Okay, guys, welcome back to another episode of the shed geek podcast, and we have today on the show me and me only. This is going to be weird, awkward, hopefully fun. All of the above Um actually sitting at home, my desk, on December 29th. We took Christmas off this year. Uh didn't put out any videos on on Christmas uh this past week and I had thought about doing an end of year review. Likes been done for pretty much uh every year so far. Uh, beginning of the year review, end of year review. So whenever this episode goes out not sure yet, maybe we'll sneak it in or maybe we'll get it in sometime at the end of January. Uh, we shall see. But just kind of wanted to take the the time to do a monologue. Uh been encouraged to do more of those before.
Shed Geek:Um, that's extroverted as I may seem, there's a lot of introversion in in this guy. Uh, actually, uh, I always like to say I'm a um communicator, and to be a effective communicator. I think that involves both listening and speaking. Um, there's an ode saying that says uh, if speaking is worth its weight in silver, the listening's worth its weight in gold, and I kind of identify with that, uh, because I spend a whole lot of time listening and I spend a lot of time, a lot of time thinking, and I think that communication just gets manifest through, uh, this platform and the ability to communicate. So what the Lord's been doing with me, um, my whole life, and the challenges I thought were difficulties, were really just setups for an opportunity for me to be able to do this. So, yeah, hard to believe, but there's a lot of introvertedness uh in this guy, um, and uh, I think that just happens, uh, whenever you analyze and sometimes over analyze. Uh, I like to hear uh the saying what is it? Paralysis by analysis. I'm really good at that. So, um, just wrote down a whole bunch of notes, wanted to take the time to talk to you, to the industry, directly, one on one, without having, uh, a guest at the helm.
Shed Geek:I'm not interview or I'm not recording myself visually today, but we're going to throw in a bunch of, um, fun little stuff, maybe some AI generated stuff, a character of some kind, uh, maybe some pictures, um, or advertisements for, for those who were kind of discussing Um and I guess I'll start there Um, and I just wanted to kind of go back through some of the episodes from this year maybe give sort of a understanding of how things uh when. Maybe we'll do some screenshots of some of this. I keep so I keep a log outside of our our hosting site, which, for anybody interested in starting a podcast, buzzsprout is our hosting site. That does a whole lot of stuff and it's really fun. Uh, matter of fact, I might I might just show that while I'm talking about it, so I'll go to it on my screen and then we'll try to put like a, a video on here of what we're looking at and it'll go back and it'll show all of our episodes for the year, the different um uh ways that we can play that Uh, I can actually create a website on here which I can't believe I haven't done yet to increase SEO but, um, and the different directories that it goes out onto, you know Apple podcasts, spotify, google podcast, uh, amazon.
Shed Geek:Um, there is a monetization option that I still haven't dove into. Um, there's kind of like this there's sponsors and affiliates, depending on the amount of like traffic you get, and then there's ads that you could put in. Uh, but then there's also a subscription option which accepts, like monthly payments and it'll let you accept, you know, three, four, eight, up to $10. And a lot of people will call that buy me a coffee. I don't know if you've seen these ad advertisements in other places that offer free services, um, or you can support the show. Um, you know it's been free, it's going to stay free. This is just kind of one of those I?
Shed Geek:What I've been thinking about in my head is is there a way that I could take that money and turn that into a nonprofit, as opposed to it being profit for the show? And instead, maybe, if you gave something to support the show, uh, 100% would be geared toward a nonprofit? Uh, and then we could just kind of uh select things in the industry Whenever we see them come up, kind of like the tornado tornado relief effort that was done uh, a couple of years ago, where we partnered with uh Sam, uh Biler and and uh kicked off a campaign that got about. I don't remember what it was 200, 200 generators given out during that event. Uh, obviously you can't do something every single time and it depends on your funds, but uh, my, my goal is not to charge for the show, but if I could use it as a medium to uh or a means to come up with something where we could um minister through that to people. Uh, I think that'd be really cool. Um, I did buy a domain name for that at one point that I think I've let go back since, but it would be nothing to find another one, uh, but it's it's really more about creating the 401 C three and having it legal so that you can have all the appropriate paperwork, especially for uh, getting people to give Um. So we'll just have to see. Uh, I'm trying to figure that out yet and I still haven't got there yet. But, uh, podcast info, which is really cool. Stats, which I love and it'll show like all time stats. Um, I don't know why I'm going through all these details with you guys, but it really helps because I do this with our advertisers. Uh, and you can go back and look at the total downloads since it started. You got to keep in mind this total download count doesn't include the Amish call in line, uh, plain community call in line, which I don't mind, which I can show you. That as well too. Uh, or the the views on YouTube.
Shed Geek:So, to kind of break down a podcast uh, a lot of people ask the questions like what's a podcast? Even podcasters ask that question nowadays, like, what is a podcast? Um, really simply put, if you look here in the directory directory, a lot of times you go say to like Spotify, uh, and you can see here where it says RSS feed. Um, and this is just your link, this is just your. Your RSS feed, uh is basically me. It stands for really simple syndication.
Shed Geek:So, as opposed to like being a broadcast and reaching a broad audience or trying to go for a broad audience, the idea of a podcast in my eyes is sort of a more niche um topic. And that's kind of what we did here with shed geek podcast is we concentrated on sort of one industry and tried to capture one audience, um, to talk about things that matter to you, uh, whether it be shed related or marginally shed related, or really even things that, uh, maybe just add value to your day, um, as you're going down the road listening, as you're sitting in your office listening, wherever you listen to podcast, just to add value to your day wherever you are. So we try to think about that whenever we vet, guest and even look for folks outside the community. Uh, I've had some really cool guests on and we'll go through that Um, but yeah, so there's really cool things on here different locations that it'll show where people are listening. Obviously, if I go into uh all episodes, it takes a minute to download because, believe it or not, march will be the start of year number four already. So, uh, that'll be the beginning, yes, and we'll finish, completely finished three years at the end of February, but it'll go into which cities people are listening, uh, and things like that. So I just kind of thought that was cool to show you and and to talk about bus sprout. But let's kind of go back through the episodes, since I got to go through that to look at it anyway, uh, or actually I can go over here to uh, to my sponsorship, uh, and take a look.
Shed Geek:We started out in January 2023 with uh Tanner. A lot of you guys know Tanner out in uh, the Carolina's, north Carolina, um, and just a great storyteller, actually ended up being one of the top five. Uh, I think, listen to episodes. Maybe a 2023 Tristan over at Cal "Cal can help. Great service. You've seen him at the shows. Eco Ethic Solar, so appreciative to them. And we're going to go through some of these uh advertisers a little bit more in detail. Real work labs has been just amazing.
Shed Geek:Uh, this Shedorize, I mean a lot of these were like uh back at the beginning of the year have turned out to be top five podcasts, which kind of tells me also that people binge listen. Um, and I can sort of see that through the stats as I measure things. There's a couple of you guys that are just awesome. The newsletter comes out and you'll see like a hundred downloads in the first day on like a Wednesday or something like that, and that's just really awesome. The dedicated guys who listen in and make make it part of their routine. Um, but you know, many people I know because I've talked to them said hey, you know that episode wasn't necessarily for me, but this one I just fell in love with. That was awesome. Good conversation, appreciate it. It helped me out a bunch. So I think people typically will binge listen. I know I certainly do enjoy binge listening to podcasts that I follow.
Shed Geek:Uh, went through Summit portable buildings, again a top five uh of all year in terms of like listeners as well as the Shed Haulers Midwest barbecue, both Georgia and Midwest Um. But we went through and and um with Union Grove Lumber, Miller sheds, uh, Kurt Piquette, Lux guard, Cedar Grove Law, Rapid shelves Uh, Nicole Butler, that was really cool to actually reach out to. She- shed Cheryl on the, on the commercials and she would uh said, hey, let's do it, let's do an interview, and it was kind of neat to have the insight. Uh, you know Hollywood and some of the things she's done in acting. I thought that was just kind of cool.
Shed Geek:Uh, Titan marketing with Ben Jones, Matt Hepburn uh, somebody I think of, and and SEO constantly, and maybe even someone will work with more in the future. Cedar Rock Sheds uh, kirk, Hinton buildings. Brian Malham doing a great job. I see that guy vacationing all the time. He must be doing great. The Oklahoma barbecue, Joey Havens, really loved speaking with Joey. Um, just such a good. Yeah, him and Harry Spate both they were out there back to back Harry doing the selling with dignity. Um, I couldn't be a fan or more of that, especially as I kind of find myself in the sales world a lot. Uh, Dave, Pat Mehann; gosh. Pat was just such a clever guy, just an awesome guy to be around there in Evansville. The guys out at cricket Valley just made me feel so, so, welcome. Uh, Beachy Barns, the same. Uh, I think that was the trip. Right after, maybe, in Dale Beachy, Hershberger Lawn, we got to do another interview with Jamaica cottage. I actually got to go up and see them this year in New Hampshire. It was really, really fun, Uh,LMJ sheds, Jenna's just a top notch. Uh, Dry Fork Creek, Tim and Patty is just a. You know, all these are great. Southern Carlson Shedverse, RTO National, Phill Falls episode was just what a what a great guy 20 years in the business and just because of his efforts, you know it's for, you know, for for guys like myself to have opportunity to be here. Uh, Real works.
Shed Geek:We did part two, which we'll do a lot of that, uh, with our advertisers. Uh, to kind of gain them more, um, visibility, Um, I really love this. And where we had Travis Parks and Beachy and Tyler on, uh, where we did a sales, uh, sales geek, holler, geek, manufacturing geek, just kind of had them all come together. You've seen a lot of those conversations as of late in Facebook about trying to increase communication. Uh, Shed University, Weaver Barns Jeff Hebner. went on the Michigan trip was awesome. Randy Chaffee if you're not listening to him over on Building Wins, I encourage you to, uh, Aaron Weaver, phil, uh, at Phil's Storage Solutions, awesome, awesome interview, loved it. Randy Smith, Oak Lane, the Midwest Hauler barbecue with Howard Mast's guys. Howard is just, uh, just amazing. And then we we brought Aaron back for Leadf erno. Uh, James Peight at Shed Boss, Creek side what a great thing he's doing over there, Joseph Yoder and Martha in Bowling green. And then we did some marketing Nichols buildings and some HHO stuff.
Shed Geek:Um, and that was really just the Wednesday shows. Like I could go through on the Thursday shows and give a shout out to everybody who was who was on. Uh, I think we ended with 91 episodes for the year. So, uh, in theory, if we were doing two a week, we should end around 104. So obviously we didn't start until in March creating two episodes a week and I've really had to think about that. Like, is there enough to do two shows a week? Yeah, yeah, like it was. It was kind of funny whenever a lot of people were, like, are you sure you're going to be able to do, you know, one a week? And uh, we had so much um content that we were, you know, struggling with putting it out two to three months out later and that maybe it wouldn't be relevant, uh, so it's been really nice to add the second one for sake of mine, at the end of this year I may go back to one a week, uh, really, just because we've got our toes and a lot of other things, Um, and trying to create more value.
Shed Geek:But, uh, all said, everything that I do is kind of to fund my habit, if you will, my habit and my passion, uh, sort of being the podcast and communicating with you guys, having a chance to sit down and talk with both those we collaborate with and even those we compete with. Uh, love the idea of setting doubt, even with competition, and sort of building a kingdom mindset that's not driven and focus so much on. I have to win, I'm competitive like all others, so I like to win. But then you got to figure out a, a, a place where winning, you know, becomes contentment Cause. If not, I, I think you know and we've seen this, I know, I've certainly seen this your morality and your bearing will begin to um, sway, uh, and the next thing you know, um, you'll do anything to win and while I like to be competitive, um, I'm, I'm, I'm just okay with like, uh, doing well and doing a good job and not having to like own it all, win it all and and beat everybody but just going through here. Well be no.
Shed Geek:Digital Shed Builder, Foundation Bank. Chad's awesome; Eshes, Dan Steel, Real steel, WEH, Shed Academy. Uh, that's John Feely really cool thing out on Long Island that he's done. Uh, Ed Byron of the SRA admin, Adam Martin if you're looking for insurance, give that guy a call. Um Tristan Nelson great time down in Florida along with Colin Dexter. Uh, Parks RTO and Recovery out in Oklahoma. Travis Parks' father it's so funny, uh, cause he's like now I get known as Travis Parks dad, as opposed to Travis is my son. Uh, Joe Ignas down there in Knoxville, Cabin Connections. The guys out in East Kentucky doing a great job. Uh, Justin Le Page, at Stay At Home, Metal Mart, the Shed Store at JG farms. That was the most exciting interview, I think, all year.
Shed Geek:Blaine Structures Thank you so much for being a? Um a listener in the Amish community who'd be willing to sit down with me and see that we're not doing anything to play gotcha games or you know. If you don't want to do video, that's no problem. I still love to sit down and talk, cause I believe iron sharpens iron and I believe that, uh, having a chance to talk with you creates value for people, Um, whether it be for myself, for you or for the listener. Uh, I believe that whenever people get together and communicate and talk, I think good things happen. Uh, so for me, my competitive advantage is not silence, never has been. I always am a forward thinker and want to move on something. Uh, I fab, Nick Yost and what those guys do up there, and I was just awesome, uh, Pan America, Superior Sheds. What a sweet, sweet uh group of ladies and girl power. Good for them. We love what they're doing. And then we, we, we came back with Shed Geek Marketing and we'll talk on that a little bit more.
Shed Geek:Round two with, uh Phil, Ray Gage over at Gary Bont raeger Consulting awesome guys Um, Chris Hood, BC Barnes, Joe and his crew I love their coffee hour. Um, and then John and Jennifer Newcomb up in Michigan. We're just awesome. I know I hope I'm not bored, you guys here, but just want to give a shout out to all of them. Uh, LP building solutions, Joe, Neto, um gosh, it was really, really.
Shed Geek:I had such a good time with Joe and I never did anything to kind of celebrate, um, the life of Andrew. A lot of you guys have heard me talk about Andrew. Uh, many of you probably seen him come to your lot. Uh, Andrew Woods. Uh, and Andrew was just the kindest guy from LP that came in and started asking my questions when I was selling for a manufacturer and he went back and he answered all those questions and uh, just found out a few weeks ago that Andrew had passed away on a work trip while he was in Minnesota at a mill. Um, I think maybe cardiac arrest, but I'm not exactly sure. And uh, that's that's an example of what I was talking about earlier with wanting to do something that's a nonprofit. Uh, I think Andrew had a 12 year old daughter and I just feel terrible. Couldn't make it to the, to the wake. It was in Louisville where he lived, but man, I just feel really this feel really bad, maybe led to be able to do something to help with those costs. Um, I know we can't do it all guys, like you know. So, uh, a lot of you guys are faithful givers and tithes and and offerings. So, uh, not trying to break the bank open, but if I thought there was a way that we could use the platform for for good and to help, definitely want to do that, and Andrew definitely comes to mind. So thanks, joe, for reaching out to me on that.
Shed Geek:Uh, Ziggy's Auto is such a fun conversation. Cold Spring Enterprises hey, if you guys are looking for, uh, those advertisements would probably go away, I think, in January. Um, uh, we'll have to talk to them. But, uh, Cold Springs, uh, Cold Springs a really great idea uh, with what they're doing on, um, um, greenhouses, so the steel tube greenhouses, the square tubing, uh, so, if you guys are looking for something that's more kit based, uh, they can help you out. Westwood Cabins is always great, Mike and Arlen always top notch, um, more Midwest Hauling. Bob Sale at Cardinal here in Southern Illinois, Peter Miller those guys are awesome down in Florida and Georgia of Making Sales Simple, of course. Jason Graber at Shed Suite, round number two, was awesome. Uh, love what you do and, dude, love everything that you're making happen over there. So congrats uh. Zach Larison what a really good story of of, um, uh, what God can do through recovery. And then John Rossman finished us off with Amazon Way. Uh, one of the early founders in Amazon. We talked with him and Jeff Huxman because of the e-commerce platforms that you see in the industry. So, yeah, it just goes to show.
Shed Geek:Uh, you know, like, hey, I try to remember all of these people on their affiliates. Uh, and sometimes it becomes very difficult whenever you see so many people. Uh, but just know that it's. It's easy to talk to so many people and then begin to forget names, names of companies. I never thought that would happen. Uh, do you meet so many people in this industry? And we do, especially as we're traveling.
Shed Geek:Um always try to follow up with all these guys. And that was just one year. Uh, so that's without going back through uh season one and season two or what we've got scheduled for season four already, but I do want to go back and say thank you for the season three sponsors. Um, and I just wanted to give them a little bit of air time. We're not running any commercials in this, so we're just going to doad on them a little bit here. Uh, RTO National. Uh, you know they. They worked with us all year.
Shed Geek:I really appreciate those guys. Um, I've said before and I'll say it again those guys were top notch in situations and scenarios which I can never uh mention, even publicly, but I can mention that, um, their integrity um stood the test and they are just a absolutely phenomenal company and there's a reason why they're a leader, certainly in the industry, and we appreciate them uh, advertising with us because they are just top notch uh, both behind the scenes and publicly. And uh loved what Phil said on the episode. He said we're not perfect, we've made mistakes. It's been 20 years. If if we aired them all out, we'd have plenty to air. But generally speaking, they've learned, done their best to overcome, and I can tell you my personal relationship with them has been been really awesome, big fan of what they do, what they stand for, and I'm happy to uh announce that they'll be advertising with us through 2024. So, um, kudos to you guys.
Shed Geek:Uh, My Shed Solutions, Matt Black; Gosh this guy's just everywhere. This guy's just everywhere. You know um love Matt, big old beard uh and his fast cars uh, but really cool dude Uh what he's done with my shed, uh increased communication efforts on that and really began to sort of make some tracks in the industry uh with launching uh a SaaS product, a software as a service product. So, kudos to Matt and just more to speak on him on on more advertising. So, uh, I believe we've got something worked out for 2024.
Shed Geek:So, anyway, stay tuned to that Backyard Finance. I really think this is is so wise. I mean, really, if you think about what, like, Byler and Smith and all work have done over there, it's really awesome Cause, like if, if somebody can figure out the finance side of the shed industry versus RTO, um, you know, it just seems like it makes sense If you can make it simple, make it work, and I know those guys are putting the work in to make that happen. So appreciate them so much at backyard finance for, uh, bringing that together. Uh, I think it is a cash cow waiting to happen and hopefully they'll be able to continue to move that forward and advertise with us as well. Uh, I didn't grow uh happy to say they're going to continue moving forward, but is there really just anywhere else to go to get your name plates? Uh, what these guys are doing is uh is amazing. Uh, you need to check them out at identitygrowcom. They, they'll hook you up. They definitely have a solution for identifying your barn and and all the reasons why that's important, especially when you start thinking about theft or different things. So, very cool, always, always, always, ready to celebrate those guys.
Shed Geek:The Joeylift was a absolute awesome um advertiser this year. I went to the maybe I'm telling too much business, I hope I'm not, but I think they went to the shed expose. So, like 11 units like the day of, like I mean, if that's not a reason to want to be there, I don't know that there is. But, uh, yeah, we were glad to be part of, uh, their, their touch point throughout the year, uh, educating about the Joeylift. So it's really awesome to see what they're doing. I think they're even branching out into other industries. Just really cool. Um appreciate Lynn and Paul and all that they've done so much. Paul just opened up a new store in Anna, uh, next to Jonathan Beachy's place up there. So, uh, I kind of feel like part of the crew now whenever I go up and see them. So great job, Shed Hub. Thank you so much.
Shed Geek:Uh, Shed Hub e-commerce platform. I feel like I could almost speak on it more. What can I say about shed up first? Um, man, seeing just the growth that they had over the last year and then seeing an e-commerce platform try to take off, and I think a lot of that's got to do with. To be fair, you know something I call the old normal. The new normal was, you know, covid's, what everybody told us. Well, the new normal in sheds was like holy cow, we're doing great, like we can't keep sheds, like on the yard, and it seemed to be like labor is what we were looking for, cause we couldn't build them fast enough to get them out there. What a horrible time to launch a shed e-commerce platform, right, I'm sure a Shed Hub and Sheds for Sale probably, you know, mentioned in the the the same things there. But the truth is, you know, it's the old normal now and we're having to work for shed sales again and we don't have the government subsidies just floating around, and so it's really cool to see the traction they've made this year.
Shed Geek:Their SEO is just literally off the charts. I've said it before, I'll say it again you can go just about anywhere in an incognito window and Google sheds near me and you're going to find shed hub show up on the first page search results. So Jeff is my hero when it comes to SEO, does an absolute great job, to the point where we've even worked with Jeff directly with shed geek marketing to produce some of the best SEO for the clients who come on with us and want to have a website built. So he does an absolutely phenomenal job. I'm proud to call him friend and happy to see what shed hub's doing, and I hope that they're just able to double down and and move forward more as the years continue.
Shed Geek:On Eco ethics Solar, Cynthia, Chris can't say thank you enough for continuing to advertise with us. What you do with solar is pretty amazing and if you guys haven't got a chance to go back and see the episode, that's okay. Go back and look at it or watch for a future episode where we're going to come back again and just kind of reintroduce eco ethics. If you're looking for clients who have solar uh uh, wanting solar powered uh solutions, they've got them. CAL again, Tristan Klessick, thank you so much. What you do, great Christian guy, great company. Um, if you guys are looking for a point of sale system, call Tristan. He does a phenomenal job. Appreciate him so much. Uh may even be working with him more in the future. We'll know who knows Troyer websites.
Shed Geek:Thank you so much, Eric, for all that you did uh and continue to do. Um, Eric was awesome. Built the second version of the Shed Geek dot com shed geek website, uh, and would be working with him farther If it wasn't for my relationship with Dylan uh. But thank you so much and for those of you who have signed up to use Eric and his services, you'll know that he's going to do a great job. Always has some will. RTO Smart.
Shed Geek:My guy, Phil Carselowey, out in Kansas, appreciate him, got to fly out and get beat in pickleball pretty terribly. Um, that was, yeah, that was a lot of fun. But appreciate Phil uh, just uh, him and Ryan, um, what they do, Tyler, all the guys over there, they they do just a really great job in a lot of areas in the industry. And Phil's stories is one of my favorite stories. When he talks about rent on, when he talks about being susceptible as a, as a shed sales person in his interview, uh, he said, um, I thought I was a good sales person back when I worked for BLI and uh, he said, just, turns out everybody needed to rent to own. He said it exposed me whenever, uh, we, we filled up and really there wasn't a whole lot of customers anymore. You had to go out and work for them harder. And it's it's my favorite, one of my favorite things. He uh also spent some money with us at Newfound and and and, uh and uh, Shed Genius this year and I just appreciate him for all of his, you know, continued efforts and, uh, wish him well.
Shed Geek:Great guy, Midco, thank you so much for a couple of years of advertising. Obviously a leader in the industry and what you do, uh, Diversified Payments. Um, Joe, let's see. We did. Joey lift, um, let's see. Uh, man, I appreciate you guys. You're just patients working with me on some of this. We had some guys come on later in the year Lux guard uh, obviously, uh, tremendous product. I'm starting to see those in Paducah now, so you're seeing the, the, the rubber flooring going out in sheds. Uh, and it's pretty cool, I have to admit. Um, if you haven't checked out their website, please go check out Joey lift. They'll be advertising with us this year.
Shed Geek:Um, Shed Suite came on this year. Jason Graber man, um, I knew Jason and then I really got to know Jason this year and it's really cool, uh, having a chance to sit and talk with him on the record and off the record and just kind of gauge his knowledge for the industry, which is pretty intimidating because, uh, he has a lot, a lot of information and a lot of knowledge and he does a great job. Uh to be transparent with it and responsible with it. Uh, top notch guy. Uh, creating their shed suite marketing um. Uh extension to what they already do this year was brilliant. Um, we, we work with them, we collaborate with them on whatever efforts we can uh, because they do an absolutely great job and we'll continue to do that.
Shed Geek:Um, ifab very, very cool story Nick Yost and how he was uh more involved in sheds and then uh ended up owning a coffee shop and kind of working with his dad and his brother, and I'll tell you what man. They just do a tremendous job. If you're a shed manufacturer uh, looking for door press trusspress, some of the different things they have with our website really, really cool Um, so definitely go check them out, though They'll be continuing on through this year. Um, Country Classic Rentals uh, we threw in some, some ads as well for those guys in Millers and Ohio. Stan and Steve. Uh do a great job. Great family setting. I've never felt more welcome than than anywhere as being with those guys and spending some time with them.
Shed Geek:Um, and let's, let's see, let's go down to Thursday show Um Real work Labs. Uh, what can I say for George? Excellent professional sales guy, really cool apparatus, uh, to maybe show you what real works does. Maybe, uh, if you're watching on the the video side of things, maybe we're just going over to like Summit Portable Buildings, which is one of our shed geek marketing clients, and kind of show you how they're working with real work labs and what that looks like in real time, to show the little sheds on the map on their website, uh, so that people can see them as a trusted leader. So, if you haven't called George, call him, check it out, find out everything they have to offer over at real work labs. If you want to be seen from your customers through your reviews and through your mapping, uh, where you've delivered sheds and be able to show that in real time to customers either on your website or on Google, uh, they just do a really good job at being able to explain that. You can actually go back and look at the show and you almost get a demo, basically right there on the show If you look at the YouTube version of that. So, uh, big, big thanks to those guys.
Shed Geek:Um Foundation Bank, Chad Wilson, amazing company, phenomenal story. I love speaking with him and Charles any chance I get. Just, you know, one of those solid, solid companies in the industry that's been around for a long time, that knows what they're doing and you're going to be in good hands with them. Rheil steel, Darren. Thank you so much. Another guy makes a phenomenal press in this industry Shedorize, David.
Shed Geek:Uh, after market supplies. Shedorize was. If you guys are thinking to yourself like, hey, we're selling sheds or manufacturing sheds. We're not putting any aftermarket like products or things like that in it, think again, because Shedorize was a top five. Listen uh on podcast.
Shed Geek:So there's obviously people who are interested in wondering what it is that those guys. Mobeno solar solutions comes to mind. Uh, on things like that. Um, um, I'm trying to think of like, uh, yeah, Rapid shelves. You know Jetson and what they do. That's another perfectly good example. Um Leadferno chat, a chat option on your website to be able to message or someone text message in real time. Um and gosh, I don't know. I know I'm missing so so many trying to go through them all and make sure that I hit them all. I hit them all. Shed U, Making Sales Simple. Uh, those guys have come on uh, recently. So, yeah, I'm trying to go through all of my my list. I just wanted to make sure and kind of like touch on each individual thing as I thank you, unless you know that I do take this serious, I do watch the numbers to those who listen.
Shed Geek:I try to focus on the content creation for those who are going to be on the show. We really try to represent the industry fairly through shed hauling, uh what I like to call the five, the five uh elements of the shed industry uh, shed building, manufacturing, shed hauling, shed selling and then shed supplies and services. Um, and when, when you really think about it, uh, we had one of each five of those represented in the top five uh lessons. So it's really nice to know that we're touching the whole industry uh, and trying to continue to do that by creating content that satisfies and entertains and educates all of the industry and doesn't just focus on one particular area. Even if we're heavy on one area, we try to make sure that we hit all, definitely try to go to all of the events. Uh, we actually sponsored an event this year for the first time the Midwest uh shed haulers um event. Uh, didn't sponsor the whole event Just became part of the sponsorship um crowd there and we did the same thing down in Georgia, hoping to sponsor something at the big bash. It's hard to make them to all and it's certainly hard to sponsor all of them, but it's just my way of saying thank you for those who listen, especially if you're a hauler.
Shed Geek:Um, you know, we've went to the, the trade shows, the, the, the, the garage shed carport builder will be there coming up in a few weeks. We've been to the shed expo and Knoxville and you know, three or four or five years in a row now. Uh, we've went this year we didn't get a booth. Make it a booth next year. Uh, it's looking like we will just kind of trying to hit everything equally Right and and and represent everyone as equally as we can. Um, sure, we get the haters, but generally speaking we do the do the best we can with all of that.
Shed Geek:Um, looking back on the episodes advertisers, changes, gosh I don't really know what to add in terms of changes. Um, a little bit different structure in terms of, like, who's working with us? Uh, myself, my wife Deanna and now my son Troy were pretty much heading operations for most of shed geek, or what I would like to call the shed geek brand, which didn't exist at one time. It's just the shed geek podcast and we're sort of trying to branch out to create more of a brand. I feel like we've done a decent job on branding but, um, um, the product kind of came after. Uh, we didn't have the foresight to know what all we'd be getting into.
Shed Geek:We were trying to uh figure out for the last three years where we a media company you know I started in the when, when I was introduced to you guys with the podcast started, I was working in rent on and, uh, deanna was going through her cancer treatments and I was trying to find a way to get in front of customers, prove who I was, earn trust, build trust, but be able to do that and still be home and take care of her. And I was able to do that uh through through my work Uh, and then I eventually took a uh hiatus from RTO and and really had to try to figure out that I want to be in that world of RTO Cause, yes, you do have to compete, um, but yeah, there's just a whole lot to unpack there. It almost takes a whole episode to do it. But myself, deanna and Troy kind of had that up. Uh, obviously, uh, with shed geek rentals, you'll be talking to myself and Josh, uh, josh and Justin a lot of times. And then, um, um, with shed geek marketing, you'll be talking to myself and and, and, um, jeff and Dylan and um, probably Nick, um will be who you'll see and who you'll talk to the most. Maybe Nathan, nathan you're from time to time. I don't know, we'll just have to see, but uh, just depends on how many of the accounts keep coming in. We've been in great so far. We've been able to do a good job for you. You know we want to be as as uh, successful as we can, but responsible as we can, and doing all things in God's will and his timing as well too. So, um, yeah, happy to have Troy on Gosh. It's just really neat to work with your son.
Shed Geek:Uh, all you guys who talk about growing up building sheds, and one of the commercials we did recently was talking about how, you know, as a young man, he watched his dad build sheds and sort of like idolized his father in a way, you know, like just just watched him and and wanted to become like him and saw how he treated people and did business and wanted to do that. And if I can leave a legacy like that to my son or, or uh, daughter, that that's just amazing. So, uh, yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. Let's talk about, let's see we. We talked kind of about shed expo, garage shed carport builder show, shed U. what's changed, and I put that under changes because I wanted to talk about how isn't it really cool to put an idea on the motion, you know, whether it be a podcast or whether it be like a sales event, kind of see people respond to it.
Shed Geek:And I think that comes from the listening aspect I was telling you guys about earlier, not so much just the talking. Uh, if you listen to people, they'll kind of speak to you in a language that you can hear, if you have yours open to hear it. And I really feel like, whenever I went from one place to the next, one thing I heard constantly was you know, we started in shed sales and we got a book thrown at us, a binder, and it was like good luck, and you know, if he's a good dealer, you made the cut. If he's a bad dealer, they came and pulled the inventory. See you later.
Shed Geek:Um, and and and I know that's probably you know, uh, uh, making light of that, but the reality is, you know, there's not been a lot of trainings, even with some of the larger companies that we talk about. Um, I've heard people say, yeah, it was just figured out, figured out and do your best. And they've had to do that not only in the sales process a lot of times, but they've had to do that, maybe in the marketing side of things. Uh, they've had to figure out, you know, uh, whether it be figuring out Facebook or a website or 3d configurator, right, uh, some kind of 3d builder, and then maybe that has a back in or maybe it doesn't. Maybe figuring out Google PPC ads or meta ads or what is a Google pixel, like you know, is there help for that? So, like there's, there's just been a lot, and it's really nice to see that.
Shed Geek:You know places like shed you are. They exist for the purpose of being able to educate and create coaching services, um, that can show you true results. Uh, and then, making sales simple. Really nice to see their program as well. You should definitely go check them out. Uh, I think it's just making so simple but calm shed universitycom really cool to see those things exist in our world that didn't really exist at one point.
Shed Geek:So I'm a fan of creativity, new ideas and every personality test I have comes back as a trailblazer. So, uh, obviously better to be self employed, because I've got, I've got big ideas. A lot of times, um, and and, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to chase them, I think. Uh, so, being an educator, that's really what it comes down to. Um, I wrote this down, you know, specifically for that reason, being an educator, our tagline on the podcast is education through entertainment. So, I hope you're laughing, I hope you have fun, hope, wherever you are, you're not taking yourself so serious that, uh, you'd forget that God has a sense of humor. Um, if he doesn't, uh, believe me, he gave me a speaking engagement and platform for a lot of people. So if you didn't have a sense of humor, then I don't know who that's. So, um, yeah, I education what has came up this year.
Shed Geek:Um, well, I mean, rto is always on the docket. It's always. You're always trying to better understand RTO. There's, there's guys, I'm convinced, that have RTO companies out there, because they, they, they hear, uh, that's where the money is yeah, so so they're like, well, yeah, let's jump into it and they they have a couple of lawyers, do a few things, keep them legal, but generally speaking, they, they might not understand it. Well, I'm not suggesting I do, just saying that go on to things like the NBSRA and, um, yeah, maybe you do listen to an interview here where we have somebody come on like um, the lost episode, edwin, I'll have to explain, uh, but we've even had um, um, the general counsel come on, uh, from there as as well, and speak. We've had other lawyers like Cedar Creek law came on, um, you know.
Shed Geek:So they kind of talk about rent home in a deeper, uh, just a deeper level and sort of understanding. You know state statutes and there's a lot of people who are like Shannon, we know this. This is elementary, but you got to remember we're as strong as our weakest link and a lot of people just might not understand rent to own in its full capacity, understanding how it works as a credit cell versus, uh, you know, a rental agreement, uh, so, so maybe they don't have you know the education that it takes to explain it well, cause they don't understand it well enough. There's self and there's a there's a word there. There's a there's a word there that you could that'll preach Cause. Uh, I've heard somebody say before if you don't understand it well enough yourself, then how, how could you possibly explain it?
Shed Geek:Well, uh, so we try to do that through education, with marketing, with rent to own, with sales, you know, and and those are the guests we want to continue to have on, so that the industry itself is stronger because of what we're doing. You know, when I talk about people like Phil Falls becoming an RTO national, being a leader in the industry, how would I not become a leader in the industry without doing the work? So, like, it's important for me to do the work, and that's what you know. Whenever people say, oh well, you know a lot of people or get a lot of connections, or you have a lot of information, it's because of inquisitive I get out there and I want to learn. And if that means asking the guy who's done it best, success leaves clues. Guys Like there's only a handful of guys in the industry, that's like no, I'm going to keep all that information myself. You can't have any of it, and they do exist, but generally speaking, most I don't think those people will continue to see success, though I think there comes a point where they they kind of hit a wall. I think those that are collaborating more do tend to find more success. So I talked about the slow down, possibly going to one one day a week, looking ahead, and the old, the old normal versus the new normal. I do want to continue to get into more areas, maybe like tiny homes and other ancillary products.
Shed Geek:The shed industry is growing but it's not the same everywhere. So in some places it's very common to only sell sheds and in some places it's very common to sell sheds and po-barns and and steel tube, you know, carports and and garages and play sets, furniture, I mean there's just a whole host of things. But a lot of times these guys are good in business. In general they become good interviews because the little snippets of good information that they bring to the table on the podcast isn't necessarily it's not a, maybe it's not in your wheelhouse because they're in furniture and you're in sheds and you're trying to get information that's specific on sheds and just go the path of least resistance. But maybe what they offer is a little bit more of a of an overview on business and maybe there's just a little snippet in there that gives you the piece of the puzzle that you've been looking for in terms of, like, how they navigated through their business and how they operated as they begin to grow or or scale, and you can sort of see the magic that worked for them and how it can work for you. And, honestly, those are some of the best feedback.
Shed Geek:The most, some of the best feedback I've ever received is whenever somebody calls and says I didn't know that guy did that, or I didn't know this or this was a really good idea. And I just encourage them, call them, call them and talk to them Yourself I mean, the podcast is the platform that brought it to you but call them and talk to them yourself. Most of these guests, they welcome a phone call from you competitor or friend or foe You're going to know really quick. So just give them a call and say I really enjoyed that and they usually give out their information. So, even if they're not offering a service, sometimes it's just building community. So that's really cool.
Shed Geek:What did I put here? I'm going to put it on the screen. I'm going to put it on the screen. So that's really cool. What did I put here. Oh, domains, what an interesting topic there. Yeah, it just got reached out to you recently for a very what I would think would be a very well ranking keyword in regards to the shed industry and they're trying to sell this domain. So I'm putting that out there to a few people initially that I think might be interested. It's been really weird this year. I've had an RTO portfolio come across the desk, somebody looking to sell, three or four, maybe five shed companies looking to sell, and it is something in marketing this year Surprised you had a guy who was having his website hosting charge him like $500 a month and just because he didn't know what it should be charged, it was just okay, you know, and it's kind of amazing how much we could save him immediately coming in Just on one on one thing and really owning your domain.
Shed Geek:I kind of wanted to talk about that, like how many of you are in marketing or owning your domain so that you're not getting stuck. It's kind of the same way I mentioned about owning your own inventory. I'm not trying to create any enemies here or anybody who doesn't want to advertise with me might not want to advertise with me more after I say this, but I'm not I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of, you know, supplying people's product, especially when you're in a business, especially when you're an RTO provider, unless you're a bank and sometimes that's one in the same. But typically speaking, I would say you kind of know the motives of a bank. You know they want their money back. Go borrow the money, do that. When you let a RTO company fund your inventory, you're definitely locked into them or changes that they make in the future. So I've always I don't mean to be critical of that, but I guess I am being a little bit it just kind of surprises me. I had to see people be vulnerable and be lost and later come to a point where they're like, wow, I really messed up there. So that's not really domain related, but I thought I'd mention it.
Shed Geek:Online sales videos and e-commerce I can't speak on that enough. Obviously you were hearing of people putting together plans to offer online sales platforms with call centers. Great idea, being able to navigate that across the States, very ambitious and very awesome, and hopefully we're going to be working with them to market that and to get that out. So for those of you who are like you know we've got. Here's a quick example of something I ran into recently. I was talking to a manufacturer who had, I don't remember, 15 lots somewhere around in there and I don't mind saying because you're not going to know who they are they did like I think it was like 8 million, you know, maybe in total revenue 3 million in RTO and they found that out of like those, I think it was like over 20 lots. But out of those 20 lots, like five of those were the purpose for 50% of their sales and it always seems to be that way.
Shed Geek:You know where there's dealers that you don't want to let go of. They're just kind of holding on but they may be mediocre. You know, like number one and two is always competing. Number three, four and five are fairly similar. Number five through 15 always fall in a category that's like acceptable but nothing grand. And then you always have like five of them that are questionable and probably one you need to get rid of at all times, just because you always wonder if they're doing more damage to your brand than good.
Shed Geek:So there's a whole lot of conversation there about online sales and when you start talking about that, the ones that are doing a really good job get worried, don't know. You're going to come in, you're going to be like in our space and you're going to, you're going to sell. And I think really what they're trying to do is accomplish for those dealers who aren't embracing change or embracing the success that you can see with online sales. I know it's easier for people to say, oh, all of my foot traffic comes in, and that might be true, and maybe you're even doing a good job, and there's a lot of guys taking market share out there right now that are doing the job to figure out what a digital storefront looks like as well. So, even if you didn't see success in it, doesn't mean others aren't, because I know some that are 70, 80% online sales at this point. So there is going to be I think that's going to be a big conversation that comes up over this next year is trying to figure out where the dealer networks exist and where they're successful and where they're following up with leads that can be proven.
Shed Geek:And then let's see oh man, marketing versus software, collaboration versus competition. I was a big fan of what happened when they at the NBS or a this year, where they were talking about collaboration. I was a big fan, and what I would say to that is I was a fan and the fan will always be a fan. I have seen some of the uglier sides of of business where it's like, oh yeah, we'll collaborate. But then the back room conversation turns into you know, this is a competitive advantage for them. We want their head on a stick, we're ready to go get them and it's like, wow, it feels really, you know, nasty as opposed to collaboration and I don't know, it's just an odd way to do business. I always say get more flies with honey than vinegar. So I'm a fan of working with someone over competing with them. But competition does make us better.
Shed Geek:So we're running out of time so I'm not going to be able to talk on it. If you don't get the email blast, please let us know. If you're an advertiser who wants to be on there. There's a very, very affordable options to at least get in front of our audience, so feel free to reach out to me if you're not looking to. You know, take a whole bite of the elephant. You can eat it one bite at a time.
Shed Geek:I wanted to talk about doing audits and doing marketing audits and kind of what we're looking to do with RTO. Obviously we're taking a different approach with our RTO because we're trying to add value to what we're doing. So by this time Shed Geek Reynolds episode should have been out already. So you should know that one thing that we're trying to do is not just I don't know I saw a conversation is Eric Schlebaugh that mentioned it the other day on Facebook.
Shed Geek:He asked the question. He said if you're offer a discount and the customer doesn't know to ask for it, should you give them the discount anyway? And I think he was obviously in favor of it. He was just trying to see and I would say yes, and I am in favor of it, of course, because I've seen that sort of with like the dealer premiums, like we'll offer 5%, but we won't offer it If you don't ask for it. And since you didn't know to ask for it, you don't get it. Then they come back later and they're still a strange loyalty to those RTO providers and yeah, it was a business move on their part. But you know we're going to offer what we offer in general anyway. So there's not any gotcha games. If you wanted to work with Shed Geek marketing, we'll do a 5%. Our Shed Geek Reynolds, rather, would do a 5% premium.
Shed Geek:I'm not a fan of them. I said that before on the episode. I'll say it to you in person. I'm just not a fan of them. I feel like it's a race to the bottom and there's only so much yield you can give away. So I'm a fan of offering value and that's value. It's cold hard cash. I'm a fan of offering value in another way and that's why we suggested that we would want to do your marketing in lieu of a premium and we'll just base that off of 5% of whatever your potential RTO is, so like we kind of lay our competitive advantage out publicly, because I feel like transparency is the key and just being honest. So if you're wanting to get your marketing paid for is a good way to do that. Just talk to us on your RTO and I suspect there'll be others that'll maybe follow suit in that, because that's what's going to be.
Shed Geek:I think the talk of the town, so to speak, for the next year is like effective marketing and understanding what that is, what marketing entails. There's a lot of SaaS softwares out there right now that are being labeled marketing and I think that's very different bubbles. So I think you have to sort of like understand. So we're educators, so we're going to spend some time educating you first, and many of you already know what that is. So I don't mean to sound like we're talking down, because I'm not, but for those who are genuinely interested in there, like, hey, I don't ask a question that I feel stupid on. You're never going to ask a stupid question as questions. It's how we learn things. So, like I'm an open book, just come ask me if I don't know. We're going to get you in front of somebody who does. And I'm just running out of time. I'm close to an hour and all I've done is sit here and monologue and I was afraid I wouldn't get through 20 minutes. Instead, I feel like I'm preaching to you guys.
Shed Geek:So shout outs. Definitely want to shout out to Travis, beachy, travis parks, tyler may hand. Uh, hoping to do some more episodes like that, either with them or others. Uh, travis has been on several of the episodes with me. Now it's become a really, really like regular co-host. So, uh, big, big props to Travis for what they do.
Shed Geek:And then, um, oh, I don't know what happened for the shed geek this last year my daughter got married. I got a grandbaby coming in March. Uh, that's why we're thinking about slowing down our travels. I don't know. We're going to Pennsylvania getting regular interview, pine Hill, this coming up in here in a few weeks. Uh, bnpa will be down in Knoxville. We're going out to Texas and hopefully, new Mexico, phoenix. Uh, I would like to get up to Idaho, montana area. Uh, over the summer, uh, we'll probably be back up north. I need to get back up to Connecticut. Uh, just, you know, uh, love to interview you.
Shed Geek:If, my thought is, if you compete, if you collaborate, whatever you do in the shed industry, in life in general, you have a story and you have a story that I think, uh, because iron sharpens iron, I believe that you know it's my job to try to ask good questions, to create good content, so that not only will the listeners be entertained, so that you'll be entertained and that you'll enjoy being able to share your testimony and your story with people, whether it be heavy on shed related or not. So, um, don't hesitate to call, don't feel like, uh, uh, it's, it's. Uh, you know you're bragging on yourself. Um, I like to tell everybody we're not big enough to brag on ourself. Anyway, we're all bragging on what the good Lord has given us, uh, the opportunity to do this. Anyway, I just think that your story might, could help your brothers and sisters in that and, uh, even if that means that they succeed at times, I don't I just have to give way to God's will on those things.
Shed Geek:Maintain, uh, my competitiveness. But I think, more than my competitiveness and willingness to win, I think it's more important to to want to be happy for others and to help others and, um, if they're putting in the work and the effort, they deserve the success. So, uh, you know, there's no problems with that. If it's manipulated, it doesn't really matter. I think that all comes out in the end. Uh, so, if you're losing business to someone who's manipulating, uh, just, oh, you got to do a state put just steadfast and give it time.
Shed Geek:Um, so, guys, I'm an hour in. Obviously I can talk more than I thought I could. Uh, I tried to put down some notes. Hope I didn't sound preachy. Certainly don't want to sound preachy, but want to offer something that was educational, uh, entertaining, fun. Um, want to see you want to come to your city. Make sure and reach out to me or watch for when I'm coming to areas and, even if you're just super uncomfortable, sit down behind the microphone. I'd love to meet you just because, um, not just for a business, uh, but it's just. There's a lot of guys I'm never going to work with this industry I'm really good friends with, so, um, certainly love to meet you guys, appreciate each and every one of you.
Shed Geek:It's almost the new year, so happy new year. I wish each and every one of you, uh, grand amount of success this year. I hope we make the industry a better place. I hope to see you at all the different shed events across the country Throughout this year and I thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do something that helps me find purpose and fuels my passion, uh, to be able to come to you and speak to you weekly with people with cool stories and just awesome, awesome conversations. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. We give thanks to our God, our Lord and savior, for all that he has done in our business, our industry and in our lives. Uh, thank you so much, guys. Talk to you soon.