Prepare to be enlightened by Tristan's return to the Shed Geek podcast, where we delve into the fascinating intersection of technology, personal growth, and resilient business relationships. Tristan's twenty years of software mastery have culminated in innovative solutions that are transforming the shed, carport, and playset industries. As we share stories of trust and collaboration, you'll see how these bonds transcend business, weaving shared values, faith, and family into the fabric of our professional lives.
Our conversation isn't just about the nuts and bolts of software; it's a panoramic view of how tech, like CAL software, is revolutionizing the way we think about workspaces, remote sales, and the role of technology in the Rent-To-Own market. We explore the power of tools that simplify the sales process, from website builders enabling customers to design their dream sheds online, to sales management systems that streamline the tracking of orders. This episode is a testament to the transformative nature of technology—fueling not just efficiency but also the growth and support of family-run businesses across generations.
Rounding off our tech talk, we dive into the heart of service for niche markets and small businesses. It's about understanding the unique needs at the community level and furnishing the tools that allow these local champions to thrive. We also navigate the complexities of affiliate marketing, emphasizing authenticity and the delicate balance of recommending products that genuinely serve our clients' needs. Join Tristan and me as we wrap up with a prayer for wisdom and insight, serving as a reminder of the deeper purpose behind the technology that shapes our industry.
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
Mobeno Solar Solutions
iFAB LLC
My Shed
Prepare to be enlightened by Tristan's return to the Shed Geek podcast, where we delve into the fascinating intersection of technology, personal growth, and resilient business relationships. Tristan's twenty years of software mastery have culminated in innovative solutions that are transforming the shed, carport, and playset industries. As we share stories of trust and collaboration, you'll see how these bonds transcend business, weaving shared values, faith, and family into the fabric of our professional lives.
Our conversation isn't just about the nuts and bolts of software; it's a panoramic view of how tech, like CAL software, is revolutionizing the way we think about workspaces, remote sales, and the role of technology in the Rent-To-Own market. We explore the power of tools that simplify the sales process, from website builders enabling customers to design their dream sheds online, to sales management systems that streamline the tracking of orders. This episode is a testament to the transformative nature of technology—fueling not just efficiency but also the growth and support of family-run businesses across generations.
Rounding off our tech talk, we dive into the heart of service for niche markets and small businesses. It's about understanding the unique needs at the community level and furnishing the tools that allow these local champions to thrive. We also navigate the complexities of affiliate marketing, emphasizing authenticity and the delicate balance of recommending products that genuinely serve our clients' needs. Join Tristan and me as we wrap up with a prayer for wisdom and insight, serving as a reminder of the deeper purpose behind the technology that shapes our industry.
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
Mobeno Solar Solutions
iFAB LLC
My Shed
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Tristan. Well over 200 of these going now, man, and I'm excited, super excited, to have you back on. I can't wait till we're hitting 1000. The only thing I'm struggling with is remembering all the people, the conversations, the people we've met and all that, and that's why I like an ongoing relationship conversation. Keep having those conversation, keep having those, and I've been able to have that with you as well, too, and I just want to. I know you've been on before, but I want to welcome you back and I want to give you a chance to talk about Cal and just give people whatever you want to give them, man, a little more understanding of who you are and what you do, the services you provide. So tell the audience a little about yourself. How about that?
TRISTAN KLESICK:Yeah, well, thank you, Shannon, it's good to be back and to visit. Yeah, we've been, you know, in the software space for, you know, 20 years and now we're in the shed space and the carport space and the playset space and dealers and manufacturers and dealer manufacturers are dealers this space is really, really fun and so we, you know, we pivoted pretty hard into a point of sale solution and order management for, you know, dealers and manufacturers, and because you know our broad history in logistics and software, we, we just feel like our software helps you sell anything. You know, that's the beautiful thing about our software is like it's not specific to a shed manufacturer, although we have shed manufacturers. But you know a lot of dealers. You know they rep three, four, five products. You know they've got, you know, play sets. They build a line of sheds and they sell Eagle carports.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know like they're just all over the map and they need a way to have one system that sort of can, you know, marry that all together and you know, like, even what's you know like you know RTO. You know you can have one person do RTO or, in this case, there are a lot of little RTO companies out there, of little RTO companies out there, big RTO companies out there, and because relationships are so important in this industry relationships they're important in every industry, but in the shed industry in particular, you know these are deep family relationships, deep community relationships. You know we want to just integrate your partners into our system. So you know you can have three, four, five, six different partners if you want, or you can use the ones we're integrated with. But we're happy to integrate with any RTO company, any, any configurator. We have ShedPro and IdeaRoom. Right now we work with, you know Shed Geek Rentals, you know Shannon, and then we work with JMAG and Heartland and Scott's RTO. We're talking to EasyPay. You know we're, we're open to integrating because really it's your business.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know you're the shed owner, the shed dealer, the manufacturer. You know we want you to bring your partners to our system so that you have familiarity with them and then have one spot to do most of your transactions, and so that's why we're really excited about what we're doing because we're working with people and their, their network.
SHED GEEK:I love it, dude, and you hit on something early on, you know I mean you've talked about this a little bit. You know people work with, buy from people they trust. You know what I mean.
SHED GEEK:So, building some good brand authority and building a good trusted relationship really matters. It really works and it does a lot of the work for you whenever people feel like they can trust you. You're not just selling on service and value. Those things are incredibly important. But whenever I sold sheds, I had some people that would come to me because they trusted me. I didn't have to give them the spiel about the warranties. I didn't have to give them a spiel about you know, the service and all that. Make sure my, my oatmeal, cream pies and bottles of waters were readily available and they walked in the door. They knew me. They knew me and because they knew me, they knew that whatever I was selling they were going to be happy with because they were happy to buy from me.
SHED GEEK:And I think that's the, that's the power so many dealers hold out there now already is, you know, do they do they realize that, like, sometimes it's brand, sometimes it's just them? So trust is such an important thing and we've tried to establish that and build on that. And I know that's super important for Cal as well too that people are buying from Tristan. They're not just buying from and Tristan's this whole character right Like. He's this guy outside of just Cal and like we're doing business, he's, you know, he's a loving son who's taking care of his parents. You know what I mean. He's a Christian who's faithful in his duties and his responsibilities. And most of our conversations, tristan, don't circle around our business. Together, they end up circling around Jesus, like me and you talk about, like our ministry, more, I think, than our business. I think that's beautiful.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So oh yeah, it is easier sometimes to talk about the Lord actually and to talk about what you do, right, you know, sometimes it's easier to just talk about who you serve as opposed to you know why I'm here today, but in the end it's all blended together right, because the people we serve also are. In many cases, you know, sons, husbands, wives, daughters have parents who now are getting older and they need to be able to pivot with them or they're transitioning to a different you know a different family structure.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Even right Now, son's taking over, the next generation's coming in, you know, and being a part of those transitions is so beautiful, right, because it's tender and it's hard and it, you know, has to be clear and concise and the new generation has. The new generation has appetite for new tools, right, like we were talking with this one playset manufacturer and he wants to use our system because his dealers just need an easier way to do playsets, but there really isn't a software that can do playsets. But he also sells sheds and carports right, but he wants to focus on a dealer network and playsets. Like, well, we could do playsets, that's not a big deal. We tweak it here and there for them to be successful. In the end, he said, these younger families that are buying play sets sometimes grandma and grandpa buy them but the younger families they're not afraid to buy a play set online.
TRISTAN KLESICK:They're seeing that the kids are willing to buy cars and play sets and even sheds online. They're like how do we get to e-commerce? Yeah well, we can help you with that. We can do the assisted sale where they get a quote from the internet, or they could fully do an RTO contract. Shoot. Those customers all know who their work references are, they all know where they live, they all know. You know their phone number and their address. You know, and with these new configurators out there in particular and the calculators we build, you know you can dial your budget right in.
SHED GEEK:You know, as a consumer right into what you can afford.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You can say oh, I can afford $300 a month, I can afford $500 a month. And if you can't, you just draw the building a little smaller. You take a slide off, in this case, and you add a climbing wall and you say, oh, I can afford that, you know. But you're actually with idea and shed pro and those configurators, you're getting a qualified customer right out of the gate, and so sure, let them fill out the contract, you know, and take a deposit if you want to and if you want them to call you, because there are things, shannon, in the space. You know how big is your fence, what does the overhead wires look like? You know how close are the trees to your house? You have to know some things when you buy a shed online, like online.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Like you know there are some things will help the transaction go better than just, you know, putting out a deposit. So you know we can help wherever you're comfortable with. But there's a new generation coming, you know, and you've got a couple of kids in their twenties. You know they're fine using their internet. They are fine buying online. They trust that way more than you and I might. You know, and maybe they're more savvy and maybe they're just more naive, I don't know which. But you know they're willing to buy online.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And so the point of sharing that story is, you know, this is a dealer network, but he also reps products and he also, you know, buys from the manufacturers and we can support all of his business activity because we're just multi-dimensional. You know, we're not shed specific, we're not manufacturer specific, you know, and we let you bring your configurators, we let you bring your RTO companies, and so we can kind of build out who you're in business with and then give you one easy point of sale solution and some good order management tools.
SHED GEEK:And that's where we start focusing Isn't it the beauty of collaboration? I like to say that the beauty of collaboration, when it works, is that all parties are happy.
SHED GEEK:You know like there is a skewed view of collaboration that says I get something, you may get something, and I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what we're doing here. Like that's not. Why Shed Geek Rentals, you know, chose to work with Kat, you know, it's because it benefits us. It doesn't just benefit me, it doesn't just benefit you, it benefits us. And I think that's the way good, true collaboration should work.
SHED GEEK:And you're seeing a lot of this in the shed industry, which is really awesome, because the way technology kind of busted onto the scene like a Kool-Aid man jumping through the wall, everybody's like wait a minute, all these choices are so much. And then there's this and that. And then what about service? What about price? What about all of these things? But then there's like what about all the technical components about you guys working together? Because there can become a, there can become almost like a skewed, like I have to work with this one or I have to work with that, and it's like well, have you ever considered that sometimes they might work together to solve more of your problems? Instead of just this? This uh, unrealistic allegiance to, to one brand there is, like some of those brands are choosing to be like wait a minute. We can help you and and you, the customer, the shed manufacturer or the rto uh company looking for these products, you win. You win in the battle because we work together on these things.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Yeah, no, I I find it interesting, you know, I mean this industry has just been in place for a long time, right, and there's some, you know some Amish and Mennonite builders that are, you know, limited in tech, and then you know they have, you know, dealer networks they've set up and sometimes, you know, you take your commission to the deposit world.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Sometimes you get a check at the end of the month, you know. And so the industry is really diverse, but they have relationships and the thing about me is I love relationships. I am much more happy having this conversation about your network because you're just involved in people's lives, you're making a difference in your community. You have tools, but also I don't like having all my eggs in one basket and there are some all-in-one solutions. But in the end I want to be so diverse that if you need three or four or five RTO partners, we can put them all in the system. If you just do Carports or EasyPay or Heartland, no problem.
TRISTAN KLESICK:When you choose a Carport, those are the RTO companies that show up, you know. And if you do shares and you work with JMAG and Shed Geek Rentals and you know Scott's RTO or something, you know, that's easy as well. You know we just show those and then you just train your sales team to use whichever one is appropriate for you, because it is nice to have multiple partners. In some ways it's easier to have one partner, but really, you know, having two or three trusted partners is just safer. The Bible teaches us that right A multitude of counselors is safety right, and so for us, you know, we're just trying to help our clients. You know, run a little faster, save a little time and take advantage of technology. So it makes their lives better.
SHED GEEK:We've even had in sort of our marketing campaign. We've had customers that sign up that say, well, you know, we use this RTO provider, we like you guys and you know what. Maybe you'll be a follow-up call if something falls through. But my question is is there conflict in providing marketing if we're not using your RTO? And I'm like, why would there be conflict? And they're like, well, just because you know you're not seeing the benefit, I was like, oh no, no, I think you're misunderstanding. I'm here to serve you. You know what I mean. Like I'm not here to serve me. You know what I mean. That's probably what you're used to, you know what I mean. So like I'm not here. So like, wait a minute, you're telling me that that RTO provider is going to point. And they're like well, yeah, wouldn't it? And I'm like well then, I'm serving me.
TRISTAN KLESICK:If.
SHED GEEK:I think that way and choose to not do business with you. No, we're here to serve you and if subsequently your RTO provider does better because of it, then so be it. It's the same as offering, you know, advertising on the show. I'm like, well, I know, probably some RTO providers aren't going to either come on the show or offer that, but I'll make them make that choice, like I won't make that choice for them. You're available to come on, you're available to advertise, but what if I get some business? Oh no, oh no. What if you get some business? You know it's like. So it's one of those things where I'm just like I love the collaborative efforts between all the parties that are doing it well, and you, sir, are doing a great job in that and we've been super excited and very pleased with any collaborative efforts we've done with you guys on Shed Geek Rentals. So tell me a little bit about so. Somebody's driving down the road today, they're hammering away building a shed today and they say Cal consumer line logistics, Consumer line logistics. What does that mean? Give me the sixth grade elementary explanation of what Cal is.
TRISTAN KLESICK:It basically just streamlines your sales process. You know, we allow you not to use file cabinets to have down paper. Who has the nicest handwriting eliminates the errors from poor handwriting and I am chief among the poorest handwriters there is and then to have one consistent place. You could be, you know, and Shannon, you live this world right now. You get in that RV and I talk to you here in Texas, or you know, Virginia, or whatever you know, you could log into the Cal system and you could check on today's sales. No problem, you could, you know, see if there's one that needs your attention. You can, you know, you can be on vacation and just pop in and look at the dashboard and see what's happening. Matter of fact, you can take a phone call and complete a sale right, so you're no longer tied to your location as much. So that means you can be virtual, so like if you have a sales call at somebody's house, you know you're going to go, talk about a carport. You can bring your iPad with you, your tablet with you, log into their Wi-Fi there and you can draw the building in ID or ShedPro and you can complete the transaction right in their living room and all paperwork is signed right there. You know, we use a digital signing service so we can get a real good stamp on it, and so the Cal software really allows the team members to spend less time chasing paper and more time closing deals. You know, and we have some clients that are Mennonite and Amish, you know, and we built systems to get them bigger email pictures so that they can fax them around, you know, in their community so they can get good drawings Right. You know, like we wanted to serve these people wherever they are, and we want to serve the smaller manufacturer and dealers in particular, right, whether you're a wholesale shed buyer or whether you're a true dealer and you're repping five different carport companies. You know we handle that Like we are happy to help you sell more carports, more shed, more play sets, more trailers, more golf carts. You know, like we are happy to help you sell more carports, more shed, more play sets, more trailers, more golf carts. You know we are, we just like to help you sell whatever you want to sell, and I think diversity in the marketplace, being able to do multiple things with your software, is so important, you know, and then when we you and I, Shannon were talking, you know, and you brought up Shed Geek Rentals.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know there was a point where we figured out that a lot of the smaller RTO companies aren't going to invest in a technology platform and one of their challenges was was actually getting away from fax and email and snail mail contracts. And so we we we figured out how to do that and we actually built a. It's a contract platform where you can receive the contracts and it imports directly into RTO Pro, you know, and so you can do batch imports or one at a time. But essentially, you know, your dealers can just log in and they can, you know, create the contract right there on your space and then they can upload delivery sheets and invoices and it just it helped a small RTO company, you know, organize their digital world so they could get those contracts more reliably, more cleanly. Organize their digital world so they can get those contracts more reliably, more cleanly, you know, more correctly, and then get the payments also to them as well.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know chasing cash as an RTO company. Oh, my goodness, Shannon, I feel for those companies who are trying to get those dealers to finally mail in the checks and the cash. With our system, you can just upload the ACH version of that. Check into the portal and then it's out of your hair completely. And, of course, cash is cash. But they could also just make a payment from their own account and keep the cash themselves and make a payment on the contract, right. And so we just made it simpler for rto companies to serve. You know their back-end solutions, right, the team is having to do all the double entries and try to put the chasing paper and then also for the customer. You know it's easier for them as well. So so we're excited about that platform.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So we figured that out after hanging out in the space, that there are companies like Shed Geek Rentals who don't have a way to get a contract online.
SHED GEEK:Yeah.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know, and so we just built a platform for that, and we're super excited about that product as well.
SHED GEEK:Well, it's worked great. You know, whenever we jumped into the RTO space, of course I was working in the RTO space even whenever I started the podcast, and who knows, we may edit this out, we may keep it in. We don't edit too much. But I'm pretty transparent and you know, I like to. I like to build consumer confidence and things like that and what we're doing. Man, we jumped into the marketing. We didn't know what to expect and I'm pretty confident that I can say this, as long as it doesn't sound like a statement of arrogance, but rather a statement of humility, because I couldn't get up and walk through this door without God's permission. I couldn't do anything.
SHED GEEK:I do without God's permission. So, like I don't, like you know, it's like I told you before the call started I take what he gives and if he doesn't give what what others get, then that's okay, cause it's not meant for me. But we're excited to say that we've worked with as many as 30 clients in the marketing space already and we're like we're six months in and we're like, oh wow, this is really a need in the industry that we're recognizing that we can scale. And then with RentOn, you know, it's just a little bit. It's just a little bit different. I mean, you've talked about that because it's so established already. We really want to put some education behind it. We really want to focus on our marketing and how you know, a lot of these guys are.
SHED GEEK:I used to struggle with the dealer premiums and things like that and I'm like, oh, how do you give this? And it's just like you know, you give 2%, that guy gives 3% and 4% and 5%. You go back and forth. I was like, man, I want to provide so much service, so much value that it's really not to be competed with. So we were like, hey, let's take that 5% dealer premium and let's dump it into marketing and we'll make your value 10%, 15%, because we'll start to show you different levels of where your business can go, hopefully, if we do a good job and the Lord allows us.
SHED GEEK:So, if you are an RTO provider and you go to the NBSRA, whatever, and you're like you know what I don't have a solution here for my RGL contract you should give Tristan a call. Our experiences went really good with him. A lot of good people out there doing a lot of good things. So I'm not taking anything away from anybody. I'm telling you my experience has been good and I think you should at least give him a call, do a discovery call, that kind of thing. Now, if you're a manufacturer, you're probably struggling with just a basic point of sale. I love paper. Tristan, I've got it here right here. I'm sitting here writing down notes and stuff we're talking about and things we're doing, and this is the old CRM. This is the old paper CRM. It still works good. Sticky notes everywhere. But I don't know about you, sir, but I just became a grandpa and mental notes fail me at times.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Cecilia Rose is a beautiful little girl.
SHED GEEK:She is really beautiful. She's precious dude. She's just great. I appreciate that. She's got my heart already. Yeah, yeah, it's great. This is a special part of life for us and thank you for that. I would tell you that from a manufacturer who struggles. Yes, it's good to put stuff on paper, it's good to have a nice contract, it's even okay to have a fillable PDF and you might be able to get through business doing that. But my question is can you go to the next level? Should you go to the next level? And, if so, who should you go to that with? So if you're trying to get a point of sale system across like who do you call? How do you manage that? Lots of good options, lots of good options.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But one of those great industry partners in this world. Yeah.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But, I do feel like I mean one of the things about Cal which we appreciate is that we allow you to wade in right. You know you can just add, you know the point of sale system at this point, and then you know we can work on other integrations later. Or if you want to just add IdeaRoom and ShedPro or whatever, and then you know our system, that's great too. So we want you to sort of like you know, adopt technology as you're comfortable with it. But it's not really. It's more, when you're going to adopt technology you are using technology. It's just old technology.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Pen and paper is a great improvement over, you know, our memories. Um, a file cabinet is a great improvement over our desk, you know, and so we are using technology. It's a matter of organizing that right. Um, and you know, and the amount of time we spend in the office chasing paper, the roi with the configurator and cal, is huge because you get these efficiencies going this way back into the system where you have less trouble, less people, you know, less need for chasing paper, and then you get the marketing benefit of that configurator. You know you start to win on all levels with a purchase like CAL integration with the configurator, because you're getting marketing wins and you're also going to increase efficiency in the office. And people are premium, my word, you know finding a good team and giving them better tools so they can run faster and be more organized.
TRISTAN KLESICK:I mean, when we, when we started in this space, you know, four years ago, we were still. We were still doing organic home delivery of fruits and vegetables, we were farming people and, um, and during that pandemic, you know, we scaled our business three times, just like the shed industry did, but we didn't hire any people. It was, it was painless because we already had all the systems in place, you know, and that's when I got this, like you know, and you and I are come from the same class, yeah, and like always be serving right like we took good, good profit and good money, and we invested it back into making the lives of small business owners better because we saw the benefit.
TRISTAN KLESICK:I thought, oh my goodness, if other businesses who can't necessarily make this investment technology or don't have the time to make the investment technology, if I could help them. And of course we were looking to do it for other farms and CSAs and home delivery companies, right. And then we ended up in the home delivery space sheds, tiny houses, carports, you know and so just through some friends, through Dave Ramsey and stuff, and so you know, we ended up here and we just love this space. This space is filled with good people, hardworking people, but they also need tech. They need some kind of technology that will make their lives easier and it's not hard to adopt. And kind of technology that will make their lives easier and it's not hard to adopt and it has to be affordable.
SHED GEEK:Shannon, it has to be affordable.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Yeah, absolutely, you have to be able to justify the expense, because you know we don't want to move in. But there is a cost to using technology and we found people you know our clients in particular. They're leery of it and so we come in at such an affordable price point. You know it's going to take me you know 50 or 60 clients to to really make a profit, but that's okay with me because I'm serving 50 or 60. If it only took me one or two clients to make a profit, then I'm probably charging too much. You know, and for me as a business owner, fees and costs are important. They do matter and you have to bring more value as a business to businesses if you're going to do business with them. You know it's a win-win.
SHED GEEK:I agree with 100% of what you're saying. I've learned this and I'll say this at risk of losing any audience. Let me tell you, selling to the shed industry is a lot different than getting sold from them. Because we're consumers, we all think, you know, well, we sell a quality building, so they shouldn't really think about price, because you know they're we're going to sell something quality. But then whenever we buy, we think about price ourselves. You know what I mean. And so you got to think about the way you sell also and the way that you consume, you know, and the way that other people consume as well too, because, you know, not everybody buys the way you shop. But if we just take and look internally on us, we go, well, this is a good product, I know my price point, I know my value, so this is what we're going to. You know, put it at. But then. But then I go shop something and I go, oh man, how much is that? You know, put it at. But then. But then I go shop something and I go, oh man, how much is that? And it's like wait a minute.
SHED GEEK:Isn't that the one question you don't like to hear, first and foremost, from a shed shopper because you want them to be involved in the quality of what you do and not just the price. That's important, but it's not the whole thing. But, yeah, you guys, uh, you guys are able to compete in that space. It's really about apples for apples. Like I want to be able to sell the best shed at the best price also, and the only way you can do that is is your unique business model.
SHED GEEK:So I think the same way with, like you know, your, your, your POS systems, you know what I mean. Like you got to be able to provide the most service at the best price point you can, and the only way you, you can control that. This is why we're we, we, we say we're a copycat industry, but this is where we're not. No one can copy your service, no one can copy your dedication, no one can copy your price. They can copy your paint, they can copy this or that or whatever, but generally speaking, they can't copy your heart and your service and your willingness to go in and go the extra mile, and that's what you guys have done for us and we appreciate that.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And people, shannon also, are just different. The industry is full of all kinds of people with all kinds of needs, and sometimes they need a complete ERP solution because they're just mammoth and that's okay. We want to serve the smaller 1 to 20 or 30 dealer network. We're looking to serve the smaller businesses who are?
TRISTAN KLESICK:content with owning a county as opposed to owning the state or owning the country, right, and you know, and so we can serve big clients. But really, you know, we are, we're just small businesses and we love serving small businesses and so our tools tend to reflect, you know, that sort of scale and niche where it makes sense for a small business to adopt. And then it's really important that we also just hear from them. What do they really want to accomplish? Why are they calling us?
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know that customer who sells play sets. You know he was like, you know he still has a bunch of sheds and carports, but he had a. He led with his email. You know, play sets was the very first thing. I'm like, okay, why did he leave with play sets? I don't even see that on his website, you know. And it's like you know, and it's like because he has a need in places. You know we had to lean into what his real need was, you know, right now, and he wants to solve this place at dealer network, right, you know. So we're happy to, you know, to serve that need and we can serve all of his business, you know, but right now he wants to work on his place. That's fine. Wait in, wait in with play sets and then we'll bring over the other things, right, but for sure we are happy to encourage you to get the right partner for you. And we're not always the right partner, you know there are other companies that do things different. But if you are kind of selling multiple products, multiple SKUs, whether it's lawn furniture or gazebos or sheds, carports and, in this case, play sets, we are a viable solution and we're super affordable. You know we want to serve you and help you run faster, because we've also shared.
TRISTAN KLESICK:One of my passions is small business owners. Small business owners are deacons of churches. They teach Bible studies, they coach Little League. You know they go to Kalani's meetings. They are the heart of their local communities and if they're wrapped in paper then they can't run as fast. But if they can actually get free of all the processes and have it all streamlined, they can run faster, they can serve more in their community. Oftentimes we just serve in our businesses, because that's what we're passionate about, but really we have outside passions that we can't get to or do as well Like grandparenting right.
TRISTAN KLESICK:I got number nine just the same time you got yours get to or do as well like grandparenting right, I got number nine just the same time you got yours right. And that little critter, he is precious, oh my goodness. He is amazing right. And number 10 is coming. I've got to have time to spend time with this generation. That's coming.
TRISTAN KLESICK:They're going to need grandma, you know they're going to need grandma, and so for us, the tools have helped us actually have more balance in our world. But also do it from you. Know, when I'm a baby I can be on my phone checking what's going on in my software. You know I can put in my AirPods and talk to you and do a transaction right. And so now I'm multi-talented because I can actually be working from you. Know the crate you know just holding on to my baby and my grandson or whatever.
SHED GEEK:And so I'm excited about consultation more and more, because we've talked for so long about creating the third leg of the uh, the tabletop of shed geek podcast and making it consultation. I don't know if we'll get there, when we'll get there or whatever. Uh, again, I'll take as the lord gives. You know what I mean, uh, but but uh, I found something interesting in researching even other companies one guy that what he does at his consultation is he doesn't just come in for your business, he comes, comes in and talks to you about your health. He comes in and talks to you about your diet and you're like, wait a minute, I just called on you, for I just called on you for my business needs. Like I'm not, you know, I don't need all of this. And he's like man, a balanced life was going to help you in your business. Are you considering? You know, your body is your temple.
SHED GEEK:It's kind of like how a conversation goes real quick on how our shed sales this year. Like, oh well, it's an election year, we just go straight to national politics and for some reason, all of a sudden, like national politics are affecting our inability to sell sheds on the lot and it's like, well, we know there's trickle down, but generally speaking, we can. We can get out of that frame of mind and we can just put effort to go in today and sell and not be like, well, great, great Biden's stopping me from succeeding. And it's like, well, you know, I think it's more, it's deeper than that, right? So like we don't like. I mean I partially agree with you, don't get me wrong.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Well, I mean so was you know Bill Clinton and Reagan and Obama and Trump? You know, all of them are stopping us and helping us in some way. You know there's something going on.
SHED GEEK:But it's not the catalyst for like why we're succeeding and failing today. So I thought that was really interesting on his thought of like taking an approach to health and like the whole thing to consultation. So it's where I'm trying to tie that back. Is it's about being well-rounded, just in general? It's about you know what I'm saying being able to, to, to, to, to manage your day transactionally, like you're saying, without it being like a major pull on us and a major thought of like oh, I got to log into that system, this is going to be a struggle, we don't want that. Yeah. Of like oh, I got to log into that system, this is going to be a struggle, we don't want that. How's your experience been with Josh and Justin?
TRISTAN KLESICK:Oh man, your team is really good.
SHED GEEK:They've been really solid.
TRISTAN KLESICK:They're really nice young men. I say that now because I realize I'm almost 60. I'm like when did that happen, by the way? But those guys are like my children, almost Like what happened here. So they're really insightful and actually you know everybody who's in the rto space. You know, in particular, artist space. They're just sharp minds. You know when, I guess when you, you know, they just sharpen those pencils and they think things through and and because we collaborate with so many people, you know the product just keeps getting better and better. Right, because you know the nuances of how you run your business versus somebody over here over there, what the needs are. You know we didn't start to cover a lot of the industry whether you do CRA this way, or you do greater initial payments, or you know two payments down, one payment down, or whether you want to have different product for car course you know, and so it's fun for us to run with with.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know, you know that generation because they really get it, um, but yeah, those guys are really talented, but the whole industry is talented. It's been, it's been amazing to to work in that space, um, and I think about you know what we're doing and we're just building products that serve right, like we're serving different parts, because the industry really is. You know, you have manufacturers. You have these guys who have air saws that just chop like four things at once chop, chop, you know, and they're serving the shed industry, right. And then you have people that are doing the drawing programs. They're serving the industry. And then you have the finance piece. They're serving the industry, and so the manufacturing piece is kind of the hub of it all.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But you know what the dealers do. They start the whole process Because without a dealer, you've got nothing to do. Without the dealer making a sale, everything comes to a stop, and so we're all integrated together. But also making sure those dealers have those good tools to create frictionless sales to make it easy for the customer to buy from them. That starts the whole process.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know the dealer starts the whole process.
SHED GEEK:Do you have a way to walk me through some of this? Do you have, like, if a dealer wants to see, if a manufacturer wants to see, rto client, whatever? You have something that you can like, just I don't know a little synopsis. Maybe they can get on with you, do an actual discovery call or whatever. But I think, seeing the software, like we talk about visual all the time because it's so important. So do you have anything you could share with them? For those that are watching on YouTube, you can kind of get a glimpse of this, but for those of you who are not, you can still go check it out or message me. We'll try to send you a clip of it or whatever it looks like we're advertising with you as well, shannon, right.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And so they can just scan that QR code on your ad and they go right to our website. The website's calcanhelpcom. I thought about that for a long time like CalCanHelp, but now it flows so nicely. Matter of fact, my name is now Cal. It's no longer Tristan. Just call me Cal and I'll answer the phone. I'm totally guilty of being Cal, but it's my personality. It's serving right, like I was, you know, during a flood one time we lived in the flood plain, and so he's like do you just run around and serve people? Like he's, like, you know, scratching his head. Like you know, his hay was getting rained on, so I brought my boys over and around and serve people.
SHED GEEK:Yes. In short, yes, that's what I do. I like it.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Yeah, thank you for noticing that I'm always here to help if I can. But I also learned in that same moment right that sometimes it's better to drive by and pray, because I really can't help, you know, and so, as much as you think you might want to help, can you, you know, and so, like I, I'm always praying, but then I do stop and help sometimes.
SHED GEEK:Well, I gotta admit, no one, no one said no one's called you cal to me yet. But I can see how that happens. Uh, tristan's the name, cal's the brand and uh, this is what cal does. This is what what they do. You care to walk us through a little bit of that?
TRISTAN KLESICK:yeah, absolutely so. Um, this is the same for ShedPro and IdeaRoom. It functions the same. They're different configurators, of course, but we use these tools. Up here in the corner. You can actually create an order from IdeaRoom or you can create a product from IdeaRoom. If you create a product from IdeaRoom, you can create virtual products, you know. You can submit for inventory requests or you can import your drawings. So we have a way for you to bring in your existing inventory right here as well. And then, of course, you have all your tools over here, and so you know you can get there from our tools right here and go to your carports, your sheds, and then you know we have our own set of tools to work with Idea Room, in addition to the sales new tools that people have as well. But over here in this world, this is where you know a salesperson would log in, and we have different sales tools for the sales people and they just have a different. Let me click on that again. They just have a skinnier version of the of the tools available. Because they're salespeople, they don't need to have all the admin access and things like that, right, but everybody. So they have their own dashboard of what's going on in their sales.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Just a little quick screen view All the orders here, any quotes they're working on. They can see the status of the order. So if the customer calls and says, hey, what's going on in my building? Oh, you know, we're just processing that, or it's pending or it's in production. You know, this tells the salesperson, so they can just quickly tell the customer what's going on. But the customer also, with our system, has their own login and they could go to their own section and they can see where their building is as well, what status it's in. So you know, you can eliminate a lot of conversation just by this little bit of information right here. Um, you know, and that's good enough, you know, and if you're a manufacturer, you know you want to know what's going on as well. So manufacturers can see all this as well. Um, but the salesperson can kind of get a quick view of what's going on with the building at that point right here and you can just quickly start.
TRISTAN KLESICK:This is a draft order here. You can click on it and start it. I'll just click on it here and it'll just open up the sales process at that point and then you can walk it through the system and so we've got this bar right here and we can edit that if we need to. We can add prices, fees, discounts. You know, right here you can do a red tone or buy outright. You know it's just different questions, but it all starts the same way. Shannon, right, the same sale, no matter what it is, all starts right here.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And if you're doing like, say, a gazebo there aren't many configurators for gazebos you would just do the manual order entry process and you would just type in the specs you need for that, upload a photo of it and then walk it through the sales process so we can support even the stuff that isn't in a configurator. You know, if you have, you know, lawn furniture in your system, because people are, you know, buying houses and they want a fire pit and some chairs to go with it and you sell those. They're just products. You just sell those as part of the deal. You know so we do that.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know rentals are important, right? And then you know, here it would list all the partners. So we're not, you know, specific to one partner. We just have our own RTO demo site set up here. But if you were using three or four partners. They would just all drop down. So we're super excited about that. You can add notes to the deal. You can add invoice notes, admin notes, production notes at the time of the deal as well, and so you know, this is, you know, pretty straightforward. You've already got the information, the customer, and then you just would hit I'm going to go back to a buyout right building here. Um, that little dashboard at the bottom down there, shannon is in the way of my screen.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Every time I go down, here, I got you it wants to, and so then you know what's your, what's your payment method. You want to do greater payment, a smaller payment if you're a dealer, if you're a dealer, shannon, and you're just taking the deposit for your commission then you would just use offline credit card, offline payment and you just record for the manufacturer how you took that payment.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Now if you were a dealer who was actually keeping you know like you were selling this business, then you could use any one of the other tools right here and record it for yourself. But if you're like on a manufacturer's side and you're a dealer, you just tell the manufacturer how you took the payment so they know it was there, right, and so then we just do that. So if we have credit card, you can do ACH or credit card. We use Clarence as our primary partner for that space because they integrate with RTO Pro and so then we can share the tokens from Clarence into RTO Pro on the credit card side.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So we just put a check down here what's the amount of the building here and the deposit. You determine the deposit, right, we're not determining the deposit. So you just set a percentage per product carport, sheds, gazebos, whatever percentage you want to take down as a deposit. That just shows up under the amount due. And of course the customer can always pay more. We're being quick here. We're just receiving a payment and you know we're verifying because you can take multiple. So if you come in Shannon and you want to put down 25% and you want your brother a lot of put down 25%, we could actually take multiple payments on the same transaction from multiple cars you know.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So if you bring in a check and you want to bring in a credit card also, you know we can catch for both, so that's why we do the math here. If you know we can catch for both, so that's why we do the math here. If there's any math left, it's okay. So it was $250, right Gotcha.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And then if the deal turns backwards like for some reason nobody's ever lost a sale in industry, I know, but we account for it and if it happens to go south for some reason, or they want to make it edit after the fact, you know you make the revisions and owe you more money or less money this screen opens up and you can just either, you know, take another deposit to make it equal the amount they want, or you can just apply a bigger deposit to the building if they made a smaller adjustment, right. So we've accounted for the money moving back and forth. And then over here in this section, we just hit continue again and we have a really simple workaround. This is just for review purposes.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Peter's buying this building. Peter's our lead developer, by the way and then he's buying this building here. Here's the costs, here's the deposits, add notes and then you can sign multiple ways. You can either sign this contract by printing it and having the customer sign it, or you can actually sign on device and then it goes to sign now pulls up the contract. I'll just print the contract here because we know we go to pull it all together. It takes a couple minutes so I'll just spare you the drama of that.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But we hit this print button here, this will actually pull up you know, your brand, your invoices, and make it look like an actual invoice at that point. Um, and so here you know, your brand goes over here in the corner, customer information, the date of it, the building. If you have any drawings from idea room, they come, any photo id right here. All that gets captured. Your contract language goes in here as well, and so we just brand your invoice to fit into this space, and so it's really an amazing, powerful tool in that respect. And then you know, you can do this from the living room or from your office or from, you know, vacation, like we. It's not limited, right? So if you, if you feel like you've been stuck on a lot and now you want to sell to all of Georgia or all of Kentucky, you now can sell to all of Kentucky because we can draw a picture or a map of Kentucky and anybody calls in, they go to your website and they can just purchase on there or they can call you. As long as you fulfill that area, not a problem, right? And so once this gets fulfilled and submitted, it goes right into the order processing screen right away, and so, even if the deal is still kind of in the netherlands, so to speak, you can view this order immediately back in the order tablet and your processing team can choose to act on it or not act on it. Right, and so here's the order. These are the statuses available, and you can have your own statuses.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Remember I talked about building your system. If you want to say I want to watch the paint dry as a status, go for it. We do not care. If somebody wants to record paint drying, okay, you know. But typically you know building order, building receipts. Starter production is fine, but we don't. We don't. We don't have a monopoly on statuses.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And then, at the very bottom down here, you have the purchase agreement available to view and a delivery receipt. We haven't filled this out completely, because sometimes you don't have your serial number yet, but when you go to deliver this building, you just hit that and then it shows up as a delivery receipt and you can take it with you, you know. So we're building tools like that, and if this was a manufacturing site, it would be a work order, purchase agreement, work order and delivery receipt. So then you could just send a redacted building drawings to the, to the shop. You know some people use the invoice for everything, totally fine, so they will just want to send the shop what they need to know. You know they don't need anything else but the drawings of where the doors and windows go on their house, right, and so you know we make that available.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So in our world these tools are available and you know, if you're in the order, I'm going to move over here to the admin team real quick and then I'll pop off this conversation. But essentially in the admin world, if you go to orders, we highlight processing step in particular. That means typically that these are orders that are in the queue. So if you just want to know what's going on in just processing because your job is to review the paperwork you can select down to processing right here and you'll just see all the orders and processing.
TRISTAN KLESICK:If you're the sales manager, you want to know why things are still stuck in pending. What's going on with this? Is the customer not signed yet? What's hanging up? You can just look at all the pending orders. If you're in dispatch, you just go to ready for delivery and you just pull up orders you need. The tool is pretty robust. Behind the screen I can't quite see it, but you can search by serial number or customer and pull up an order as well, and these statuses only show up when there's something in them, right, so this isn't always populated. But if you have nothing ready for delivery, start selling. Let's go.
SHED GEEK:You know yeah.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Let's give those shed guys something to do, you know. But it doesn't clog up the screen, right? It just keeps growing through your sales. And so as you get busier, you're going to have something any payment, any documents ready to order. And if you're a dealer and this is one of the things I want to share as well we have a whole purchasing segment where you can build loads. So if you're a wholesale shed buyer and you need to buy from a Lark or a Handy House or Homestead or whoever you're buying from, you can actually create a PO and load a trailer full of buildings that have come to whatever lot you want them sent to, and then you have a way to receive them in and take pictures and create them as products Right, and we have that whole process built.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So dealers you know we have a whole set of tools for them and manufacturers a whole set of tools for them, because you know they have different needs. But what I really like about our system is that we are serving multiple kinds of companies in the shed space. For manufacturers, we create the dealer store on their site and they have that order. If you're a manufacturer, you have access to all this stuff, even if it's in the dealer's store. You know what's going on because they're using your site and your idea over your ShedPro and so you can, as a manufacturer. You can see what's coming down the pipe, you know, as opposed to waiting for it to show up. So we're excited about all of our tools and you know very flexible and flex.
SHED GEEK:flexibility is what so many people need because, although we kind of identify ourselves as being very similar and we are and selling a lot of the same products, I mean there's, you know, there's a lot of different things that we're seeing in the shed space now. There's, you know, there's a lot of different things that we're seeing in the shed space now and, like you said, you know, your, your, your average dealer location is going to maybe have four or five different SKUs there. You know what I mean. So you one size fits all makes a lot of sense. It's just, it's really about it's. It's really about, like, increasing your, your, your time, your availability and and taking a more simplistic approach is the way I would phrase it in a nutshell but yeah, I love it, man, like yeah.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So you see that we actually added one more building because I completed that pending sale. You know I went through the process and so the salesperson got credit for one more building immediately showed up on their dashboard, right. And if they want to start an order Shannon, this is, you know that I alluded to a little bit earlier when you click on this screen create order here, you know you can either select from a catalog. What I love about the catalog is you know your existing inventory is there, of course, what's on the lot.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But the virtual drawings are so important because if you have these hot sellers in these hot colors that you know you're going to be able to sell at a 12 by 16 lofted barn or whatever, or a cabin, you can just pre-design that and it just grabs that product and over and over.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And so your salesperson can just go right to the what the customer's talking about and pull up an idea of a ship road drawing and then start to modify it and, you know, work with the customer right from existing drawings so the customer can grab one ready to build. Yeah, I want that blue building over there with that white you, you know, trim on it and order that for me, you know, and so that's beautiful. But you can also go here to the to idea or ship pro and you can also manually enter a building. You can just walk through that and you can pick your styles, you know, and then you can put in the side 12 by 16, by seven. So we just been listening to the industry a ton and what we've heard them say is they want a simple point of sale solution and good order management tools, but they also want to be able to sell more than one thing.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know, and so you know because if you have a, system just to do one thing, then what about the rest of your business? And so if we can knock out three or four or five on your list, you know and you have one system for most of your business, you know we can't do all people's businesses most of the time, but we can do almost all people's businesses.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But you know there's always going to be a few side things and so this manual order entry process works. Also, this important design is great because if you're in an idea room or shed pro, you know you can be doing all your lead stuff in idea room and you can be working with HubSpot or whatever, and then when you finalize the deal with the customer, when you're in there building out these things and you want to grab drawing number three and start there, you just grab the hashtag from there and you just drop it in here and it starts the sales transaction.
TRISTAN KLESICK:So you can do all your revisions in your configurator and then you can just grab it a little number up here in the hash and cut and paste that into here and start the sales transaction with the agreed upon drawing from the customer and just start walking. So we give you lots of ways to actually start a sale in our space.
SHED GEEK:Well, and you know a lot of this starts and you've talked about it a couple of different times here at the 3D Configurators. You know we've been able to partner with several, not only Idea Room If we're not finished with that, we're working through the details of some of that but we work with them closely, like constantly, and then James Price over at ShedPro, but even some other companies Digital Shed Builder, my Shed and Matthew Black's program but we've reached out to all the rest and said we want to be able to have a partnership and a collaborative effort with you. It's like we we put it out there to say, hey, if you want that, we want that. So like, by all means, we'd love that. And we've learned in the marketing space, particularly Tristan, that like that's very imperative to have a 3d configurator and I'll tell you what. You can go directly to them and there's not a problem with that. But there's a reason we're creating all of these collaborative efforts is because they have affiliate programs and there is money to be made from that. So if you'll give me, the Shed Geek, an opportunity to help make that introduction, we'll be glad to, because, guess what? We do get some benefit from that financially and we just that's just out there. And we do get some benefit from that financially and we just that's just out there. And you know what In some of these programs you do too. So, like you know, referral partners are becoming very important. I saw, where you know, other companies have launched some of these referral programs to say, hey, if you'll do it and you already use my system, we'll give you some money back on that or whatever.
SHED GEEK:There's a lot of like work at people, obviously, you know, trying to trying to do better, and this is what I say. It's kind of like whenever people say, well, what if somebody else creates a podcast? I'm like what if somebody else creates a podcast? Like what about it? And they're like, well, I mean, isn't that going to bother you? It's like, hey, listen, I'm not going to operate with a gatekeeper system here. Like, no one can tell. No one can tell you what to do and what not to do in business. This is what I, this is what I would tell you. Do a good job, do a good job, be consistent.
SHED GEEK:Be there whenever you don't feel like doing it, because there's going to be times you don't feel like doing it and your passion is going to have to be the thing that's going to have to pull you forward, not your profit.
SHED GEEK:You're going to have to feel very passionate about what you're doing. You're going to want to give up on it quick, but if you come in and you do a good job and Lord forbid you even do better, like you even do better. Well, isn't that the expectation? Because then it's going to cause me to want to improve. I'm going to have to start doing things or thinking about other things. So, instead of a gatekeeper approach that says you stay out of here, I've got this covered. It's you're welcome and I hope you do better because it calls me to want to do better. So you know, some of these systems I don't know are is one going to win out ultimately, and I still think it's going to work that way. I think out ultimately, and I still think it's going to work that way. I think there's space for everybody. I think you're all, so many of you, doing a good job. I think that people should call you tristan.
SHED GEEK:I think they should give you a call I think, you recall, that's the thing you don't know if you don't call. But all of these guys are going to welcome your phone, call and go through this system and, uh man, that service really becomes super important at that point, doesn't it? Because, like, who's going to serve you?
TRISTAN KLESICK:So yeah, you know, shannon, before you know we part here, I've got a call in a few minutes as well. You know we had a manufacturer who got downsized right Like they. You know the manufacturer was a big manufacturer nationwide. They decided they didn't want to be in that space any longer and he was at a funeral Of all things and he met up with somebody else and said you got to call Cal. And so he called me Because he's a builder. He's been building Sheds for this other company for so long.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And so they started building systems and he was lost and now he's up to 30 dealers After about 7 months and he's been Using our system and we're. And that was up to 30 dealers after about seven months, right, and he's been using our system and we're not. You know, we're not perfect, right, but we took somebody who was a builder and we gave him some tools and we helped him get a website, a URL, rto, partners and configurators and he is running, you know, and so you know, even if you know some of your clients are, you know, attached to large manufacturers and they feel like they need to make a pivot at some point or they get downsized, you know, for whatever reason.
TRISTAN KLESICK:You know we wanted to serve them right and we were up with that one manufacturer who got downsized you know, number one manufacturer for this company and got downsized, and you know they're still in business. Now they're like doing, you know they're still in business Now they're like doing, you know, a hundred transactions a month or something, right, you know. And so that kind of stuff is so rewarding to me because you know we, we were to help, help them continue their journey and do what they were, what they were, what they want to do and continue to do, and so you know. And then we have the other other spectrum where we've got people now want to set up places, you know, or they sell just, you know, carports and sheds. Like we don't have a dog in that fight. We don't serve you, whatever your business model is and whatever you want to do. We just want to see if we're a good partner for you, you know, and we're excited to serve people.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Jen, I will share also. You know the affiliate marketing thing is a little tricky for us, you know we. We do have, you know, a small residual we get for Clarence, you know, because we built the software to make that all possible. But usually, when it comes to affiliate marketing, I like to just advertise with my partners, you know. And then, and then I also like to have my partners just extend discounts to my clients, because, you know, if it's IBM or or chef bro, I don't really have a dog in that fight, like I. I want, I want you to pick the right configurator for you. Sometimes it's price, sometimes it's not, and so both those guys offer different discounts to our clients, you know, because they want to, they want to earn their business, but I don't, I don't, I don't shove them either way.
TRISTAN KLESICK:When it comes to rto, I only have you a handful will be integrated at this point, and so I always recommend Shanky, brad Bills and Jay and Megan Scott's RTO and Heartland. Right, because those are the ones that are integrated right now. And you know, but I just have, like you know, this desire for people to pick the right relationship, right, you know. And so for me it's been a little simpler to just, you know, not worry about the affiliate side as much. It's helpful, but I just, I do get those affiliates because I give them back to the customers, right For me, like, at this point. I'm like oh, just you know, make a deal with Shedpro or Idea Room or Shedgeek, you just do that and I will just plug you in, right, yeah, so that makes sense. Right, it's absolutely.
SHED GEEK:Right, so that makes sense. Right, it's absolutely. It's a, it's a thin line to walk, sort of whenever you're in the program or in the industry, because you, you want to make sure that you're doing right by folks. I mean, at the end of the day, tristan, like I'm just not going to feel good about if I ever get over on somebody like you know, like you can't be walking in Christ and like also feel good about like, oh, I got that guy for something walking in Christ and like also feel good about like, oh, I got that guy for something.
SHED GEEK:So like we, you know, whenever somebody says, well, who do you recommend, I say, man, it's really about figuring out who matter, who makes the most sense for you. So, like, rather than come in and have a strong opinion because, like what if I give you a strong opinion and strong arm you into using one particular program, then like you don't like it and they don't best serve you and it didn't work out, they're like I don't, they're not going to take any recommendations from you. So like we have to ask questions, build relationships and try and figure out, based off your business model, who makes the most sense. Like you can come to that conclusion. But isn't it nice to have that conclusion with a sounding board there to talk to and things like that.
SHED GEEK:And that's you know, and that's why the financial benefit from it we and that's why the financial benefit from it we're not making our living from it. But here's what we did learn man, you need a 3D configurator because in our marketing adventures it matters so much, like we've seen so much more conversion traffic from that. So like I guess what I'm saying is like I'm going to push these guys' products, whether they pay us to push them or not, whether they advertise with us or not, because we see the value in those as well too.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And I think also, shannon, that consulting space. You know where you are. That's how you sort of monetize that service as you bring partners to the group and you and that's the product you're offering. In my world I have a platform and I sort of you know it's a little different nuance. You know I will benefit from integrating with Idea Room or Shepro, like it will be a better experience for my clients, right, but in your world, you know, that does make sense for the way to monetize that relationship.
TRISTAN KLESICK:In my world I monetize it through a monthly subscription of $3.99 or $5.99, you know, and so it's a different way of doing business. But I also, you know, for the most part I just want my customers to get those deals, because if you're willing to offer my client a deal to integrate with you, then go earn it. You know, like you you already said, you know, talk to me and I'm like, and I don't, I just say, okay, talk to them, right, and you and you and I both know that there are better fits for certain clients, right, like they're. Just sometimes it doesn't make sense to recommend a certain way because it just isn't the right fit for them.
TRISTAN KLESICK:And that's the value of gatekeeping, that's the value of being a trusted source of industry is like you do. You do know what might be best for them, but you give them the benefit of the doubt to say, ok, like you know, here's what I think would be best, but I would talk to or three.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, absolutely yeah. When you, when you've got a relationship working like that, you can lean on that and that's what that trusted service comes about. We're going to get it wrong. We probably have gotten it wrong at some point. I'm sure we're going to get it wrong. But you know, I try to clear the air every night, especially with myself and with my Savior, and pray about it and say, hey, you know like, lead me into the right conversations and lead me out of the wrong conversations and things like that. So I think you just have to be sensitive to the holy spirit too, on stuff like that too, and listen.
TRISTAN KLESICK:have a transparent you know, because if people know that you're taking a commission, you know, then that's okay, that's when they don't, we do that we did that.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, absolutely we. And that's why we'll just say it on the show. And some people say you give away too much information. I say for me it's the exact right amount of information because they know who I am. Like I'm transparent, it's easy. Like you're not going to get a different guy when I'm not on the microphone. We did that in the marketing space. I know we got to go. We did that in the marketing space. We had actually had some people say man, why didn't you advertise with us?
SHED GEEK:Like we sent you $200,000 worth of quotes and it's like we didn't advertise because we were getting free quotes and I'm like, makes perfect sense, you didn't have to advertise, I'm sending you lots of business, I just needed to find a way to capture that market. And then the same with rent to own. I respect the companies I've worked for in the RTO space. I respect all of the job offers and all of that stuff. So so for me to be in that space is not a you know, to me it's not a, a smack in the face, it's a can I be welcome to, can I be part of this potential success too? Because we have, you know, and I think I can do a good job too, but I don't. I don't think I can do a better job than you. I'm not coming in saying you're doing bad, so I do better. It's like can I be involved too? We've, we've, we've walked into the space and we just we want to be good stewards of that.
SHED GEEK:Tristan, I've been doing this with everybody. I know you got to go first. First and foremost, how do people reach you? Let's go there. How, if they want to get in touch with you, how do they reach?
TRISTAN KLESICK:you. Yeah, you can find it on Shannon's site as well, and then you can also call. If you'd like to call, it's 425-359-3279. Happy to answer calls. We can see at the shows. You know we go to both the Shed Expo and the Shed Carport Garage show. You know, and I would just like the opportunity to earn your business Honestly for me just serving you, and if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and I would just like to earn your business Honestly for me just serving you, and if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and if it's not, it's not. But you know I will be a better person for having a half an hour conversation with you I will learn so much. I will grow as a person. But also, if we have the right tools for you, we would love to develop a long relationship. You know where. We're just looking out for your best interest. So yeah, however, you want to reach out to me? Call, email, call Shannon.
SHED GEEK:It's all good, we're happy to just, you know, field those anyway. That's perfect. I need to talk to you at some point about setting up a, if you'd rather have a lead form on there I don't know if you got conversion tracking set up on your side when they get to your website. So we can. So we can do that. This is the beauty of the digital era. This is why I love what I do with the podcast, because we can say, oh, if somebody came to Tristan through the platform, we can sort of measure that. And for other advertisers like yourself, that's super important because they're really trying to gauge their ROI and we're all trying to do that. Even as a manufacturer, you're trying to measure all your customers that come to your site. So I need to talk to you about that.
SHED GEEK:But hey, rapid questions, quick questions, any questions you got. I didn't let you do this last time. If you want to do it now, I didn't prepare you. Any questions you have for the Shed Geek, faith related, shed related, personal related. Put me on the hot seat. Let you interview for a second Any questions at all, one or two. We'll make it quick, simple, fast. What do you want to know that you haven't heard from me yet that I'll tell you live.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Well, what I want to know is what are you working on professionally, shannon? What are you working on to be a better podcaster? What are you doing to hone your craft? What is the Lord speaking to you about, and how you connect, deliver, share.
SHED GEEK:Well, originally I could go back and listen to every podcast, but since I started going to two a week it's been hard to do that, to go back and perfect myself. I've tried to become a better listener. I have had some people tell me whenever I ask for criticism constructive they say, hey, you'll ask a question and not give them a chance to answer. And I'm like, okay, so when you hear it multiple times, you go probably accurate, right, don't just ask a question or an elongated question, because I have to fill the space if I have a guest who's not really comfortable with speaking.
SHED GEEK:So I'll fill the space until they kind of gather their you know. So I'll fill the space until they kind of gather their you know composure to want to answer or ask another question. And so I just naturally, as a podcaster, you fill the space, even if you don't mean to you, just you just naturally have to do it. So I have to try to become a better, a better listener and that's the feedback I've gotten. But as far as professionally gosh, we're going to we're probably going to change some of the nature of the podcast soon. I think you're going to see some more co-hosting, you may even see an additional show and I think we're going to try to work on adding value, because the value of the podcast, just like anything else you're doing whether it's a magazine, television show, it doesn't matter is the content. If you keep good content creation as the king and not your personal opportunities as the king, then that's what really matters.
SHED GEEK:And I think people driving down the road or swinging away at nails this morning or selling sheds, whatever they're doing today, they enjoy good content. Every show is not for everybody. Let's just be honest. Not everybody's going to get something out of every show, my favorite podcasters. I don't listen to every one of them, so, like I don't take offense to that, we just want to keep content that is relevant to all the shed industry and it's, it's, it's um, underlings, whatever those things are other ancillary products. So that that's just where I'm at, but I think you'll like where we're coming in the next six months with, uh, some more co-hosting and and more ad content. That's going to be creative. So yeah.
TRISTAN KLESICK:No, you built some really good collaborations and you've served this industry well, shannon, and so I want to just thank you for, you know, trying to walk that line. Um, it's really it's a fine line to walk and you know this industry is pretty tight, you know. I mean, you know, when I was talking, you know I didn't realize. You know these people are talking about actually, brother-in-law. I'm like whoa, or like, oh, you're the younger brother of that one, like, oh, um, you know, it's like, you know. You just, you just have to assume they're either related by marriage or by blood um, yeah, or they they know somebody else, right and um and so.
TRISTAN KLESICK:But it also makes the industry really special because you know it is so close, right, and there's a whole new group of people have come in that are business people now, who now aren't related industry and are in this space as well. Right, and that's. You know that's good because competition is healthy. You know it makes you a better builder, a better seller, a better business owner. You know that's that's great. We should always embrace, you know, just being a better version of ourselves and really competition does do that Right.
TRISTAN KLESICK:My son, he's a, really he's a. He's an elite 400 runner, 800 runner. But when he runs out in front of the group he slows down because the race is already over. But when he's having to nose it out like he is hauling right and like you know, it's better for him that he has more competition right, it's better for him not to win every race by a landslide, it's better for him that he actually has some people that can beat him right, because then it makes him come to the gym more to put in more miles to be driven. You know and so you know the story.
SHED GEEK:You know the story then, like the four minute mile, you know how the four minute mile wasn't broken for 25 or 30 years and it doesn't that speak biblically to not to not know it's possible. This is a less Brown to not know it's possible. You know what I mean. He says that all the time to, to, to, to not know that you can even go do this thing, and I love listening to him. But the four minute mile wasn't broken. For what? 25, 30 years.
TRISTAN KLESICK:We thought we had peaked.
SHED GEEK:We thought we peaked. You know, I mean in track and field and not being able to. A human couldn't possibly do it. One guy did it. One guy did it I never can remember his name. He done it and since he's done it, it's been like 400 people or something like that have done it since, but mentally we've already blocked ourselves in saying it's not possible. So that's what I love about creativity and I think that's what God's made us to be.
SHED GEEK:Tristan is to be creative. So, like, for me, when there's not a way, I'm definitely the guy back here going how do I find a way? There's got to be a creative way to solve or to create. And you know, when you go create, maya Angelou said creativity is beautiful the more of it that you use, the more of it you get back. You know that's what's the beauty of creativity. So like, just go find a way. You know the answer is not no, the answer is not yet. Not yet. I don't know how to do that yet, but I'm going to get there. So listen, I've enjoyed this thoroughly.
TRISTAN KLESICK:I'm so glad the internet held out for us.
SHED GEEK:We love working with you. We certainly appreciate you advertising with us as well. We love the industry and we know we're going to see more of you and wishing you lots and lots of success in 2024. I know you got to go. I've got a call coming up too. Do you want to do a quick prayer over the industry? Would you mind if I ask?
TRISTAN KLESICK:Yeah, I'll gladly pray, yeah.
SHED GEEK:All right.
TRISTAN KLESICK:Father, I want to thank you for this time just to talk about the important things family and serving the customer in front of us and serving our team, lord, and I'm grateful that we have tools available today to actually, you know, do that. So for the dealers, manufacturers, people in the space who are thinking about technology, father and the next steps they make, just give them the insight they need and the wisdom they need, the right relationships they need, father, to make the best choice for their team and their customers. Thank you for this time in Jesus' name, amen.
SHED GEEK:Amen, tristan, I will talk to you soon. Appreciate everything you do.