Have you ever considered the profound impact a simple conversation can have on your beliefs, or how a question could unlock a new way of thinking? That's where Travis Beachy and I start our journey in the latest podcast episode, weaving through the art of dialogue in podcasting and beyond. Our nearly 200-episode adventure has taught us the irreplaceable value of storytelling and the connections it creates, and we invite you to join this celebration of individual narratives and the emergence of this podcasting as a beloved medium for sharing them.
Venturing into the realms of innovation and inspiration, we spotlight the creativity of industry leaders who are not just expanding their product lines but also mastering the complexities of state certifications. Recognizing opportunity—and knowing when to walk away—is an art in itself, a lesson echoed by Anthony Mitchell and Jeremy Martin, who redefine excellence in shed sales. From motivational muses like Gary Vaynerchuk to former secret service agent turned podcaster Dan Bongino, our discussion traverses a landscape of personal inspirations, each charting unique paths to influence and success.
We wrap up this episode with heartfelt insights into mingling business with family, as Deanna and Troy bring their unique strengths to our company and podcast. The conversation shifts to the strategic role of branding, educating companies on being savvy digital consumers, and the innovative tools that are redefining customer engagement. Join us as we navigate these varied topics, sharing our stories and inviting you to share yours, all while examining the importance of branding and the transformative power of digital assets in today's market.
Also, find out how the podcast can be heard throughout the plain communities by dialing the number 330-997-3055. If the number is busy, just dial again!
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Riehl Steel
RTO Smart
Shed Geek Marketing
My Shed
Have you ever considered the profound impact a simple conversation can have on your beliefs, or how a question could unlock a new way of thinking? That's where Travis Beachy and I start our journey in the latest podcast episode, weaving through the art of dialogue in podcasting and beyond. Our nearly 200-episode adventure has taught us the irreplaceable value of storytelling and the connections it creates, and we invite you to join this celebration of individual narratives and the emergence of this podcasting as a beloved medium for sharing them.
Venturing into the realms of innovation and inspiration, we spotlight the creativity of industry leaders who are not just expanding their product lines but also mastering the complexities of state certifications. Recognizing opportunity—and knowing when to walk away—is an art in itself, a lesson echoed by Anthony Mitchell and Jeremy Martin, who redefine excellence in shed sales. From motivational muses like Gary Vaynerchuk to former secret service agent turned podcaster Dan Bongino, our discussion traverses a landscape of personal inspirations, each charting unique paths to influence and success.
We wrap up this episode with heartfelt insights into mingling business with family, as Deanna and Troy bring their unique strengths to our company and podcast. The conversation shifts to the strategic role of branding, educating companies on being savvy digital consumers, and the innovative tools that are redefining customer engagement. Join us as we navigate these varied topics, sharing our stories and inviting you to share yours, all while examining the importance of branding and the transformative power of digital assets in today's market.
Also, find out how the podcast can be heard throughout the plain communities by dialing the number 330-997-3055. If the number is busy, just dial again!
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Riehl Steel
RTO Smart
Shed Geek Marketing
My Shed
All right, welcome back to another episode of the shed geek podcast. And we're flying solo today. We got just One guest on here today. You recognize him as a common Regular co-host here on the shed geek podcast. I feel like I need my my little button turned on where I can clap for you.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Travis beachy. Good to be here. Always great to be here. I'll I'll take the name co-hosts. Always good conversation with you, man. It's good to be here again.
SHED GEEK:It's just good to create Dialogue, yeah, to create conversation that that creates thought. Yeah, challenges people maybe.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, from time to time, things like that, thinking, yeah, you know, if you can just Get people thinking and let people, you know, formulate their own thoughts, come to their own conclusions where, you know, I'm never really interested in trying to convince someone to Believe the way I believe, particularly I'm outside of a relationship with Jesus, you know. But if you can ask questions to get people thinking, even like even with, even in sales, you know, you even do that in sales.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Get your, get your client thinking about things that Would would help them solve their problem and and have a better outcome. That's a that's a great little sales tactic.
SHED GEEK:Well, and what a cool opportunity. The way podcasting has like Like creeped up on us into mainstream where you know it used to be Like talk radio. Yep was a big thing for me. I love to listen to talk radio. I used to. I used to be an avid listener, yeah of talk radio. I still do some, but for the most part, podcasting is what I'll what I'll listen to, or audio books. Yep or whatever, but just anything that I especially like dialogue, because whenever you have Two people having conversation like that, creates more thought.
SHED GEEK:Yeah and like I'm just happy that podcasting is has Like kind of creeped up into the mainstream to where it's valid now. Yeah, it's well it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:It was like it came out that I feel like it died off. I'm not sure what the years are there, but a while there it was just kind of a little bit dead and then it really has had a reassert, the resurgence in the last I don't know 10 years eight years To where it's just it's here to stay now, I think, which is which is cool. How are you feeling after how many episodes? Oh gosh you got.
SHED GEEK:You got to count, we do. We've got a registry. I want to say around it's around 200. Okay, for sure it's impressive. Yeah, it's definitely around 200. It may be 200 plus, maybe 200 minus, but it's within 10 of 200 recorded. Yeah and then, of course, we try to record way ahead of time, as best we can announce our travels, when we're coming around and definitely want to talk to more people.
SHED GEEK:Yeah you know. So I encourage people, I try to reach out in the newsletter or facebook, things like that. The conversations just come about so many different ways, yeah, but I think I think that even Shy folks like to sit down and talk and the only difference is we're putting a microphone to it. So there's a lot of mystery around. What is a podcast? Yeah is it audio only? Is it video? Is it both? And I think the answer is yes.
TRAVIS BEACHY:All of us let's say yes, yeah, yeah. By the way, if you're, if you're watching this, listening to this, and you're like you know Shannon's posted that he's coming through your area and you're like, yeah, be kind of cool to be on, I'm not sure, just do it, just do it, he's great to talk with. If you see that he's going to be in your area or If you see him somewhere, you know, even if you feel like you don't have that great of a story to tell, we've all got a story to tell. Just Just get on, he's easy to talk to. And get on here and tell your story.
SHED GEEK:I appreciate that. That's. The check is in the mail, I promise you. Yeah, yeah, I've had people tell me. They said, uh, well, this is a lot easier than I thought. I made it something different in my mind and I'm like, yeah, generally speaking, people just like to sit down and talk about sheds. But even your unique, unique story, god made you unique and individual. And, uh, I always tell people, I challenge them to say you know, don't, don't think that you don't have anything to say that would add value to people's day.
SHED GEEK:Yeah because everybody's got a story and the pressure is on me to ask questions. You know what I'm saying, like you, don't? You don't have to come on here and create your own content. You know you just Come on, yeah, and the the challenge is on me and I'll I'll typically keep those always surrounded around Sheds family faith.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, you know business, sales, entrepreneurship, you know, and then like all of these other little arteries. But I'll kind of get a read for the person, use the gut to eat and kind of get an idea of who they are, or listen to their story. Try to be a good listener so you can be a good talker.
SHED GEEK:Yeah you know, and then Ask questions. I think the audience might would want, I'm sure. I'm sure people probably want me to either go deeper sometimes and but I'm like, well, I want to make sure it doesn't get gossipy right, you know.
TRAVIS BEACHY:But then some people, you've done a great job with that.
SHED GEEK:Well, I appreciate some of the feedback I've gotten like one of the number ones and and those who are listening to this who agree with this will laugh at this, because I've had several people tell me this. They're like hey, shannon, if you ask them a question, shut up and let them answer it. Yeah, and I'm like oh gosh, I'm so guilty of this thing yeah and then yet I get on the podcast and I do it again.
SHED GEEK:Yep and, like it's one of those things, I'm trying to fix it myself. I'm so. I'm so used to having to fill the space, yeah, that I'm just so prepared to talk. Yeah that there's a lot of value in shutting up and listening.
TRAVIS BEACHY:You need to kind of put your Therapist hat on. You know you ask a question, they say something yes, how did that make you feel? Or where, where, where are you at now in relation to where you know? Are you where you thought you were going to be when you started this out? And just how's that going for you? And you know there, that's all therapists do, is they. Can they just try to pull information? Out of you Because the answer is within you, so you might just have to go into your little.
SHED GEEK:Put your therapist hat on well, I always say some of the best podcasts exist around Microphones that I'll never Hear them, that's right. Setting at the shed hauler bash or a shed hauling event, go into the expo Yep. Setting at a dinner table talking to a company Yep, it's like oh man, that's, that's dynamite. But like, some of those things do offer some competitive advantages. You don't want to just put out there to everybody how I got started or how this or whatever. So I always just tell people share what they want to share. Nothing's live, it's recorded. We can edit. We'll send them a, a recording of it, first for them to approve it. You know, if there's just something we've had most people, 80% or so I don't worry about it.
SHED GEEK:Yeah just just roll with it. Yeah and, and then there's a few that's like hey, you know, I kind of want to hear that. Make sure I didn't say something that I Regret. Or a witness normally said, or yeah, was in the moment or didn't sound as good as I wanted it to, so yeah, um, we're sensitive to all of that.
TRAVIS BEACHY:It's, you know. So, yeah, well, you got to find line to walk between being sensitive to that and still being able to go deep with conversation, because that's that's where people Do get value from that, because there's a lot of nuance in this business and there's a lot of nuance to each of our, each of our individual businesses and each of our individual lives, and Sometimes we feel like we are the only one that's dealing with a certain situation, and when you can hear someone talk about it on a podcast or Somewhere else, then you feel like, oh man, that's how they handle that or that's how they're thinking about it, and it can kind of Give you some guidance through it.
SHED GEEK:My favorite things are whenever somebody messages me and says I love that episode and and I'm like man I didn't feel like. You know, we went real hard on that. I didn't feel like we were all strong on that, um, and they'll say, you know, that was, that was some of the most insightful things I knew. So I always try to use that as ammunition for when I do get criticism Uh, it's usually constructive, but otherwise you know, if somebody is like, well, you need to have more of this, you need to have more of that I'm like man, go talk to this guy, because this guy said he loved that. Yeah, so like we got to remember that we're trying to cover the whole industry. Yeah, so not every episode is going to be for everybody, that's right, I get that.
SHED GEEK:You know, and not just the whole industry, but even people outside the industry who have a different perspective. It's good to sometimes get out of your own Ecosystems and like have somebody else come in and that's right so yeah, we should. We should let you, we should let you ask questions on this. We didn't, we didn't script anything for this no, no, um, yeah, I mean ask away and and and. We'll see what kind of conversation I'm so used to coming up with questions, a conversation.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:I'm curious at what sometimes the guests think, and I usually save that for the end here lately I like how you have that segment.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I'm going to ask this question without you know. Just think about it without prejudice. I know you have sponsors on here and people that pay you money to be on here, and rightfully so. That's great. But who are you kind of? Who do you look around the industry and really have a lot of respect for right now? Who's kind of moving and shaking in a way that you think is really sustainable for the future of the industry? Who's kind of skating to where the puck's going to be in five years? You think, maybe on your radar that you know a young buck could kind of look up to or could kind of follow, or just someone that is really kind of moving and grooving in a way that's really respectful but really effective. And you know, maybe they haven't really popped off on the scene yet because they're laying the foundation of what they're trying to build. But anything come to mind.
SHED GEEK:Great, great question and I would say it's probably that answer could almost be split into a couple different ways, because I don't think there's a one size fits all to do it this way. I mean some obvious answers that come to mind in terms of, say, like manufacturing. So in terms of manufacturing, I'm just really impressed by, like Westwood and Mike Yoder and Arlen, what they do. Arlen Riehl sorry, Arlen. Arlen said something that was really cool to me. Whenever we were out there we were talking about how they do like their cabins. They added a cabin line to their line and when they were previously Liberty, we'd done an interview with them in Sheds and then they created Westwood and rebranded and then added the cabin line to that and while we were doing the interview, we were talking about how they became modular certified and how that was a whole process.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:I was like, wow man, what an opportunity for somebody to actually learn that and then train that.
TRAVIS BEACHY:No kidding.
SHED GEEK:For the people who want to go through that process, especially if they can learn per state, because there's a lot of different. You know things that you're going to have to figure out for each day, and as we got, we're getting more excited about it. Arlen stopped and he said well, that's a great opportunity. But we have to ask ourselves are we educators and is that what our goal is and our purpose? And I was just like, wow, that goes to show you how you can get lost in a good moment. You know, heard a pastor one time say you know, you don't have to buy everything that's on sale, you can still go broke on sales and I'm like good point.
SHED GEEK:So just because it's opportunity doesn't mean you should always take it. So learning how to say no. John Bevere has got a really good book on that, called Good or God.
TRAVIS BEACHY:And if you ever get a chance to read it.
SHED GEEK:It's really good and it so. It's one of those things where, like I see them doing like a really a lot of good things, having just cool ideas, and seemingly everything they do works. I would say I would say, as far as like people I respect, there's tons of people. I respect people who've just gone before and and trailblaze the way and the opportunity for us to be in it and I could I started naming one. I'd offend someone if I did name them all, oh yeah, for sure, yep.
SHED GEEK:Possibly if they think that much of what I have to say. But so many people in terms of like sales, I mean you do a great job. You have a wonderful social media presence. I can tell that you're super active and I can tell that you're passionate about the sales process and that's kind of what brought us together on other projects. Right, you know, because of that reason, you know Anthony Mitchell, obviously a guy who's passionate about you, know what sales look like in the shed industry. He said many times over it's. You know this is a filler job or stepping stone to get you to a real job. This is a real job. Jeremy Martin said that several times. He tells people hey, if you want to make what a doctor salary is, did you know you could do that selling sheds and you just you just never even knew that was possible.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:You know. So those are pitches that they use and it may not be money that drives everybody, but people think of that when they think of a doctor, they think of that status. So tons of people that I obviously appreciate, um, but but yeah, I think, I think really the question is where does the industry go and and how are people setting their self up uniquely to take advantage of that? I think that's probably more my answer.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah. Now what about um, uh, outside the industry? I know you're a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. I know you, um, I know you've got some other people that you enjoy. Who's um, who's some some? You know whether it's on the sales side of things, whether it's mindset, whether it's marketing, whether it's just entrepreneurship. Who are you really enjoying right now? Uh, putting in your ears when you're not editing a podcast or doing interviews.
SHED GEEK:So I do like Gary V. He's got a little, a little bit of a mouth, a little spicy, a little spicy on him. So, not, that's not going to be everybody's favorite. Um, you know, in terms of like motivational speaking, I really like um Les Brown. He's, he's my, he's one of my favorite speakers, for sure. Um, I like, uh, I like, Dave Goggins.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Dave.
SHED GEEK:Goggins is a little rough around the edges too but he actually real intense. He's definitely very different than like a Les Brown. Uh, he's probably like a Dan Bongino kind of guy. Uh, Dan Bongino is a podcaster, former um secret service agent for, for you know, the president and uh started a podcast. Actually used to own parlor. A lot of you guys have heard of parlor. You know January six took that away.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Like January six is going to show up in this podcast now and the bots are going to crawl it. We need to call it something else. Um, so so I definitely like them, though. But yeah, he was, he was a major investor, owner and parlor that that went away, so, uh, but I do like his podcast. Um, as far as like business goes, I think the newest guy that I really love to listen to is like Simon Sinek. Anything that Simon Sinek is really good. I love finding your Y, you know Jocko, uh, extreme ownership, and that's a really cool, uh, really cool book. Um, um, I like. I actually like a um a couple of different podcasts. One's called the Communication Guys, cause I'm a big fan of communication.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, I'm a big passion, yeah.
SHED GEEK:So like, uh, that I've listened to several hundred of their episodes. Um, yeah, there's just. And then I listened to a lot of audio books, a mixture between business, sales, marketing, all of that stuff entrepreneurship related Um, and then some fiction.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:I like local, anything that's local. I'm reading a book right now over Southern Illinois that my wife actually um turned me on to and uh, it's just about like stuff that's happened in our, in our area and I don't know why they always like seemed to involve like crime.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, that's neat Learn about the history of the area and what's been going on.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, A lot of good stuff there Um
TRAVIS BEACHY:Next question what is the big step? Big step Diana coming on board with you, leaving her job.
SHED GEEK:You got quit calling her Diana. She's going to choke you. It's Deanna.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Oh, Deanna, sorry. Yeah, you can just punch me in the face right now. Sorry, so Deanna sorry about that, my deepest apologies. She's going to be heartbroken, yeah. So yeah, leaving her teaching job for a long time, coming on board with you full time. You got your son along on this trip. How's that transition been? You guys get along work together well. Do you fight a lot? Do you kind of have your each your own roles? Talk to us about being in business with your wife.
SHED GEEK:Oh, man, that's great. So it's Valentine's Day, so happy Valentine's Day. I was trying to throw you a softball Shannon. To my Valentine you did good, you did good. So me and Deanna have dated since I was 15. Oh wow. So so we got married at 19. But we met in high school and high school sweetheart since she actually had to come pick me up on our first date, I didn't have a driver's license yet. So let's go. Got me an older lady.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Sugar mama.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, sugar mama. So she's 11 months older than me and we've just been gosh, been through a lot. You know, especially her. I mean she's had to deal with me first of all, but second of all she's just had so many things and health and just different things and she worked for early childhood education for 10 years. Then she worked for the school. She was actually secretary executive assistant for the superintendent at the high school. So she's good at like data and very technical components. So is my son, troy is like he's. You know I break something. I'm like fix it please fix it you know technology wise especially.
SHED GEEK:He just picks up on it so much faster. He's from that generation. That seems to. We have our roles. Yes, they allow me to talk and communicate with everybody I'm talking to, and they pull a lot of the hard work. As far as me and Deanna, we've been a well-oiled machine for a long time. We work well together. I don't hesitate about working with her. She makes things easier because I work with her. She fixes problems. We, we work very good because we're opposite each other and and Troy fits that mold too my daughter probably takes after my personality more.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, I was going to ask what her personality was like.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, Artsy, you know, and that's not to suggest that like it's all one and none of the other.
SHED GEEK:but but both of that, like Troy's a math whiz, I mean, he's just super analytical whenever it comes to like working things out in his brain, very smart, very quiet, you know, and and um, ali is a little bit more loud but just just creative and likes drawing and things like that, maybe a little bit more emotional, you know. Uh, where's her heart? On a sleeve a little bit more. So there's a big stir of all of us in that yeah.
SHED GEEK:Uh, but, but I love working with them. Troy coming along has been a blessing to us. Um, yeah, he's been taken care of a lot of the social media management. So for those of you who who see some of the stuff coming out, he's, he's helping do a lot of that and he's just, uh, a joy to be around. He's 19 years old and he's he's just see.
TRAVIS BEACHY:So it's so fun to have him. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, well, you guys uh, uh, you know I don't think a lot of people realize how much work goes into a podcast and and for you to, you know, kind of be doing it solo before she was coming on. I mean, I know you had some help with some editing and stuff like that, but I can imagine it's much smoother now, Um, and you kind of have your system down to where you both get to. You get to do more of what you enjoy. I know the editing part of it is not your it's not my thing.
SHED GEEK:Kyle did, uh, uh, the editing whenever we first came on. Of course we weren't doing video. Then, um, and and video takes it to a whole different level. Um, you know, it's a big investment and it's a lot of work too, um, so I, I did slowly learn it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Um, and then I had Brent along for a time. Uh, that helped me, uh. And then, whenever Deanna joined full time, she was just able to do that. We, we, we kind of gave Troy an episode and he figured it out today and I'm like, see, that's just, that's just pitiful.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Uh, like you know, to you know, to you know, get me a month to know what he learned in a day. So they do have kind of those defined roles now where they they work really well together. Um, so they'll just edit these in your ride. No, nobody probably realizes like, oh, you just get on a mic and talking and I'm like man, I wish it were. I wish it were that simple.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, yeah, yeah, these guys work really hard behind the scenes.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, well, you guys do a great job. Not, you know, I'm not uh certainly not trying to gas you guys up, but you really, I mean you guys really do a good job. If it's been awesome to have you. Uh, what you guys contribute to the industry, I think is amazing. Um, and I know, you know, not everybody welcomes you with open arms, but I know, uh, that's just part of life and part of you know, I don't. I think, if you're um, well, let's talk about those people yeah, I'm just kidding.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, let's yeah, five hours, yeah, um, but I think it's a great testament to what you know. You don't need everybody to be on board with you. Whether you have a what, regardless of what business you're doing, you know you have to believe in it in your heart.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Uh, you have to be passionate about it and um, and you just got to go and, and some people will, uh, cheer you on, some people will just watch in the shadows and other people will try to try to tear you down, and that's with anything in life. Yeah, um and so um, you know, I think I think you've gotten a lot of good for the industry, opened up a lot of conversation. So, um, I'm passionate about um, the industry continue to mature and grow, and and, and your big part of that.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, it's, it's. It's really been fun. I mean it's nice that there's been so many people again troll blades the opportunity for us. I mean, um, yeah, when you're, when your dream is young, you know it can be crushed very easy. So if you're not careful you'll let you'll let you know.
SHED GEEK:Naysayers come in and and and that just you know, I, I. And then, once you establish something, it's kind of weird because you know at first, you know, most people embraced it, a couple of people didn't. Uh, I've had several people come to me since then and be like man, I thought this was a like the weirdest idea and would never work. And now I listen to it all the time and that that blesses me. I got a. I got a picture from Willie Bricker the other day North Mountain structures uh, in.
SHED GEEK:Chambersburg, pennsylvania. He's been on the show, uh, and he sent me a picture of his kids four kids sitting around watching, uh, the Shed Geek podcast on a laptop. And it's like they love watching the podcast and and especially Ava, ava, who I absolutely love.
SHED GEEK:She's adorable, she's cute as a button, she's got little glasses. And he said hey, she wants to meet you. And I was like gosh, you, you don't even know. Like, just take my wallet now, I'd give that girl anything she wants. You know what I mean? She's so cute and had those little glasses and I was like man, you guys could win my heart over real quick. I was like just tell me what that girl wants. Like well, well, buyer, school supplies, what does she need?
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yep.
SHED GEEK:You know, um it, just when people tell you stuff like that, you, you, you forget that. You're like hey, man, there's a purpose bigger than even those who, who aren't a fan. Um, that's okay, yeah, uh, I like to still try to win them over. I still try to add value to their day too. Um, for for me it wouldn't matter if it's the podcast or what it is. Travis, if you're in an industry, replace sheds with any word computers, sodas, cards. You know, it doesn't matter. If I was in that industry, I would be doing and learning all that I could to know about it. So if it was reading the magazines and the publications and going to the trade shows and going to events and listening to a podcast, whatever it was, I would probably just want to be all in on understanding all I can, because that's your, that's your work.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:And while your work shouldn't completely define you, it's such a big part of you and who you are and I couldn't imagine being just halfway.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
TRAVIS BEACHY:And.
SHED GEEK:I would want to be all the way to learn and know as much as I can, and that's kind of you know, spells out a story of why this came to be, why are we doing it?
SHED GEEK:It's because I already did that. I was like man, I want to know. I reached across the, the, the rail, to talk to my competition. I'd walk across the road. I would, you know. I wanted to know about what they do and, as you know, with the shed industry you got to be real careful, real quick, because it's like some people walk a bit, some don't. There's all these gentlemen's agreements, there's all these things that have gone back for years, and then there's all these scorned folks and situations and if you're not careful you suck right into it. I have been at times and and you try to stay on the outside of as best you can, but it's, it's almost impossible.
SHED GEEK:And Lord help you if you try to make a dollar right, because like you know somebody's going to have a thought on it and it's like so you have to. You have to manage and walk what you feel like it's a tightrope, and then at the end of the day, you go in your prayer closet, you give it to God and you move on. Because if you don't, you'll be you'll be a back case a basket case.
SHED GEEK:I'm sorry, I don't know what a back case is, but maybe you'll be one of those too. So, yeah, I think that's just kind of where what I've done and this thing has provided me the opportunity to do some really cool things take my family and and see the nation. In many ways, like you know, we've been to Seattle, we've been to Florida, we've been to New Hampshire, we've been down in Texas. You know, I got to see the baseball hall of fame because I was going through there, right, you know, on the way to an interview, and I was like you kidding me, this is awesome, I love it. So like, uh, just little stuff that comes up that you never thought would be possible, and really it just came from a position of like listening.
SHED GEEK:Yeah these people are saying they want something and more and more communication and more efforts. So just create something, you know, and then find a way to monetize it eventually and it's really cool that it worked out and I'm thankful to God that he's blessed it. Yeah, you know, and I don't, I don't feel like if he, if he doesn't, if he tells me to move, I'll move tomorrow.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Right.
SHED GEEK:But until he does, I'll stay right. Yeah, and, and he gave me this cool opportunity and I just I want to honor him through it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah, love that, love that. Well, that definitely comes, that definitely comes through. Um, what? Anything else you want to talk about?
SHED GEEK:Oh nothing.
TRAVIS BEACHY:And do you want to um? Do you want to rant? Do you feel like rant?
SHED GEEK:I rant a lot as it is.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Okay, um. Well, I was curious. I was curious to get your thoughts on. You know, sitting here in 2024, beginning of 2024, where do you do you kind of see this whole sales, manufacturing, rto, delivery, kind of those four components? Do you feel like those are going to continue to kind of be like that for the next while? Or do you feel like there's going to be a lot more consolidation where there's going to be a lot more, uh, in-house sales happening, less sales, lots uh, more people doing their own rent to own Um and more people trying to have their own drivers and and and more of that vertical integration versus um, the the kind of the four component.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I mean there's um, there's quite a bit happening right now. Where it's it's it, there are people. There's a lot of a lot of just manufacturers and a lot of just sales people, a lot of just haulers and a lot of just rent to own. I know we've seen a lot of um. There's a lot of rent to own companies buying up manufacturing right now over the last couple of years and um, that can. That. That has its benefits, has its drawbacks too. Any thoughts?
SHED GEEK:Yeah, uh, big, big topic, like big conversation. So a lot, of, a lot of different answers to be dissected. Probably out of that. Um, everything changes, you know. I mean there's always the remnants of what was you know that you can uh testify to, but generally speaking, you know the only thing that that uh stays the same as change, right, yeah? So, like we, we know that that change is continuing to move forward in in the world and in industry and entrepreneurship and business and ideas and creative uh opportunities. So like, if you, if you narrow that down to sheds, uh, you can start talking about how we offer, you know, this particular style of shed and the conversation can jump within three or four minutes to like coming down to the economy.
SHED GEEK:Next thing, you know it starts moving into the elections. Next thing, you know you're talking about who's president and it's a very political conversation and you're trying to figure out like, like, um, you know what was Reagan's thing? You know, trickle down economics, it's like, where does this trickle down from a conversation about an election year? Uh, but we, we do see even those things become very realistic, like where it's an election year and then everybody relaxes after because they could kind of play in for the next four years or whatever. So it's always an interesting dynamic to kind of figure out where people's mindsets are. But, as just generally speaking, I do think there's a lot of movement in the industry right now.
SHED GEEK:I won't say that there's saturation, because I don't, I don't know that uh, especially after COVID, and maybe that's just because of the government subsidy, but, um, I do believe that some companies are probably just not a fan of getting into learning about all of these different things. That's necessary, even some guys that I found, you know, working with Dylan as a marketing specialist. He's amazing and the way he describes things sometimes I'm like, wow, that's poetry, that's awesome dude, that's exactly what people need to to understand, because we take a lot of time to like educate before we sell to somebody and and, and I think sometimes just saying you may not know what question to ask, just ask it the way you know how and we'll dissect that where we can talk about it. Uh, let's not say we're smarter. It means if I were asking you how to build a shed, I would have to ask some pretty simple questions. First, right, like well, what is a band board? I don't know what that is. Why is it like this? How can we do that Same as if I've done anything, any other work? That's their specialty, that's what they do.
SHED GEEK:So, you, you know, um, I, I, I think that people are beginning to embrace marketing more because of the way the world decides to shop. Yeah, you know, um, I watched an interview with with Jeff Bezos Uh, I think he was on the Letterman show like back in 99, and they were like so, let me understand this. Like, this is like the fifth year in a row that you're like losing money. And he's like, yeah, we're not investing in the now, we're investing in the future of what we know is going to be a way that customers choose to shop in the future. You know, starting out with books, started adding a bunch of other items. Next thing, you know, amazon competes with Walmart. Okay, that's a simple story to tell, but it's way more complicated than that, and I think that what's happening is the world is just, you know, it does change with the addition of new technologies, like it or not, like it's changing and we have to figure out what we do about it.
SHED GEEK:And some say, well, I won't be involved. And I do think that, from a retail perspective that does change your opportunities. Does it mean that you can, uh, can't, can't get you a brick and mortar location on a busy four lane highway, like you have here, and do well, of course you, of course you can do well, yeah, you know. Will you be able to expand that and and and grow that, should you choose to? Um, maybe, yeah, but it's going to be way harder, I think, than those who have digital assets and have a website that creates its own traffic, called SEO, and that's its own four lane highway, and that you embrace different things, like you know Google ads and meta ads and, uh, video campaigns and stuff that we've been doing already.
SHED GEEK:So I think that's a big change that the industry is still kind of getting used to. A lot of technology has launched and I would even make the argument. A lot of this technology has been faced with opposition from an otherwise conservative industry that supports it but at the same time, maybe doesn't understand it. So they just dismiss it. And you know what happens whenever we don't understand something we criticize it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, great fear around it.
SHED GEEK:So like, as opposed to going through the hard stuff of like learning it or why it works or how it could work, you know we criticize and move on, and so I think that even some of the more successful guys I've seen in this business have struggled to seemingly get some of that stuff off the ground because it takes a lot of education around it to make work.
SHED GEEK:So that doesn't mean they're not moving on, so those things will stay in place and they will play out long term. So yeah, in short, I do see a lot of change. I see some companies probably selling you definitely probably see some of that with RTO. The RTO companies are like man, you know we lost this potential customer or this customer, this long term whatever, to a different, you know RTO company for opportunity. So you know, easier to just go buy it, be vertically integrated, yeah, buy that out. And then they don't. They can't change. And you know I'm not saying that's good, not saying it's bad. I have pretty well zero opinion on it Because I think the market does what it does.
Speaker 3:So just let it.
SHED GEEK:Let it do what it does, and people, people will take from that what they will.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, so yeah, I don't know if I answered your question, but yeah, no, that's good thoughts. Yeah, it's good thoughts and there's just not. There's just so many different ways and things that that work in this industry, like there's there's so many little different niches that you can be in and you know, you know, just talking to Mark this morning, he's just in the niche of metal sheds, you know, and you can be in the niche of just on site builds. You can be in the niche of just you know, very simple designs, You're targeting the RTO customer and you're just all on volume. You can be in the niche of you know, like some of these guys, like you know lap structures out in Pennsylvania or horizon structures, or you know any of these guys that just man holy, really custom cool stuff that that's kind of their niche, you know.
TRAVIS BEACHY:And so there's a lot of different.
SHED GEEK:There's a lot of different ways and you can make a living, yeah, doing those things. I mean, if you're, if you're moving sheds, you can make a living moving sheds. But then it's a whole different conversation. If you want to own a fleet like Marvin Vargas, right, you know. If you want to have eight or 10 trucks on the road and have one of the newest Pine Hill trailers out there, that's super cool. You know, like you're. You're like that's a different business model. That guy's killing it, right, and it's like, well, but maybe I don't want that, maybe I want it, you know, to just haul sheds for one company and you can do that and typically do well.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:So, like it's just a different business model, it's the same with the guy who is a manufacturer and sells you know 1.7 a year and he's got you know two lots and he's perfectly happy and he has his workforce and they're steady and they're going to do that for the next five to 10 years. Or someone who's going to scale and they're going to have 300 shedlots, right you know, and they're going to be a major presence across the nation or whatever. Like those are. Just what separates one from the next, you know, probably vision drive, execution.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:All these things desire. Do they want to have that? Yeah, you know, do they want to do that. Some want to stay small, someone to chase the world.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, that's right. So what are you seeing? What are you seeing? What's been kind of the biggest aha for you? What do you think the industry needs to know about marketing, now that you're doing that more with Shed Geek marketing? What's something that more people should just understand about marketing attracting people to your business and branding?
SHED GEEK:I appreciate the plug. You know we interviewed, uh have an interview coming out soon with um uh view brands and it'll probably be out. It'll be out before this one comes out, so they might have heard it already. And then, of course, we had a speaking engagement from the marketing perspective at the shed you event and one of the things I brought up is Bucky's. Uh, the reason I like to bring up Bucky's because it's pretty simple, like it's the love hate here in the shed industry, because you have a lot of haulers, it's a lot of truckers, and obviously you have to, you have to go down that road of talking about why they do that and and different things. But generally speaking it it evokes an emotion.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:When you hear Bucky's and for the most part you see the image, you kind of understand the logo. You might know the logo if I, if I just say Bucky's right now, or DQ Dairy Queen, the logo might just automatically come to mind. Or McDonald's, you might see the golden arches. Uh, you know. So, like what we always try to start is like building branding guidelines. So like, if you don't have a logo and and and you know, you need to understand your color palettes and all these different things and why they matter, because as you get bigger, you'll need to brand more. Uh, and if you, if you do branding correctly, you can actually spend less on marketing, yeah, you know, because you don't have to. You don't have to market as heavy, uh, and the and the and the dollars to directly to, to gaining a lead, uh, because your brain what's a quick example of the difference in your mind between branding, spending money on branding or suspending money on marketing in this industry?
SHED GEEK:So. So when you think of Kleenex, there are tissue. When you think of Echo, they're a trimmer, but you hear people call it weed eater all the time, or Kleenex, give me Kleenex, give me a Coke. They had to change the idea of what soda meant because soda was so small that soda was only 10% of what people called it back in the day in the South. Everybody called it pop.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Now it's like 80% of the country calls it soda, but they've had to really change the brand because most people would say give me a Coke.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:But a Coke was a brand.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:So like sometimes you can brand so well even in a particular area that it does well, cook sheds did really good in our area when I sold Sheds. Cook sheds was such a dominant force in our area starting in 1986 that when people come to us they were like what kind of, what kind of Sheds you got here? What kind of Cook sheds are these? And we were like, no, these aren't Cook sheds, these are you know these are summit and they was like I never heard of a summit Cook shed.
SHED GEEK:And I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no You're you know, like you know, you have to explain it and you're like good, good for them.
SHED GEEK:They just sort of like dominated that market. So well, that's what people call it. So that that's branding. Yeah, we start with that. And then after that you know it's creating a. We compare it to a shed. You have all these standalone options. A windows, good, functional, does well by its own, so like sometimes. But but a window might be equal to like, say, social media management. So somebody had contacted, say, you know, do you guys do social media management? You're like well, let's get down to what that means for you.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Let's talk about the night, what we offer.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Because the biggest problem is like we just we all learn things differently.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, so what you think, like how you guys have broken that down?
SHED GEEK:Yeah, you just have to you just have to say well, let's build a, let's build a shed, and let's call that your digital assets, Like here's your branding and your guidelines. Then here's your website, yeah, you know. And then if you have a website that's kind of like your, your location here, right?
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:So like we would say something like Travis, you got your lot here and this is really cool. That's kind of like your website. So when people come to us and say I want a brand new website, yeah, okay, awesome, I want that website so everybody can see it, and I'm like, well, now, that's two different things. Yeah, we can create you a brand new website, and it's like creating a brand new shed lot and putting it out in the middle of a cornfield that's 80 miles away from where anyone sees it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:And it's like well, wait a minute. Just because you create a website, that doesn't mean it's not going to get seen. No, what you're talking about is search engine optimization. And then we got to go through all the details of SEO and like on page SEO, off page SEO, what's organic, what's paid, what's all these different things. So like that's your four lane highway, yeah, that's what's bringing you to the website, just like the four lane highways bringing you to the shed lot.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:So we try to break it down that way. And then that's when we say you know you could take a shotgun approach with Google ads and meta ads, and then and then there's all this conversion tracking that you can put in there. That people that I work with are way smarter than me can explain that in a way that really breaks it down to to, to GA four tags. You know, which is Google tracking tags on. You know that way you're you're tracking keywords and different things that people are searching for Google. So you have to go through this whole maze and what we do is we just spend a lot of time in the customer acquisition phase of what we do to explain it to people.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:So that they have an understanding. And then we also really talk about owning your digital assets. That's super important. One of the biggest things that we found that was a red flag for us was, like companies that didn't own their data, yeah, and now when I go to get away from that company, they can't get away from them because they own that data. It's just so crazy. And then and then they can't get it because they, they they kind of capture you and say you'll either work with us or you will have your data, and it's like wow, like we would never do that hostage.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, it kind of holds you hostage, like we want to make sure that people own their digital assets that way, if they decide to get away from us, you know, not that we want that, but that they can take all that data with them to their new company and work with them. So we're working, trying to work on a strong position of trust. So I don't know what, I don't know. A simple answer for your question Like, what would I want people to know? It's like whatever it is, it's just more education, more and more and more education, cause the more you learn about it, the better decision you can make, whether you use an in-house person for your marketing or whether you hire a third party like us or E impact or Jim Moser or James Mosman or any anybody who's doing these things that I haven't mentioned here today. Like all of those companies are are great companies to work with. Yeah, so, like I think really it's just about figuring it out and then figuring out who jibes with you.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah, if someone's let's say you're a, let's say you're a standalone dealer, maybe you're selling maybe a hundred, let's just say a hundred thousand dollars a month for an even round number and you're making let's again just use 10% as an even round number commission on that. So you're, you're making 10, 10 grand a month on that, so $10,000 a month. Obviously they've got rent coming out of that, they got electric, they got internet, they've got a lot of expenses. What would you say? What percentage wise would you advise someone like that to spend on just straight up marketing, paid marketing, whether it's paying someone to help them post more on social, whether it's paying someone to do meta ads, google ads, or whether it's whether it's creating some really nice copy and putting it in a new local newspaper or a magazine. You know there's plenty of other outlets to spend money on, but you got a, you got a percent in mind there, or or is there a guideline there?
SHED GEEK:So me and Dylan love to go back and forth on this in a friendly way. He has seen a lot of success in marketing even before working in the Shad industry and running very large campaigns and paid ad campaigns and different things like that. But but as a general rule, whether it's inside of Shads or outside of Shads, I always like to suggest a 4% of gross revenue should be moved towards a marketing.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Which acquiring new clients, yes.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, yeah, no, no.
SHED GEEK:With that being said, you know, if you're like, okay, well then, if I'm doing a hundred thousand a month, I'm doing 1.2 a year, so I need to take 1.2 a year times 4%, that's what I need to put toward my marketing budget.
SHED GEEK:You may not need that, so it really depends on on where you are in your process. If you already have a website, it's new and it's able to handle conversion tracking and you've got those tags on there. If not, there's a setup fee to get those things going so that you can collect that data, cause you know, whether we like this or not, like Google and Facebook, they're capturing data from us every day, all day long. Yeah, right, they know your credit score, right, you know, they know where you live, they know the places you shop, they know where you go, what are your habits and things like that, because you know we're tracked every day, all day. I'm not saying I embrace those things, but I am saying that, like we, we like like all others, use that data. We extract that data to target your customers, which is essentially what you're doing.
SHED GEEK:You're trying to get. When you put, when you put a um a banner out front, or if you see somebody come in and you're like, hey, tell me, tell all your neighbors about me, or whatever, you're trying to figure out who might buy in a direct mail campaign, you might be trying to do the same thing. They're just doing it in the digital era and while I don't like it, uh, it's here, it exists, uh, and that data is being collected on us at all times. Now, Uh, data has passed the oil oil in terms of, like, the most precious commodity that people are in search of.
SHED GEEK:So, like oil. While oil led in in, you know, for years in terms of being the most valuable commodity, now what people want is information. So, like everyone's trying to track what drives human behavior yeah, like you would like to know, what makes a person buy versus not buying.
TRAVIS BEACHY:That's right, Um, and then you just that would be the ticket.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, and it just so they're just trying to find the shortcut to that. Yeah Uh. While you can't probably find the exact moment, you know maybe it was five to seven touch points, maybe it was that particular email campaign that you sent out that that made them go ahead and purchase. Staying top of mind is very key. It's what I tell my advertisers all the time If they're like, why should I advertise on the uh Shed Geek podcast? People know who I am. I'm like. Of course people know who you are, but but why not stay top of mind? That way they think of you instead of the competition.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yep.
SHED GEEK:Right, you know, whenever it comes time to buy, you're just, you're just another touch, point Um, you know, and, and, and that's why I always say you know, we, we, we were, never have been trying to threaten like any other advertising agency, because we're like, we want to be in addition to what you're already doing.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Um, so yeah, I would just say, um, it's. It's super important to understand those things and and how they work.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Uh, and we'd spend a lot of time educating talking.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. I mean, I think there's there's uh, I think that's super helpful with there's so many people that are there. They know everything about the delivery side of it or the manufacturing side of it, and then the marketing side of it's just not something that they're that excited about. That's not just their passion.
TRAVIS BEACHY:And and um, I think that's very um, instead of just going and grabbing their money and convince them to buy this package or that package, actually taking some time to sit down with them and educate them. So, uh, good on, good on y'all for that.
TRAVIS BEACHY:What are you doing right now outside of work? Anything you're loving outside of work?
SHED GEEK:I collect baseball cards.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Oh really.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, that's maybe, but not a lot. I've collected sports cards mainly baseball, on and off for years, but never really in a professional manner.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I just kind of collect, hobby collect. Yeah, baseball cards have their moment, a little bit Beginning of COVID, kind of.
SHED GEEK:Oh yeah.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I feel like it was really hot. It might still be kind of hot.
SHED GEEK:If you're collecting for the purpose of trying to turn a profit. Yes, it's a totally different thing than hobby collecting.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I see.
SHED GEEK:And I like to hobby collect just because I grew up watching sports and particularly grew up watching baseball. Outside of that, everything's family. You know, me and Deanna travel together. Troy's with us now. I'm loving seeing Troy kind of find his self in technology ministry work, the whole thing, and we're not hurrying him and we're telling him to do it all that in God's timing. My daughter is married and my first grand babies do next month probably about five weeks away, so I'm super excited about that. That's probably the biggest thing on my mind.
SHED GEEK:Yes, but outside of that, sadly, I used to take probably a little bit more time outside of work to enjoy a little bit more. Probably my challenge right now is because I'm so busy and busy all the time. Whether it be marketing, RTO podcast, doesn't matter. There's a conversation I probably log three hours a day on the phone. You think more Four.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Deanna's like maybe times two, maybe.
SHED GEEK:So I spend a lot of time building relationships and not all of those turn into business, but some do, but the relationship's still there, whether it's business or not, so I need to be available to just talk to people who are friends of mine in the industry.
SHED GEEK:So this industry has kind of given me a lot of purpose in that I have more friends inside the industry than I do outside the industry. So I know more people in this business than I know outside it. So it revolves a big part of our life. The travel is a big thing for us. We love being able to go and see places and things that just we wouldn't otherwise be provided the opportunity.
TRAVIS BEACHY:When were you able to Magnolia earlier today?
SHED GEEK:Magnolia went to Dealey Plaza to see where JFK was shot. Went to Stockyard.
TRAVIS BEACHY:We're going to a radio For work.
SHED GEEK:So those things are cool when you're out and about.
TRAVIS BEACHY:You get to kind of integrate that with your work, with family yeah, with your family, yeah, family and work is yeah it all. Now, the downside of that is you don't know when you're working and when you're not, when I'm at home, I think yeah, but I actually think a lot more that's going to be happening in the near future, where it's just this mesh of your life and it's like, and work is really just life too.
SHED GEEK:Well, I enjoy it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:But it's not. We're just continuing to further move away from that industrial age that 9 to 5 thing. I mean I think there will always be a 9 to 5 because there's assembly lines and factory work. But I think, I think, I think that's beautiful, I think that's a beautiful way to live your life. Now, some people don't wouldn't like that, because they do want distinct hours.
SHED GEEK:Cost. You know, and I told Deanna today we were going over to the silos and we went to eat and visit Magnolia and all that stuff and I was like you know, this cost, this trip is going to cost. Yeah, I mean there's a big bill at the end of it that you had to pay for your all everything that you had to do eating you know what I'm saying Like merchandise stuff you give away, you know food, gas, you know lodging, all of those things. But I told her I said you know, as long as we break even and then slowly grow, that's always really cool. But even if you broke even, I was like what a cool thing to do.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Absolutely.
SHED GEEK:You know what I mean. Like at the end of the day, if you're like, if we're not just, you know, making money hand over fist, but like we break even. But we have all these experiences.
TRAVIS BEACHY:That's right.
SHED GEEK:I mean that's, that's a really cool thing for us in life to be able to look back on and say you know, we started this journey.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Whenever we was 15 years old. Yeah, now look at us Right, so like doing all these things.
TRAVIS BEACHY:What was it you just described is like people's vacations.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Coming down to the Fort Worth Stockyards as people's vacations, coming to Magnolia's people's vacations, and, and you were just able to do some of that stuff along with work.
SHED GEEK:Yeah.
TRAVIS BEACHY:You know which is, I think, is really. I know you had a dream of being able to take the family and drive around and do interviews and you're doing that now, which I think is yeah, it took a little bit of time to make it a dream realized.
SHED GEEK:But then you know, they added so much value to it. Bringing them in I was like, wow, it just it, just it just worked.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:You know, I really feel like God blessed it and I think we we always just need to make sure to point to as long as we point to him as the sovereign opportunity give her here to allow us to do that. And just, you know, obedience is greater than sacrifice, the word says, and I think that if we are just obedient, that sometimes you may sacrifice something now but you get something possibly much, much better, much grander later. And I feel like I've been been given that to have my family go along with me on these opportunities. So and then and then just the genuine friendship that exists in the industry. There's some friends.
SHED GEEK:I have in this industry I'll never work with in business and I still communicate with them regularly, just even even to use them as a as a A conscious check for myself, mm.
SHED GEEK:Hmm, you know to just contact them and be like, hey, look at the situation and tell me what you see. Yeah, you know unbiased. Yeah, you know, because I don't work with you, there's no anything here and no, they'll give me a true opinion. And I appreciate those folks, that, that inner circle that I sort of talk to on those different things, and I won't mention them by name, but they know who that is so.
TRAVIS BEACHY:yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a privilege and a blessing to have those people in your life to help you guide the ship.
SHED GEEK:I think I think as much as I enjoy it. Eventually, you know, I will want to be able to take a little bit more time for family, grand kids, especially as they show up, and then I think it'd be really cool if I can. I don't know, I don't know what the long term vision is for the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who knows?
SHED GEEK:Yeah, but it's really fun and cool to do now and I don't see myself slowing down. I don't see the content slowing down. I was going to make that comment earlier. It always amazes me whenever people are like we're going to run out of people to talk to and I'm like, man, we're all unique. Yeah, we're all unique. So as long as somebody's willing to sit down at the mic, I promise you there's conversation and dialogue that can happen. That will bless people's day.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, 100 percent. Well, I mean, I mean you've named it shed deep podcast, but that doesn't mean that you necessarily have to always be talking to people inside the industry I think I think you've I mean you've done some great episodes of people outside of the industry that bring value in and give some great outside perspective. You know when you can kind of step back faith based talking about all rehab.
SHED GEEK:you asked me earlier about that and that's a calling that was on my life. That's still there and it's nagging me to eventually be able to do something, and if I can ever use this platform to be able to do something or create that to the point to where God says you know, you've, you've satisfied that.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah calling.
SHED GEEK:We tried to create in Southern Illinois something that would kind of help families and never did come to fruition, whether it be my fault or others, egos struggles, just whatever happens happens, but it's still there. Yeah because those callings don't go away till they're fulfilled. Yeah and that, and I don't know, maybe down the road if I ever get a chance to do prison ministry again. I was really passionate about that and I love that. But outside of that man, I just I'm pretty simple.
SHED GEEK:Honestly, yeah, it's much simpler than you might think, if you meet me.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that's the that's. I mean that's the season I'm in right now too, just raising kids and trying to grow the business and and creating friendships and building relationships with. You know both my kids growing, you know, working on our marriage, working on, you know, a relationship with with Christ and my greater family. You know our personal family, her family, and yeah, I mean that's, it's pretty simple for us to right now Easy, easy life whenever you keep it simple we don't you know, we don't we don't party, we don't you know.
SHED GEEK:I mean we just we just kind of I don't know Like we enjoyed going down with the other grandparents to be our son-in-law's parents. We really get along with them really good, nice, and the King came with them and they had asked us to go. They go every year and we had never been and we were like what are we getting? Yourself into yeah had to get a passport never been out of the country.
Speaker 3:You know that kind of thing.
SHED GEEK:And so it's really fun to like be grandparents with them. Yeah, if that's coming along.
TRAVIS BEACHY:So is that their first grandchild. It's cool you guys get to share that together.
SHED GEEK:We get along really good, love them, you know so, so we had fun there. But you know responsible fine, or whatever you know. You know so like we're too old for all the nonsense.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, I'm right there with you, yeah.
SHED GEEK:So, but I mean just a pretty simple life that you know. Maybe we can shine some love on the conservative life a little bit. That it's not. It's not so bad.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:We also don't deal with a lot of the struggles that you do with whenever you go out and seek alternative lifestyle.
TRAVIS BEACHY:So that's right Any podcast right now that you're enjoying. And then we talked about that a little briefly, rob.
SHED GEEK:Jepsen really like listening to him sells. It's a sales podcast, but he just Rob Jepsen Rob. He has about 40,000 listeners, I think, on his podcast. I don't know, I just love listening to him and the guests that he has on there A couple of tidy home podcast and things like that that all follow. But it's hard. I understand, trust me, when people say I don't catch every episode, because I can't catch every episode of even people that I enjoy listening to.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Do you find yourself, you know, getting on the phone when you're driving and saying absolutely I mean, I find myself literally waiting. Sometimes, if I know I'm going to go somewhere, I'll say hey, let me, let me call you, you know in an hour and then I got 30 minutes of uninterrupted time and I'll talk to you while I'm driving. That's right. No, I love it.
SHED GEEK:Whenever I'm driving, it makes makes perfect sense. So when I say I burn up the phone, I mean like I. I know a lot of people can't stand talking on the phone. They prefer text, and and of course I'm not going to text while I'm driving. But for me it's easier just to pick up the phone. The downside is I will be tempted to continue to talk.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Just because I love conversation, both talking and listening. Yeah, I enjoy both.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah, so yeah, yeah, good stuff.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, it's, it's a. Yeah, I don't know, we didn't have a, we didn't have a particular agenda, something that I'm talking. We just wanted to talk about something that would add value, hopefully, to somebody's day to day.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:And I think that's all we did Somehow turned into an interview for me but hey, that worked out good, that's good. I like it.
TRAVIS BEACHY:I mean I, you, you're always the one asking questions, so hopefully, hopefully, there's some new stuff that you haven't covered already in a previous episode that people got value out of.
SHED GEEK:Well, I want to say always appreciate you, appreciate your dedication to your staff, to your family, to your work, to God. I see it through your work. You're always so available to come on the podcast and it means a lot. I think you had a lot of value. I think I've said it before and I'll say again you, you are the guy I think of whenever I'm like man. What if I could ever have a, a successor, if that's what you want to call it or someone?
Speaker 3:who would kind of?
SHED GEEK:who would, who would mimic what I feel like is the essence of what I try to provide in education through entertainment on the podcast. You're you're definitely that guy. You've always been super professional, super encouraging, um, and and I thank you for that I think you had a lot of value to this industry too, even if you're not on a podcast, and maybe we can get you on there more so people can can see that, but you're always professional and it's just super appreciated that you come on and do these things.
TRAVIS BEACHY:You bet, man. Thanks so much. That's really kind. Um, it's always a blast. It's a kind of a new thing for me to learn and I enjoy. I enjoy conversation, I love meeting new people, I love hearing their stories too and love what you're up to. So thanks, man. I appreciate that I'm happy to come on anytime. I'm happy to coach anytime. If you and Deanna need to take off for a week and you want to burn up some podcast or do some episodes need to fill in guy, I'm happy to step in.
SHED GEEK:Let's make it happen, man, I'll get out of here. Appreciate you. I think we're going back to the RV park and we're going to head to Dallas tomorrow.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Nice, all right, got some big stuff in D town.
SHED GEEK:I'm ready.
TRAVIS BEACHY:Yep, I'm ready. Well, good chatting with you, brother, you too. Thanks, travis.