Shed Geek Podcast

Your Financial Story Is Just as Important as Your Financial Statements

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 67

Share episode

Send us a text

When Steve Coughran started his first business at 16 from his sister's garage, little did he know this would lead to a career transforming how construction companies understand their finances. Today, as a fractional CFO who provides what he calls "CFO services reimagined," Steve brings a refreshing clarity to the often mystifying world of business finance.

The most eye-opening revelation from our conversation? Seventy percent of companies that go bankrupt actually show profit on their books when they close their doors. This paradox exists because profit on paper doesn't guarantee healthy cash flow – a distinction that has saved countless businesses Steve has worked with. Using vivid examples (including asking audience members for cash during presentations), Steve demystifies concepts like return on invested capital in ways that make immediate, practical sense.

We explore the concept of business "death zones" – those revenue thresholds where companies get stuck because their overhead structure doesn't align with their income. For construction businesses, these typically fall between $1-3 million, $3-10 million, and $10-25 million. Without proper financial planning, companies can find themselves trapped, unable to grow further or even maintain their position. One company Steve advised wanted to triple in size quickly – his financial models showed they'd be bankrupt within 18 months if they pursued that strategy.

Beyond the numbers, Steve offers refreshing wisdom on business growth itself. Having risen from blue-collar beginnings (much like myself) to advising billion-dollar companies, he emphasizes that bigger isn't always better. Sometimes your calling might be to build a $20 million company that blesses employees' lives, not to scale indefinitely. His "Boosting Your Financial IQ" podcast has reached over 1.3 million downloads worldwide, and he recently made his financial literacy course completely free – demonstrating his belief that money should be a vehicle to bless others' lives.

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn or visit cultivar.com to learn more about his approach to financial management. And if you're struggling with financial literacy, check out his free resources at byfiq.com – no strings attached.

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: Shed Pro

Calculate Business Services
Ifab
Solar Blaster Fans
NewFound Solutions
Cardinal Manufacturing

INTRO:

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our 2025 studio sponsor. Let's be real Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers while expectations keep climbing, and yet I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, Shed Pro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out.

INTRO:

Shed Pro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, rto contracts, inventory, deliveries and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions, from website lead to final delivery. You can quote, contract, collect payment and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. Contract collect, payment and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner and, instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro. co/ shedgeek. Thank you, Shed Pro, for being our studio sponsor and, honestly, for building something that helps the industry.

Shed Geek:

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, excited about this guest today, James Lind, one of our faithful listeners. He's written a blog for us before. James is just an awesome guy. I always love communicating with him. James actually made this connection. So, first of all, thank you, James. That's the mutual acquaintance that we have here today. But, Steve, if you want to just introduce yourself, who you are and maybe a little bit about what you do, sir, yeah, so my name is Steve Coughran.

Steve Coughran:

Thanks for having me on the show. I'm so happy to for this opportunity to talk. What I do is I provide CFO level support for companies in the construction industry, so people that are building, building projects, building things and adding value out there in the built space. And it's interesting because I started my first company when I was 16 years old out of my sister's garage. So, I moved out of my house when I was 16, moved in with my sister.

Steve Coughran:

That's a whole nother story in itself, but I had to do something. I was either working at Dairy Queen for $4.25 an hour or I was doing sprinklers and landscaping, and the company I was doing sprinklers and landscaping for they went out of business, so I was left with nothing. So, I started this business out of my sister's garage, 16 years old, started doing design, build projects, putting in pools and water features and outdoor kitchens and all of that stuff. I met a lot of CEOs, successful people along the way and I worked with a lot of contractors, plumbers, electricians, concrete contractors in that time while I was doing all this. And then, after about 13 years of doing my landscape business, I grew it to a multimillion- dollar company.

Steve Coughran:

I was like you know what I want? To go get a white- collar job. And so I did that and I went and worked for Ernst Young in public accounting and then I realized very quickly all the work that I do is eventually just stored in a file and put in storage and it only comes out if there's a litigation issue or something, because I was doing attestation services, auditing services on these companies and that's when I started Cultivar. So, Cultivar, like I said, we specialize in the construction space. We work with other companies outside of construction, but primarily our main focus is construction, and we basically help them put in place a strategy, combine that with the financial management side of their business to drive more value.

Shed Geek:

Very nice man.

Shed Geek:

Great, great info, well spoken, absolutely love it. And you aged yourself a little bit with your 425 an hour, just because I know that. So, I'm kind of guessing we're about the same age. And I definitely remember that mine wasn't Dairy Queen, it was a Piggly Wiggly and it was my first job at $4.25 an hour. And, man, I thought we were hitting it big, because it was around the time that Clinton had changed the federal minimum wage where it was going up like $5.15. And I was like that's it, we're retiring, we've hit it, we've hit it big time. We, we're retiring, we've hit it, we've hit it big time. We got an extra 75 cents an hour. And here I am, 15, 16 years old. Break down a little bit of what a? Would you call yourself a fractional CFO, or how would you describe that? And like what are those services entail?

Steve Coughran:

Yeah. So, when I talk about Cultivar, I like to say we provide CFO services reimagined, and what I mean by that is for years I've been going around speaking around the country. I taught a class at the University of Denver called Strategic Financial Leadership and the whole idea behind that is I can go into a company and do debits and credits and close out the books and produce financial statements and that's valuable. But I think the true value is in the strat, like aligning strategy with the numbers. So, for example, Shannon, you get numbers on a monthly basis, so you're looking at your income statement, your balance sheet, saving cash flows.

Steve Coughran:

Maybe you have a few metrics you're paying attention to. And it's one thing to look at the numbers and say, oh, that's great or that's terrible, or profits going down. It's another thing to say, wow, our gross margin has been down by 5% month over month for the last three months. Here are the three things I can go do to fix that. And so, when I talk about CFO services, we're not just in the business of closing books and producing financials. We're in the business of helping companies to understand their numbers and then go do something about it to drive continuous performance improvement.

Shed Geek:

Man. I'll tell you what that's so important. You may know this, may not. You know there's a couple of different services that we offer.

Shed Geek:

That spun off the origin of the podcast. Right, because I was working in Rent- to- own which is a big part of our industry, you know, as a rep and the one thing I was learning is I was relational in terms of like sales and trying to build relationships and honestly, it was kind of a I don't want to say a saturated service, but it just it wasn't new. It wasn't a new service, you know, and it had been around a long time and there was a lot of ties and relationships to that and that was even part of the podcast story was just like I want to add value to people because I want to be a servant, I want to be a relationship guy that can serve people and like sometimes it's going to lead to business, sometimes it's going to lead to friendship, sometimes both occasionally, neither, you know, it just works for some, doesn't work for others. But you know, always put the effort in and like that's turned into marketing, rent on services, finance, some e-commerce, some different things we've done or doing, but the one thing we learned about the marketing area was. I asked a few people is this going to bother you if I get into this area or if there's any overlap services or things like that? Just kind of wanted to vet that process and things like that.

Shed Geek:

And the one thing we learned is that we had to educate people to buy our services. So, we became like by default. We kind of became consultants because we couldn't just say give me your price, we'll beat it. We do these things, and we'll beat it. We almost had to be like, well, have you thought about the grand plan? Like, hey, I sell 1.8 million in sheds. I want to double that. Do you Like? Do you know the problems that come with that? Do you understand your numbers? Do you understand the buying power? Do you understand the stress it's going to put on your shop or on your trucks? Like, maybe slow and steady growth? So, I mean, is that kind of what you're saying you know with, like these services, you're able to break down those numbers so they understand them? And then the good growth.

Steve Coughran:

Yep, yeah, I mean as working with a landscape contractor years ago and the CEO came to me and he said, Steve, we want to triple our business in the next few years and I said, okay, that that's a great goal. They were doing around $3 million a year in revenue at the time, so he wanted to get to 10 million effectively. I said that's great. Okay, let's look at the numbers and let's build a model right? So, I'd build out this financial model and I had it broken down from all the way, from revenue down to profit, including working capital how much money is going to be tied up in accounts receivable and accounts payable in other accounts, and then how much he'd have to invest in tractors and trucks and skidsters and trenchers, et cetera.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Hey, I'm Clark Paquette, one of the founders of Calculate Business Services. If you're in the portable storage building industry, you already know how much is going on behind the scenes Managing lots, tracking sales, keeping up with cash flow and staying on top of your books. It's a lot. That's where we come in At Calculate. We specialize in helping businesses like yours with bookkeeping, accounting, tax prep, business support and even fractional C-level services like having a part-time CFO or COO on your team, without the full-time price tag. We know this industry and we understand its unique challenges. Our team helps you stay organized, make smarter decisions and keep your business running smoothly so you can focus on building and selling. Whether you're just starting out or scaling fast, we've got the tools, the team and the experience to help you grow. And to get the conversation started, we're offering a free 30-minute consultation no pressure, just real help. Visit CalculateLLC. com and click contact us to schedule your session today. Let's grow your business together.

Steve Coughran:

And so, I ran the numbers, and I said if you grow at the rate you want to grow, you'll be out of business in 18 months. And he's like what, how can I go out of business in 18 months? And he's like what, how can I go out of business? And I showed him, and I said look at $3 million. You have a million dollars in accounts receivable every month because you go out and do work. You bill your customers at the end of the month. They owe you a million dollars. That million dollars is tied up in the business, right, and then you collect on the money. But then you go bill again at the end of the month. So, you never effectively collect on that million bucks until one day when you sell the business.

Steve Coughran:

I said so if you grow that and you grow out the same proportion you're going to need, you know you're going to have $3 million in accounts receivable effectively, so you're going to need two more million dollars of capital. Well, guess what? Your business doesn't show the financial returns. You need to go get a line of credit. You don't have any more capital to put in the business. You definitely don't have 2 million to put in the business.

Steve Coughran:

So, if you do that, you're going to bankrupt your company because you're not going to have the working capital to handle the growth. And he's like wow, okay, I didn't see that. He's like so what is the growth rate that I can handle? So, I ratcheted back and showed him the, the model, and I said here, here's the growth rate. And that is just one example of many examples of how taking the numbers and combining that with the strategy saved his business. Otherwise, he would have been bust, he would have been bankrupt because he would have grown the business. But he would have grown the business, but he would have grown himself out of business.

Shed Geek:

Does it really just come down to cash flow and understanding that balance sheet? You know, like, if you're, you know there's this. I grew up. I grew up with pretty modest means, right Like parents who weren't like college educated really not even high school educated Right, so, like, financially. It seemed like me being able to look back on it now. It seemed like there was like this circle of decisions that kept happening that I couldn't identify as a child, right Like are these problems happening over and over again? It was because, like, the mindset never changed. Right, it was just a new scenario, it was just a different job, or it was a different set of debt or a different set of circumstances, but the mindset never really shifted. I see companies that sell 300 million a year, companies that sell 100 million a year, 60 million a year, some that sell 10. And there's certain areas that they get to that they just get stuck. Is that a numbers thing or is that a personnel thing? What advice do you give whenever you see those situations?

Steve Coughran:

Yeah, I think that's great. And going back to your original question, is it a cash flow thing? It does come down to cashflow. 70% of companies that go bankrupt. They're actually profitable when they close their doors. They have profit in the books, like on their books. They show profit on their income statement, but there's money tied up in working capital or in capital expenditures and those items don't show up on the income statement, right, and those are a big part of a company's cash flow. So that's one problem.

Steve Coughran:

I think the other problem, like when companies are scaling, they hit these different death zones, because think about the overhead required to run your business. You're running your business and you're good, just doing it by yourself. And then all of a sudden, you're like, well, I can't take on any more capacity, I'm just maxed out. So, you hire another person Well, but they have no place to work. So, you have to now go get an office and then sign a lease. So, and you also need, like, a desk and you need a computer and maybe they need a car allowance, etc. Right, so your overhead starts to jump up and grow and then now all of a sudden, you don't have enough revenue to handle that. So, you start losing money. So, businesses will hit these different death zones, and it depends on the industry.

Steve Coughran:

For construction. It's like you have to get to a million or you don't even have a viable business. You don't even have a job, right, it's not even going to cover your like your bills. Then you get to a million. You got to hire people because you can't do it all yourself. So, then you enter this new death zone between one and 3 million. You got to get the 3 million really quick and then, once you get to 3 million, you got to get to 10 million and once you get to 10, you got to get to 25. And otherwise, if you're in the middle of these zones I call them the death zones your business can go bust right Because your overhead is going to be disproportionate. So, if you're really good at understanding your business, scaling your business, getting the work, getting the projects, it works. But if you don't know how to repeat that cycle of generating more revenue, you can definitely find yourself in trouble.

Shed Geek:

One thing I've run into systematically is you know, in sales this is a common theme or common practice. It seems like in a lot of companies you've got a sales person who's performing a high- level performer Great, let's make them the sales manager. You know why They'll make a great sales manager? Because obviously they're selling. Well, maybe they know how to sell, but maybe they don't know how to manage people, which is really what you're doing in that sales management position. It doesn't mean that they can show people how they do what they do and the temptation for them if they're selling is to continue to sell anyway.

Shed Geek:

And anybody who's been micromanaged knows that there's always a boss that's like get out of my way, I can do it better myself, or if you need something done well, you know best to do it yourself, kind of mentality. I think that's a temptation for a lot of business owners. Maybe in our industry is all of a sudden, it's like, hey, I'm a good shed builder, or like I learned how to do that, or a good shed hauler, or whatever it is. But then I had to grow, and I realized, oops, I have a business now and I don't know, am I CEO material? I've literally heard so many owners say am I? I don't know. I mean, do you think I'm doing a good job on a CEO?

Shed Geek:

And it's like, well, I suppose you should ask those questions, but at the same time, the natural answer is no. If you're asking me right, like in some ways you should have the confidence. But I get it. You're, you're trying to grow and learn. What is that? A service that you offer? I mean like, do you find that falling under one of your? You know what we offer on your website, or do you kind of find that in like the, the in between, where you're like hey, I'm Steve, I'm just a guy who runs a business too. And let me give you some advice here.

Steve Coughran:

Yeah, I mean we, when we start working with companies, we get very embedded in their businesses. But we also say, like, the best way to be a CEO is just to be a CEO, and so there's no like training to become a CEO per se, but we do provide a lot of guidance. So, when we get into these companies we get, I mean, we know their employees, we know their dog, we know their cat, we know like everything about their business. And we provide that like guidance for the CEO who may maybe they're not financially savvy hey, that's fine, right. But maybe they're really technically proficient with, like, building sheds or, like you said, hauling sheds or whatever portion of the shed industry they're in. Maybe they're really good at that, but then the other side of the business, that's not really their strength.

Steve Coughran:

So, partnering with them and we look at it as a partnership, that's what like drives a lot of value. I'm not in the business of going in and be like, hey, here's a slide deck, here are my recommendations, Shannon, there's 50 things. Just read it and go do it. That doesn't work because you're not going to have the time or maybe the capabilities to implement our suggestions. Then it's not going to give you the results. You're not going to think we're a great company and it just creates this like downward spiral.

ADVERTISEMENT:

At iFab LLC, our passion is welding, fabricating and design. That's why, in 2015, we began 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 tape will build your custom doors square every time and easily adjust to build any door. For products like these or other custom fabrication services for your barn shop, visit ifabllc. com or call 563-422-7496, or simply email us at ifabllc@ gmail. com.

Steve Coughran:

So that's how we work mostly with CEOs.

Shed Geek:

We've created, we've, we've understand this because we've created sort of like this, this imagine of imagination world I can't speak, I don't know how to say that word. Imagination world I can't speak, I don't know how to say that word. But this world of imagination surrounding the digital platform, you know, sort of like what we do in our own services. I'm looking at financial reporting and I think about how that is like similar to the digital platform of like hey, take a look at all these impressions, take a look at all of these click rates, take a look at all these, this conversion, and like. You have to stop sometimes and remember, like your, your customer may understand manufacturing and maybe they do understand some of this stuff, or they learn it, or willing to learn it, or have a hunger for it even. And then o thers are like, I don't care. That's why I hired you is I want you to be able to decipher that information.

Shed Geek:

Um, how do you approach that in this, in like financial reporting, breaking down a balance sheet of you know the p and l, what? How do you know you're making money? That happens all the time. I feel like that happens all the time. I just feel like I've heard this so many times from so many different people. We don't know if we're making money, like there's money coming in, there's money going out. Commerce is happening, business is happening. We even bought this equipment. I got a paycheck. I don't know if we make money until we get our taxes back.

Steve Coughran:

Yep, yeah, I mean I was working as a CFO of a billion dollar construction company in our CEO. He did not have strong financial skills, which is fine, right, that's why he brought me in. But I remember one conversation he said, Steve, here's the deal, cause he came up from the construction world, he is an engineer, worked in project management, worked his way up in the company. He said so I always say dirt is the deal, it's all about the dirt, right, the dirt that you're gonna be building on. And he's like so think about finance like this. You know, you want me to learn how to read these financial reports and understand these KPIs and these financial meetings. But he said I push back and say, if I give you a soil report, you want to know how to read a soil report and make a decision whether we should build on this project, whether it's a go or no go decision.

Steve Coughran:

And so, I thought about that conversation. I didn't want to be adversarial at the time, but I said you know? Afterwards, in passing, I said, look, yes, I could agree with that, but if my job is to make go, no-go decisions for the company, I'm going to learn how to read a soils report. I may not be an expert and tell you all the different types of soils and the ratios and everything that comes off the report, but I'm going to know enough, I'm going to educate myself enough to look at a soils report and say this is a terrible site. The civil is going to be way too expensive. You know the soil is too expansive, there's too much risk with the foundation, whatever it may be. So I understand that part of the business because I'm making decisions based on it. So, when it comes to finance in business, I don't expect people to be nerds wearing green shades, doing debits and credits in the back office and celebrating when the trial balance ticks and ties, but I do expect just a basic level of financial knowledge.

Steve Coughran:

So let me give you an example and this may be relevant to some of your listeners too. Relevant to some of your listeners too when you look at returns on a project or when you just look at profit in a business. If you had the choice between two businesses, Shannon, okay, I'll ask you this One business makes a million bucks a year in profit and then another business makes 500 grand a year in profit pure profit. Right, you get to take this home and you do whatever you want. Which business would you rather have? The one that does a million bucks in profit or 500,000 in profit?

Shed Geek:

I mean, I guess, not knowing any more than the test sample you gave me here, I would want the million dollars in profit.

Steve Coughran:

Right and you're kind of hesitant. You're like Steve, there's some kind of trick here. So, if you think about that, that's what we learn in school Optimization, maximization, that's what we learn A million bucks is better than 500. Is better than 500. But then if? What if I brought in, invested capital into the equation and I said oh, by the way, Shannon, the company that does a million bucks a year in profit, you have to put in $20 million of capital and you're going to get a million bucks a year. But you have to put in 20 million. So, you got. You have to like sell your house, your farm, your kids, your cat, whatever. You have to go all in, take on all this debt, put $20 million in the business and you're going to get $1 million back here. Then what if I said okay for the business producing $500,000 a year in profit? What if you only have to put in $50,000? Now, which business would you rather own?

Shed Geek:

Well, I would start by being curious if you've worked in rent-to-own already in our industry. Based off of some of these questions and I hope that generates a laugh from at least one or two of you guys in rent-to-own. But, yeah, obvious choice B, because to me, most people in business and I've been saying this for years business owners are so risk adverse. The one thing that I have found is, like you know, I didn't work in this world Me and you are very similar, my friend, in the way that, like we work blue collar jobs and like for me, like I had a doctor tell me at 19, he's like you need to find a better job, you know he's like you're killing your back, I mean at 19. And I, you need to find a better job, you know he's like you're killing your back, I mean at 19. And I was like, yeah, it just uh.

Shed Geek:

I remember saying like well, there's no opportunity. Like I kind of lived in a in a rural community. There wasn't a lot of opportunities. Like well, you got to make the choice to move and explore and all those things and chase dreams. But I did uh start to go down this road where I found this white- collar job where, admittedly, like I actually work on the weekends in my yard. I love it, Steve, because it reminds me of, like, what real work sometimes feels like. To complete a job, to start a day, I can work till 11 o'clock at night, still not be satisfied didn't do enough. Or I could go home at three and it's like I'm not be satisfied didn't do enough. Or I could go home at three and it's like I'm not satisfied. So, yeah, the obvious choice is that second one, because that risk adverse is what starts to become all of us in a business setting, I think. So, I would pick number two, and that sounds like the more stress-free plan too doesn't it Exactly?

Steve Coughran:

And I think I think the big thing, Shannon, is like people tend to overly complicate finance. I don't know why. Like I spent eight years after high school studying strategy and finance and accounting, probably because I'm slow at it. But in there, like they're at a lot of great professors, a lot of great programs, got my undergraduate in accounting and finance to my master's in accountancy, did my mba at the fuqua school of business, so great, great schools, got my cpa. But Then I got out of school and I got in the real world and I'm like, why didn't somebody just explain it that way? Like what? Why did it have to be so complicated? If you would have just said that the light bulb would have went on years ago, and so you know.

Steve Coughran:

Case in point the other week I was doing this keynote for a company, and they brought me in to speak to their staff about financial literacy stack of cash that I was doing this example with and I'll get to the stack of cash here. But before I did that, I went around and I just said, hey, does anybody know what return on invested capital is? And like blank stares, they're like I don't even know what ROIC is invested. Like you're. You're speaking, I don't even know what you're saying. And I said, okay, let me keep it really simple. I said does anybody have any money? I need some money, I need some cash. And this girl she's so sweet, she's like I got two fives, and so I walked over, and I said can I have that? She said sure, so I took the two fives and I put it in my pocket. And then this other guy, he said I got a 20 and he I'm taking my wife out on a date and I needed some cash. I'm kind of short. And then I just continued on with the presentation and they're like what the heck? Is he really going to steal her money? And then I said, okay, that was kind of rude, that was rude.

Steve Coughran:

Here I reached into my pocket, and I had change and I went over to the girl who gave me $10, the two fives. And I went over to the girl who gave me $10, the two fives and I said here, here's like 75 cents. And then I went over to the other guy who gave me 20 and I gave him, you know, 50 cents, something like that, and I said are you okay with that Cause I'm giving you that return on the money you gave me. So, you gave me that in cash and I'm giving you 75 cents or 50 cents, are you okay with that? And they're like no, I'm not okay with that, because how long is it going to take me to get my $20 back at this rate? And I said exactly, that's return on invested capital.

Steve Coughran:

But in business we do that all the time, right, we put money into projects, into businesses, into ventures, and we're getting some type of return. And maybe we don't even know the return. We're like I think I'm making money. I don't know if I'm making money at the end of the day, but when you break it down simply like that, if you knew the numbers, you would never be okay with a lot of this stuff. You'd be like I'm not going to earn a 1% return and go through all this grind. I'd rather just like put my money in an index fund, right?

Steve Coughran:

So, the second thing I'll which I'll say real quickly once I went to the bank and I got a thousand dollars in cash in in $1 bills.

Steve Coughran:

They were probably like what's this guy doing with you know all this, all these $1 bills, but nonetheless I had it and it. You know it's a pretty good stack, but like, when you even think about a million dollars you in the movies like a million bucks is like a big old chest and it's not like a million bucks is actually pretty small. You could fit a million bucks in your backpack and um, but I had this, this thousand dollars in cash and is you know a few inches tall, and I go to this meeting with this other company, and I said each dollar bill represents a thousand dollars. So, I have a billion dollars in cash right here and I wrote a thousand dollars on the dollar bill. I said here, I'm going to write a thousand dollars on this. And then I went to the first divisional leader. They had like five different divisions. I went to the first divisional leader, and I said here, here's your cash. Went to the next one went down the line. We gave all their respective stacks of cash to represent the revenue.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Hello shed builders, I'd like to grab your attention for just a moment. As we look ahead to 2025, one thing is clear Customers will have higher expectations than ever before. Shed consumers have an unprecedented access to information. To stay competitive, you need to create sheds that are not only high in quality but also rich in innovation. You might recall my friend, Dan Reaume, one of my early podcast guests, who introduced Solar Blaster fans, specifically the Solar Roof Blaster. Dan has been busy handling orders and he's eager to speak directly to shed builders about his groundbreaking products. What stands out to me about Dan's products designed specifically for sheds, like the solar roof blaster and the solar light blaster, is how they enhance the shed owner's experience.

ADVERTISEMENT:

With the focus on quality, it's time to start thinking about adding features and benefits for the end user. Here at Shed Geek, we wholeheartedly recommend Solar Blaster as the solution. My favorite thing about the entire line of products the support you'll receive from Dan. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about these products, but he's also one of the most customer-focused individuals I know. He truly stands behind both his product and his service. We're searching for companies ready to elevate customer satisfaction to the next level. To learn more, just visit solarblasterfans. com and fill out some basic information for a callback or connect directly at 480-747-7097. You can also check out the Shed Geek newsletter, where a click on the Solar Blaster ad will guide you to a form for more information and some cool videos showcasing the products. Let's power up innovation and elevate customer experiences together.

Steve Coughran:

And I said to the rest of the team I said isn't that great? Look how rich they are. Like they're taking all this money in. They're like so rich. And then I said, oh, hold on, I forgot.

Steve Coughran:

And I went back to one of the gentlemen and I said, oh, I need money for payroll, no, and I need a money for materials and some subcontractors and stuff. So, I keep taking his money. And then I took all his money away and I said, oh, by the way, I need $3. He's like what do you mean? I said, because you have enough cash to cover all the expenses, I need $3. And he thought I was joking and he's like ha ha ha. And I said no, I'm serious, I need $3. And he's like I don't have any insight. Does anybody have any three? Does anybody have $3?

Steve Coughran:

Somebody else reaches into their wallet and they, they grabbed $3 and they give it to me and I put it in my pocket, and I said thanks, you know. And I said you know, think about it. You have this big stack of cash and all that money's flowing through your business, through your bank account, whatever. And you're either negative or you're like this guy over here and he's walking away with a dollar here and he's walking away with a dollar and they're like ah, light bulbs went on and I think, like that, Shannon, finance doesn't have to be the scary thing, but you do have to understand your story, the story behind the numbers. And when you do, that's when you can get more laser focus and you can have more of an impact with the money that you make.

Shed Geek:

Your metaphor reminds me of two things. One I always love. Well, there's two videos out there. I can't really describe the one well, but it's like a CEO asking for money and he's like, you know, going through the process. But the one's the three stooges, which is my favorite. It's like, hey, you owe me 20 bucks. And he's like, yeah, well, can you loan me five? Yeah, and then they go back and forth. Next, you know they're square and all they did was move this same money around and it's like something you would see on social media. But it's like, isn't that the way it feels like money happens? It's like, yeah, I don't know, did that we exchanged?

Shed Geek:

A lot of things happened here. I'm not sure, did I make money, a benefit? And the other is a story I've told on this before, so forgive me audience for those of you who've heard this, but if you haven't, you know like one of my favorite stories is Teen Challenge. We were involved with Teen Challenge, drug and alcohol rehabilitation efforts and things like that. One of the biggest ones is in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, not terribly far from here. It was a family farm that they donated back in like 1969. And challenge started in 59, so it's one of the new, earliest ones and it's literally got like I don't know 100 acres. They. They support like 300 men or something like that on this and um, they have, you know, big, big events every year, you know.

Shed Geek:

And uh, I, I definitely remember like going and meeting the pastor there and I thought, wow, this, this guy is just really going to give me like some good information, cause he's like when I got here, it had been running for 30 years and it almost closed. And you know, we forget business has a. A church has a business side to it, right, like that's a big conversation to me in the church, that that business side to it. And I thought this guy was going to give me like this like you know, like God came down and ordained this amazing situation and I was like what happened, you know, because you got here and it almost closed. He said, Shannon, when I got here, you know, like the spending was right here and the, you know, the income was like right here.

Shed Geek:

For those of you who can't see me, just imagine my left hand being up very high, my right hand being down very low, and I was like man, he's probably got this great story about how, you know, God, you know, supplied this miraculous, you know situation that could only you know, and I was like, yeah, man, what'd you do? And he was like man, I switched those two things, you know, and I was just like I mean, that's it, can you give me more? And he's like no man, that's what we did.

Shed Geek:

It fixed all our problems, we quit spending more than what we made. Simple, huh, simple, very simple. So, finances are. I can understand that they're a lot easier than what we make them out to be, but there's just like this, there's just this mystery behind what seems to be able to take you to the next level in any business at any respect. Right Like I, it doesn't matter if I got out of this and started selling scuba gear tomorrow, I would find some ceiling in that. That would either be glass or iron, and you know, like some people break through it and some people aren't.

Shed Geek:

It just seems like you beat your head against the wall trying to figure it out. Is it culture? Is it you know? Do you guys focus on? Yeah, I don't know, I love your. I'm just looking at your website. Consultants give advice. Cultivar builds a system for profitable growth. You know how do you break through that mindset of like hey, we're just here to give you some advice, help move you forward. We're going to get in the mud with you and we're going to again. We're going to make sense of the, of the data.

Steve Coughran:

Yep, yeah, great question, I think. Look, there's a, there's a construction management technology software out there. It's called Procore guys. So Procore they, their software is very robust and they ultimately went public. Right, Great company.

Steve Coughran:

And you know, I remember back in the day on their slide deck with that they would share in sales presentations, it said an overnight success pro core and overnight success in 13 years. And when you understood their story at the beginning, they're terrible. They didn't sell anything, they're running out of money. I mean, it was just like a grind for 13 years. And then all of a sudden, it clicked and what happened is cloud computing actually became a viable technology and their software took off. Before then, then cloud computing wasn't viable on construction projects, so it just wasn't being used.

Steve Coughran:

And so, I think sometimes it's timing, sometimes I think it's luck, sometimes I think it's God. You know I'm a man of faith. Um, sometimes I think the, the more times than anything else, is system, and so, like at cultivar, we don't sell like prediction strategy. We don't come in and be like all right, here's the industry trends and we think the next five years are going to go in here and like this is how you should position your company and sell you a bunch of garbage. We don't do that. We come in and we say, okay, here's a system for forecasting your financials, for putting in place key performance indicators, so you have this dashboard to know what's working, what's not working and how to fix it, and then setting initiatives, actions, results and then going out there and executing so you can drive results, learn where things aren't working and then make adjustments. And it's just this build measure, learn, adjust, build measure, learn, adjust. And it's that system which seems like very basic, but most people don't have a system. They don't have a system to follow, right, and so another, another thought on this that I'll share, shannon, is so I just recently started Jiu Jitsu and I'm a white belt Woo, you know woo.

Steve Coughran:

And I can tell you it's terrible at first, right, anytime you begin something and I'm like the rookie in the class, I'm like the most junior person at the school. Um, I'm so uncoordinated, you know. They're like move your left arm. And I'm like they're like no, your other left arm. And it's like move it here and put it here, and I'm just like ah, I don't know what to do, right, and I feel so incoordinated. But I wrestled in high school, so that helps out a little bit. So, I know a little some moves, but I just feel like a fish out of water. And so, I was thinking.

Steve Coughran:

The other day this impression came to me in my quiet time and reflection. I was like if my instructor came to me today and it basically goes white belt to blue belt to, I think, purple to Brown to black, if my instructor came to me today and it basically goes white belt to blue belt to, I think, purple to brown to black, if my instructor came to me and said Steve, I really like you charismatic, I like your bald head. I'm a bald headed guy, you can't see me. I like your bald head.

Shed Geek:

I just told me the other day God only made so many perfect heads. The rest he covered with hair. So exactly, there you go, there you go. God must be who we are. I'm sorry.

Steve Coughran:

So, if he said, he said hey, you know I really like you and who you are, so I'm going to go ahead and advance you to a blue belt. I know you've only been here for about two weeks, but I just want to move you to the blue belt level. I wouldn't want that Right, Because I, I would.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Running a business can feel like trying to balance a dozen plates, except none of them are actually plates and one of them's on fire. Enter Newfound Solutions. Think of us like your business BFF, always ready to lend a hand with whatever you need. Have you always wanted to start your own rent-to-own company but don't quite know where to start? Rto Partners is here to help, Overwhelmed by all the moving pieces in running your own rent-to-own program? Partners is here to help, Overwhelmed by all the moving pieces and running your own rent-to-own program.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Rto Smart is a software that encompasses everything you need on one platform. Or leave the rent-to-own up to us and focus on what's more important to you. Newfound Rentals has you covered with traditional rent-to-own options for your customers. Shedconnect understands the complexity of the digital marketplace. We take the hassle out of online sales and unlock the full potential of your brand. With co-creative, We'll make your brand look so good your audience won't be able to look away. Newfound Solutions five powerful sub-brands helping you succeed across every aspect of your business. Visit newfoundsolutions. com today and let us do the balancing, so you don't have to and let us do the balancing so you don't have to.

Steve Coughran:

In the back of my mind I have this insecurity. I want to have the confidence because I didn't go through the hard stuff right. And I mean, if you think about what's happening with AI and everything else in the space, here's the problem, and I know this isn't necessarily an AI episode, but what happened back in the day, like when I went to go write my first book, Shannon, I'll tell you it like almost destroyed my life. I wrote the book. It was a grind. I mean, I'm not the best writer in the world, but I hired an editor and then they'd give it back to me and they're like you need to send back your revisions. And I went through that, and I gave it to a book publisher and then they they're like you need to read the thing and turn it around by next Friday. I'm like I got to read this 200- page book and turn it around and it's just this, so much work to bring about the book. And it was really transformative. The process was transformative. That grind, they're like breaking down in tears, just like the discouragement, the frustration, the fear, the faith, like everything that went along with that. Now the generation could go in and say, hey, I want to write a book on sheds. Put in chachubi t-bam, it'll bust out a book. You have a book in a day, yeah, publish it, you're, and it's like.

Steve Coughran:

But what we're missing out on is that journey, that journey in the process, right, and the same thing with me, with Jiu Jitsu, like if I just advanced to a blue belt. I missed out on all the learning and growth, all the takedowns, all the time that I banged my head, all the time somebody put me in an arm bar, and I said, oh, don't do that, don't put my arm back again or it's going to cause a lot of pain. All those early mornings, like all the stuff like that allows me to become as a human being and I believe we all come to earth to like, grow, to become, to progress. I'd miss out on that. So, I think in business sometimes, like we get stuck at different points.

Steve Coughran:

Or maybe we're calling just to build a $5 million company, maybe it's to build a billion- dollar company, who knows, but I think it's less about to me this is just Steve speaking, it's less about. Okay, why am I not at a hundred million? I, I'm so stuck. Maybe my calling is to build a $20 million company and bless all the people's lives who works for me. So, like I don't like to lose sight of that because some companies think it's just scale, scale, scale, scale, scale, and I don't always think that's the answer.

Shed Geek:

I think it's more of this journey of like progression, learning and becoming who we are supposed to be, who Steve is supposed to be, who Shannon is supposed to be, et cetera, man, I love, just like that whole five minute skit that you just did is kind of extremely relevant to my world and some of those closest to me and you know, like, uh, our, our sphere of influence and and all of that man, it's uh yeah, you've got me in my head right now because these are things that are very relevant to my life and and, uh, thinking about, even like the, the, the podcast, and like the, the efforts that we've put in in the industry, through the different entities that I, I feel have been blessed, you know, for us to be able to go and and nothing happens, right, muscle doesn't build without resistance, like you know. Think like we're not called to have an easy life. You know, like we, we go through things because we're able to then overcome them. Uh, and that's the reason for that difficult situation, um, and instead, if you're like me, it's always like, oh, no, deliver me from this difficult situation. And it's like right, so that you never go through anything hard in your life. Yeah, you know, that's the way it's supposed to be. No, you actually learn and it's a resistance. You know, you may know this, I don't know. You know this is a probably marketing geek talk or whatever, but you know, like Google bought Reddit, right. Like the reason they bought Reddit was because of that. The reason they bought Reddit was because of that.

Shed Geek:

The AI advancements that you're seeing of writing a book in a day can sometimes be spotted because they're kind of generic Now, sometimes they can't. The descriptions on my show If you're reading today the description about Steve here, guess what's going to happen. Ai is going to create this wonderful description and they're going to do it in all of two seconds and it's going to sound way better than whenever I used to sit down and try to write this description and it took me 30 minutes to try to curate this description in a way that was like interesting and whatever. I've actually gotten compliments on it. People are like you must have improved your writing skills. I'm like, actually I haven't, it's AI.

Shed Geek:

But then there's other times where it's like it's obvious that AI is generic, right, and it's like, oh, this book is kind of lacking in terms of like in-depthness or something along those lines, so they threw it in chat and that's why, like Google bought Reddit for that purpose, right, reddit's got all of these real-life situations like I need to know how to change the timing on a 1982 Silverado, and it's like chat can throw something up. But even AI-generated podcasts they're going and developing that artificial intelligence from somewhere, probably from someone else who's done a podcast. Right, they're like trying to use the tone. It's been kind of revolutionary for me in my life to kind of understand this digital platform. Gosh, it's just where AI is going to go. I mean, you hear the president talking about like we want to be first in AI right now. You know, like there's like this race to I know this is probably over exaggerating. It was like almost like there's this race like we saw with Russia with, you know, trying to get into space. It's like this race with China to sort of like who's going to develop and kind of control the space in in artificial intelligence as it moves forward and does so many things. It's revolutionary in our life, whether we want it or not.

Shed Geek:

Even things that are going to happen. And you, you know, saw a Facebook post this morning. Somebody's like, you know, automation in this space, robots building. You know we don't just have people swinging hammers and nails, now there's actually people out there who are creating these things to mass produce, you know, and then the business is going to go down like it feels, like it's going to go down the same road, doesn't it? Like all businesses go down of, like you know, market share changes and mergers and acquisitions and, like you know, is it? Can you just build a shed, set it in your yard, sell it, make a living, probably, you know. But are you going to attain that? You know that $100 million threshold and you know it's Steve, it's easy to say, oh, I'm not going to attain that because I don't want it. I mean, it's like saying I'm not going to start working out because I'm afraid I'm going to get too big.

Shed Geek:

Right, no, it's like but you know, like, did you do anything today? Or did you eat Oreos, Right Like right? You know like, I at least went for a walk. I'm in no fear of getting too big that way, but by so, yeah, I like everything that you're saying. What else do you do? You've got some James said, you've got some really other cool stuff going on, and I went and looked it up Like you've got a podcast. You do some different things.

Shed Geek:

Give me a little info on Steve outside of the business.

ADVERTISEMENT:

I got a big day tomorrow. I have a fully finished 18 by 40 cabin. That's going to require two to three mills to get it delivered way back in the sticks and down a dirt lane. With all the rain we've had lately it's gonna be a mess, but it needs a bigger mule well, when you talk, cardinal listens, and you asked for it.

ADVERTISEMENT:

With its diesel-powered 69-horse engine and capacity to move 40,000-pound sheds, the Mule 9069 is ready to turn your big days into just another day in the good life.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Ah, that's right. You're talking about the one they had up in Michigan at the Shed Show, that monster mule man. That thing was awesome, that's right. You're talking about the one they had up in Michigan at the Shed Show, that monster meal man. That thing was awesome, that's right.

ADVERTISEMENT:

It's the one you've seen at all, the Shed Holler barbecues.

ADVERTISEMENT:

Man, yeah, there's nothing like a little diesel donkey to make my day go so much better.

Steve Coughran:

Yeah. So, I was a CFO of this billion-dollar company, and I was flying back from Europe on my 40th birthday and I'm sitting on the plane and I'm thinking you know, what are the big problems that you know I'm interested in? And one of them was, as in the energy space, we're building the massive solar farms. You know about approximately a billion people in the world that don't have access to electricity, which is crazy. Right To think about that. And I was like, okay, wow, that's a big problem. And then the other problem was financial literacy. And so, like, I grew up with a single mom you know for the majority of my life, and she was out there working her butt off to support us. She's like the hardest worker I've ever met, and she would work multiple jobs just to pay the bills and we didn't see her. So, money was a bad thing for me because it's like the our lack of money took my mom away from me and I needed my mom as a teenage son without a dad. And so, as time went on, I was like you know what I'm really passionate about this financial literacy concept? Because I think it can, like, bless people's lives, and so I'm not a big like money guy. I need the money to go buy the Porsche, to go buy the jet, to go get the jet ski and all this stuff. Hey, that's nothing wrong with that, that's your ambitions. But for me, money is a vehicle to bless people's lives. So, I created a podcast called boosting your financial IQ, and I've had other podcasts before and I could tell you, Shannon, it's like the things you don't try at, that, that's where you like succeed. That, at least, that's my experience sometimes. So, I do this episode or these 10 episodes. I'm like I'm going to teach financial literacy. I'm not going to. I don't want to like repeat myself how to read income statements. I'm just going to record 10 episodes, put it out there, didn't market, it Didn't tell anybody about it, I just put it on like Spotify and Apple. And then at first, it's like two episodes, two downloads. The first episode I was like oh, my mom and my sister are so sweet. And then it's like five, and it's 10, it's 25, it's 50 and time goes on. And then here I was the CFO of this tech company and it's like went from like 50, 75, 60, 73, is like right around that range. Then it went to 500. And I was like that's weird, what the heck? Maybe there's an issue with the algorithm or something. And then the next week is like 500 to a thousand and then it like continued to grow and I was like, wow, maybe there's something here, so fast forward.

Steve Coughran:

Here I am, you know, a couple of years later and I've had people from all over the world reach out. I think we have like 1.3 million downloads, and so I have people from you know Indonesia and from France and from you know Costa Rica, wherever all over the world, reaching out saying thank you so much for your podcast to change my life. So I had this, um, this course that I used to sell, and I'd sell for your podcast to change my life. So, I had this, this course that I used to sell, and I'd sell for about 500 to 1000 bucks, and I had 100 video lessons about financial literacy, business financial literacy, and I used to sell it. And at the beginning of the year, in January, I had this thought, this impression make it all free. And it's like, okay, it's kind of a crazy thought, cause I spent a lot of money on this and just make it free. Like I did, I took a leap of faith, and I made it free and, um, I can't tell you, like the number of people who reach out single moms, people in different countries. I mean you gotta think like in some countries you make $3 a day, so trying to buy a thousand- dollar course, yeah, that's probably cost prohibitive. So, I just made it free for everybody. And people reach out all the time they say, wow, this is like incredible, it changed my life, and so that gives me more, like more fulfillment, I guess, than more dollars in my bank account, so that I'm super passionate about the boosting your financial IQ.

Steve Coughran:

I run that podcast. I make negative dollars off it, so that's my joke. The course it's free, no gimmicks, just get it for free at byfiq. com, boosting your financial IQ. com. But yeah, and then I have kids. I have a 12 year old, I have a nine-year-old, I got a wife. I'm a man of faith. Um, I like to run. I'm a white belt. You did so. You guys just trying to like make it through, um, but that that's Steve. In a nutshell, I just um, yeah, I love my life, I feel very blessed and I just try to help people and don't know how all the dots connect, but I'm sure they'll all connect one day.

Shed Geek:

Looking back and you're currently located in Denver, Colorado. That's where you're, you are home, uh, bound, and then you've wrote a couple of books. What's what's a couple of your books? We'll try to put some links to them, but, uh, in case somebody's wanting to find out more, read more or buy a couple, whatever.

Steve Coughran:

Yeah, so I wrote a book called delivering value. That was my first book. Uh is just about the seven P's of value creation. Um, I wrote a book called outsizing and that's about how to take strategy and finance together to drive value. So, if you want to fall asleep or if you have sleeping issues, definitely get that book. Guarantee you read one page. You get that book. Guarantee you read one page, you'll be out okay, or your money back guaranteed. But no, all kidding aside, I wrote that book. And I wrote Reframing Rich, and that's more about a different way to look at money as finance principles, but also as personal stories for my life. And then, most recently, I wrote a book called Cashflow. Because so many businesses struggle with cashflow, I wanted to write a book for non-financial people to understand how does cashflow work and how to get more of it.

Shed Geek:

Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to get one of each Um after this, after we in the podcast stay on, I'll figure out how to get that for people who want to reach out to you. How, how? If someone's like hey, I just really enjoyed this, so I want to call this guy, talk to him, do a discovery, call something. You know, um, I reached out to you through this contact, through James, so you didn't like call me, say I want to sell somebody something, uh, but somebody's just you know, uh, enlightened by the conversation and want to do more or have more.

Steve Coughran:

How they contact you yeah, so you could always, uh, find me at cultivar. com, that's my company, if you ever want to talk business, talk shop. But probably most people find me on LinkedIn. So, if you just look up Steve Cochran, send me a DM, connect with me. I'd love to hear from you. So, any feedback you have maybe you have feedback good, bad, ugly, indifferent, or you just want to connect hey, happy to do that.

Shed Geek:

You're in Denver. Are you a Rockies fan and a Nuggets fan and a Broncos fan? I don't know if they have a NHL team. Maybe I should, but I don't know.

Steve Coughran:

I don't have a lot. I don't watch a lot of TV, so I don't follow them religiously. But I do like going to a Rockies game in the summer and just sitting there with my family and seeing the green grass. I love that. But we do like the nuggets, so we will go to um a few nugget games during the winter and it's yeah, that's our, our little family gig. We and they got close, they got close.

Shed Geek:

This year they got close like it was a game seven. They did, they did really good, and they won last year. So, I mean, I guess, going into it, they were, you know, kind of favored, but man, I love the connection. Uh, James made the connection quite a while back and it's we've. We've just been so content heavy. I mean.

Shed Geek:

The truth is, you know, um, you know your, your story, and just getting to know you is very relevant to like where a lot of things play out for me, even in this moment. I mean, you know I don't go too deep, I don't get in the weeds, but you know I started a podcast because it was a passion project. The next thing, you know, some people were asking me, can we advertise? And I was like I don't know. Sure, you know, I was like, well, what do you have in front of your audience? And like kind of the same story. You know, we, we, we were very B2C, so we weren't just going for like general knowledge to anyone. Talk about a snooze fest. Somebody gets on here and we start talking about the in-depths of CRMs, 3d configurators and POS systems and if you get into the weeds too far, and it's just your average person. They're going to be like what shed geek, and they're what. I don't even know what this is. What are you talking about? There's more acronyms here than I know what to do with um, but for for me it was just like this big learning curve and it was like cool people want to advertise, so I'll do that. And then people was like, well, you better stay in that space. And it was like what if I get in here and like I don't like it over here, some people do, some don't Like you got to justify every decision you know kind of that you make. And it's like man, I'll tell you what man, I'm just going to really try to hear from God on this. How about that? How about if I just really just like hand everything that I have over to him this podcast, this business, anything that he wants me to do and then I really just like put the rest behind me and just move on and try to serve and and do the best we can. Uh, I'm learning so much. I mean, we're five years in and I'm learning so much.

Shed Geek:

I want to read your books, because I'm like so hooked on getting up every morning and have a quiet time and reading things. That that, uh, I eat. Through high school, Steve, like I didn't want to learn, I was like I want to get out there and work. And you know, now I'm like I want to quit work and go read. You know, it's just being able to acquire information and having a hunger for it, like I didn't I.

Shed Geek:

I've already looked at your website. I want to start following your podcast. I want to listen to that for sure, and I definitely want to talk to you. But I'm happy to order some books, encourage others to read them. Maybe not the snooze fest books, but we'll see, maybe. I believe no, nothing is wasted whenever it's trying to educate yourself. Man, I would love to talk with you sometime about coming back on. We'll get in the weeds a little bit more, if you, if you'd like.

Shed Geek:

I hope you get some calls from this. I think you know more than anything. I hope you get some discovery calls or some people that just want to know more about you or reach out, or hey, tell them that you heard it on the Shed Geek podcast. That's all I ask. It gives at least me a little bit of credibility and, man, any questions for me. I've done this for a long time now. Sometimes I hit miss, sometimes we pray at the end of the podcast. We're people of faith, for sure, too this whole industry really but I always ask people do you have questions for me? Because I spend so much time asking you questions, whether it's podcasting or sheds or personal or anything, any questions that you have.

Steve Coughran:

Yeah, I mean I'm always curious, just like what, what is like heaviest on your heart lately, like what are you most passionate about in in life and like when you're looking ahead to the future. I think there's a lot of fear mongers and reasons to have despair and discouragement. But like what gets you excited lately and like what's on your heart, oh, man, uh, that's particularly, um, a good question.

Shed Geek:

When you say lately, like had it just been kind of a thought, but you know, uh, where I'm sitting right now, it's kind of unusual. You know, like, um, faith really does play a big, a big part of who I am, to the point where you know, like I've never been called a pastor. I did some prison ministry and you know some different things and drug and alcohol rehabilitation ministry, and I've always been really passionate about trying to help people. You know we've been helping people in business, but we've been, you know, learning too. But about six months ago, just unknowingly what God's plan is and how it was, we bought a church. Like I'm sitting inside a church right now. You know it was a hundred year old church and it went. It went, pretty much fell apart during covid and it got sold and we bought it from those owners. We were just looking for a place, we were looking for an office and we really needed probably like a thousand square feet or so because we were in our working out of our home and it was getting crowded and we bought this, which is six thousand square feet. So that makes perfect sense, right, you know all this room. But my son, who's 20, who works for us, needed a place to live and he's like you know what that actually is set up in the basement where I could live there. I mean, there's everything I need and he's 20, so he doesn't really need a whole lot and it was just, like you know, a really good deal. We made an offer on it. I guess it was about six months. In that I was like, why don't I church? You realize there's a lot of church. So God's really been, you know, uh, not calling me to um, be a pastor, but certainly, uh, possibly evangelize at a hit on a different level through podcasting, because it has been such a big part of my story and I think I was training to, to, to be a podcaster all my life and just didn't know it, you know. So, whenever I started getting the compliments, you know, oh man, you do a really good job, or I like your questions, I was like me, like, like you like it, you know like I'm. So, I'm so like doubtful to be like, oh, okay, well, maybe I should do more of this, and it's like you can find a way to increase the kingdom of God through, through making the world a better place. I mean part of the podcast.

Shed Geek:

For me, Steve, is communication, I feel like, can solve so many problems, and I just feel like we don't. We don't communicate well as people because of our, our egos, because of our desires, wants, uh, greediness, or it's just a lot of things, and, like I'm, I throw myself in that circle. I'm not agnostic from that group. I'm part of that problem too, and I just feel like if we could work to be better, we could, we could stop wars, we could feed people, we could, you know, like, get people electricity. There's just things that we could do if the heart was right.

Shed Geek:

And um, and I do think that you have to spend a lot of time producing content that people are willing to sit and listen to in their private time, going down the road, building a shed, hauling a shed, just in their sales office, wherever it is, and whatever they're doing. I believe that if we're so influenced by people, but if we get alone by ourselves, and it's just us and we're alone with our thoughts and God, I believe that people, you know, attempt to be good in nature and want to help people and do good things for people, and so I'm just trying to be part of that process, man. I'm just trying to be a willing vessel as best I can. That's, that's really all. So that's what's got me excited. I want to talk more about it, and I could give you an idea, but it's going to be another podcast episode, so that's the reason why I'm being mysterious right now. Okay, we'll save that for another time.

Shed Geek:

No, this has been great. Thank you so much, Shannon. Well, appreciate you being on today.

OUTRO:

Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the shed geeks studio sponsor for 2025. If you need any more information about shed pro or about shed geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info at shedgeek. com, or just go to our website, www. shedgeek. com, and submit a form with your information and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.