Your Next Shed Lead Comes From The Feed

Your shed business can have great inventory, fair pricing, and strong salespeople and still feel invisible online. That’s the problem we tackle with Raymond Freedlander and Hal Licht from Simple Shed Marketing: how shed dealers and portable building pros can stop relying on Marketplace posts and start generating steady leads with Meta ads that actually convert.

We get specific about what’s working now, including short, story-driven video marketing that builds trust before a customer ever steps on the lot. Ray and Hal explain why the “person on camera at the lot” matters, how social proof like followers and reviews influences buying decisions, and why your page should act like a content warehouse that proves you’re active, real, and ready to help. We also dig into the shift in buyer behavior as more people use AI search tools like ChatGPT for complex purchases, and why your content is what those tools learn from.

From there, we talk shop: what should stay organic versus what deserves ad dollars, why boosting flyers usually disappoints, how to separate value deals from premium custom builds, and how messaging changes when you promote RTO, financing, or a high-end product with no discounts. We close with the unsexy truth that changes everything: speed. If you can’t respond fast, you will lose leads, even with great ads.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Geek Marketing

Velocity 360
Solar Blaster
Stryker Hunting Blinds
Cardinal Leasing

Transcript

Sponsor Messages And Ways To ConnectMet

INTRO 0:00

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

Cord 1:06

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Cord Koch coming to you today from a bit dreary, rainy, Southern Illinois. Metropolis. We are experiencing another round of showers. For those of you who listen weekly, we've gone back and forth. It feels like South Florida around here, which uh the guys that I am interviewing today, uh Raymond Freelander and Hal Licht uh from Simple Shed Marketing, they'll be able to appreciate that because they're from the Tampa area where daily showers and sweltering temperatures go hand in hand all the time. Um so I'm very much looking forward to talking to these guys. We have uh had some fellowship up in Pennsylvania. We'll we were able to meet up at the Shady Maple and have have a meal and talk through marketing uh right around the York post-frame show uh that that all of us attended. And I've been looking forward to getting them uh back on and really expanding this conversation for the benefit of you, the listener. So, um really looking forward to that. But before we get rolling, just a couple of quick ways to stay plugged in with us. Of course, you already know the Shed Geek call in line, Shannon Cell phone 618-309-3648. Call or text anytime, uh, anytime, day or night. He loves that. Uh email, info, INFO@ shedgeek.com. Uh, of course, you can always go and fill out a contact form on www.shedgeek.com. We always want to encourage everyone to not only come and check out the Facebook page where we have clips and videos and little pieces of information and knowledge, um, but also jump on the Shed Sales Professionals page. If you're not participating on there or if you're not in that group, jump in. Uh great conversations every day, every week, uh, to continue to propel the industry and the sales professionals in it forward. And of course, um, for any of you who have uh friends, family members, acquaintances who are in the playing community uh and are limited on what kind of technology they can use. We do have a plain community call in line. So, 330-997-3055 is the number there with a lot of great features. You can go all the way back uh to the beginning and listen to the Shed Geek podcast uh from those very first episodes all the way through this week's episode, and um and it'll keep your place. It will it will pick right back up where you called in last. So, uh really neat system that we have worked out there. Really quickly, I would like to talk um just for a second about our exclusive CRM provider of Shed Geek and the Shed Geek Media Network that is Velocity 360. Uh Brandon and Joe over there say, hey, look, stop letting revenue leak through the cracks. Every second a digital uh digital lead sits unanswered, money vanishes. If your team isn't responding to every single lead within 60 seconds, you are losing deals to the competition. If you're tired of manually chasing leads, getting ghosted, and suffering from low response rates, it's time to change the game. Make your business market proof with velocity 360. Close more digital leads in less time, plug the leaks and capture the revenue left on the table. Auto-track your close rate by marketing source so you see your exact ROI. They seamlessly integrate your 3D tools, Meta, and Google Ads so all your leads end up in one single organized place. You won't ever have to become a tech expert. Just talk to the guys at Velocity360. You can call them at 865-672-8175 or visit them over at velocity360crm.com/ sheds. Uh, and that actually brings us to uh maybe a good first question. Have you guys uh started integrating? Uh out of I don't know, you guys are still kind of uh you know fresh to the industry, bringing fresh perspective, fresh skills. Have you had any integrations with the team over at Velocity yet? Have you been introduced to Joe and Brandon?

Raymond Freeland 5:07

We have not actually been introduced to Joe and Brandon yet. So, that is definitely a conversation that you make that introduction.

Cord 5:16

You guys would get along really good. Young guys with lots of energy,

How Ray And Hal Got Here

Cord 5:20

um, the same as you all, and I know that from spending uh a day or so with you out in Pennsylvania having a great time. So, you know, I guess I kind of know because I'm the type of person that whenever you sit down to eat with someone uh and have fellowship, you kind of ask the what their background is and how they found themselves in this crazy, you know, weird, sometimes upside down industry. Um so I kind of have heard some of this, but I think we usually like to start out and really try to get the listeners up to speed. So maybe um Ray or Hal, whoever wants to go first, but you know, just how have you, what has led you in your life uh to winding up with uh Andrew and Peter and Peter and the Boyles's and the millers down in Florida and uh being part of the uh Simple Marketing and the uh Simply Shed Talk, uh Making Sales Simple, all the Simple things. How have we gotten here, boys?

Raymond Freeland 6:25

So essentially, we started digital marketing during the COVID times about seven, eight years ago. We were in the industry, we were not in the shed industry, but we were doing meta ads, content creation, posting on Facebook and Instagram, driving traffic to local businesses that way. So, we actually started in the furniture industry, and that is exactly how we got so fortunate to meet the boils and now kind of get into the shed industry. You know, they've had shed lots for as long as we've been doing furniture and uh marketing ourselves. So, it kind of was that sweet spot where we met them, we helped them with some furniture stuff, and then we got into the shed industry, started doing some shed lots, and uh we see great success with meta marketing.

Cord 7:14

That's awesome. That's awesome. Um, and you guys, the two of you actually, you all have been friends since college. Am I remembering this right? Like you guys how like tell us tell us tell us uh tell us all the good, the bad, and bad, and the ugly of the you and you and Raymond meeting up in college. We've been good friends for a long time.

Hal Licht 7:36

Oh, yeah, definitely. Uh essentially, I just I moved there, no friends, and I saw him and another friend sitting down at a table and just walked up and said, Hey, can I sit down and have lunch with you guys? Kind of like you know, having lunch, sitting down to something, get to know a lot about them. And from there, we ended up moving in with each other that year and got super close and started getting into it. That's awesome.

Cord 7:58

That's awesome. And you guys have some, am I remembering right? Like, had you started in in like e-com as well, like you had some e-com product experience. Maybe uh I've may I'm a little fuzzy, but you were kind of doing e-com for the furniture, right? Is that right?

Raymond Freeland 8:16

Yeah, so we essentially started with websites and like selling products via Facebook ads, and we had some success there, lots of lots of logistical issues um with products and stuff like that. And we decided that we can do this for businesses and really help like local businesses, we can provide our services. And I remember telling you, maybe you remember, it's kind of started with like Ty Lopez. Like we watched a bunch of Ty Lopez stuff. Uh, he was like, you know, start a social media marketing agency. We were young, we were hungry, and you know, we offered free services at first to get our first clients and saw huge results. And then it kind of was a snowball compounding effect from there.

Cord 9:04

That's awesome. Yeah, I think a lot of people were inspired in that era, you know, by Ty Lopez, by um, I mean, you know, really there was kind of a bevy there for a while. Um, COVID had so many opportunities when it came to uh e-commerce or you know, home commerce. Obviously, the shed industry benefited from that because uh so many people were, you know, they were spending money uh from their couches and on their homes and on the things that go around a home and everything else. Um you know, so yeah, that was a wild time. And you know, it feels like as we've sort of settled in to um you know to the economy post-COVID, obviously those strategies are still very much in play. Um, and you know, honestly, are some of the things that make people the most competitive? I know just from talking to you guys how passionate, passionate you are about actual storytelling. And so maybe, you know, how do you feel like the storytelling, the video, that sort of very niche, you know, true social media marketing, like where do you feel like that fits in the shed industry and maybe just like in the broader economy right now?

Hal Licht 10:22

Well, I think it's as far as video goes and like the way we do video with the person being in the video at the lot, it just helps to build trust. And like them seeing

Trust Starts With Video Storytelling

Hal Licht 10:31

the person in the video and then messaging with them and then coming in and seeing the same person, it builds trust with the customer before they even step foot on the lot. And then once they're there, they see you again, they already trust you, and you're just more likely to get that sale.

Cord 10:45

Yeah, I totally agree. And it um, you know, at least from the perspective of what it seems um Google and the other search engines are you know looking for or wanting, there seems to be a move toward, you know, just like participation in Google Business Profiles and a website, you know, is basically a standard of doing business at this point, or at least doing business with people who you want to find you. I guess if you're if you're doing business with people in kind of a circular way where you don't need any new customers, maybe there are still kind of people out there who are surviving that way. But you know, if you want new leads, new customers, you have to be discoverable. Um, and more and more it seems like there is maybe not an explicit uh, you know, Google is being very measured in how they describe this, but they're getting really close to saying um, you know, you have to participate in social media, right? Like you just you have to be there, you know. Does it have to be good? You know, does it have to, you know, what are the what are the requirements? You know, a little more vague, just as a Google business profile performance is still to this day pretty vague. You know, um they kind of tell you more or less what the factors are, but they don't tell you the weights. They don't want people gaming the system. I guess maybe Ray, like how do you feel, what do you feel like is the uh the importance or the onus, you know, on the industry right now of saying, hey, like, you know, whether you like Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or YouTube or Snapchat, I'm I don't really, I think Snapchat's a step too far for most businesses. But my point is, like, what is the what do you feel like is the thrust of where you know businesses should be participating just to make sure they that they get those benefits?

Raymond Freeland 12:45

Yeah, so I'll touch on two things. First, I'll touch on Google. Um, we see a lot of people searching on AI these days, which means they are no longer searching on Google. Google is great for Google Maps, searching local businesses, it's doing a great job at that. And yeah, you need to have a high star count, a lot of uh ratings to show that people can trust you. You know, the more people that are giving you reviews shows you that you're trusted in your local area and in your community. But that

Google Maps Reviews And AI Search

Raymond Freeland 13:18

being said, lots of people are searching AI, and it goes all the way. Even the older folks are searching on AI, uh, they're searching ChatGPT these days. These businesses would not be multi-billion dollar businesses if people weren't using them. So, Google is kind of losing a little bit of its dominance uh in that search engine industry. Uh so that is something to think about. Now, obviously, lots of us use Google, we still do, but I find myself going to AI more times than not uh when I'm searching a question, or even if I'm searching for good products, I am going to AI and asking uh about a product. Now, that kind of leads into the meta thing. 60% of people's waking time on average is spent on the internet, and it's not on Google. People are spending that time on social media, and that is why it's so important to have that presence on Meta. And I was kind of thinking about this the other day before we were, you know, before getting on this podcast. Like when you go and buy a product on Amazon, sometimes you look at how many times someone bought it that month. You know, it had a thousand purchases this month, therefore it's trusted. Well, that kind of goes hand in hand with followers on Meta, on Facebook, on Instagram. When they have a lot of followers, it kind of shows that they're trusted. It's that social proof that you need to make that purchase. You want to purchase something that has a lot of local community followers, and um that's kind of where I see the industry going at this point, is when you're on the internet, it is most likely YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. It is a social media platform, and that's where this free time is being spent when you're scrolling on the phone, when you're scrolling on you know the desktop. It's not really Google, even though you probably are spending some time there searching. For you know, your free time, it is on social media, and you want that presence.

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Cord 17:30

Complexity, I think, is where the difference is happening on products, right? It feels to me like there is um a shift that's starting to happen where we have those of us who use AI, now the three of us are probably over-indexed for this, right? Because we're in marketing, we're like we're we sit at a desk all day. Um, you know, so like we're very familiar. But I think we've all started to get this like threshold in our mind, you know, above which when it comes to complexity, AI is actually better at just uh synthesizing whatever all of that space like above a certain level of complexity is. When it comes to simple products, you know, I don't think anybody's typing in where to buy paper clips, you know what I mean, on into a chat bot, right? Like there's no point to it's there's nothing to know, there's nothing to learn. But as we well know, I mean, sheds is a um a high complexity purchase. Maybe people don't realize that at first, you know, it's hard to say. I think we're gonna need um you know a couple years worth of like um you know high involvement, high penetration uh AI to really understand some of these things. But um so maybe people are entering thinking all sheds are the same, right? So they're kind of treating it as that lower level. Maybe some people have enough knowledge to be like, well, obviously there has to be construction quality differences. Let's explore that, right? Like what makes what makes a good shed, and then I mean if you're any good, which again, we're over-indexed, the common, the public may not be very good at this, but if you understand AI, the place to start is show me the complexity and then work backwards to the end, right? You actually want to understand um what it is that makes a shed, you know, uh higher quality, lower quality, uh priced correctly or overvalued, blah, blah, blah. And then you really want to kind of prompt it with that first and then work your way back. So, you know, I think that just brings it full circle to say, well, where in the heck is you know, is AI getting any of these answers? And the truth is it's coming straight from your content, whether that content is website content, whether it is video content, um, you know, whether it is written content on the posts that you put um, you know, on your on your social media, you know, channels. Um, you know, one of the things that we have really embraced is a strategy that says, look, you know, your page, channel, like whatever that box is that your profile sits in, is a warehouse, not only for your customer to scroll back through and see that you are active and you are knowledgeable and you do business regularly and you seem to be legit, but that's a warehouse that that AI is going to effectively, you know, index and pull from in the same way that uh you know that traditional Google search does now, which of course is being augmented by Gemini, right? So, even Google isn't Google. You know, Google now has more these layers to it uh and more coming, obviously. So, um how do you all approach, we've been having some of these internal discussions. Um I see a lot in the industry where um where companies are using what I would consider to be like an organic post, you know, where you're just kind of brand building or talking about quality or talking about availability or whatever. And they kind of run those as actual ads versus having a more specific what should

Ads Versus Organic Posting Strategy

Cord 21:21

we put money behind? What is an advertisement and what is an organic post or kind of you know uh just marketing in the sense of an unpaid piece of that. Like, where do you guys draw those lines? How do you see that? I mean, this is right in your wheelhouse for like where which content should go which direction?

Raymond Freeland 21:40

So, we do not do any advertisements on flyers, photos, carousels, any of that. Uh, that is a part of your warehouse. That is for someone who's going to your page to make sure you're legit, scroll through and make sure that you're active, kind of just like you were saying. People want to watch videos. And I see this time and time again. The image ads are no longer performing like they used to. 10 years ago, sure, great. You probably got great leads from your image ads. But kind of like when we started this discussion, you need to tell a story. And you only have so much time to tell your story. And that needs to be your ad. Your ad should be somewhat of a story that you're telling on why your ideal customer, the person on the other side of the phone, should buy from you, right? What's your warranty look like? How are you gonna, you know, a bunch of things about the shed. Just like we were talking about the complexity of AI, you know, most people think it's a maybe a simple purchase, but it's really not. And it's a high-ticket item as well. And you want something that's gonna last in your backyard. So it's the same thing kind of going on social media, uh, when where you're spending those ad dollars, you want to tell a story, you want it to be a video, you want the customer on the other side of the phone to be able to connect with you. And that's gonna how you're gonna get the highest qualified lead or the highest qualified customer from your ad dollars.

Cord 23:22

Yeah, yeah, no, I think I think that's absolutely right. You have to weave that story into everything. Um, you know, I guess we just bounce back and forth around how um, especially on Facebook. I mean, you know, hopefully, hopefully most people listening are engaging in some level of Facebook promotion, whether that be organic posting, which of course we know, you know, if you're still relying on just posting, whether it's uh marketplace or whether it is, you know, on your page or into other Facebook groups. Like if you're just relying on that, you you're not getting the reach. Facebook just very simply does not allow business pages to have the reach of normal pages. I mean, you can every now and then, right? You can you can sort of catch virality, you know, in in a little bit of a way, but not in any significant sense on a day-to-day basis. You know, my wife frequently uh, you know, she owns her own salon and you know, she'll make a post about someone's hair, and you know, she'll and it'll look great, right? I mean, beautiful. She did such a great job. She's a blonding specialist, so if you need your hair blonded, uh, you know, give my wife a call. Um, but uh, but she'll do such a good job, and but she'll be disappointed with the fact that she's you know not receiving those kind of inbound inquiries, you know. And I'll just say, like, I mean, I know you've and she's got a great following for our small little town. She's got like four and a half thousand people, you know, following her Facebook page in a town of 6,500, right? So, you know, it's a great following, but the reality is um, you know, Facebook's only serving that up to a couple hundred people, right? And if it's something that is, you know, uniquely uh engaging, maybe they'll say, well, we'll serve it up to another 200. And you know, but like the way they're doing it is not putting that in front of your followers. So, you know, you have to be using the paid side, you know, the actual ads manager side um of Facebook. But do you all think that I mean for us, we always want to you know really try and drive you know promotion. Now, I mean, to me, promotions have a story, right? We always say, like, we do not want our customers' promotions to just be five percent off, ten percent off, whatever else. Like, we are in the shed industry. We know what is valuable, like we know what genuinely brings value to people, whether that is you know, site preparation, uh, you know, free delivery is one that that's out there a lot. Um, you know, I think, you know, you can see it however you want, but like the uh, you know, one payment delivers, right? Like that is that's the type of paid advertisement that absolutely gets leads coming in the door. How do you all feel about like what that, you know, how much of your of your pay, how much of your actual budget should go to pure storytelling versus you know promotion? And I know that's a loaded question, but like how do you all approach things like that?

Raymond Freeland 26:39

So honestly, most of the ad spend we do is somewhat of a sale, right? We're offering mostly a promotion, um, discounts, things like that. Now, recently we did one and our customer said no discounts. I'm a premium service, I do no discounts. And I said, you know what? That is totally fine. So he's still getting great costs per lead. He told his story. He basically said that he can help you build a premium product in his videos, kind of like we were just discussing. And there's no issue with that, you know, you don't have to always offer a sale in order to get leads through the door. In fact, if you wanna, if your offer and your promotion is a premium product, then do so, you know, because you're building that trust still. It's like, you know what, we don't have a sale, but I can guarantee you we have a premium product that'll last 50 years, and that's a promotion in itself that will really generate um people that want to buy from you.

Cord 27:51

Yeah, yeah.

Raymond Freeland 27:52

No, I think that's right.

Hal Licht 27:53

A lot of times the customer won't know like the quality behind your product, and that story of him telling us about it and explaining every little detail really helps them understand and come in.

Cord 28:05

100%, 100%. One thing that we've been uh uh just to kind of like break those two apart, because I think there's a lot of companies uh out here, and really just the market itself. I mean, as companies chase the market, you wind up adopting, you know, the strategies that that work, right? I mean, if you're a good competitor, you go and find it. So, you know, I think there's so much at both ends right now, right? I think there is there is um a market, you know, K-shaped economy. I put I put a post out there on the shed sales, Shed Sales

Premium Builds Value Deals And Financing

Cord 28:41

Professionals page last week, um, and was just asking, like, you know, are people changing the way that they are marketing, messaging, advertising to try and match the um the bottom of that K, right? Where you know customers are kind of sliding down into that area where they are price shopping pretty hard, right? They're price shopping, they're payment shopping, um, you know, um they're looking for options, whether it be you know, RTO, true finance, even options inside of that. How many uh RTO programs? Um, and then on the top end, um, you know, that is that seems to be sliding down, at least in the companies that we work with, it seems to then be that you know you have your ultra customized, you know, HOA, full build, um, and it's a tightrope to try and walk both of those, you know, both of those lanes within a brand, but I've seen brands that are you know able to do it, especially across the south, where I think there's just kind of an understanding that you're always going to have your value line. But I guess have you all seen that? Do you have any thoughts or insights into you know how do you kind of match up uh how do you go chase each piece of the market with your you know advertising marketing strategy?

Raymond Freeland 30:05

So we see somewhat of it, you know, people are offering, and I think that this is common in the industry, you know, it's kind of like if you want something discounted, it's gonna be a repo, it's gonna be a 2023 model, it's gonna be a 2024 model, it's gonna be missing some features, right? Maybe some insulation or something, might not come with the full warranty. And then you also might have that premium new custom build product, right? Where you can build it fresh, put the windows where you want, pick what doors you want, color it all to your spec, get the full installation. So, it's you can kind of walk the tight rope if you want to, but you can't do both in the same video. Or maybe you can a little bit, but I don't recommend it. You know, I recommend that you put out a repo video, a discount video, you run some ad spend there, and then you put out your premium product, your custom bill, and run some ad spend there, and you'll get two different kinds of leads. And um, we see this too with if you pitch RTO, you're gonna get kind of a different lead than if you pitch maybe a 0% finance, right? These you're gonna get two different credit score leads depending on what your content represents.

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Cord 32:52

Yeah, 100%. Um there's no doubt. And then, you know, then it comes down to uh how good is your system uh with attribution. Do you know whenever, you know, are you tagging that right as that as that style lead when it comes in? You know, so your salesperson, um, even down to um, you know, switching up the what that automation is or whatever else. Um, you know, so we're gonna have to call Joe and make sure that that we're on top of all those strategies. Um, but uh well I can tell you guys are obviously like very passionate about the video, you know, social media like side of these things. Um do you recommend? I know we just kind of ran through it quickly, but like what are your recommendations for not just Facebook, but then you know, should people be repurposing these videos over onto uh TikTok? Obviously, Meta, you know, at least if you're using you know ads manager or you know, if you're in the meta suite, you can just kind of double dip at the same time. But you know, TikTok, Facebook, like what are your uh or TikTok, YouTube, like what are do you have any thoughts on how far should you stretch this video?

Posting Across TikTok YouTube Meta

Hal Licht 34:08

Yeah, I think it could go on all for the most part, all platforms. And maybe not every single video you make goes on all platforms, but like majority will be spread out. Because there's just different demographics on TikTok. TikTok's a lot younger, Facebook's a lot older. So, I mean, just posting that video can hit different people depending on what platform you're using.

Raymond Freeland 34:29

And TikTok, TikTok ads manager is a lot more less complex than Meta. It's a lot harder to target your proper audience on TikTok. It's a lot more difficult. YouTube, as far as ads go, it's kind of harder to bring those leads in, you know, get a name, start a conversation, get them in the messenger, find out what they want. You're it's a little tougher. Um, so we see the most success on meta. However, post everywhere. Literally post those videos everywhere, like Hal was saying.

Hal Licht 35:08

Yeah, even if you just post to TikTok and let it go organically, that's better than not using it on TikTok at all. Right, right.

Cord 35:15

You guys were saying earlier, and I think you're right about this. Um, you know, the sort of litmus test, whenever you click onto a page and you know, you see their follower account, um, you know, you just kind of, you know, you're making a judgment based on whatever your own frame of reference is about how popular or unpopular that thing is. So I mean, this is something that I feel like gets wound up being put into a taboo corner almost sometimes, but like, you know, is it advisable, you know, if you're getting something off the ground or you're you know, you're kind of starting this effort, or maybe you're just revamping this effort, you know, like would you all say that going and you know, effectively buying followers? I don't even know exactly how to do this, but I know that there are sort of like farm, you know, like bot farms or like farms or something. Like, how do you all feel about just like boosting or supercharging in that type of way?

Raymond Freeland 36:15

So, we could get into it. Um, one, I do not recommend buying followers in the sense of like mass buying random followers, like from a website or something. Do not do this. Do not do this. If you want to buy followers, you can effectively do this via the ads manager on Facebook in your community, right? Okay, and you can target potential shed buyers, right? Ideally, it's in your community, you can only deliver so far, nobody's delivering nationwide, it's just not happening. Uh, with the price of gas these days, it is not happening. So, geo-target your area on Meta and run some follower campaigns on whatever you want. It could be a flyer, we recommend a video.

Hal Licht 37:04

Yeah, definitely.

Raymond Freeland 37:05

But if you want to build that social proof, you want to pass the litmus test, do it. You're starting a new business, you're getting into this venture, do it. I recommend it, honestly. But just do it the right way. Don't pay seven dollars for a thousand followers from God knows what country, right? Right, do it the right way and do it in your community.

Cord 37:33

Sorry, go ahead. Well, I was just saying it generally those are those are like very effective on a cost per basis.

Hal Licht 37:41

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's normally very low. If you're running the right type of video, the cost is very low per follower.

Cord 37:49

Yeah, I think that's I think that's good kind of insight because you know, so often the industry is so, I mean, gosh, I mean you guys probably hear this too, especially kind of being like a you know meta-centric, um, you know, like video advertising type of a company. Um, but all the time, I mean, you know, step one for us a lot of times does wind up being like, well, we got to get meta ads on board, right? Because you're coming to us from a place of not having any of the digital assets that that like you need to like really start to compete in this area and that area, you know, and start like being able to turn the turn the dials and turn this up and turn this down and whatever else. But you know, if you're coming to us and it feels like a lot of times it's almost in desperation, right? I mean, it's people who have gotten to the point that they know that they're like slipping behind now, whether they can literally look down the street and tell that like the lot, you know, on the other end of town uh is just moving more sheds, or whether they've noticed it on the production side where they're just not, you know, they're not getting the orders that they that they would have expected, you know, this time last year or two years ago or whatever, you know, they're kind of already in the crunch when they call us. And I mean, our you know, usually we say, hey, look, you know, you need a new website, you need better lead capture, you need 3D builder, right? Like you, you need all these things. Uh, you know, we need to start doing SEO because you're blah, blah, blah. You're uh, you know, uh and Google Business Profile SEO, and you know uh how AI plays into that now. You need, you know, so like there's all these things, but like what do we fall on first? You gotta get Facebook ads, right? Like if you need if you need leads tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, like if you need these things, like we've got the guys to work the leads, we've got the guys to build the buildings. I mean, the obvious answer is just like Facebook is what is going to generate the best cost. Now it's gonna be work. I mean, you know, like it's going to be more work. These are disruptive ads, you know, you're going very likely going to have a you know a lower um you know true conversion rate, sale conversion rate, you know, off of a off of a meta ad than you would off of a Google ad or something that is more intention-based. Um but either way, like we'll flip we'll put 50 leads in the door and you close them at a at a you know 5% rate, you got two and a half, two and a half buildings sold, right? You know, and so anyway, like I definitely believe exactly the sort of approach that you guys are you know talking about here. Maybe so whenever you have you've jumped in, you're working with um uh Andrew and Peter and Gary and Peter Miller, like tell us a little bit of give us some firsthand um you know experiences and results, you know, because I think that you guys are obviously putting a uh winning strategy in place. So, how is this hitting the ground down there in Florida?

Raymond Freeland 41:01

So, we've seen good success with it, like great success for the most part. Um, you know, I don't want to get too much into it. They're

Florida Results And Fast Lead Response

Raymond Freeland 41:09

obviously the greatest, greatest guys there could be. But when we started running ads and doing Facebook strategy down here in Florida, we noticed a huge difference. The sales guys' commissions went up, probably double. Um they got more leads than they know what to do with. And it's really good. You know, when you start, when you do it with kind of the strategy that we've developed, you know, 30-second videos, little sale in there, some sort of promotion, uh free delivery kind of thing, you get a lot of leads. Almost more than one person can handle. Yeah, like you can see 10 to 20 leads a day. And like you just said, even if you only close 5%, which I think it's closer to 20, are buying a building, 20. Uh, I think it's yeah, probably 15 to 20 percent are actually buying a building, higher than that are coming to the lot and at least checking them out, getting on a phone call, learning more. Um, it's a lot, it's a lot. So, a lot of these salespeople kind of weren't ready for that jump of because if you're not doing it on meta, if you're not actually producing content on meta and running leads and bringing those leads to the door, then where are your leads actually coming from? The website, you know, that has maybe some Google ads spend on it. And if you're not spending Google ads, digital marketing dollars there, then how many people are really filling out your website form, right? If you're not spending ad dollars there, you got to be spending ad dollars somewhere, otherwise, how many leads are you really getting? Uh so to go from almost none or the people driving by the lot to having that social presence is a huge jump. And some of the salespeople aren't ready for it, you know. Some of the and this is this isn't just in Florida. This is basically all the lots we deal with. It's a lot, it's 10 to 20 leads a day uh that you have to text, call, you know, follow up with. And just like you said, you got to do it in a timely manner. You can't wait till the next day in the beginning when we were talking. You can't wait too long to reach out to these people. They want the instantaneous response. When they reach out to you, they want you to get back to them that second, basically, you know, that minute. So yeah, it's a learning curve for sure. But back to your point, the people who are drowning and need something, that's your answer. Go to Meta, start getting. some leads.

Cord 44:01

Yeah, and that's a big portion. I mean at this point, I don't know that I would you know I don't know that I would say I mean it really is though. It is the majority of individual lots. You know, like it may not be the majority of individual companies because I think at the manufacturer level, you know, you've definitely seen an uptick in like, okay, we're gonna have to adopt a digital strategy in our whole footprint, right? And then some of them, you know, deal with that differently that rubs dealers you know the right way or the wrong way, depending on kind of how much they're laying their digital operations, you know, over top of their dealer locations. But you know, I think from a manufacturing perspective, lots of people have kind of caught up and there's the dollars you know from the manufacturer to actually support that. But I mean the majority definitely the majority you know it may not be by a whole lot now but you know the majority of these locations when you say are you advertising on Facebook they say yes but what they mean is we're posting in Facebook marketplace. You know and so you know like it's I mean I don't know what the percentage is. It feels to me like it's still probably from an in from a dealer location perspective it's probably still 70 30 right like you should still probably have 70% of dealers who are not actively truly in the ads manager right who are not truly running a true campaign. These days you know some of the depending on what the content is you know um like that the boost I mean it's basically like running a performance max campaign on Google where you kind of just let the algorithm run with it. But I mean to me you're like you're not going to get you're never going to get the actual uh cost per uh you know cost per lead your cost per metrics are always you know are never going to be able to compete with truly running a campaign out of ads manager um what if what if some of the you guys have obviously been around to some of these dealers I can see it on your faces that you've got stories of the type of thing I'm talking about here. So, like what are what are some of the uh ways that you're able to you know just talk people through what that that transition to actually having a little bit of a budget and having a little bit of professional video and obviously it can be intimidating like how do you guys approach some of these dealers where you show up and you're like oh my goodness gracious I mean it's a miracle that they're that they're like getting leads you know like how do how do you walk people how do you get people from where they are to where they need to be I guess every shed hauler takes his own journey a calculated path to a desired end ownership.

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Hal Licht 48:03

So, if they're uncomfortable with being on camera what with a with AI and some of the new like voiceover generation we can clone their voice or we can do something like that just make it a little bit more comfortable for them and then use like footage of sheds and layer that on top of the AI voiceover. And that makes it a little easier for them to kind of step into it and then as they get comfortable most of the time they end up wanting to be on the camera and end up liking it.

Raymond Freeland 48:28

But to get into it that helps a lot yeah yeah, so essentially yeah a lot of people and especially

AI Voiceovers When You Cannot Film

Raymond Freeland 48:37

you know some of the Amish and Mennonites cannot be on camera and that's okay you can still get really good lead generation with what Hal was saying you know b-roll of the sheds video of the sheds with a voice right some sort of voice and text uh you can get those leads that you're talking about but again if you're not using the ads manager and you're just boosting a post you're not customizing it enough you're not going to get the results you need so get in the ads manager play with it or hire right or hire a company that knows what they're doing. And uh that is your best bet. If you're a manufacturer and you want to increase your manufacturing subsidize your dealers give the dealers some ad spend give them some uh marketing budget because that'll motivate them to sell more sheds and they need lead inflow so do it why not because otherwise like you said the dealer is out of pocket some money they have to spend they have to put some money down to one do it themselves and put ad dollars into the system or two hire properly and also put add dollars into the system so I recommend taking the step obviously you see a huge inflow of leads and a huge inflow of sales like we notice a huge difference and if you're hungry enough to do so do it.

Cord 50:08

If you own your own shed lot and you're working in the office every day but you're not seeing people come through the door do it because otherwise you're gonna drown to the people who are doing it who are taking that step yeah and it's such a good point on the you know I mean I have been a skeptic big time on AI video right like I mean I'm a I'm a skeptic of AI in general not that it isn't helpful gosh I mean like I said I use it more every day um you know than most kind of average people do but um you know the videos have really gotten really good um so the videos are not AI that's the whole the footage is not AI we're filming the footage only the voice just the voice and the actual voiceover for the video is oh I see what you're saying when we do it when we the way we produce these videos the footage of the sheds is not AI.

Hal Licht 51:09

Yeah, it's footage on a camera like professionally taken and then just with the voiceover behind it.

Raymond Freeland 51:14

Yeah, so, those AI videos it's the b roll that we shoot exactly with an AI voice.

Cord 51:20

So, only the voice is AI and you wouldn't know you literally would think it's you would not know you would think it's someone they hired a voiceover actor and made a voiceover and just put it on the video yeah yeah for sure I've I saw last night um somebody posted something that was and of course they're doing this in little I mean you know two and a half to three second you know uh uh clips right I mean they're cutting every two and a half to three seconds because I'm sure it gets a little wonky if you don't kind of cut constantly but um I saw like a uh um oh my goodness gracious the um not Lord of the Rings but the show with the dragons um you know I'm talking about Game of Thrones yes I saw a game of thrones like modern day you know type of a little like AI spoof and I mean look I'm not uh anybody who listens this podcast I put out a whole uh a whole monologue that was owed to the Luddites being like hey I am skeptical of whether or not this stuff can actually get over the hump but you know there really is and I'm sure it's very high end you know like I'm not messing around inside of this like video you know generation world I'm sure that it's using a ton of tokens and everything else it's expensive yeah extremely expensive you know so like I'm sure that that in a lot of ways it winds up being cost prohibitive because why would you not just take a camera out and like I mean in our business right and what we're doing why would you not just go shoot the sheds um you know but I can see where you know whenever you start thinking conceptually about how can we be creative with this that or the other I can see where it's getting close. I'm not saying that I would want you know something with Shed Geek's name on it to have an AI video today but I mean the fidelity on those things and you know a lot of it is because you're prompting it with famous people who have you know 5,000 pictures of them out there in the world and so you can you can create very high fidelity you know kind of actions with those characters but um you know it's just it's ever changing and I found myself um um watching some of the verticals especially right like you know I found myself knowing that what I'm looking at was 100% you know created by AI and again we're back to uh game of thrones these little things where it's like uh you know house such and such what's the backstory of this and then it's kind of doing the thing that um oh the guy who did the baseball in the Civil War it's where they're taking a picture and they're just like panning across it right that Ken Burns style of like little clips and basically you're taking an image and panning. But like I'll find myself sitting there watching a two minute little video that's like the lore of some fictitious house or whatever. And I'm like gosh that was really good. And I know in the back of my mind that that was 100% just an AI produced video you know but anyway I'm maybe I'm getting a little off track here and I know that's you know and I'm still with you. I'm still going to my official recommendation is take shoot the video do the real thing be authentic but I do think that it's getting close enough that at least in all the creative ways that I know you know you all believe in and we believe in right like you know how do you actually express that auth authenticity you know I think that some of these tools are actually getting to the point where um you can express some of those like brand qualities um you know in a nice little creative subset right so anyway I'm sorry I went on a little bit of a tangent there but I mean it just excites sorry AI videos the platforms are kind of cracking down on it a little bit because they're realizing too that you can't let these AI videos go too viral due to like misinformation and the fact that they're not legitimate.

Raymond Freeland 55:39

So, the platforms are really trying to crack down like YouTube will no longer monetize like AI videos right uh Facebook and Instagram's trying to crack down on it too. So, again kind of like you're just saying use real video you know it's okay if it's just off your iPhone it's okay if it's just off your Android it's okay if it's on the selfie camera right at least you're being genuine you're producing that authenticity and you're trying to make a connection with people in your community right the person on the other side of the phone.

Cord 56:14

And if you can do a good job at that you will onboard leads and people who want to shop with you yeah so maybe this is uh uh I think you guys I mean obviously I've met you and sat with you and kind of know your passion for what you do so you know I'd really just like as we start to wrap up here maybe just tell us like what is what excites you guys about the next you know three months three years um you know in the shed industry where it's

What Excites Us Next And Events

Cord 56:48

going I think you should definitely plug uh the guys there with you know uh Shed Sales Summit obviously coming up in September and then again in February national shed show uh so if you want to plug those things that's fine but like what what's exciting you guys about moving forward and like where this industry is going and where your discipline you know where uh marketing video Facebook ads where does that fit into uh the track you know that that excitement so I can start I'll let Hal finish um one of the coolest things about the shed industry is everybody is so great there is so many good people in the shed industry like so many genuine nice great people we have not worked with a single person who has been like bad blood or you know a little wonky everybody is so nice and that is kid I'm just kidding I'm just beezing out there don't get mad at me audience but it's like they're such good hard workers and I don't know it's something about the industry that's really exciting working with people who want to work hard who are in the country who you know are in these maybe even rural areas want to provide for their family they're just genuinely nice people uh in the country you know and there's nothing there's nothing greater than working with good people like it really is really great working with people who you could get excited about wanting to do good business and grow their business and uh let them kind of take that next step and make more money.

Raymond Freeland 58:41

That is really exciting and fulfilling doing so I'm gonna start with that and Hal can uh continue.

Hal Licht 58:50

Yeah it's kind of what what's exciting to me is kind of like what you were saying earlier is how behind the shed industry is within our actual marketing field and social media and just being able to go out and like help people all over the country to actually learn that and take advantage of it for themselves because they're so behind where like we've taken knowledge from other industries that are ahead and now we can apply it to them and help them and just grow more businesses all over is it's exciting.

Cord 59:18

Yeah for sure and you guys you guys uh do travel I know we were talking a little before we started the podcast you've already been up uh in the Philly area um so, you're willing you're ready you're willing you'll pack everything up and you will show up on people's doorsteps am I right absolutely we will travel it doesn't matter where you are as long as it's in the United States yeah well now hey look there's some nice pla there's some good places to visit you know the Dominican Republic and the Puerto Rico and the Bahamas and you know I'm sure they need sheds down there too guys everyone needs sheds I bet they have I bet they have to meet the Florida standards of the hurricane straps and the you know they have to have everything that's required down there. Well, um thank you guys so much for joining me today I want it on the record that I tried to get you all to uh plug all of the all of the other simple things and uh but I plugged it for you how about that because we love Peter uh and uh and Andrew and uh and the rest of the uh the Simple team down there so um so we will we will see you all at the at the uh shed expo I presume here in September right?

Hal Licht 1:00:39

absolutely

Cord 1:00:40

yeah absolutely yeah we are very excited about that but you kind of covered it for us and thank you so much for having us on the podcast we really enjoyed this and hopefully we provided some value oh yeah definitely for sure I mean this these are things that these are things that have look I mean you know I feel like people get onto us sometimes for being like have to have to be adopted I mean you know we understand we're in the game you guys are too we get that there are real restrictions and like we are not making light of that um you know it's uh there's there are real restrictions with who can and can't operate a Facebook page your business page and everything else I get that and nobody is saying that that even you have to directly you know have any kind of uh any kind of tie to it but you have to trust somebody enough to be able to undertake those things for your business to make sure that you're able to be competitive. You know I mean this is this is not us trying to dictate this is us trying to help right this is us trying to say hey the landscape that we're in right now requires these tools um in the same way that that you know you had to paint a sign that said you know XYZ um you know cabins and barns on it like now you just now that painted sign is a is a profile and um you know we can operate it for you right like if that's a real thing like that's okay um you know let's build this relationship build that trust um you know and just make sure that that your sign is out there you've your shingle has been hung if we go all the way back to uh you know all the way back to the first you know kind of advertising and marketing but thank you guys so much for joining me uh I look forward to uh seeing you in September at the expo uh we will have a ping pong table announcing this for the first time on the podcast so I definitely expect a couple ping pong matches uh between the Simple squad uh and the Shed Geeks, fair enough?

Raymond Freeland 1:02:46

That'll be fun I love ping pong you can count me in

Cord 1:02:50

All right perfect thank you guys so much for being here thank you all for listening appreciate it and we will see you next time on another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast.

OUTRO 1:03:03

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