The Future Of Shed Industry Media

Your next customer is learning how to buy a shed or a building from 30-second clips, not from a brochure, and that shift is already rewriting the rules for portable buildings, steel buildings, and post-frame sales. We sit down with Jared Ledford to talk about why he’s launching America Builds Better, what he learned from long-form podcasting, and how the industry can use short-form video to earn attention without sounding like a commercial. The through-line is trust: the kind you only get when the content is real, useful, and made to help the whole category level up.

We dig into the hard part too: “quality” is a weak claim when everyone says it. We explore what it could look like to communicate build standards in plain language that a consumer can actually understand, taking cues from post-frame and the NFBA trade organization model. That includes why permitting is often easier for pole barns, how shared guidelines create consistency, and why collaboration beats infighting when the market gets tight.

Then we zoom out to the modern growth stack: SEO at scale, indexed pages, Google visibility, landing pages, paid ads, 3D configurators, and CRM follow-up systems. Jared also raises a clear warning about AI-generated slop content and how deep pockets can flood the feed, plus what to do instead so your brand voice stays human and credible.

If you got value from this conversation, subscribe, share it with another dealer or builder, and leave a review so more people in the shed industry can find it.

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 on our website: shedgeek.com

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

Cardinal Manufacturing
Digital Shed Builder
Velocity 360

Transcript

Sponsor And Industry Reality Check

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 feeling 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 leads, 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 chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention ShedGeek, 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.

Jared’s Companies And New Platform

Cord 1:41

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Here from sunny and warm, Metropolis, Illinois. A great day here to be in Southern Illinois. Today I am joined by Jared Ledford of Dayton Barns, Four Rivers Post. I'm starting to lose track of what all those things are. I'll introduce him here in just a minute. But before we get rolling, just a couple quick things so you know how to stay plugged in with us. Of course, always the Shed Geek call-in line, that is Shannon's personal cell phone. Please feel free to give him a call or a text. That is 618-309-3648. Our email address, info@ shedgeek.com. Of course, you can always go to shedgeek.com and fill out a contact form there if you'd like to reach out. The Facebook page, uh the Shed Sales Professionals group page, all of the private groups. Um, we do such a good job in this industry of staying connected and helping each other in those ways. Please go and participate uh and comment and post your own thoughts there. I think it is very productive. Uh, the call-in line for any of our friends in the plain community. Uh if you have if you have friends or acquaintances who are in the plain community and are limited on um the technologies that they can use, we do have the the call-in line 330-997-3055. And not only can they listen to the most updated podcast, uh the most recently uh uh updated podcast, but they can also go back into the catalog. So it is a very good resource there. So, having said all of those things, um Jared Ledford, again, maybe give us a little uh uh I saw maybe it was your LinkedIn profile where I think you have four or five different logos now uh on your on your header. So uh maybe maybe introduce yourself. Obviously, we know you uh uh former Steel Kings podcast and obviously still a friend of Shed Geek. And so I'm happy to have you on. Tell us tell us about all them logos, Jared.

Jared 3:46

So, we have been working over the last year, 18 months to really square up all the businesses that we are part of, right? So, myself, I uh own and operate Dayton Barns and All Steel Buildings. You guys have heard a lot about that. Um, you guys watched and listened on the journey of Five Rivers Pole Barns. We built that business kind of while we were doing the Steel Kings podcast, and uh lots of good stories there. Go back and listen to it, it's great content. Um, we are starting, uh, been doing it now for better part of nine or ten months. We're working uh Defyned SEO, is really doing well. Um, really looking for the right partners in the portable building, steel building, pole barn space. Um just kind of one of those coded websites, SEO, yeah, custom coded websites, SEO, but like SEO at like a massive scale. So right now, you know, Dayton Barns has something like almost six million pages indexable on Google. It's been a really interesting journey learning more about that, and now being able to leverage the power of something that the industry knows, like Shed Hub, right? Shed Hub was kind of a starting point for an SEO development project with Jeff, my partner. You guys have heard Jeff on the podcast, he's a friend of Shed Geek as well. Um, but he and I are really getting into the space specifically post-frame. Um, we feel like that's really a target market for some new styles of advertising and marketing online. So, we're doing that. Um, that's where I spend most of my time these days is Defyned. I uh I do most of my activities during the day for Defyned. Um, Dayton Barns is always gonna be a priority for me. Um, we do a lot there too. Five Rivers is uh just something I kind of touch base with every once in a while. Love those guys and uh trying to lend my expertise and experience in the industry over the years to help them grow that business and do some things there. Um, but really I think what we're gonna talk about today is we're launching America Builds Better. So, America Builds Better is my new personal platform. Um, I'm just gonna start sharing content, and we really don't know what it looks like yet. You know, there might be some podcasting in there, there might be some short form real content, video content. I just want to do, I wanted to have a brand that encompassed me as a person and really what drives me in this industry. And I think that America Builds Better is gonna do that. Um, we'll be available on you know all the podcasts and different things, but I I can't guarantee how regular the content's gonna launch. For somebody that's listening to this right now, chances are you'll be able to check out America Builds Better on Apple Podcasts. I know you can. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the archive and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna have certain vault content from the Steel Kings, but we want you guys to be able to check that stuff out on Shed Geek. You know, we want you to be able to go back and hear, you know, Eric and I's episodes on the Shed Geek, um, you know, that the call-in service or on YouTube, all the content's gonna be there. It's still really good content, it's still relevant. Um, and I wanted to make sure that that was still there for the Shed Geek audience, right?

New Media Shifts For Building Sales

Cord 6:57

Absolutely. So well,

Jared 6:59

yeah.

Cord 6:59

But as you're saying, I think the thing that I really wanted to have you on for, and I know that you and I have been uh having many conversations uh over the really several months, um, going back probably to even before uh the shed expo last year. We had already kind of started to talk about what content looks like and what and what a new kind of what new how is new media going to play into sheds and portable buildings. Of course, your side is more you know metal, car porch, garages, and then post frame, but either way, you have a very similar um very similar uh funnel, you know, that works in in both of those worlds, all of those worlds. And so you and I had kind of started this conversation about you know what should content look like, what is what is effective, um, what do people want to take in for entertainment? You know, what kind of relationships are now able to be built? Um, as we well know, Shannon has done an incredible job of building relationships with people through a microphone and through their earbuds. Um, you know, and then obviously we're on YouTube and and post clips and everything, but but then you know, kind of really taking that next step. Uh, you with America's Builds Better, we are doing the Shed Life media channels, which is very similar uh to what you're thinking. I think we're much more in a straight-to-consumer type of a funnel focus. But either way, that that same idea, how do we start to really transition part of the content into being more visual, more bite-sized, uh tell a story over uh you know, over 15 uh bite-sized videos versus telling a story like we are right here. So I guess maybe first and foremost, if you don't mind to just kind of give me your, you know, up to the minute, I know we talk quite a bit, but like give me your up to the minute thought process when it comes to what matters when you're thinking through that content yourself and then even for the listeners.

Jared 9:12

I think the way people can consume content is totally different than it was even a year ago, certainly different than it was five years ago, right? You know, when Shannon started the podcast, podcasting was the the hottest thing going. Everybody was starting a podcast, and and what I love about Shannon is he's been able to not only see his kind of dream and vision become a reality, right? You know, five years of doing this, almost five years, 400 plus episodes, hasn't missed a week, just tons of content, rich content. And I and one of the things that we've talked about, that's going back and revisiting some of that content in short forms, where you can now take that content that's still relevant, that's still very good, and feed it out to people through 15, 30, 45 second real copy that's like now driving a totally new audience to listen to Shed Geek or listen to The Steel Kings or listen to America Builds Better. I think where you and I are in one accord for sure is that we absolutely see the future going that direction. More short form content, more consumable content, because the more someone sees your 15 and 30 second ad reels or whatever, they're more likely to come and check out a 35, 45 hour long, long-term discussion on something specific to the industry. Right. I think where I'm headed specifically is the peak behind the curtain, right? I want everybody to know everything because I feel like everybody does better when there's information out there. We're in the information age. The content that I make is really something that I want to see, not only as a consumer, but as someone in the industry. You might see me one day at a metal building, you might see me the next day at a trade show, the next day you might see me in a 45-minute podcast. But the one thing that I want to do, and you guys are doing it too, is I want to be able to take a podcast that's 45 minutes long and create 35 or 40 pieces of content from it that people can consume and rewatch and use that as a way to create an audience for the industry. Because I feel like if the best players step up, people like me, people like there's so many good partners, right? There's so many good people out there that are selling sheds, selling metal buildings, selling post frame and pole barn buildings. These are the people that we want to highlight on America Builds Better specifically. We want to tell good stories, we want to be able to be a part of it. And what you and I have discussed is basically like, why can't we share the content? You know, there doesn't need to be, we don't want anybody to think that there's anything, any beef between Shed Geek and America Builds Better. You know, when we launch our first episode, yeah, yeah, when we launch our first episode, which is probably going to come out in a couple of weeks at this point. I'm not really sure to be honest. Um, I'm sitting on it. But the first thing out of my mouth is a big thank you to Shannon. And I can't thank him enough, you know, giving me this platform here to talk about it now. You know, I want to do what I feel is best for the industry. And I think from a portable building shed perspective, there's no one better than Shannon. I can't do it. I I'm not in that space. That's not my forte. You know, I really want to try to own the metal building and post frame world, but there are other people out there doing it just as good as me. Guys like Randy Chafee and Josh Nolan and you know, these other podcasters that are doing long form content, building ones live and post frame 360, and just doing it the right way. And quite frankly, I don't mind sharing that out loud because it's like, listen, if we start to rub each other the right way, rising tide raises all ships. I really believe that.

Cord 12:52

Let's zoom in on that then.

AD-CARDINAL MANUFACTURING 12:56

I got a big day tomorrow. I have a fully finished 18 by 40 cabin that's going to require two to three meals 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. But 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 in Michigan at the shed show. That monster meal, 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.

Cord 13:58

All right, we talk about we talk about what the right way is. And you know, I think that that like I said, we've you and I have had a lot of conversations about this. And yes, we have. And you know, I think there are different components of the right way. And I think first and foremost to be effective, uh, especially on the consumer side, and even I mean, this uh America Builds Better is coming at this from a third- party perspective or trying to, right? I mean, I know you're still kind of it's still kind of taking shape or whatever else. But you know, the point is it's not Dayton Barns, it's not correct five rivers, right? It is not this channel that is that is wholly and so solely devoted to the perspective of whatever the company needs, which usually is you know revenue sales, right? Like I mean, that's uh you know, and I think that so I mean that's probably for me is like step one. You know, think about where what the perspective, the point of view is from the channel itself, because I think there are a lot of people who are actually producing good content individually, whether that be from a manufacturer level, whether that be from a dealer level, like good content is happening, but it is it is being put out there as that company's perspective on things. And frankly, at least we've talked about that. Yeah, you know, and like so I think that's number one, and then number two is the type of content. So, when you say, you know, when you say doing it the right way, you know, and maybe like I kind of get more technical, you know. Like I'm I I'm thinking of this from an execution perspective. How are you scripting? How are you changing, how are you building that visual language? But you tell me, like, whenever you say there are a lot of guys out there doing it the right way, tell me what the right way is to Jared Ledford.

Jared 15:59

I think for me it's creating real content, not real R-E-E-L, it's real R E A L, right?

Cord 16:06

So the very it's helpful to put it in R E E.

Jared 16:08

Correct, correct, correct, real, real format, right? I think for me specifically, um it's content from the heart, con content that raises up the industry as a whole. I think there's a lot of content out there that does a majority of its time kind of breaking down other people, right? I think that's number one what we can't do in this industry in this space. We don't have the afforded luxury of being um the most respected industry in the world, right? Steel buildings and sheds specifically have that struggle, they always have, and they need to be brought up to a higher level to where everybody's like, oh yeah, you know, this is the way the business works. For me, I watch others create content, and we've talked about this, and you brought this up right now. Um, if I'm a let's just say a shed manufacturer and I am taking care of what I am producing, do people care, meaning customers or other people that are industry specific, do they care about my specific advertising? There's a difference in content.

Cord 17:16

Right.

Jared 17:16

Okay. The advertising content should be rich and special and in your face and cut up, and and however you feel like you can brand your business. But that's not going to create a organic or a natural audience growth because it's meant to sell sheds, not inform people on the industry at large. And I think that's one of the big mistakes that people make in this industry. And again, you know, there are there are podcasters out there, yeah, yeah, it's all self-perial.

Cord 17:49

Right? That's correct. What you're saying, I'm I'm not trying to overwrite you here, but it's it's just like, you know, if you're listening, imagine the concept of you um, you know, watching uh a Final Four game, watching a game tonight, and a commercial comes on. You don't there's not a thought in your head that thinks, gosh, I'm really uh uh learning to have a relationship. I'm really starting to have a relationship with this guy drinking a Dr. Pepper in the Dr. Pepper commercial, right? That is promotional. That is that is that is make a buying decision, right? And what you're saying is you have to be able to separate, you and I have ag nauseum, we've talked about this privately, but you have to be able to separate your promotional activities that are trying to induce a buying decision from your relationship building activities, which are just literally building relationships through screens.

Standards That Customers Can Understand

Jared 18:46

Use me, use me as an example, okay? Let's use Jared Ledford as an example. Why did the Steel Kings, why did the Steel Kings run its course for me personally? Okay. The Steel Kings brand had a logo that had a Dayton Barns logo on the crest on the chest of its of its host. Right. You know, there was no there was no there was no hiding the fact that we were Dayton Barns and All Steel Buildings and Five Rivers Pole Barns and all these things because that's the stories we were telling. Yeah. But at some point, that becomes a self-promotional tool to either sell more buildings or get more eyes on Dayton Barns. With America Builds Better, I want to be all about everybody else. I want to be about what they're doing right to call out their business or what they do right when they build their building, or hey, what I like about certain things. And that has nothing to do, like I'm not going to be doing self-promotion on the podcast where it's like, you need to buy a building from Dayton Barns and you need to buy it today. Like, that's not what I'm about at this point. I want the industry to be able to take a step in the right direction. And we've talked about this, you know, post-frame and pole barn people have it figured out. They have it figured out in spades. They've got, you know, trade organizations that really take hold and have figured out a way not only to bring that industry to a completely different level, but make it easier for contractors, dealers, manufacturers, everybody to have a much better experience in the industry. And they've done it together. Many businesses had to sacrifice to get that trade organization put together. So we're working with NFBA on that. We just got back from the NFBA trade show at the end of February. We did the Steel Kings podcast on that. We're going to continue to provide content for NFBA. And I think we're going to probably share a lot of that with your audience over time because they've come to expect it, right? And that's why we want to continue to have these conversations because we want to motivate people in the steel building space, people in the portable shed space. Like this is the way things need to be. And unfortunately, yeah, go ahead.

Cord 20:56

Well, we've been drafting, you know, and we've so we've got um I don't know, probably five different individuals who we feel like are have a good eclectic knowledge of different um uh you know building styles, different uh carpentry uh concepts, you know, craftsmanship, obviously like thinking through five people who really have that experience, and we've started to, you know, at least float the idea of like, hey, here is a standard for you know pick a system, a flooring system. Here's a here's a standard for flooring systems when it comes to um when it comes to sheds. Like, is this helpful? I'll tell you who it would definitely be helpful for is the consumer. Right? The the end user, if there is a an internal system in the industry, I mean now we're talking now we're getting into like the what are we saying, right? Now we're getting into that side of content. What are you actually able to say to your businesses when you're being promotional because quality, quality, quality winds up falling flat when everybody's saying it. But you know, we are an A-rated or an A plus rated um shop, we're in an A plus rated manufacturer, that actually starts to speak to people, right? And if it's based on real stuff, right? If it's not just some, you know, list of kind of stuff that doesn't matter or if it's a pay to play or whatever else, then you know you start to lose that. But if you really step back and say, um, you know, what is uh an equivalent to um you know notched runners, right? It like is there an equivalent to being able to tow it in or have laminated, you know, like what what kind of system that actually creates that mechanical structure that allows those runners to to really truly be uh integrated into the floor system is there you know is there a way of towing it in that is actually equivalent because if not then that should be a B rated you know that should be a B rated shed right or a B rated shop if that's how they do it. And so, you know in exactly what we're talking about we've started to draft those standards and are kind of passing them around to the actual craftsmen. You all know that me and Shannon are not you know personally out there running nail guns um although I've you know I'm I proudly come from a construction family cook brothers construction uh you know built a lot of a lot of metropolis back in the day but anyway um so like we're trying to work on that and and I really think that there's a big upside for people who who would be willing to kind of take the take the step in that direction because you're immediately going to have the first wave of people who kind of step into something like that is going are going to have a huge advantage over their competitors when it comes to consumers.

Jared 23:58

Correct and that's typically done with the largest among us right you know the largest pole barn and post frame companies came together and started the NFBA you know decades ago at this point and they've been able to not only raise up the entire industry but they've been able to universally get accepted things like I mean just the two the difference between a steel building and a pole barn here right where we are Urbana Ohio it is so much easier to get a permit for a pole barn than it is for a steel building they have one sheet it's literally you color on it with a pencil and you can get a pole barn built it takes maybe five minutes of your time to get a permit. With a steel building you need site specific blueprints a lot of the times and if not you definitely need master generics you need a you need a topical overview you need all these things you need concrete 32 inches down to the ground for a footer you need all these things and I can tell you pole barns and post frame people figured it out early that if they worked with zoning departments at the state level to get clearance on these buildings and set the standard for how these things were built because if you get a pole barn built anywhere that's you know going to meet codes it's probably going to be built the same way. It's Pepsi it's Coke it's Dr. Pepper it's just which manufacturer or supply house are you getting it from are you getting it from a local lumber yard? I mean it's pretty hard to argue with okay well we need uh you know two by six nail lamb cut at this length and we need two by six and two by fours cut at this length and we need this much sheet metal it's really not that hard it's all basic stuff but for me that's the biggest difference I see from a sales perspective pole barns and post frame buildings have a I'm trying to think of the right word they have a gravitas to them to where when people say pole barn is universally accepted for any outdoor structure of a certain size. Yep, that's right you know and with steel buildings it's like well I don't want a steel building I want a pole barn. Well in a way a steel building is a pole barn.

Cord 26:09

Well and that has taken on its whole it it's been helped by like the social phenomenon of unaffordable housing so that then people create you know they turn you know post frame buildings into quote unquote barn dominiums I mean at some point you're just building a custom house with metal on the outside but you anybody doing it anybody doing it the right way though knows that you have to stud frame interior walls.

Jared 26:35

You're never going to get these things permitted as a as an actual pole barn built as a house right um you know that's the struggle that we have as an industry in the post frame space. I see that as a huge opportunity again for the post frame and pole barn community to wrap arms and say look for it to be called a barn dominion there needs to be an industry standard set. Yeah, this is the way we're gonna do it stud frame walls you know posts on the outside whatever you want to do but there needs to be a standard set and nobody has said it yet there has not been an industry standard and I'll be honest it's making it harder to build pole barns. Yeah right they may not think it is but from a dealer perspective and from a selling perspective of post frame buildings you start kicking around the word barn dominion and boy zoning departments get real sketched out. Yeah they do not want barn dominions built unless they are basically a home yeah on a solid foundation with stud frame walls and all the above right and I'll tell you I mean for me personally I it simply I want the industry to do better.

AD-DIGITAL SHED BUILDER 27:42

Digital Shed Builder is an online shed configurator that strives to provide incredible visual quality fantastic customer service and an amazingly low price point making it a perfect fit for any shed dealer looking to increase their online sales. Digital Shed Builder is simple to use taking less than five minutes to integrate on your site the get a quote feature streamlines your sales process showing you exactly what your potential customers need. They offer a highly customizable experience that accurately represents your brand and unique shed offerings working with you directly to set up everything you need in a configurator with no extra startup cost no lengthy contracts or commitments and no hidden fees Digital Shed Builder has been created with quality simplicity and affordability in mind.

NFBA Model And Post Frame Innovation

Jared 28:46

There are so many good people that do this every day and call this their job they do this for a living they feed their families with it and specifically in the portable building shed space and steel building space there is certainly a lot of room to grow a lot of room to grow and become more collaborative. Like there needs to be like for steel buildings my goal would be there needs to be an industry standard for you know amount of feet between an upper right amount of feet between a truss. All trusses need to be fully welded no more brackets on things that are load bearing because brackets don't carry the weight you know people that argue oh well you know I the one I get all the time is like vertical steel makes the building stronger I mean I guess but you know why don't we try X bracing X bracing is a standard now. You know corner bracing standard on most post frame buildings it's it's that way for a reason.

Cord 29:43

So what would be an example of that because I guess in my mind and you tell me so you're saying that the NFBA has more or less raised the floor raised the minimum standard to a to a certain level but surely see I guess my thought is that standards um only go as far as what you then communicate to the actual customer. Because I mean maybe I'm wrong about this but in post frame are there certain practices that used to happen that just don't happen at all anymore for cost you know cost savings reasons and I I think that you have things with NFBA like their educational resources right those are the things that I've checked out I think that it weeds out bad players.

Jared 30:34

And I've said this before I said on the Steel Kings podcast you can go to your local lumber yard heck me and me and Cord could start a pole barn company tomorrow. We could go up here to the lumber yard here in town and we could source building kits and we could start getting contractors to do it. The episodes you want to go back and listen to is our one with Josh Nolan on sourcing um Josh is a really good guy. He uh works with Burroughs post frame solutions and I can tell you that guy knows his stuff and I can tell you if you're not working with the right supplier you're gonna end up with sub quality building materials every time you're gonna end up not getting the materials there to begin with. And with the NFBA I think what they've done so one of the things I really like that I've gotten really eyes on hands on is like the rapid framing system. So, Todd Meinhold um developed the rapid framing system he now licenses that to different suppliers around the United States so when you get plans or you get things to put this building together it's using the rapid framing you know as an option. And this at the end of the day is really where you start to see innovations come in right you know things like a perma-column things like there's so many industry standards in post frame and poll barns that you don't see available with steel buildings and sheds things that don't have engineering. Yeah because you have the because you have this it's not a governing body it's a trade organization.

Cord 32:04

But everybody's trying to lift up the standards of all those who want to do good business. I mean that's what you're doing that's you're encouraging people to learn.

Jared 32:14

Yeah you're encouraging people to take to take to take pride in what they're doing on a level of okay if we're gonna be an NFBA member we have to follow certain guidelines and there are certain expectations that are on us as a NFBA supplier or an NFBA contractor right and when you go to these trade shows you see it because there's so much collaboration and discussion amongst all the suppliers and different things that it just feels like a well oiled machine. Yeah maybe I mean maybe I'm missing it maybe I'm missing it right I mean I could be I could be completely missing the ball on this well I think I think for me personally I want to see the shed industry and the steel building industry rise up to this.

Cord 33:01

Yeah it depends on your there's a level missing it depends on your level of like um participation and you know is it possible that you're kind of you know are the people who show up at events like that always going to be the most um you know participatory within the industry already and you know and I think there's some of that even um you know in sheds and portable buildings as well for sure you know uh we have to be realistic about the kind of the circle well the people the listeners right if you're listening to a podcast right now that is about your industry because you want to be better you are probably you know in the top half of people who are plugged in and who are trying to be better and who are trying to probably the top quarter probably the top quarter.

Teaching Quality Without Overwhelming Buyers

Jared 33:48

Yeah I mean based on numbers that we see right based on numbers that we see from industry wide numbers that we had on the Steel Kings certainly is a pentance of where the metal building market is right yeah you guys have a larger market share for sheds than we did for steel buildings but again I think you know to kind of circle back to where we were right for me personally if you enjoy hearing from me if you enjoy my perspective on things and that's been one thing that shocked me you know I told you this I've said it on the podcast a million times I've never really made any money on the podcast it's never been about that for me. You know that I have never been a guy that's like you know I gotta have this money or I'm not doing it. I just love doing the podcast because it makes me feel good. I love talking about the industry and how I think it can do better because I love the industry and I love what I do every day. I get up every day and get excited about coming to work. And if I can share that with somebody and give somebody the motivation on a Monday morning or on a Friday afternoon or whenever they might hear my voice and they see something that I've created and say oh man that excites me. I didn't know that or man I really like seeing that or hearing that motivated me. That's the kind of stuff and we've asked for it right we ask for feedback all the time on the on the podcast like hey if you like what we're talking about shoot us a you know shoot us a message and tell us we'll do more of that and that's what I want to do with America Builds Better America Builds Better I don't have a personal TikTok I don't have a person I mean my personal Facebook is for really for friends and family only I don't accept a lot I think I got 120 friends on there and they're people that I could call on the phone and talk to right this is going to be a peek behind the curtain at Jared Ledford the person and what Jared Ledford loves about this industry post frame steel buildings you know sheds what whatever it is it might be metal roofing I might I might do something on I mean who knows I've got a lot of friends that I want to feature and I've got to I mean if you want to be on the podcast let me know because if you're listening to me now and you got a story to tell and you know you want to get your voice out there I'd love to talk to you. We may or may not feature it on a podcast we may or may not feature it at all but if you got a story to tell man I'd love to hear it. I am not shy about hearing it and it's not just about creating content it's about creating rich content rich content real content that people want to listen to that impacts their day and makes them feel like I'm in the right industry here.

Cord 36:23

Yeah

Jared 36:24

That's what we want I mean we want the industry to do better Cord that's what we want and not because the industry's not doing well on its own but the industry has to continue to make these technological changes to stay relevant because if we want to see the portable shed space not be taken over and dominated by big box retailers who we all know doesn't make the same quality sheds as our friends right we just know it and they're nothing wrong with it it's just would you rather buy a high quality shed for pretty much the same cost or would you rather buy one from a big box store there's nothing wrong with that they're not even hardly the same product I mean they're not even close they're not even close you know um they're more expensive cord yeah the big box buildings are more expensive and are everybody in our space which would be I would consider the consignment dealer model right the consignment dealer model would be where I think we're kind of target marketing portable building people um if you're a manufacturer or a dealer in that space you should own the fact that you're selling a high quality product it's been a long time since I've seen a really not a very good shed in the in this space they're all quality they're all quality products but I do think there's a but this is back to this is back to um what we're saying about standards right I agree with you that you should own the fact that you sell a quality product but I'm just you know the consumer I mean we are in it w e are you know uh whatever touring a manufacturing facility or a dealer lot or whatever we're doing this every day um you know or most days of the week or half the days in the month or whatever right so like we see these things a lot but for your average consumer out there yes you should own that quality product but there's going to have to be some easier way to translate that because if you have to go through what it means to um you know what it what the joy spacing on center you know in your what your floor joy spacing actually adds up to um what that advantec um you know actually adds up to compared to a lower quality like if you have to go through each of those things specifically I'll just tell you that person would rather buy a lower quality shed at a higher price than like here the two hours three hours four hours five hours worth of information that you're trying to tell them in person now here's where I think here's where shed life comes in I think we can actually um give them that information in little 45 30 45 second bites and over the course of you know a week two weeks three weeks as they're as spring's coming as they're thinking about a shed it gets into their algorithm they watch the whole video I think that we can actually deliver that third party here is what quality means and help with that education but honestly then whenever it comes back to how are we marketing sheds to the consumer themselves some kind of the marketing piece a standard how the marketing pieces the mar the marketing piece is where it's going to be so I was working with a shed manufacturer recently and you know he's a small one shop guy they service uh part of a big state right pretty much the whole part of a big state and he was asking me why a larger manufacturer than him continues to grow in his space when they don't really have anybody in his area and I had to explain to him you know we did a little bit of investigation this isn't hard you know you can look up how to do this you can look at your competition and say you know how many pages do they have on their website? These are all very easily findable things. Don't pay for it it's free um you know or give me a shout and I can help you. But I can tell you the difference between his website and his competition's website was something like 2500 pages. And these large scale manufacturers are going to start doing major business in everyone's backyard and whether they like it or not that's what's gonna happen. And marketing online it's gross SEO value.

Cord 40:58

I mean like you're talking about it in terms of pages you can get to that gross SEO value in a bunch of different ways whether it be pure pages whether it be um you know Google business profile with local you know there's a ton of ways to get to just yeah geo fencing geofencing is about right now yeah right you have to you have to dominate you have to dominate your local you have to dominate your local market.

AI Slop Content And Competitive Threat

Jared 41:24

If you are not posting regularly and you do not have again this comes back to the content piece. The same reason why Cord and I want real consumable content this is where your real consumable content has to come in right you need a website that has certain landing pages or certain content to drive that algorithm in the first place through SEO but then you need to have Google ads as a catch that sends people back to that landing page maybe to your 3D designer or maybe to a form you know that goes into your CRM there are so many things that you have to have for you to be considered to be a big player right I mean you can do it on a small scale and be really successful stay in your lane do 8000 to a million dollars in gross sales and probably feed your family and do well it's the people that want to take you know I think it's the biggest step you take when you go from that initial 8000 to like 1.5 million and you take that jump to now from a two to five million dollar you have just changed your entire world you have absolutely changed everything about your business in one fail swoop. And for me personally I'm telling with we'll have to save this for another conversation because this is a whole topic in and among itself but the proliferation of artificial intelligence in our space is going to be a big problem. And you if you haven't heard it from anybody else you can hear it from me. I can tell you right now if you don't understand it you need to find somebody who does and you need to have somebody as an advocate on your team that understands how artificial intelligence could affect our business. Because there are people out there right now and Cord and I have talked about this just there's players in the space steel buildings sheds pole barns that are completely AI everything about their platform is AI driven and they trump people like Shed Geek and America builds better. They have thousands of followers that follow them right into a pipeline for somebody to sell them a building this is where you're losing your ground as a dealer or manufacturer supplier you're losing it to AI generated content I know you've seen it core I mean we've talked about it right I mean that that's it you know that's to me that's the thing that makes me really frustrated right now from a content perspective is the people that have the most money and sometimes have the worst intentions in the world are the ones who are going to win here because they can spend money Dumping it in on AI driven content.

Visual Language And Funnel Mechanics

AD-VELOCITY 360 44:04

Hey Shed Geek listeners, I'm Joe Ignace, owner of Velocity360. At Velocity, we know the frustration of spending thousands on ads with no visibility on what's actually converting. Most leads simply get lost or never called. Ask yourself, does your team respond to every lead within 60 seconds? If they're unresponsive, do they follow up at least 14 times? The reality is your team should be closing and not chasing, and they don't have enough time to follow up like they should. All that manual follow-up is exhausting and it distracts from your hottest leads. Problem solved. Velocity360 is a white glove turnkey shed specific CRM solution for your sales team. We increase your lead response rate to over 60% without any extra effort from your staff. They just need to pick up the phone and start the conversation once the lead responds. We give you total visibility. You'll see your conversion rates, average sales price, and exactly which ads generate the most revenue and more. No more flying blind. We speak shed. It's all we do. With 100% American-based support, we build a system for you. We don't just show you how it works, we build it how you want it to work. Stop leaving revenue on the table. Call us at 865-672-8175 or visit velocity360crm.com/ sheds to book your call today.

Cord 45:17

Yeah. That never has to say anything. I just I think that if like slop content is what is driving your funnel, then you're gonna get slop leads. You know, now I mean that doesn't mean that like other people don't want those leads to work and whatever else, right? Um, you know, but I think there's I think that in the end, you know, obviously um well, I mean, Sora got shut down now. So, you know, like some of these um you know video platforms are gonna go through like a a phase here where they're you know getting shut down, having to be updated. Um, you know, it's getting okay, pretty good, and it's going to be used more obviously for I mean, I feel like a graphic like fixed graphic content at this point is as good through any of the generators as you can get anywhere else. Um but yeah, I mean, you're right though. At the end of the day, if you can dump money into it, if you're can produce slop, if it winds up getting I mean, I hate to just use, you know, maybe that's a little bit of a derogatory or a whatever type of a word, but like I don't think it is. It's slop, man. Like it's just it's but if it's working, which it does seem to be as far as at least gaining um gaining traction on views and such, and it's not even about it's about the gross number of views, right? We can spend uh a week doing a really great job of creating content, you know, for you know, the two of us or Shed Life and uh America Builds Better, whatever, right? Um but if you can crank out 50, 50 little slop videos a day, and you know, are they as good or whatever? But if they just perform you know fractionally better uh you know in the gross than what than what one really great video does, then uh you know, it can have that similar effect. But I agree with you. I'm not sure that these are like long-term changes. I'm not as sold on. I think that it's well, I mean, we should all be able to remember back to what's it been now? Um, I mean, I adopted I adopted Chat GPT the day after it came out. I was listening to the all-in podcast, like I was way ahead on just trying to keep up front on those things, and that was what 2020. Um, I mean it's been like six years now, five and a half years. Yep. And like I then remember the fervor in 2021 and 2022 that like all I mean there are people that would there are people who will tell you that a uh an AI podcast will actually um you know take over or will be oh the content is so good. It's generic, it doesn't have experience, it doesn't have a scroll, right?

Jared 48:11

The problem the problem you get into with it, Cord is that when you only have to create 15 or 30 seconds, yeah, you can make content that appears to be very real and very heartfelt and genuine, insightful. Yeah, and quite frankly, you know, these AI tools will utilize things that you say or I say or Shannon says, or other people in the industry that have a platform, they will study us and put us into their algorithms and then their generation tools, and they will pop out the perfect version of a metal building pole barn, you know, Shed Geek type of type of structure. And I've seen, I mean, I can tell you, I can tell you, they're already out there. Yeah, I watch stuff all the time in my downtime when it comes to industry-related stuff, and I would encourage you to keep your eye on it. If it looks a sort of way, send it to quarter eye. Yeah, I mean, I'd love to be the one, I'd love to be the one that starts to flag that stuff a little bit because I can tell you, I know when a building's fake. I know it the second I look at it. I know the second I look at a picture if it's real or not. And I'm not gonna sit here and say, you know, Dayton Barns, Five Rivers Pole Barns, Defyned. We don't use AI. We do, we definitely do. Everybody does. If you're not using it, you're behind the eight ball. It doesn't need to be your number one used resource. It shouldn't be driving every piece of content that you put out into the digital echo sphere. Right. It shouldn't be that way because eventually people start to catch on that oh, well, that's just well no, that's not really giving it your soul and your heart, right?

Cord 49:46

Now, this is getting to this is really where I wanted to get to with you, which and now we're like up against the clock here. But what I really wanted to get to with you was what that so this is an element of what I what I always refer to as the visual language of your brand, right? Like you and I talk a lot about yeah, if somebody sees a video that they enjoy, um, and that video is, you know, if we're talking about sheds, that video may be talking about uh, you know, the advantages of a metal roof versus shingles or whatever, right? Like it's you're just talking about a feature or whatever else. Well, you've done a good job of it and they like it, they click into the rest of, you know, they click through into your profile, then they start scrolling through your content. And if they can't easily recognize which of these other videos does the same thing, has the same format, is talking, uh, you know, is now doing the specific, here's a feature, here's how it benefits you, you know, if they can't easily find that, they just hit back twice and they're right back into the scroll. Because, and this is a problem. I see a lot of really good, really big uh companies who have, you know, to your point, deep pockets and the ability to produce a lot of content who you still can't navigate their actual pages.

Jared 51:16

Those are my those are my those are my favorite, Cord. Those are my I mean those are my favorite because again, it depends on what your what your mechanism is meant to do, right? Yeah, it depends on what the mechanism behind the ad con, you know, the ad copy or content's gonna do. So, let's just say it's a learn more reel on Facebook.

Cord 51:36

Right.

Collaboration And Regional Innovation Wrap

Jared 51:36

Customer clicks on the learn more mechanisms pulled. Where does that customer land? Is it an attraction ad? Have they been put onto a landing page with a form or a 3D design link, or is it more content? Yeah, for me personally, with America Builds Better, it's gonna be driving more content. Yeah, I want you to click on a 15 or 30 second clip and see a two-minute long video and continue down the rabbit hole of oh, I really like the information here. Sure. The one I'm gonna give you guys, the one I'm gonna give you guys as an example that I really like a lot. And if you can model content, specifically Facebook content, America's Car Guy. This is a guy who has gone from basically no audience, he has absolutely exploded, and it's because he has a format that he does in every single episode. And if you watch it, you'll understand it. He does the same thing in every episode. Hey, this is what we're gonna do this is what we're gonna do today. I mean, I was absolutely enthralled with it. I probably spent an afternoon, I'm not even joking, three and a half, four hours, literally watched every one of his videos, could not get enough of it. I thought this guy knows what he's doing. Yeah, he figured out the social formula for it. Yeah, right. And if you're gonna create content, whether it be for your business or maybe, hey, start a podcast. Shannon has said it once, he said it a thousand times. If you got something to talk about and you think you can, try it, figure it out. What you're gonna figure out is you don't have enough to talk about to curate weeks and months and years long of content, right? And that's what I think my issue is, right? Like I don't have enough content in my wheelhouse to produce weekly episodic, you know, podcast content in reality. I want to create all sorts of content that is industry specific that makes sure that everybody gets a taste of what I have to offer to the industry in one way, shape, or another. And I think that's what you guys are going to as well. Now you continue to do the podcast, but shed life sounds like an awesome thing. And I would encourage anybody that's sitting on a shed lot to reach out to you guys because I think that it's an awesome opportunity to get your product featured. And again, this is again about rising tide raises all ships. Just like you guys want to work with the best in the shed world, I want to hear from the best in the metal building world. I want to hear from the best in the post-frame world, right? Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, that's where we're at. I think that's a good wrap-up point for this one. But I mean, I think at the same time, we have more to talk about.

Cord 54:16

But yes, we're doing good about being producers here.

Jared 54:19

Yeah, yeah.

Cord 54:22

When we have to get off is always a good time to rep. That's right.

Jared 54:26

That's right.

Cord 54:27

No, but uh, but no, you're right. And yeah, I would encourage um encourage uh dealers, manufacturers out there, reach out to us, like you said. Um, you know, again, this is going to be like a third party, a third party thing, right? We're going to um explore what different build techniques, different features, different, uh, I mean, we're even going to talk about um some of the other parts, right? From the consumer experience, um, RTO, finance. Um, you know, um, what does it mean to have an Amish built shed? Because that's something that gets thrown around in the industry a lot. Um, you know, and where did the industry originate? And talk about Lancaster and talk about the consignment model and why there are dealers that all seem to have similar buildings, but are all labeled, you know, all the dealers have different names, and you know, which is different in the United States. We're used to if you see the same building in three different places, uh, it's coming from, you know, it's the place you're buying it from is labeled the same, McDonald's or Wendy's or Dairy Queen or whatever. Um, and so, you know, kind of explain these industry dynamics to the consumer so they get it, right? And so anyway, reach out to us on that. Uh, and then also anyone, like I said, I've kind of got five um five gentlemen who are kind of already, you know, in our circle to start reviewing some of these potential standards. Like we don't have a set plan, um, you know, but we've been thinking in this direction as well. And so, you know, if you're somebody out there who is really uh devoted and dedicated to uh what it means to produce quality buildings and what it means to be a craftsman uh and different techniques when it comes to the actual uh carpentry and how you put these things together, and uh reach out to us because uh we want this to be a collaborative effort. We want all um we want all of the techniques that represent all of the different cultures and styles within the shed industry to be equally and adequately represented. We don't want just the northeast, the fancy sheds with the architectural uh, you know, like features and everything to be the only thing that that uh you know kind of qualifies as an A shed, right? Like you can build great sheds um, you know, out in the Mountain West that may not have all the frills and everything, but they're what they're a quality shed.

Jared 57:01

The these Northeast dealers, these mid-Atlantic dealers, they better start taking a page out of the Mountain West, brother. The Mountain West, the Mountain West is coming in hot. Yeah, I mean that might be the funnest conversation we could have is like let's do a territory breakdown alongside of like the final four, right? Yeah, like let's do conferences of of manufacturers, like we could have a blast with that because I can tell you the mountain west is coming in hot. You're right. We're working with some we're working with some folks out there, and I can tell you they are serious. The sheds are awesome, and they are not putting anything off the table. I have seen some ridiculously cool looking sheds coming out of like the Northwest specifically. Yeah, the Washington State, Idaho, Montana, Oregon. That market is hot. If you're listening to us and you're in one of those areas, reach out to us. Yeah, that's right because I can tell you we want to learn more about your business. I can tell you right now, because I can tell you it is the coolest buildings I've seen, Cord. Yeah, coolest buildings I've seen this last year come from the northwest. Yeah, I think by far. There's a lot of innovation by far. Well, there is there is some crazy stuff.

Cord 58:13

Well, and you have uh the weather obviously always pushes design further, so you've got the unique weather up there and the cold.

Jared 58:21

Oh man.

Cord 58:22

Um, but then you've also got the influx. I mean, it's almost a social uh upheaval where you know everyone kind of wants to move out there again and separate themselves from you know uh uh you know the bigger cities of the northeast or even the west coast. That's right. And so, you know, you get if you get innovation and some money all put together, it usually turns into pretty cool stuff.

Jared 58:44

You know, you can do some stuff with innovation and money, brother. That's right. You can do some stuff with that. That's right. So man, I'll tell you, we got to get back at it again, Cord. Yeah, we always get we always butt up against the wall. But I'll come back whenever you want me to, man. Let's do it. All right, I'll come back whenever you want me to.

Cord 59:00

Thank you, Jared, for joining me today. And for the listeners, uh, thank you for listening. And please join us next time on another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast.

OUTRO 59:12

Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about ShedPro or about ShedGeek, 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.