LuxGuard - Ben Higdon

On this episode of the Shed Geek Podcast Shannon speaks with Ben Higdon of LuxGuard.  LuxGuard is seamless rubber flooring designed for sheds.  It's an awesome product you can add to increase the quality of your shed.  We discussed how LuxGuard can increase the durability and longevity of your shed floor.  Ben was very gracious to show us around his workspace, where he has several moving parts.  Outside of LuxGuard, he has a hunting show and sells hunting products through Higdon Outdoors.

Ben was a blast to sit down with and talk about sheds, but really everything about life, from hunting, to ministry, to family and everything in between.  Check out today's episode for special pricing offered through the Shed Geek Podcast.  Be sure to call the folks at LuxGuard at 336-468-4311 or reach out to MIDCO at 270-247-7447 or go to luxguard.shedgeek.com and someone will help you take advantage of 50% off LuxGuard installation equipment from March 15, 2023 to April 15, 2023.

Also, find out how the podcast can be heard throughout the plain communities by dialing the number 330-997-3055. If the number is busy, just dial again! 

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:58

All right, welcome back to a another episode of the shed geek podcast. I didn't have to travel far for this one. So this is kind of fun. I'm so excited about this podcast. And we'll get into all that. And the reasons why. But in the meantime, Ben, you want to introduce yourself to the audience, just a little about who you are what you do? Sure, yeah. Ben Higdon live here in Paducah, Kentucky, and my brother and I own Higden outdoors, and been blessed and to work with some guys here in the shed industry to help develop Lux guard. So yeah, that's what we're doing. Pretty awesome. So there's, there's, I don't even know where to start. I'm overwhelmed in such a good way. Let's start with this. We are a baseball throw away from reds donuts. Where you are now a lot of people don't know this. But early on, we actually talked a lot about donuts and particularly if you come to Paducah, Kentucky, that you need to get redstone and a lot of people don't know that story. Him and his brother started or him and a friend started the friend went down to Nashville created Krispy Kreme things that come out of Nashville. It's not so to me reds is like the staple. Just amazing donut. And yes, we did go get some on the way here. And proof of that is that instead of being in my traditional white shirt, bow tie suspenders, I went with the black and an alternative pair of suspenders and what you guys didn't get to see as they popped off. Yes, I did. That was so far, the highlight of my day. Hopefully there's something better but twice, right? Twice. Once the first one hit me in the head. What's this second? Just said I'm too fat to keep these down. So anyway, we're getting off the rails. But if you had had to say that, man, I don't even know how to say like I did. Just so. So cool to meet you. The fact that you're right here close to home. And we have mutual acquaintances in the industry and Lux guard is that so tell me tell me about Lux guard. What what is Lux garden? Yeah, so Lux guard is a solution for your floor, in your shed, keep it dry, looks amazing. And makes your shed last forever, you know. So this was, you know, I love developing products where we solve a problem, you know, and that's what intrigued me about this when, you know, when when Gabe and the guys brought this in front of me and you know, it's uh, it definitely does that. And it was a big challenge long development process. But yeah, let's guard's a it's a great, great product. It'd be here. It'd be around for a long time. You know, I've started seeing it. Just even more recently, the NFB a showdown in Louisville a week or two ago, I got down there and I see the guys down there and then I see him in Greenville see him at the Shedd Expo. So they're getting out there making tracks and the product information is really getting out there. I think it's super cool. Seamless rubber flooring, it's got like this diamond plate, kind of like stamp on it. So. So what's the benefits? I mean, what do you think in like when a when a manufacturer might see something like this? What are they thinking, hey, this is what I this is what I need for my shed. I'm gonna be able to sell more sheds this way. Yeah, yeah, I think I think the benefits, I guess for the on the building side, you know, you make money on it. Right? Yeah, sure. And so it's a great upsell and the, you know, for the end users, really where the benefits are, just makes that shed lasts long, a long time. And it's a seamless floor. And you know, I guess you can't, you know, we when we were developing this early on, we poured gas oil, paint pressure washed, put a mower in there took a four wheeler, you know, yes, by the way, you can think of so it just holds up, you know, just really protects your floor, all that abuse that's going to happen, all the things that are going to happen and almost all sheds. You know, it's it's really genius. If you think about it, like I mean that floor is like one of the most unprotected but the most used surfaces. It is the icy surface in the shed and maybe think about protecting the outside of the shed against the weather and the elements and things like that, but internally, spills. You know, like you said abuse with ATVs four wheelers mower cuz you know those things are gonna happen I remember specifically going to fix a ramp on one that that's what they were doing burnouts and yeah, so things like that. It's I love they're like what they've got going with marketing. I mean, it really makes a lot of sense to me, helps with weather, moisture and whatnot rot, ATV tires, mower tires, those things coming in. And it's, it's seamless. So let's, it's kind of, like, I want to focus on that for a minute if that's okay, like, it's seamless in the sense that you're not putting this in in like, panels, like you're, you're putting this in over the entire floor during the installation process. Yeah, you know, that's the, I guess that concept. That idea is what made this such a big challenge, because vinyl floor is not a new thing. Right? Right. And bottom flooring, vinyl rollout mats for a long time. The challenge is in the width. You know, so sheds come in a variety of sizes, and having that seamless floor where water can't penetrate the floor. That was the challenge. It was the manufacturing challenge the design challenge. And you know, that's I think that's that's why no one's done it before because there's actually a variety of uses for for the floor. It's honestly outside of sheds. It's still the bigger the the wider the role, the better. Sure, absolutely. And the way that you're seeing, like sheds. Just develop into these new creative ideas, new products. I mean, obviously, you know, a sheds not what it was 30 years ago, Whenever someone's just looking for a quick outbuilding to throw stuff in. I mean, they're making they're making these things with everything anymore. Music Studios, podcast studios, music, you know, workout rooms, I mean, you know, what do they say in that grainy pods? Now, I heard you know, all these others, you know, in law suites, whatever you want to call it, but the sheds point is the sheds are, are getting more customizable. Absolutely. And they're just getting better overall. So I mean, like, the products that come along, really excite me because, well, we're not always necessarily the most creative, sometimes in the shed industry. So to see creativity at work here, really, really is awesome. I think it's cool product I've been out get to visit with Gabe, the guys out there are just top notch. And they can walk you through this process. So there's equipment, obviously necessary. And there's a bit of learning curve on that. So they've done a couple of things by meaning the phones and then also a video. It's like a installation video that can be shared. And we might like put that in on some of the video as podcast or something like that. So people can kind of see that. Yeah, and you know, the just to your point, the Lux guard it actually, you know, our watch, watch the guys install it. And for me, you know, and I'm not a huge shed guy, right? I have a little bit different background. But it looks easy. Like Siri, really, like I said, watch it. And I'm like, This is not that complicated. Yes. And it's like you said it's a learning curve. And I think that's a big part of the development of Lux guard is just the learning curve of doing that and, and gave in the guys, you know, Lux guard.com, you can learn you can see the video column and walk you through it. Because once you learn how to do it, it is easy. I've seen it work sellers all to be excited about this product, you have an upsell product, but then you also have a reason not to just sell on price. You know, you have a reason you're selling quality if you go to 30 Shed websites, and I have a big shed guy. So I do this because I'm literally that much of a geek. I will go to websites and see at a 3029 and we're gonna say we build a quality shed, right? You're increasing the quality with a product like this is that's the that's the take I take away from it. I would imagine sellers do if I was still selling sheds on a regular day in day out. What a cool opportunity to be able to sell something like this as an upgrade. Can this go on anything? So I mean, is it just like, stuck to like 10 wides 12 wides? I mean, yes, yes, yes, they can. They can they can go to 14 Then go to 16 Yep. So we are the widest row we can make right now is 14 feet seven inches wide. And what's on the market right now is made for 14 foot buildings. So we the 16 foot is for one it's not as there's not as high demand for it. But it's a whole nother manufacturing challenge. I would I would think garage is for sure. Something you definitely want. You know you like I mean that's, that's that's a man's cave. Yeah, what it all boils down to are absolutely you're talking about this sort of all The things that are shed stay, they're really not just what you think of as, I mean, they've just evolved so much. We've seen the dog a lot of dog kennels, guys that are putting the dog kennel in the back and they want to go out and spray the floor out. For sure. A lot of success with that garages, man caves, I mean, really, you name it, it just it's cosmetically it looks great aesthetically. And it just as functional value for right down company. I mean, if you get the building back on a return, whether it's voluntary or involuntary, easy clean out, you know, make the building look new, get it back on the market. I mean, that's something you're going to want to do is be able to put that building back out to your to your potential clients. What is the purpose of your website? One thing that seems common is that before visiting the sales lot, many shoppers are using a website to gather information to make sure they're getting all the information they need. They will likely visit multiple local shed company websites, the customers will view the websites just as they would your display live. And if you are spending time and money adding curb appeal to your sales lot. The website will do the same for customers researching online. And as possible even more potential customers are seeing your website than the lot with the highest traffic count. Do you want to do a discovery call to find out how to increase your traffic count to your website call Eric slimeball from Troyer websites of Texas at 903-603-1560. For an estimate today. I think crucial for that space. Oh, for sure for sure increases your profit. I don't know I'm just a big fan. Obviously, they can give you information on all of the different installation tools and things like that you need those guys are their top notch over there, they've always been great to me. Matter of fact, we've even partnered to an extent to try to move that product out farther. So trying to not only talk about here on the said geek podcast, but hopefully, we'll get some ads going here pretty soon. See how those things work. And we're going to do some special pricing. So if you know folks are looking for how to get the product and you're wanting some exclusive pricing, make sure you call them and use code geek guard. Yes, we're clever over this a shed geek podcast is what we do. We sit around and make these things up all day. But if you go to lux guard dot shed geek.com From the first day that this show actually airs, you will save 50% off of the installation equipment necessary by just simply going to lux guard dot shed geek.com. Calling the folks over there at Lux guard or go into Mitko takes care of the retail side of moving this out. So call my my buddy Alex over there. You know, Justin or you know some of his sales team Rob. I mean, there's whole list host of good guys out there that I'm sure be glad to help you. So this is this is cool. So let's talk about Ben. I'm as excited to talk about Lex guard. And it's cool as I am to talk about Ben. So I guess I'm sort of like, I don't know, not just to shed gate but I'm impressed. Let me just say that first of all, thank you appreciate that. With the building right now. Well, you know, I mean just both just getting to meet you and like so Higdon. I was born in Paducah. Matter of fact about two blocks from where we are in just hospital. And and Higdon is just a name that's been around the block area for a long time. Higden furniture, and that would be your family. Correct? Yeah. My aunts and uncles, my grandfather started the business. And yeah, we still work with them today on some things. But yeah, my cousins are in the store. They're killing it. They do a great job, man. The name just rings a bell immediately. And I was like, gosh, I mean, obviously know the name. But you actually have like this really cool. Three to four other things you're doing and it's hard for me to focus on one at a time. Higden outdoors is sort of an adventure of what you guys do, but so tell me a little bit about maybe we'll try to get like we didn't bring our gimbal over today we'll try to get a little video of like your decoys back here. You guys have to try to appreciate what I'm saying. It's like walking into an oversized footlocker or hibbott And imagine just seeing the wall of shoes but we see walls of decoys and I think it's awesome. If my brother would like just he would still be out there like staring at each one of them one by one. He got a little bit more into hunting than I did enjoy it. But gosh, you guys are doing this on like this whole new level. Tell me about Ben I want to know about Ben right now. Oh, man, golly, give it up. But you're right, we've got just kind of thinking about you going through that, like, yeah, we've got a lot going on here. You're exactly right. You know, my dad started this business back in 94. I was in high school. And we all thought he was crazy, we love to hunt, but he had an idea for a motion, motion decoy, and, you know, really just struggled getting traction and with the business for several years, and my brother and I hopped in there and kind of helped him. And that's really where I cut my teeth learning about manufacturing and automation, we had an automated paint line, and just fell in love with designing product, solving problems designing product and sourcing product, I know it's a kind of a weird thing to, to have a passion to do. But you know, I love, there's nothing I enjoy more than either coming up with an original idea or working with someone who has an idea to solve a problem and really getting in their world, and, you know, wrapping my head around what they've got going on what they're trying to accomplish, and then bringing that thing to life, you know, it's very fulfilling. Yeah, so in this business, in the hunting business, you know, we can make a duck or a goose or whatever. And, you know, I can go and kind of be a secret shopper at Gander Mountain or Academy are in, you know, see people sitting there talking about it here. And maybe sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's good. But you know, it's a good feeling you do that for three or four years. And then it's no different than what we're talking about here with Lux guard, you know, this was a, we're, I think we were three years before we ever got a piece of flooring off of a tool, you know, often Okay, okay, you know, so we played with all kinds of different, you know, this isn't just a standard vinyl flooring, the chemical makeup of it is much different than what else is out on the market and all that is very finicky. You know, if you're 5% under or over on a certain part of the makeup, it just doesn't stretch, right? enact right, in the cold or the hot. And, you know, so we got that that formula dialed in. And, you know, it was a fun process. But I guess, you know, for that sort of what attracted you sort of to the product was kind of like your desire to watch that process and see it succeed, see something that you saw value and kind of help see that, that through? Just coming back to that to the idea of of like, luck scarred? How does that process play out? Like, if you're stretching this out? I know, I've seen the process, but maybe you can explain it to me in a way that makes more sense. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, you basically have a scrim, like felt on the bottom of it, where your glue sticks to, you spray your glue down your row your floor out, and then you get it to then you put it on the machine and Clampett tack it on the ends, and then you just let that stretcher pull it, it doesn't pull it far pulls, you know, a foot or something like that knocks all the wrinkles out. And then that's that glue and scrim bond together, and you have a, you know, a long term adhesion there that and then you just, I mean, you build your wall, you'd sell your bottom plate, right on top of it. And once you start taking it down, helps hold it in place. And I've watched a couple of floors get put on it's, it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's, it's a cool process. I tell you, you know, just, I can't help it. Everything I do I relate to hunting, right. And one thing that we always like hunting is very competitive, right? So you've got two guys, maybe 200 yards apart from each other. And they kind of like, you know, if he gets 10 ducks in this guy gets two then he's wondering, what are they doing over there? Right. So whenever I, we started looking at this flooring project, I was up there working with Gabe, and you know, hearing him talk about some of these features and his vision for it. And he was talking about chatbots you know, they're right down the street from one another. And that was kind of what really sparked I kind of related that to having the coolest motorized decoy that splashing water and bringing in all the ducks and then the shed lot as this cool floor. Yeah, and can't rot and it looks great and the shopper going and looking at this and then going down the road and looking at this lot. And which one are they going to pick every time and that's what we've always tried to do here. Hidden outdoors is build the best widget the best decoy the best thing, and you know, you kind of have to do it if you're gonna go hunting or you're gonna go sell sheds and you're gonna be in a competitive environment. You gotta have that thing. So yeah, the building so cool. So like so for me growing up, I mean, we did some deer hunting. I was the primary thing it was Southern Illinois. You know what I mean? There sucks. Yeah, so nice to hear and southern. And Polk County. Yeah. Polk County for sure has a lot of nice deer. Yeah, I grew up in Pulaski. Yeah. So I mean, like the, you know, around, there's a lot of farmland down there. So you're, you're getting some super good size. deer come out there, my brother hunts all the time leases several 1000s of acres land to hunt for that purpose. Him and his boys do that a lot. Me thought I was gonna play baseball. First of all, not even good enough to get get in the minor leagues. Let's start with that. But that was sort of my passion for sports kind of become, you know, kind of my outlet, my Avenue. And then I am so impressed by the cohesiveness if that's the right word to use, I'm not even sure but that exists inside of this industry of hunting personalities. There'll be a future interview coming up here soon. This will either come up before I don't remember. We just went to two days, two days a week. So we were doing one every Wednesday and next week is literally the launch of starting to do two episodes per week. I just you know I had material that was good through April May and feels like it's going to be outdated if I don't do something so we're just jumping in both feet. And by the time this is heard that will have already happened. But just going to jump into it you know, and the advertising seems to be coming along pretty pretty good. So why not? I can split that up and just keep going and as long as the audience is educated and entertained and enjoy it and continue to listen, I'm living my dream so I'm gonna do it as long as I can. I just want to provide something of value. Having guys on here like see, this is what I love. You don't even understand it. What I love is like we don't have to be here talking about sheds. Yes, it should geek podcast, but we're not even just talking about sheds. I'm like walking through and I'm impressed by like all of this, like hunting gear that you have here. And I find myself like like wanting this future episode he was talking about pheasant hunting. I've never been pheasant hunting and I'm like, Hey Steve, I want to come down and go fetch earnings. I'm gonna go to Tennessee and go pheasant hunting with my boy and and it's so I've got so much more to learn. Tell me about duck hunting. I want to know all about it all of a sudden because your passion for it is like where do you where do you start? Do you own a shed manufacturing company? Do you distribute inventory to sales lots? Do you manage lumber and hardware inventory in your shop scheduled deliveries? Do you store sales leads and keep them organized for follow ups. One thing that seems consistent as I travel from one location to the next is that shed manufacturers wear a lot of hats. Wouldn't it be nice to streamline your process making you available to care for daily tasks that require more of your attention. My shed is composed of an admin panel, which allows you to navigate from a top down view all the departments that make up your shed come start with my shed 3d, a 3d Shed builder that gives your customers the visual confidence necessary to purchase my shed materials, which allows you to know the exact material count available and when to repurchase my shed delivery, which ensures promise and efficiency or a timely delivery process. Sometimes less is more and organizing your business to give you more time only makes sense. Plus, less is more literally with my shed get more tools for a fraction of the cost for software made for shed builders via shed builder. Go to my shed.io to schedule a demo. What what what bid you that said, hey, I want to I want to do this. I love this. I enjoy doing this that much. Yeah, I guess the hunting side and the business of hunting are kind of two different things. But, you know, I fell in love with hunting and I think it's the just the reality of it is that's what my dad was doing. I wanted to be with my dad. You know, so we're out there doing that together working together. You know, it's funny hunting seasons like 60 days here in Kentucky. And but it's like it's a lifestyle. It's year round. You're farming you're you know putting blinds in you're putting a levee in our water control structure or putting pumps I mean it's just never ending Yeah. So I you know, I think for hunting if you want to get into it as much as I would love to say go to Higdon. outdoors.com And you know, yeah, that's not what you do. go hunting with somebody have fun, you know and just go find somebody that you know who does it because every if you're interested in hanging, you probably know someone who does. So just just invite yourself. Yeah, my son. Well, my son's been been been wanting to go for so long. I'm gonna, I told him I said, just real talk here, you know, I said, I've spent so much time working, you know that sometimes you forget to take the time to meet him go fishing, you know quite a bit and he loves to fish pond, he loves to do anything. But I want to make sure that I do take the time to do that he's 18, he's getting to go off to college. So I mean, every chance that I get to, for me and him to go and do that. And what's funny is I kind of finally feel like I'm at this position where me and him can start to enjoy those things and do those things. And instead of working, right, like just work, work work all the time. And I'm excited about that. And all of the people that are in this industry hunt. Like it seems like everybody hunts, they hunt something every day that year. And I'm just now starting to develop this interest at 42 years old to be like, I want to know more Steve was telling me about pheasant hunting. And the way he was telling it made me just hungry to want to know more about about this experience. So like I said, we did some, you know, some deer hunting. I mean, I'll still go out and take some target practice and things like that, of course, but in terms of getting up and going out and bow hunting or something like that. I've never been that committed. Understand waterfowl hunting is you know, a lot of people love deer, any big game money, it's you go out you may sit in a stand or whatever, but it's not as there's not a group of people doing it right. That's what the cool thing about waterfowl you're almost with multiple people. Yeah, there's a lot of camaraderie there. And you know, you get to see the dogs work and pheasant hunting is like that too little bit, right? You have a couple guys are walking the dogs, you get to enjoy the dog work and the birds and just learn to appreciate. You know, you go 10 times with a dog, you'll see a dog break and do crazy stuff five times and then you start to appreciate the good ones and how much work and what it takes to get there. You know, I mean, it's just it's all an art just like anything else. Yep. Right. It's an art you to be a good hunter, training a dog, whatever. It's kind of all the same thing. Where do you put your time and your energy? There's so many guys I think about Joe Coblenz telling me about his hunting adventures. I mean, Jim Coleman talking about his adventures. I mean, I could tell the guys naturally excited about it. You know what I mean? When he talks about it, it's real. Matt, like talks about, you know, his hunting adventures, Joe Gaither, Curtis Creason. I see it on the Facebook page going out and hunting and things like that. And I'm jealous of like that, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, gosh, they found that thing that they like, I see that in you, brother. I see it all day long. And it's really cool to see somebody be so passionate about something like that. And I love your story, man. It's just about like being with dad, initially, it's family, as well about the like I say the podcast is it's like building community. I feel like a lot of community has been taken from us through either just the natural chart of society or whatever politics, whatever you want to call it. We all feel that way. A little bit over the last few years. To be honest. Right? I think we all feel that way. A little bit. So yeah, let's fight. Get it back. That's right. Like, we'll get on here. Talk about Jesus. Here. We'll talk about hunting. You know, yeah, we're gonna say geek podcast, but I promise you, there's some guys out there that really appreciate your stories. Matter of fact, people buy from people that they trust, I know that so having an opportunity to explain who you are, through the podcast is just as important about explaining the products that you're associated with. So I want them to go by Lux guard products, I want them to call up Midco and hammer them out. Man, they should definitely check out Higdon outdoors to hopefully though, holler at you and get some decoys and just maybe get a chance to meet you. Outside of that you guys had this really cool thing going on. I feel like I can't get everything in in one. In one show. You have like this media production. Like you're right here in Paducah, and it's blowing my mind that I didn't know this. We have so many mutual acquaintances and we just hadn't met yet. And you're right next to reds. Ah, really bugs me? Like that's beautiful. But yeah, I'm a member the suspenders. Yeah, remember the system. And if I can't remember that I couldn't fit them. At least remember, they popped off and hit you in the head. And that's not good for my show. So tell me a little bit about sort of the media side of what you guys bring to things. Yeah. You know, we we were, I guess this was 2012. Maybe. We decided here Egdon. Outdoors. We wanted to do a TV show. Hidden outdoors television. We didn't know what the name was then. And, you know, we went out tried to do it ourselves. And it was a huge mess. You know, we I remember we had a great day hunting. My brother and We got back to the lodge we were at and started looking at it. He never plugged in the audio or plugged in the audio wire or flipped the switch or whatever. And so the whole heart has no audio. And we missed the hallway like we were in Canada, right there. And if he listens to this, he might say, No, you are running that. But whatever he he's not here. So he did that. So it was all here. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, we decided we're going to do a TV show tried to do it ourselves. And it didn't work. And I thought, man, Kurt Stewart, he's super talented. I played soccer against him when I was in high school. And he's just like a creative, fun. You know, just like sitting here talking to you know, super talented guy. And he was getting EMP off the ground here in Paducah as a videography firm. And so we approached him and said, Hey, man, we're going to make the show, why don't you come shoot it with us. And if you need to get somebody to come help you then do that. And he did. And a year later, we are sitting down with him talking about getting him to come, you know, set up here in the building and, and work with him long term. And so we struck a deal. And he moved in here in the building with us. And, you know, a part of that vision. And I think everybody listening to this can appreciate, especially back in 2012, what we were starting to see is Amazon, and the whole digital, the internet, taking such a huge, it's just such an important part of your business. And even if it's not purchasing just the marketing, right? Social media. Yeah. So we said, you know, we're going to invest in a media firm, and we're going to grow that we're going to take outside clients, and we're going to use that talent to help our business. And that's exactly what we did. So for 10 years, you know, we've added people, I think today, we've got six guys, you know, videographers, web designers. And you know, social media guys. And man, they're just talented and fun. And it's like, I'd give anything if I didn't have to do all the stuff I do. And I could come do what they do. Because they get to do some really fun stuff or go on a hunting trips, they get to go shoot a product and put like this creative thing together to show it to the people. And it's neat. It's a good group of guys. And you know, we have a lot of fun with it. I'll tell you, I started feel the same way. And I don't know maybe in terms of talent just five years ago, 10 years ago, well, five years ago probably didn't even own a computer to work very blue collar wasn't interested in technology wasn't interested in seeing Amazon and the.com Boom and things like that in the 90s it just it never caught me like it did a lot of people, even social media, it's it's okay, but now I've learned the value of it and how necessary it is for that purpose. I mean, even just me talking about and understanding and learning things about CRMs and SEO and, you know, AI and stuff like that that's starting to come out and it's changing our world and changes the world of sales. It changes a lot of marketing. Even podcasting, I was so happy if future guests can become an honest talking to him yesterday, he's talking about the value of podcast themselves. I'm just so lucky and blessed to have seen this space available and sheds and had a love for sheds and had a love for listening to podcast, hey, these two things need to be married. Right, you know, so next thing you know, there it is. And I'm just glad that the audience, like I said, has responded the way that it has. But he talked about repurposing content, constantly put it on your website, you know being on a podcast and then putting it on your website so that people can learn who you are your story without maybe they're looking at your shed and maybe you saw look scarred in that. And you want to talk about that. Do a podcast and talk about the features and the benefits and things like that that's in your shed. People kind of shop you online, even if they want to come in and actually tangibly touch the product, the decoy the shed, whatever it is you're selling right? Simon Sinek says it's it's you know, find your why it's not about you know what you're doing or how you're doing, it's why you're doing so get people to understand why you do it. They'll buy from you. So you're just having to be passionate about decoys and Lux guard, right? You just have to be passionate about those things. But he I told him I said man, I want to get you on the episode because I'm lucky enough to have material but I want to continue to try and find shareholder shed dealer shed sellers. You know what I mean? Shed manufactures products and services to bring to the industry to people. And sometimes just remember it's about the people not always about just to shed that's what's cool, man. That's I feel like it's like a ministry. It feeds me to meet people like yourself and you're right here in Paducah. I don't think people understand Just how excited I am about the fact that you're right here in Paducah yet being you have a friend in North Carolina. And that's how we met smallworld. I think about Carol design and how she grew up in Karnak. And I grew up on homestead. But we met in Florida. And I'm like, what? How do you know work out? And it's just, I'm probably boring to people, most of the time when I'm talking about these things, but they're still exciting to me. So are you ready for the spring selling season? Here at RTO? National, we're here to help. Can you do a deal in under two minutes? Do you have to get extra documentation is your partner fully automated digital and a fully available online with a mobile device? Here at RTO? National, we have the best lease purchase and finance programs available in the market that can all be done front to back in under two minutes. And we have the dealer management system powerbar to national to help make running your business simple and easy. RTO national success Made Simple. Were the so that's the media side. So media songs. What, like a TV show, what made you go that route? You know, to be honest, there was a lot of a lot of our competitors. And you know, some of our dealers were doing those kinds of shows. And we just knew we could do something that you know, was really a lot of what you're articulating. It was about family and fun. It wasn't just so like the, you know, beaten commercials and product down your throat and you know what I mean? It's a story branding almost a little bit more than just what's our offering here in Paducah. The audience isn't gonna get this but the car salesmen here in Paducah. Stover said Stover said, Larry Stone said, great guy. But he definitely does like the guy on down 5999 99. And he's done very well. He's done amazing. He's done really good. But but the reality is like, you're I think what you're trying to say is that story branding side of like, who I am in life, and what made me like sell a decoy without just selling a decoy, hey, this isn't just 200 bucks or 400 bucks, or whatever it is. There's a story behind this, and the story is what's gonna get the sale. And that's how that's gonna make you feel when you're out with your dad and this particular moment with that product. Yeah, how you can look back on that. And that's the emotion you're trying to capture. Absolutely, yeah. And I think that's the, you know, you can always go throw a logo up somewhere and pop an ad. But really, if you can do anything that people really resonate with, and you know, it's long term, right? I mean, that's what it's all about. So, yeah, and just kind of get a feel for what it's like when you go hunting. Right, we won't be able to watch the show. And hopefully they laugh several times. Hopefully, they learned something. And, you know, they feel like they were there. You know, then that's when you've won. And we yeah, we've got to Kurt and they do a great job. I don't know if you see you got to watch an episode. If you've never seen it. You have to now or go on YouTube and check it out. There's some there's some great there's one called taco trucks on Season Eight. It's hilarious. Did you go around some here locally in Paducah. Some of the spots I would maybe recognize more rural areas? Maybe not. But yeah, we do a lot. I mean, we travel all over the country. We're a national business and you know, sell at Bass Pro and Cabela's and Max Perry weighing and Rogers and all these different places. So we try to hunt in environments that represent our, our customers, you know, all of our customers will so you will run out of boats, some people are hunting in the snow, some people are hunting in the marsh. And so you kind of you know, different species of birds different settings, different places. So we try and and spread that out so because the products are all designed for like you don't use this ground blind when you're in the water, right, you don't use the water blind when you're in the field and kind of like that right? I'm getting education here. Yeah. So you really can't I guess no one would really care anything about the show. If we went down you know, to Ballard County, your horseshoe or you know, whatever somewhere around here every time yeah, that's gonna ask you if you ever end up over around cash and Southern Illinois Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. On it all through there man. Man my that's so that's where my wife's from like my last live over there and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, lower cash access road. Actually, you probably know what you've probably met on Duck Hunt there a lot. So do this just blows my mind. It's so cool. I love to see someone passionate about stuff like I am. I can obviously tell. Seems like you're passionate about the process and obviously hunting and how that worked into Lux guard. And it's like wow, and then into the shed industry. Any final thoughts? So on that you'd want to share, personally, individually or with, with the guest about Lux guard. So right now we're super blessed man, we're saying like 1000 a week. I mean, the YouTube channels grow, and then we're trying to, we're trying to get some subscribers. So, like, I don't know if you know this, but I pay somebody $1 Every time I see him to subscribe. No, I'm just kidding. Mirvac. Alright, let's get settled up here after those three bucks. Yeah, I'm doing my best to try and shamelessly build that page. But it's cool. We're seeing some good stuff on the video side. The call in line seemed like foreigner Collins a week. So it's cool. So let's say your audiences, what would you want to tell them about? Ben? And what would you want to tell him about Lux garden? Yeah, I guess, you know, first, you know, listen, I'm not the shed expert. Trust me. That's not what I do. I'm the manufacturing side of this brand. And we we will always make and deliver a good product. That's my part in it. But you know, the Lux guard team is our people that have been in the shed industry for, you know, a quarter century, you know, and multiple people that have been doing it for a long time. They know what they're doing, they know this product, inside and out. I can guarantee you that. And yeah, if if the idea of Lux garden and that floor that lasts a lifetime resonates, I would say give them a shout, you know, talk about it with them. And you know, I think they'll be the first people in the world to say, hey, look, maybe this isn't a good fit for you. If it's not, but pick up the phone, call them and try it out and go to lux car.com Look at it. You know, I guess that's that's really what I'm here to kind of say and Yeah, as far as for me personally, man, I just blessed to be here. And I mean, it's kind of crazy to me to to getting invited to do things like this. And it kind of makes me realize, like, I've got so much stuff going on, I need to like quit doing all this, because I've got three little kids too, you know, I got a four, six and eight year old and my wife's like, Man, you've got you just need to quit getting into so much stuff. But but it's hard to it's hard not to I do try I don't take I don't do anything if I can't give them all and do it. Well, I mean I especially as I get older and so like it's it's humbling for me to hear to hear like a young man or or even as dad say, you know, we've actually listen to your podcast once a week we sat around the together and listen to it as a family and I'm like, Whoa, I like you know that that is you want to talk about eating some Humble Pie is to hear something like that. You know that you have a due diligence you owe those people something that it's bits beyond you to be able to try to provide something educational to provide something entertainment and clean and family friendly and things like that. I saw binder recently I was traveling and they print out the weekly newsletter that I sent out. So anybody wants that go to info shed geek.com I felt like I always gotta mention that because by all means, we send out a weekly newsletter talks about the guest who's on gives a shout out to the advertisers and things like that. I'm gonna give a shout out to my buddy Rob Rob fields over at Mad Cow. So Rob, don't hate me for this. Oh, you won but a 731-571-1904 call him up and say hey, I want some luck scarred. For my shed. I want to find out about the seamless flooring and get it going. I promise you he's gonna take care of you. Also the number for Lux guard if you want to give those guys a call 336-468-4311 You can go to www dot Lux car.com You can also go to lux guard it's L u x Gu AR D Lux guard dot shed geek.com 30 days from the initial day this episode airs you can save for 30 days from that day 50% off installation equipment helped get you started so if there's never been a motivator to give it a shot that's as good as what I could hope for mid goes well yeah, definitely give me a call. I think I felt like just their number. Should have it here. How prepared have I been? Oh just give them their cell phone. Well, I that's what I did with Rob just That's my good yeah. Let's take it to think about Yeah, he'll hopefully he'll say thank you. Hello everyone. This as the shed geek to answer some frequently asked questions about backyard finance the latest and Financial Innovation to reach the shed industry. First, how do you sign up? Simply visit backyard finance.com and click Get started now and create an account. What rates are available. APR is determined by a multitude of factors, credit score, debt to income and requested financing amount are a few examples. Customers can see rates as low as 3.99% and as high as 29.99%. What terms are available, the duration of the loan is determined by the lender and depends on the financing requested. Customers can see terms as short as two years or as long as 15 years. When is funding received. Funds direct to customers can be wired or ACH to the customer within 12 to 48 hours. Once submitting the application to receive direct to merchant lending, approved customer applications will also be paid within 12 to 48 hours. What's the cost to use the platform? Each admin account pays a $99 fee per month. However, each admin account can have up to 1000 users on the account. Using the platform is free to your customers. How long will the application take? completing the application takes just a few minutes and application approvals. Take just 15 to 45 seconds to know more call 833-692-2286 or email info at backyard finance.com. Backyard finance funding backyard dreams. Hopefully he'll laugh too 70247 7447 His Midco I think Rob would get a kick out of it. Matter of fact call him everybody. So appreciate what you do in here, man. Just love it. Yeah, love the product. Good to meet you. We talked about doing like a donut podcast. That's how it evolved rules that tell you about my favorite my favorite states not my favorite store. It's terrible store. This is gonna go well with my suspenders popping off. You want to talk about a massive fail. Alright, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna go ahead and share it with the audience. So I remember going to Planet Fitness over here when they started over western yoga. So yeah, we're serious about my health that used to run in the military used to run two miles three days a week, right? Since then, 60 pounds ago, whatever. Nobody's counting. I remember going and signing up five bucks a month. I'm like, Yeah, I'm dedicated. I'm gonna go. I went to Planet Fitness. This is This is awful. I went to Planet Fitness and I walked around and I saw everybody like sweat and, and like miserable and working hard and really just in the grind, though, you know, I left and I went and got a dozen of reds. And I went home and I ate like three donuts. That is what you call failure. But listen, you could have eaten all 12 with you know what? Love your positive. So there you go. Look, I love your positive outlook. If you ever get to Paducah All I'm saying is get your reds down it gets you some Starnes barbecue. Yeah, yeah, right. Hey, and just hamburgers. They do this thing once a year where they take reds doughnuts and put a burger in between it like sandwich it in there between a donut donut becomes the I've never had one. I just look at it and think oh my gosh, I just can't do I don't feel guilty. You just I've never had one either. But or two or three. Never had one of those. So you're talking about hey, listen, it's it's such a pleasure to meet you. How cool are Gabe and the guys over at vinyl? Yeah, they're awesome. Just a neat group of thorough, smart, talented, easy going. Yeah. And yeah, and I'm gonna give a shout out to those guys. And Ralph and Scott, and Alex, all these guys that have really helped us get going, you know, through all this math, the portable building business. And I told you this. Yeah, thank you. You're like, I don't know. But it's a lot like the hunting business. These are hardworking. Just easygoing, people that do what they say they're going to do. There's I mean, this is a cutthroat world, you know? Yeah. But yeah. And I'm not saying I know, there's all kinds of crazy stuff that goes on hunting business and in the shed business, but But generally speaking, my experience is some great people. Yeah, smart, hardworking, just, you know, godly people. Yeah. And I've just, it's been a great experience. From my perspective. I've had good experiences and bad. I've had so many people tell me, it's about how you react. It's not about what's right, what's done to you. I've failed at times, I've reacted poorly. Right. And there's accountability for that. And I think the only way you can hold yourself accountable is to admit that and then there's times I've reacted well, and there's times that God has just sustained me through nothing more than prayer because I didn't know what else to do. You know, when me and my wife went through, you know, breast cancer, you know, about about two years ago. You know, whenever news of that that broke, I mean, the matter of fact, tomorrow's my anniversary, matter of fact, PD I need to wish you a Happy anniversary. If you're listening, buddy, cuz March of 2000, he was getting married on the same day. Yeah, so you could always remember that I can never remember he reminded me of that because as I mentioned on a previous episode, but tomorrow be 23 years, 27 years of my 40 to me and my wife been together grown up together. So that's a, it's a heartbreak, when you hear a diagnosis like that, she's healthy, and hairs coming back and all's well and God's good. And we took, I was telling the guys yesterday, the shed University thing that were put together, I was having a meeting by zoom, and I said, I took because I didn't know what else to do. I took a line from the sales book that I read, don't get too far up and sales itself, it's full ebbs and flows. So don't get too far up when things are good. Don't get too far down. It's an emotional process. So just you know, if it seems like the world is falling apart today, it's probably not. If seems like you're on top of the world today, you're probably not. Because there's tomorrow, you know, it's peaks and valleys. So the only advice I could give to my wife, because you, your husband and your husband, you want to solve everything, I can work cancer, I can whatever I can, you know, you can't, you're helpless. And the only thing I could do was take a line from what I learned in sales, and that is, well, we get good news, let's not celebrate too big and we get bad news. Let's let's just, you know, remember, it's not the end of the world, you know, he takes care of the birds of the air who take care of us and owns the cattle on 1000 hills. So let's just don't get all out of whack here. You know, let's just pray through this. And, and that has worked the most. And this industry has been awesome, dude. And I bet the more I learn about how the hunting industry works, I bet you're right. I bet you it's the same thing. That's pretty similar. What I love about this podcast, man and just podcast in general conversations, getting to meet folks like yourself been just a pleasure to meet you and wishing you nothing but success again. Check them out guys over at Lux guard. It's a great product and save some money right now. All right, a and listen, if we're going to close with prayer, then I will make sure I get it on the record. We're going duck hunting this this fall. All right this winter. If you want to go Yeah, I'd love to. If my son can get all right and your son so much about spending time with Absolutely. Again, Carrie and some of those guys that took them couple years ago and Jake and those guys and you don't know how much that would? That would be awesome. All right. We'll try and hook it up. Perfect. All right. So good to meet you. The pleasure for sure. Yep. All right. Let's do it again. Yes.