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
Print Shop Dreams: Eagle Ridge's Expansion Story
Ever wonder why some shed businesses consistently outperform their competition? In this enlightening conversation with Caleb and Carson—the young, driven entrepreneurs behind Eagle Ridge Barn Builders—we discover their newest venture that might hold the key to superior brand recognition in the shed industry.
After successfully building Eagle Ridge into a sales powerhouse, these serial entrepreneurs recently purchased the print shop that had been supplying their company's merchandise. Now they're bringing their sales expertise to the printing world, offering everything from vehicle graphics and custom signage to professional apparel and marketing materials specifically designed for shed businesses.
The conversation reveals a startling reality about the shed industry: the widespread lack of proper signage and branded materials is costing businesses countless sales opportunities. "Someone drives by your lot, but can't remember your company name or number," Carson explains. "They Google 'sheds near me' and find your competitor instead." This simple scenario plays out thousands of times across the country, with shed businesses losing potential customers simply because they failed to make their brand memorable.
Caleb and Carson break down the crucial difference between marketing (generating short-term leads) and branding (creating long-term perception), explaining why professional-quality printed materials serve as multiple "touch points" before a customer decides to buy. From the psychology behind branded folders that keep your company visible in a customer's home to the technical differences between printing methods that ensure your brand looks professional for years to come, this episode delivers practical insights for shed businesses of all sizes.
Whether you're a one-person operation or managing multiple locations, the lessons in this episode could transform how potential customers perceive your business. Ready to elevate your shed business's professional image? This conversation is your blueprint for standing out in an increasingly competitive market.
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
Cardinal Manufacturing
NewFound Solutions
Identigrow
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CAL
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, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro 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, ShedPro, 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 to have these fellows back on today. You guys might know them from Eagle Ridge. We interviewed them a couple of years ago. Young driven, talented. A lot of things we can use to explain them, but serial entrepreneur might be the right term. It seems like they're adventuring out into different things. So, Caleb, Carson, tell me a little bit about what you're doing so we can get a good understanding of this new adventure.
Carson:Caleb, you go for it. You tell the story, I guess, of how we got into it. You were the one that kind of brokered the deal or made it happen.
Caleb:Okay, we used to, or we still own, the eagle ridge barn builders, our shed company, and we got all of our t-shirts, hats, signs and all that from. It was Texas Elite Printing at the time. Um, about a little over a year ago, the owner came up to me and he was like, hey, I'm selling out, I don't want to do this anymore. So, I told him well, let me think about it and maybe we can come up with a deal. So, a couple of days later, later, I proposed a deal to him. Um, he went with it. So, we bought the print shop, we built a new shop right beside eagle ridge and moved it in there and started from there.
Caleb:Um, it's been a year and like two months, right, Carson, something like that, yeah, and then we do I mean basically anything printing. We'll do like vehicle graphics, full vehicle wraps. We do business cards, apparel, t-shirts, hats. We'll also do like flyers, brochures and then, obviously, signs. It's been about a year and two months and we want to expand a little bit into the shed world and see if we can serve the shed world a little bit more.
Shed Geek:Yeah, it makes a lot of sense because, no, no one's really you know loudly at least taking that space right like no one's came in and said, hey, uh, I'm sure you need apparel. What about all your? I mean think about all the haulers, you know, and things like that. I mean, uh, I've seen some people wrap their the mules and things like that. I know the challenger. At one point they were talking about specifically putting on the company's name whenever they ordered it.
Shed Geek:There's just a lot of stuff out there, but everybody pretty much orders cups, shirts, hats, I mean those kind of things are. I don't know if you guys can see I may have Eagle Ridge one behind me, I'm not sure but these are all cards and cups and different things. Glasses I've just kind of collected over the years. I've got I'm going to go on record and say I've got the biggest shed hat collection out there. I've probably collected over 200 hats from different people around the industry at this point. So, uh, everybody needs these, though they give them to their customers, right, Carson, I mean, like you send someone out with a cup after they buy or whatever you know. Um, what will that? What would that look like? What are, what are the details on it?
Shed Geek:like you know, are you guys able to design that, or do they need to design it and send it to you? Like what's the process look like right now?
Carson:So, we have a couple different. I mean, if you come to us, you already have your logo, everything. You can just send that over. We basically approve it. Make sure it fits on the product that you're putting it on. If it's a shirt, hat, you name it. But we do also have two people that do art for us. But we do also have two people that do art for us.
Shed Geek:Meaning you can come up to us with what I call a sketch on a napkin or a yellow legal pad, whatever, and then we will draw it up for you, do all the graphics on it, send it over to you, get you give your approval and then we send it into as far as into production. So, you guys will have to educate me on the print world. I've got a couple of friends, uh, that I've had make some Shed Geek apparel and they're good friends. I'll stay good friends. But who knows, maybe we can start getting some shed geek apparel from you guys or something like that. But, uh, what is it? What all does it entail? Because there's a, there's a difference in print. And then, oh gosh, but you guys know, I've been in a hospital all last week my brain's fried, so I forgive me if I'm forgetful, I'm still get my feet under me. But there's a difference in, like, screen printing it on the shirt. But then there's a difference in embroidery. Uh, what are, what are all the different like aspects of things you do?
Caleb:So, there is a bunch of different ways you can do it. Screen print was one of the most popular ones, but they have a I call it a new version of its which is called DTF, the screen print. The problem we ran into that it's like a harder plastic. So, it's 15 to 20 washes and you'll start seeing the print actually like crack and peel off and fade and stuff like that. So, DTF is a little bit different, is a little bit different. It's actually a powder that when you heat, press it into the garment, it'll marry with the garment better and it'll last a whole lot longer than not the screen print. Now, if we're talking embroidery, that's a whole. It's another game. Obviously, it's more expensive. It looks a little bit better, in my opinion, a little bit more professional. So, if you're doing like a polo shirt, I would 100 recommend embroidery. Um, if you're just doing like t-shirts to give away or for your guys in the shop to wear, I do the DTF, but for more high-end apparel and hats.
Shed Geek:I would definitely recommend the embroidery. Now, do you guys do like what's that popular hat? Richardson hat, isn't that like the one that you see a lot of times?
Caleb:Yeah, yeah, the Richardson 112 is super popular and it's one of the ones we sell the most. There's actually another brand it's a knockoff brand, it's called Auto 112, which if you put one beside the other, you will not see the difference and it's cheaper. I have had customers say that they do fade a little bit quicker, will not see the difference and it's cheaper. I have had customers say that they do fade a little bit quicker than the Richardson, but that's all we wear. This is actually one that I have on. It's the Auto 112. And you can't tell the difference between the Auto and the Richardson.
Caleb:But yes, the Auto and Richardson are the two hats that we sell the most.
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Shed Geek:And you can do a lot of different designs on that right, so like you can do the leather patch. I mean, it's just I don't know. There's so many options and I remember receiving so many options. I was like gosh, what do I do? There's a lot to choose from here, because they all look good options.
Caleb:I was like gosh, what do I do? There's a lot to choose from here because they all look good. Yeah, yeah, it just depends on the style that you want. So, we have, we need a leather patch, and with the leather patch we the patch is cut with a laser engraver so you can do a circle, you can do the pattern of your logo, I mean basically whatever you, and then it gets sewn onto your hat. And then there's also the traditional, like a white patch that we actually print on the patch and then sew the patch on, and then embroidery. Now we can also do the DTF print on hats as well. I am going to say that does not last near as long as your embroidery or leather patches yeah, there's, uh, I've definitely seen a lot of different options.
Shed Geek:So now, what do you? What do you do besides the hats, the shirts? You talked about wrapping vehicles, have you? Have you done some of those yet? For, like anybody in the shed space, I really want to see those. That those always look cool we did.
Caleb:We did one for Eagle Ridge a while back and um. But we have, we do, we do all of the like the Hill County Sheriff's Department. We're really good friends with them, so we do all their vehicles. We also do all the Johnson County Constable vehicles.
Caleb:Actual full wraps are not as popular anymore because at least in Texas because the sun bakes that wrap into the vehicle. Usually, the selling point in a wrap is like hey, you can change the color of your vehicle and when you're tired of it you can just pull that wrap off and do it again or keep the paint. Well, that's kind of true. If you get tired of it in about six months, if you wait a year or anything longer, that sun actually bakes that wrap into your paint and when you go to take it off that paint looks awful. So, what's really popular right now is just, like we call it either a partial wrap or like a lettering, like we'll put your logo, phone number, QR codes, um, even like a stripe. Like the eagle ridge vehicle, we did a stripe around the bottom and on the hood and stuff. So, a lot of people go that route and it's a lot more cost effective than not doing a full wrap so would it be.
Shed Geek:It's not fair to call it a sticker, but could you do like a partial, like a large sticker? Essentially, yeah, yep. Now is that put on with like what? Like 3m glue or like? What kind of like backing does it have on it?
Caleb:it is three. Well, there's a couple different um brand, but it's still the wrap material. Okay, we print on it and then we cut it to your, your shape or your size or your letters, and then put that on the vehicle.
Shed Geek:So, I could. So, I could order like a big Shed Geek like to put on my RV, like when we're going down the road. That way people see the, see the RV out and about, maybe they're curious about it or the QR. That's one thing I found out about billboards. It's like QR codes, it's, it's uh, they're not allowed to be put on billboards. I don't know you guys have probably run into this because people going down the road shouldn't be taking their phone and like trying to get the qr. I never thought about that because I don't know. I just figured a passenger would. Oh, and I wanted to say good on you to become friends with the Hill County Sheriff. Always a benefit to be friends.
Caleb:It is a benefit. It has saved me, and I know some of my partners have gotten us out of a couple pickles.
Shed Geek:Yeah, nothing wrong with that, Nothing wrong with that.
Shed Geek:So, no, I hear what you're saying on the wraps making into it. So, I've got my son-in-law, his parents do, and you guys that are friends with me on Facebook probably see this, you'll see me sharing they have an auto detail shop and they're just good friends of ours. We are co-grandparents so we get well, go out to eat and hang out some and uh, they have a, a, a shop where they're kind of starting to get into tent and uh, you know, they're doing like the finishes on cars and things like that, now that they haven't got into what you're talking about with wrapping the vehicle and all of that, uh, but I would imagine this would go well. Like I said, on the mules, on the on the trucks, on the trailers. I mean, there's just a lot of different things that you can do. Going beyond that, uh, I mean full, like you have like a full list. Uh, I mean, do you do business? Do you do different things?
Caleb:We do. We do business cards, brochures, door hangers, flyers, trifolds we have done as well. Like it's a folder and you can basically print whatever you want. You put your logo or thank you or whatever you want on it and then when a customer walks in and they get a quote, you can actually stick the quote in the folder and like your business card or whatever info, and hand them that. That way they're not looking at just a regular yellow folder, they're looking at your, your branding, on the folder that you give them. Gotcha.
Shed Geek:Sorry, I'm trying to think yeah, I used to have those. The first time I was selling sheds, we had those. The bifold folders looked real professional whenever you could put your information of the rto provider, phone number, access. Uh, you know our warranty department if you need to get a hold of us, um gosh, I don't remember a business card. You know you could just send them out with a printed off version of your order form and things like that. So, they, they had everything together. That that and the idea that just sets you apart a whole different level of professionalism for some folks that aren't doing it. And when you're a smaller company, you don't always think of these things. Maybe there's a larger company out there that their marketing department takes care of all that for them, uh, so they don't have to worry about it. But uh, for the smaller companies, just don't, don't think like that.
Carson:Maybe sometimes yeah, one thing I don't. We don't have anything to track it with, but kind of our idea with the folders. We started it with. Eagle Ridge was the first one we did it. But if we give a quote to them, they go down to say your competitor, well, they stick the quote into your folder, they set the folder on their table and every time they walk past it in their house they're gonna see Eagle Ridge or whoever's on the front page of it. I don't have any way of proving that it works, but yes welcome.
Shed Geek:Welcome to my world, Carson. Um, you know, I was telling you guys before this. I said I've had guys reach out and want to advertise or be on the show and I've had some guys tell me, like we came on the show we talked about our product and it made up for like half our sales for the whole year. And I've had other guys say I don't know, uh, no, no orders, so it's hit or miss. You know it's hit or miss between your product and all that. But I just read recently because I know you guys are real sharp on sales I just read recently where, like the new number, new number, because somebody just decided to come up with this, uh, is that four touch points? Uh, that people don't buy until at least four touch points, minimum?
Shed Geek:um, you guys are big on the follow-up process, so it's hard to know where the psychological breaks into that Carson of like,
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Shed Geek:The cool thing about digital is like you can track that right digitally with your leads and your facebook leads. You set up all your you know uh gmb's and your, your ga4s and you digitally track all that stuff, even with a QR code. Because typically if you just put like a bifold out there or trifold brochure, how do you know that that customer because they came and saw it were at a point where that's the deciding factor that made them want to call you? Or maybe you guys did a drip campaign. You reached out to them in emails, you know you just kept on it. You know, did a long automation funnel where they just constantly get an email from you, not bugging them but being present. Being present and when you're present it gives you an opportunity to do business because they think of you whenever it's time they see that Eagle Ridge folder sitting on the corner of the desk and like this is this is a hack that's not all salespeople are using.
Shed Geek:I like to say referrals are so underserved in our business that if you would do some kind of referral program where you could prove that they had to turn this back into you. I don't know if you guys listened to the Leon Martin episode. But he said they would print I think it was a $100 bill a fake $100 bill on the back of their business card and put their name on it. And if the customer brought that in they automatically got $100 off their shed. And I think the other person got like a $100 referral fee. You know, $200 for just something you could track on paper.
Carson:Yeah, on paper, yeah, and there's. There's one company that we did uh, like the brochures are basically a magazine with a catalog with their different models in there and like walk-ins to take that back with them. Like I don't know how it'll turn into sales, but people do actually pick them up and take them home to keep looking at it. Like digital website is good, you have to have it, but there is still something about picking a physical copy of something up or for me, I still enjoy that and actually looking through a magazine instead of just scrolling on Facebook or yeah, yeah, I mean, I agree, I, I, uh.
Shed Geek:You know, I still look forward to seeing all the shed publications come in the in the mail. When I get them, I'll read through them, you know, because I enjoy it. I think our industry enjoys it. I think that we're at a place in time where, from a retail perspective, we can't rely solely on one or the other. You know, analog is almost too old and digital is almost too new, and if you marry the two it seems to be a working relationship.
Shed Geek:For most people you could go to Walmart or your local grocery store now and order on the app, just have them bring it out to you. But there's still some nostalgia and enjoyment, and me and my wife going in and grabbing a buggy and like pushing it around, like we, we, we use both methods, though I really think you're onto something there. What is, what is it that makes that person like actually pull the trigger? And I think you're right. I think a lot of shed companies might miss the mark on that by not having that. Those folders laying around, magnets I've always heard magnets are a good one. I don't know if you guys do magnets, I'm sure you do.
Caleb:But we do we do.
Shed Geek:You have that sticking up there, man, people constantly see it.
Caleb:Yeah, so a lot of haulers actually use it Around here. We print a bunch of them for them. They have their DOT number or MC number or whatever on it and sometimes one truck goes down and they need to put it on another truck, so they just pull the magnet off and put it on the other truck. Now we do have to be careful with that, because we have had customers get magnets for their truck and the newer trucks are aluminum, so they come back to the like hey, this magnet doesn't stick to my truck. We're like well, it doesn't really work with aluminum, but as long as your vehicle is made out of steel, you're good, you're good, you're good.
Shed Geek:That's a good point. Yeah Well, everything's changing nowadays, right, it's almost changing faster than we can keep up with it, but there's still a place. There's still a place for all these, and this is what I love about what you guys are doing. I definitely want to make it a point to order some Shed Geek stuff and wear it on here and give you guys a shout out, and things like that. I think that'd be awesome. Um, where do you see this going? Uh, Caleb and Carson, is this, this gonna this gonna be your full-time gig? Are you guys still going to be barn guys or a mixture of both? Are you just a young and just uh?
Carson:love to be busy all the time, or what? No, the shed world is definitely still a part of it. I mean, where we want to see it going. The goal is to basically do the same thing we did with Eagle Ridge and grow a sales team out, grow it out that way. It took us about a year to figure out the jargon or lingo whatever you want to call it of a print shop. It's just as many acronyms and everything else that RTO and LDW as there is in the shed world. So, it took us a little bit to kind of wrap our heads around that. But what we're really focusing on right now is what we're building out is basically an online sales team and basically, I mean, build it, model it after what we built at eagle ridge is that's kind of the goal and then keep growing it and see where it ends up. Like there's not really a end plan to either sell it or anything like that. It's partly, as you said, serial entrepreneurs and we just stay busy.
Shed Geek:That's yeah and answering your phone is big key in the shed industry, right like service. You know people want people want customer service. They want someone to answer and if they can't offer a solution right now, make sure you stay on top of this until we can get to a solution. What you guys have done in the in the shed world has been pretty amazing and I'd encourage people to reach out to you and kind of see your process or follow you. I'll follow you on Instagram. I'll follow you on Facebook. I see your sales team getting together, you know, constantly and doing different videos and things like that, so is that kind of the same idea?
Carson:Yeah, kind of the same idea. I mean, right now the way we're starting out is basically you have I mean Caleb right now is doing it but straight up cold calling as sales fingers into it and then build the system out and whatever that takes. We don't know for sure what a system exactly looks like because there is some differences, but it is kind of fun to get back into the nitty gritty of a business and see what I can do, see what we can push, see where we can advertise. Yeah, it's fun.
Shed Geek:Caleb, what do you think would be the bread and butter? I hate to say it so insensitive, but what are the things that people most want from a print shop right now?
Caleb:If you're local. We get people's business. Usually, the first sale is always apparel. And then they come in to get their apparel and they see we do signs, they see we do vehicle graphics, they see we do business cards, all this other stuff. So, it's a little bit different than the shed industry because usually you sell a person a shed and I mean you. You might buy one or two sheds in your lifetime, so this is a little bit different.
Caleb:Like I said, we usually get to a customer with apparel that's how they start out and then they go to business cards, they get assigned for their storefront, they get their vehicle wrapped, they get their flyers, they get all this other stuff from us. Now it's different in every industry. We serve a lot of realtors around here and they do signs almost daily. They get a new, new property and so they want to sign design for that property, like they'll do the layout of the property and their logo and their information or the property's information. So, it's a little bit different depending on what industry you're in, but we can serve, we have something for pretty much any industry out there that is actively like marketing and doing that kind of stuff.
Shed Geek:Do you guys feel like one thing I noticed in the shed industry you probably do like the large vinyl signs or like you know, yeah, go ahead.
Caleb:So, we, we do vinyl signs, so we have flatbed printers. And that is one thing I have learned in this business is a lot of people will do only vinyl, so they'll buy the sheet, and they'll lay the vinyl on it on vehicles. That vinyl will fade, it will crack, it will peel. We have flatbed printers, so we directly print on the sign and it's a UV ink and then it gets a coat of UV clear, so you won't have the cracking, you won't have the fading, and you won't have the cracking. You won't have the fading, and you won't have the peeling on your sign.
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Caleb:So, the only downside to that is that our flatbeds only print up to a four by eight sheet. So, if you want anything bigger than that, we either have to like put it together like a puzzle, like print multiple pieces and then put it together. Now there is some people that don't like that, and they do want a five by ten sheet. So, in that case we do the vinyl on them. But we're very upfront with them, like hey. So, if you want anything above a four by eight in one single piece, it will be vinyl. It will not be printed. And don't get me wrong, the vinyl will last three, four, maybe even five years, sometimes it depends where it is, but it will never beat the print.
Shed Geek:One problem that I see in the shed industry is no signage. When you drive by lots, we're on the road a lot. We just made a trip Me and Cord did the brand strategist for Shed Geek we made a trip up to PA. We were up there for about a week Hitting all the different places along the way. It's amazing how many different shed lots you see. But I mean I kind of been around enough a lot of times to be like I know who Sheds those are based off the way they look. I've interviewed them. We went and, like looked at their sheds. It's like sometimes you can tell, sometimes you can't, just by colors or their shingles not shingled. You know what I mean. Like some, you certainly can't see their design from far away. What I'm probably the most surprised at is the lack of signage. Like you just don't know, I don't have a phone number. I can just call right now on my phone, uh and, and get simple access to do. You guys see the same thing in Texas?
Carson:Yeah, there is a lot of people that, or even businesses everywhere that don't have signs. But I go past. Or comparing it to an industry that I think does a whole lot better than the shed world, is car lots Like. If you go past a place that has, even if they have 200 cars sitting on their lot, they have the hoods open with big signs in it that says sale or like we do. We just did an order not too long ago for a like a feather flag to stick out by the road that just it's red with white lettering, it says rent to own on it, just to catch people's eye, to make them look that way, because if the wind is moving something, it is going to catch your eye, it is going to make you look. But no, we used a strategy at Eagle Ridge for a while where we would change the feather flags out, like we had, say, four of them. For a while we had one color out there.
Shed Geek:Then we would change the color just to make like, have something different out there, to change it up, make people look again after they get used to it when I was opening up shed lots in Missouri uh, there's one north of Cape Girardeau near Jackson, uh, Missouri and we were doing the same things you imagine all people do we're looking at the traffic count, kind of getting an idea of how many cars came by there, if you play that psychology out. Why does it matter that a lot of cars come by? Oh, because a lot of eyeballs get on it. Oh, because that'll influence people who see it over and over and over again, over and over and over again. It's the same mindset behind why all of your grocery items in a retail store are faced, pulled to the front. Retail is equipped and set up to draw on that part of you, that impulsiveness. It says, hey, I'd like to either stop in by there or I'd like to look at that or that caught my attention or my interest. The same thing happens online. That's why we always say a website matters. And you guys are talking about good graphics. We've learned, you know, just how important like nice graphics are in comparison to just having a website anymore. Isn't good enough, it's got to be, you know it's, it's, it's got to be optimized, and it's got to look nice. It's got to have good you know flow and good you know call to actions and all that stuff on it. But, um, yeah, I'm sitting here thinking to myself like what's the call to action? When I was opening up those, this is this is where my thought came from.
Shed Geek:Carson, you said something about the car industry beating us. I was putting sheds on an old car lot and I asked the guy, like why would you give this lot up? Because, like, I saw where he was putting his cars and I was like this doesn't make any sense. He would give up this beautiful lot to us so that we can throw our sheds on there. And this is eight years ago, you know. And I was like why did you? Why are you giving this up? And he said, man, like this doesn't matter anymore. He's like I can reach them all online. I don't need this. Like you said, there's still an appeal. I mean, every car that I go by has their hoods open. They have these flags out. You know they have stuff getting your attention. I think it's fair to say we dropped the ball in the shed industry a little bit, but that's what you guys are offering as the solution. That's what you can help with. Um, pricing, yeah, what you pricing.
Carson:What you said a little bit ago about you kind of have to have both sides of it or it works good if you do is one thing about signs and graphics that I was always in the online. That's just what I learned, that's what I grew up with, so that's what I studied first and that stuff, and then you put it into a sign that is beside the road because we still get I don't know how many walk-ins a day do we get for sign stuff, compared to walk-ins for eagle ridge. I mean, I know it's a different industry, but, like for the sign shop, we get quite a bit of just people stopping and hey, hey, I saw you, I saw your sign outside, like just stopping in seeing. I want, like I have this idea, could you guys do it?
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Caleb:Well, even in the shed industry, in every town, at least here there's two or three shed lots in most towns and none of them have a sign. So, somebody is looking for a shed but it's like, yeah, there's a shed lot down at the corner. Well, you go down to the corner and there's three shed lots. Okay, which one do I go to? Where you go down to the corner and there's three shed lots, okay, which one do I go to? Now if there's a sign out there that says very clearly eagle ridge barn builders. He's going to be like go to the one, to the eagle ridge barn builder. You know they have a sign, their name is there. Like you drive by every day and that's what you see, you see their name. So, it kind of makes you familiar with that one versus the one that doesn't have a sign. I mean, you don't know what their name is, you don't know what the company name is or anything.
Shed Geek:Yeah, it happens a lot. I mean, I think that happens a lot of times when people go home and Google. They drive by a place and then they just Google like sheds near me because they know that shed's close to them but they don't remember the name. And then they just Google like sheds near me because they know that shed's close to them but they don't remember the name. You know there was no phone number for them to just quick write down or something like that. And you know, careful, because they may end up finding you know your competition is indexing on Google and whether they like your shed or not, they'll be like well, hey, here's some guys that do this too. Boom, you just lost a sale. You know, because you didn't capture that lead, you didn't capture what you needed from them, you didn't get their attention, it didn't create a sticking point.
Shed Geek:And Carson to your point. You know there's tools now that tell you where people are spending their time on a website. You know where's the hotspots, like, how long are you on this? Like, you know where do the parts they, they hover, where do they stay? Um, it gives you an indication of, like, what you need to do with your site, just like it gives you an indication of where you put your signs. Um, I think I think if you can deliver that for people, so they know where's the best place to put them, what's the best size, what's the best style, what's the best font, what's the best colors? You know like the best style. What's the best font, what's the best colors?
Shed Geek:You know, like we're big on branding guidelines you know, because of the reason that you're talking about, we love to be able to do branding guidelines for people and have everything all their vector files, all their whatever you need all in one little nice place. So, when they come to guys like you, they can say say we need some shirts for my new shed company. Here's my branding guidelines. Boom, you guys have all the fonts, you guys have all the colors, you know what area to operate in and you, you could tell them the best quantity or quality that you can get them because of the way their logo's set up.
Shed Geek:Hey, here's the best file. This is what you need, all that stuff, I mean, am I, am I right or no, you're?
Carson:you're exactly right, because one thing that I did not think about as much is like the different colors and when you go to design something to make sure that if you're driving by at 60 or 70 mile an hour, that you don't have a yellow on a white background because you'll never be able to read that. Or people come to us with a logo and, yeah, it works perfect on a big four by eight sign that you're putting out by the road. But if you try to take that logo and now put it on a hat that's being embroidered, well, that needle's decent size and it just won't work. So, like, I didn't understand that stuff before I got into it. But no, we can definitely help out as far as. Hey, yeah, this logo works if it stays this size. But if we try to do anything smaller on a hat or if you try to scrunch it in on a business card or something like that, it'll be basically colors, because you won't be able to see all the details.
Carson:Now we can help and like re, either recreate that logo or take some stuff off and just have part of it. But no, we can definitely help out with that. But if somebody comes with a folder already. Hey, this is our fonts, these are our colors, this is our logo. We love to work with people like that. I mean, we can figure it out for them as well, but it does. If you're because, as Caleb said, a lot of people will order this and then they'll have a couple months and then they'll order again, or if you kind of always have to build out something new or remember the colors, it can get confusing. But if you store that and keep that, it makes it a whole lot easier, makes the flow a whole lot easier.
Shed Geek:Yeah, sometimes you just don't think of these things when you're setting up a company, or you don't have the time to. Sometimes you see them as important because the truth is, if you could comfortably pay for all the services that you needed, the things that you needed and still make a profit and hit your marks that you were wanting to hit, then then it's no problem. But you know, you're, you're starting out, you're, you're dealing with a lot of different things. Uh, so you might not have those things on mind, but you, you have to walk it back after a while and figure out how important those things are. You know, white on, I mean yellow on white from a distance uh, we deal with that a lot when we do our digital ads and we'll have to get a digital ad on here for you guys, um, you know, we try to make those logos fit and for the people who are like, I don't know, this isn't really all that important, I would ask you and I was supposed to do a podcast on it last night with Peter Miller and Luke Miller and it was by my fault that I couldn't get it done because of my recent hospital stay but we're going to try to do that.
Shed Geek:If you don't think logos matter, think about what's hit your Facebook algorithm for the last week Cracker Barrel.
Shed Geek:No kidding, right it's all over your feed, it's everywhere you go. $423 million lost, you know, in stock. You know, just over, it's not really just over a simple logo change. I mean this is how important your brand is to your company. I mean, I think they took Uncle Herschel, or whatever his name, off of there and everybody revolted. They were like, oh, no way, you can't do that. You know you went woke, you know all the stuff, you know, whatever side you land on. I'm just saying it created a lot of attention.
Carson:Yeah, and one thing. One thing I have found out or the more I push in to learn about business, I still call myself young in the game but marketing and building a brand are two different things. Very much so. And that's the print shop sign thing comes more into building a brand or putting your brand out there than marketing, to building a brand or putting your brand out there than marketing. Uh like, they kind of go hand in hand. But there's like for eagle ridge barn builders. The brand is kind of the eagle like that's, that's the logo, that's on facebook, that's on signs, that's on everything. That's more. Yeah, the sign shop is more into the marketing I the branding side of it and not as much marketing. I mean, we try to get leads off of it and all that, but it's more of a visual thing to push than just trying to get 100 leads off of Google AdWords.
Shed Geek:I know you think I'm kidding, but this is how immersed I am in these worlds of just trying to learn. I took some screenshots this morning of some stuff I saw on LinkedIn from one of the guys I follow and it said most people think branding and marketing are the same. That's why their campaigns fail. This is literally what you just said. You know, branding equals long-term perception, marketing equals short term attention. You know branding is your emotional identity, marketing is tactical. I mean he just broke it down and went through all these details. And you know I would say, when your company's small, I've always joked and said when you're growing and your company's small, you're your chief marketer, chief sales officer, your chief repair person, your chief trash taker, outer. Like right, you do it all, you do it all and there's nothing wrong with that. But as your company grows,
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Shed Geek:You know, I was just reading recently where. What did it say? Like 80 something percent of. I wish I could cite these to remember exactly where I saw this. 80% of companies, you know, get stopped at 3 million in sales. And then there's another metric once you get to 10 million in sales, right, and those metrics continue to grow. And a lot of it's got to do with these things you're talking about and it's like well, hey, y'all own a print shop, how's that going to help me? This stuff all plays, it intertwines, and if it doesn't today, it will at one point in the future.
Shed Geek:And if you listen to the podcast, you'll go back and be like, oh, they tried to tell me, yeah, well, anything else that you guys uh want to share pricing, um, more more design work that you guys want to share pricing, more design work that you guys do. I'd like to get some of your stuff. Put some of the stuff on here. If you guys are watching it on YouTube, go back and check some of it out, because we'll throw some pictures on here of some of the design work. I'd like to rep some of your work and give you guys a shout out every now and then and really just hope that the shed industry even if you've already got somebody, that you uh take a look at it and consider it and if you don't have somebody, give these guys a call today.
Shed Geek:I can tell you that they're leaders in sales. Um, there is not a doubt in my mind. They are leaders in sales, online sales. What they've done, I'd put them up against anybody. It's a that's a top 10 organization. Uh, in terms of, like, how they've built a crew. You know, caleb, I'm going to call you out, caleb, I'm going to pick on you a little bit here, caleb said you know Caleb said I'm not much of a talker, so people say, well, how are you killing it in sales?
Shed Geek:Well, listen, I don't know that you got to talk a lot necessarily to sell. I'm going to tell you right now these Listen, I don't know that you've got to talk a lot necessarily to sell, but I'm going to tell you right now, these guys haven't figured out. They are dynamite, they're young, they're hungry and if you watch their process, I can promise you I will put my reputation on the fact that they're going to do good in this print shop, just the same as they've done in the shed world.
Caleb:I can guarantee it. Yeah, so you asked about pricing. We have a website Shop, elite Printing, and there is pricing on there for almost everything we do and you can go on the website and order straight from there either me or the shop. Somebody's going to answer. Um, and the reason I'm saying is because printing is so much custom stuff. Like you might go on our website and find a shirt that you think you like, but if you actually talk to us and we find out what you're exactly you're trying to use this for and we might be able to recommend something cheaper, we might be. We might tell you that no, that's not what you need. Like you need this more expensive one. So, I do recommend calling us and talking to somebody about it before you order, and that might vary your price. Um, like, the pricing on the website is just basic stuff. So, if you want something custom or you're not sure exactly what you need, I would recommend calling and actually talking to somebody. That way we make sure we get you the right thing for what you need.
Shed Geek:You're right on the money, Caleb. Just for this reason, we talk to people about building websites all the time, and what they want versus what their budget allows are two totally different things you know and if you're like, well, hey, I saw this and I want this.
Shed Geek:It's like, well, that's a, that's a very detailed site and it's got a lot of pages and it's hard for me to get all the information you need If we start going down that rabbit trail of like what you're trying to custom order. I've got to create a workflow that can answer all those questions on the website. That can start to increase the price significantly versus depending on what kind of information you're trying to get out there To me. I heard somebody say one time you know, you organize the resume in a way to get an interview and then you use the interview to get the job. Quit trying to get the job with the resume. Yeah Right, like you got to get in front of people and talk to people.
Caleb:And.
Shed Geek:I agree. I think if they call you they can get through that a lot better. I'll be excited about you guys' first shed customer. Maybe throw one out a cup or a hat or, who knows, some hoodies or some workers shirts you know shop workers shirts or some haulers gear or something like that. I'll be excited to hear about that.
Shed Geek:I'm hoping that it works really good for you. We're going to put a link at some point for you guys on our digital newsletter and I'll have Deanna get with you guys on the details of that. We'll put, we'll link this interview in there and we'll put a lead form on there. So, for all of you guys that go on and look at our um newsletter, the email whenever it comes out to you every time a new show comes out, go through and click on those different um uh links where it says uh down there at the bottom like uh supporters and all these different things. You can click on those things. A lot of times they take you directly to their website. You don't have to go search for it on your own. You can use Shed Geek as a resource to try to get you in contact with these people.
Shed Geek:A lot of times we'll have lead forms where you can just fill out a name, phone number, zip and email and it'll just automatically forward right over to Caleb and Carson. But, like he said, call. We'll put the phone number on there. Put it on there really big so you guys can just click on that call. You're on a smartphone.
Shed Geek:Most of the time all you got to do is click the button right then and let them know and that's important to me, Caleb, because that lets, helps, let me know that we're effective for you guys, that uh, people are, people are trusting the shed geek brand to bring you, uh, good content, but also help you know and who's running a shed place anymore that don't need some signage and I don't need business cards or don't need hats or shirts, or, uh, you know, I mean you want to get detailed, start wrapping your vehicles. That's cool, but uh, you know who doesn't need these things at this point to give out to your workers, to your uh, to your customers. So, I applaud you guys for what you're doing, and I already know that it's going to be successful, just because I know your work ethic more than anything.
Carson:So yeah, what you said about the shirts and hats and stuff like that. Uh, if you like, if you call in. Another thing that makes it a whole lot easier is we can do like packages. If you do like you do multiple shirts, you're doing multiple hats, or like we can save on shipping and stuff like that if we can bunch more stuff together instead of doing three shirts, sending that, a couple days later sending four more shirts. So, it gets a lot more cost-effective. If we can do a bigger package.
Carson:Say you have a new employee come in, you want to give him five shirts, two hats, a cup, this or that, we can put those together for you. Say you're running a booth at a county fair or something like that, we can get you signs, table covers, the tents, all that kind of stuff. So, we can put packages together. And there's it's a little bit, it's kind of a I don't know an art company like let your imagination run. We can't do everything, but there is a lot that we can do. There's a lot of products that we can put logos on that most people, people and before I got into it I never thought about it, like never thought about it it's interesting when you get into another world.
Shed Geek:Uh, we have people tell us all the time like there's these little machines that like move these sheds around, and we're like, oh guys, there's a whole, there's five barbecues where people get together every year just with all these equipment, things just to have, you know, fun and races and, uh, build community. And you know like there's a there's a whole expo around this every year. You know there's, there's podcasts, there's, there's you name it. I mean, like just one industry alone is very big, depending on how deep you want to get into it. And yeah, you guys have been. It's just been good to know you guys.
Shed Geek:I don't know, maybe four or five years now since we met and you are just young and motivated and killing it. And I know you are and hopefully I'll see you guys in October Planning on, at least right now, planning on coming to the bash, the shed hauler bash down there near Houston, and I know you guys are a little farther away, closer to Waco area, but love to come see you guys. Love to make my way around Texas as much as I can. That's a big state to cover, so can drive all day in Texas and still be in Texas yeah, now you're more than welcome to stop by.
Carson:We'll show you the. I mean, it's not exactly new, but it's still just a year old. But, yeah, we'll give you a tour of the, give you a tour of the print shop and, yeah, be happy to show you around again it's right there.
Shed Geek:It's right there on the property too. You said. Yeah it's right beside Eagle Ridge, okay, well, anything else that you guys want to share today before we get out of here. What's a good number? What's a good phone number for anybody who's listening?
Caleb:So, our website number I actually don't know it by heart, that's okay, but it's 817-849-5636. Perfect, and then if they want to talk to me, my extension is 107. But if you forget that, just call the shop, ask for Caleb, or I mean anybody that answers can help you.
Shed Geek:That's one thing I know about you guys is, like whoever, when someone calls, like they're going to get them to the right person, you guys are just. There's something to be said about that team effort that you guys do, getting everybody together, increasing communication, operating at a high level. You can choose to come in today if you're selling sheds, just take it easy. But, like, you guys have been successful enough to say we think we can take this to another industry and do good. And, by the way, how can we marry the two industries? Like we can become the shed apparel plus solution for all of the industry, if they choose to let us. That starts with a phone call. So, give these guys a call. Can't vouch for them enough. They're awesome, they're young, they're talented, they're driven and I know they aim to take care of their customer. So, for that reason, wish you guys lots of luck in this endeavor. I know that you're going to be successful in it.
Carson:Well thank you Kind words. I don't feel like that every day that I'm that good at it, but you make me sound better than I feel I am, so I appreciate it.
Shed Geek:Appreciate the humility I know you guys are doing good.
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