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
Diversify To Thrive In Rural Markets - PART 1
The shed world isn’t living in 2021 anymore, and that’s exactly why this conversation matters. We sit down with Tyler Mayhan of Better Barns to unpack what happens when an industry grows up: the easy leads dry up, product mixes shift, and the real work of building sustainable demand begins. From the early days of cordless phones on tool belts to a modern operation where large metal buildings now account for a major share of revenue, Tyler maps a clear arc from hustle to strategy.
We get honest about rent-to-own. It opened the door for buyers who couldn’t write a big check, and in Oklahoma it still drives a hefty share of sales. But the monthly-payment mindset can also compress margins and tilt designs toward “good enough.” Tyler offers a balanced view: keep RTO because it serves customers, but don’t let it set your whole roadmap. We explore why traditional financing is slower to catch on in rural markets, how demographics and density shape adoption, and what a resilient offer looks like when you sell across cash, RTO, and finance.
The biggest shift is digital. Craigslist had a moment. Facebook Marketplace had a bigger one—until saturation and algorithms made it unreliable. The strongest buyers now arrive through Google to a fast, clear website with real SEO, clean product pages, and simple conversion paths. We talk through rebuilding a site, connecting forms to a CRM, treating online inquiries with the urgency of a phone call, and designing for two realities at once: older buyers who want a human on first ring and younger buyers who prefer forms, text, and self-serve configurators. Add a smart take on verticalization—what to bring in-house, what to leave to specialists—and you have a playbook for staying relevant as the shed industry evolves.
If this conversation helps you sharpen your sales mix, rethink your website, or revisit how you use RTO, share it with a colleague. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: where are you seeing the best quality leads right now?
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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro
Cardinal Leasing
Digital Shed Builder
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Welcome back to the Shed Geek podcast. I'm your host, Cord Koch, filling in for Shannon Latham, and I am joined today here by Tyler Mayhan, uh General Manager, um uh Marketing Director, uh fill in all your roles, author, fill in all your roles for me there, Tyler, over at uh Better Barns in Oklahoma.
Tyler Mayhan:Yeah, thank you, Cord. Uh man, yeah, I've been at Better Barns uh since 2003, and I tell people they hadn't found anything that I could do that I was real good at, so they moved me around a bunch, but they hadn't found it in their hearts to fire me yet. So, uh yeah, I've been general manager for a period of time, and then uh the company outgrew me. Uh I also teach our church's school, and so uh the school has always come first, and Better Barns has been very accommodating about that. Uh but when I first started being general manager in 2015, uh, you know, the company was at a size I could I could manage a lot of the operation and not necessarily be there every day uh and still be able to stay kind of on top of everything. Uh by the early 2020s it had grown uh substantially, you know, four times, five times the size it was in 2015. Uh and so, we just it didn't make sense for me to continue as general manager. It was you know, we kind of laughed about me being general manager. So, I moved more into the marketing director role and uh still oversee the sales team somewhat and work with another guy to over to see our sales team and oversee our marketing.
Cord Koch:Right, right. Yeah, actually, Tyler, I went back and um I listened to I believe it was April of 21, which um ironically, as I kind of step into uh you know filling in for Shannon for a little bit, I believe that you were one of Shannon's first three or four interviews back in April of 21. Uh yeah. And uh and what I what I really enjoyed going back and listening to that. Of course, I wasn't uh in the shed industry at that time, I was in franchising, um uh actually uh a mobile automotive service, but I think the dynamics were much the same uh in franchising as it was in sheds, which was it was a boom time, right? Um it was growing. Um in the franchise world, uh, you know, franchise locations were opening up in the shed world, from what I've been told and the sort of narrative that I've heard, you know, since I've been in sheds, sounded like boom time, dealer locations opening, expansion, uh lots of uh expansion of total sold units, but also of revenues, obviously. Uh, and I really thought your insights back then were really good. I think maybe a good place to start today is you know, give us just an update uh on how you see uh better barns, obviously, and your first- hand perspective, but um what's going on since April of 21 in the shed industry, Tyler? I know that's a big question, but uh I know you've got a big mind, a big mind to fill the space there.
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Tyler Mayhan:Well, uh, so at Better Barns, Cord, you know it's funny because when we started, uh, you know, the company was founded in 2002. I come on in 2003. Uh and we were just a shed builder, you know. I mean, that's all we did. We had dealers like you're talking about, and we just were the manufacturer. Uh and over time that changed. Uh, you know, in the early days, uh, it was just my brother-in-law, Vance, as a lot of folks in the industry know him, Vance Wright. Uh he founded the company and he did all the deliveries. Uh, we worked in those early days, we worked with a cordless phone. This was before cell phones were quite as big a deal as they are today. Uh, worked with a cordless phone clipped onto our tool belt, you know, and uh any sales calls that came in, we you know stopped building the storage building long enough to answer the phone. Right, right. And uh so you know it's kind of a crazy, crazy thing to watch the industry grow. Uh and I know uh my understanding of the industry, and I uh I know I could be wrong, but it seems like that the industry was much more mature back east than it was in our part of the country. Uh so you know, in those days there were people that have been building sheds for a long time, you know, back east, but in Oklahoma, there was nobody that I knew of that did this thing, you know. And so, watching it just transform over time, Better Barns has transformed dramatically. Uh we used to do all that and just be a shed manufacturer basically, and did our own deliveries and stuff and a few sales just out of our, you know, just out of our manufacturing plant. Uh really in the past 10 years we have uh sheds have uh as a share of our overall business sheds have shrank quite a lot. Uh and we actually do a lot of big metal buildings now. Right, right. Probably about 40 to 50 percent of our overall revenue is are the big metal buildings now. Uh sheds have just shrank, you know, over time. It's been a lot of competition moving to Oklahoma since we started. Uh and so there's just been a lot of changes. So as far as how I see the shed industry, I I think there's still a lot of life there. Uh I don't think we've reached the end of the of the life cycle of the industry by any stretch. You know, I think there's still a lot of life there. I do think, and uh, I don't know what all we'll get into today. So we'll I may open up several cans of worms here for you.
Cord Koch:Go for it. We'll go fix it. That's right. There you go.
Tyler Mayhan:So, I do think that the uh I think rent to own has been a game changer in the industry. Uh so Better Barns was the first company to be licensed to do rent to own in Oklahoma. Uh we actually uh, as I mentioned, my brother-in-law started the company, but my father-in-law uh was very involved as well. And uh he actually got involved with the state legislature here in Oklahoma because the rent-to-own laws that were on the books basically were written for you know a place that's renting a uh a washing machine or a TV or recliner, what have you. And it just didn't make sense with the shed industry rent-to-own. And so he actually went there and helped them get some laws on the books that governed what we do more accurately. And so uh, you know, I've been around the rent-to-own site. I worked for our uh Better Barns has uh some rent-to-own companies in-house, and I've worked with those uh pretty closely. And so I think there's been some good with that, but with the Tyler, go ahead.
Cord Koch:Just kind of catch up, I think a lot of the listeners kind of understand how the rent-to-own dynamics kind of cut north to south or even east to west. But over in Oklahoma, as you're kind of in that middle, middle of the country area, I mean, how big is rent-to-own or even potentially finance when it comes to just using those as tools to get the actual sales across the board? Um are those 10%, 20%, uh, 30% of what you're looking at similar to kind of in the south, or is it does it tend to be closer to that you know five to ten that we see when we get uh more northern and more western? What's the dynamic out there?
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Tyler Mayhan:Sure. So yeah, for years, uh for several years, our shed sales run about a 40-60 split, 40 RTO and about 60 you know cash. Right. Uh it's been the way it's I haven't checked it this year, so I don't know, I can't speak to this year, but the trend has been extremely consistent for years. Uh so yeah, so that some of what I see in the rent-to-owned world, uh and I'm not anti-rent-town, so don't take this that way at all. Uh, but I do think it has done some damage to the manufacturing side. Uh those companies, I think it has artificially impacted the pricing of the sheds to uh to somewhat hamper some of the manufacturing uh pro profitability, if that's making sense.
Cord Koch:Uh because it's such a price, because it's such a monthly payment-based is that is that kind of you feel like it's holding those prices down because you're shooting for that monthly payment.
Tyler Mayhan:I do. And the other thing I have seen, and again, this is you know, my perspective is from Oklahoma, and so I know I'm not seeing everything, but it seems like it has also somewhat, at least at times, slowed down the innovation of the manufacturers, because here at least, uh the smaller, cheaper, more basic sheds are the ones that we're aiming at rent-to-own because that's the market that gets those. Um and because so much of the money in the shed industry comes directly from the rent-to-own side, at least in our part of the world, it seems like manufacturers have built for the rent-to-own side, if that makes sense. I'm hoping I'm making sense. No, of course. So, yeah, that I think it's a two-edged sword, just like just like every other sword there is, uh, you know, it always got positive and negatives. Uh, but I think overall, I would say the rent to own I think it has been good overall. I really do. Uh, you know, I my friend Richard Miller has put out some really good content in the past. I think even maybe one of these podcasts with Shannon, uh, given his testimony about rent to own. And uh, you know, I know there are a lot of people that need this product that could not afford the cash outlay to just purchase it. And it has, you know, it's impacted lives in a real way. And so, uh I'm pro rent to own, but I'm not blind to the negatives.
Cord Koch:Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Do you see um in your experience? I know that there's been a lot of talk about finance, you know, a more traditional, you know, finance structure coming in and shaking up a little bit of that dynamic as well. Of course, we always want to continue to offer more options, you know, to the customer, uh, more ways to buy, more ways to fit whatever their situations are. Have you seen that start to happen out there? Uh, it's one of those things that feels like uh similar to uh the rest of the industry, where maybe it starts in the most developed parts of the industry and kind of works its way outward. What are you seeing in Oklahoma when it comes to that kind of extra uh extra avenue uh for purchase, the finance route?
Tyler Mayhan:I don't see it real prevalent here yet. Uh not saying it doesn't exist, but it seems like the rent to own is still uh the vast, vast majority of what we deal with here. Yeah, a lot of people, you know, I know we're in a different part of the country, you know, everybody in the industry lives, you know, different places, but in Oklahoma, you know, I went back and visited some family in Virginia sometime back. Actually, I think it was when I went to the expo in Richmond.
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Tyler Mayhan:But you know, you drive along there and there's old, beautiful, old country churches, you know, that are just it's just a beautiful part of the country, I think. And those, you know, the Shenandoah Valley and stuff is just so pretty. And you see old churches and old barns and things that are really old. I don't know how old they are, but they're really old. You know, a couple hundred years. Right. At least. And come to Oklahoma, we don't have anything like that. You know, we've been a state for a little over a hundred years. Uh, and so the whole, you know, a big portion of our population left in a dust bowl a hundred years ago. Uh and the only ones that stayed were the ones that were too poor to leave. And so, you know, our whole the whole culture here in Oklahoma, it seems like that the nature of the people that live here, uh they're very gritty, very uh do what they can with what they have type people. And so, I think that shapes a lot of like I mentioned on the rent-to-own and the you know the cheaper buildings and all that. I think that shapes that. And the other part of that is Cord, we just don't have a lot of population here to pull from. Right. You know, I mean, a huge percentage of the population of the U.S., it's like 75%. We have east of I don't remember what parallel it is, but it goes right up through Oklahoma City. Right. And it's like there there's so many more people back east to pull from. And we just here in Oklahoma, it's just a lot, it I think there's a lot of different dynamics. And so I realize that some of what I'm saying probably doesn't pertain at all to some of the guys back east.
Cord Koch:Well, except I think that when it comes to competition, which to your point, you know, as the as it has, I like the phrases that you used way back in in April of 21, where you described it as um you've been in the shed business since it was a collection of businesses. Right. Right. You know, and now it's now it's an industry and an industry that is still maturing and everything else. But as that competition goes up, I think there are a lot of people who wind up uh operating in markets, whether it be uh you know uh their newest dealer location or expanding. You know, you always want to try and fill the geography, right? And to me, I think there are a lot of uh manufacturers out there who are operating in markets that do have low population, uh where the where the, as we all know, uh it's the urban areas and the suburban areas are the ones that are getting the influx of uh immigration, uh not immigration meaning international necessarily, sure, you know, from within their own state, even or bordering states. Um but I think that there are a lot of people who are uh competing in the more rural, uh sparse populations. And to me, your point about even just the product mix changing over time, you know, I think that's that is something you know I know that that Shannon has um really been focused on is making sure that Shed Geek doesn't stay too narrow, right, and doesn't think about carports, doesn't think about post-frame, doesn't think about metal, um, because all those things are becoming more and more prevalent as people are competing in those markets where you just have to offer more to be able to justify that sort of business operation, right? Um, so um I think that a lot a lot of people, even if they're different geographically from Oklahoma, are doing the same thing. Um that sort of that brings me to you almost are following my notes here. Uh it's like great, you know. I don't know if we're great minds, but certainly minds that think alike. Um I had the financialization as the first little uh bullet point here on the maturation of the industry. And the second bullet point, which you kind of already touched on, um is the digitalization. So, I know for you, you wound up taking on some more of those uh advertising, marketing, sales roles as the industry has become more digital. Um, I was hoping maybe uh you could just kind of do a little bit of uh what's your take on that? I mean, I know um it has certainly become more integrated into the industry, but there's still you know an education piece to it, making sure people understand. But how do you see those digital leads versus the more traditional going back 15 or 20 years, uh those kind of more traditional leads? What do you think? Man, uh big question.
Tyler Mayhan:Yeah, first of all, I'll just say, Cord, I know you're filling in for Shannon, but you're doing the same thing he does. You're you're getting big questions open for me. So so bear with me while I answer it. It may take me a minute.
Cord Koch:Of course.
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Tyler Mayhan:So okay, my I told you my father-in-law helped start the company. So my father-in-law has been an entrepreneur since he was 17 years old, started his first business. That's all he's ever done is start businesses and run businesses. He told us that you know, in the early days, back in the 80s when he was doing this, 70s and 80s, he would go to the yellow pages and take out a full page ad, and that's what fed him for the year. Just a full page in the yellow pages. So, I don't know how many people are still doing that. I and it may still be getting them some business, but I just don't think so. You know, and and so when we first started, uh you know, when when I was first involved in any kind of marketing, and it hasn't been that long ago, it was in 2015. So, you know, it wasn't just in the stone age for you young people listening. Uh but we did a few little print ads. We have two or three different electric co-ops here in the area, rural electric co-ops, that put out a monthly newsletter, and we would put out, like in each one, we made sure we sent them a little ad every month, right? Two or three little, and it was basically a classified ad. Some of you know what I'm talking about, you older folks listening to uh and those kind of things. I mean, we never saw hundreds of sales off of that, but every month there would be a trickle of sales come in off of just that. But as times have changed, you know, even in the last 10 years, we just dropped that. We don't do that anymore. I'm not saying you shouldn't, but it just it wasn't worth our time to continue that. And so for a period of time, I was I was there during this time. It was like all you had to do was post something in Facebook Marketplace, and you were good, right? Like your sales guys just make sure you're posting the marketplace every you know few days, share some stuff in some of your local buy-sale groups, do some of those things. Uh let me rewind a little bit, Cord. I jumped too fast.
Cord Koch:Yeah.
Tyler Mayhan:In between the you know, a few little print ads, and even in like newspapers and stuff, in between there, where there's Craigslist, Craigslist. So Craigslist was huge. You could post for free uh in Craigslist back then, and we posted hundreds of ads every month in Craigslist, and you know, just in all different kinds of categories. And they didn't have to be very good ads because it was just free, and you could just throw them on there and hope you caught some stuff. Uh then Craigslist changed and started charging uh for ads, and so then you had to kind of, you know, because we were doing hundreds of them, man. Just you know, so we kind of tightened them up, picked our best ads, kept those on the platform. Uh, but then when Facebook Marketplace really got big, um catch back up to myself now. Sure. Uh when it when it got big, Greg's list kind of died, and it kind of was the same thing as what had happened before. And so with Facebook, we got it was like 90 some odd percent of the business that we got that wasn't just people that lived locally that drove by, yeah, come from Facebook. And it was like that was our lifeline for probably two or three years. And then if you haven't been around Facebook for a long time, uh and you're just getting into it, and you find something that works, that's wonderful, but it won't work next month, right? Uh, you know, they it changes constantly. Uh and so we got to the place where it was like we would I remember when I first started posting on Facebook and we had I don't know 1,500 followers or something like that on our Facebook page. And it I was so proud of how many followers we had built, you know, from scratch. Uh and I would post something and it would get four or five, six hundred views. It was just wonderful. Well, now I mean I I don't know, I think we're over five thousand now, uh maybe close to six thousand. And followers. And when I post something, if it gets a hundred views, I've really done something. Maybe everybody else has got it all figured out and you're getting thousands of views. I'm just talking about organic posting on the Better Barns page.
Cord Koch:They've changed that algorithm to match similar to uh TikTok or Facebook Reels, or you know, it's a very interest-based algorithm, right? So, followers, uh, and like you're saying, it's one of these things where you feel like you worked for years to you know to build up this base, uh, especially for local business, this base of local people who are your best customers. Yes. And then before you know it, that that big base of people that should be able to hear what your business is saying, it just skips right past them, right? Right. Goes right past their ears. Um, and so yes, I totally agree with you. And you know, the it's almost like that. I mean, I know Marketplace obviously is still very um active, super active. Sure. I would say saturated to the point where like not just for sheds, but for anything, um, it's hard in some ways to even connect. So, I bought my first motorcycle on Craigslist, right? Um, whenever I was 19 years old. So, it was still that was still the thing then. And then, like you say, marketplace, but you know, I'm not sure that there really is a true equivalent for that serious buyer who really wants to go, like it feels like marketplace has become so oversaturated that people don't even view it as a genuine place to shop right now. They just kind of view it as a place to look almost. Um anyway, I didn't mean to I know you're still going there, but that's just like there's not an equivalent anymore to like it. Used to be the trader paper, right? Right. Trader paper, Craigslist, marketplace, and like I feel like that void of serious shoppers um just doesn't have a place to go right now. But go ahead, Tyler, keep on.
Tyler Mayhan:Oh, I think you're spot on, Cord, on that. So when Facebook started dying off, you know, that I was involved, very involved with our marketing. And there was a time when marketing a shed was as simple as taking a few good pictures and posting it on marketplace. That was like you could say you were the marketing guy if you did that, you know. And uh, but it's just not that way, at least here in Oklahoma, it is not that way at all anymore. We still post a marketplace, we still share in groups, we still do all the stuff, maybe to a slightly lesser degree, but we still do all that that we were doing when it was high and high. But uh, I think really, and you were asking about the digitalization of the of the industry, and so what I have seen in the last few years, uh the vast majority, I would say for sure the last two or three years, the vast majority of solid leads that we get that come in digitally come in through Google to our website. And so uh I know there's some platforms uh out there that you know uh and I don't know, I don't want to get in trouble by saying names of platforms, so I don't Oh no, no, not for me.
Cord Koch:Okay, well I don't have any supervision, Tyler. Okay.
Tyler Mayhan:So, you know, I know I've got Shed Hub and some different ones uh that that have kind of taken this idea that you're talking about having a place for serious shoppers to come look at sheds. I think that's a great idea. And if you're using those, that that's the and having success. I know there are people that are. What we have found, at least in our market, is that we had far more success simply concentrating on our website itself and maximizing what we can do with it. In fact, we just rolled out uh we've been working for months on uh on a brand new website, it's still the same location, but just totally overhauled our website. And we just rolled that out this week, in fact, uh, to try to improve some things that need to be improved and and a few different SEO type uh type things. And so with us, we we're using a CRM, uh it's HubSpot, is what we use, uh and everything connects to the website, right? So, fill the contact form, it goes into HubSpot, signed to a rep. And those people that take the time to do that, we that's the highest value we have. Uh we place that right up there with a phone call.
Cord Koch:Uh we feel like you're are you doing are you doing, I presume you have 3D builder. Are you also doing in stock on your website? What do you find are the best because I agree with you at this point? People have to own whatever the platform is, you know, as much as possible. You need to own whatever the platform is that's bringing those leads in, because to your point, you could have it figured out on Facebook, but Facebook owns it. So next month they could change the way that that structure or that inflow kind of works. So tell us about what your strategy was there on the on how to kind of get people into those different lead funnels on your website.
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Tyler Mayhan:Yeah, so so we have, you know, we have the contact form uh very prominently uh posted. You want people to know how to get in touch with you. There are still there's still enough people, the segment of population, uh, the generation ahead of me uh that want to call you.
Cord Koch:Yeah.
Tyler Mayhan:And so you gotta you gotta answer the phone. Uh that's a mantra that we've preached here for years is don't ever miss a phone call. Always enter the phone. And so, you're gonna have that. And so, we've you know, we got our phone number on our website because there's you know a lot of people that that's what they want to do. Clickable, right?
Cord Koch:Clickable to where as soon as you touch it, your phone app launches so that it's just a simple one touch. Yeah, exactly.
Tyler Mayhan:You gotta have that because there's enough of the population that that's what they want. They want to talk to a human, and they don't want to call and press one and two and three. I'm just telling you. Okay. If you've got that, uh you may have that, and I'm not upset at you if you do, but I just want to tell you that segment of the population, they do not want to push one, two, and three. They want to call and they want to talk to Susie or whoever, you know, they want to talk to a person. Uh, and so we have tried to structure our website and our our online presence to where those people, if they find us, can can get in touch with us easily. But then there's the people that are my generation. You know, I told my wife, I don't ever intend to go to a store and buy clothes again ever. I hate it. Yeah, I hate going to buy clothes. It takes half a day, and you gotta go try this and that and something else on, and I just despise it. I I won't do it because I just order my clothes on Amazon. They get here, if they don't fit, I ship them back. It's simple, you know.
Cord Koch:And you can have that experience in your in your own bathroom and closet versus in uh a little stall where you're you know, whatever. Yeah, hey, I'm I'm with it. I'm a big guy, so I've never stopped it. I'll just tell you that.
Tyler Mayhan:Yeah, so you know, people in my generation, there's a there's a whole difference, and I think this is something, and okay, stop me if I get too big a picture here, but a lot of people in the industry, my father-in-law is one of them, he's old school, okay. The phone is the most important thing to him, and I just told you we accommodate that because I know there's a lot of people like that. And I think there's a lot of people in the industry that are business owners that are still have that old school mindset, and there's value in that. But I want you, if you're in that generation, I want you to hear this young whippersnapper here. I'm almost 40. I want you to hear me say that that generation is about the only one left that operates that way. Yeah, most of the younger people they don't want to talk to somebody. They want to fill a format and text you back and forth, and they would just be fine with no human interaction. That's good, bad, or indifferent. That's just the way a lot of them operate. And there was a time we don't spend a huge amount of money marketing 20-year-olds because our products typically are not what they're after. They're not the demographic we're chasing, but they will be very soon. Like, you know, give them another 10 years, and that's the demographic, they'll be in their 30s, and that's who we're gonna be after. And so, the market is changing, I think, pretty rapidly to where most of what's happening is happening online. Yeah, and it's happening through an attractive website that's easy to follow, that they know exactly what they need to do in order to get in touch with you. I think you're gonna see more and more e-commerce uh with people actually purchasing sheds online. I know that's happening. It's not happening a whole lot in Oklahoma that I have seen, but I do know it's coming. And I think, you know, for those of you that own a business, if you're still clinging to the idea that everybody's gonna call me, you're gonna lose some of this new market that is opening up as people, my generation and younger, come into the market for our kind of products. So just, you know, I know it's hard. I'm like I say, I'm almost 40, and it's hard for me already at this point in my life. I'm comfortable with who I am and where I am, and things are changing, and I don't like it. You know, it's uncomfortable. And so, I can see how in another 20 years I'm gonna be like the old guy shaking his fist and telling the young guys to get off my lawn, you know, and so I understand it's hard to change, but it is just it's necessary if your shade company is gonna survive in this world.
Cord Koch:Yeah, and you know, I see too um both that younger generation that's just going to grow up with everything at their fingertips, right? I mean, it already is, but they're going to have that digital consumer uh mindset their entire life. But I'll even say, um, you know, so my mother, uh, she's uh gosh, I guess she just turned 60. Um, right? So, I mean she's in that sort of one generation um, you know, ahead of us. Um not a not a uh a baby boomer, but uh oh gosh, now I'm gonna forget what they call that. Gen X, maybe anyway. I don't know. Yeah, I don't either. I don't either, but either way, she's like one lower than that baby boomer generation. And her uh she has adopted a lot of the convenience of that sort of online consumer, right? So, she does the uh and I just noticed this whenever I was talking to her on the phone a couple months ago, um, and she was sitting, while I was talking to her, she was sitting outside of Walmart waiting for them to bring her groceries out, right? Right because she did the online pickup, and I know that became popular during COVID, but a lot of these um, you know, a lot of even the older generation has slowly adopted some of those very low-level uh you know online consumer, digital consumer activities. And like you're saying, you know, it's all these things are marginal, right? Year by year, there's a few more digital consumers and a few less kind of in-person consumers, right? Um traditional consumers. But as that year by year ticks by, you know, that one or two percent difference in whether or not you're maximizing your digital channels starts to add up to 15 and 20 percent, right? Sure. And that's the difference in business. Um, you know, so I very much agree with you on those things. Um one of the one of the other um topics, avenues here that that seems to me to really uh be significant when it comes to the maturing of an industry is the way that now a lot of the verticalization, um, which I would even say uh in your case, right? The fact that that basically you stepped into the role of digital marketer, right, to me says that that a lot of companies out there are thinking about how to control, how to have an in-house team that would that would do some of the roles of these vendors, which to me is just uh one of those classic signs of maturation of an industry where you actually say, you know what, we've grown big enough that economies of scale-wise, it actually makes sense for us to do these things in-house. Um, are there are there some activities like that um that you've seen or Better Barns specifically, or even I know you're a student uh of the industry as well, um, and it feels like that verticalization both in-house and even you know, as we get to the broader industry, uh, even in in acquisitions or mergers, seems to be a direction that's kind of coming on. What do you how do you see some of that stuff, Tyler?
Tyler Mayhan:Uh yeah, I think you're right on that. I think there's a lot of that where companies do just take on more and more things, you know, that they feel like they can keep in-house. Um there's always gonna be a trade-off where you know, the whole reason we have a society that works is because there are people that are good at some things and you pay them money to do that thing, right? Right. And so, there's there is some value. Uh one thing I think I have seen even in better barns, uh, is sometimes if you're not careful with this this idea of trying to do more and more things vertically, is sometimes if you're not careful, you don't do it nearly as well that some as somebody that specializes in it.
Cord Koch:Right.
Tyler Mayhan:And so you end up maybe you save a little bit of money, but you leave a lot of the potential uh that that somebody that was really good at it could have brought to you. Uh, you know, we do our own rent-to-own at Better Barns. Uh not a hundred percent of it. We share some of it with a couple of other rent-to-owned vendors, but uh, you know, we felt like that was something we could do, and we have staff that that oversees that, and that has functioned, I think, pretty well. I think uh that would be something I think we have done well at.
Cord Koch:How long have you been doing that, Tyler? I know you mentioned that earlier, but when do you yeah uh 20 years, probably 20 years. Yeah, early adopter of in-house art.
Tyler Mayhan:Yeah. Yeah. Uh in fact, that was uh like I said, we were the first ones in Oklahoma license to do it. And it's it was it was very early on in the company. I don't know exactly. I could be off by two or three or four years, but it was a long time. Yeah. But my father-in-law was doing the same idea. He started building portable buildings in New Mexico back in the 90s, uh and as part of a way bigger business that he did all kinds of construction, uh, and basically just kind of with leftover materials from home building and stuff, started throwing together a few storage buildings, and so he would sell those on payments similar to what we're doing today back in the 90s. So, he's been doing it a long time.
Cord Koch:Hey, thanks guys for listening to part one of two of the Shed Geek podcast. We will be back next week for the conclusion of our conversation.