Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
From Shed Lots To Smart Systems: Marketing, AI, And Growth
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Buyers aren’t just searching Google for “sheds near me” anymore—they’re asking AI where to go and then double‑checking results on maps. We sat down with Jim Mosier to unpack what that shift means for builders, dealers, and movers who want more qualified leads without drowning in tools or tactics that don’t translate to sales. Jim’s journey from agency work to AI and custom software is full of hard‑won lessons on visibility, systems, and the kind of authenticity that still moves people to buy.
We start with the foundation that wins locally: consistent NAP across listings, a sharp Google Business Profile for every lot, fresh photos and reviews, and a website that loads fast and routes quotes into a CRM. From there, we dig into the real-world power of voice AI: calling a lead within 30 seconds, answering 80% of routine questions, and booking appointments when properly trained on your products, delivery rules, financing, and brand voice. Jim shows how to build an internal dossier—origin story, materials, ideal buyer, words to avoid—so AI speaks like you instead of sounding generic.
We also talk about the new buyer journey: ask an AI, verify in Google, then visit or call. That creates attribution gaps you can’t fully track yet, so success looks like an uptick in branded searches and cleaner conversion paths. If you’ve tried to market with a patchwork of subscriptions, you’ll appreciate our take on tool sprawl, security risks, and why custom software that matches your workflow can multiply throughput and even add asset value at exit. No silver bullets here—just a practical playbook for 1% improvements that compound into market share before competitors catch on.
If you’re serious about turning clicks into contracts and making your customer path faster, clearer, and more human, this conversation is your blueprint. Follow the show, share it with a colleague who needs a nudge toward smarter systems, and leave a review to tell us the next challenge you want solved.
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
Sponsor Message And Cold Open
INTROHello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all filling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers while expectations keep climbing. And yet, I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website lead to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth payouts. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co/ shed geek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.
Lakeland Stories And Industry Banter
ShannonOkay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. For those of you who are watching today, uh I hope you enjoy this. We are um we've had the opportunities to do podcasting in some pretty interesting spaces, and we're in a professional podcast room today, which is really, really awesome. Soundproof, and it hears everything with these Omni mics instead of the mics that I have. One day, maybe one day I'll have a room like this somewhere podcasting. But uh thank you guys for listening. We're still here in Florida, uh sunny Florida, right before the catastrophe hits here in the lower states of the ice and snow that we're gonna try and get through getting home. Gotta go to Gainesville. Uh, thank you guys for listening. As always, uh please check us out at ShedGeek.com, uh, subscribe to the newsletter, and check us out on the Shed Sales Professionals page. Be a part of our uh environment and uh contribute to the industry, living it better than you found it, hopefully. Welcome an old friend to the show. Um you guys know I'm the man, the myth, the legend, Jim Mosier.
Jim MosierHey, welcome or welcome to welcome to Lakeland. First of all, welcome to Lakeland Florida. Yes, yes, yes. I uh I hope you got the got a decent tour, but uh next time you come, we'll stay an extra day and we'll make sure you get the full tour. Headquarters of public supermarkets. I don't know if you knew that or not. I did not know that. This is where they were founded, this is where their headquarters is, yeah.
ShannonWell, I've I'm so I'm not just a shed geek, I'm uh a bit of a data geek, right? But the data is different, Jim. I like weird things. I like to know what makes up a city, uh, what's its history, who are notable people from it in different areas of politics to sports to music and culture. Uh so I look all this stuff up usually when I come here, and Lakeland is one of the fastest growing places in Florida. As a matter of fact, it says it's the number one fastest growing uh city in Florida, at least from the data that I pulled.
Jim MosierYeah, I'd like to think I'm a trendsetter because I moved here about 20 years ago. Um it's been a dirty, but uh but yeah, Lakeland's got a lot of cool history. Um one of my favorite stories about Lakeland, um, you've probably heard of a little guy named George Jones. Uh, oh yeah. Yeah, he had a house here, and he is famous for getting a DUI on his lawnmower. That was because they took yes, they took his driver's license away and he drove his lawnmower to the bar.
ShannonSo, I've watched the video on YouTube several times.
Jim MosierThat was here in Lakeland, Florida.
ShannonWhat's I'll tell you a funny story about George Jones is like uh I used to work at a casino. I think I've told people that, you know, years ago. And um he pulled up to the valet lot one day and his license plate said no show. And I find out I was off that day, so I wasn't working at the casino, I was over the hotel, so we managed also the valet staff. He pulled up and went to the casino. This is a couple years before he died. And uh one of my favorite musicians all the time, George Jones, love him. Uh, but he pulls up and the valet Trevor says, What's your last name, sir? Doesn't recognize him, and he said, Jones, and he's like, like, like, what? And he's like, had to write down the plates, and he's like, No show, he's not putting it together, you know, like what he's notorious uh for. And he's like, he's like, Well, George Jones, country singer, and my buddy says, You do look a lot like that guy. You know? He is that guy. Yeah. He goes in, comes out, and everybody finds out the next day George Jones was there and no one recognized him.
Jim MosierThat's probably the way he liked it. I would have to guess. I would have to guess. You know, I know um uh just from what I've what I've heard of other celebrities and things like that, that people tend to like to be incognito when they're out and about in the in the public. Then again, I imagine there's those that that like to be recognized.
Meet Jim Mosier And Career Update
ShannonSure. Well, I got a cool story about a country musician coming up. Hopefully he's gonna be on the podcast. I don't want to go into too great a detail, but basically uh Chris McDaniels, the former um keyboardist for Confederate Railroad uh of the 90s country music band, does a lot of work in prison ministry, celebrate recovery, and addiction recovery. And like me and him have connected through a mutual friend. Um I knew he was friends with him for years, but we actually connected when I went to like a men's retreat recently. And um it's just been really cool. So, I'm trying to go down to Dalton to see him next week and spend some time with him, and who knows where that'll go from there. But yeah, we're uh this this reminds me of another story, and we're gonna get somewhere eventually on this podcast. I never I never will forget me and Jim Kuhlmann and Kyle Summers flying down to Gainesville. And uh Jim was like being Jim and hilarious, and he's like telling the pilot as we're flying in, he's like, So, you guys ever get any like famous people fly in? And uh he's like, you know, these guys are famous, making a joke between me and Kyle on being shed geeks. And uh he's like, he's and then we're like, stop it, quit it. You know, these people don't know who we are, no one knows who we are. Uh I like to tell people that like, you know, if you tell people outside the shed industry, they don't care who the shed geek is, but if you tell them inside the shed industry, they care even less, you know.
Jim MosierI don't think that's true. I don't think that's true.
ShannonSo, so I tell him he says, uh, well, last week, you know, we had such and such fly in. Oh, and then we had like, you know, Garth Brooks flew in last week, and we were like, so nobody famous really is what you're saying.
Jim MosierJust us. Oh boy. Oh boy. I'm sure Garth loves that. Do you think Garth listens to podcasts? Do you think he's I bet you he doesn't listen to mine?
ShannonI promise you that. Uh anyway, uh, thank you so much for joining us. Obviously, you know, Jim Mosier is a big name for me. Uh, getting to meet you in the shed industry, knowing what you do in your marketing capacity, knowing what you do in like your, if I can call you a tech geek, if I can call you a data geek, or whatever it is that you are. Um you know, you have been you wrote the book on literally shed marketing. You have a new book out now I want to talk about. But tell me what's been happening in your life, what's happening in your world?
Remote Teams And The Shift Post‑COVID
Jim MosierOh wow. So a 30-second roundup. Okay. Or maybe a minute. I don't know. I talk a lot. Um so um when we were doing the shows and we were um traveling um all over the country, the different shed shows and doing the different activities, um, we had a home base here in Lakeland, Florida. Um and uh it was it was kind of an interesting dynamic after COVID and all of that kind of stuff. We had a bunch of employees that were working in the office, and during COVID, obviously, they had to go home, start working remotely. And I had an interesting problem. Nobody wanted to come back. So, our office transitioned from uh kind of a 2,000 square foot facility that housed seven people in-house and the whole bit down to, well, where we're at today, which is a co-working facility called Cohatch. Shameless plug there. Um they're great. They're based out of Ohio, actually, and they uh they expanded down to Florida. But uh as you can see, they've got podcast facilities, they've got all kinds of cool stuff in the building. Um we've got a couple of dedicated offices here. And um all of our team has gone remote. And you know, that was that was a move that, you know, me being just like I always wanted to be the local number one employer and the whole bit, uh best places to work, you know, and all of that. And you know, when nobody really wants to leave their house, that was that was an issue. So, um and the other thing is that the pool of talent in Lakeland, Florida isn't like a you know, Austin, Texas, or it's not like one of the big cities where there's tons and tons of experienced help. So, um so now we're here. Um and uh we've got a completely remote team, and that's been awesome. Um we've also transitioned a little bit. So before, like when I wrote Selling Sheds Online, that book was completely 100% about marketing. So we have uh a new little game in town, AI. Um, and that's kind of been a focus of mine for the last couple of years that uh that we've developed a lot of really cool systems. We've gotten into software development, and uh we're doing a lot of uh a lot of kind of off-the-wall things. Um, you know, I've always been I've always considered myself a systems guy, right? So a marketing system is a system, you know, a speed-delete system. Um, you know, getting somebody on the phone within 30 seconds to a minute after they fill out a form or something like that. Those kind of systems, that's what really drives my brain. You know, I mean that's what that's where I feel like I have the ability to engineer something that doesn't exist. And that's sort of uh sort of kind of why as I'm not getting any younger, I decided, you know what, I'm just gonna stop being uh stop being so rigid about what it is that we offer and stop being trying to be in this this box. And interestingly enough, the shed marketing industry, um, you know, as I'm sitting here across from Shannon, um you know, the shed marketing industry has changed a little bit. Like there was uh when I first started going to shed expos and things like that, um I believe there was us, I think e Impact Marketing was there and maybe Wide OP. Um and then the last show that we actually attended, I think was in 23.
ShannonThere was only 50 at this last show. Yeah.
Jim MosierI mean, you know, and there were there were so many of them. And it it's interesting that every single one of them has a little bit different value proposition, and every single one of them has a little bit different um angle, if you will. Um you know, ours was that that we just when we became shed marketer, we just solely focused on this the shed industry, which uh it worked well for us. Um you know, it worked well for us, but we um through you know changes, business evolves, things evolve, and um and we still love the shed industry, we still have clients in the shed industry, but um you know my natural pursuits led me to AI, led me back into software development and uh creating systems. We've done some really cool work in that category. Hopefully we'll have time to talk about, but
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ShannonOh, I'd love I'd love to. Yeah, obviously, marketing and in in like a generalization is like, ooh, it could become a big conversation. You know, we were approached by a very large manufacturer that wanted a white label uh uh agency that and they work with like one of the largest wood providers in the in the space and along with several other like huge names. And maybe that would have been the better approach to take for us. Uh I just didn't know them, uh, but they are were obviously successful and probably still are, and it was probably a misstep on my uh so you know, we thought about it. We've had CPAs reach out to us, people who want to provide services in the industry and they want to like use uh sort of our trusted brand, if you want to call it that, to like sort of, you know, uh navigate those opportunities. And that's great because for me, it keeps the show going, which is my love. My love's not CPA, my love's not marketing, my love's not rent-owned, my love's not finance. Wait, you don't love marketing? I mean, I don't. I don't love it. I think that that it's necessary, and I think we all do it regardless of whether we love it or hate it. I think it's part of who we are, um uh, you know, even culturally. You know, if you if you step into a different culture, you sometimes unknowingly market. I always say that the Amish and plain communities uh market sometimes accidentally. Uh people begin to know them for their craftsmanship, so then they talk about their craftsmanship. If you actually talk to most Amish companies, they will say, I would rather not put on my brochure Amish crafts Amish craftsmanship. But if you do, it's up to you. But like we don't want to be seen as like braggadocious, if you will. Or you know what I mean? Like, we're not trying to like point toward us, we're trying to point toward God. And like so I get it, but then there it creates these whole conversations, right?
Jim MosierYeah, but I understand that. But people search for Amish craftsmanship. People search for Amish sheds. So if they search for that, and if they're searching for that, you've got to be talking about it. Because if you're not talking about it, then nobody knows you're Google doesn't know you do it. Uh AI doesn't know you do it. I mean, you're not gonna get recommend recommendations from all of the different places people could be searching if you're not if you're not out there talking about it.
Market Crowding And Evolving Value Props
ShannonAnd there is a there is just a mindset that says, you know, we won't like talk about ourselves, we won't brag about ourselves because, you know, which is a dishonor to God to not give him the correct attribution, you know, to like where our gifts come from. But me and you feel the same way. Like the gifts come from the Lord, we know that. Even any talents, opportunities we get, we give those. But it's just a difference in culture. But marketing for me is like this big ambiguous word, especially in the in the in the shed industry. Because what does marketing mean? Like, you know, you got marketing at its natural level, the natural uh definition in any capacity, but in the shed industry, you get into the more intricate details like 3D configurator, not just website, but now how are those leads happening, captured, uh attributed, uh, followed up on CRMs, you know. Then then when you get a good CRM system, if people aren't following up, you start asking yourself, like, should I just follow up with these people? I could probably sell more or I could at least help. Now I need a sales force now. And so, like, I always like to joke and say the leg bone's connected to the knee bone and the knee bones connected to the you know, whatever. What's that way in marketing? You know, I some people start 3D configurators and like people say, I want one. And it's like, cool, where's your website? And they're like, we don't have a website. Like, oh, well, we got to build websites then, you know, and it's like so and then you get into point of sale, and now you get into rent own and you're like, why rent own? That's a separate service, and you're like, well, because rent owns paying for a lot of these services, and that that's a value proposition, perfectly valid, but it you don't know where the color fades. You ever look at a at a color chart at Lowe's? Yeah, yeah, and then you start just looking from left to right, and you see how you get from like this really like light white to this really dark white, but it's because all these things overlap from left to right and you go through 15 colors to get there. But if you you you don't notice the difference as you watch it that way, whereas if you go straight from left to right, big difference. And that's to me, that's what marketing in the shed industry is who does what, how do they do it, and where are they going? What do they want to do?
Jim MosierYeah. I mean, when I wrote selling sheds online, and believe it or not, a lot of the a lot of the strategies that were in that book um are basic strategies that that are still good today, even in today's world of AI and and all of that kind of stuff. But I mean it starts out with, you know, in general, the first thing you need to do when you open your door is you need somebody to know you're there, right? And so visibility is is generally the first thing we help people tackle. Like if you're let's just say that you're a dealer and you've got five shed lots scattered around town, but you're you s you go to Google and you say sheds for sale near me and your lots aren't the ones that are showing up. Those are those are fundamental problems. And you they're easy solutions to fix things like that. But you really have to kind of take a look at where you are, where your competitors are, and what's how do you bridge the gap? How do you get from here to there? Sometimes it's just as simple as going out and getting more reviews. Sometimes it's as simple as posting more pictures. Sometimes I mean it it can be different for everybody. There's not like a the one-size-fits-all solution. I mean, the management practice of of actually keeping somebody on the map and and expanding their area and stuff like that. There's obviously things that you can do to help in that effort. But for the most part, it's it's just that that local visibility is really where I still recommend everybody start, because that's the that's the cheapest way that you can market online. Like your Google business profile costs you zero. Yeah. It's nothing to do with it.
ShannonYou're big on LSAs.
Jim MosierWell, LSAs are for more for service businesses. Um I haven't seen a lot of LSAs for sheds. Um potentially shed moving, that could be something that could become an LSA because that's a it's a service. But generally LSAs are going to be well, the the name LSA, local service ads, so it's generally gonna be a service type business. Um but uh but we're good, we're big in Google Ads, we're big into um we're big into organic Google search, and now we're into AI generated, both AI-generated content and AI-assisted marketing. When I when I say AI assistant marketing, I'm I'm talking about things like um well again, voice AI. Voice AI is a new one that uh people love it or hate it. There's like no in-between. There's nobody that says, you know, I did this voice AI thing and it was okay. You know, um and it really comes down to the training, which that kind of leads into that second book that I wrote, um, you know, AI without the hype. Um and uh I don't know if you read the subtitle on that book.
ShannonUm I haven't yet, but you did give me one this morning, so I'm gonna brag about that. He's not just gonna give him away to everybody, or at least I don't know if he is or not, but I did get and I got to get you to sign it. I got one of these unique uh unique books, and I'm gonna go home and read it because I am a reader. Uh, you know, I love the term leaders are readers. I don't know, I'm a reader, but hopefully I can find leadership in that. But tell me about it. Tell me about the book. Tell me about what you've been doing and most your data.
What Marketing Means In The Shed World
Jim MosierAaron Ross Powell Yeah, so well, I mean, there's a lot of AI hype everywhere. And you know, I mean, you hear all over the news they're talking about there's an AI bubble that's about to burst and all that kind of stuff. I don't really get into all of that, but I do know the practical applications for the different tools that we have out there, right? And um AI voice is something that I have actually I was very slow to adapt it, but uh we actually at Mosure Data, we actually turned on AI Voice back in June of last year. And uh for about the first 120 days, we monitored it. Like I literally listened to every single phone call, figured out what it had right, what it got wrong, what questions came up, and all of that. And then we build knowledge on top of that. And that's really the process that you need to follow. And um AI without the hype is was uh was written uh in in a lot of the same ways as uh selling sheds online was. You know, when I when I wrote Selling Sheds Online, I really wanted to help people that that, you know, I mean, as an agency, when you're charging a couple thousand dollars a month to you know to do services for somebody, there's a barrier of entry there. So, like there's certain people that can't afford it. So I wrote selling sheds online just to share the knowledge. Share the knowledge of, hey, these are the basics for getting yourself out there locally. These are the basics for um doing pay-per-click, and these are the keywords you need to focus on, and this is why negative keywords are important and this is what they are. And you know, all of the all of the basic knowledge that somebody would need to know, even if it's even if it's not necessarily for them to do themselves, but for them to have the all knowledge when they're interviewing a marketing company. I mean, if you're talking to a marketing company and they're not talking about conversions and leads, they're talking about clicks and traffic, then you might not be have the right match with that marketing company. I mean, it's up to you. Obviously, everything's a personal decision, but um you know, I tend to focus on metrics that matter. So AI without the hype is kind of the same, in the same guise. There's a lot of hype about AI. Um there's so many pieces of software out there that are being billed as the next best thing. And it's like this AI tool will do this and this AI tool will do that. And if you're not careful, you're gonna wind up with $900 a month in software subscriptions for stuff that you might use once a month. You know, and I just started seeing that there were a lot of uh entrepreneurs, you've got to love the internet, right? And I and I'm not throwing shade on any anybody for having Having a thing, right? But people would go out and they would determine, okay, well listen, if I if I consistently feed ChatGPT this prompt with this user input, then I'll always get this kind of output. So what I did is I just put a pretty interface on this, and now I'm calling it a software as a service, when in reality it's just a ChatGPT prompt that anybody could put in there. And so I started seeing a lot of that. And then more recently since the AI Without the Hype book has come out, you know, vibe coding has been the big thing. Everybody's like, oh yeah, go out to Claude Code and have it create your whatever. Well, that there's a whole nother discussion about security and things like that that come with that. So, AI Without the Hype is really just to kind of reset and say, okay, this is what AI is. There's a chapter in there that talks about what a local uh what a large language model is. So LLM, like your Chat GPT and your Claude, the chat interface that you you go back and forth with these tools with, um the large language model that powers that, the machine learning that's behind even that. Um then there's a Gentec AI, which is when AI can actually do something, such as picking up the phone and calling somebody 30 seconds after they fill out a form on your website. Which, by the way, if you're not doing that, I really would suggest you experiment with it. Even if you even if you just don't believe me and you hate the idea, I would say throw it at 25% of your calls for three weeks straight and tell me what tell me what uh you know, 25% of your leads for three weeks straight, and then tell me that it didn't do something for you.
Local Visibility, GBP, And Reviews
ShannonThinking about the dealer model like and how that's affected my ring is going off. Sorry. Uh thinking about the dealer model and how and that uh whenever you put uh uh selling sheds on the I mean I I guess I handed you know 50 of these books out, you know, uh even after meeting you at the show, talking with you, interviewing you, and like just love the idea of it and that barrier to entry that you're talking about. You know, I've always said that five to fifteen million, I feel like, in revenue, they are the companies that are poised because they have the best opportunity to have an effect actually on larger players because they can make a difference. Um they can move the needle a little farther as they start to do good. And if you plan for success, because trust me, that's you know, you can learn as much in success as you can failure. Like the the if you plan for it, then you can move from the needle from five to fifteen million to fifteen to sixty-five million, you know, like you could move that fairly quickly with good online uh tools and you could become uh a decent player in that space. But you get you begin to soak up a lot of the the the the pie, if you will. You know, you begin to soak up a lot of the sheds that are being sold in your region. Uh, but the barrier to entry that's really hard is for like dealers a lot of times who are working on consignment, who are like, I want to do marketing, I want to do my own marketing if that's what it takes, but I need to know how. And that's what shed, you know, selling sheds online to me really helped out was the person who was like, I can't afford to invest in what's necessary, uh, but I'm somewhere in between. And then of course there's the whole side of like getting companies to uh commit to it, you know. Knowing that you have companies out there selling 10 million that don't have a website, you're like, gosh, you know, I'm not trying to be like, you know, whatever, guys, but you can be selling 20 million tomorrow.
Jim MosierLike, yeah, nope, you know, nobody knows you're here. There's nowhere to click. There's, you know, I mean, uh, you can't you can't rely on drive-by's anymore. I mean, there there's so there's a whole culture out here that is used to point, click, and buy. Yeah. And you need to be set up for that. I mean, it's a harsh reality, but that's just the way it is.
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ShannonWell, you're really going back to your roots in terms of like focusing on your uh uh uh development, software development, and things like this. This seems to be like still doing marketing, of course, but you know, and and like hey, call him. You know what I mean?
Voice AI, Training, And The New Book
Jim MosierWell, I mean, I'll be transparent for a second. So, we were the first ones to come out with Shed CRM, um, which I've since renamed. But uh Shed CRM is a white label version of a piece of software called High Level, uh Go High Level. It's a CRM system that's uh built around agencies and they have a reseller model. I believe Shed Suite uses it for their marketing platform, um probably several others. Oh, there's that door chiming. Yeah, somebody is your phone's blowing up. I guess I'm gonna turn it off. How about that? Okay. Um but um but anyway, so so one of the things that that I kind of focused on as I started getting back into software is like, you know, how can I just make how can I look at a situation and make it 1% better? I mean, and that's kind of how we came out with the voice AI. We were one of the first ones to actually put it in play because it's like, okay, well, wait a minute. I have all of this knowledge that we've built over five years of working with dozens of shed companies, right? So, I have this knowledge. I understand LP smart side, I understand, you know, the paints, the I understand the materials, we, we, we understand, you know, the 3D builders, we understand the industry, right? So it's like, how can I make this 1% better? How can I make an AI smart enough to actually hold a conversation with somebody asking questions that a normal person would do? Well, the only way you can do that is going back to data. Like you've got to you've gotta find the data. You've got to go back and you've got to look at um look at the questions you get in your inbox, look at the questions you get online through Messenger if you're marketing on marketplace or whatever. You know, I mean you you've probably got you've probably got a wealth of knowledge right there that can be structured and placed into an AI and can answer probably 80% of the phone calls that you get. That's one, I mean, that's one super easy implementation of development. But it all starts with that, how can I make this 1% better, right? Like how can I, you know, how can I do this? And so, like for instance, high level didn't have native voice AI until just about a month or two ago, right? I mean, they did, but it was in beta, it was it was kind of crazy. But um but outbound voice AI, we were able to actually get that going well over a year ago. So, at this point, you know, now that it's been uh it's been uh integrated into some of the software tools we use, we still use our own solution because it's so much better trained. Like it's the training and it's the constant updating and things like that. That's really where we're it's knowledge management, I think, is really where things are things are going. It's this this knowledge management. A lot of times companies will have, you know, they'll have a gold mine in their inbox and not even know it.
ShannonHappens, uh, I would say more often than not. I'm thinking about your book when you talked about how email marketing's not dead. You know, just thinking back, I mean, like email marketing's worked really good for us. A lot of you guys hear me say, uh, sign up for our newsletter. You know, if I just walk you through the mindset, there is like you sign up for the newsletter, we put out content on there, whether it's a description of today's show, uh, clickable links where you can go and like click on and fill out these lead forms for companies that you want an interest in. So, like, of course you can call them up directly, but now the lead attribution is not able to be uh uh correctly assessed. What and you're like, what does that mean? It sounds Spanish. All I mean is like we don't get the credit from Shed Geek when we sell advertising, unless you go to Shed Geek. And then I mean, I've thought I've had people tell me recently, like, you should just do podcasting and not do you like this. And I'm a bit unhinged today, so I was just saying it. But um uh, you know, like uh um you know, I've had people say you should just do the podcast and like not do these other deals, whether it's rent on or marketing or finance. And I was like, okay, how do I make money? And they're like, that's not my problem. I'm like, right.
Jim MosierRight, okay, but yeah, I can't eat your problem. So that's the that's the thing, you know, right? Uh I get it.
Cutting Through AI Hype And Tool Sprawl
ShannonUnless everybody wants to start paying, which they probably don't, 20 bucks a month to listen to this podcast, right? They're like, no, I wouldn't want to do that. It's free. And it's like, right, but if you get benefit from it from people who come on, talk about services, or you end up using them, if I don't either sell them advertising or charge you, like this, like the magic pill does doesn't exist, it's not reality. It all costs money, and then you got to make money, and then there's power plays, and then there's like just all this garbage that it that goes along with it. Meaning you talked about value prop and hey, you try to do the right things. So yeah, unless uh unless you know a big portion of you guys call in and say, hey, we'll pay, we'll pay every month, then you know what? We got to keep doing what we do to put out content, make money, and then talk about these things like marketing. I mean, I'm on here as transparent as I can saying I'm not a rent-owned guy, I'm not a marketing guy, I'm not a finance guy, I'm a podcast guy. I'm a help people guy, hopefully. That's what we try to do. So, like, how can we do that and make a living? But um Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, I have to I have to do my rant, and then you can move back to what you were saying that was important.
Jim MosierThat's okay. Something in your rant uh got me thinking, though. You talked about being uh having integrity and being, you know, just upfront and open about things. And I gotta tell you, authenticity is one of the things that we're losing in the day of AI. I mean, I post on my stories uh on Facebook and Instagram, I post AI videos all the time. People love them and they laugh at them, and it's silly, stupid stuff. But in reality, um, you know, in reality, people are losing that connection. And it's getting to the point now where you really don't know what is AI and what is not. It's getting really scary good. So, my I guess my only advice in and it ties marketing and AI and all of that together is authenticity. Like one of the strategies that we use with AI, and uh I'll just throw it out here on the podcast because I'm open like that, but um, is that um you know we actually build an AI for every client we bring in. So, we build an AI model for them. And we do that by taking and doing a deep research on the company itself. So, we will actually go out and figure out when they were founded, who they were founded by, how many buildings a year do they build, how you know what materials do they use. We will build a dossier on everything we can possibly put together for the company. We send that to the client, they will make whatever edits they need. Then we have an interview with the client where we talk to them about um, you know, our intake form, if you are a former client, you probably hated the intake process because it's like two to three hours long. But we go through so many detailed questions that by the end of that we have a recorded interview that we can use to, again, further train the AI, but we can also extract like who is your ideal customer? Like there are people out there that niche down, right? There are people out there that only sell buildings to commercial clients, or there are people that only well, you know, they've got people that just haul buildings. You've got people I mean, there's so many different niches within the industry that when you combine the power of your niche with the knowledge of your company and then a profile of your ideal buyer, that's when AI becomes really well trained and able to able to literally speak your language to your customers in the language they want to they want to hear you from hear from you.
Authenticity, Brand Voice, And AI Models
ShannonYou don't just target at that point spe uh specific people, you retarget based off of demographic, based off of uh age, based off of gender, based off of income. Uh AI is able to process a lot of information. I mean, even Google, you know, we do that now in terms of like marketing and retargeting and things like that, and trying to create clones and all these different things. And I've learned so much over, you know, that probably the last five to six years, because of folks like yourself reading books like you know, the things you put out, listening to you as you talk, watching your Facebook post, and trying to navigate uh, you know, myself through this. And it's uh it you some at some point people are like, I use the word fragmentation a lot because we do niche down, but the fragmentation is why I think that there's opportunity for mergers and acquisitions that are happening at lightning speed, I feel like in the industry, because people are like, it's easier to not try to convince them, it's easier to not try to buy them. You know, if you're an RTO provider, it's easier to buy a company than it is to have a third party come in and pull them because it's so competitive. I can only imagine in the POS, 3D world, all that stuff, highly competitive as well. Marketing, you know, just the tech space in general for those who are embracing it. But then for those who aren't, it's kind of like this clean slate. You really have this like uh uh uh Cain and Abel. I mean, you have this entirely different personality from one to the next.
Jim MosierYeah.
ShannonOf like we embrace, we do this, we don't, these people are gonna buy. But at the end of the day, shed sellers like to sell sheds, they want leads. And think, and like the my best advice is keep your inbox full. Keep your lead, keep your leads full. If your lead funnel's full and you got a hundred on the hook, you're only gonna sell ten probably, but you know what? If you got ten on the hook, you're probably not gonna sell all ten. So you've got to have those leads. That's my first my best piece of advice, I think, personally. It happens so.
Jim MosierI like I said, I think it just goes back to authenticity, authenticity. Sorry. Uh it goes back to authenticity because you know, when you're when you're out there, if you if you do AI-generated content, people generally are gonna see through it. If you've got a really well-trained AI on your brand voice, your values, your culture, your I mean, like for instance, um, you know, I can tell you that there are certain phrases that certain clients of ours just try to avoid. Um, you know, we were talking earlier, you said that uh some in the playing community don't like to use the word Amish. You know, I mean that's but that's a it's a keyword that somebody's searching for. So, you know there is there has to be sort of a little bit of a trade-off, but there's definitely ways that you can use AI in the process. There is also different ways that you can use AI that go above and beyond this consumer stuff that we're talking about, like your chat GPTs and your content generation and things like that. I mean you can use AI to you can actually plug in um data from say if you use shed suite or something like that, where you plug in the data of your delivered buildings and you can actually look and have AI analyze patterns and you can figure out, hey, you know what, I've sold six buildings near here, and this is a residential neighborhood that's all single family homes, there's no renters allowed, why aren't I marketing more in this area? Yeah. Right? Or um or you know what, I've wasted, you know, I wasted, you know, 20 percent of my ad budget on this area of town that's nothing but apartment complexes, right? So why would you do that? Like it enables you to, if you if you actually think strategically about your business, what AI does is it's a it's a time multiplier, I think, is is the best way to put it. It's just a time multiplier. It can you it can you can do the you can have AI analyze large amounts of information almost instantaneously.
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Data, Patterns, And Smarter Targeting
ShannonI love the phrase time multiplier. That's really good. Because that's I mean with technology, you can, you know, it's like anything else. You can use it for good or bad. Right? Yeah. It's like it's the it's the heart that is the problem, but it's the same thing with technology. I mean, like, you can use it for good or bad. And like I do think that's just like those that are trying to use it for good, you know, is what you hope win. You can use anything for whatever and be concerned about it. But AI has been like, even though it's new, it has been very beneficial in helping people through their health issues. It's been very beneficial in helping people through uh I can attest to the health part.
Jim MosierI can attest to that personally. So, I can uh but um I will tell you that that the real thing is that it's just like with any other marketing tactic or any other t business tactic for real, there's no shortcuts, right? So, you have to put in the time, you have to understand the tools, you have to do it. You can't, I mean, to think that you can pay $67 a month for some rogue piece of software and it just handles everything for you, that's great in a fantasy world, but that's not it's you're probably gonna end up getting disappointed. And a lot of these lot of these small, inexpensive software as a service type things, I mean, they account for that. They account for the fact that their churn is about every three months they lose a client. You know, so uh through a customer. So they've constantly got to be getting people through. And then if they're not innovating, then the platform gets old, a new competitor is gonna come take place. So that's part of AI without the hype kind of helps you identify what who might be like if they're selling the sizzle and not the stake, you probably want to go ahead and pass on that big piece of software or whatever.
ShannonUm And for many that just want to sell sheds, want to haul sheds, want to just build sheds, they don't want to be caught up into, you know, that is part of business, you know, and there is a very old school way of doing business. You can still set some sheds out by the road, get some people to come in, maybe even fill out a paper contract. Nothing wrong with it. Just saying for those who are taking market share, they're investing into the future, which includes digital, your digital uh basically landscape, you know. And the question becomes uh uh uh if I just want to sell sheds, Jim, I just want to build sheds, I just want to like haul sheds or whatever it is, where does the rubber meet the road uh for them in like agency or like hiring an agency or like hiring somebody to take care of the stuff or trying to put all the broken pieces together? What's the answer?
AI As A Time Multiplier
Jim MosierI mean, the biggest thing when somebody comes to me, I mean the first the first questions I ask you know are generally some qualifying questions. I ask about how many buildings you sell. I it just gives me an I and what's your average selling price? That just gives me an idea of where you are currently at. And then I ask you, you know, what your goals are, right? Um where is it that that okay, if you were to hire my agency and we were to have this conversation again in six months, what would a successful engagement look like? And then we use that to set our target. And sometimes it's just not possible. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I mean, if you're if you're just starting out and you've sold five buildings so far and you've got a brand new shed lot, you're not gonna be at $10 million next year. I mean, I'm not saying you won't be, but I'm just saying the chances of you being at $10 million by next year are pretty slim, right? So, it's really a matter of knowing where you're starting and knowing the importance, important pieces to put into place in the right order in order to get you there, uh at the at the least expensive. I mean, I I really am a big fan of local visibility, and that bleeds over into AI because a lot of people go to AI and they'll ask for this, but there's actually statistics that show I can't quote you the exact source, maybe I'll get it for you for the footnotes of the podcast. But there are actually studies out there that show that people will go to AI and ask for a recommendation. So now that's opened up this whole industry of AI search optimization or GEO or AIO or whatever acronym they want to put on it.
ShannonHappened to us at the last shed show. I think I talked about it in an earlier podcast. We went to Mooyah, we met the guys from Eagle uh Eagleville that are selling ProTech trailers, uh utility trailers, getting into the shed lots. We go there, we get us a uh a Mooyah burger and a and a and a and a and a drink and ask the guy, where would you get? Because we do this all the time everywhere we go, where would you go find a shed? If you were looking for a storage shed, where would you go? Obviously, the answer that you get 95% of the time, oh, Lowe's Home Depot, right? But then you go beyond that and it's like, yeah, but what if I wanted to like support someone local or something? He's like, I don't know. Let me AI it. I don't know, let me chat it. And you're just like, whoa, I didn't hear let me Google it. I heard let me AI it for the first time.
Jim MosierPeople are starting to do that. I mean, and the different different uh AI engines do things a little bit differently. Obviously, ChatGPT is being you know the first to the market and they're you know they're one of the big players. Um Perplexity is one that I personally use. I've actually replaced Google with Perplexity for most searches, unless I'm specifically searching for a business that I know I want Google Maps to come up. But if I'm just doing research, I generally use Perplexity now.
ShannonBut Claude, are you a fan of Claude?
Jim MosierOh, I love Claude, yeah. I I use I use Claude and um uh as a matter of fact, in a lot of the software that we build now, uh Anthropic API is in the back end of it. Um I just I like Anthropic more than OpenAI from the um from just the back-end point, um, the number of tokens it uses, the efficiency at which it comes out. The fact that Claude will eliminate the M-dash. Do you know what an M-dash is? I don't. It's that little long dash that's uh you know, instead of a hyphen, it's the long dash that connects two words. Yeah. Well, it's overused in Chat GPT output. So, that's one of the things that I think. That's one of the things that you can almost always recognize AI content because of that stupid M-dash. Um But uh now I've lost my train of thought.
ShannonNo, you're that's really good because it's well, I mean, that is the the a lot of times the deciding factor. Obviously, I think when you see a social media post, for the most part, it's uh it's pretty like distinguishable most of the time between that and like an organic, you know, even the Google bought like Reddit, right? Or whatever to like consume like actual information. Because I think we do crave real thoughts and feelings from people, uh, and even in when they write them in a book, that they're not perfect because it's a real thought, it's a real person. That's why I've always said like people won't ask me, like, what are all the questions you're gonna ask me? What should I write down on the podcast? I'm like, you know what we should do is have a real conversation. I was about to say, am I doing this wrong?
Jim MosierBecause I just told you come in and we'll chat.
AI Search Habits And Attribution
ShannonYou did this perfect because this is what I prefer is to have the real conversation on the microphone. I'm always quoted as saying the best podcast will happen off air because we'll never be able to capture them with a mic. Well, we'd have to follow someone 24 hours a day, but yeah, it's uh I can tell you you and I have had conversations that I wish we were recording. So you know, it would offer value to the listener, and I, you know, but I'd have to have somebody 24-7 following us around just to like get some of this. And you try to capture some of that lightning in a bottle by putting it on behind a microphone, but then you got to develop your thoughts and you're like, what should I wear? How should I look? All these things. These are things that are like real, even when you think about owing a sales lot. How should the appearance of me look? How should the appearance of my lot look? Because this is something that's ingrained in us naturally. The one thing that people take away from it is the more like real and organic. So, a healthy mix seems to make sense, but who cares if it's AI generated? It's clean.
Jim MosierWell, the best I the best AI, the best use of AI is going to be in the background. Like in the in meetings. So, I I've got some AI tools that we use internally. So, if I get on a client, uh a call with a new client and I've had at least a couple of hours to prepare, I mean, I probably have a dossier on that potential client already, and I already know w what there is about them. Like AI supercharges that kind of research, right? Of finding things out. But the the big thing, like going back to AI search, I remembered my train of thought now. The big thing going back to AI search is that there's statistics that actually show that people will go out and search on AI, but then they go out to Google to check. They go back and they double check the results. So I'd be curious to see how many people that are listening to the podcast actually do that. They'll go out and they'll ask AI, hey, who's the best shed dealer in town or where can I go to have my shed moved or whatever? And AI is going to spit out a couple of results. So, then you start going and you start Googling searching names. So, that makes it tough for a marketing agency because a marketing agency can't quantify that. Like so if I'm if I'm tracking just pure metrics, right, and I'm not paying attention to all of the details, because there's it's impossible to report on, first of all. So, I have to actually look at I can kind of see what uh what type of brand searches are being done in AI, and I can kind of I can kind of estimate that. But then what I have to actually look at is I have to look for an uptick in in Google searches for my name. Like for instance, when when you get AI recommendations and people go out to Google and they search for you, they're searching for you. So you're gonna see an uptick in in brand-related searches coming to your site. That's one of the ways that you know that it's working. There's not a direct attribution. There will be, I'm sure, um, before too long. But as of right now, there's no direct attribution from an AI search to a um uh somebody walking on your lot or picking up the phone call or you know, or whatever.
ShannonAaron Powell Attribution data, those words start to become the things that move the needle. If it sounds like we're talking Mandarin or Spanish or some foreign language here, just know for the plain community, this is what it sounds like when you guys speak in Dutch. We have no idea what you're saying. We have no idea what you're saying. But how do you how do you bring that down uh uh as we start to wrap up? How do we bring that down, those thoughts down to the shed seller, the shed manufacturer who's like, look, I don't need to know all the details of this, Mr. Mosier. I just need to know how does it work for me? What does it cost? Things like that.
Costs, DIY Foundations, And Agency Speed
Jim MosierYeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, and and the cost is is relative. I mean, there are again, you can buy a copy of selling sheds online. I think it's on Amazon for 18 bucks. Um, you can buy a copy for that and you can establish a Google Business Profile, you can establish directory listings out there, you can, you can, you can give yourself a foundation of local search. Now, I will tell you, you know, where the agency value proposition comes into play is yes, you can do all of this work yourself, and yes, I've given you the roadmap to do so, but I can probably take that three-month process that it would take you, and I can do it in two weeks. Right. So that's the agency proposition. We have the tools, we have the software. I mean, just like you know, people who build sheds have Shed Suite or they have some sort of ERP software. Well, we have an operating system inside of our own agency as well. And uh our operate, you know, just as Shed Suite supports you building and manufacturing sheds and selling them and all of that, our stuff, our software actually monitors local results. It helps get the name address and phone number. You know, that's the one of the biggest things that that people and it still is an issue, even five years after writing selling sheds online. Name address and phone number are three biggies as far as if it doesn't match, then you've got all this fragmented stuff out there. But having it consistent, it's a powerhouse. It everything sends a signal, right? Everything sends a signal. Your social media now comes into play. That I actually, uh not too long ago on my Facebook timeline, I actually published Google's patent that shows why it takes 90 days for any kind of search engine optimization to take hold. And it's not, it's not just because it's marketing agency saying we need 90 days to show you results. There's actually a patent that Google has that when you post something and they index it in their index, it's 70 days minimum before it finds its place in its actual ranking. And until then, it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down, and it's gonna fluctuate. So if you're focused on that first 30 days, you're probably gonna have to have a drink because it's gonna be a good thing.
ShannonHappens all the time. Oh, which obviously SEO, one of the hardest things to sell, you know, because you've got to, in at least in my opinion, because you've got to convince people of something uh that they don't understand that it's going to take minimum this long. So it's an investment. This isn't a quick fix. And I think oftentimes you were talking about customer acquisition earlier and like how much longer it is to do this and to do that with customer acquisition, uh uh getting started, that two to three hour process, even in the beginning. That's necessary if we want to do a good job. We don't want to find out later that you know you're trying to move uh a totally different direction than what we were trying to take you because we didn't uncover the right information. This is sales. You're doing all that in the customer acquisition side to get their information to learn so you can serve them better. And there's just a mixture. You've got to like uncover, ask all these different questions. Um, um, I yeah, it's it's a thought that deserves a five-hour podcast for those who are interested. It deserves five minutes for those who don't care.
Jim MosierYeah.
ShannonRight? They just really are like, I don't know, or I or tell me more. Um, what's your best piece of advice to those in the shed industry right now? Just having your knowledge of the way that everything works, has worked, has come together, what we're seeing today, tech, non-tech, just kind of give us like, you know, your magic eight ball and I'll be quiet.
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Jim MosierFocus on the customer. What happens when they visit your website and fill out a form? What happens, how do they interact if you have live chat? How do you how are you following up with them after they fill out that form and become a customer or after they go into your 3D builder and they build their building and they submit it for a quote? What happens after that process and how can you make a 1% improvement in that? How can you just how can you make it 1% better? If you just focus on the 1%, eventually you're gonna run out of 1% and you'll you're gonna turn around and you're gonna be like, wow, it's been you know it's been six months, but look look at where I was and look at where I am. And those are the stories that we like to tell. Those are the stories that we like to do. But there's a process, as with anything. I mean, you don't go to the gym and start working out, and the next thing you know, you know, a week later you're swole. You know, I mean, it doesn't work that way. Yeah. Um same thing holds true. There's a lot of boring repetitive work that has to go into marketing and making sure those foundations are right. And um, you know, my advice would be focus on that customer experience and then figure out what boring work you need to do just to make it one percent better.
ShannonAaron Powell Shout outs in the industry. Any anybody you want to shout out, any like uh co co-working space there that people that have just been like super to work with? You don't have to, but if you got any like kudos you want to give?
Jim MosierI feel really bad because I did want to introduce you to somebody while you were in town, a good friend of mine, Larry Wood. I think I've talked to you about him. Yes. Um he's now podcast famous, I guess. But uh he owns a company here called Sheds for Less. He got you know a bunch of different lots. I don't know how many he has this these days. Very, very good guy. I would have loved for you to be able to meet him when you're here, but we're just gonna have to get you back.
ShannonPeter Miller said the same thing. We actually went to, for any of you that have come to Lakeland or know anything about it, we went to this nice little restaurant next to your office called 1961. And as we're eating there, he's telling me about Larry Wood. And I'm like, Jim's telling me about Larry Wood. And he's like, Yeah, I actually met with Larry here at 1961. I'm like, well, Jim was gonna eat it with us at 1961 uh today. And he's like, his office is next door. And it's funny how like networking happens when you just begin to cast the net and get out there, whether it's like get in your truck, go down, do some interviews. We've been staying home a lot lately because our grandbabies and things like that. But we want to see more of you, Shed Industry.
Custom Software, Risk, And Security
Jim MosierAnd uh I I've got to tell you, I've got to tell you, um, you know, I can I still get a lot of love from the Shed Industry, even though it's not uh I don't market to Shed Industry the way that I did when we had Shed Marketer. I folded Shed Marketer into our bigger agency only because uh and I told you this, you know, quietly last night at dinner, but uh I'll go ahead and say it on the podcast. You know, it became a race to the bottom. There were so many marketing agencies. Like you joked around that there was fifty. I probably I probably need both hands to count the number that was there. I mean I'm not joking in that. So, I don't like to participate, so I just decided to step into what's next. And what's next is I believe is going to be custom software and um and AI. And uh you know, by custom software, again, I'm not dogging these vibe coding things and the AI-generated software, but I'm gonna tell you really do need to have a software engineer look at it before you you actually think you have something, otherwise you could wind up with a big mess on your hands. One of my one of my larger clients here locally is an insurance agent, and the number of cyber claims has gone up. And and people don't realize if if if you're a business owner and you're going out and say, okay, well, I'm gonna create this nifty tool and then I'm gonna put it out there on my website, you know, it could have uh I mean I've seen everything from somebody waking up to uh a $2,000 OpenAI API bill because they had a a key that was exposed that somebody, some bad actor got a hold of and went out and charged up a whole bunch of stuff, and there's nothing you can do but pay it. Like so that's the you know You gotta be careful. Yeah, you gotta be careful.
ShannonI mean, you gotta be careful, and it's tough whenever you're talking about things that people don't understand on the level uh that you do. It's like you speaking uh uh uh about the jigs that are in your in your in your uh you know your bays for building sheds, and people are like, what are you talking about here? And you just you know your craft, and when you know your craft, uh you don't want to see somebody likee partially uh do your craft, but do a better job of marketing it.
Jim MosierYeah. And in a lot of ways, it's not any different than it's ever been. I mean, you know, you've always been able, you've always had web agencies that build websites and do marketing, but then you've always had Wix and Weebly and those do-it-yourself things, right? So now we have these people that are vibe coding and we have AI that's kind of like do-it-yourself and things like that. But to really build that into a tool that integrates into a workflow, I mean, like every business has its own pulse. It has its own way of operating and doing things. And sometimes off-the-shelf software can be like putting a square peg in a round hole. You know, it doesn't, it just it you have to change the way you work to adapt to the software. Where, you know, where I see the future is the opposite, because you can then adapt the software to the way you work, then whatever efficiencies you've already built into your process get magnified, right? And the other thing about it is that a lot of people don't think about it. There's uh at least there used to be. I'm not a an accountant, so I'll say that straight out, but there used to be RD tax credits you could claim. So, the cost of building a custom software system for your business uh is completely tax deductible, or at least it used to be, um, or amortized over time, I think is probably the better way to describe it. Again, not an accountant, so don't uh don't quote me on that. But the other thing is if you ever do sell your business, that software becomes a legitimate business asset that's actually worth money and will increase the value because when you know it's one thing to have a business, but it's another to have a business that has proprietary components that somebody would find valuable. Um and that's just uh that's just a little nugget drop I'll leave there.
Build To Fit Your Workflow
ShannonTrevor Burrus No, I love it. Uh these are the things that get people get whenever they speak with you and consult with you. Gosh, I would like maybe we have to cut this out. I'd love to have you on as a SG consultant to like help these people out. There's like so many people who need like these, like the this advice. And like though look, they're willing to pay for it when it costs when it saves the money, not cost the money. And that's what an investment is. It ultimately saves you money. But you've got your own thing going. But hey, I'm always open over here because I love your knowledge, and like you can turn that knowledge into help for people. And you know what? That should cost something, but ultimately saves them in the end.
Jim MosierBut yeah, well, you know, I feel like if I can provide value, it's all gonna work out in the end. I mean, it's kind of like uh I believe you've had John Feely on your podcast from the Shed Academy. Yeah. So recently I sat down with him inside of his Shed Lab private mastermind group, and I shared some things and I built them a custom AI for his people in his program and things like that. And I, you know, I just I just do that stuff. Because A, because I love to do it, and B, somewhere, somehow, some way the dots might connect in the future. And if they do, that's cool. And if they don't, that's cool. I mean, I'm out time.
ShannonThat's you know, uh drove up there to Long Island, met with John, still talked to him fairly regularly. Great guy. Love the program that he's built, you know. And I think he said on the podcast, I see I feel like I'm a bit of an outsider because I'm teaching people how to build sheds instead of like uh being a shed builder or whatever. And I said, No, you're and some of the guys who went through your class have gone on to become very successful and players in the industry.
Jim MosierSo we actually got connected with John through a gentleman that uh he came on board and uh he came on board as a client of ours and we took it on uh honestly as an experiment because it um it was a little outside of his price range, I guess if you would say, to work with us as an agency. But I was like, you know, I want to see if I can move the dial for this guy, right? You know, and it's like I love a challenge, so you know it was it was his lucky day, I guess. But anyway, long story short, um, you know, he was a member of John's program and you know that led to a couple of referrals, and then I wind up on the on the call with John himself, and uh he's like, you know, hey, I've got these plans, I'm redoing this uh program, which he did just release a new version of his program. So uh anybody that might be interested, um shameless plug for him.
ShannonAbsolutely. Love John. Like to support him in any way that we can. So yeah, I love what he does. So Well, I'll tell you what, it's been interesting, it's been thoughtful. I hope it hasn't sounded like gibberish to uh the audience. You know, but it really is the direction that I feel like not just the industry's going. I like to always say we're not agnostic from what happens in the world just because we're in sheds, or maybe even because we have a large portion of plain community or ex, you know, uh plane community. Um, like the world decides to shop and buy the way it decides to. And I know sometimes we're called to be separate from the world if we talk about our faith, but the reality is like the world's not gonna change based off of our culture, right? Or like what we're doing. They're gonna continue to shop the way they do. Uh I was thinking about Instagram and Snapchat turning into basically uh uh um Google in some cases, you know, for like the younger generation, because that's how they find places to eat, that's how they find places to shop. A lot of times they're not Googling it, they're and all these just recommendations from referrals from their friends and these different networks on social media and like all the tools that we have that's available to be able to connect. It really is an interesting world, and you gotta ask yourself, why does that affect me and sheds? I'm just some guy who builds sheds, sell sheds, you know. And it really does, but it's a it's a it's a very high-level conversation. But people like Jim are the ones who help make sense of it and they put it into English. So how do people reach you? We want to uh show love to Mosier Data however we can. Oh, I appreciate it. Reach out to you.
Jim MosierMosierdata.com. That's spelled M-O-S-I-E-R-D A T A.com. Um and our local phone number here is Area Code 863-687-0000. But uh but yeah, reach out. Uh, you know, even if it's just to have a conversation, I'm great with conversations and I love having them. And you know, it there's not gonna ever gonna be any pressure from this side. If you decide it's a fit and we work together, cool. If I'm just help you out, give you some advice, that's cool too. Hopefully somewhere in the future, you know, we'll paths and meet again.
R&D Credits, Asset Value, And M&A
ShannonIt's been nice knowing you for what five years now and just seeing your success and awesome and happy for you. Finally glad I got to come down here uh to Lakeland and actually I see you on Facebook all the time talking about your experiences here in Lakeland, how you're involved in the business community and all that. And uh I just I think a lot of you I wish you nothing but luck and well wishes in the future. And hopefully we'll talk again. Maybe we can give people a round two or something.
Jim MosierOkay, that sounds like a sounds like a great plan.
ShannonYeah, sounds good. Thank you, Jim.
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