A Shed Builder’s Month Rebuilding Homes In Ukraine

A month in a war-torn village will change how you hear the words “need” and “want.” Today we sit down with Willy Bricker of North Mountain Structures (Chambersburg, PA) to talk about taking his family overseas to Ukraine to help rebuild homes near an active front line and what that experience revealed about faith, resilience, and human generosity.

Willy walks us through what daily life looks like on a mission base: early mornings, crews heading out to repair roofs and damaged houses, air raid alerts that force workers off rooftops, and nights spent building real relationships with locals despite a language barrier. He shares the moments that hit hardest, including how kids adapt to war as “normal,” and why simply showing up can matter even when outcomes feel uncertain.

We also bring it back to the shed industry with a candid look at leadership and operations. Willy explains how staying connected from overseas exposed weak points in communication and accountability, and why having the right people and systems in place made it possible for him and his business partner to step away and still keep the company running. From market volatility to customer expectations, we talk portable buildings, why North Mountain Structures avoids finished tiny homes, and the surprising upside of simplifying your product mix to sell more of what you do best.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

LuxGuard
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Transcript

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.

Contact Lines And Velocity360 CRM

Why Willy Went To Ukraine

Cord 1:32

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. I'm your host, Cord Koch, here in Metropolis, Illinois, on what is admittedly a rainy, dreary, slightly cool and crisp. My wife would even say cold. I probably prefer it a little more than she does. But uh the weather is turning a bit here. We've needed the rain, so we're happy to have it, all the farmers out there. Today on the Shed Geek Podcast, I am joined by Mr. Willy Bricker of North Mountain Structures, who's going to tell us all about his recent trip uh overseas to help rebuild homes and really do great work. Uh looking forward to that. I've been looking forward to it uh for probably a month now. So, it's gonna be a great episode today. Before we get rolling, just a couple quick things. So you know how to stay plugged in with us. Of course, you know the Shed Geek phone line, 618-309-3648. The Shed Geek email, INFO@ shedgeek.com, info@ shedgeek.com. Both of those are Shannon's personal. So please blow them up, give him a call, uh, write him an email. Uh, go fill out the contact form on www.shedgeek.com if you would like. Of course, jump on the Facebook page, Shed Sales Professionals group. We try to be active on there as much as possible. And then for anyone who is friends with or know someone who is in the plain community, uh, please let them know. The call-in line 330-997-3055. Want to make sure that all of our friends in the plain community have a way to listen. Um, and also want to talk just for a quick second about our exclusive CRM provider for the Shed Geek podcast and for the Shed Geek Media Group. You all know by now that is Velocity360. We love Brandon and Joe over there. They do such a great job. And similar to today's guest, these guys, they just speak Shed. It's that simple. No overblown technical language, just what works for you. They know what works. They've now been doing this. Uh, you've probably even seen their the white papers that they put out uh with their coordination through Shed Pro and the way that they work in the background and the results that they're getting. These guys know how to close, they know how to help you and your sales team convert more leads in less time. What we're all looking for here, especially in the spring season, as we start to really tread water uh and try to get our heads above it as those leads and those sales start coming in. Um, and they do all this without the common headaches of sifting through spreadsheets or notepads or sticky notes. I'm a big sticky note user. Uh they do it in a seamless way that is at your fingertips, so you're never uh thumbing through or rustling through all of your papers on your desk. Best of all, this is a turnkey solution, fully configured, out of the box. Workflows, automation, and the reporting come to you on day one. They are proven in this industry, and they have a true white glove experience. So, you do not have to worry about any of your data uh getting migrated in, anything getting lost, all of your current leads, all of your past leads, all of your closed sales, not only do they transfer that data, but they want you to be able to use it, access it, learn from it, and grow with it. So, give those guys over at Velocity a ring, or give us a ring here at Shed Geek, shoot us an email, and we will be happy to put you in touch directly. Okay, Willy. Having said all of those things, uh my guest today, Mr. Willy Bricker, North Mountain Structures, Chambersburg PA. Um, obviously a great, a great business, a great uh character, really, in the in the shed industry. Um, you know, you are you are known throughout the industry, you attend all the events or most of the events. Um love seeing you at the expo there in October last year, but you have been on quite the adventure, my friend. In fact, we were emailing and texting um, you know, while you were overseas. So, I think maybe just to start, tell everybody like about this world traveling, um, you know, people helping mission that you've been on here for the last little bit.

Willy Bricker 5:57

You're flattering cord. So no, we had a lot of fun. Had a lot of fun. So yeah, like you said, my name is Willy Bricker from Chambersburg PA. And um main reason I'm on here is just because I'm in the shed industry. But uh another passion I have is Jesus Christ and making a difference in other people's lives. Like he made a big difference in my life, and so I want to add value and love others the way he loved. So, that's really what drives me doing anything, whether that's family, whether that's work, whether that's church. And part of this mission trip that our family took to Ukraine was with our church youth group. So, my specific role with going to Ukraine was uh my wife and I were house parents for a bunch of youth that were rebuilding a village. So, it was we left the end of February, got back at the end of March. So, we were over there for pretty much the full month of March. And yep, I was messaging you and I think Shannon a couple times as well. So, the there was a seven-hour time difference between there and home. So, I was I was in contact with everybody at the shop every almost every day over there, but their I think their seven o'clock start time was like two o'clock in the afternoon over there, and then their five o'clock end of the day was twelve o'clock midnight. So, I talked to everybody in the afternoon and it was early morning for them here. But it was kind of needed to expose some weak points in our business that we can address when we get back, as far as like me not being there. Um, and it was super good learning experience. But anyway, the whole point we were over there was to rebuild a village. So, the village we're living at was about 30 miles from the front line of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Oh my God, and the front line actually was in the village where we were at for about two weeks in the at the beginning of the war. So, there wasn't one house that wasn't hit with a bullet or shrapnel like it was just devastating. Where it was like just really eye-opening. I've never been to a country that was at war, much less active war. So here in Pennsylvania, we live beside an old army depot that shoots off like old expired ammunition, so there's like booms and clouds of smoke every now and then. So, we were hearing similar sounds, but it was live. Like someone's life just got changed right there. So, that was very sobering. Um, but where we were at was relatively safe, I guess you could say. Um, it wasn't frontline warfare where we're at currently. Um, but then every day the group of guys went 30 miles south to the front line and was harping bruises that got hit just that night. So, it was it was active. So, while they were there, they had a drone alert and every or an air raid alert every a couple times a day, they'd run off the roof and go inside, wait for it to pass, then he'd come back out and keep on roofing. So, and the thing is the people that we were helping are super, super poor. Like I was surprised at how poor everyone was. It's just they were run ragged, like mentally, emotionally, and like just physically. They their jobs were out, the economy is terrible, and they're super grateful for just any kind of help at all. So, that's where I feel like we did the most good is just caring for the people. It's like, hey, there's people here that care about you. You're not alone in this.

Cord 9:24

Yeah.

Willy Bricker 9:24

Because even if even if your house would get blown up again the next day, right after we put a new roof on it, we weren't there for no reason. Like we actually did some help for them. So, if the housing and the construction was the whole point of the trip, it potentially could have been a lost cause. But it's the people and building the relationships. That's what I love the most about the whole trip, really. So and it was a great experience for our children. So um a lot of people thought we were pretty crazy for doing it, but it we took our four youngest children along, which it's four little girls, uh ages two, three, five, and seven. So, we took uh homeschool along, we homeschool our seven-year-old, she's in first grade, so we took the schooling along, so she did school in Ukraine, and it was just a really good experience for them to see how other people live. It's like they're they weren't fed everything on a golden spoon over there. It's like if you don't have something, you just don't have it, and you're out playing with the neighbor children, you're not doing your normal life. So overall, it was a fantastic experience.

War Zone Reality And Poverty

Cord 10:30

My goodness, that's you're you just that little you've overwhelmed me with questions and thoughts. And I mean, you know, for your kids, I think that's kind of I even in you recounting it. I know we've talked a little bit, but um, but even in you recounting it, uh that's kind of the first thing that came up to me was you know, uh that this is like a youth group or that you're bringing the kids you're that the I mean you've you said a couple times, you know, uh uh the young men or or you know, I don't I don't know how young men were between 19 and 22 or 23, so yeah, they're older youth. Yeah, right. But they're running out, they're running out down to the front lines um every day, you know. I mean, maybe not uh I mean heck, who knows? You know, they might have already served as well, but they're continuing to serve or serving uh effectively, you know, what we would think of as like core of engineers almost. I mean, if you're out if you're out re if you're out rebuilding, you know, structures that are within uh X number of miles or are actively being bombed, you know, nightly or daily. Uh uh just um but when you talk about not only seeing the not only seeing how other people live and just what war does, I mean that is an education for grown men. That's an education for me and you, you know, much less, you know, much less for your kids. But you know, like you said, not just the conditions, but the mechanism of love that is possible um between uh people who otherwise don't have much in common, two different sides of the world. Yeah, yeah.

Willy Bricker 12:18

I mean, there is a language barrier there as well. Like we couldn't speak their language, and I mean, even that was another interesting thing to where up until the war, most Ukrainians spoke Russian and Ukrainian, kind of a uh a dirty mix of both. And now they're focusing more on Ukrainian, they're trying to separate themselves a little bit to where like we were using Google Translate every day, and a lot of times when the r or the Ukrainians were talking to us, like it was picking some of it up and some of it wasn't, just because their language is kind of kind of mixed over there. But at the same time, we're all people, like we're here to help them. They're super glad we're here. Everyone is super generous. I mean, even if we couldn't understand and talk, like everyone is so generous, they don't have much to give, but they'll give they'll give everything.

Cord 13:08

That's often the case, isn't it? You know, that that generosity. Um, you know, we're so um detached, you know, in in in America from what it means to be truly in oh goodness.

Willy Bricker 13:22

I mean, you know, not just not just abject poverty, but war and when that comes home and um you know one thing I thought of like just walking through the village, like I take a walk almost every day just through the village, and like house after house after house was just shattered windows, shattered roofs, and then every gate of the houses that were fixed up where people were living, had bullet holes all through it, and they're walking through those gates every day. Like it's just this is normal. But one thing I was looking at, like every roof in the whole village was made out of the same materials, it's called Schiffer, it's kind of like a fiberglass concrete type board that's kind of corrugated, and it's all the same color, and every house, every shed has this. Right. I was like, this would never fly if we tried building sheds this way in the States. It's like there's some people that come into the office that it completely ruins their whole day if they can't get the exact color they want. Whereas here, everyone is as happy as ever with the exact same colored, same materialed house and roof. Like everything's made out of stones and mud mortar and shefa roofing, and they're happy because it's the only option. It's kind of like my kids in church. They're happier when they don't have toys. When they have a basket full of toys, they're upset because they don't know which one to play with. Right, right. You're absolutely right. Well, it's kind of like two completely different cultures, and it definitely just it changes my mind and the way I think about things here by being over there. Now, obviously, I don't think the right thing to do is try to live like a Ukrainian here. I'm not gonna build a mud house and put sheefa on the roof.

Cord 15:01

Right.

Willy Bricker 15:02

But it still changed my mind to where it's like, okay, where can I help others more? Because I obviously have more than they do. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. It's a completely mind shift there.

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Cord 17:43

Yeah, it's uh it's wild to even think about for our for those of people listening. I mean, is it is it okay to kind of mention like the name of the town so that people can kind of see just where in the world, or is that supposed to be like a more of a secret thing?

Willy Bricker 17:59

No, no, it's not a secret at all. So, where we're I have a hard time pronouncing names, but where we're living with it's called Kiskali Kisalifka. Okay. But there's several Kisalifkas in Ukraine.

Cord 18:09

Okay.

Willy Bricker 18:10

Classic, just like here, lots of spring fields. Yeah. So the one we were living at was about an hour away from uh Mikolive. Okay. So Mikolive is a larger city. That's where we went to do all of our shopping and everything, to where they'd have the grocery stores, the hardware stores for the building and supplies, things like that. Um, but at the beginning of the war, Mikolive was surrounded. So driving into Micholive, there's trenches and just army posts everywhere. It's just sobering. Like you don't see that in the States at all. But over there, it's just normal to see army vehicles driving around, um, like just little four-wheel drive trucks with 50 caliber machine guns mounted on the back for anti-drone shooting. I mean it's just normal seeing this stuff. And in a live, there's one street that they have several, several tanks, like just bull tanks along the street just as a memorial. Yeah. And there's little kids just climbing around it and on it pretending to be shooting the Russians. And it's like, if this is like a four-year-old kid, this is all he knows. Like this is his entire life is war. Like, like he doesn't even know what it's like to be in a peaceful country. So, that was probably the biggest eye-opening moment where it's like, this is just normal for people. It's sad, but it's normal. But from I've talked to a couple soldiers over there as well that that were drafted into the war, and they said no one fighting wants to fight. It's just the powers above and the powers above them, and the powers above them. It's just they're ordered to do it. And it's really sad. It's yeah, nobody wants to be in the war for sure. No, no, absolutely not. I'm not I'm not here to get political or anything. It's just these are the conversations we were having over there.

A Typical Day Rebuilding Homes

Cord 20:01

Yeah, no, these are these are um uh I mean this is this is the nature of humanity, right? And I know um a lot of our listeners um, you know, are set apart, you know, are of the Christian faith, and um even some, you know, listening um, you know, who are set apart even more through their faith, through the whether that be uh uh uh plain doctrine or whatever that might be, but you know, it's at our core, right? We're it's just so incredible to me what people will adapt to. I mean, to your point, these you know, these people have um adapted to a way of life, um, like you're saying. I mean, everything about war that is shocking and you know coming from America and showing up, and I mean what a what an eye-opening experience for the kids, and I mean just everything. So maybe uh could you would you mind to just walk us through, you know, you're obviously kind of kind of rebuilding, would you walk us through just like what a day for you is like, like you're getting up, you're rolling out with you other Ukrainians, or maybe with your group of volunteers, and just walk us through the day-to-day routine of a person who is there to actually do that kind of construction work. And then, you know, maybe also how do how do people if somebody obviously of our listeners of any podcast in the country, our listeners are gonna be more qualified, you know, to actually go over there and do quite a few people wanting to go over now, you know.

Willy Bricker 21:46

Uh that's great, you know, and so uh so how it all started is yeah, there is a there's a family that's been living over there, um, Anabaptist family for the last I want to say twenty five or thirty years, and whenever the war starts. He had a lot of friends and family in the States that was like, hey, how can we come over and help? And so he organized several of these mission bases where he'd buy a property, fix up the house, and have one or two people live there full time, and they would just organize groups of people from the states every month. So every month a new group would come in, live there for a month, and work, and then go home. And so we were technically we're essentially just one of these one-month groups. As far as the day-to-day, my job was just to make sure everybody was taken care of. As far as the youth guys, if they were feeling stressed or overwhelmed for just working that close, I mean, I was supposedly the one that for them to talk to. So it's kind of interesting. There for my I have a uh watch that tracks my sleep, and for seven days, my average sleep at night was four hours and 50 minutes. So I was getting very little sleep, just getting up early, making sure everybody had a job and was off to their job, and then staying up late just talking to everybody. But I loved it, like that was the whole point of me being there was to build relationships and inside our group. But let's say every morning we get up, we'd have breakfast at 6 30. So, my wife and two other girls would prepare breakfast for about 20 of us. There's 20 of us living on the base. And then the guys every day would go down south and work at the front line. The other guys would stay and work at how work at a house in the local village, was just within walking distance of the house we were staying at. But then so the group would go down south, they'd be gone all day. Um, whoever wherever they were working would give them lunch, and then they'd be back around four or five. The rest of them would stay there, walk down the street to the house they were working at, which was just fixing up a house that was destroyed. Um, drywall the inside, mud, new windows, new doors, things like that. So they would work there, come back for lunch. Um, I would stay at base pretty much all day. I helped at the house a little bit, but most days I would just stay at the base, getting firewood, cleaning out the shed, organizing tools. I did a little bit of welding, uh little just odds and end stuff around the base.

Cord 24:04

Yeah.

Willy Bricker 24:04

Um and then at the end of the day, we'd all meet back at supper at six o'clock, have supper, eat, uh, hang out all evening, play volleyball with locals once a week. Um, and evening we played soccer with all the locals. So, it was it was a lot of local interaction, just hanging out really. It's not like we did one big massive mission trip or mission thing, but just living normal lives in Ukraine and just kind of get up, go to our day job, come back. Helping out, yeah, right. Glamorous, but it was it was just really good to see to live normal life just differently than we normally do here. Gosh. Powerful power. But powerful power the different groups. There was there's two guys that live there at the base. Guys live there full time, and so they kind of knew the language. So if anybody came around that was trying to talk to us, good translate and a lot of pointing, but the other two guys did most of the talking and translated us. So, it's not like we're just stuck over there with no contacts to or no connection to talk to people. So yeah, day-to-day life was very normal. So, they had very small hot water heaters, so running 20 people through showers was kind of strategic. So, and in that village, I don't know if this is normal for all Ukraine, but in that village, there at the base, like and most of the houses in all the village, their shower houses were outside, like they didn't have indoor showers, so everyone would just go outside to the little shower hut. And so there at the base was the same way. But there it was like this little room, little shed, and it had a divider wall, so it had a door on one side for one shower bathroom area, a door on the other side for the other shower and bathroom, but the hot water heater was in one side, so it was great because whoever was taking a shower in that side could turn the hot water off for the other side. So there was a lot of fun happening. Oh yeah. That's good though. I mean another weird thing about the village is there's what's that?

Cord 26:11

I was just saying it's good to hear that among the you know, among the tragedy and among the bullet holes and among the bombed out houses. I mean, again, people are people, and like a prank is a prank and cold water is cold water. And you know, it's a you know it's good to hear of the good times and the laughter.

Willy Bricker 26:34

We had a lot of good times, a lot of laughter. It was it was incredible. One of the like so there's so many limited tools, limited everything to do what we need to do. So, one of the phrases that one of the guys started, and then everybody started using it, is like, I'm not sure I fixed it, but it's different. So since we came back home, we've been using that on everything. Like, I'm not sure it's different, but it or I'm not sure I fixed it, but it's different.

How To Donate Or Go Serve

Cord 27:02

Hey, I I think there's I think there's plenty of that in the shed industry as well. Oh yeah, you know, it's definitely different. Um oh man, Willy, that's uh that's incredible. So how then I mean, is there it sounds like this was all fairly like personal connections, but if there are you know more than like a whatever, a website to go to or whatever, but if people do want to you know do anything from donate to the effort all the way up to going and contributing similar to you, how would how would the listeners go about kind of doing that?

Willy Bricker 27:42

Sure, sure. So, as far as the ministry that funds this whole organization, uh like I said, it all started with just one family over there that started it. They're involved with Iron Curtain Ministry. So, I never heard of it until one of the guys from our church told me about it. So, it's a ministry that people can donate to that kind of support different activities over there. That's one way to support through Iron Curtain Ministry, then you can just earn notch it or um tag it for the Ukraine mission. But the other, I mean most of all these all these groups that go over there. Let's say you have a group of ten people that you want to send over there for a month and you want to go and serve and rebuild, um, the contact over there is Wayne Hursh, which I wouldn't be surprised if some of our listeners knew him. He was born and raised in Lancaster County. So um and he moved over, like I said, 25 or 30 years ago, raised his family over there, and then people just contact him and he organizes how many people, when, which mission or base they would go to, different things like that. So I don't have his contact right now, but if anybody reach out to me, I could definitely put connect you too.

Cord 28:49

So very good, very good. And we will we will put that you and I will sidebar here after the podcast, and we can even put that in the newsletter, um, along with the Iron Curtain uh ministry and such.

Willy Bricker 29:02

Yeah, true.

Cord 29:03

Okay, awesome. Well, um, that is great, and I would highly encourage um, you know, it sounds like um you had you know uh a good experience for yourself, uh, an eye-opening experience for you, the wife, the kids, um, and also um you know, uh a God, a God experience, right? Yeah, a God thing.

Serving Now Versus Chasing Growth

Willy Bricker 29:26

Yeah, for sure, for sure. Like it was it's kind of neat, like you pray about everything, and and God would it seem like God answered more prayers over there than over here, but I think it's just the fact that there just wasn't a chance to war with there, and it just looked like God was God is real, God's because God's real everywhere. I'm not gonna say God doesn't do miracles in the states what he does in Ukraine, but it's almost like we're more self-scient, we don't need God as much in in the States, and that's a scary place to be. It's like we need God everywhere. But there's unlimited stories from there that it's just great. I'm really glad we went. Um and it the big big perspective difference was the fact that our shed business is at a place where we can do this. Uh, just two years ago we wouldn't have been able to do this, just as where our business was, my role in it, things like that, to where um my the North Mountain Structures is owned by myself and then Caleb Beckman. He's my business partner. Him and his family went to New Mexico for their church mission for eight weeks from Christmas to the end of February. So our company is to the point where both of us can leave and it still keeps going. We got people in place, systems in place that guys don't run out of work if we're not there. So that's I feel like getting to this point was a really, really good way for the business to actually serve. And then coming back from Ukraine, it's like, why do we need to keep growing? It's almost like a midlife crisis. It's like before we went, it's like, okay, we want to go and we get back, we have this, this, this, we have goals planned out for 206 and 27. And then it coming back, it's like, what's the point? If we can serve well the way it is now, and we're running a profitable business, the guys that are working here and know how to handle stuff without us, like, where do you draw the balance between growing and growing and growing to where you can support missions more or just staying comfortable and supporting missions the way we are now? So, it's one of those things that's I'd never thought about it like that before. Before it's like, okay, grow, grow, grow. The more we grow, the more people we put in place, the more time I can spend away, the more time I can give, the more time I can serve. We can do it now. Like, why wait to serve till we're grown like a big company? Just serve now. So, that's probably one of the biggest mind changes that I had coming back into it. It's like, hey, our shed business is doing very well the way it is now. It doesn't have to be huge. I think it's still be neat to huge. I had nothing wrong with growing a business, but it's still like we're at a really good spot now. It I'm almost maybe more just content with where we're at.

AD- CAL 32:13

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North Mountain Structures Business Update

Cord 33:20

Yeah, it's and you don't even, I mean, we're in America, which is built on, you know, the most sort of um aggressive version of capitalism, you know, in the world. And you're right, we don't we don't question growth. We don't question more, we don't question bigger. It's almost just kind of weaved into the fabric, you know, of the way that our minds are whenever we wake up in the morning and we go to work and we're ready to attack the day. Um, but you talked about something that'll reset your perspective um is being in a place that doesn't have the opportunity to do, you know, it's not about growing over there, it's about gosh, we have to go from having had a home, a structure, a barn, whatever it was, to it being flattened. And now we're gonna have to build it back, and we're honestly going to have a reasonable expectation that it might go back to being flat again. And yeah, that you know, like it's a completely different mindset. But like you said, whenever you are able to um laugh and have joy and have community, um, yeah, I think it would be hard for anyone to then you know plug back into to life, plug back into work, plug back into sheds, and not think, my goodness, and have a little bit of uh an evaluation. So um, well, maybe just tell us. I mean, obviously we're now we're now here. Um you know, it's warm, it's raining, the everything's getting green, spring is here, sheds are selling. So tell me about North Mountain structures. Um, what do y'all have going on? It sounds like you're in a really, really good place. Obviously, you guys have you know went off on your missions and things have continued to churn. Um, you know, tell us what is what's going on out there in Chambersburg for you.

Willy Bricker 35:12

Yeah, I mean, right now, I've just been telling people the last week that like business is very steady, but we can always handle more. So, we are down year-to-date from last year, like as far as sales numbers and everything, we're down year to date from last year, but it seems like a very solid, steady pipeline. Like our pipeline is full. There's we're talking to a lot of people. Sales have been very steady the last three or four weeks. So I'm not scared or freaking out or anything. It's just this is just normal business. Now, having a first quarter, this is probably our lowest sales for the first quarter that we've ever had in the last, I want to say the last six years. But I mean still profitable, basically. Yeah, right. Right, since COVID, yeah. So, it's it we're it's still profitable, the bills are getting paid. Sales have picked up tremendously in in April here. So as far as the economy goes, I'm not too worried or scared. Maybe I just have the my eyes covered, but I have a great outlook on the economy. I think it's I think it's gonna go really well this year, but I've said that every year I've been in business. So, it probably has says more to do has more to do with me than the economy.

Cord 36:27

Well, that's good though. I mean, having a having a positive outlook, and you know, obviously we know each other uh uh you know off air and consider you a friend and love seeing you at all the industry stuff because you just put that positivity so you know so good out there into the world. Um you and uh Jalen as well, right? That's he accompanied you to the X.

Willy Bricker 36:51

Uh Jaron, yeah. Jaron was yeah, he was our sales guy for all of last year, but he actually went and switched industries at the end of this year, so or the end of last year. So, he was there in 2025. Yeah. And December 2025, he went to work uh construction. So, he's doing like pool barns roofing, stuff like that. So, since then we hired another salesman that's just doing phenomenal, just like Jaron was. So, if it wasn't for Joseph, he's our new sales guy, if it wasn't for him, Caleb or I neither could have could have left the way we did. So it we just have the right people in the right place, and the timing worked out that it was it was really good.

Shed Market Volatility And Outlook

Cord 37:28

So yeah, absolutely. You know, I've been seeing um more and more uh there's this kind of like dividing line. And we were even saying last year in 25, just the statistics that come out of uh the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, um, you know, the kind of macro uh view of the economy that that basically you know credit was becoming an issue with people, uh monthly household income was starting to get squeezed on discretionary spending. So, you know, I think, and we you can even see this in the shed sales professionals page, I think that a lot of people are having that same experience where um I think it was kind of a common theme to say down in January, back up in February, back down in March, right? And now April is off to a good start. But that that up and down and a little bit of volatility seems like it's gonna be baked in for a little bit. Obviously, of course, you're coming from a place where I would hate to even know what a gallon or a liter of fuel costs over there.

Willy Bricker 38:31

I don't even know the translation and money was beyond my head. I couldn't figure it up. I think the I think the exchange rate was somewhere around 43 to one. So my goodness. We were shelling thousands of it looked like thousands of dollars, but it was actually 43 to 1 whenever we were buying stuff. So it's weird being in that. Yeah, you're right. The economy over there is completely different than here.

Tiny Homes Requests And Code Limits

Cord 38:55

Yeah, um, you know, but so I we have noticed um more and more companies who even up to this point maybe had kind of kept that um finish out or even that like tiny home shell had kind of continued to kind of push that aside, like let's stay. But now you're getting that sort of um that dividing line where now along with uh um maybe the consumer's discretionary income to have you know something like a shed or that sort of backyard getaway, now there's the actual housing, the housing right is now slipping down into that area. I just I just wondered kind of what you're seeing out there. I mean, we haven't like pre-discussed this, so just you know, I know uh yeah, tell me what you're doing.

Willy Bricker 39:47

I mean, there doesn't there's not a week that goes by that someone doesn't call in and wonder if we build tiny homes or a little house to put on a mountain property or something like that. But I mean, for us, we decided we're not doing the finished out thing. Now we'll build a shell, but there's no guarantee you're going to be able to get a residency permit for it or occupancy permit. Yeah, so we did have one guy buy a shed from us and he called it a shed, and then he tried to live in it, and then he came back at us a year later and said, Hey, I need a letter from you to give to the township to say this is good to live in. I was like, No, this is a shed. It's like this doesn't cover residential code, it doesn't cover like you can't get an uh occupancy permit with our building. So I make sure I tell everybody that up front now because yeah, you might say, Hey, I need a shed, and we'll sell you a shed, but if you really want to live in it, we'll let you know. Hey, this doesn't come under Pennsylvania code. I mean, right. So for us, it's we refer them to somebody else. Um, I had a great conversation with our sales guy a couple weeks ago about like he was saying, well, someone called in once this, like, we really should do it. And someone called in one of this, it's like, hey, we can do this. And I was like, Well, like, we decided we're gonna stick with portable buildings. So if it's on site, plant and post, anything like that, it's like we're gonna refer them to somebody else that does it. Yep. And if it's tiny homes or residents, we're gonna refer them to somebody else. It's like for us to help them is gonna look like referring them to somebody else. And I was like, it's kind of like uh like a carport. Like, we don't do we don't do metal car ports. There's another company right down the road that custom builds car ports, it's great. So we refer everybody to them. And he said, Well, or out this conversation with my sales guy was like, Well, the car ports, like, why would anybody want them? Like, our sheds are way better than carports. I said, Well, it's kind of like asking what's better, a Ferrari or a minivan. Like, it depends who's buying. It depends who's buying. I mean, if you've got a family with five kids, you're gonna want the minivan, and that's gonna be better. But if you're uh the next guy that doesn't have a family, he's gonna say the Ferrari's better. So it's all in who's buying. So if they're saying, hey, do you have do you have carports? Don't say, no, but our sheds are better. Ask what they're wanting to put in the carport. Like, why are they wanting a carport? What's the reason? Yeah, because if it's to stick an RV in it, absolutely the carport you can get a custom height because we're not gonna put an RV in a portable shed.

Cord 42:14

Right.

Simplify The Product Line To Scale

Willy Bricker 42:16

So it's all about really what we decided to offer and then also what the customer wants and what helping them looks like. So, yeah, the whole tiny home, the home industry, things like that, we're just handing that off to somebody else that can help our customers better. And one thing I thought of is that like when we did that, so we're not doing lawn furniture anymore, we're not doing a lot of things that like a lot of conversation in the in the shed sales professional page and is like, what more can we add to our lots? What can we add to our lots? It's like for us as a manufacturer, we're we decided we're gonna cut out the carports, we're gonna cut out the on-site pavilions and gazebos, we're gonna cut out the lawn furniture, all this stuff. And in some ways, I was a little bit scared to do it because, like, man, our sales are gonna go down, but the opposite has happened. Our sales for our sheds, which is actually more profitable because it we're a manufacturer selling them, went way up. And the first year that we cut out all of that stuff, we had a 20% increase in sales by not selling any of it. Right. So we could actually focus on selling sheds. Yep. Where that's more the philosophy we're taking, but it it still completely makes sense that if you're a shed lot, you're gonna want to offer more because someone that's needing a utility trailer or a U-Haul or lawn furniture is gonna look at your sheds and build a relationship with you before they need a shed, so that when they do need a shed, they'll want to come back to you and buy. So that makes perfect sense. But whenever we're limited in sales guys, I guess if we really wanted to sell all that stuff, we could just hire another salesman. But for now, it's like we have less headache, less products to offer, and can be really good at. The sheds. And so that's kind of been our philosophy with all the masses of people that want the different things, the homes, the furniture, the everything. It's like we offer portable sheds. And that's what we're good at. So and that's it's not the only way to do it, but it's kind of the way the approach we've taken. And it it's worked really well for us.

Back Home With Fresh Perspective

Cord 44:19

Well, and that's the approach that allows those the lessening of complications, the lessening of like that's what allows you and Caleb to be back to back, you know, gone for two months, gone for a month. I mean, the fact is um, you know, the more complex um that sort of process is, the more products as a manufacturer that you offer, the more things there are to break, the more, the more questions there are to ask, more, the more one-off projects that that get asked and you know, said yes to or you know, accepted as a as a project, um, you know, it is that it is the simplicity and the streamlining and the consistency then of the product that you're making that allows you to walk away. Um missions and have that that kind of thing. Um, so how are you how are you in enjoying getting back into the groove? Obviously a change of lifestyles, but I mean uh it seems like you are uh happy and invigorated and ready to um, you know, if not if not directly or explicitly like grow or get huge or whatever, it seems like you're invigorated to just you know take it by the reins and jump back in. Am I right about that?

Willy Bricker 45:45

Oh, a hundred percent. Absolutely. I love what I do. I I've got a routine, get up every morning, I go to work. I actually live on the same property as a manufacturing shop and office. So walk to work every morning. I'm at I'm at work every morning at six o'clock in the office, just loving what I do. And then I can walk home for lunch every day, I eat lunch with my family, walk back to work in the afternoon. Like I I've got it made. Like this is this is really a dream job. It really is.

Cord 46:15

Absolutely, absolutely.

Willy Bricker 46:17

And I was I was even able to make a couple shed sales from Ukraine. So that was that was like before I went, it's like it'd be really neat if I could, but then sure enough, I did. Like the timing worked out, the phone service was in just at the right time that I was able to make a phone call. That is awesome. So yeah, that was another thing over there. Like they had scheduled power outages just because their power grid couldn't keep up with everybody, so they like had set allotted times for each village of having power. So, like a couple times a week they just say, Hey, there's a scheduled power outage for all afternoon on Thursdays and Fridays or something, and then the internet would go in and out, even if we had electricity or not. Right. So it was it was kind of hard to stay connected that way, but it just added to the experience. And now that we're back, it's like our internet hasn't gone out once since we got back.

Cord 47:10

Blessed, blessed, truly blessed. I'm not gonna hold it against you, Willy. Uh, if you if you didn't hear it because you were out of the country and you were busy doing good work. Uh, but uh we actually had Adam Bruno uh on who uh is up in Canada uh but is um his family's from Brazil, so he actually was selling sheds from Brazil on a beat.

Willy Bricker 47:37

Oh yes, yes, I remember that. Yep, yep.

Cord 47:40

And so hey, look at you. See, this is a this is a true lister right here. You've been out of the country and you even heard that episode. But Willy, I think you might have set a record.

Willy Bricker 47:50

I binged, I binged, I binged uh all the podcasts on the way home from Ukraine. But that had a record we had a 12 or 13, I think it was a 12-hour flight. We had a 12-hour flight from Turkey to JFK. So that was a long flight, but I binge listened at speed 1.75. So yeah, right.

unknown 48:09

Get through. Get through.

Future Trade Group Teaser And Closing

Cord 48:10

Uh well that's uh but I think I think you that must be a record though, uh, to of the distance that that away from the customer uh Ukraine certainly feel certainly feels like that must be must be a record on uh mobile shed sales. So Willy Man, I appreciate you so much. Um I know we were planning on even talking a little bit about uh we had talked off-air uh about the project that we have going, uh thinking about sort of uh a trade organization and how to shape that. And I told you off air and I'll tell you on air, I certainly would love your input on that. And I think we plan to connect on some of those standards and what that can be, and how do you avoid being the better business bureau that like people don't even don't even give a whole lot of credence to anymore. Um, but we've had such a good time that we've effectively used up uh all of all of our podcasting time here. So, I would just invite you, um, you know, if you would if you'd like to come back on even sooner rather than later, uh, you know, here in in another month. Let's not let's not make it uh another year before we get you back on the podcast.

Willy Bricker 49:23

So no, I'd love to talk more about that, just the pros and cons and what it takes and what it is. Absolutely.

Cord 49:30

We're almost teasing an episode right here that we're that we still that we'll still have to shoot, but uh we will connect on that because I want your opinion. You had such great thoughts whenever we were we were talking separately um and about how to turn that into an advantage, you know, for manufacturers, for the industry, how to get it in front of consumers, and most importantly, keep credibility um you know within the within a structure like that itself. So, I like the idea of thinking through all those problems from day one. Um so let's have that conversation and invite that that uh that conversation to come back to us as well, uh getting that input from everyone. So, we will do that. Thank you, thank you so much um just for for the conversation for being who you are, for having a heart for this industry, obviously a heart for humanity, um, a heart for Jesus Christ. Um, you know, just can't say good enough things about you, Willy. And again, for anyone.

Willy Bricker 50:29

Thank you, Cord. You as well. It's been a pleasure to be here. It's been an honor to be on the on the podcast. This is the second one. So, the first one was actually with Shannon in person. So that's right. Yeah, that's right. That was fun. Yep.

Final Thanks And How To Reach Us

Cord 50:41

Yeah, so we'll make it, we'll get two and three, you know, quick quicker than the gap between one and two. Uh there you go. I look forward to it. Yes, sir. Let's do it. Thank you everyone for listening. And please tune in next time for another episode of the Shed Geek podcast.

OUTRO 50:58

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.