Handwritten Notes Win Customers

Your marketing team can track clicks all day, but your customers are drowning in digital noise. The mailbox, on the other hand, is basically empty, and that’s where today’s conversation gets interesting. I’m joined by Rick Elmore, a former NFL player who turned an MBA “lightbulb moment” into Simply Noted, a company that uses custom-built handwriting robots to send real handwritten mail at scale. 

We get into Rick’s journey from humble beginnings to Division I football, getting drafted by the Green Bay Packers, and then facing the hard reset that comes when the league moves on. What stuck with me is his simple framework for performance in sports, sales, and entrepreneurship: discipline decides destiny. Showing up, staying consistent, and controlling what you can control is unglamorous, but it’s the difference between ideas that die and businesses that grow. 

From there, we go practical. We break down the two biggest use cases for automated handwritten notes: lead generation for high-value sales and customer retention after the purchase. Rick explains what “custom” really means, from card design and handwriting styles to real stamps, personalization fields, and tracking tools like QR codes and engagement analytics. We also talk about how to keep the message human and authentic so the note builds trust, while the landing page and CRM workflow do the heavy lifting on conversion. 

If you want more reviews, more referrals, more repeat business, and a marketing channel that feels personal but still has measurable ROI, this one is for you. Subscribe to the Shed Geek Podcast, share this with someone who owns a shed lot or runs a dealership, and leave us a quick review with your biggest takeaway.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Geek Marketing

Velocity 360
CAL
PlayMor Playsets
J Money LLC

Transcript

INTRO 0:00

You're listening to the Friday edition of the Shed Geek Podcast, brought to you by Shed Geek Marketing. At Shed Geek Marketing, we've assembled a handpicked team of specialists from across the Shed and Portable Building industry to help manufacturers, dealers, and service providers grow smarter and scale faster. From websites and SEO to Google ads, meta-campaigns, content creation, video production, lead funnels, systems integrations, and industry-specific lead-in tools, we help businesses build real momentum instead of chasing random marketing trends. Today, Shed Geek Marketing is holding down this title sponsor spot at the top of the show, but this could just as easily be your company, featured right here in front of thousands of industry professionals, business owners, and decision makers every single week. If you'd like information about title sponsorship, podcast advertising, or our 2026 Shed Geek Media Kit, reach out to us at info@ shedgeek.com. And now on to the podcast.

From Metropolis To Today’s Guest

Cord 0:56

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast coming to you today from Metropolis, Illinois. It is a beautiful late spring day here, sunny and 85. We could not ask for any more. Today I am joined by Mr. Rick Elmore, possibly Ricky Elmore. I've seen it both ways. I think one might have been uh in his younger ball playing days, but uh I think it's going to be a really good one. He has a great, great service um that really goes to the heart of what this industry is about. So, we're looking forward to that. Before we get rolling, just a couple things uh so you know how to stay plugged in with us. Of course, the Shed Geek call-in line, Shannon's personal cell phone number, please give him a call, shoot him a text anytime, day, night, weekend. Uh, we'd love to hear from you all 618-309-3648 uh to get a hold of us. Uh, info@ shedgeek.com is the email address. You can always go to the website, of course, www.shedgeek.com. Visit our Facebook page, the Shed Sales Professionals page on Facebook, does such a great job of keeping everyone informed, sharing, uh, and really growing the industry as a whole. Uh, and of course, if you or someone you know, one of your relatives, uh, is in the playing community, uh, tell them about the call-in line 330-997-3055. Um, we really want to be able to serve uh everyone, and we've noticed lately that we're getting a ton of call-ins. So, uh hopefully everyone is sharing with friends and family in those communities, and we love it. Uh before we get going, quick word from our exclusive CRM provider. Uh, of course, you all know that is Velocity360, Joe and Brandon over there. Um, those guys are just awesome. They're getting results, they are offering top-level service, um, and they're selling more sheds. Uh they are laser focused on customer service, on being a salesman first business. They know what works, they know how to close, um and they know how to help your sales team convert more leads. Give them a call. You can either call them directly, you can click into the link in our newsletter with this episode, uh, or you can call us and we'll be happy to set that set that appointment up with you. Um, they're doing a great job. So, having said all of those things, uh again, I would like to introduce our guest today. That is Mr. Rick Elmore, uh hailing from beautiful Southern California uh originally and now equally sunny. Um maybe not the temperature may be a little higher over there in in Arizona, from what I can tell. But uh tell us about yourself, Rick. I've uh alluded to it just a bit, but you've been a high achiever pretty much your whole life, it looks like.

Rick Elmore 3:53

Um sure,

NFL Journey And Reinventing After Cut

Rick Elmore 3:54

yeah. Well, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Um, thanks for the introduction and for the opportunity to be on your podcast. But um, yeah, I would say uh a lot of my success has just come from a lot of hard work. Um, you know, I came from a very humble, humble beginnings, you know. Um first person to go to college. My parents, you know, I would say we're like, my parents did their best and I love them to pieces. And I am so appreciative for everything that they did and they did the best they could. Um, but like I didn't have no silver spoon, you know, I was again first person to go to college, but my background's pretty unique. Um, I played Division I football, uh, went to the University of Arizona on a football scholarship.

Cord 4:33

Go Wildcats.

Rick Elmore 4:34

Go Wildcats. Yeah, a good basketball team, and every once in a while they have a good football team. And when I was there, we went to three bowl games out of four years, so that's pretty cool. But then uh I got drafted in uh 2011 to the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round. Um you know, I was early on, I always I kind of share this story because I it always used to bother me, but I wear it with a badge or like a with honor as like a badge of pride. But my NFL draft like uh media like overview of who I was that said, like this guy's an overachiever, he wins with effort, plays above his potential. And I used to think that was like you know, such a slap across the face, you know, you know, because I was like, I'm like a good football player, you know, like I'm talented. I'm talented, it's not just effort, you know. But you know, you go into the real world, you know, I'm now 38, and I couldn't be, you know, more proud to have that as something that identifies me because I truly do believe um, you know, discipline decides destiny. And if you can have discipline in anything that you're doing to be consistent over time, it doesn't matter if it's gonna make it to the NFL, it took me 15 years, right? To make that dream come true. Doesn't matter if you're if it's in a career, a hobby, starting a business, discipline decides destiny. If you can show up every single day, control the controllables, right? Attitude effort. Um, stay consistent over time, you know, that compounding interest of the work, you know, creates something beautiful. And that's just what I've been able been able to do and like rinse and repeat over and over again. Again, it this isn't coming from like parents handing me anything. This isn't I had didn't come from money, you know. Um, first person again to go to the college. Nobody's ever been an athlete in my family. It was just it was my drive, right? But um after that, according to your draft profile, neither were you.

Cord 6:25

What did my draft profile according to your draft profile? Neither were you. I mean, you proved them wrong.

Rick Elmore 6:31

I know, I know, and you know, but you know, I'm so happy. You know, the NFL worked, I played for three years and I had the typical career journeyman, jumped around. I never started, I was on special teams, third down pass rusher. But um, I thought I was gonna play until I was 30, and I thought I had the potential, the ability, the skills to do it. But the NFL's a business, you know, it's not for long, you know, that's what it stands for. And you know, got done, and I had to reinvent myself. So, you know, and you know, I was sitting there licking my wounds, driving home from the Green Bay when I got cut, and I was like, what am I gonna do next? And you know, I'm a problem solver and my brain just gets to work, you know. Okay, like I have to make something happen. What do I do? I started looking at what other athletes did. Um, and I just transitioned into corporate sales. I had no business experience whatsoever. And I don't know why this made sense to me, you know, um, 15 years ago or 13 years ago, how long it's been. But I was like, I should probably start in sales because like sales is one of the hardest jobs. Like, you're gonna get turned down a lot. A lot of the transferable skills from being an athlete, I can just apply here. I don't need all this like marketing or like technology, like expertise, you know, the hard work, the dealing with failure, persistence, all those things I already knew how to do. It just fits so well into sales. But I got into corporate sales, I went and worked at Striker, it was a medical company, and again, just took all my transferable skills and I was rookie of the year, my first year as an associate rep. And then I hit quota or like busted quota the next four years, but it wasn't fulfilling. Um, I had this like inner fire, like inner passion, maybe um is a better word, to do something bigger. And corporate, how they kind of keep you in a box. They don't want you to like get outside like your lane or like, hey, you're a sales rep, just be a sales rep, don't ask questions, just do what we what you're told to do. I was like, no, I want to understand the business. I want to understand why we're making these decisions. I want to understand like why businesses grow, why they fail. And partially is because my mom was a small business owner, she was a medical biller, and her business like closed in 2008 when the economy crashed. So, I was always like in the back of my mind, like, I wish I could have helped her, you know, I wish I could have done something, but I was in college, right? But I was like, I want to know like how

Sales Skills And The Discipline Mindset

Rick Elmore 8:52

to weather storms, I want to know how to, you know, own my own destiny, not be, you know, having a business hiring me and firing me and cutting me like I got cut in the NFL, right?

Cord 9:05

Right.

Rick Elmore 9:06

So, I went back and did my MBA. And again, uh oh, yeah, went back into my MBA and I was a horrible student because in college I was always like, you know, I'm gonna be outside playing sports.

Cord 9:18

Right.

Rick Elmore 9:18

Is this a video podcast or is this a uh okay? So, it's a video podcast. I always had a football coach who always said school's number one, football's number two.

Cord 9:30

And uh for those of for those of you listening, the opposite fingers were held up, right? Yeah, yeah. He's saying what he needs to say, but he's also showing you what he needs to show you.

Rick Elmore 9:42

Uh that's how we treated it. You know, we were there to play football, but you know, I just kind of breezed through my undergrad and I was like, I want to go back to business school and learn how to start a business. So, in 2017, you know, five years into my corporate career, I knew I didn't want to be a manager and be in corporate forever. So, I went back, scared the heck out of me because like I like school was hard for me. But um, I'm so glad I did because I'm really, really confident what you seek will find you in your journey. So people who feel like something's missing, how you find it is just keep trying things, keep talking to people, you know, keep having conversations, reading books, listening to podcasts, and put yourself out there and what is meant for you will reveal itself. And that's exactly what happened when I did my MBA. I was about a year into my program. I was in a marketing class, and this professor, and these we took two three-hour classes once a week. So, you know, it's at the end of this long lecture, my brain's fried. I'm like sitting here trying to write down all these notes, and he's going over all the success rates in marketing, and everything's like super nominal, like super like low. Um, he's like email 1%, direct mail two percent, cold calling eight percent. And I don't know if he meant to do this, but he ended the lecture saying something that just it was a light bulb moment. And he said, Hey guys, you know what works better now, if not better than ever, is a good old-fashioned handwritten note. They get open 99% of the time. It's rare, everyone's inundated with digital noise, and now it's even more apparent in the AI world. And he's like, sit down and send somebody a like a handwritten note and uh and just watch what happens. I was like, Man, that's a no-brainer. Absolutely, but who has the time to do it? My wife and I used to sit down and send like a printed Christmas card to my clients, and it would

MBA Lightbulb And Handwritten Notes

Rick Elmore 11:36

take two weekends just to write the address on the envelope and put a printed card in it. But I was like, hey, if there's a way to scale this or automate it, there may be a business use case there. And uh I got a little pen potter from China, which is like basically a little drawing machine. And again, I have no tech background. All I did was YouTube, I talked to people, I'm like, hey, this is what I'm trying to do. Do you know someone who can help me? And I got this little drawing robot, did some plug-in software's with like AxieDraw and like Hershey's text and like all these text editors, and I got to draw out handwritten notes, and I sent out about 500 of them. It took me about four or six weeks to produce them because it was so slow, but the response rate was insane. These um doctors that I would send them to would call me and be like, Rick, like thanks for the handwritten notes. Like, this is awesome. Like, let's book a lunch and talk about this. And like for about a month, like my phone would just wouldn't stop. It was like it felt like every day someone was calling me about the handwritten note I sent them. And my quota at the time was $50,000 a month. And I sold it's like $280,000 in like four to six weeks just from handwritten mail. Like that was my entrepreneurial seizure moment. I was like, I had an idea, I tested it, it worked, and then my soul was lit on fire. I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. And I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Um, again, athlete, sales guy, who and fast forward eight years, what I've done is I've started a robotics, engineering, software, industrial automation business with zero experience, zero funding, completely customer funded. And now we have multiple patents. We're the largest provider of automated, smart, handwritten mail in the world. And it's just been an insane journey. And I think it's just a testimony to what you can do if you just commit yourself to something. But what's really important is like know where you want to go and just kind of be loose on the journey. Like you're gonna have to pivot, adjust, and adjust how you get there, but don't give up on where you want to go, if that makes sense.

AD-CAL 13:37

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Cord 14:41

Yeah, I mean, and understanding um understanding what works, right? Whenever you know it works, whenever you the whenever the thesis is correct. Um I was talking to somebody the other day that uh they're talking about how do you get that 1% success,

Shed Industry Software Ad Break

Cord 14:57

right? How do you get how do you get top 1% success? Um and the kind of quote that stuck with me was, well, you have to think in a contrarian way. You have to think, you know, against the grain of whatever it is. You have to be right. You can't think against the grain and be wrong. And then you just have to go make it happen. And you know, you had the you had the vision, you had the idea, you even had the proof, firsthand proof that it works. Um, you know, so you have to figure out how to navigate it, right? Whether that requires sounds like you've now developed the software that actually takes the little ink blotter machine and turns it into you know the value, the actual uh handwritten notes. Um is that part of what that journey was actually figuring out the tech side.

Rick Elmore 15:46

Well, you're talking yeah, what you're talking about is just trial and error. And I think that's where most entrepreneurial entrepreneurs give up. So, nine out of ten people won't even get started on their idea. And just getting started is a huge success. But then again, 12 months into getting started, nine out of 10 of those people will fail just because they'll give up. And one thing I've always been committed to, it didn't matter if it was in football, corporate America, or being an entrepreneur is just showing up every day and not quitting and just staying in the fight. If you can just stay in the game long enough, things are gonna happen. Your competitors are gonna fall off, you know, other employees are gonna quit, you know, other team members are gonna graduate or they're gonna quit and they're gonna give up. So just staying in the game, having a good attitude, showing up every single day, trying to get 1% better, knowing that some days you're just gonna take three steps back, but then just showing up the next day and doing it again. That is the secret to success that people don't want to hear is

Staying In The Game As An Entrepreneur

Rick Elmore 16:44

just being consistent. And I think where most people fall off is they're in something they're not passionate about. And I'm absolutely in love with what I do. Um, I'm a tech guy, like I love cameras, I love drones, I love computers, I love AI, I love automation. Like it thoroughly interests me. So, it just goes hand in hand with the product that I'm selling. And I believe in the product. I just I grew up in the 90s. I used to write handwritten notes to my friends in class. Then there's nostalgia to a handwritten note. You know, what's old is cool again. You know, people want to do it, they just don't have the time to do it, and our company helps them do it.

Why Handwritten Mail Feels Different

Cord 17:19

Yeah, and I think, you know, whether you realize it or not, you are you are speaking the language of the listeners of this podcast. Um, you know, the dedication, uh, the consistency. Um, you know, we had talked just a bit, you know, beforehand, but um the shed industry was really built um in a blue-collar way by uh a lot of uh a large percentage of Anabaptist folks. And this is the idea, right? Get up and do the work. Do the work every day, be consistent. Um, and as I was telling you, you know, this is this is the type of not just marketing strategy, but uh, you know, the sort of satisfaction that you want to be able to give to your customers is exactly how a lot of the listeners out there who now are manufacturers or they have multi-location dealerships, these are the things that they did whenever they were selling 20, 30, 50 sheds a year. And as your company grows and scales, it just it becomes unfeasible, you know, for your time and uh especially you know, a lot of these, a lot of these people, the owner would be the person who actually wants to do it um but simply can't. So, maybe um just give the listeners a little bit of an idea, Rick, of you know, as they um, you know, onboard to your service, you know, they come to you and you do the whole thing and you pitch it and you demo it and all that. But then when it comes to how they actually wind up working through what they want to say and how often that can change and how customized the things can be. Um, you know, obviously in an ideal world, you're every single every single note, you know, has a little touch of personality to it, but like what's the what's the reality of kind of what simply noted can deliver in that customer experience?

Simply Noted Customization And Tracking

Rick Elmore 19:16

Yeah, great question. So, I heard you talk about customization. So, everything that we do is customized. So, like the card design, the mail piece is completely customed on the recipient. Um, we can do custom handwriting styles, so we can use your handwriting if you want. Um, the envelope's completely handwritten, the note is completely handwritten. We use real first class or standard postage, so we use real stamps. And the real like um difference maker in our service that really builds a defendable moat around our service really starts with the handwriting robots, because and I gotta stop doing this because nobody cares, but I'm so proud of our robots. But we've built and engineered our own handwriting robots that allows us to track these handwritten notes to the mailbox and down to the individual cards. So the two biggest use cases that I've seen, the most successful use cases of the last eight years, is lead generation. So uh if your average order value is over like 3,500 bucks, it's just a great lead generation tool. You know, it's a 99% open rate, it's personal response rates with a good list. Well, in you know, 4%, 12%. Um, so lead generation is great. And then we track it again to the mailbox and we can automate emails, automate text messages, and then we track the QR codes. So, if you sent out 10,000 pieces and 600 people scan the QR code, we actually show you who engaged. So, you can follow up, automate a text message, automated email, automated sequence, automated workflow, whatever, down to that individual user. So, it just really increases the response rates and the analytics on the campaign that other handwritten mail services can't do. So, like the number one like use case for us is lead generation, but the number two, which we've been doing since day one, is just client retention, client relationships. So, like sending a thank you card after a purchase, after an invoice is paid, or anniversary of a sale, you know, hey, I hope your sheds, you know, is holding up good. If you need anything, let us know. Or a holiday card, right? Getting those referrals, those positive review positive reviews, and getting these clients to just absolutely love your service and your brand is just going to pay dividends down the road. So, you know, lead generation, client retention are the two biggest use cases, but we've seen so many oddball, off-the-shelf, weird one-off use cases. But we help people either like scale it just through simple spreadsheets. And again, we can help you guys build lists, you know, enrich lists, do whatever you need, or automate it out of a CRM or automate it off of a payment, whatever way. So that's the weird thing about the service. It's such a new niche, you know. Like, people are like, what do you do? How do you do it? You know, it's like new service, new, new technology, new product, new pricing. The lift to get anybody started is so hard. I've learned so much building my first business, and I can't wait to do my next business because I'll take everything. Everything I've learned here and scale it a lot faster than I did here. This has just been a hur I call it every time I talk to somebody a Herculean effort. Like this, this is a not non-standard normal like lift. Like everything here is heart. Everything is hard.

Cord 22:16

100%. I mean, you're talking about uh hardware, software, integration with integration with tracking, uh, integration with companies that at least when you call them the first time are probably like this guy, you know, this hand this this guy who's handwritten mail, you know, wants us to you know provide custom, you know, custom integration with his product. Uh, I'm glad you said that though. That was one of both the tracking and the integration portions um was where I was going to go next because I noticed that um on your website, and that seems to be obviously something that is such a big part of modern marketing. I mean, at this point, if you if you can't track it, if you can't prove it, uh there are so many provable aspects of marketing. It gets really, really hard when you're in those meetings to justify a spend that doesn't have a known quantity. That's not to say that some of them aren't worthwhile, but they're just you know, they're just uh don't have the data available. So, on those, um, I like that idea of you know a QR code. I don't know how you do it. See, my mind immediately goes to how do you convince people uh, you know, what's the little what's the little Easter egg, right? Uh, you know, I almost can hear the people in this industry having part of their notes saying, My marketing people uh told me I needed to include a QR code. It has a such and such, if you don't mind to scan it, block, right? Like you almost write it as if you are the owner who obviously didn't hand draw a QR code, right? You're almost like uh prompting that way. I'm kind of curious what the str what the strategy is there. Obviously, it's it sounds like you've got the data side worked out, but like what do you see working in that sense where you actually get people to do that engagement so that guys like me, uh CMOs, marketing officers, can walk into a meeting and see and say, I told you this was worth the spin.

AD-HERSHBERGER LAWN STRUCTURES 24:16

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Rick Elmore 27:24

Scan the QR code for X, right? And those messages work and outperform we've seen it all. We've seen people try to write like 300 words, and we're like, what are you doing? Like they're just gonna skim this, and it doesn't seem natural, right? Make it feel authentic because a handwritten piece is authentic. Don't take something that's authentic and make it feel marketing or markety, right? Make the note, the relationship building tool to earn trust, right? Like they're already gonna think you're different because you're doing something different, and then use the message to drive them to a call to action to scan a QR code to a landing page with all the information, right? To then let the landing page sell them. But you got to get them to take action, right? And there's a lot of ways to track mail. You know, you can do trackable QR codes, trackable phone numbers, um, intelligent mail barcodes. There's a lot of ways to track it. But what we do is we sit down with every user, what's your use case? What do you want to see? And then we help them set it up. So it's all custom.

Cord 28:20

Yeah,

Easy Onboarding Versus Deep Integrations

Cord 28:21

very good. So, you know, like I've kind of said here, there is um a little bit of a gap in that sort of um um technology side in parts of the business. You know, is there um could you onboard a person who was just going to, you know, call simply noted, uh, you know, call you all and kind of do this in a simpler way, so to speak, or does this the kind of require being able to fill out, do all the online stuff to be able to do that?

Rick Elmore 28:53

You could just go to our website, simply noted.com, and just upload a spreadsheet and send it, or you can just send one card. Um, or we have a customer success team, like say, hey, here's my mailing, let's go do it for me, and our customer success team will handle it for you. But there's just a lot that goes into like direct mail that people don't really realize. Like, there's design, right? How do you want your mail-piece to look? Messaging and copy, like, what do you want it to say? How are you gonna track it? You want to do a trackable QR code or a trackable phone number? Where are you gonna send this data? Are you gonna send it to your CRM? A workflow, a sequence, whatever, right? So, like the marketers who have the experience in setting up like fully integrated like direct mail campaigns will get a lot more success, right? But you know, again, we use uh I would say like less than 30% of our business is super deeply integrated. Most of it is like just spreadsheets, like people just bring a spreadsheet, upload it, and send a bulk. I mean, it's just the easiest way for them to do it.

Cord 29:51

Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. And then on the other end of that, um, I guess I then start to think uh, you know, uh, especially in this industry, how impactful um it would be to get a handwritten note from, say, the production manager, you know, after you've had your shed for, you know, you get the handwritten note from the owner the week after your shed's delivered, right? Saying thank you for the purchase. But then six months after that, um, you know, you then get a handwritten letter from the production manager, you know, who's actually in charge of you know building the sheds and making sure the quality control is good. And to your point, you're now checking, you know, kind of checking up on that customer and you're kind of getting these multiple personalities. One of the things that I have uh really encouraged our clients at uh Shed Geek Marketing, uh or if whenever we do consulting, one thing that I've really encouraged is put your people out there, right? When you have good personalities uh in your company, right? Like allow them if there's ever a time in the world where people want to trust uh the person on the other side of a screen, um, and they want they want you to have that trusting face available to them. Um obviously we're not talking about a face here, but in that same sense, put your people out there. Do you have companies that use it in that way? You said you've had some oddballs, so I'm sure people have thrown some cool stuff

Retention Plays That Protect Your Pipeline

Cord 31:15

at you.

Rick Elmore 31:15

Yeah, I was seeing some interesting stuff in the political space, but I really try to like consult our clients to keep it simple, you know, don't overcomplicate it. You know, especially for like client retention, client relationships. Like, if you want, you can automate a thank you card or you can just export all your customers and like uh Christmas in July, right? Like everyone's dead in the summer, and you know, a lot of people start spending money at the end of the year for tax purposes, right? So maybe, maybe smart to reach out to them in July or August, right? Like, hey, you know, hope you're doing good, you know, X off your next shed or 10% referral, whatever, right? And that can reignite your um your pipeline. You can get more reviews, you can ask for referrals or just simple holiday cards at the end of the year. Because I always tell people, it's like if your customers didn't pay their invoices, you couldn't pay your bills or you wouldn't get a paycheck. So, like, why wouldn't you spend a dollar to say thank you? Right. I mean, your average order value is in the thousands of dollars, right? And just once a year say thank you. What is that gonna do for your business? Like next time they need something, they're gonna come to you because you're making the effort somebody else isn't. Or next time they're talking to a friend and they're asking about something like this, you're gonna come top of mind versus like you know, being out of mind, right? So, just like simple thank you cards and holiday cards. It's just it's the best way to protect your pipeline, to protect your customer base, get more referrals, better reviews, um, increase repeat purchases, right? Because you're just touching them differently that nobody else says. And then again, just lead generation, you know. Um, I don't know the average order value in your space, but if it's over 3,500 bucks with a good list, it's just it pays for itself. Like, you know, one mailing, you know, you should get you know, for 3,000 notes, you know, at least a two to three percent response rate. You know, you're looking at I don't know, um, what is that? 90 leads? Like, what are you gonna do with that, right? Like 60, 90 leads. What are you gonna do with that? Right? Like, can you close 20% of those? Like, do the ROI, right? And the mailbox is empty right now. And just think about it. In the 90s, you used to have to go there with like a like a big like cart to pull all the mail out of there, right? And everybody's trying to like zig and go digital and AI, but the people that are like playing in the mailbox are hitting customers differently um than most people, and that's where you want to stand out. You want to be different. How are you gonna be different than everybody else?

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Mailbox Nostalgia And Shed Industry ROI

Cord 35:09

Yeah, I totally agree. And some of our listeners may take that uh a bit for granted because if you are the type that that writes personal correspondence, you know, to your friends and to your family. Um, but you know, uh for most consumers out there, the only thing that winds up in in my mailbox anymore um is like the city, city of metropolis, you know, continues to send out a bill. And I'm on the city council, so I should probably uh bring up an ordinance that says we need to go paperless. But it's basically the old school companies that are just still not going paperless. Uh it is your weekly little flyer. Um, and then it and then it is spam more or less, right? It's mail spam. But you know, whenever you get something that has the appearance, uh, we actually just uh well everybody in the country has just gone through uh graduation season, right? And uh and wedding season is upon us and is will move through the summer and into the fall. Um, and how special is it whenever we do get that handwritten piece of mail. Um, I know that that if I am the person who takes it out of the mailbox, I make sure to read it myself and I hand it to my wife personally and say, you know, read this. This is from XYZ, right? And if she opens the mailbox, she reads it herself and then she puts it directly into my hand. I mean, that is the power of how special it is to get handwritten mail these days. Um, and I think in the industry and especially um, you know, in the Anabaptist communities, maybe we take that a little for granted because it's slightly more, more common. Um, but if you're getting the power of that feeling into the consumer's hands, who is who is basically only getting a handwritten piece of mail if some if one of their nieces or nephews is wanting a $50 bill for graduation, you know, now you're really starting to, you're now really starting to make that impact. So this makes so much um so much sense to me. It just really aligns so well with the values of the industry. Just for your information, Rick, um, depending on which market you're in, whether you're uh, you know, in the south, in the north, in the west, most people agree 5,800 to 6,400, uh, and that's maybe gone up even a little bit this year, a little bit of inflation uh in those re in that retail pricing, but it's exactly what you're saying. Um, even if it is nothing but an addition, uh, you know, an addition to your current operations uh for that 89 cents, I believe, if I read that right on your website, 69 or 89 cents.

Rick Elmore 37:48

89 cents plus postage. So post is just a pass-through cost.

Cord 37:52

Yep. I mean, it is absolute no-brainer on the post sale side, right? If you're out there and you're selling uh, you know, 200, 300, 400 buildings a year, absolute no brainer to spend some money uh making sure that those people feel uh valued, make sure that you're getting those uh reviews, make sure that you're getting those referrals because you're building that relationship. But even on the on the cold mail side, as you said, um, you know, whenever you're going to get an immediately responsive, you know, if those people, if those people give you a call or reach out after that, those are very, very high quality, high intention leads, right? So um, you know, I really like it. In fact, I believe uh a sample is in the mail to me. I did not get it here before our meeting, but I'm very much looking forward to it. Um, and I might even purposely not get the mail. I think it's supposed to be here uh by Friday or so. I may even let my wife get it because I want to see her. Okay, there we go.

Rick Elmore 38:57

This is what's coming, so it's impossible to miss. It's a big, big kit. Yeah. I want to touch on something

Tool In The Tool Belt Mindset

Rick Elmore 39:04

you just said. You were saying it like a minute or two ago. You know, this is not replacing anything that you do. You know, I always think of, you know, um it's a tool in your tool belt, right? A master technician has a tool for every job, right? And what is your relationship building tool right now? An automated email. And I'm I guarantee you, nine out of ten people that are listening to this right now are gonna say, I don't know, like we sent an email, like, and I and they're probably not confident they're even doing that. So, it's just a tool to help you do a job that's important to what you do in relationships in every business is important, right? But then for lead generation, I mean, I wouldn't replace anything that you're doing. I would try it, you know, a few times a year to specific lists. That makes sense. But I mean, it's a no-brainer. Every single day, every single week, every single month, you should be sending a thank you note. You should in a holiday card. Like it's just you have 400 clients or 600 clients. Like, you know, I don't know how much revenue that brings you guys, but you know, 600 bucks to send 600 handwritten notes. Like, you can't even go to Hallmark and buy 600 hand, you know, Hallmark cards for 600 bucks, you know, and then let alone sit down and write them, you know, and everything's custom, so like every note will say their name. You can even like input like what they bought. Thank you for buying this product, whatever. Like it's all custom, it's gonna feel very personal. We can use your handwriting, we can put your signature on it. It's just it's so cool. You know, I'm again. I walked to our warehouse, our warehouse is right outside my office, and I still walk in here every day. I'm just like, what is this? Like, how cool is this? Like, I'm still amazed because like what it's doing, and you know, we have you know, we work with vets, we work with insurance, we work with real estate, you know, we work with small business, and um, yeah, it's just lead generation, client retention. There's just a two no-brainer like you know, seeds that should be planted. What are we doing, you know, to build these relationships with our clients? How are we getting more reviews? How are we getting referrals? How are we getting repeat purchases? And I fight that same battle. You know, I'm trying to increase my average order value, repeat purchases, lifetime value of a client as a business owner. And I use my own product all the time, but it's like they're buying my product, and then I'm also sending them my product, right?

Cord 41:18

I know.

Rick Elmore 41:19

So, you know I'm trying to like get on the phone and just like personally call like our top customers every month, like, hey, thanks for working with us. How did it go? What can we do better? And people just appreciate that, you know, but most people don't take the time to do that, you know. So, I would just say make a mindful, conscious effort to invest back into the people that are helping you build your business and employees, customers, it doesn't matter because relationships at the end of the day will always matter in business.

Consolidation And Competitive Advantage

Cord 41:47

That's right. And um and right now, as the shed industry goes through a bit of consolidation, um, you know, as companies are growing fast and gobbling up market share, I mean, these are the strategies, the strategies that are um competitively give you a competitive advantage, right? We're in a very interesting time in the industry right now, um, where companies are going to make their mark and are going to kind of break away from the pack and kind of establish, you know, what the industry, what the shape of the industry is like for um, you know, for the next five to ten years. And you know, thinking outside the box, using techniques that other others don't, especially techniques that are engaging um are engaging your customer with a personal message. Uh, you know, I know if in fact I would really like to have a second meeting here, Rick, because I think uh uh Shannon and I um you know would be interested in in using this uh for our shed lots for Shed Geek Structures. Um and we also need to uh introduce you to several of the operators in the industry so that these things could potentially be integrated into uh whether it be 3D design, someone's completed uh completed a design, but maybe they didn't finish it. You shoot them out a shoot them out a note that just says, hey, noticed you were uh you know, noticed you were looking if you're still interested. Uh you know, like all the way through that system, we're all now doing, thanks to Joe. You heard me do the ad read at the top there, Rick. Thanks to Joe and the guys over at Velocity360. We're all very well educated and a lot of us have integrated the CRM tools. Um, but this is this is just another piece of that, that is another touch point,

How To Get A Sample Kit

Cord 43:37

um, and really allows uh even an even more personal uh interaction. So, uh uh Rick, if you would um tell everybody what the best way to get a hold of you is, and if you're out there, I would highly encourage um go and look at this website because as Rick said, walking through the warehouse, they actually have videos of what his operations. Looks like, and it is it's incredible to watch. I mean, it's a full room that looks like a server room that has all these all these uh ink blotters, I guess is what they're called, that are just working away all the time, and it's really something to behold. So, uh carry us out here, Rick.

Rick Elmore 44:17

Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, 220 custom-built handwriting robots. That's probably what you're staring at. But yeah, simply noted, just simply noted is our website. We always recommend people just we send you a free sample kit, like no strings attached, just go to simply noted.com. It's like the main call to action button, request a sample. And we send you a 10 by 13 package with everything in it, handwritten envelopes, handwritten cards, styles, marketing materials, pricing, prepaid packages, whatever. Um, all that's included. And then my best like social media platform, I'm on LinkedIn all day. I don't really do like meta, Facebook, uh, any of that stuff, but LinkedIn, you know, I'm on there all day. If anybody wants to connect to me, connect with me, it's uh find me there. Um, I kind of dig through all like the automated messages I get, and then if I see it's genuine, I'll respond. But yeah, I would just um I would just, you know, again, I'm not trying to oversell this product. I think it's uh a unique product to have. I just know there's other parts of your business you absolutely have to have, like you know, ads and a CRM. But this is just something, you know, that's different that most technicians don't have that tool in their tool belt yet. So, I would just like strongly, you know, encourage people like take a step back and it's like, hey, how am I building my relationships with my clients right now? You know, what's the best way to do it? What's the most cost-efficient way of doing it? What's the most efficient way possible to do it? Is it an email? Is it a phone call? Is it a conference? I don't know. Like, how are you providing value in building those relationships? I would I would you know say handwritten note is probably the most genuine, scalable way to do it right now because of a service like Simply Noted.

Cord 45:59

Uh I agree. I think it's fantastic.

Closing Thanks And Final Sponsor Message

Cord 46:02

Um I appreciate your time. Uh lots to take in out there, but uh, but again, reach out to Rick. Uh we will have the link to everything that he just told you to his website um in the episode description in the newsletter. So go and click there for a direct click-through. Uh you can always reach out to us again, 309 uh 618-309-3648. Uh shoot us, give us a call, shoot us a text. We'll be happy to make that connection for you as well. Rick, uh, thank you so much for uh joining us today on the podcast. Um, and you know, honestly, I've I hope to be able to revisit you in, you know, six months, nine months, a year, and we can tell some stories of how uh some shed industry people have had success with Simply Noted, and maybe we'll be one of them. I would love to be one of them. So, let's uh let's keep the conversation going.

Rick Elmore 46:57

Well, let me know when you get that sample kit.

Cord 47:00

We'll do. We'll do. Thank you everyone for listening, and I will see you next time on the Shed Geek Podcast.

OUTRO 47:07

Today's Friday edition of the Shed Geek Podcast was brought to you by Shed Geek Marketing. If your company is looking to increase leads, strengthen your brand presence, improve digital visibility, or simply stop wasting money on marketing that doesn't work, you're in luck. Shed Geek Marketing was built specifically for this industry and has assembled the absolute best providers from across the country that, bottom line, bring you the results. From dealer startups to nationwide manufacturers. We help businesses connect better, market smarter, and grow with intention. Interested in becoming a title sponsor of the Shed Geek Podcast or advertising across the Shed Geek Media Network? Reach out today at info@shedgeek.com and ask for the 2026 Shed Geek Media Kit. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time, right here on the Shed Geek Podcast.