Building Success and Community: The Cedar Creek Structures Story

Ever wondered how a mechanic turns into a shed-industry magnate? That's the story of Bruce Goossen, who, alongside his son Alex, shares an intimate look into the genesis and growth of Cedar Creek Structures in our latest heart-to-heart. From the company's early days rooted in necessity to the present, we chart the course of a family business that thrives on a personal touch and a deep connection with community. Alex, also known as Alex Freedom on social media, candidly discusses the significance behind his online persona and the varied roles he has adopted within the company, painting a picture of a business that's as much about personal journeys as it is about craftsmanship.

Join us as we navigate the entrepreneurial waters of the shed industry, where Mondays aren't dreaded but embraced with a winning mindset. Bruce and Alex provide poignant insights into the value of positivity and gratitude in business, sharing how their faith and community have been cornerstones in their ventures. We also discuss innovation in shed customization and how adaptations and trends are essential to staying relevant. It's an episode that weaves together the personal and professional, highlighting the Goossens' resilience and determination.

This conversation isn't just about the structural integrity of sheds—it's about the framework of a successful brand. We explore marketing strategies that have propelled Cedar Creek Structures forward and the advantages of being a small family-owned business in today's market. Moreover, we touch on the importance of collaboration and competition in podcasting, shedding light on how such dynamics drive creative improvement. For anyone curious about the shed industry's market dynamics, the potential for growth, or how to navigate business challenges with grace, this episode is a trove of wisdom. And as we close with a prayer, our gratitude for the journey and those who walk it with us is palpable.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

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Transcript

SHED GEEK: 0:09

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast. And, yeah, we're getting underway here, are we? Well, let's see, I can't say we're officially international because we've done some other conversations outside of the US, but we're Canadian today. Eh, I want to use that now so.

SHED GEEK: 0:34

I'll tell you what you guys want to introduce yourself, a little bit about who you are and what you do to the industry. For those who don't already know you, I'm Bruce Goossen.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 0:45

I own Cedar Creek Structures. I don't know what else to say about it, really, but me and Alex, my son, we run it together here.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 0:52

So go ahead and I'm Alex. A large portion of you probably know me as Alex Freedom on Facebook, but I guess my last name is actually Alex, or my name is actually Alex Goossen, Been hauling sheds, I guess, under my dad, for a couple years now, having a lot of fun with it. Actually it hardly feels like work for the most part, but that's about it.

SHED GEEK: 1:26

I guess that's your story. Well, yeah, you have to. You have to tell me a little bit about this. What is the backstory on alex freedom instead of is it? Is it g-o-o-s-e-n, or is there an M in there that I'm missing somewhere? Is it?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 1:45

Guzman.

SHED GEEK: 1:48

So give me a little bit of the backstory. Alex, why Alex? Freedom on Facebook?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 1:55

So during the whole convoy thing that a lot of you probably know about there was a lot of you probably know about. There was a lot of people that helped block the bridge the Windsor Detroit bridge and in connection to that, a lot of people's bank accounts are getting frozen, A lot of people. There's a lot of things that were going on, and so there was a. There was a little trend going around of people changing their last name to Freedom, so nobody would actually know who they were. I guess I jumped on that trend and changed my last name to Freedom, and it's never been changed back since.

SHED GEEK: 2:41

It just stuck. It just stuck. Sometimes it just works, just works. Well, I remember seeing the change on there and I was like I, you know, I didn't actually know the backstory. I remember the story about the bridge being closed down and I tried watching that for at least three or four days back and forth on, uh, mainly through facebook, um, but yeah, what, uh, what a interesting world we live in. Some days, bruce, tell me a little bit about your story. Man, so like we like to have fun here at shed geek podcast, laugh, joke, cut up and all that stuff. But one of the main things that we like to bring to the table is just, you know, building community and and conversation and making people's day and their drives and their work days better through conversation. So, you know, content's an important thing to us and I think a lot of people like to know hey man, how'd you get started? How did you get into sheds? What was your story Did you? Is this something you've always done or how did you land here?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 3:42

Oh, that's a good question. I I've. I'm not a. I'm not a carpenter, I'm a mechanic. I grew up doing mechanic work. My grandpa was a mechanic. I enjoyed mechanic work. Carpentry was what my dad did and for some reason I never really caught on to what my dad did. But my dad as his carpentry. I mean I was okay at it, I was good at it, but I just didn't like it. Anyway, my dad is as his carpentry. I mean I was okay, I was good at it, but I just didn't like it. Anyway, my dad used to build some sheds and I looked on and said well, you know maybe if dad did this different for this different, maybe it would sell better, etc.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 4:16

Etc. But I, I really wasn't interested. They just, you know, watched him build a few sheds here and there and one thing led to another. My dad has passed away and gone now, but, uh, for a few years already. But but, uh, I meanwhile was into excavating and trucking and, uh, you know different things like that construction, that type mechanic work, uh, always doing that. And us, me and my boys, got talking one time and we started talking about getting a hold of a you know, seeing if there was some way we could get some shed company something.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 4:54

We could start something, uh, with a shed company getting sales in this area. Anyway, we did start one big company, a larger company there with a shed yard. In the town of Essex we had a shed yard, a sale yard.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 5:11

We went with them for a while and then another company came along and offered us to kind of set up here and we were going to be just kind of, you know, building and selling and trucking and doing the whole thing. That's how we got involved. The other company came in and offered us a few different things. So me and my boys I have three boys we got involved in that through that other company. It's one large company. One thing led to another. I was there with that company for three years. I was a territory rep and we had all the trucking and my one son had the building yard. My other son worked in the build shop Meanwhile. Yeah, it's been a complicated little issue a little bit with that one. All of a sudden one day I guess it was one of those deals One day I walked into my office and said we no longer need you for a rep, you're done. And I said okay.

Speaker 3: 6:15

I guess that happens.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 6:18

So, I started my own company. That's basically kind of what happened. It was a little bit of an adjustment, that's for sure, jumping from the frying pan right to the fire, but it felt like. But my other two sons are still working for that other company. I'm working where me and Alex are doing our own thing here. So that's kind of how we got started, how we're doing here now. So, it is some adjustments, things there. I don't know where that. Yeah, that's it yeah, that's great.

SHED GEEK: 6:52

That's great. So, you know, I mean, it's like any, like any good story. You know, it usually ends up taking a leap of faith somewhere to you know, to jump into something and it a lot of times all roads lead back to. You know, working for yourself. Uh, you know, a lot of times I hear a lot of guys talk about that. You know, wanting to, uh, wanting to work for themselves. There's just a lot of, there's a lot of freedom in that. Right, Alex, you know, there's a lot of freedom that exists inside of the ability to make your own decisions. Of course, the customer ends up being the boss, even whenever you're selling something, it seems. So I guess you're still in charge, but you always got to be paying attention to what it is that they want.

SHED GEEK: 7:37

Alex, what's your story, man? How did that? How did it go about? Obviously, people probably see you a lot, know you a lot through the shed haulers Facebook page. Obviously, people probably see you a lot, know you a lot through the Shed Haulers Facebook page. They see you at the different events and things like that. But it would be cool to get your story officially on. What made you want to jump into?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 7:56

something you enjoy so much like shed hauling, I guess I think the first time. I don't even remember the first shed I hauled, but we had another driver at that time and it was slowly going south with him and finally the one day it had enough and decided I was just going to start doing it myself. So I did not have anything more than a learner's driver's license for a car at that point and we had another guy that was working for us that took over the actual driving of the truck and, uh, I did all of the, the loading and unloading and getting the shed in the backyard. Um, yeah, that, actually that two team effort or two-person effort, works quite well because you have the one guy talking to the customer the whole time while you're doing the work and kind of keeps the customer out of your hair.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 8:53

I don't remember how long I did that for, but anyways, eventually I started hauling on my own and with that I only had a learner's license still, um, I think I pulled my first 16 wide with the cars learner license. Oh, wow, a little bit, a little bit, uh, nerve-wracking. But you know if you, if you look like you know what you're doing, I guess nobody really second guesses, it's working.

SHED GEEK: 9:22

It's working for me this whole time. I don't know. Make it look like you know what you're doing and go for the best and guess it's worked for me this whole time.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 9:27

I don't know, make it look like you know what you're doing and go for the best. I guess I've been hauling sheds ever since then, done a few sales, kind of do anything that needs to be done. But I did finally get my actual I guess you call it a class ones or a cdl uh, about a year ago. So now I'm finally legal, but uh yeah.

SHED GEEK: 9:57

So now, Bruce, did you, did you grow up in in Canada, or is this somewhere that you moved to eventually? What was your experience before the sheds? You said you did some mechanic work. Was that sort of your primary thing?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 11:26

Well, I grew up in, I was born in Alberta. In northern Alberta is where I was born. Okay, grandparents were from around Camrose, red Deer, middle North Red Deer area, and my mom and dad had a place there. That's kind of where we kind of always call home base. However, my parents were missionaries actually in Africa. So, and I was actually, I was born in Fort Vermillion, Alberta, which is north, the very northern end of Alberta, close to Northwest Territories. Mom and dad were missionaries up there when the time I was born, so then they came home. I was, I think, three years old when they headed to Africa and I was about eight years old when they came home from Africa, so I had

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 12:10

some growing up years there. So that's kind of how that part of my life went, and most of the time we always hailed around that central Alberta area. That's where home always ended up going to. However, after we got married and we had her we had two boys at the time we moved to uh New Brunswick and I lived in New Brunswick for 10 years. At that time I thought I was going to be smart and farm hogs out in the in that area of the globe and that didn't quite work out like plan. So we uh ended up moving to Ontario here and having the construction excavating trucking business here in.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 12:45

Ontario until we started into the sheds and that always, of course, construction, trucking, excavating always involves mechanic work. That's a large portion of any winter time or evening efforts. You kind of go out there and you work on your stuff and do really, really big stuff.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 13:03

That's kind of where that came from.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 13:04

But anyway, we yeah, until we got involved in the construction or the shed business here we've been here. I've been here now for, I think, 18 years. Oh, wow, okay.

SHED GEEK: 13:19

So let me ask you, when you went from, you know, this larger organization and you fell organization and you fell upon finding yourself no longer needed there, what sort of stemmed the idea to create Cedar Creek Structures, what's sort of the goal behind that? You guys, I'm assuming, do some form of vertical integration. I'm assuming you manufacture your own and then you deliver your own. I don't know what else you do internally, but is that accurate?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 13:54

Yeah, we do. We manufacture all night. We have a few different spots where we manufacture after we have people that manufacture for us at a few different ones. We have a couple of different lines of sheds, and I forget now what the first question was. You asked me Jen.

SHED GEEK: 14:12

Well, I'm just kind of curious whenever you had to make this change, what sort of drove the, the mindset to jump into? You know everything, the name, cedar Creek, structures, and really like, what did you want to accomplish through this effort, through this endeavor?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 14:29

Well, I, uh, I'll be honest. Alex said already like I had let, Alex was doing the majority of the truck looking after the trucking, doing all that work. Uh what? And he picked a name for the trucks back oh, a year before that already of Cedar Creek Transport. So that's cool, we just rolled with that. And then, about the time that this all transpired, we said, well, I mean, I guess it works, why don't we just go with that? It's called Cedar Creek Structures and we just continue on. And that's exactly what we did. As soon as that happened, we had our own guys that will manufacture for us, and later on in the summer we bought a spot of our own to manufacture a line of buildings as well. So, yeah, that's how we went with that.

SHED GEEK: 15:17

So are you guys primarily focusing in the shed industry, like sheds and cabins? Is what it looks like from your website. I love your website too. It looks awesome, but is that sort of your focus? Was that a big pull in the area, even before working with the previous company? Were sheds as native or whatever the correct wording is there in your area? Are you guys one of the first ones? There Are people surprised at the different you know the quality and things like that that that they can see in the sheds nowadays.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 15:55

Well, yes.

Speaker 3: 15:58

I mean yes and no, so sometimes we had trouble before in the past.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 16:04

I mean there was.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 16:05

There was a lot of issues with warranty work and things like that and some of the other buildings that we had. That was some of the little bit of inspiration of us getting our own build shop going and trying to concentrate a little bit more on getting a little more customer satisfaction, getting a little bit more of a quality build into the whole thing. It takes us quite a bit longer to build a building than it does, but trying to get something that that, uh, people are happy with and, uh, at this point it seems to be working that way.

SHED GEEK: 16:31

So do you? Do you believe there's an advantage, uh, to be in like, would you? I mean, I guess I should ask you first do you consider yourself more of a mom and pop type organization and if so, do you feel like there's a competitive advantage to that?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 16:54

Well, it is from the angle. And how do I say this? Right, we are Canadian, Canadian-owned and Canadian-local, so a lot of people like to buy local thing and I suppose it's that way.

Speaker 3: 17:08

North American wide and short but people like that here as well, so people are looking into the simple fact that you can go there.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 17:17

You can talk to the owner himself if you like, if you have something you can drop and talk to the people and you can. It's more hands-on, it's more direct and people like that. So there is that fact that's there, that we can help a customer out a little more directly, a little more, a little more, yeah, closer to home.

SHED GEEK: 17:37

Now, Alex, do you jump in? I know that you are very comfortable in the hauling side at this point. You, you might've started there with your learning permit, but uh, you know, I try to watch the conversations there on shed haulers and, uh, you know, I I kind of feel like you know, you're, uh, you're jumping right in there, you're, you're fitting in, perfect, uh, but you know, do you? Do you take on some other tasks? Are you doing some sales? Are you doing some sales? Are you doing some uh, other type of stuff there around the organization, or what's? What's your primary role and what's your thoughts and experience been like?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 18:12

um, I guess mainly I do the hauling. Um, I did that for the first uh was a couple years. I, now that we've started our own company, I do just about everything other than building. Building is not my forte either. I know how to nail two two-by-fours together, but to do it straight I don't really know how. So, I've been doing some of the sales, some of the advertising, some of the advertising, some of the just behind-the-scenes work to get things done. I wouldn't say I'm good at any of it, but it's sure been a learning experience.

SHED GEEK: 19:00

But it's really interesting learning about it all. Do you enjoy it Like? Do you enjoy what you do?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 19:08

Yeah, learning about it all. Do you enjoy it? Like, do you, do you enjoy what you do? Yeah, there's. Uh, there's never been a day where I've woken up and said I don't want to work today. Um, last couple years, I've always woken up and been excited to go to work. Um, I don't like weekends for the fact that there's nothing to do and I look look forward to Monday morning every weekend. Just getting out and doing things is probably one of my more favorite things to do.

SHED GEEK: 19:32

We've talked about having a winning mindset on Monday around shed geek here lately and you know, because it goes against the grain so many people dread what they do coming into work on Monday. We've taken a much different approach to be thankful, to recognize our blessings and be happy to come in on Monday and do what you're doing, because if you don't like it, why are you doing it? It becomes a question. If you have to do it until you can do something different, that's understandable. But you've got to have goals and honestly, man, we just love what we do. So I can understand I can relate with you on that, bruce. What has been, what has been like the? The biggest surprise? Maybe jumping out onto your own? There's a lot of people who consider that avenue and they say, oh, maybe I'm comfortable where I'm at right here. What are some lessons that you know you can give us that we should take away from jumping into it?

Speaker 3: 21:55

Well, that's a question that I have to think about here just a little bit, but I know it was a.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 22:03

There's a lot of mental. I didn't call that just. You're supposed to be at the helm of everything. You're supposed to be able to hold it steady, if you know what I'm saying. But and I agree with what you were just saying there, shannon, I mean you come to work Monday morning a positive attitude sure helps a lot, doesn't it, and you might as well approach the day and the week and the situation with a positive in an attitude of gratitude.

SHED GEEK: 22:30

You might as well have gratitude in your heart.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 22:33

I say that with tongue-in-cheek because that's exactly what I don't have often, but I like to work at it. Do you know what I mean?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 22:40

and have a positive approach, and that's not always been that easy, because you know my tendency is to be very self-deprecating and often not appreciate everything in my abilities, and yet I do have the ability of making it work. I do and we can, and it is a positive thing. We can push ahead and often we're as successful as we want ourselves to be and there's no reason we can't be gratitude ahead of time. That's been one of the hardest things for me to be able to just look at everything in a positive light and think everything the correct way. God has got a great plan for us.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 23:19

I say that again, tongue and cheek, because guess what? I often don't follow that plan. I follow my own and I like that. You know what I'm saying. So there is a lot of that going on and just being able to be thankful for my workers and be able to appreciate my workers for what they're doing for me and tell them so, and be able to appreciate my workers for what they're doing for me and tell them so.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 23:41

You know, Alex and me went out to meet one of our fellows that builds for us there too the other day and we sat down and he brought out coffee for us too, and him and his kids were out there and we had coffee in the shop and we sat down and we visited together and we just had a good time and I really enjoyed that. You know, just being able to sit down and look at a positive day and good time, and I really enjoyed that. You know, just being able to sit down and look at a positive day. And it was kind of a gloomy day in its own way as cold. Uh, we were both shivering by the time we were done talking and visiting and everything, because it was cold. I mean, we were all cold standing out there for a while and uh, but it was, it was a pleasant. I guess it was a pleasant, nice experience. I really enjoyed that being together with people, because just being able to relate to people depends a lot on me and my attitude.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 24:24

I keep on going back to that because that's the hardest part. Yes, there is always a bank account and the money thing. And that's always us. There's surprises in that. There always is every turn of the corner. But money has a way of handling itself if you let it, it seems like, especially if you can again approach it with the gratitude and attitude of gratitude you can put it that way I always love the, the verse you know, uh, or any conversation around.

SHED GEEK: 24:51

You know, god taking care of the birds of the air, uh, having, you know, cattle on a thousand hills, and having a plan for you. You know, jeremiah 2911, I think it is. You know, having a plan for you and a plan to prosper you and once good for you and your business. And I'll tell you what.

SHED GEEK: 25:08

The mundane nature of business, sometimes, the grueling nature of business, trying to make the, the ends meet, trying to, you know, keep the truck up to speed, trying to make sure that, you know how, are we improving ourselves, on our, on our sales? Are we developing any or are we doing better year after year? Are we educating ourselves, like Paul said to do? Are we? You know, like all those things become, you know, terribly important, and as a small business owner, it can become a little bit daunting. So, would you say there's also some peace of mind to be had and sort of, you know, working with a larger organization. I bet some people probably fall under that category at times too. Just to you know, just because it simplifies things, maybe for them sometimes.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 25:57

Well it does. I know in the capacity I was working there, it was stressful in its own way because I maybe had too many irons in the fire, but at the same time what can I say? I have more irons in the fire now. But the truth of the matter is, yeah, it is a little bit the fact you've got something kind of made. It's kind of, you know, there's a plan, the money is maybe more secure insofar and yeah, that's kind of only insofar which I found out kind of the hard way a little bit. It's only as good as the organization is. So and I don't know how to say that right now, I'll say it the wrong way, but you know, the truth of the matter is there is no security in life, no matter where you're at.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 26:50

So we have to realize that it's just that there I was kind of maybe able to lean on somebody else and somebody else's resources Now it's my own. So you know there is a. Now I'm dealing directly with the bank, I'm dealing directly with the situations that come up, and it's more direct maybe, but however, it's not all bad. It's rewarding in its own way.

SHED GEEK: 27:13

Where do you? Where do you? Where do you go? Where do you look for ideas when you want to create a new plan? Where do you go to be inspired, to find help or to look for advice? Are you a part of a local community? Is it church? Is it other business leaders? Is it social media? Do you read? Where do you look to be inspired or find advice? I guess is what I'm asking.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 27:42

I could tell you some experiences, stories of different things I spoke but and I don't know how much time you want to take on that one but the truth of the matter is I have a. There's a couple of different people I've gone to for counseling, just visiting, talking about it. There's a few different ones. People I've gone to for counseling, just visiting, talking about it. There's a few different ones. Good advice Sometimes, when things aren't working, the greatest I'll go to. One fellow's name is Scott. I'll say well, scott, what should I do with this or this? I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I mean something along the way. You know what I'm saying. Now he will. He has a tendency to maybe just help me, just focus a little bit better on where I'm going and what I'm doing. Sometimes.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 28:19

I go away from the meetings often, but then I'll say well, you know what?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 28:22

That's a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? And away we go. However, before I ever started this business, I had a bit of a epiphany, I don't know if you can call it a bit.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 28:36

Well, all right, I mean, you know what I've said already. I don't always. I was holding my head in my hands one day and wondering what in the world am I going to do? What is my plan? Where is your plan for what you're stepping into? I walked over the trees. I had a good walk over the trees and I sat down at the. I walked into the woods there a ways and I sat down in the woods. It was a nice spring day. It was a nice day and I think I prayed, I don't even know. I knelt down and I went by a tree there and I had just walked in there a couple hundred feet and I I didn't notice anything. And I said, just walked in there a couple hundred feet and I didn't notice anything. And I said I'm out there, whatever it was. I don't know if I was praying or not. I didn't really know.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 29:23

I think I was, though I'm pretty sure, but it seemed like I slowly started to see a flower. There's a little blue flower down there, right, you know the tree, you know what I mean. And then I saw a little yellow one. And then I saw a little yellow one, and then I got up and I sat on the tree because it was a fallen log, if you know what I'm saying and I started looking around and all of a sudden I realized this whole forest was full of flowers, what they have up here in Ontario, they have what they call the trillium flower, beautiful flower and there was blue ones and white ones and the whole carpet of them.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 29:56

And I hadn't seen a one of them when I walked in there. But I had to sit down, take it easy and wind down, calm down, and then when I did that, I could see and there's a lot more to the story, but that's kind of where that story started- there and in the woods.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 30:11

I spent a couple hours in the woods out there and I really enjoyed it, Just being able to take nature in and realize I didn't have to have a big plan. It didn't have to all be evident to me right now, but sit down, calm down and just take it easy. What I'm not very good at, but it's just what it is. So there you are. That's kind of where some of that came from.

SHED GEEK: 30:35

I love this story. I felt like I was sort of captivated in your story the same way as you were captivated in those flowers in the woods, because those are real moments, real men moments, real people, moments that happen and I think that's why I love to talk and communicate with people is to be able to have those conversations. I think it builds community, it shows resilience in us, but also it shows some vulnerability and that we don't always have it all figured out. You know that we do point to a sovereign God who helps us, you know, with those things as we pray, and he opens our eyes to new things that are right there in front of us at times. And he opens our eyes to new things that are right there in front of us at times, man, I can't tell you how many times I've heard a Bible verse preached and I go, man, I've heard that preached 20 times before and I heard it new today for the first time. And I think that's got to do with experiences and things that you do experience in life, because you have to go through a certain amount of experience to be able to understand some things on a different level.

SHED GEEK: 31:39

Um, Alex, man, what a hard follow after hearing that story. You got any? You got any magic stories of your own, any of those life-changing uh paradigm shifts that god just sort of puts on your heart and opens your eyes to? Uh, as has it been just a little different approach at your, at your uh working there at Cedar Creek so far.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 32:02

Um, I'm not sure. Actually, I just generally wake up and live the day and how it goes how it goes. Um, there's one thing that I I remember telling a lot of my friends and a few of my family as well, quite a few years ago is just just have a little faith. Um, everything always works out in the end. Um, every day the sun comes up and every day the sun goes down, and just do the best you can and have a little faith, and that's usually how I try to live my day.

SHED GEEK: 32:46

Um, yeah, when do you, where do you draw inspiration from in this new adventure and your whether it be shed hauling or sales or just this business adventure in general and jumping out onto your own the last couple of years? Do you have people you follow, books you read uh, any of that stuff. What sort of some places you go for for advice and inspiration?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 34:39

Well, I go to the Shed Haulers page. I've gone to the Shed Sales page. Give a big shout out to Sam Beler and Richard Miller for a lot of inspiration from them. I sometimes don't think they know how much inspiration they give, but there's a lot of wise things that can be read. And, yeah, I guess my dad is also my inspiration.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 35:09

He's gone through a lot and he's still here kicking, so that's awesome, man, that's awesome, I love if I jump in on that just a little little bit there, Shannon, on that one, when one thing led to another, things kind of fell apart a little bit with the big company I was at.

SHED GEEK: 35:25

It was during that time I was kind of holding my head in my hands and wondering what in the world?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 35:30

But, Alex did have the inspiration. He said well, come on, dad, let's get going, let's keep on walking on here.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 35:39

Let's go see what we can do, and that's, that's how we got involved with the other builders.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 35:42

I have actually, in fact, I didn't. We took and jumped in the pickup, we drove and, uh, we just happened to that very day meet up with a couple of guys and there we are, and it just just like that it worked out.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 35:54

Uh, and it didn't really have to put a lot of effort into it. We had a good day that day, I remember it was a inspiration and but without that effort, without his inspiration, without his being willing to to, just, you know, say, hey, uh, we can do this and uh, without that, I don't know what we've been you know, necessity is the mother of uh creation so you know what I mean invention.

SHED GEEK: 36:19

Yeah, so, like you've got a, you got a. Whenever you're not sure what to do, you got to draw on that. You know, uh, I, this is, you know I've got to do something. Alex, let me, uh, let me ask you about this. Uh, you said you said shed haulers page. I want to stop first and acknowledge a couple of things you said. I want to say kudos to Sam and Richard for all the stuff that they constantly put out. It takes a lot of time, effort, experience, faith to put those things out and they do those things.

SHED GEEK: 36:53

I don't always talk about all of this, but I feel like it's appropriate in this moment to make mention. We are over 200 episodes now on the Shed Geek podcast. So for anybody who wonders, well, who's the most listened to episode? Well, they're battling it out for first and second place, but the two guys you mentioned there is, uh, sam has had the most listens and richard is just close behind him. Uh, I've had sam on a couple times. Really need to get richard back on because I just love his. I love his story of uh, uh, love, creating love, adding love, creating love in every situation. For, for, uh, his you know, I don't want to say his value proposition, but I mean, it's just who he is, who he's called to be and, uh, love to have. Maybe we ought to get those two guys on at the same time or something like that. That'd be really cool, uh, but they're just dynamic in the way that they approach communication and things like that. So kudos to them for doing so many cool things and, uh, inspiring people.

SHED GEEK: 37:55

But you talked about the hollers page, you know. I mean, uh, um man, what a, what a fun group of guys we got to go down. You guys were at the shed holler bash down in, uh, um, north carolina, uh, recently, and uh, yeah, one of the things that I don't know if you draw inspiration from, but you're gonna have to give me the story. Uh, alex, on on the, uh, the marathon carriage and how all this got started. Uh, I don't think I could hardly do a podcast to let you get away from it. So I'm sorry, but tell me, tell me how this conversation got started and how some, somehow you became championed as the marathon uh carriage guy. I want to know. I've read the story, but I want to know I'm uh, not actually entirely sure myself.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 38:49

Um, but uh, um, I I think I pick on enough of the cardinal carriage guys. But cardinal carriage is good in its own way, but I think one of the better things that happened is I made a video sitting on my lawn chair drinking a cold drink there and letting my cardinal carriage slowly make its way in and out again, and just exactly how slow it is. I mean it's a little bit dramatized, but it gives you, gives you an idea. But uh, I, just I love the simplicity of the marathon carriage and just I, I'm not.

SHED GEEK: 39:33

Yeah I love. I love watching the banter and the conversation that goes back and forth, bruce, between all of these guys. Um, they're just, I don't, I don't even know how to explain them, you can't really categorize them. They're just a good group of guys. Uh, I always say they're, they're, they're they. They drive the industry forward as leaders and the community of what they do. They know how to get it done. They're a hardworking group of guys.

SHED GEEK: 40:02

You know, we've definitely tried to develop, you know, something in the sales side. You know it sounds like maybe we have some freedom to start working in that shed builder side. You know, I always took the sort of the magazine you know, as sort of that focal point. But they recently switched, changed into you know, Shed Business Journal. So we want to be able to enter that space. We just don't want to step on anybody's toes who's doing a good job and they really do a great job over there. Love the name change and what they're doing and the show and the magazine and everything change and what they're doing and the show and the magazine and everything. Uh, but it'd be really cool to kind of be able to focus a little bit more on the the builder as well too. But man, the haulers just do it right, they just do it, they do it well. And that facebook page is like I don't know. It's just lit up with something every day. There's got to be at least 15 20 posts on there every day and it's just uh. It's fun to watch, alex, and I see you on there quite a bit, so I'm always interested what you got to say.

SHED GEEK: 41:01

Moving forward a little bit, uh, any shout outs that you guys want to give. I noticed that. You know. I said you guys got a good website going and I don't know if you guys find me talking about it. It's on your website, so I'd assume you wouldn't mind. Looks like you guys have jumped in, uh, with myed there in Lebanon and Matthew Black's company. You've started using them. Looks like they built your site here and everything. How's that experience been so far? We just recently partnered up with Matt in a collaborative effort because we want to be fair to all in the industry and help support all of those adventures. But what's your experience been so far?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 41:38

well, we were, yeah, we, we partnered with matt there, I mean in, uh, for our website and for, uh, the my shed, whatever design tool and everything. Uh, and it's been, it's been a blessing, it's been really good. Uh, it's taken a bit for us to get it all understanding and get working and everything. And again, here's where I depend on Alex. A lot more Younger minds seem to have a tendency to work with some of the electronics a lot better. I was just getting frustrated, and I get frustrated with most electronics a little bit, but he seemed to have a way of working with that working through certain situations.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 42:14

I have a math system there that works really well for what we're doing, and Matt's a great guy. He's got a great company going and I take a lot of inspiration from him. I really would like to give a shout out to him and to Sam Beiler too, and I was going through everything I've gone through. I talked to Sam, I asked him and he had some real good words of wisdom there for me and I appreciate it. I really did for me and appreciate it.

SHED GEEK: 42:37

I really did I consider those guys.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 42:38

A friend, Richard Miller too, I can say I really did appreciate what he had to say to me too when I talked and had a chance to it's been great. I really do appreciate what those men have done for me and many others.

Speaker 3: 42:49

I went to the Shade University.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 42:50

I think I saw you there too, shannon as well. The Shade University thing there's some good insight there and different things. There's a couple of different shows there. It's been inspiring.

SHED GEEK: 43:01

Yeah, we had a great time being there and being able to talk to guys about sales and marketing, which you know is always kind of a I don't know, I guess it's just where I landed in the industry it did purchasing for a while, sold for a while. I mean I've built a few sheds, but never on like alex on this professional level for a length of time and now I feel like I'm getting too old to do that now. Uh, I'm sure there's some older guys out there now that that are doing it fine and would make me look uh pitiful if I try to get out beside them and and work that hard anymore. But, um, we just kind of found ourself into that area, right, you know, like enjoying that. You kind of pursue what you enjoy and we and I enjoy sales, you know, because it it really is helping people. It's it's just helping them find a solution and you get a chance to build a. Uh, even if your customer acquisition time's five minutes, you get to build a five minute. You know community with them. You know you get to talk to them and and I enjoy that, it's the same if I would be hauling, it'd be the same if I was building. Uh, you know, my community would be other builders and I would be focused on talking to them and I just think it's great to go to those events, the, you know, the trade shows, any event for this. You know the shed haulers, just the shed industry in general. Like I feel, like you, I draw inspiration from those places, getting to see people who've been doing this for 20 years. I was on a conversation with a guy who's done RTO for 20 years this morning and, like you know, I just love to pick their brain, love to ask them questions. I'm like, wow, this is really good advice. This is really awesome stuff to be able to sit and chat with people. So I think that's great. Where do you guys think the shed industry is going? You obviously jumped into this. You know Cedar Creek structures. You jumped into this thinking that there's a future in it. Like Phil, I'd ask that question to both of you guys when do you think the shed industry is going over, say, the next five years?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 47:24

Everybody needs a shed. It seems like I mean it's almost like it's more. I don't know how to say this right it's a little different in Canada than it is in the US. I find that people are.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 47:34

It's a little different and I can't really lay a finger on exactly what it is. That's different, but maybe the Canadians are a little more reluctant with buying sheds and yet they aren't really. There's. Many people need them and there's many, I don't know. It seems like there's more available or there's many different shed companies and many different in the US.

SHED GEEK: 48:00

However in Canada.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 48:01

I can see that opening up, as we're going forward here, that you know, that there's a lot of sheds to be sold right in our southern part of Ontario. What is there now Just a few hours from our shop here? Alex is no better than me. What is there now just a few hours from our shop here? Alex is no better than me. But if I remember right, it's around 10 to 12 million people just in a couple of hour radius of our shop here, so lots of people that need sheds 12, 12 and three quarter million within about two hours either direction of us that's awesome.

SHED GEEK: 48:35

I love that you're measuring, like, the population density around you and that's that's important from a sales and marketing perspective. That's awesome. I love that you're measuring, like, the population density around you and that's that's important from a sales and marketing perspective. That's something that we always jump in on that conversation pretty quickly. Alex, what do you think, man, in the next five years? You think it's just gonna, you know, uh, blow up more in canada. There'll be, there'll be more to do, there'll be more shops open up. You think that's uh, it's sort of following the same trend here in the U? S, or do you think we've almost kind of saturated down here and maybe that's why you're seeing so much success up there? I don't know, I'm curious your thoughts.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 49:07

Well, there's. There's two other companies in our area that do what we do. We brought one of them into Canada. The other one was already here, so three companies doing this. Well, I guess there's technically four companies in this area. In that 12.7 million people. You could sell sheds all day, every day, and you'd never run out of people to sell to. You could sell sheds all day, every day and you'd never run out of people to sell to. It's slowed down since COVID, which is expected. I guess Our economy isn't getting better, but I think people will always need a shed. You drive down the road in town and there's sheds in just about everybody's backyard. A lot of them are falling over and you know they will need a shed eventually, but I think there's definitely a lot of opportunity for the next couple decades of selling sheds.

SHED GEEK: 50:12

I think it was Weston Libby. I think I'm saying the name right. I always get it wrong between him and Tanner. Please forgive me, guys, I never know whether to say Libby or Libby, but either way, weston was at the Shed Hauler event and he said you know, the cool thing is that, like we're able to in the shed industry, we're able to move forward in a a slow economy and whenever the economy's good we seem to have.

SHED GEEK: 50:41

You know, people need storage all the time and a lot of people looking for cabins and and even going to you know type off-grid, type stuff and the traditional shed lots getting way bigger, isn't it? It's turning into so many other things than just a shed and even I almost wonder sometimes the just the shed itself, the word shed, you know, if we describe that between five different people, what they would come up with. Is it just an outbuilding, a mini barn or something you throw out there behind your house for traditional storage, or any more? What is it? There's shed to house pages on Facebook that have 80,000 people on there, and you know, I mean, there's just it's, it's, it's gotten so organized, I guess, is what I'm saying. So it's super interesting. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in it for the long haul, guys. I don't know about you guys, but I'm in it to see where it goes, you know, and hoping that God continues to shine down favor on our, our, industry. Somebody came on my YouTube page the other day and they said the shed industry question mark, question mark, question mark. I'm like man, wouldn't they be surprised to see all these rigs show up at a shed hauler event and how there's trade shows? Just, you know about the shed industry and that it's a real industry. It's here and it's in full effect and it's moving forward in a in a way like never seen before, just growing, growing, growing all the time. So it's, it's pretty neat.

SHED GEEK: 52:07

Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, guys. I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn the the mic around, believe it or not. We've talked for 45 minutes already and I know we'll make some edits, different things like that. But you know, if you guys got some shout-outs, feel free to shout them out, you know, and if people want to chat with you, talk with you. Just know who you are. If they don't know already, they like your story and they enjoy talking to you. That happens more than I realize and you know we'll get your information or whatever. But if you want to give some shout-outs, go for it. Otherwise, this is the time where I want to let you guys host for a little bit. I want to let you ask some questions. If you have any Sheds, family faith podcasting, it really doesn't matter. You ask the questions, I'll do my best to answer. How about that?

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 52:55

Well the one other shout-out you ask the questions.

ALEX (FREEDOM) GOOSSEN: 52:58

I'll do my best to answer. How about that? Go ahead, alex. Well, the one other shout-out I wanted to give to was to Tyler Mahan, I think his name is. I forget what this book is called, but he had one good thought in there that I really liked, and that's the Rising Tide Lifts All Boats. I really like that book. I just don't remember where I put it. Yeah, um, what would you? What if you were selling sheds right now? What would you do next? Or how would you advertise? How would you get your name out there, cause a lot of times people around us don't even know we're here.

SHED GEEK: 53:38

Great, great question and probably a big answer. And yeah, tyler Mahan, great guy, is in Oklahoma. Many of you would have known him to write in Shed Builder Magazine for years, and Three Men in a Barrel, I think, is the one you're talking about. We interviewed Tyler and we give him a lot of credit for even us using that same phrase on here time and time again that a rising tide lifts all boats and true collaborative efforts actually do work and and work well whenever, uh, you're in it for everybody, right, so, and tyler's been just a leader in that, uh, for years and in his writings, he's got a couple books, uh, um, that he's wrote and and uh, yeah, just an interesting fella and and enjoy that shout out as well.

SHED GEEK: 54:24

To one of our first interviews early on uh, what would I do to set myself apart if I sewed sheds? It has been a little bit since selling sheds. Uh, there's always this draw back. You know to, to, to manufacture or or sell, um, but you, what you really did was you hit on something unique and important. You said how do I set myself apart? And I think that's the biggest key. Uh, the biggest key is that you're having the conversation about how we look different. The average shed buyer, I think, tends to look at three or four different people selling sheds in a 12 million plus population and they just kind of see the same thing in all four of them, because our products don't necessarily differ so much. They may have a different degree of 10 to 15 percent different. We do this nice little roof and that's our cool little competitive advantage that we're able to offer because we do these, these special things and all those are important and you should continue to research and develop.

SHED GEEK: 55:26

But man, I I think that, uh, there's one thing that people can't mimic. They can't mimic your customer service, they can't mimic you and who you are, and this is actually a conversation me and Sam had this morning. You know people want to, you know, start a podcast. They say, well, shannon, don't you get defensive of that. I don't. I don't, because you know I believe competition is a good thing. You know you should start one and you should do a good job and you should improve it so much so that it makes me have to go back and improve it, because otherwise we we sort of have a gatekeeper mentality that hey, I've got this space, no one else gets to come into it and you know, uh, the reality is that we talk a lot about collaboration, which is which is awesome the competition makes us sharp. So I think what I would do is, uh, I would focus on intense customer service. You know, I would definitely. So I'm doing a training here soon and I'm I'm talking about inbound leads and outbound leads. Uh, alex, and uh, inbound leads work sort of like a magnet where you're pulling people towards you, and outbound leads would be where you're, you know, code calling and knocking on doors, and I'm going to use the podcast as an example. Um, we created a platform that adds value to people's day. It adds value we hope we've been told that it does to some uh, maybe not to all, but you and it's free content and it's and it's it's something to entertain you, but it's also educating.

SHED GEEK: 57:02

So there was times that I worked as an RTO provider, rto rep, and, and I could knock on the door, and I was just another guy knocking on the door wasn't I, I was the. I was the fifth guy knocking on the door in the last three months saying, hey, let me tell you all about our program. You know, let me tell you about our marketing program. Let me tell you about our lumber, let me tell you about our rent own, let me tell you about our this, that and another. Instead, what we did was we were like, hey, let's create a, a platform where all people can come on and talk and just have conversation, and then you can pull from those those sales as leads. Uh, so there's people that's actually come to us and said, you know, in that five minutes you knocked on the door, or even that 10 minutes I let you in to talk to me for a little bit.

SHED GEEK: 57:49

I didn't know about all of your personality because I didn't give you enough time, but as I began to listen to you and over the years, you know, I've come to appreciate wanting to sit down and chat with you more. So what I did was, you know, took an outbound lead of finding out a shed dealer in a local area and went out to try and sell them our RTO services to creating an inbound lead where they're actually interested in knowing more about you because it's relationship based and it's personality based. So that's what I would do, is I would find ways to get in front of the customers. If I were in sales today, I'd find a way to put my face out there, so that whenever they came to talk to me at the shed lot, they know who I am, they already feel comfortable talking to me and I don't feel like just another sales guy. So I think video is a really good way to do that.

SHED GEEK: 58:44

And I don't know if I answered your question. I tend to have long answers, but I hope it did. That's what I would do and I'll just cut it off there.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:00:15

And then, really, I guess, in connection with what you're saying a little bit, basically, the customer. You just let them get to know you, let yourself be known by the customer, let yourself, let them feel you, let them be personable. I think it has a lot to do with the two, doesn't it? However, nowadays, in this modern day and age, it seems like everything is going a little more electronic. So here's a question for you I don't know how much franchising of your brand does a person do, uh, and how soon do you do it? You have any idea on that one. And or how much does this person just advertise, advertise, advertise? It's a puzzling thing to me sometimes to know where does that thing belong? Gosh, what do you do?

SHED GEEK: 1:00:53

I love y'all's questions and I can't give short answers, unfortunately, to them, uh, but I love your, your questions. Yeah, well, I mean you know you see companies that are you know 200, 500, 800 dealer network, uh, and then you know, a lot of times if you go out and you ask the average person whenever you're out for dinner, we, we do this all the time If you had to go get a storage unit, we were thinking about getting not even a unit, we were thinking about getting like a storage shed when would you guys go? It doesn't matter. We travel all across the US and we'll ask that every time we go out to eat for somebody, just to kind of see if somebody is going to name drop a company to us. And I can tell you it's so rare to have it happen. I'm not saying it'll never happen, but typically if they do, they'll say, well, I'd probably just run down to home depot or lowe's and probably pick me up a shed, brand recognition, right, like, even though they don't sell, you know, sheds like, like we do. I mean, I know there's some, some guys that sell to home depot and lowe's that even listen to the show, but it's way different than than sort of what we do right for the most part, and I think it's a great question. I don't have an answer to when you start doing that, bruce, but I can tell you that if you're an 800 dealer network and you haven't really branded well enough for the average consumer to know who you are, they know what sheds are. They don't know what shed brands are right. So you can spend a lot of money, you know, trying to create that brand recognition and organic SEO. You know you can pay for that and you're right, it's kind of hard to know.

SHED GEEK: 1:02:31

We spend a lot of time in the customer acquisition phase on marketing, because we really want to spend a lot of time educating the customer on what a full suite marketing service is as opposed to just, you know, something that's limited. We work with some. We even collaborate with some other marketing companies currently to pick up some of the stuff that they might not offer and they suggest us to some of their other clients and that works beautiful. We don't come in strong, we don't come in trying to take a customer. We just listen to their thoughts, suggest some things and then if business happens, it happens. But I don't have a good answer for you, because it would be a 30-minute long conversation about franchising.

SHED GEEK: 1:03:15

But I do think that you should be branding, because if you create a good, strong brand, you don't have to pay for as much marketing. So even if you just create that brand on a very local, like micro level instead of a macro level, you can do that in your community. You know the ladies down in Texas. You know they did a Christmas tree giveaway every year. So who knows, maybe you eventually start getting become getting known as the ladies who give away a Christmas tree all the time.

SHED GEEK: 1:03:46

But you happen to sell sheds and you're just doing a kind thing and then boom, you know. Next thing, you know whenever somebody's thinking about a shed, maybe they're on top of their mind because they just kind of know that they do a kind thing. So you can create sort of a local brand and you guys talking about creating that local space. Man, I would really focus on that, whatever your niche is, to get in front of your local audience and then keep your shed company at the top of the brand, because a lot of times they'll know you for who you are, what you do, and not your branding, not your logo. Is that, is that a good enough answer, without me having to go into a zoom call.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:04:24

Yeah, yeah.

SHED GEEK: 1:04:28

Love to have these conversations, cause I think they're conversations that we don't think about. Whenever we start a shed company, A lot of times you know um about. Whenever we start a shed company, a lot of times you know um you got to create a start.

Speaker 3: 1:04:41

I think it will shortly thereafter.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:04:43

There's a lot of things there in marketing and whatever else it seems to come. It just comes right to home. It doesn't take long. You're soon start thinking about all these things and you don't know where to go at all. I'll tell you this this is something that we use and I don't know if you're ready to go at all.

SHED GEEK: 1:04:54

I'll tell you this. This is something that we use and I don't know if anybody else wants to use this, but they can go for it. But one comment we use is that, you know, good marketing is not costing you money, it's making you money, so it's an investment, it's not an expense on your, on your line item. There, you know, like traditionally we suggest that a company does four percent of all uh marketing toward your, toward your marketing budget, so 4% of your gross revenue. But that's also fairly common in any business in America. You know what I mean. So, like it's it's it's common to do that. But you should get a return on that investment. So there should be like some measurable results. And then you should be able to hit sort of like a, a peak at some point where you know that, hey, if we dial this up and spend more money on this advertising, it's going to create this many leads. This many leads creates this much sales. Because you know we measure our closing rate. So therefore, if I'm getting, you know, 100 leads and I I close 25 of those, I'm at a 25 percent close rate. So theoretically at 25, you know, closes times seven thousand dollars average price of a shed boom. You know we should increase by this much, uh, if we get those hundred leads, uh, so if you want to turn that up, you spend enough money to get 200 leads right and 300 leads.

SHED GEEK: 1:06:14

But is your sales process able to? You know, um, is it developed enough to be able to handle those leads? You know, is your? Is your trucking going to be able to deliver that many? Is your manufacturing going to be able to do that? So I think that's why you, you know you should have good, healthy growth. You know you don't really. I mean, bruce, I know we want it, don't get me wrong, but when I was a young guy, if somebody would have handed me, you know, a million dollars, I would have spent it because I'd have been undisciplined and not know what to do with it.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:06:47

Exactly, yeah, it's true.

SHED GEEK: 1:06:48

It takes some battle, harden, you know, life, I mean. That's why the Lord, I think, says you know, says you need to go through some battles, because it matures you. We should embrace them. Because it matures you and you go through it. You come out on the other side of it stronger. I tend to think that you take what you're willed to get.

SHED GEEK: 1:07:11

If I saw growth, we sometimes worry. We saw some really cool growth right out of the gate, but we had to start hiring. We some we sometimes worry, you know, like we saw some really cool growth right out of the gate, but we we had to start hiring and we had. We were concerned, we almost backed off of that a little bit and while it sounds like a flex you know I don't mean it that way we were like holy cow. We did. You know, we didn't expect that. It's a good problem to have, but I put a post on Facebook this morning that said it's equally as important, maybe more important, to plan for success than it is to plan for failure. I've been planning for failure my whole life, but when you have success and you can't keep up with it, you know you've done yourself a disservice. So yeah, that's my thoughts.

SHED GEEK: 1:07:53

Guys, I'm a rambler, I'm a podcaster, so I'll talk to you for days. We don't have to have short conversations. Some people agree, some don't, but you know what? That's why Iron Sharpens Iron, so we can have these conversations and I think you guys are doing great. Man, love your website, love your connection with Matt. There it looks like MyShed did an awesome job. Kudos and shout out to them also as an affiliate partner. And yeah, sam and richard can't go wrong there, right like you can't go wrong with good advice, and I just like your story and, uh, I don't know, I just I like what you guys are doing.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:08:27

Eh, I want to I want to start, I want to start using that all the time.

SHED GEEK: 1:08:34

Hey, I got a serious question for you guys. Do I sound really southern to you guys?

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:08:41

I never thought about it, not really no to me. I don't really not off the bat. Don't think about it.

SHED GEEK: 1:08:49

I tell people I'm a misfit. Whenever I talk to people up north, they always immediately assume I'm from the south. Uh, and when I go down south, people call me a yankee. They assume I'm from the South. And when I go down South, people call me a Yankee. They think I'm from up North.

Speaker 3: 1:09:00

I have no home.

SHED GEEK: 1:09:01

Bruce, you guys are a lot of fun. You're awesome to talk to. I just wish you lots of success in everything that you're doing. If anybody wanted to reach out to you if they don't know you already and they just wanted to pick your brain or or wanted to talk to you because they thought that they had something on their heart to share, how would they get ahold of you guys? Just go to the website.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:09:24

They're welcome to go to the website and pick our numbers off of there. They're welcome to go right to my direct line, my personal line.

SHED GEEK: 1:09:32

They want to talk to me. I love I've always loved talking to people. That's excellent. So if you go to cedarcreekstructurescom, you guys will see them. It looks like a location in Harrow and a location in Ridgetown. I'll give you the Harrow, ontario number, 519-563-8000, and then Ridgetown is 519-902-8105. Cedar Creek Structures, bruce and Alex, all hearts clear Anything that you guys want to share today, otherwise we'll pray and get out of here.

BRUCE GOOSSEN: 1:10:07

Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you very much.

SHED GEEK: 1:10:11

Well, perfect. Let's pray, lord. Thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to just communicate, for us to just share in conversation about history, about the future and really about the present, and, you know, just focus on business, but also to just always be mindful that to let you lead our lives and our business. Uh, in whatever area of industry or business we're in, uh, we could just always point to you as a sovereign God, uh, that we can pray that your will be done in our lives.

SHED GEEK: 1:10:44

I ask that you'd bless Bruce and Alex and their adventures. Uh, they're just, they're just kind, kindhearted and uh and uh you know uh jumped out a few years, lord, to uh out to do their own. Ask that you'd bless that effort, that that we know that you would not have uh challenged them to do that Uh had you not had uh prosperity in their future for all that they're doing, and I'd ask that you'd uh continue to to bring forth that promise to them. We know that you will. Uh, we thank you, we love you. We are so happy for Resurrection Sunday that just passed. We thank you for sending your son, and it's something we always want to make sure to make visible through our platform that you have given us. That we have not attained on our own, so thank you, lord, for that, in Jesus' name amen. We have not attained on our own, so thank you, lord, for that, in Jesus' name amen. Hey, this is Mo Lunsford in sunny Union Grove, north Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners.