Shed Geek Podcast
Insights on Repurposing and Marketing Success with Cody Schneider
Ever wondered how AI can revolutionize your content marketing strategy? Join us as we host Cody Schneider, co-founder of Swell AI, who takes us on a deep dive into the transformative world of content repurposing. Discover how you can turn a single piece of long-form content into an array of engaging formats like video clips, newsletters, blog posts, and social media updates. Learn real-world applications and success stories that demonstrate the power of consistently sharing industry-relevant conversations to capture and retain your target audience's attention.
Curious about fostering growth and innovation within your organization? Cody Schneider sheds light on leveraging internal podcasts and newsletters to distribute valuable insights from C-suite executives, enriching your company culture and aligning your team. We'll reveal how educational content can elevate mid-level professionals into industry thought leaders, creating new opportunities for business growth. Through compelling anecdotes, we uncover the unexpected business benefits that arise from building a public persona rooted in genuine conversations and trust-building within your professional community.
What does it take to improve sales and marketing strategies in niche sectors like shed manufacturing? Cody shares his expertise on creating sustainable content processes. Explore innovative marketing approaches such as targeted advertising and niche consumer magazines, uncovering the secrets to meeting customers where they are. This episode is packed with actionable strategies for enhancing your sales interactions and maintaining consistent customer engagement. Join us for an episode brimming with valuable insights on content repurposing and marketing success!
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
LuxGuard
Shed Hub
My Shed
iFAB
Digital Shed Builder
Ever wondered how AI can revolutionize your content marketing strategy? Join us as we host Cody Schneider, co-founder of Swell AI, who takes us on a deep dive into the transformative world of content repurposing. Discover how you can turn a single piece of long-form content into an array of engaging formats like video clips, newsletters, blog posts, and social media updates. Learn real-world applications and success stories that demonstrate the power of consistently sharing industry-relevant conversations to capture and retain your target audience's attention.
Curious about fostering growth and innovation within your organization? Cody Schneider sheds light on leveraging internal podcasts and newsletters to distribute valuable insights from C-suite executives, enriching your company culture and aligning your team. We'll reveal how educational content can elevate mid-level professionals into industry thought leaders, creating new opportunities for business growth. Through compelling anecdotes, we uncover the unexpected business benefits that arise from building a public persona rooted in genuine conversations and trust-building within your professional community.
What does it take to improve sales and marketing strategies in niche sectors like shed manufacturing? Cody shares his expertise on creating sustainable content processes. Explore innovative marketing approaches such as targeted advertising and niche consumer magazines, uncovering the secrets to meeting customers where they are. This episode is packed with actionable strategies for enhancing your sales interactions and maintaining consistent customer engagement. Join us for an episode brimming with valuable insights on content repurposing and marketing success!
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
LuxGuard
Shed Hub
My Shed
iFAB
Digital Shed Builder
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast. Super excited about today's show with Cody. Cody, you want to introduce yourself, man, just like your company, a little bit about what you do and how you operate.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, absolutely so. I'm Cody Schneider. We're running or building this company called Swell AI. It's really content repurposing powered by AI. The easiest way to describe it is you go, you interview industry experts within whatever niche that you're in. You take that video file, you put it into Swell. It chops it up into clips, newsletters, blog posts, social posts, et cetera any type of media that you're trying to repurpose that into, and this is really kind of how we see it being really effective, especially in the B2B space. Like, you make one long form piece of pillar content, chop it up into all these different forms and in two hours of time, you can basically have all of the content marketing that you need for a whole week built and scheduled out across all platforms. But, yeah, so that's kind of the the the high level of what we're doing.
SHED GEEK:It's perfect, man. Like. The buzzword for me right now is just like content, content creation. You know what I mean. It's amazing seeing some of the marketing companies who have like full-time, like gift writers, like on payroll, and I'm just like, wow, 40 hours a week's what they're doing. They're creating content and things like that. But, um, you know, I don't know how how like to express that to the companies that, like, how important content is we have?
SHED GEEK:We do long form content here at the show. We'll like talk for 45 minutes a lot of times and I tell people all the time like, hey, this goes on youtube. Or if you just want to reach out, use this content for your own social media purposes. If you're trying to get posts out there, chop up some of this stuff. If you don't know how to chop that up, holler at me, we'll cut it up in a video, pay us to do it. Or you know what? Just go contact my buddy, cody, over at Swell and he'll be able to show you how to do some of this. Where are companies missing out by not like capturing that content, dude?
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, I think for a lot of companies, we see that they don't think that it's interesting like what they're talking about, but in reality, like, a lot of these conversations that are happening behind closed doors are super valuable to the industry, especially if you're in, you know, a very tight knit or tight connected community. Like, for example, we have a client that's in like the oil and gas space right, they only get 10,000 downloads a month on like their podcasts that they do. But when you think about, like, okay, this is like a huge industry with C-suite players that have a lot of capital to deploy, that small, even though it's, you know, in the grand scheme of things, that's a small amount of people that are like listening to the show. You know you're not going to go and and be a top 100 podcasts in the US, but the amount of you know economic impact that you can get from that is just incredible, right? So I think for the, the mind shift I'm always trying to get founders to kind of adopt and get into is thinking about okay, what are these things that the conversations I'm having on the forefront of my industry? How can I record those? How can I also talk to other people in my industry to get that like cross information share. If I just record that and put it out in public to my audience, to my you know the people that would be buyers for me you see that nine times out of 10, they're going to find that information valuable. And then I just want to go and meet them where they are right. So I do it in the form of a podcast, I put it on YouTube, I put make clips for all my social channels. I write long form articles. I write long form LinkedIn posts. You know anywhere that your target customers spending time online or even in the physical world I mean, I've seen people use us to print out white papers, right, like, and then share that out to their audience. But just basically taking that source media, you know, you take the transcript of that episode and then you can turn it into all of these different things and it's now easier than ever to do this with these AI tools and that's really kind of how we're seeing this being used most effective.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So where this originated from this whole idea, I was working at a previous company. It was a software company, but what we were doing was selling. Basically, it's a marketplace for specialty lab testing for, like, physicians, so they would order it for their patients through us. And what we saw is that, like, that audience you know, doctors and practitioners there's going to be really hard to market to and traditionally, since they have a lot of, you know, economic power, they are like, marketed to constantly right.
CODY SCHNEIDER:And so we realized really early on we were going to have to create some type of media that they would like to consume, for us to get in front of them and to capture that attention. And so, again, what we ended up doing was we made a podcast, it was a video podcast, we did a live classes that we do on a weekly basis, and then we just take both of those things those webinars and this podcast and we would turn that into all of the different media that we could share across all of the channels that they were spending time online right, which was LinkedIn, it was Instagram, it was Pinterest, you know all of these places, and I think that it's like that, that philosophy, like when you think about that, for these companies it just can be such a massive driver in growth and like, just to give examples of this, like I just did this in for a company that's in the biotech space. So they do. It's a really, you know, not interesting like service they offer. It's literally just leasing a biotech equipment, you know, like equipment you would use in a lab and for them, like, what we ended up doing is we got basically every biotech founder and company that's like in their early stages listening to the show over the last 12 months and what has happened from that is like now that CEO, he has all of this leverage within that, that because he can reach out to anybody and he can be like hey, tom, I want you to come on my show, would you be open to that?
CODY SCHNEIDER:But in reality he's just trying to get in a relationship with Tom so that he can go and sell Tom his service when they go raise their recs down to funding and they need to buy, you know, 20, 20 new machines that are a quarter million a piece, right.
CODY SCHNEIDER:And so I think that you know, just trying to make that concrete for people to think about, the the when you make media, it's both a way for you to create content at scale that you can use in all these other places, but it's also kind of the sales strategy in disguise, because you now have this excuse to reach out to anybody that you want cold and you have something to bring to them and to offer to them that they're going to find incredibly valuable of doing right. Like they go on the show, they get in front of their whole industry, they get that thought leadership piece and then they also get all of these social posts that are shared with them that they can then go put on their own social media. I mean that when you think about, like, the value that you that's provided to them for sitting down with you for 45 minutes to an hour, it's a no brainer, right they're going to say yes every time.
SHED GEEK:So many times I hear people say, man, what I've got to say is not that important. Like, who I am is not that important If I come on your show, who am I? You know It's a humble approach and I'm like I always appreciate that, but I'm always like no man. You're made unique. You know what I mean. You're created unique like your story is unique, no matter what. And I think some of the like best episodes I've had, some of the best numbers. We don't really go for numbers like right, we go for a fish in a barrel, if you will, right, so, like we, we want to be, uh, really strong on quantity inside of the shed world shed haulers, manufacturers, dealers, post frame barndo's, you know what I mean? Like all of all the stuff that you might see. That's kind of the common denominators the shed but our shed lot, but then all these other things happen, right?
SHED GEEK:A
SHED GEEK:So I tell people all the time I'm like no dude, believe it or not. What you have to say is very valuable to people and I've had stories where people said man, that guy came on the show. I didn't know that about him, known him since he was young and didn't really know that, and I was like enthralled in his story and stuff like that. And I was like enthralled in his story and stuff like that and I'm like, yes, man, like you know, we're meant to communicate, we're meant to share, and whenever you're in an industry and you're, you're sharing those things together, like you're, you know, iron sharpens iron, right. You know what I mean. Like we're trying to.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So yeah, and just to piggyback off that, like I think for, like you know, say, you're C-suite, right A lot of the times, like you don't even know what's going on at these layers of your organization when you get huge, and so when you have these, you know just thinking about, like all of these different perspectives at different parts and different, like you know, you're in a logistics business when, at its core right, like when we think about sheds, like what is actually happening, like it's the manufacturing and distribution of, like a physical product, like that is at its core, logistics challenge. That's really what you're trying to solve. So, understanding all of the mechanisms and the components of that system is incredibly valuable to any person. So it's like, yeah, maybe you don't like, maybe you're at a mid-level within an organization, but you could be doing these operations, things that you don't.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You know other people in the industry don't even know what's going on and these systems that you've designed hypothetically, like they could be incredibly valuable to other people that are, you know, trying to solve the same issues that you've already solved, and so I think that that's like a very you know, to me it's just, it's just information, like we're trying to distribute that knowledge, as you know, globally, as we can, and we're even starting to see companies do this where they, like, are creating internal there's actually a business idea in here for some.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You know somebody out there that's wanting to do this but, like, basically going to companies and being like, hey, we're going to make an internal podcast for you or an internal newsletter, and we're going to interview, you know, all the C-suite individuals of, like, what's going on, what's happening, what are the goals, how's things are going, you know, et cetera, capture that all into one place and then distribute that out to, like, every employee that works at the company. Like, you're going to make a very more cohesive and aligned organization when you have that knowledge being shared with everybody internally, right, and so I think that, to me, is really what's happening here and becoming way more accessible with all of the. You know, it's just so easy. We can sit down on a zoom for an hour and have all of this information that just gets trans, like you know, shared and and, and can be repackaged in all these different ways.
SHED GEEK:Well, we, I feel like we've our tagline's education through entertainment. We love to laugh, joke and cut up up, but man, like there's so much education out there that like, and I think it's that education gap that is really you know what I mean. It's like driving what we do, because it's like you know not that we know it all. We call ourselves shed geek. You're not. You're not seeing me in my best. Normally I wear a bow tie and suspenders. I'm sorry you didn't get my full brain.
CODY SCHNEIDER:no, it's all good, we're moving. So like I don't have books on the shelf, it looks like, yeah, I'm over here throwing all the plants we have in the background, so it doesn't look like a barren wasteland. Well, anyway, you can see it.
SHED GEEK:You can see it on my logo, because the logo is me. That's usually you know. But but you know you said something in that earlier. You know even about video podcasts, so like we'll talk about that. But you know you were talking about being able to become an industry professional.
SHED GEEK:Like dude, I was so excited to be able to like interview some of these different people. Like to me it's like a genuine conversation, it's something I would do anyway and I'm like how cool that we can put a microphone to it. But like I was surprised at what kind of like inbound sales leads it like turned into. For me it's crazy because like I was knocking on doors as an rto rep that I couldn't get in and then, once people started to like learn your personality and then like listen to your conversations and kind of learn who you are, it like open up doors to work with people.
SHED GEEK:I mean, now we're doing marketing, now we're doing rto. I mean we're going to be doing consultation soon and I'm not trying to take over the world, but i'm'm like hey, I'll take what the Lord gives, nothing more. I won't take anything less. I won't take anything more. I'm just kind of taking it as it as it comes, I've been really surprised, man, at how like people were. Like hey, they'll just call me up, got a question about this, got a question about that. You know, you seem like the guy to go to that has to answer and I'm like oh know, I don't want to let them down.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You know what I mean, a hundred percent, and I think that that is, like you know, the high, the really the, the kind of the power of this whole thing and the and the and the effect that it can have on your business or just you as an individual. You know, off off camera, before we started this. We're talking about how my friend is doing some stuff in the out of like, out of out of home digital advertising space or basically think billboards and LED trucks and that whole thing. For him. He's trying to build trust with these other media buyers in his sphere of influence and what's the easiest way to do that is he talks to people that know way more than he does about all of these different aspects of that world. And now he's 12 months into this thing and he's getting invited to these conferences to come and talk about all of the learnings that he's basically captured over the last year and he gets to aggregate those and pull out the interesting pieces and share those insights with the entire community.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You know, thinking that only happened in a year period, of him sitting down and having a conversation with somebody once a week. I mean it's crazy when you start to think about it like that. So and I think this is like a bigger trend that's starting to be recognized Like it's it's always starts out in consumer and then it moves its way into B2B, but, like we've already seen consumer businesses doing this for a long time and now we're starting to see the same strategy in the B2B. I want to pull out something, too I think is interesting On the video side when you see somebody and you hear their voice and get to know them through that it's almost a parasocial relationship in a way, or you get to know that person from a distance or even just audio.
CODY SCHNEIDER:It's the same thing if you sit down and listen to somebody for an hour every week, like there's this, this trust that's built up
SHED GEEK:So and that's so. That's so important and I even circled or like wrote down and circled video podcast for a couple of reasons, but introducing shed hub your ultimate shed marketplace. Are you in the shed business and looking to connect with more buyers? Look no farther than shed hub. Shed hub is a game changing two-sided marketplace that brings shed sellers and buyers together in one easy to use platform. Think of it as the Amazon of sheds. Shedhub isn't just any ordinary marketplace. It's a powerhouse that ranks on the first page of Google's search results in 91% of US cities, with over 1.2 million impressions on our website last month alone. Shedhub is where you want to be to showcase your sheds to a wider audience. And here's the best part For a limited time, you can join our exclusive Next 500 plan for just $39 per month. Simply head over to geekshedhubcom to sign up and start attracting more shoppers to your shed listings. As the shed geek, I am here to endorse Shed Hub and invite you to join me on this journey to boost your shed business. Whether you're struggling with website visibility or simply want more eyes on your product, shedhub has got you covered. Don't miss out on this opportunity to supercharge your shed sales. Visit geekshedhubcom today and make your mark in the shed industry with shed hub.
SHED GEEK:I want to touch on that. Like one of my favorite podcasts is just listening to like these guys called the communication guys Cause like I think about like everything is communication. I believe with proper communication we can solve a lot of the world's problems, but for some reason that that communication gap is huge. You know what I mean. A lot of times when you're sitting across the table and you're trying to sell to a consumer, you're trying to sell a shed. You know what I mean. Like sometimes that you're what you're trying to say and what they're listening to or hearing or the connotations or different things.
SHED GEEK:It's just like this big gap and you're like man. I just really want you to like know who I am and if you would like spend an hour with me, you'd buy this shed for me. But right now I'm not saying the right things or I'm not qualifying you the correct way or whatever it is I'm doing. It's rubbing you the wrong way. I didn't get the sale and you're like man actually if we talked for about an hour and that's what the like, the podcasting, has done for me. That's why I got those knocks on the door when I, when you know, when I, when I used to not be able to, but video is part of that like face to face. I do a lot, probably half of my interviews in person.
SHED GEEK:we travel around the states, right like me and my wife get to go in our rv and have fun it's a beautiful life, you know, and and all of a sudden it's like but then, whenever we do the ones online, I'm like man. That's why we added video to it. I want you to see me, I want you to know me, I want you to see the guest, I want you to know the guest. I mean, we've had people on that's had massive success. I think about real work labs. We had those guys come on. They signed up like 30 clients. George was like dude, like I want to find more podcasts. Now you know what I mean. Like I want to get on podcasts because, like we signed up all these people. It it's amazing when people get to know you. They follow you, they listen to you, they trust you, they want to work with you in some ways and and I just can't explain how in-person video, then audio and then text.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And to piggyback off that too, like when you think about what's actually happening here, like I don't know how many people listen to your show on a monthly basis, but, like you know, I, I imagine 5,000 people like listen to an episode on a weekly basis, right, like let's, let's, you know, zoom out and think about that real quick. When was the last time you stood in front of 5,000 people and had a conversation, like on a panel format, in front of them and they got to hear you talk? I mean, that's like one to many, it's just crazy, right. But that's really what's happening here.
CODY SCHNEIDER:When you have a show like this or doing marketing like this, and so I think that you know kind of framing people to think about it in that way.
CODY SCHNEIDER:But yeah, it's not, you know it's only 5,000 people, but that's you have a room full of 5,000 people listening to you. That's a crazy number, like that would be. That's a huge crowd, right, and so it's it's kind of, uh, making people realize that what's happening and then what you know comes from that and again, it's just a trust building thing, like in real reality, like when you do these shows. It's a one to many sales that you're performing right, Like you're basically educating them and then getting them more, like like deeper in trust with you, so that when and really we see this for like CEOs in particular, like when they host a show where they talk to like other industry experts, then when they're, you know, sales reps will reach out and they're cold emailing somebody and they're like oh well, I already listened to your podcast, like I trust you at some level already. It's not as cold of an interaction. To begin with, you have some type of rapport that's yeah, yeah well and executed well is definitely the key.
SHED GEEK:You know, don't get me wrong, I'm not probably everybody's you know, favorite, but you know what I mean.
SHED GEEK:We try to do what we do and and and uh, try to stay true to ourselves and create the message that we feel like is the one we should put out. You know, part of this is almost, you know, uh I I know this is probably not super uh, what's the word I'm looking for? It's not well thought, maybe in in, in the deeper meaning of religion. But I mean we treat this somewhat of like a, a ministry for us in some ways. Like we get to talk to people. I mean I got friends that, like you know, send me like daily devotionals, like we've had prayer time together, like we don't just you know what I mean like we, we don't even work with them in some ways, but like you meet some of the coolest people and they have some of the coolest stories and some of the best hearts and you're like man, this didn't just like do well for my business, this did well for my soul, it did well for me as a person Totally, and I mean it just makes so much surface area right.
CODY SCHNEIDER:It's just more. It's more opportunity for serendipity and like to get to know good people and like what that always turns into is a positive thing over time, right, like you're just the the more relationships that you can have that are quality, it's just gonna make your life better and also, you know, make make your business a bit more successful too. So both of that, I feel like, goes hand in it. At least that's how I like to do it. You know like I want to. I want to not spend my time with people I don't like and I want to spend my time working on things that I enjoy, right.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So, if I can do those two things, I'm, I'm, I'm content.
SHED GEEK:But yeah, man, right on. So let's say you're a, let's say you're a shed uh, manufacturer. Let's say that you're, you know I mean. So we're all over the place, cody, like we have, uh, we have consignment dealers that kind of have like a floor plan, if you will, uh, if you liken it to like the car industry, uh, but then we also have, like you know, wholesale retailers. You know what I mean. We have, uh, those who who purchase, and we have companies that manufacture and sell. You know hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sheds, uh, and then we have, you know, mom and pop and maybe they sell. You know, hey, this our family business at home or whatever. We've got one employee, two, three, four. We sell a million, two, three, four, five million, whatever a year. We're kind of content with that.
SHED GEEK:But, like, a lot of times, you know, the bigger you get, you know that you start separating the sales and the marketing aspect and then all of a sudden you start separating you know, know what I mean these other categories of like management. But whenever you're a smaller company, you kind of do all of it. You just wear the hat of everything and everybody. So, like, how can what you do save them time. Let's just assume that there's companies out there who say and I could start interviewing my customers whenever they come in or like post purchase, and then like hey, what was your experience like and can you explain what it would be like for the next customer? Just assuming that they would do that, how does Swell AI sort of come in? How could you help or what thoughts do you have to give on that?
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, great question I mean. So, first off, I feel like in your guys industry there's so much content you could do right, like here's the different types of qualities of wood, like what's the like there's? Just I mean, you could start, you could go there. Here's the manufacturing process and it's like literally just then building the sheds, like filming that whole piece. There's so many different angles of it.
CODY SCHNEIDER:I think the North Star that I would try to, you know, plant a seed in people's head with is you're trying to focus on something that you can do over and over again on a regular basis.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Right, like to your point that this is something that's you're trying to make a repeatable process. And I always talk about it like, hey, like you know, content marketing is a lifestyle choice. You wake up every day and you do that thing over and over again. It's how you lose weight, it's how you make your company grow. It's very, very simple, but when you know you do that in practice, that's how you can make these companies grow really quickly. But to give concrete examples, I would find one to three things that happen on a daily or a weekly basis within your organization and just, really, what we're seeing just from our data is that content that is as unstructured and almost raw and unfiltered and very human is performing the best. Just to give an example, if we structured this whole conversation, it was just like here's a question and then I answer, and here's a question and then I answer.
CODY SCHNEIDER:I want to be that interesting to the audience. But when it's a, when it's a dialogue that's happening back and forth, like that's when you, we can create these interesting moments, um, that other people want to see. And I think that that as a company, I would think about those two things like water, what's something I can do and I can do it again, either daily or weekly or monthly that I can do for the next two years and it's not gonna kill me or my business, and and it's not going to kill me or my business, and it's something that's sustainable. And then the other component of that is like, what are the things that my target customer would find interesting or valuable? And a lot of the times you don't even know what that is when you're beginning. But the data that you get from doing this process is going to show you.
CODY SCHNEIDER:in that direction so that we can hopefully and potentially make another one of those viral moments. And thinking about this as like a process and a system that is improving as you do it more is, I think, the most effective way to kind of approach this.
SHED GEEK:Simply choose a style, siding and color. Then choose a trim and roofing style and color. Next, let's add a door. That was goofy. Next let's add a door. It is required to add a door to move forward with the design, as at least one ingress-egress option is necessary. Then add some design changes for personalization, maybe some windows or a porch, or some interior shelving. Next just click Save Design and the customer will receive an automated text with all the features of the design to the email address entered at the beginning. From here, they can edit the design, view the details of the design. Pay now to order the shed, or click rent to own to complete the necessary steps to purchase a shed they designed. With MyShed3D. The design enters the admin panel as a quote and this is where the manufacturer can update the progress of the design once a deposit is taken. Myshed from design to delivery. We have you covered.
CODY SCHNEIDER:A lot of times with marketing, traditionally we think about it as a campaign, right? A campaign is we just take this from the military, you're just taking a, we go out and we do an activity, and then it would have an end, right. And like a campaign is we just take this from the military, like you're just taking a, like we go out and we do an activity, and then it would have an end. Right, and that same idea was applied to marketing, but in reality in the, in the new world, like, what it really comes down to is that it doesn't have an end.
CODY SCHNEIDER:This is just an ongoing thing that hopefully, every time you go around, you know the merry-go-round, you get smarter each time and so that it gets more effective in doing, you know, whatever that or accomplishing whatever that business goal is and for every company it's, you know, different it can be. I'm trying to get more impressions, I'm trying to get more leads, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to the same thing we're trying to get more revenue for our company, right? So we're just trying to do the thing that's most likely to get that happen to happen, and the more you're out in front of people talking about whatever it is you do in the industry, you're going to create again more surface area to get more potential inbound leads or growth for your company sales gal.
SHED GEEK:You know what I mean. Like why would I not want to have my face in front of a potential customer that way? Whenever they show up, they have that warm, like you said, lead and who knows, maybe they start to follow you.
SHED GEEK:Maybe you have a channel, maybe you have a personality that you're just not capturing because you're not putting, uh, you know, the audio record button to it or the video record button to it, and maybe a lot of times they're like afraid. I wrote that down because I'm like you know, a lot of times public speaking is the thing that people fear the most. But I'm like, bro, you're in sales, you know what I mean. You're already speaking to people even without sales. You're selling yourself every day who you are. You know what I mean. Like what, what you're trying to accomplish so, but if you're, but if you're actually trying to sell the product.
SHED GEEK:I mean the people are buying you first anyway, anyway, when they come in. I mean there's like some like very valuable product information but I think a an a plus sales guy or gal can can overcome with a lack of even knowledge. They can overcome like a c plus knowledgeable salesperson about the product. Right, because, like, unless somebody's super like like product centric for the most part, they're going to come in and like they're going to be buying you. Do they trust you and you have a small customer acquisition time with sheds, a lot of time. You're not building a house, you know what I mean.
SHED GEEK:Like this, yeah, totally, you're trying to get this thing done and you're trying to qualify them quickly and you're trying to make you know this, make them welcome and make welcome and make them want to stay and so you can talk to them and explain. But, like, what advice do you have for, like, those sales guys and sales gals that are like, well, I don't know equipment, I don't know this, I don't know that, is that where you come in? Is that what you guys have fixed with Swell AI?
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, I mean for sales like we, we see some customers using it where it's like they're recording their calls and then, like a question happens and they do it, they answer this and they put that just out in public, right, like I. For I think for a lot of people like it's just with these conversations that we think are uninteresting, or like these, like you know, things that we do over and over again on a daily basis to the vast majority of people, they're not spending any of their mental energy like thinking about that. Right, like they have all their other problems that they're worried about. They like our little scope of the world is something that they, like they aren't thinking about. But when you can get, you know, introduce them to that and kind of answer that without them doing a lot of heavy lifting, like it's not like they're having to jump, you know they're not committing to a 30 minute call, it's just here's a 30-second video solving this problem in real time.
CODY SCHNEIDER:If I was a salesperson starting over in that role, something I would be thinking about is okay, how do I show up in front of every one of my target customers' faces on their mobile device or on social media whatever that is you know, on their mobile device, like you know, or on social media, whatever that is that. How do I it's probably LinkedIn, in reality, like that's the best place to do this, but how do I show up every day so that they start to trust you know me as a person, so that and again, this is how you can compete against maybe their salespeople that know way more than you. But if you're, it's just human nature. If you know, interacted with John for six months and you've only talked to Steven for like a week, who are you going to trust more, even though Steven may be way more knowledgeable and all of this information, like maybe John's 80% of the way there he didn't know a couple of things, but like he's been consistently in your life. I think the bigger thing here, the bigger idea here, is like people make decisions off of consistency, like they make sales like decisions off of consistency and like that's really what trust is. Like you know you.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You, if you show up in people's lives over and over again where they're having uh, these, uh, you know, like moments of distress or whatever, like people are going to trust you because you keep showing up for them, like that happens in our personal life, that's those that, that same idea. That happens in our business life as well. So it's just taking human nature and just applying it into it, like business is just humans, it's a group of humans, you know. All together it's that same. You know, the same concepts translate back and forth between both of those, those parts of our life.
SHED GEEK:Well, just imagine what that does if you, you know, going beyond that, like you said, linkedin, I mean using any of your social feeds. You know most everybody has, you know, facebook business account anymore there's, you know, a lot of our guys are running ads because, you know, facebook has made it kind of clear they're not super business friendly unless you want to pay right, you know, like, if you want to spend some money, you know, and, and I think most people know that, if you go out and create a, you know, a private group or a public group or whatever, the algorithm's free and they just run with it. But then you create a facebook business page and you're like man, why do I have, you know, like 1.6 000 followers and like 20 people like my, my stuff whenever I?
SHED GEEK:felt like that was good content I put out and it's like, ah, they're suppressing the algorithm, but if you'll spend some money, run those ads out there and those video, the video content we're capturing. Just imagine, you know, and I'm not sure if you're a big google ads guy, facebook ads guy, I don't know how you know what I mean.
CODY SCHNEIDER:I mean my customer, where they are right, like I think that's the biggest thing that people get hung up on is like what, where should I? You know where should I spend money, or where should I invest, or where should I advertise? And you know, at the end of the day, it's like wherever they are, you go and you meet them there. Like that is really what good marketing is. So if they're you know they're on Google, then you meet them there. If they're on Facebook, you meet them there.
CODY SCHNEIDER:If they're you know, if a flyer at a gas station, I remember we ran, I was working for, sorry, in a past life I worked at a B2B marketing agency and we worked with manufacturing companies, think, you know, like wood products, windows, shower bases, trailers, right, and I was doing some work for this company called Trinity Trailer they're like a conveyor belt trailer for Tato and that's really how it got its origin. But we did this whole campaign where we basically just like put flyers in the gas stations where we knew the drivers were like getting coffee and their breakfast every morning, right, and so that you know and where these basically farmers are spending their time, like we're just going to try to always make something that meets them where they are, and then put some type of educational material, whatever that ends up being, that is going to be the most effective for us to communicate our ideas and build relationships with them.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So I think, people get hung up on what they should do and it's like just meet them where they are.
SHED GEEK:At iFab LLC, our passion is welding, fabricating and design. Welding, fabricating and design. That's why, in 2015, we begin to commercially market our product to the shed, portable building and minibarn industry. Our product is primarily used to build trusses. Our truss saw system cuts boards in one motion and our truss press system installs and presses the gusset plates to a finished truss. We custom fabricate jigs that assure perfectly symmetrical truss setup without error. We also have other products designed to help your shed builder increase quality, efficiency and save money. Our precision door table will build your custom doors square every time and easily adjust to build any door square every time and easily adjust to build any door for products like these or other custom fabrication services for your barn shop. Visit ifablccom or call 563-422-7496, or simply email us at ifablc at gmailcom.
SHED GEEK:A lot of our audience you know you may not know this, are playing community. So I mean, like there's a lot of shed dealers, manufacturers, that come out of the playing community in Lancaster, pennsylvania, you know, Northern Indiana, millersburg, ohio, arthur, illinois, but really just even spread throughout the country and, like you know that the technology of like the books and the magazine is like fairly you know what I mean it's already approved sort of of a media and we're like man, why aren't we, like you know, putting their, their products in a magazine and, just like you know, sending them out to people you know and finding their customers, finding the hotsp where the customers might? I mean, I still see this with real estate magazines all the time, right, or tractor equipment, or you know what I mean different things. So we're like, why not try and meet people where they are? So you know, we're trying to be serial entrepreneurs. I guess you'd say you know what I mean, we're trying to. No, definitely.
CODY SCHNEIDER:And that pillage content can be turned into that magazine content, right, like, say, you do a monthly magazine and you interview people, like you know, throughout the entire month and maybe you can collect some other ideas. But like there's so many, like we've talked about probably you know, I guess like five to six different topics through this conversation so far, each of those topics could be expanded into its own article. Right, like its own magazine article. Maybe the magazine's only 30 pages long or something, but like it's that same idea, like we're going to make this long form pillar content and then we're going to chop it up into all these other small, bite sized pieces that can be it can be applied to physical as well. Like it can be it can be used in the medium source is not as important, it's just figuring out. Okay, how do I have these valuable conversations and record it in a way that I can reuse it again, over and over again?
CODY SCHNEIDER:And I think there's another like critical thing for people to think about like you make this content once and most companies like maybe they use it just once, but the you know companies that are doing this, the best in my opinion, is like they have a whole back catalog of content but then they go back to and they pull from every three months or every six months or every year or whatever they go and they mine that back catalog and try to find the valuable information that would be interesting or important at this given moment. Like trends come back right, like things happen again. You're like, oh yeah, on episode whatever 67, we had a, we talked about this, so let me, let me bring that one back to the forefront and get this in front of my audience. Or, you know, do some social clips et cetera.
SHED GEEK:There's another way to think about this through targeting and retargeting, even through our marketing campaigns and things like that. Like you want to. You know, I've been creating drip campaigns. You know, trying to create email blast and things like that. I mean, they still work. You know, people still love to open up their email. I mean, I, you know, we watch our numbers all the time. We send a newsletter out. We'll, we'll throw your, uh, your website on there. People will be able to go and click on it and you know, and ai is going to write this beautiful little bio for us and show title and, and I used to do those. Here's the thing because, like, we're going to talk ai, I want to, I want to, I want to kind of touch base a little bit on that. But, um, you know, like you know, we love. We love that because, you know, I actually had one of my listeners, uh, from the playing community, say, man, I don't know what you've been doing on these bios, but I got to be honest with you, man, the bios just make me want to listen to the show that much more.
SHED GEEK:I didn't always, you know, sometimes I'd read them and be like, you know, if he or the title. I want to see who's on there. Maybe I'll listen Maybe I won't to an episode, but I want to see who's on there. And I was like, well, believe it or not, you know, like technology is what's doing this for me. I don't I don't mean for it to feel fake, but they're listening to my actual words and then they're transcripting those. I mean even on my meetings, cody, that I have my zoom calls daily, that I have with people in business, like we've got Otter taking notes for transcripts, creating minutes, you know, so I can go back and look at that, cause my I man, I'm 43 years old. My memory's failing me. You know what I mean. I can't remember everything that we talked about.
CODY SCHNEIDER:I turned 30 this weekend. I even so many people on a daily basis. It's hard to keep it all organized.
SHED GEEK:So I just tell people all the time I'm like man, these are things that I feel like that you should embrace.
SHED GEEK:And AI is kind of a scary thing and if you're in a conservative world, like I am, it's probably that much more scary because it's like, if you don't know about it, like if you don't understand it well enough, you know it's easier just to either criticize it or shy away from it one of the two. So, like you know, where do you? You know that ai worked good for me creating that bio, like I've written my heart out and I love to write and I've like written it and then turned it, put it over in chat or something, and I'm like man, that just sounds so much better and it's actually what I wanted to say. I just couldn't come up with the vernacular and it did it for me, but it still took the essence of what I was meaning to say and it just improved it. So like, uh, you know, I don't I don't mean for that to seem like like it's fake, right, you know what I mean, but I actually feel like coming from your words, though.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Like that's the difference. I think there's two different sides of this. If you're just using the AI to write based off of its general knowledge, it's not going to be really that interesting or that much insight. But, in contrast, if you're saying, hey, here's this source file and transcript of this episode and I want you to write a summary based off of the source file I gave you, like a bunch of things are happening there, like your own personality is going to shine through just because, naturally, like you're a part of that transcript, the vocabulary you use is going to shine through because it's in that transcript. And so I I think that that, for you know, when I'm talking to a lot of b2b companies, like that's the, that's the light bulb moment that they get is when they realize like, oh, it's not.
CODY SCHNEIDER:It's not about just like making AI generated content. It's about taking this thing that used to be a very time consuming thing, like, for example, like you sit down and you write show notes for your podcast, like I mean, I've done this before. It takes. It could take hours, you know, we'll say three hours, five hours, even, you know, if it's, if you're trying to write really, really in depth, good ones, especially with timestamps and all this thing, um, but that you know the AI, it can do that in about two minutes and you got your first draft of it.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So, as a human, like, what this allows for you to
SHED GEEK:Dude. I think it's great. I definitely love all of it. Digital Shed Builder is an online shed configurator that strives to provide incredible visual quality, fantastic customer service and an amazingly low price point, making it a perfect fit for any shed dealer looking to increase their online sales. Digital Shed Builder is simple to use, taking less than five minutes to integrate on your site. The get a quote feature streamlines your sales process, showing you exactly what your potential customers need. They offer a highly customizable experience that accurately represents your brand and unique shed offerings, working with you directly to set up everything you need in a configurator, with no extra startup cost, no lengthy contracts or commitments and no hidden fees. Digital Shed Builder has been created with quality, simplicity and affordability in mind. So tell me a little bit about just so my audience knows. Tell me a little bit about Cody. Tell me a little bit about Swell Like. Where are you from? We didn't even get through that. Like you said, you used to be from Idaho. Where are you at today, man?
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, I'm from Idaho. I'm from North Idaho originally, and then I lived in Boise, idaho, for a while, uh, and then went out to san francisco just for work. I got pulled out there. I'm now in denver, colorado. I miss the mountains, and so I needed a city that was closer to him and like still had some stuff to do. Um, but uh, yeah, I mean long term, I'll end up in idaho, like that's just what I know and, uh, that's where my all my family is, and I, I miss small town America. In all honesty, I miss the woods is really what it comes down to. I grew up out in the national, like right next up against the national forest, and kind of missed that quieter life. So that's really kind of the high level of how we ended up.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Honestly, I don't even know how I got into the digital stuff or into software. It was kind of just like a weird cascading of events. I was like everybody was trying to figure out like how do I start a business, and one of the easiest ones was like doing an online thing, you know, when you're 19 and you have no money, and then from that I learned these skill sets that I guess were valuable to. You know, this B2B marketing agency I worked at and really I was. You know my boss would always introduce me as like yeah, here's like our crazy young gun, he's going to tell you some stuff. We'll probably do like maybe 10% of what he suggests, but it was really all I would do was like here's digital strategy and options. You know that we could, we could attempt, you know, try, and then we'd actually do.
CODY SCHNEIDER:You know, maybe a more conservative version of that, but that, you know, just because I think this is a larger thread with all of this is like you don't really know where your career is going to go.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Your journey is it's like the biggest thing is you just keep up and kind of take a step forward every day, right, and that's that's how you end up in all this. And I was funny I was just talking to a friend earlier today about really how things grow and a lot of the times it's like you grow. Like when you look at you know, like how, like who, who ends up winning in the long term? It's just whoever survived the longest, right. So, like your business, it's like if you're just around, for you know if you can outlast the competition, like you're going, you know you're going to be successful, and I think it's that that idea is is kind of one of the most powerful ones and one of them I really believe in, when it comes down to like, how do you, how do you make good, sustainable companies that you know, can last generations be passed on to you know, to family members, et cetera.
SHED GEEK:So there's like a. There's a movie movie I can't think of the name of it right now it's got john travolta in it and he's. It was a, it was playing a lawyer and it was, you know, about a uh uh tannery factory up in the northeast and based off true events and all that stuff or whatever. But he said, you know, all litigation in his law is like who can uh, like spend the most and last the longest? And you know, the first, the, the first one to lose, runs out of money. I mean, that's just what it boils down to and it's like a lot of times in business it feels that way. You're just trying to like hang in there, you're trying to compete.
SHED GEEK:We've been, we've been a an industry that's talked a lot about collaboration and, like you know, cooperation I mean like I, I remember setting in like one of my I guess guess it would be now a quote unquote competitor, I guess, if that's what you want to say in their office, and I was reading an article by Mr Beast and he was talking about how like collaboration is what's got him there. You know what I mean. He's like man just collaborating with people.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, he's like the way people used to do business back in the day was cutthroat and like, hey, that's my competition. Good, I got to squash him. And it's like man, like the like, the like the new generation has figured out like that's my competition. Cool, I want to talk to them and like figure out, is there a way we can work together or work better, or is there a way that we can improve the consumer's like experience here?
CODY SCHNEIDER:And it's like Whoa, what a novel thought, right, yeah, I mean it's so funny to me, like I remember I talked to like young business entrepreneurs that are building their first companies, like they're always, I feel like so often they're trying to like change the customer's idea on how they should do the thing. Right, like this is the better way to do it. But in reality, like, how companies actually succeed is through service. Right Like it's by providing great service to your customer and get you know, basically selling to them what they want. Right, and that's a part of that service piece. And so I always try to, like you know, the more experience I get, I always just that's my lens Number one that I look through, you know, at the world with is like, how do I ride like service to these people and that's really what business is is it's a service right Like I'm providing some type of experience or product or whatever that is. But I want, I wanted to, you know, I want to think about it in an approach in that way.
SHED GEEK:Dude, we're consumers me and your consumers too. We're not just business owners and everybody else that out here is a business owner. They're consumers too and, like probably every unpleasant sales experience you've had, is probably some sales guy or some sales gal trying to follow the program meticulously of what the micromanagement has put into place and they've not had the expression and freedom to do their own thing and just be who they are and that's probably going to make them a top 5%. Or if they just tap into what's natural and like hey.
SHED GEEK:I just need to help the consumer and not follow this particular program word for word and you know, task for task and things like. I'm not saying there's no value in those things, I'm just saying, like you know, be. You'll always be your best self when you're free, when you're just free to communicate so, like you'll always, you'll sell better even if you lose that sale.
SHED GEEK:Like you, you'll lose it, but you won't feel like you've like pigeonholed them into. Let me see, did I meet all the marks? I told them this I told them that those things are important, man, but you've got to find a way to collaborate those into your natural being, just who you are.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Totally, totally. I think a big piece of it too, in particular, just because it feels very short term thinking, like, if I give that person a bad experience or bad taste in their mouth, like in contrast to giving them, you know, they leave happy. Like they're probably going to spend more money with me over the lifetime of doing business with them. If I, if they leave happy and like with a good experience, rather than being, you know, frustrated with this. Like even if they do buy the product, like you're always going to see the people that are the you know the best company and what is a company right. It's like people that buy things from you over and over and over again. Like that's how you create, like a sustainable business. And like what's the, the, the core fabric of making a sustainable business? It's it's making people feel like they're valued and they're happy and they, they trust you Right, and that's how you get these repeat purchases to happen.
SHED GEEK:So Dude anything, uh. If people want to reach out to you at uh a swell AI, uh, where would they go? Website phone number what's the best thing to?
CODY SCHNEIDER:do so totally. So you can just reach out at Cody at SwellAIcom that's just my email and try to answer everything as fast as I can within you know, typically within a day. And then I'm on LinkedIn and then SwellAIcom. It's free to sign up and to play around with it. Yeah, if you reach out to me as well, happy to throw some credits on other people's accounts so they can uh, they can get some free credits and take it for, take it for a joy ride.
SHED GEEK:So Very cool dude. Any questions? I always do this, like I spend so much time like grilling the audience and like asking them questions and things like that. Any questions that you have, man, like shed related, podcast, what it just to something that comes to mind that that I might be able to elaborate on. If not, no biggie, but if you do, happy to answer it.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Yeah, I think what I'm always interested in is, like, what are the trends that are happening in your industry that I would just never be able to see, like, if, like in relationship to anything like a larger economic thing? Like, are you seeing like a a downturn in market and upspend and mark? You know, whatever those things are? I'm just always interested to get people's like perspectives from a vantage point that I will never probably be in, so that that, to me, is the most valuable. It could be really anything, so I know that's kind of a reverse, but that's really what's what's interesting to me well, we saw.
SHED GEEK:We saw like massive growth, like sheds is, like you know, is outdoor structures, out buildings. It's still the way. What we found is like where the, the shed meets, almost kind of like what you're seeing living space a lot of times right because you got the tiny home movement interesting and if you think about it like we service both, like platforms, right.
SHED GEEK:So like, if you're a minimalistic person and you're like I want less, I want a tiny home, we're like, guess what? We're in the construction business. We can probably build you tiny homes. There's probably a lot of shed builders that build tiny homes or put them on chassis, or even build tiny home is like. You know, if you listen to HGTV, that's like 150 square foot on wheels why? But you know we do 16 by 40. So you're looking at 16 or 640.
SHED GEEK:And a lot of people are like trying to find affordable housing, so, but then a shed is what a shed is storage, which means excess, which means if you're not minimalistic and you're American and you like all your stuff, you just keep buying more sheds to put more stuff in because you bought more stuff. So we've serviced both markets in that way and I would think we follow the housing market pretty close. But man, it's only been around like 50 years. It's always kind of been around right Sheds, mini barns, things like that. But like this is kind of storage centric, so, uh, but it's turned into so many other things because, like now, like if you're a shed builder, a lot of times you're building oh I don't know trusses or you got a roll farmer right, so now you're doing metal roofing or you're doing greenhouses or you're doing chicken coops or you're doing play sets or post frame like it's kind of like it's just very americana. You know what I mean?
SHED GEEK:it's trades it's trade work, for sure it's hard work. I mean there's, there's a whole industry around just our hauling. You know what I mean. Like the transportation and logistics it's quarter million dollars to get into a rig. We've got nice little machines that uh deliver sheds to your backyard like a pizza, you know, like wheels that go sideways on trailers.
CODY SCHNEIDER:I just built a retaining wall at this last summer. At the end of the summer it's like they have some property that they need. I mean it's great that you know there's all these spaces that you don't even think about. And then you're like, all right, we're buying these, like you know, half ton concrete blocks and I'm lifting it up with the skid stir Like it's just craziness, you know, and like it's that I love. Honestly, these conversations are always super interesting to me because that's I kind of grew up in that world and now I'm in this whole different, other space. So it's Same here, dude, believe it or not, I am not a.
SHED GEEK:I am not a a tech geek, you know? I mean like it took me a long time. I mean I'm a shed geek, I'm.
SHED GEEK:I was a blue collar guy for years, I worked, uh worked in a granary, you know what I mean, like you know, did a lot of hard work, you know, had a lawn mowing business, you know. So, like, yeah, I got into customer service because, like our little town got a casino in the midwest, and then I like, next thing, you know, I'm like, oh, you know, like I like people and let's do this customer service thing. And then you, you know that turned me into sales. And when you're in sales, it's not going to be very long before you're like, I want to get in front of more consumers, like I believe in my product. I want to do that and, like the digital, like landscape was the way to do that.
CODY SCHNEIDER:So I think there's that moment for it and like, especially with these tools that are coming out. And you know, the final thought I'd love to leave with your audience is like it doesn't have to be like a mass adoption of these things, right, like you can just do 5%, like if you could find a process in your current system and you can automate away 5% of that. Like think how much. Like I mean that's instant savings for your business, right, and like you know, to give a concrete example of this, I just saw this done in like a real estate business.
CODY SCHNEIDER:My friend does this type of consulting, for it's called like automation engineering, right, where they just go in they look at the systems and how can I automate paperwork, or whatever that ends up being. And he did this for a real estate company. We came in he found that you know, 40% of their daily activities was just paperwork, like putting you know, taking data from one place and putting it you know somewhere else, and so he basically automated away that whole system for him and for the CEO of that company. I mean overnight. He just cut costs by 40%, because that's 40% of those people's times on a daily basis. And then those salespeople they get this focus on the thing that's more human, which is building relationships, being out in their industries and talking to people. So anyway, yeah, I think that's kind of I'd love to. I think that's the you know the kind of my last punctuation mark for for this conversation, for for everybody.
SHED GEEK:It's very cool. I've certainly enjoyed having you on. I'm so glad we were able to connect. Hang on here a little bit. We'll chat, I'll. I'll stop recording, but I just wanted to wanted to say thank you. I love where some of these conversations take me. You just really never know, man and I was excited about this show today and, dude, I'm even more excited about after it happened and I think it's really cool and love your product. I encourage people to go. Swellai, s-w-e-l-l-a-icom. Cody Schneider, appreciate you so much being on the show today.
CODY SCHNEIDER:Thank you for having me.