Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Building Business Through Mission: James and Shed Pro's Journey
The digital revolution is transforming the shed industry, creating a stark divide between thriving businesses and those struggling to stay afloat. James, CEO and co-founder of Shed Pro, joins the podcast to share his remarkable journey from government contractor to shed industry innovator—a path guided by faith and a mission to serve others through excellent business practices.
What began as a digital marketing agency in Vietnam evolved when three shed companies approached James within 60 days, all seeking 3D configurator solutions. This convergence sparked Shed Pro's transformation into a comprehensive platform addressing every aspect of shed business operations. From websites and configurators to their newest Operations Hub featuring point-of-sale, inventory management, and delivery scheduling, Shed Pro continues expanding its offerings while maintaining laser focus on the shed industry.
The conversation reveals fascinating insights about the intersection of faith and business excellence. "We believe in a God that is excellent, so we should do the same kind of work," James explains, describing how this philosophy drives their customer service approach and team culture. This commitment has fueled significant growth, with four team members recently onboarded and plans to hire four more in the coming months.
Perhaps most valuable is the discussion about digital transformation's role in business success. James describes the stark reality: companies investing strategically in their online presence are experiencing record sales, while those neglecting their digital storefronts struggle to survive. From optimizing Google Business listings to generating authentic reviews and creating seamless customer experiences, today's successful shed businesses recognize that digital excellence is no longer optional.
For dealers seeking independence within manufacturer networks, Shed Pro offers innovative solutions including cost-sharing arrangements and discounted configurators using pre-built manufacturer models. This approach enables dealers to establish digital presence without massive investment, bridging a crucial gap in the industry.
Book a consultation at shedpro.co to discover how they can help your shed business thrive in the digital landscape, and see why excellence in both physical and digital realms isn't just recommended—it's essential for continued success in today's shed industry.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
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iFAB
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ShedHub
Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. And a familiar favorite on with us today. I am excited because as my buddy, Randy Chafee, says over at Building Wins, he likes to say, we're racking and stacking today, James on podcast, I've got three of them lined up and I'm excited that this is the first one this morning that we get a chance to talk to. So, James, welcome back. But for those who don't know you, they're either living under a rock or not paying attention to the podcast. So, who are you? What do you do?
James Price:Yeah, so great to be on the show again, Shannon, and appreciate the invite, but I'm James, CEO, co-founder of Shed Pro, so we started out doing 3D configurators, but now we're getting into every aspect of the business, so a platform that can help your business from A to Z.
Shannon:Very cool and, yeah, definitely got some years in the industry. Now, quite a bit of time under your belt, quite a bit of experience under your belt, uh, quite a bit of experience under your belt. But you come from a line of sort of like business experience through what, through? One of my favorite things about you, to be clear, which is kind of like your, your ministry, your heart for ministry, you know like that's kind of led you down this path. So, give us a, give us a quick for, for anybody hasn't listened to previous episodes, uh, episodes, give us a little, just a little rundown of like how you got here.
James Price:Yeah. So originally graduated and just started becoming a developer doing work for US government contractors. Life was fantastic, pay was great, job was easy. But my wife and I we really felt like the harder we worked, the more benefit it was making towards the shareholders of these large corporations and we felt like, okay, is this what life is about, that we just keep making more money for ourselves, or is there something more to it? So, God kind of stirred it in our hearts to start looking to see okay, is there something else that's that he has planned for us and that led us down this path of businesses missions.
James Price:So, we, my wife and I, we moved 14 years ago now to Vietnam and started a digital marketing agency using what I had learned in school to then do internationally, which I always thought. If we wanted to do something for the Lord, I thought it was okay, we'd have to go work in a nonprofit or an orphanage or something like that, for whatever reason. Just, I never put two and two together that I could actually do business. So that's what we've done, and so it was digital marketing for 14 years, and in that time we had some clients that were shed businesses the main one, or the first one that we had was Helmuth Builders in Harrisonburg, Virginia that's where I'm from, my hometown.
James Price:So, we started working for them about gosh maybe nine years ago, and through working with them that kind of introduced us to the shed industry. And then it was a amazing a period of 60 days that we had three shed companies that came to us and asked, hey, can you build a 3d configurator for us? And so that led us down this path, and so we started investing time and money, energy, everything into building a 3D configurator. And now, at this point, we've exited all the other work that's not in the shed industry and we've dedicated the entire team 100% to the shed industry, and no regrets doing that, and we're not no turning back, we're all in now you, you've burned the ships, you're staying where you are, you're, you're not going back.
Shannon:You said so many things that I could, um, in such a short amount of time I feel like I could unpack for full conversations and maybe entire podcasts. You know business and missions and how they combine. You know, that alone touched me probably the most in your, in your conversation there, because I mean, we're, we're in such a unique position. Like you know, we've always been struggling to, to find our spot in ministry. You know, worked in um, uh, did some, did some prison ministry? Uh, spent a lot of time in faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation, uh, love those things. You know, um, but you know what is Hebrews 13, three? You know where, where Paul says you know, be with those in prison, as though you're in prison yourself.
Shannon:That's, that's one of the verses that have spoke to me the most, because I think about, well, just even my own community, seeing the homelessness and the, the amount of drug use, you know. And, like you know, where are we at in the world? Are we, you know, lock them up and throw away the key? Do we think of the terms of rehabilitation? Do we think in terms of grace and second chances. How many second chances do you get? Do you get a 16th second chance? You know like it's. You know I saw guys go through recovery and it was the 11th time in recovery and he's like you know I think I finally got it and then he stayed clean and I was like what? What happened the other 10 times? I don't understand, but you know. So, I think about all those things and, and even right now, the mission God's got me on, I mean, literally our new office is an old church. There's some, there's some. There's some mystery to that that he hasn't revealed to me. I don't know what it is, but you know starting, a church.
Shannon:You know it's, it's. It's so strange you know the different things that he like it. Just, it couldn't have been more stranger about how we, we found this place. I mean it's, it's, truly, and those are just God moments. But you know the corporate world oh, we can just unpack that. But digital marketing, you know the corporate world oh, we can just unpack that. But digital marketing, you know, he talked about that and I think about my buddy, Dylan, and of course, you know Dylan and you think about how, like you know, he was a troublemaker when he was young and found God, got a hold of his life and he's been on this journey ever since and he's well known in our community.
Shannon:You know for, for, for his past, but then also his present. That's what the experience with God does with you, right, like it changes your one, changes your story, and that's why God and coming to Jesus is so impactful. And I just want to say, while I'm talking more than you are, I'm sorry, but I want to say you know that's something that's always going to be a staple of the show and even when people suggest in kind ways that they won't advertise or can't be a part of what I do because it's about Jesus. I owe Jesus everything, everything that I have, and the show is included in that. So like, who would I be to ever, you know? For the name of a dollar bill say, no, I'm going to ignore that. If that makes me politically incorrect, then I'm just going to die on that hill. So I wanted to say that.
James Price:You know, if that's intentional, I think I think a lot of times, uh, I guess Christians in business have gotten a bad rap, uh, several times and it's unfortunate, but a lot of times it's like, okay, can you marry the two together? Uh, and so that's, it's a challenge. You can't I'm not saying we do it right a hundred percent all the time, but it's what we try to communicate. Is that okay, as we mix faith and business together, that means we need to do excellent work, and if we're not doing excellent work, then okay, we're not really applying our faith in our business. And so, I think that's a missing component a lot of times where it can appear okay, as you mix faith in there, then you can get lazy in your work or you don't have to raise the same standards, the same quality.
James Price:But for us I mean, that is key we have to strive for excellence, but at the same time, okay, it's not up to us to do all the work, it's okay, we definitely need God to help us through raising those standards and getting up to that excellence. But that's the kind of fun dynamic in it. I believe that okay, let's set a high goal that we think God is pushing us to raise to, and then let's work with what we can do and let God provide the rest for us. Work with what we can do and let God provide the rest for us, and, and maybe we fall a little bit short of excellence, but at least we, at least we're trying for excellence, and so that's, that's what we, we always communicate and push, and I think it's important to do that, as we, as we say, okay, we believe in a God that that is excellent, so we should do the same kind of work.
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Shannon:Just always. One of the things I've appreciated about you is we've had as much conversation about missions as we have shed, and that's a peculiar place to be, because we find ourselves both, as Christians, on some mission. Your plan seems to be, and your route seems to be, more easily defined than mine, you know so I You're meeting in a church, so there's.
Shannon:I know, I know it's really so unusual to tell people you got to come to the church on 11th and Gerrard. You can't miss a big tan building double doors. You know it's, it's, it's just, and we've even had people come to the door. It's so strange because, like, what I mean is like you know homeless or or different people, you know drug users. I mean that just, you know, like, look, I'm not in like the heart of you know some major metropolitan. I'm just saying we're a small city that you know struggles. We're in Illinois, so the politics are kind of this we don't, we're, we're, we're two minutes from Paducah, but on this side of the bridge, you know, Illinois law is a little different. So but we've, we've had a chance to minister to even those people and different things like that. It's because they see the church and to them a church is a sign of help, you know, so they might go there and it's just like oh, wait a minute, you're not a church like sheds.
Shannon:What are you talking about? Podcast? That doesn't make any sense, but it doesn't matter because you have an opportunity to serve if you decide to take it. Moving away from that, let's get into what are you doing? What's going on in the shed world? How is ShedPro progressing? How are things working?
James Price:We've had a great start to the year and it's gotten a lot of new clients and customers coming on, which presents mean that presents some challenges too. So that means we're hiring as well to keep up with the growth. So, we just onboarded four people this week. So that's that presents some to all of our customers. So, it's necessary it means we need to be hiring more developers, more customer service people, and so we're doing that. We've probably got some plans to, I believe, hire four more people over the next three to six months. So, we're going to keep digging into it and keep investing into it and expanding our team so we can continue to serve our customers better.
Shannon:Yeah well, no, that's great. It doesn't surprise me the success you're having. The experience that we've had with you and your team have always been excellent, so we appreciate any of the collaborative efforts. You guys are just top notch. You know you've done a great job on customer service, which is, you know, for the shed industry can sometimes be a staple.
Shannon:You know, I always like to tell people I come from this weird place of our little town being speaking of it being poor. You know, one of the things they did was brought a casino in here back in 1991. It was a Merv Griffith on casino, uh, when it started, and then Harris bought it eventually and the rest is history. But, um, it did, it did provide us a living. You know, and I can't, I can't knock it for that. You know, we don't, we don't play, we don't go to casinos, we don't do any of that.
Shannon:But for you know, actually you know interesting, interesting story. Actually I've one of my first experiences really with God outside of the. You know what I would call growing up, really not in, not in church, but you know, attending church. So anyway, like was being a bartender and you know, getting invited to church and having a God moment was kind of like well, this is conflicting, what do I do with this? You know I got to go to work tomorrow and you know I walked in and I was like gosh. I just I to be here, am I? This just doesn't work for me. But it was a good moment and it fed our family for a long time and I'll always be appreciative for that.
Shannon:But one thing that they taught was extreme customer service. I mean extreme Because most of the time you walk out without anything tangible. You come in, you spend your money and you go home so you're left with an experience. It's just like being a tourist on vacation, you know so. So, you know everyone's customer service just paled in comparison. After that, you know, go to Fazoli's and it was just kind of like man, this person doesn't even like their job, whereas at my job over here, you know I'm literally taught that my job is to put on a smile. You know, remember their name. You know, just, you're a performer as much as anything else. You walked out to perform and I don't want it to be fake. Anytime I'm doing customer service I want to be real. But how do you approach that? Like your team's just really good at that.
James Price:What's your secret sauce? Great question. So, one thing that we just did today. We did so. We're always doing training with our team, so today we I don't know if you're familiar with this company called the Predictive Index. It helps you do assessments, figure out the hiring, but also learning.
James Price:Okay, what is your team good at? And it's the Predictive Index is more focused on work behaviors how do you, how do you work together as team? How do you get work done? How do you work together as team? How do you get work done? And so, we just went through that with our team. And that's so informative to be able to look at ourselves but then also look at our teammates and see, ok, if there's any points of tension or some friction. When you look at your profile, then you go oh, now I understand why there might be some friction when I'm working with this person. Go, oh, now I understand why there might be some friction when I'm working with this person. So, we go through that with our leadership team, but also we're having our customer service people take a look at it. So, then we can kind of identify okay, this person is really good in this area of work, so let's make sure we give them more of that. This person loves talking, interacting with people, so let's get them frontline so they can talk with more people. So, I think it's just learning those dynamics.
James Price:There's a lot of psychology, as you know. There's a lot of psychology in business and getting a bunch of people to sit together five days a week or more, eight hours a day and not kill each other. So, it's like how do you get that to work? And then, okay, make it outward facing as well. So, just like you said, come in and have that smile on your face. That's what people need to see and hear as far as our customers. So it's going through a lot of training.
James Price:But I would say number one, hire the right people. And we have just been really blessed and a lot of grace along the way to have a fantastic team that I can come in and they make me smile when I come in and just see their dedication, loyalty and just. I think they're all striving for excellence as they do their work. They want they want to deliver something great to a customer. And maybe people don't know this, but on this side, on the other side of the customer interaction, every time we get a positive comment or we get somebody giving a testimonial, they'll say, hey, great, this is, this is fantastic. Loved how you did this. We've got a little bell in the office that we ring and we go hey, this person got this praise and so we'll go around and we'll all celebrate that together. As one person gets a praise, then we all get enjoyment in celebrating with them. So that's part of that dynamic. Just to encourage us all to strive for that excellence as we serve the customer.
Shannon:Well, ring the bell today for Steven. He's always awesome, so tell him. I said that. You know, give the bell a ring.
Shannon:Yeah, the PI, the predictive index you know probably wouldn't come to any surprise to you that I get marks as a trailblazer. Uh is so like my. My mentality is, you know, very heavy on uh ideas and thought and very, uh light in terms of implementation. So, I need those other people around me because there's just no way to be good at everything and you know, sometimes that's the difficulty of a of a shed manufacturer is trying to accomplish all of these things. I think about vertical integration inside of this industry and it's like, you know, can you do everything? Yes, Should you do everything? No, because it's hard to be good at everything, but if you have enough people around you, you can be good together on a collaborative effort, you know, and yeah, that's been very important to us. So, I've always, always, always enjoyed being around somebody who can take ideas and put them together, because they amaze me, because they're so opposite. It's like, hey, we can actually make it work because they're so opposite.
James Price:It's like, hey, we can actually make it work. We, at the last Shed Builder Expo, we decided to do a little bit more elaborate booth and so we built just a fence in the back of our booth. And as we were going through that, we all realized, wow, we are developers, we do not work with wood. And I mean we the fence when we first did it, I mean it was, it was a little bit crooked. We had a few guys that came by the booth and go, hey, that's, that's crooked, you know. So, we, we, we fixed it. We got going back to the to, to, where it looked nice in the end. But we realized, okay, just just the same as, okay, a shed builder putting together a website, it's just, it's not where your energy comes from, it's just a little bit harder. So, same with us as we're, we can build a fantastic digital shed in 3D, We've got that nailed. But okay, have us build one in real life. It would not, it would not last, I don't think.
Shannon:If you think about the journey I love this conversation, cause if you think about the journey of the shed industry as a whole, especially as we start to think about, like, how things have gotten developed, a lot of things get developed internally because of the need. You know. You know why are you an XYZ company but you're also providing this service over here. Well, a lot of times it's because a need arose and then all of a sudden it's like, well, hey, we created our own solution and then, hey, that works, so I can start to sell it to others.
Shannon:But there's a difference. I want to walk both sides of the line here as carefully as I can. There's a difference. I want to walk both sides of the line here as carefully as I can. There's a difference. Like that's awesome and that's beneficial, but then there's like, what about the legacy? People that really like know what they're doing in coding, right, and it's like, yes, you can figure it out, but we actually do this for a living. We're expertise in this one particular area. What do you think that'll have a role on the future? You know, do you stay in your own lane? Do you go wider? You know what's your thoughts.
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James Price:Yeah. So, we, when we were getting into business so I'm similar to you, I love ideas I'm always thinking, hey, that's a great opportunity, let me get into that. And so, we did a lot of that. I had a lot of ideas, had great people that would execute on the different ideas, but then we realized, okay, we, we just we're spreading ourselves too thin. And so, we, we really spent some time to scale it down, to focus on, okay, what are we really good at? But also, what, what does the market really need? And so that's what really led us down this idea to stop all the other work and just focus a hundred percent on the sheds.
James Price:Because we were I mean, we were in all kinds of industries hotel, education, I mean, we were just real estate, we were across the board any, any project that came to us, we would do it. We would say yes, and it was fun because it was something new every single week and a new set of clients, something, a new problem to solve, which that's. I love solving problems. That's actually one of our core values is enjoy problem solving. So, we would. We would do that. We would just be solving problems for all kinds of different customers.
James Price:But when we decided, okay, we're going to, we're going to niche down and we're going to just be in the shed industry, and then, more specifically, I mean, we will look at, in the shed industry, we're not going to do everything, we're just going to do things that are a similar transition from our core business or does that effort support the core business. And so, we'll say no to a lot of projects. We get people in the shed industry that's always coming to us and saying, hey, could you build this or could you do this extra development work? And we've had to say no because it doesn't fit within our niche. And so, as we keep saying no to things and we just keep saying yes to our niche, then, okay, now you have the economies of scale, everything that we're, we're becoming experts.
James Price:It's, it's second nature to us. It's like we can do this stuff in our sleep and that allows us to be much more effective in our work. Compared to, okay, somebody outside the shed industry that's coming in doing a website or doing marketing for you, it's like, okay, they're learning the nuances of that, maybe they're good at websites, maybe they're good at marketing, but okay, the shed industry is just, it's just a little bit different than the rest of the industries. So, it takes time to learn those things, and so for us it's just we've been doing it consistently and that's all we're doing for the past six years now. So, it's okay, we do it in our sleep.
Shannon:You know we've gotten wide over here in the shed industry, right so like. But we do focus on one thing, like we focus on sheds too. You know what I mean. Like I've there's been offers to do podcasts even outside of, like, the shed industry. I've had guys call me and say, hey, you know, like thinking about doing this music thing, would you? You know like we've had paid options and like we've had just different me and say, hey, you know like thinking about doing this music thing, would you? You know, like we've had paid options and like we've had just different things. And it's like we like your style, we like your thoughts. I'm like man, that's awesome. Like I look, I've never been good at nothing in my life. So, to have somebody tell me you know you're good at this, it's like I'm almost awkward taking a compliment. I'm just like thanks.
Shannon:I'm not really that good, you know.
Shannon:Uh, I don't, I don't know how to accept. You know what I mean. That it's just kind of like, not really I'm just talking, I'm just a dude, you know, just talking, um, and so it's exciting to, but we just we just said, no, let's just focus on sheds, let's just focus on sheds, and it's been really cool. Um, some of those things still excite me and who knows, maybe I'll, I'll do something as time allows. You know, diversify. Everybody's always saying diversify, diversify your portfolio. You know, like you don't want all your eggs in this basket, but you know our eggs are in the basket of marketing. You know rent to own finance. You know, uh, this, this recent. You know, um, uh, acquisition slash collaboration with shed hub. You know, and like trying to figure out how to make that e-commerce tool. You know work and you know, then you've got.
Shannon:You know advertising and you know, with the podcast and just different things, steel side, getting into the steel, what the what the guys are doing over there on the Monday show with you know, steel kings, because it's hard to be in the shed industry and almost not be in the steel industry somewhat too just a rare not to sell carports or playset or chicken coops or dog kennels or gazebos or pole barns or something Like. There's just a lot of times there's this mix and match that you have to kind of like pay attention to, because it can't be ignored. All these things are, hey, glory to God. But I'm just saying all these things are successful right now. We're, we're, we're growing. You know, some of them are up, you know, 200%. You know, year over year, and it's like well, that's exciting, you know. Uh, you know I think.
James Price:I think the difference is I mean, you, you've got some good people that, okay, you can, you can venture into that area because you've got some people that you can trust and go, hey, take care of this, make it happen, execute on it, and that's key, uh, to be able to have a team, it's you. You can't multiply yourself, so you got to be able to delegate it. And if you can, then then that's you can generate success in multiple sections within the industry.
Shannon:I have the best secret I have, the. I have the best secret of anybody out there and it's no secret at all. It's literally doing what we've been taught our whole life is you know, get in the room with four smart people and, before you know it, you'll be the fifth smart person and I I I hide behind that fifth smart person very well, because I rely on the four smart people. In reality, you know, I'm just and that's really been the key to any success has just been like surrounding myself with some of the smartest people in the room and they're awesome and I stand in wonder.
Shannon:I was on a call yesterday, you know, with 10, 12 developers, you know, and they're talking at levels that are just like you know, they got done talking and they was like I know that might not make sense to some of you guys and I chirped up and I was like I don't know why anybody else had a problem with that. I understood it completely. You know, it was like I put them into a Spanish conversation. As far as I was concerned, I knew a word every now and then and I was like man, these guys are good and that's exciting because to me, that lets me know. No-transcript.
James Price:That's right. That's right. Yeah, we, we, you, you mentioned that the spot was open and, and I think just the conversations and the both of our companies forward movement over the past several years, I mean we're just getting tied closer and closer together, supporting each other, getting our software, plugging into your CRM and just making it work well for our customers. So, when you said the spot was open, then it just seemed to check the boxes to make sense that we would be more closely tied together. You're supporting us and we're supporting you. So, it just it makes sense for us to do that, and maybe I don't know if it make it more public or solidify the connections between our companies, but yeah, so it just it made sense for us to take that spot once it came available.
Shannon:Well, you know it's an honor for us to have you in that place because of, like, your dedication to, Well, you know it's, it's an honor for us, you know, to have you in that, in that place, because of, like, your dedication to the industry, your commitment and really the dedication to your, your customer, and like we've seen that and that's exciting, right, like that's, you know, um, there's, there's so many people out there to partner with and you know, uh, you have to walk this fine line.
Shannon:Know, it seems like this tight rope a lot of times, but uh, I don't, I definitely don't have to do that with James and Shed Pro. I mean, like, you guys just do good work. You, you, you know what I mean. You take care of your customers and the, the communication between the, the teams are, it's just easy, and there's probably so much happening, communication happening, that that maybe even me and you both don't even know about at times. You know there's just stuff happening and you're just, after a while you're like, you know, guys and gals are just getting to work and just getting it done, just doing a good job, and we, we all that'll.
James Price:That'll happen. Often it's the team will show, or I'll see something on a client website and I go, wow, I didn't know, we did that. Like, we have that feature now. So, it's just it's fun to be surprised by some of the stuff that the team is doing, uh, and so they'll show me something and it's just wow, okay, when did that happen? When did we get that done? So, it's fun to see that and it's cool.
Shannon:You know we're very. You know like you get the public facing side A lot of times you get the unfair, you know applause for something, and I always try to make sure the team gets all of that. Like I'm telling you we got some of the best collaborations with companies like yourself and some of the best people just working with us. I always tell them when they're like, oh, it was really cool getting to meet you today and I'm like, wait till you meet the team. You know I'm still like, I'm still in like, like love with the team. You know, with the aspect of it and the collaborations, I'm just like, wait till you meet these guys. You know like I'm just some dude in a, in a, in a in a bow tie and suspenders who's just passionate about what he does and but, but the but the real talent. You know, including here my wife, my son, my daughter. You know folks behind me that help put these shows together, that make it so much better, but they're just, they're just awesome and I just get to be a part of it.
Shannon:Yeah, where, let's see, I'm trying to think like, like, so you're, you're, you're coming, coming out here as a studio sponsor. We want people to go and talk to you and, and you know, use your product, use your services. Where are those products and services going? I mean you, you, you guys did the POS launch. It's one of the most recent things. Any secrets up your sleeve?
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James Price:Yeah, there are, but probably, just like everyone else, we're keeping it tight-lipped until the expos.
James Price:So, yeah, I mean we're always working on new features and some of it is just expanding what we currently have. And then other features are okay, let's add something new to the lineup. So, I mean we're investing deeply into the POS, or we call it the ops hub, operations hub so that gives you the point of sale, it gives you the contract generation, inventory, management, delivery and even has a build process workflow, so it gives you all that post sale solution. So, we're just continuing to invest deeper into that, adding more features there. And then at the last year's expo we introduced the tiny home configurator. So again, we're investing deeper into that.
James Price:One of the new features that will be coming out later this year is being able to do interior walls, so you can move an interior wall all around, place multiple walls, so then that'll just make it even better for people that are selling tiny homes. Now you can expand what you can offer. So, we're investing more into those things and at the same time, just continuing to expand the websites, the Google ads services as well. And then we've got a few things up our sleeve that are coming but not quite ready to make those public announcements yet. So, you have to wait for that one.
Shannon:That's OK. It's exciting to know that things are always being done in the background and that improvements are always being made, and that's, you know, it's just a natural cycle of business in many ways. Let's get into the weeds a little bit of, like the digital aspect of the digital program. You know, like, where do you see, where do you see you're a developer. You know, like you're a developer, you are, you're a digital guy. You understand the digital footprint, you're a digital guy, you understand the digital footprint. You know I'm surprised more than any as we dig into things.
Shannon:Even large companies, large manufacturers, large I don't know how to say it other than like large companies, are like influential companies, people who do business in this industry, how they kind of miss the mark on a on a couple of those things right now. Uh, we just look and you know, of course we try to sell them a service. You know, like, if, if we, if we notice that. But what is your position on like where the digital world is going, specifically in regards to sheds Cause, my opinion is always like we're not agnostic from what happens in the rest of the world, and that's the thing I always try to push is like these things happen in retail. These things happen and I can get on a huge soapbox, but I want your thoughts on like you're a digital guy, you're a developer. What weight does that hold in the industry?
James Price:moving forward, yeah, I guess when you ask that question, two things came to my mind. Number one is on the sales side of things. Just, I mean it's not slowing down. More and more sales are going to be coming from online or generated online. So, I mean there's still a lot of businesses that are out there that are just not investing anything into their online presence, whether that's a website or Google Ads. I mean, I think probably 99% of the industry does have a Facebook page. I have met one guy that did not, but it's like everyone's got a Facebook page and.
James Price:But as far as getting the right kind of website that's generating results, and I mean we were chatting earlier I mean some of these large corporations that are doing millions of dollars but they have a website without tag manager Google tags in there to be able to track, to see, okay, where's your traffic coming from, who's coming in to your business and how are they getting there. So it's just people are not investing enough into that as they need to be, and so I think that that would be really key for businesses to take a look, step back and go okay, have we put the right amount of resources into the business from an online perspective to get that sales funnel, that flywheel, to be really turning wheel to be really turning. And if you do have that running and you do have that going, then okay, you're not seeing quite as much ups and downs as the economy or tariffs come out and kind of rock things up. You're just not seeing those deeper dips. You're seeing something that's a little bit more consistent. I mean, there's still ups and downs, there's still some waves, but the valleys are not quite as deep. And I mean we talked to a lot of people and they're saying best year that they've ever had, as they get leads coming in and closing more sales. And then we'll talk to somebody else that they're saying, hey, I'm thinking about getting out of the industry. It's just there's no sales left.
James Price:So, ok, those people that are having a success, what are they doing? They're investing into the online presence. They're putting money into Google Ads, they're putting money into Facebook Ads, they're building out their website, they're making sure their 3D configurator has all of their buildings, they're adding more buildings. So, there's a lot of number of things that people are investing into to stay with that trend as it just continues to go full throttle to an online perspective, and so then I said, the second thing that came to mind is the.
James Price:I think a couple weeks ago or months ago, you had Richard Mashburn on your show, and so he really talked about that vertical integration to be able to have a solution that can help you with every aspect of the business. And so, I think that's from a developer perspective, that's where we're looking to see okay, how can we make sure that our solution touches every aspect of the Shed business from beginning to end? So we're not 100% all the way there, but that's definitely something that we're looking into and go okay, this is where the industry is going, and I think it follows just normal industry maturity trends that, as the industry matures, with more technology and more equity coming into the industry, then you're just going to get more vertically integrated businesses from the beginning of that lead generation or customer awareness all the way down to getting that building delivered to the customer in their backyard.
Shannon:Yeah, I wrote down a couple of things here. First is Richard, with a little heart around it, because the guy gets so much love every time he comes on a podcast. I keep telling him he needs to come on and do one every Friday. It would be welcome. I think people would tune in and listen. He's a wealth of knowledge, super intelligent, and we're happy to uh, to work with him in any way. Uh, that we do and he's just, he's just, uh, yeah, he's just a really smart guy.
Shannon:Uh, always joke around and tell him you're the only guy I'd ever hire to work, to work that I would work for. You know, know, and he gets a kick out of that. But he is. He always brings good content to the table, of course, on that note, we've talked about you know, you talked about your tiny home configurator.
Shannon:Like we've talked about making the Friday show that you know Sam is so busy, he's doing so much and it's just really kind of up in the air for him. You know, like any guy that can get 600 sheds donated, like that's pretty amazing. Like I always laugh and joke and tell him you come with your share of love and hate, but the reality is he's got the biggest heart of anyone I know in the industry and if he's listening to this today and I don't know if he is but if he is ministry is that man's heart and I think that if he found a way to dive into that completely he would be made whole. He just hangs around the shed industry for some reason, you know, but his ministry seems to be his heart. So, we'll just kind of see where that goes. But we thought about doing something related to Tiny Homes, because then you have a deal on Monday and sheds on Wednesday and Tiny Homes Friday and you know you don't have your eggs in one basket then.
James Price:But Well, that would be. So, as we talk to people to try to sell our tiny home configurator, a lot of questions we get is okay, we know we need to go into tiny homes, but how do we get there? What do we need to know? What permitting All the aspects of getting into tiny homes how does that change the business? So I mean, if you could have a podcast that would tiptoe into those areas, giving the right resources, helping the businesses know how to do that and do that well and successfully, then that would be fantastic, because those are the questions that we're getting People saying I know I need to do it, I want to do it, but I need I need some help going through these hurdles as we get into this industry.
Shannon:You know, just you know, and I don't have all the answers, you know, but it just seems on the surface that you know one we serve. We serve two purposes, which is really cool about being in the construction side. If you look at our industry from just the construction side not the sales side, the logistics side, but just the construction side you kind of serve both trends right. So, like tiny home being minimalistic type mentality, we want to downsize. You know, well, we can build you that Storage. I got too much junk, I need a place to keep my stuff. Well, we can build you that. You know, like we're able to help either.
Shannon:But what's happening a lot of times is, in some communities I tend to think that it's more revolves around affordable housing, because tiny homes is sort of this TLC trend that's like you know, per square foot it's, it's crazy expensive actually, you know, like in comparison to like a traditional home. Uh, you know so. So, you're not downsizing to save money, you're. You know a lot of these things are going on lakefronts or they're going out. You know who's buying them for cash. You know you can't rent to own them because of you know all of the disclosures you have to have. Matter of fact, even in finance, there's so much disclosures you have to have for primary residency that some of the finance guys don't even want to mess with it because of the red tape. But then it's, you know, meeting all the ibc's, it's getting into this world of like is a tiny home of 16 by 40, because you know, like ibc says, you know 600 square feet is, or 800 square feet is what you need. Well, 16 by 40, 640 square feet. So, you fall short, yeah, but then what do you do about? I mean, like we had Luke miller on here, easy back. You know he's got like this, basically lifted up with a forklift and it's an entire bathroom assembly all in one unit. Boom, stick it right in the shed.
Shannon:And because you know we don't meet all the codes or whatever, the homeowner has to do a certain amount, and it's kind of like, do you need a project manager to help bring all these things together? And now you're back to a GC, a general contractor, on all these different things. There's just there's, but there's so much conversation is the point. And to help get there and look, we're about creating content. That's just, that's what we do here at the podcast. We create content for consumption and that content can be used, not used, listened to, not listened to. It's like picking up a magazine, a book, going to church, listening to music, podcast, audio, but whatever you can choose to do, whatever level of participation you want, but we are going to create the content for free and put it out there for consumption, and then it's what you do with it, right?
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James Price:Yeah that's right.
Shannon:Yeah.
James Price:So I think it's needed, so definitely would encourage you guys to take a look at that and give that a go, and I think people would appreciate it.
Shannon:Well, I hope so. You talked about the two-sided marketplace earlier a little bit. I wrote that down on and you know this is the unfortunate part of the digital platform. To be honest with you, in my opinion, this is the tragedy of it. The tragedy of it is that you have a brick and mortar location and brick and mortar practices that have happened, been tried and tested for years. You know, hang your shingle out, stick up a you know what I mean like a business and throw a sign out there and say, hey, we're open. And that's still very American. You can build a shed in your backyard, like Richard said on one of his earlier podcasts, put it by the road and sell it and you have a business.
Shannon:But there's a whole other conversation when it comes to scaling a business and why some guys sell a million dollars or $300,000 a year in sheds and why some guys sell $300 million or $500 million a year in sheds. And who are you aspiring to be kind of creates a lot of these other aspects of it too. Right, like are you. Do you want to be a guy who scales to 15 million, 20 million? Uh, you know to me, theoretically, in business, you, you know, you want to grow, you want to always be growing, even if it's minimally, um, but that's kind of.
Shannon:The tragedy is, there's not necessarily a one size fits all. You have to create your physical storefront, which includes your lot, your gravel, your shrubs, all the things, signage, everything. Then you got to go create this digital storefront too, and this digital storefront's not, and what everyone wants is they're like let me nickel and dime it, let me just get, I'll just do the basic, I'll just do just a little bit. And if that's the mindset that you take toward your brick and mortar location, that's probably the application you're going to take towards digital platform too, would be my guess. But all one way and all the others not necessarily, or the others not necessarily. The answer but that's the tragedy of it is we find ourself in a place where we have to have both, because even if people come to your brick and mortar storefront, most times they find you online, through your website, you know, or some an ad yeah, yeah, they're definitely.
James Price:They're definitely starting online first. Uh, I mean, unless, unless you've been in the neighborhood for a long time and they, they know, okay, this is where I'm going to go for sheds, but that's just not always the case. And so it's starting online first. They're doing a Google search. Or now they're asking chat, gbt, sheds near me, where can I buy a shed? And so they're getting that listing. Okay, here's the three in your area. So, right there.
James Price:I mean, if you're not on Google Maps, you haven't listed there, you're not in these directories, then, okay, when someone does that search, they're not going to find you. So, going back to that, okay, you need a physical address. So, then you can associate that to the Google business. So, then that way, when someone does that search, it's connecting to that address. And now, okay, now you're popping up, but it's the same. Ok, you got to have the shrubs and it's got to look good. So, for a Google business, ok, you need to have reviews, you need people buying sheds from you and you need them putting five stars up there. I mean, even for us, when you've got whatever 10, five stars, then people think, okay, are these real? Are these real customers? So, it's like you got to get a ton of reviews put on your Google pages, but you also need to leave some of the bad ones.
James Price:If there's a mistake, something didn't go. Well, someone's got a three star review on there. Well, someone's got a three-star review on there, that shows that you're real, but respond to it and react and go, okay, hey, yeah, sorry about that mistake, but this is what we're doing to fix it. So, then people can see that you're active, that, okay, we all know that there's mistakes made, but that makes it more authentic business. But then they look and go, okay, well, how did you resolve this issue? Did you do it well? And that gives me confidence. I'm going to go to this business because I saw that they made a mistake and they, they took responsibility and they figured out how to fix it.
James Price:So, I mean, if you're not, you just have a listing and it's not updated and it doesn't have your phone number and all those details. I mean that's the same as just putting up a shed somewhere, but you didn't do anything else. You didn't put a sign, you didn't put a phone number on your shed, no shrubs, there's no parking lot, and so you need to spend the time and if you don't have the time, find somebody that can do that stuff for you for free and to at least start uh, and then, as you start generating some revenue, then then talk to us or talk to other companies, shed geek marketing and okay they. Then then you can get your system upgraded and really drive more traffic. But you got to have something out there and you gotta gotta put your shrubs on your google business pages so much, so much to unpack I, I, we could talk for hours, uh, we really could.
Shannon:You know? Reviews, what are reviews? Their influence at the end of the day? Influence, like, if you break it down, like, like you know, core, it's, it's influence. It's saying I read this review, I'm influenced in one way or the other to do business with this company or to not do business, based off of you know it's, it's it, reviews are the same things as uh, as um. You know, uh, um, oh gosh, it's terrible that I'm suffering from, from this brain loss already because there's so much running around in my head right now.
Shannon:I want to say and I can't speak fast enough to get it out, but please help me out with the word when you ask your referrals, goodness, it just wouldn't have all the files in there. James, you know referrals is the same thing. It's influence, isn't it? You know you're asking your neighbor. You know, would you? Would you come and tell your neighbors it? You know you're asking your neighbor. You know, would you? Would you go home and tell your neighbors? You know, because they trust you, they trust you, would you tell them that it was, this was a good experience? You want it unsolicited. Just to be clear you want it unsolicited, you prefer that. They're just so happy they can't wait to tell everybody, yeah, but you'll take it.
Shannon:If, if, if you can nudge them a little bit and they still do it, you'll take it. You know, and that's kind of what reviews are I mean? And that's that's why we we, we talk to other advertisers and we say, you know, talk to our, our advertisers here on the podcast and see what their experience are. We reach the same people every week, so so it's not working. Maybe it's your message or maybe there's other things that you haven't considered. You know, let's talk through them. You know, uh, maybe with with marketing, it's the same way. It's like talk to other people. I would imagine shed pro does the same thing. Like you get the question. I'm sure you know who else is using your product. Can I talk to them? Because I need to have this unbiased opinion, I need to know where you're failing and where you're succeeding, because that really matters to me.
James Price:Yep, yeah, I mean that's. We get that question all the time. So it's like we're always introducing people to our customers and letting them talk candidly and tell, OK, what was the experience that you had with us? And that's, yeah, again, authentic business. We even do that with hiring people. So I mean we just what we've learned is good people know good people. So if you know someone and they're making a decision whether that's buying a shed or or finding another employee, so it's the referrals is what really works.
James Price:So Google allows those referrals to just boost it on steroids and get it out to everybody that don't even know you. You can see those reviews. So it's a necessary part of business and it's kind of surprising. I mean, there's a lot of people that haven't gone down that path. We'll get a prospective client and we'll do a quick audit to see, okay, how are they doing? Are they positioned well? And we'll see, okay, there's two or three different addresses listed on Google for their business. So it's right there. That's the number one thing to fix immediately. So then that way, at least when someone does a search, they're going to the right address the first time. They're not bouncing around at three different places. So, yeah, just spending that time is so, so key, so you can get that referral cycle going well.
Shannon:Yeah, I always go back to the influence of it. You want to influence people. You want to influence them through good, good practices, good results, and even, you know, unsolicited is the absolute best. You know it. Just, it warms my heart if somebody says, hey, we enjoyed our experience with Shed Geek or Shed Pro or you know any of our affiliates or anything like that. We're just, it does make the difference. I probably I haven't wrote down even things fast enough for for my mind to keep up with there's. I literally can talk to you for hours. Uh, you know, yeah, I know, I know I love getting into the weeds of of different things, um, the specifics of how they work. What is the best? What's the, what's the message for people moving forward? Um, you know, with, uh, with shed pro, you know, um, what do you, shedpro, you know? What do you want them to know? What shout outs do you want to give? You know the Mike Shears
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James Price:Yeah, yeah. So the best way to get in touch with us if you want to start investing into your online presence or you want to revamp it is get to our website, shedpro. co, and from there then we've got buttons all over the place to get started. But essentially what you would do is that'll get you to a calendar. From there, you can book an open slot with our team and just find a time that works really well for you, and then the process would be that, okay, we get on a demo call, show you what we have, but, most importantly, we're listening to you. What do you need? What pain points do you have? What are you looking to solve or fix? And then we can craft a solution that would make the most sense for you, and it can be a phased in approach.
James Price:So a lot of customers of ours they're going. Okay, I just want to start with the website first, and that's completely fine with us. We want to help you at whatever stage of the process that you're in. But first step would be get to our website, shedpro. co, and click the get started button and then, from there, book your meeting and we'll be getting on a call with you and figure out how we can help.
Shannon:That's great and we're happy to lead you there. Not only do you have a newsletter, so if you guys want to know what's happening, we have our email blast newsletter that goes out every time a show goes out. Today's show is on that newsletter. You can click to listen, you can click to watch, you can even go click on a bunch of other little buttons in there, like the ShedPro ad, and you can find out, you know, more about their services via ShedGeek. If we can help make a connection to not only ShedPro but other advertisers, you know we're happy to. We want to try to create some more blogs in there, because content's king James. So we want to start putting some information in there for those who do love to read and maybe don't like to listen or watch. We just want to add content. I mean, the bottom line is we want to add content. So whether you, your team or anybody else listening today wants to write, know, wants to write, you know I say write. I should say type, type and get rid of the industry. You know we want to try to use that for that.
Shannon:A couple of things before we go. The main. One of the things that came to mind is you know I'm assuming you guys get this too the question from dealers, from the dealer network wanting to use ShedPro, sometimes even when the manufacturer doesn't. We've had just an unreasonable amount of requests recently from dealers dealers for large manufacturers, small manufacturers wanting to discuss marketing. And that's the hard part really. For me, the hard part is these are dealers that really don't have the tools to be successful, that want to be successful but it's kind of hard to help them because we don't have access to you know the corporate side or maybe the corporate side puts that task off onto the dealers to say you're independent, so you go find it, and it's really hard for them to to have an effective marketing campaign. You know you run into that on the on the configurator side.
James Price:Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely bump into that and so a couple ways that we solve it.
James Price:Um, one is okay if you can get a couple of dealers to come together and say, hey, we want to get a 3d configurator, Then then we can make a deal with kind of split the cost between all the dealers so that gets you down the other ones.
James Price:For some of the larger manufacturers we we've gone ahead and built their buildings in our configurator. So if you are with some of them and you just want your own configurator, then we do have a pretty significantly discounted configurator that would allow you to use the same buildings that would be on your manufacturer's side. But then you're not paying the full cost for the large 3D configurator because we know I mean it's not, yeah, you shouldn't have to invest all those thousands of dollars to build it on your own. So we'll play nice and kind of set that up for you. So it gives the dealers an opportunity to start investing into this on their own and really becoming a little bit more independent from the manufacturer, if that's the direction they're going, but they're not getting quite the resources that they would like to be able to grow.
Shannon:We've talked about creating some either webinars or just doing some zoom meetings as sort of like a peer group. You know, I'd love to get you involved in some of that Cause. A lot of times we just want, we want to help these folks, but you know we can't. We can't like get to the source or you know what I'm saying To be able to help them the most effectively and like so maybe we can start to help those dealers through a, through a course, you know, maybe a course or something like that, where we can get in and have, you know, specific high level conversation. Maybe have you as as a as a part of that sometime as a guest to really talk about the, because I'd love to do a podcast one of these days and you walk me through shed pro, even though there's a lot of Amish and playing community who call in on the landline and listen and they can't see that, and there's just a lot of people who listen through Spotify and maybe they don't go to YouTube or and watch these episodes. I'd love for the ones who do to be able to see that, because you know that. I'd love for the ones who do to be able to see that because you know that's as. That's as big as a, as a. You know what I mean. That's as big as a a shed gathering. You know what I'm saying Like to have a bunch of people right there at once. You know is is the key. I also want to so. So I want to extend that invite if we can get there, and I don't want to. You give me your thoughts on it if you want to.
Shannon:But when you were talking, something caught my attention. It reminded me to go back to this because I read this recently. You know, um, you know I I sort of look at it as three media sources in the industry. You know sbj and gscb, andek, and I was looking and we do something totally different. So like we don't really see ourselves as a competing space. We love those guys, support them, love to write their magazines. I love their shows. We go to them, attend them, support them. Everyone else should too. But I was looking at like GSCB recently did a rebrand.
Shannon:I don't know if you saw that too, plane builder and but I read the article and I thought it was interesting, because you know they said in there you know I don't like, particularly like Bob Dylan, uh, but the song's appropriate. One of the trends in media is the migration to digital. In many ways, digital is the future 61% of Gen Z's primarily uh, are primarily on their phone. You know, um, I think about even the, the new generations in the plane communities and how they're adapting to technology a little bit more, faster, easier, better or being able to utilize technology in a way that even the future or the past generations haven't. Just that, just this alone, you know like was a pretty good article and I thought kind of amazed me at, like I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a written publication, you know, saying digital is the future, but some people still aren't on board.
Shannon:James, I don't know, man, I don't know, I think it, I don't know, I think it's. I think it's an interesting thing, you know, and they're kind of moving that way and and hey look, I think it's awesome. People always say you know what if somebody starts a podcast, and I'm like good it's probably going to be 30 more of them.
Shannon:you know, eventually, probably, I don't know maybe, but you know, good Like it's, they're, they're, they're just going to be digital. It's got its footprint in retail Sheds. Don't get to be agnostic from that, unfortunately.
James Price:It's happening. It's going to happen. We'll just see it go faster and faster as time goes on. It's just got to be ready for it.
Shannon:Final thoughts, questions for me, anything you have. I set everybody up at the end to ask these terrible questions that I have to answer.
James Price:Anything that you have that you want to share Well, I mean no specific question, but just again just want to reiterate appreciate the relationship over the past a few years and I think it's a good move, uh, for shed pro and and hopefully a good move for shed geek as we connect a little bit deeper together. Uh and just uh. I think both companies uh have a deep desire to serve the customer, serve the customer well, so I think it's a perfect match for us to become the studio sponsor. So I just want to thank you for the opportunity to do that.
Shannon:You're killing it, brother. Everything I hear behind the scenes, out in front, your whole team is killing it, and congrats to you guys for what you're doing. It's an honor for us to be part of it as as well, and, um, yeah, it's appreciated mutually with us too, and I love your heart for ministry, man. I love your heart for people. It's. It shines through and, um, you know, sometimes it shines through in such a way that it wins business and that's great. But I know that, I know, I know that you are a fair gentleman and that means just so much, so much, so I'm going to get on another podcast.
James Price:There you go.
Shannon:Any other thoughts, any final thoughts for the industry.
James Price:No, just yeah, I think it's. I think, Shannon, you're right. Digital is just going to be taking more and more of the industry. So we'd love to help people figure that out, at whatever stage of the process you might be, and we want to don't be intimidated by it. Ask as many questions as you want, we just want to help educate and provide the right resources. Whether you go with us or not, we want the experience to be positive, that you're learning something as you're talking to us. If you decide to not do it yet, that's okay with us, as long as we gave some value with the interaction that you've had with us. So reach out and we'd be happy to share what we've learned through the years.
Shannon:Appreciate you being on today. James, wish you nothing but the best, all right.
James Price:Thanks, Shannon. Thank you.