs versus the state, you know, regulated programs. Do you do you have any just like overarching thoughts on those?

Joel Oney 15:38

Sure, yeah. So maybe again, I would say that uh, you know, the rent-to-own, lease purchase contracts, whatever you want to call it, that is an integral part of the shed business. And that's actually where we started in the shed business. And you know, like a lot of things, when an industry is young for starts, margins are strong. And so eventually a lot of a lot more sophisticated players enter into the space, more capital starts to chase that returns, which then compresses the margins and or causes the players in that space to take other actions to try to uh get that deal flow right. And so typically that those actions have been hey, we'll finance your lot uh inventory for you, uh, we'll provide you with some uh payback on the deal flow that you send through us, uh, or we'll provide some other type of service. And I think that obviously helps you tie somebody into a rent-owned company or a certain manufacturer, which is okay. We decided that uh there was some other opportunities where maybe the rent-town was not quite as um able to meet the needs of the consumer and the manufacturer. The sheds just kept getting larger and larger, and some of those just didn't fit the rent-to-owned space or there was the built-on-site kinds of products. And so we searched the base of the planet for some other opportunities that would work well for those buildings that just didn't work well for uh rent-owned, or for that consumer that didn't work well for rent-owned. You know, if a consumer has an 800 credit score, they might say, uh, you know what, I if all you have is a rent-owned payment, I think I'll go someplace else, right? Um, so but you know, whereas with a more traditional, more uh reasonable interest rate, let's see in a traditional financing plan, that continue might be on the buy from you. So, we just saw that there were some opportunities there um without undermining the rent to own that we were still doing at the time in order to um expand our business and provide some additional services for shed dealers and manufacturers. So, uh yeah, definitely a great space for rent to own and it's a valuable product because not everybody qualifies or needs a uh you know a seven or ten year consumer loan, right? Um but uh uh that rent-to-own payment is available for all consumers, regardless of credit score, uh, or regardless of situation. So, I think that uh it's there's all but we just chose not to get into that race of compressing margins. Um we chose to try to innovate into some of the products.

Shannon 18:29

Yeah, and just for somebody maybe learning for the first time, maybe they didn't, you know, experience uh a conversation with you at the Shed Expo, or maybe haven't, you know, got a chance to listen to the any previous podcast episodes. What are some of those products that you guys, you know, currently do funding for right now? What is the bread and butter and where does it meet hopefully our audience, which is seemingly growing into, you know, uh this this this plethora of different people, not just sheds, but post frame and pole barns and like all these all these different things.

Joel Oney 19:03

Yeah, you're right. And that's the other thing, too. If uh if it's a pole barn or a tubular steel building that's attached to the ground or has to be assembled on site, um, you know, rent-owned doesn't work good in that space, whereas our product does allow for that. You know, it's an unsecured consumer loan. Uh, it's free to offer if someone wants to offer it for a seven or ten year term. And uh interest rates start around 10% because they're they are unsecured. It's not secured by a mortgage on the house, you know, where you can maybe get a six or seven percent rate, but it's much lower than a uh maybe a consumer credit card or a typical consumer loan, which might be in the high teens or low 20s. And so we think it's a good product for those that have you know good to better credit. And you know, as you're typically talking to someone in the with a credit score in the mid to high 600s or higher. And for those folks, it's a great opportunity to have a different kind of payment plan, especially if it's a big building, you know. Um, a rental payment on a $20,000 or $30,000 building can be uh pretty stiff, you know, whereas uh you know, a 10-year payment's a little more palatable to that consumer. That's kind of the space that we play in now, and we can work with anybody nationwide.

Shannon 20:23

That's the beauty kind of what we're talking about here, is it's offering up multiple solutions because like some people are only going to pay cash, some people are only gonna, you know, uh use rent owns, some people are only gonna use traditional finance. Uh, you know, it it's offering the maximum opportunities for uh shed manufacturers or even post-frame manufacturers or steel building manufacturers. I mean, there's a there's a wide range of uh what falls under the word shed anymore, you know. But uh that is true. Maybe we didn't go maybe we didn't go wide enough, you know. We called ourselves shed geek. Maybe we should have been construction geeks or something. I'm not sure, but you know, uh um, you know, I mean you're a bit of a of a finance geek. You're a bit of a, you know, uh you know all of these areas yourself and your area of discipline that the which you've worked. What are some things that you can give away here on the podcast that is like so some knowledge? You know, we talked about you know bonus depreciation. We talked about just different things, different, you know, things that people wake up every day and they think, I gotta build a shed or a pole barn. Uh, they're not thinking about bonus depreciation, but you are because that's sort of your world. So, give us some thoughts on maybe some things people should know, be aware of, or just pay attention to.

Facility Funding And Bonus Depreciation Basics

Joel Oney 21:45

Well, yeah, first of all, I think that you know, maybe I would just scoop back to the fact that most of these manufacturers have sheds. Again, if they maybe started off in a spare building that they had on their property and have. Grown out of that or uh grown into you know needing something that's a much larger expensive facility, a lot of those have been built or are being built in the lect in the in the recent years, especially as the industry consolidates a little bit, right? And so, I think that that offers a couple of different opportunities for folks. One is there's an opportunity to find really good financing, and that's not always all that obvious. We're gonna find that, right? Um, how can you finance that that building for the longest uh possible term at the lowest rate and best terms and so minimum down payments and those kinds of things, or use other collateral as you know, collateral for the loan. So those are things versus maybe a lease, and a lot of folks have chosen to lease their buildings. There are some companies out there that will basically buy the building and lease it back to them because you know we were talking about this before the podcast started, Shannon. These buildings are 39-year depreciation most of the time. And if you can uh lease your building back with a lease to own, almost similar to a rent to own, but uh with a more competitive uh lease implied rate, it uh it can take that from 39 years down to maybe seven or ten years, which allows you to expense that building much more quickly. And again, I'd encourage everybody to talk to their CPA. I'm a finance guy, not a CPA, about that, whether or not that would work well for you. Um what we've seen here most recently under the one big beautiful bill is the opportunities have expanded for bonus depreciation for those buildings. So, what we're seeing now is more people rather than leasing those buildings back from their uh financing partner or their financial institution bank or whoever they're working with, um, they're doing the traditional finance with a loan, owning the building themselves, and then determining what components of that building, if it was built after um January of 2025, would qualify for bonus depreciation, and then they can accelerate the expensing of that building and bring down their tax liability very quickly. And that's what this I guess is about as much as anything. One part's about finding the right lending partner with the best terms and interest rates, and then the other part is how do I take this asset that we've put a whole bunch of money into and utilize it the best way possible to minimize our tax. Hopefully, I haven't put anybody to sleep with that talk.

Shannon 24:49

You kept me hanging on for just the right amount of time. Uh, this is this is uh, you know, an example of when my wife tells me, Were you talking about sheds to that person on the uh the bench in in Walmart? Uh and I say, Yes, I was, you know, and she's like, Yeah, they looked very bored. And I was like, I know, but I'm still excited about it. And this is what happens whenever you become uh uh disciplined in uh in a particular, you know, area of uh uh expertise, if you will, or at least knowledgeable in some way. I always like to say there's people who know so much more about this than I do, and that's why I like to interview them, and that's why we're inviting you on. There's an invite to all of you. I don't care if uh if you compete, I don't care what it is that you do when you're in this industry. Uh, you know, we're better together. So, we're better whenever we communicate, and we're even better when we challenge each other, you know. Uh I think that's welcome here in a professional setting. Uh, I think that's okay to sort of challenge, but um when your business depends on getting materials fast, you can't afford to wait around.

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Shannon 26:57

You know, I'm thinking to myself, like, there's gotta be something coming down the road. There's gotta be something, you know, that we just didn't see. And I don't know what it is, whether it's the tariffs, the change that uh the conversations we're having in the background on oh man, sheds, you know, metal buildings, you know, actual components on some of these products. I mean, there's obviously a shift in the world right now, you know, what's happening in Iran, I mean, how that affects ultimately our economy, how it affects a lot of different things. As someone who spent, you know, a large portion of your life forecasting almost these different things, uh, give us a look into your crystal ball and give us your best thoughts on what are areas to protect ourselves, what are areas we need to be thinking about. I mean, that was a good riff that you just gave us on bonus depreciation and being able to actually help manufacturers. Uh, what look into the crystal ball? What do you see? Anything?

Joel Oney 28:10

I think it's uh you know, I told people a long ago my crystal ball is uh not broken, it looks more into the past than in the future because I think typically you know the past will guide us in many ways. And I think even back to just the near past, Shannon. Again, talking with Shed people just this week, we were talking about how last spring and early summer was pretty slow. It's pretty darn slow, right? And the reason being is that there was a lot going on. There was tariff talk at that point in time, people weren't sure, okay, was this going to affect my job? Whether you were selling sheds or furniture or houses, things slowed down. The consumer sentiment uh was um really low because people were unsure. Whether there's uncertainty, there's if that that causes people to maybe sit on their hands a little bit. And so that's probably the thing I'm most afraid of with what is going on in the current news, especially with the cost of oil and uh uh with how that translates into gas prices. You know, somebody may not care if they're paying five dollars for a coffee at Starbucks, but if the gas goes from $299 to $359, man, they get excited, right? You know, that's something that causes them to think the world has changed. And so, I think that that's probably just with current news events. The thing that I would pay the most attention to is consumer sentiment and how that uh is either making people sit on their hands uh and waiting to buy a shed or whatever other kind of consumer you know item they might decide or not decide to buy because their gas price went up. So, but the other side of that too is that that is inflationary. Energy is one of the biggest components to almost any industry, including the shed industry. So, uh there's gonna be some inflationary pressure to oil to stick. So, I think those are the things that I would say, although that predicts anything that might happen in the future, but I think those are the things we got to watch, right?

Shannon 30:17

Well, it makes you it certainly makes you think about it, you know, those uh those budget items like fuel, you know, that versus that disposable income on that coffee. It makes you it makes you think, but at the same time, I mean it's the ebb and flow of business. It's been happening, you know, before most any of us even got into the shed industry. So, it's about adapting to it. And uh that's why we got excited about the consultation stuff that we're offering. I really feel like we got some of the best in the business by being able to like jump in and like try and help out. Now, you know, giving good advice, you know, the assumption is that we're giving it. I like to think it is, you know, is different than taking that advice too. And I know that from my own experience is, you know, uh, it's as important for me to change my mindset around the thing than it is to try to change the thing. I mean, one of my favorite questions is, you know, uh prayer, you know, uh, I've talked many times over Philip Yancey, and I know, I understand Philip's been in the news over some negative things or whatever, but my one of my favorite books is, you know, prayer doesn't make a difference. And one thing I remember in that book that he talked about, which was a life-changing book for me, was does prayer change you or does it change God? It's one of my favorite questions to answer or to ask. Because most of the times I think we find that the answer to that prayer is that something in us needs to move. Uh, and that's what we've uncovered with a lot of our consultation. You know, everybody's marketing heavy right now. They need marketing questions, and it's like, well, are you doing finance? And they're like, No. And I'm like, man, why not? Like, why not offer that solution to the customer? You know, if it's because you have bad timing and you don't have the time to do it, I mean, like, you've got to find a way to do it, right? Like you've got to find a way to offer these alternatives because maybe you're losing a deal and you're not seeing shed sales, you know, because someone's taking a market share because it's financing. Maybe they're doing something different in marketing, maybe they're offering rent-own. Maybe it's their delivery process is better than yours. Maybe it's there's a there's a plethora of things that you could you have to uncover to figure that out. But one thing's for sure, why not put your hands in the toolbox and be able to pull out every potential solution to help your customer?

Joel Oney 32:29

Yeah, you know, uh, it reminds me of a conversation I had with a wise man a long time ago that was an elder in our church, and he would say to me, say, Joel, there's always room at the top. There's always room at the top, which basically what he was saying is that if you're the best in any given industry, there's room to continue to grow, right? If you're not the best, you're someplace where maybe there's not room to grow. But if you're at the top, there's always room to grow. And he said uh, you know, to me many times, Joel, there's always room at the top. So, I think what you're saying, Shannon, is we always need to be on this kind of self-improvement kind of cycle, right? How do we re-examine our business all the time to figure out how we can be better? And um doesn't mean that we have to change our business mode or what we're doing to go from selling sheds to selling, you know, who knows, something different, right? But how do we do the very best that we can in whatever given vocation we've chosen in life? That's what we I guess try to do in our business. We figure if we can be the very best at providing some financial tools for folks to um be the best that they can be in their business, then hey, we're doing uh the right kind of work, right?

Shannon 33:56

Yeah, no, that's right. I think that's good. I know that you're time sensitive here, but I want to I want to just ask a couple more questions and like maybe you know, if you if you'll allow, um that's all right.

Joel Oney 34:09

I've got some time, Shannon.

Referral Partners Including RTO Companies

Shannon 34:10

Who who does who does uh who does J Money partner with? You know, I was sitting here thinking to myself, like, you know, yeah, we're talking to manufacturers out there, we're talking to dealers out there, you know, uh, we're talking to builders, you know, but even RTO companies, you know, maybe they need an option, maybe they need an alternative solution, you know, uh just to kind of help on those. Can they be a partner?

Joel Oney 34:34

Yeah, oh yeah. With some of our best referral networks come from folks that are in the uh RTO business. Many times, there's things that they are unable to handle with their with the rent owned, and so what we do is we will handle the things that um don't work for the rent owner, right? So, uh yeah, that's a great referral partner for us. Folks like you who have a lot of relationships are great partners, and uh um and even you know, we find that some of the folks that are in the industry that are you know fantastic, successful um sellers or manufacturers of buildings, they then refer us to others that uh you know we've helped. And I understand that you've found uh maybe some new unique relationships that come into the shed geek fold here recently as well with some partners. Is that right?

AD-SHED CHALLENGER 35:43

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Shannon 37:24

Yeah, very, very excited. Of course, you know, uh we work exclusively with you guys on the on the finance side, and we want to continue to promote that as we go. But, you know, our friends on the CRM solution over at Velocity360, you know, just someone I met three years ago and had him on the podcast. He was uh he was a you know a salesperson. We were we were looking at you know coaching and uh so watching his business just flourish and how he's kind of landed in the shed industry for much of you know his work. That's been awesome. And he's doing a great job from everything I hear and uh Herschberger Lawn up there in Ohio, another Ohio uh uh uh person up there in Millersburg, you know, the Stryker Hunting Blinds and the PlayMor uh Swing Sets. And then, you know, our latest, you know, is uh is uh Pittsburgh Paints, you know, very excited about Pittsburgh. You know, I've been talking to them for five years, you know, uh I feel like since and so like that's an example of just never give up, if nothing else, like continue to harvest those relationships. And I really try not to leave them, you know, with anyone in an area where we can't continue a conversation, you know, try to be a bridge builder, not a not a bridge burner, right? And man, it's really worked out good because like we caught them at a time and we've got other conversations in the mix, and we want to continue to like love on people who are loving on us and who are supporting us, like it's very capitalistic, if you will, Joel, in the nature that we've been helping those who support us and we want to support them back. Pittsburgh's been really good. Um, you know, paints the first thing you see on a shed, you know, and uh uh excited about their True Industrial, True Max Shed Program, you know, uh offers solid acrylics, semi-transparent urethanes. Uh shed max stands out as the true industrial product, formulated specifically for shed builders. What I love most of all, and it's just so easy for me to say this um local stores, local stock, local service. They come in, they help people. Very excited to have them on. Couldn't say thank you enough uh to Bryce and uh Jamie and Carter, just everybody over there has been excellent, they've been cool to deal with, and I could say that for all our exclusive partners, including you. And we're trying to create those long-term value propositions, you know, for those who tune in and listen. Um, you know, does it mean that other people are gonna seek out other finance options or CRM or play sets or whatever? Sure, possibly, you know, or maybe they're gonna use a multitude of a couple of these different things or mix and match. But what's cool is we got this platform that we can tell people about those things. So, if you're someone who wants to be a provider, an advertiser or something, we just went through Joe, you love this. I mean, like, look, I had a rough third and fourth quarter last year. And I don't mean in listens, I mean they were staying even compared to what they had been seeing uh year over year. But man, I don't know what it was in the first quarter and here toward the last quarter of uh of last year. We went through a seven-week stretch where we saw more listens than any seven-week stretch uh at any point in the five years we've been doing the podcasting. And I'm like, man, every time you think, well, I don't know, have I burned out or whatever? We've just seen some amazing numbers and we're thankful. And that's given us new life to just, hey, let's go. It's year six, you know, let's put our feet to the ground and just keep helping people, is my mindset over here.

Perseverance When Sales Slow Down

Joel Oney 40:59

Yeah, and I gotta believe that even some of your listeners who know us, maybe today, they're going through a little bit of that, how would you say, rut or lull or whatever that you went through, maybe third and fourth quarter last year. And it's that perseverance, you know, to continue on and uh see it through and just wake up and focus on the business that you have and that you do so well, whether it's building sheds or selling sheds or running a podcast or running a finance company. I think we go through those times. And I used to always tell folks when I was in the banking business, if they were in that kind of a uh maybe a little bit of a lull in their career or they were having trouble hitting their goals for the year. I always said the same thing. I'd say just continue to do the right things over and over and over again, and good things will happen. You know, you didn't want to go and try to find a silver bullet someplace. You tried to continue to build the best shed that you can build, market it the best you could, um, you know, run the best podcast, get the most interesting uh people on, right? All those kinds of things. Uh, you know, continue to do the right things over and over and over again, and good things happen. That's I'm a firm believer in that.

Shannon 42:20

Yeah, no, I agree with you. It's been a pleasure, it's been awesome. And I really say thank you not only to the shed industry, but now the ever-growing, you know, post-frame and steel buildings and who knows, carports and uh and uh play sets. And, you know, uh, we've talked with chicken coop builders on here and uh greenhouse builders, and you know, we're probably gonna talk with some furniture providers because a lot of these things have a common thing, uh uh, you know, in that they're backyard solutions or they're oftentimes the products that set outside the home that sometimes are large purchases, sometimes they're small purchases, but they're often bought from the same individual. And that customer acquisition is different from buying a poly chair to buying a you know 16 by 40 shed or a you know 150 by 450 post-frame building. Or I mean there's so now there becomes a big conversation, and like I said, maybe Construction Geek made more sense, but we're gonna keep it shed geek nonetheless and just keep doing our thing and having exciting and interesting guests. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, no, I agree with you, Joe. It's just always a pleasure, you know. Uh I know that your heart is to help people, and uh, I know if there's manufacturers out there, if there's RTO companies that need a finance solution, if there's companies out there that need a finance solution or need to understand their numbers better, um, if there's people looking to sell, if there's people looking to buy, like, hey, we want to be a resource for you. We want to be a network uh for you to tap into. Uh, and so give us a call, you know. Uh you guys have my information I'll be happy to put you in touch with whoever final thoughts Joel before you before you get out of here and maybe stay on for a moment if you don't care when we hang up. I got just a few things and then but final thoughts uh you know to the audience here today.

Final Thoughts And Contact Info

AD-LUXGUARD 44:17

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Joel Oney 45:46

Yeah two or three maybe final thoughts I would have Shannon first thanks as always for having me on can't say how much I appreciate being aligned with you and you know I think the thing that has evolved is as J Money has helped shed dealers and manufacturers with their financing needs now all of a sudden we're helping them with their own personal financing as well whether it be a line of credit for their inventory or a loan for their manufacturing facility. So, feel free to reach out to us about that. But Shannon I think that the thing I like the best about our relationship is how we're aligned from a value standpoint. And I really appreciate that or appreciate working with people who share the same kinds of values that I that I try to live by in life. And so, if uh you know we can continue to foster a strong relationship with Shed Geek podcasts we're happy to do so.

Shannon 46:52

Well I gotta tell you know um the Lord has been good and given us a lot of opportunity and uh I've told people before you know sometimes I feel I felt like Judas has carried himself you know I mean we've just about walked through the most even imperfect people we've been but I thought of something earlier you know and it's the ability to you know to always seek guidance always seek his counsel and uh and come back you know and say Lord help me because I seem to make a mess of this or make a mess of that but Lord you always are the reference to good and I can always measure myself against that to try and get better. And you said something earlier and I wanted to jump on that and that is you know I remember hearing a pastor say if you fall down get back up fall down get back up you know he said this six or seven times and he said you know you fall down eight times get up and write a book about seven ways not to fail. You know you no experience that you have goes without I mean everything you do and you put yourself out there when you become the man in the arena the Teddy Roosevelt poem that you shared with me you truly become someone who's like not even afraid uh afraid of failure because you're trying to find a way to succeed everyone's going to fail. Everyone's going to mess up but you're not judged and history doesn't judge you by the fact that you had something hard come into your world or into your life or even that you failed it's that you didn't get back up. And that's the one thing I want to do is always get back up and try and like continue with the right people and you're an encourager you have been I love sending people over because I know they're going to be taken care of with J Money. It's always a positive experience.

Joel Oney 48:35

Thanks again for having me on and uh hey let's go sell some more sheds today. How's that sound?

Shannon 48:41

That sounds great. Thank you Joe appreciate everything you do if you guys need any information just go click on our newsletter there is a uh a clickable link there for you to fill out information to become a dealer uh just call me text me email me uh write me a letter whatever you need to do we'll get you in touch um means a lot Joe, uh appreciate continuing to move forward with you and wish you all the continued success sir you deserve it.

OUTRO 49:09

Thanks again Shed Pro for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about ShedPro or about Shed Geek, just reach out you can reach us by email at info@shed geek.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