Shed Geek Podcast

STEEL KINGS: Sourcing for success starting and maintaining a successful post frame business starts with how you source it

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 6 • Episode 8

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Ready to grow post-frame without drowning in delays, backorders, and blown quotes? We sit down with Josh Nowlin—former crew hand turned executive leader at Burrows and current NFBA vice president—to map out a cleaner way to sell, schedule, and actually finish buildings on time. The conversation is blunt and practical: sales volume doesn’t matter if installer capacity and material logistics aren’t locked. Josh breaks down why the builder shortage persists and how NFBA’s new curriculum brings post-frame into trade programs so more young pros discover a lucrative path with real ownership potential.

From there, we dig into the supply chain that lets a small shop act big. Burrows’ one-call model ties customer-facing 3D with IdeaRoom to precise estimating in SmartBuild, then delivers complete, staged packages to the jobsite—one PO, one invoice, one rep. That saves hours of chasing parts and protects your margins when steel and lumber move. We get tactical about pricing too: ditch flat dollars-per-square-foot and quote scope properly—Wainscot, insulation, wall height, door packages, and interior framing should be modeled, not guessed. With a customized SmartBuild setup, you can include labor logic, quote turnkey, and hand projects to crews without drama.

If you’re selling sheds or steel and eyeing post-frame for 2026, this is your blueprint. Join NFBA for education, certifications, and the network that speeds everything up. And meet us in Oklahoma City: Josh previews the NFBA Expo, including a must-hear economic keynote to help you plan the year with data, not vibes. We’re sharing the tool stack, the supplier playbook, and the training path we wish we had on day one—so you can sell with confidence and get buildings out of the ground.

If this helped you, follow the show, share it with a builder who needs a better plan, and leave a quick review so more pros can find it.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC

INTRO:

Hey, this is Joel Oney at J Money in the heart of the Buckeye State. And I want to personally welcome you to today's episode of the Steel Kings podcast with my good friends Jared Ledford and Eric Olson, better known as the Steel Kings. Be sure to check out JMoneyllc.com for financing solutions for your buildings. And now let's get back to the Steel Kings podcast.

INTRO:

Yeah, what I'll tell you, dude, is I am beyond excited. I am January. It is time to get motivated about your business. It's time for some personal development. It's time to get out and shake a hottie with people. I can tell you, man, the Steel Teams are. Dude, we have to do what one thing, I mean, if I can say one statement about the death job, is that people need to wreck out the road. I'm there. We are to get out in your communities, everybody, and do something good for somebody else. It'll make you feel better.

Jared:

Hey, what's going on, guys? This is Jared and Eric. We are the Steel Kings back at you with another episode of the podcast today. Eric, my brother, what's going on, man? How are you?

Eric:

Word up, Mr. Jared. Doing pretty good. Not too bad. I'll tell you.

Jared:

Chilling. I'll tell you what, man, you're out on the road. You're not in the steel building this week. So we got that cross off the list. You're not, you're not in the new, you're not in the new headquartered podcast studio that we've seen. Where exactly are you? What are you doing? Well, you can't tell me it's a surprise.

Eric:

You're traveling. Well, I'm traveling. I mean, I could tell, I could say I'm in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Which is some tiny little Appalachian town, um, doing some stuff. Um probably the podcast. It's um all right. You know, it's not 10 degrees. It's like 40.

Jared:

True story. It's not true. We're coming off of a major snowstorm in a while. It's been a it's been a cruddy few days.

Eric:

Hands down, I have the dirtiest truck in the parking lot. And it's second place isn't even close. My truck is like literally, it looks like I drove through Ohio basically and then got here.

Jared:

I saw you, so Eric called me and he said, Hey, I need the podcast equipment. And he's like, Did you grab it from the office? And I said, Yes, I did. And he said, Well, I need it Sunday morning. So Eric meets me at the car wash because I'm really anal retentive about my truck. I was in there spraying the ice and snow off my truck, and here comes Eric, and sure enough, his truck was really dirty then. So, if he drove from Ohio to Georgia in the middle of all this other stuff, I can't even imagine how dirty it is now. So we're there with you, man. You you're out doing you're out doing what you can, dude. I appreciate you, brother. I really do. We're getting into episode number three of our NFBA series. And for those of you that are listening along, I can tell you, we have we have had such a good journey so far. We've met the president of the NFBA, we've met Morgan, who's in charge of so much over at NFBA. We've talked to Randy Chafee from Building Wins Live. We're getting hyped up coming up for this NFBA trade conference. Dude, it is so it's gonna be so cool. So at this point, we are about five weeks from there, I think. By my math, this is episode three of an eight-parter that we're doing. So, every one of these episodes for the next few weeks now are just gonna be focused on post frame, poll barns, everything inside now. This week we're gonna be talking with somebody who's becoming a pretty fast friend, man. He's pretty exciting guy. We uh we just got to know him a little bit this morning before we got on the on the uh the podcast here. I like to pull the curtain.

Eric:

I was on their like you got I was on their website. I was on their website for probably 15 minutes. I think I looked at every tab. Um I have nothing but good things. I mean, from what I see, I'm and we've been invited to go take a look or just maybe just tour them. I'm excited, man.

Jared:

I love connections, I love people that do good business, and uh I can tell you the biggest thing if you're considering getting into post frame and pole barns, if you are sitting there and you're manufacturing, you're selling metal buildings or whatever it is that you're doing, right? You've chosen to take time to listen to us. This is a guy who started out as a laborer. Okay, this is a guy who started out working with his hands, doing it at the lowest of levels, and now he is the executive leader for one of the largest companies in the industry, Burrows, post-frame supply. We could not be more honored. He he's gonna bring with him a wealth of knowledge, he's got his own podcast. He's also just happens to be vice president of the National Frame Building Association, which is the tie-in here for this NFBA kind of discussion. And I can tell you, I'm so looking forward to the conversation. Josh Nowlin is here from Burrows, and we're gonna bring him in now. Josh, what's up, brother?

Josh Nowlin:

Hey, it's I'm better than both of you because it's 55 degrees in 16.

Jared:

Oh, we know it. Okay, okay. All right, it's uh it's officially 34 here. We're coming off of a of a day where it was so cold our kids were out of school yesterday. I can tell you this, I am very impressed with what we see from Burrows. Give us the overview. Tell us I didn't do you justice. I definitely did not do you justice on this at all. Um, I didn't. So let me know more about you, Josh, more about Burrows, and we'll just jump right into it, man. We'll share as much as we can today.

Josh Nowlin:

I mean, you had me blushing. Um you I think you I think you did a great job of introducing me. Um, you know, yes, I did start in this business uh very young as a builder, and um, you know, it was looking back on it, you know, I think I did 10 years of in in the field construction building pole barns in Illinois. And uh I'll tell you, looking back on it, it that experience was in, I mean, I just couldn't put a value on it. Um, it shaped my entire career. Um I'll tell you a funny story about the NFBA when I was a builder, maybe a couple of years in, um, they had a show there, an expo in in Indianapolis, Indiana. And that was only about two and a half hours from where I live. So, we the whole the company I worked for, we all went over there and walked the trade show floor, and I was so just like in awe of it back then. And I was like, I'm gonna be a part of this someday, you know. This is this is awesome. And uh so yeah, many, many years later, I got to be a part of it and serve the industry and be a board member. And yeah, no, it's uh I the NFBA is awesome. I mean, if you're a builder, you're in the post-frame industry, whether you're a supplier, builder, um whatever, this show's catered to you from you know education to trade show, I mean, networking, the networking is oh man, that's where it's at. That's where it's at. Amen. Sweet.

Jared:

We're seeing that. I mean, so we've talked about this a little bit. And if you're just catching this, if this is the first episode that you're ever here in the Steel Kings, the NFBA and the Steel Kings met, I guess, last October at this point, and really discussed how the Steel Kings could bring some content and some excitement for the NFBA going forward. And what we wanted to do was we wanted to give back to the industry that was giving so much to us. As these episodes have progressed, you've listened to Eric and I talk about how we started Five Rivers Pole Barns, how we started Dayton Barns and All Steel Buildings, how we've advanced from being a single shed lot in one location to a you know, a larger scale metal building sales operation. And now we're getting into post-frame, and we're doing this all by giving you the tidbits, the knowledge, our partners. We want you to come along for the ride with us because one of the things that we see in this industry that is badly misrepresented is we need more builders. Number one, Josh was talking to us about that offline. I want to get Josh's opinion on that. We need more builders, and frankly, we need more people that are talking about it. Because right now, it is very difficult anywhere to get a tubular steel building built. The zoning has become almost it's almost impossible in a lot of places to get something done with a tubular steel chassis. It just is. People are wanting to do barn dominiums, they're wanting to live in these things. And if you are selling tubular steel buildings as barn dominions, you're not only doing yourself a huge disservice and probably putting yourself at risk, you're really not giving your customers the best. And really, if you're selling something, shouldn't you want to give your customers the best? I mean, that's really where we're at. I'm gonna give a quick shout out to J Money, title sponsor of the show. They do a great job with financing on sheds, metal buildings, any home improvement project. We love Joel, the team over at J Money, the team at Defyned SEO, Velocity360, Idea Room, and Cal. Thank you guys for your support. Thank you for supporting the Steel Kings. If you need marketing, if you need a CRM, if you need a 3D design tool, if you need order management, those are our official partners, and we couldn't be more thankful for them. What I can tell you is this I want to hear more from you, Josh, about the one thing that you said before we got on the call, needing more builders. Why is that such we asked you what the number one issue was in post-frame industry right now, and you said builders. Tell us why.

Josh Nowlin:

I think it's um construction in general, at least for my opinion. Um, you know, there's uh we've spent the last few decades just you know telling our kids they have to go to school to become police officers and lawyers and doctors and firefighters. And I mean, how many times do you ever hear construction, carpenter, plumber, you know? But it and I've raised, you know, well, I should say almost three of my four children are raised. And um, you know, my son, he is he's in the trades now, and I tried to explain to him, hey, there's so there's so much opportunity in trades. There's um, you know, maybe not as you're learning and as you're getting licensed or certified or just getting your experience, but eventually if you do it right and you become a business owner in the in any in any trade, it so much opportunity, so much wealth there to be had and um for a company that's gonna do it and do it right. But yeah, I mean, labor is it's tough. It's really, really tough. Um, you go to you go even if you go into trade schools, guys, they're not talking about post-brain construction or metal building construction. It's you know, it's traditional uh methods, and I guess steel, steel has made a pretty good entrance into it, but post-brain is non-existent. So, the NFBA, um, and I was I was a big part of that, put together a curriculum, an actual curriculum, to that trade schools and colleges and junior colleges could integrate into their construction programs and start teaching these kids. They're sitting here, they're in trade school, they're not even hearing about post-frame. Now they have the opportunity to hear about post-frame, right?

Eric:

And so that that that's a huge initiative that that the NFP it's good, and it's good money, and it's great money to pull up a poll barn. If you if you get a the right team, um, there's some of those guys we met at the Knoxville show, um uh went out to dinner with them, like they their younger 20s. It seemed like it actually, and I'm you know, I can't remember the name, but the Brooks brothers, I think they're like roofers by nature, but like they they're put they're like 23 years old, and I thought, wow, that's an anomaly. Yeah, because everybody that I've ever met is like you know, not 23. And so, you're absolutely right, man. Um that's a good point.

Jared:

What I really like, what I really like, and I want to bounce off what Josh just said because we haven't really given the plug for NFBA. If you are building pole barns right now, if you are selling pole barns right now and you are not a member of the NFBA, I cannot tell you how much it would benefit you if you were. It's a very, very small fee, it doesn't cost all that much money, it's something you can write off in one month. What I will tell you is I'm looking at the curriculum list right now, basic principles for post care for post-frame construction. There's a certification level for one and two, and all of these things can be done for under a thousand dollars a piece. And if you are in this industry and you want to be certified by the basically the I use the governing body, but it's a trade organization, right? It's a trade organization. These are the guys who bring all of the big players together. Like Josh is obviously his main job every day is Burrows. He probably eats, sleeps, and breathes Burrows. He also has his own podcast, which I failed to mention, Post frame 360. If you haven't checked it out, check out Josh's podcast. It's a chock full of information directly about post frame. But what I can tell you is that if you are not doing the most to make yourself better in your industry, why is that? Maybe you need to ask yourself that question. I would spin what Josh said in a different direction about the builders. We could sell pole barns all day going away. We could totally change the way the air business and all the people behind me in this office space. You guys know I'm sitting in an office with a group of sales reps and project managers. What I will tell you is we could change our mindset in two seconds if we had more people ready to install our buildings. I can't tell you how many times I've had somebody on the hook to buy a pole barn, and my biggest issue was our team at Five Rivers, our contracting group was behind. They just weren't going to be able to get it done in time. And what you end up having is you end up having this race to the bottom in a sort of way where people end up just finding anybody that does construction to put up a post frame building, and Josh just hit the nail on the head. You can know your way in and out of construction. You could be doing anything you wanted to do, but it's not post-frame. Post frame has its own benefits and limitations, it has its own restrictions and otherwise. You need to know how these things go up. You need to be able to talk about zoning and permitting with your customers, and you need to know it on a level to where you feel like you have the authority to do that. And somebody like me sitting in an office building who sells, I don't hit a nail, I don't work out in the field, I don't do that anymore. My focus right now is getting people what they what they desire. People buy things from people they like, know, trust, and feel safe with. Randy told us that on the last episode. Okay. But if they buy from me, I have to also know, like, trust, and feel safe with who I'm gonna have install that building from my customer. That's why it's very important that we find the right contracting partners, that we all work together, because there's no limit to what we can do if we do that. Is that kind of how you feel about it too, Josh? I mean, I know you look at it from a different perspective because you're in the you're in the supply, you're in the supply side of it. You're relying on people like me. So I think that's go ahead.

Josh Nowlin:

Yeah, I'm I am in the supply side and I have been for several years, but I also have been on the construction side and I've managed construction businesses, large construction businesses.

Jared:

For sure.

Josh Nowlin:

Um, so I've managed crews of you know and sales reps. And here's what I'll tell you. And you I'll just I'm just gonna solidify what you just said. Anybody can no offense, Jared. No, no offense to you and your team, bro. No, anybody can sell pole barns. I know what anybody can sell if you're breathing, you can sell pole barns. The key is can you manage a business and can you get the thing built? Period. Period. Yep. Yep.

Jared:

So we know it inside and out. I mean, I can tell you from experience, right? We we think we have contractors lined up, they give us their word, they tell us that they tell us all the right things, they show us a portfolio of work, we've done some vetting, and at the end of the day, if you don't have a backup for your backup for your backup, you will get burned. And that's the struggle that I've had from people that listen to the podcast that know what we're all about, have come to us and said, My shed manufacture this, my steel manufacture that. The reason I don't get into pole barns is because I can't, I can't know that the building, I can't know what I don't know about the building itself. And if I can't get it installed, I don't want to just be selling building kits that are just gonna be sitting in somebody's yard. That's where we're at as an industry, in my opinion. And I'm new to it. I'm new to it. I I'm still I'm still green. That's the recipe for disaster. That's why tube steel has taken off the way it has, because tube steel in this case is affordable, it's economical. If you need an outside storage building, you'd be you'd be remiss to not consider putting up a tube steel building. It can be installed in a couple of days, and more than likely, if you're working with the right partners like us at Dayton Barns or tons of others out there, you would have all the opportunity in the world to get a building up pretty quickly. Post frame hasn't been that quick on the turnaround because there's a disconnect between that sales process and the install process. There's not a whole lot of people who do a one-stop and do it all and organize it, just like you said, Josh. Can you get thing up? I mean, that's the nature of the beast, right? I mean, we've had that issue here. Well, I'd be the first one to tell you Five Rivers Pole Barns, a new company. We have completed several projects at this point, none of which have been 100% perfect, but we stand behind our products, we stand behind our suppliers. We've been we've been happy and honored to work with Graeber. We're looking forward to potentially working with Burrows in the future. You know, we need to learn more about how to source the product the correct way, and we want to help you guys along the way to make those good decisions to be working with the right partners. So, you're not calling the 84 lumbers, so you're not calling the local lumber yard that's not going to have everything you need because you're going to end up with something that you don't deserve, or the customer is going to get something that they don't deserve either. You know, Josh, you're asking. I mean, you told us that you're looking for people to sell, right? You said anybody can sell, yeah, and I believe anybody can sell. I tend to think that same way.

Josh Nowlin:

So yeah, I mean, we're really, you know, I think I think that's yeah, what she did, she's probably trying to cover sorry you broke up a little bit. I was getting some feedback from somewhere else there, Jared. Sorry. Um yeah, I mean, we're all looking to I mean what we do, what we do here at Burrows is we work with building companies, guys that actually sell and build post-frame buildings for a living, right? And it doesn't matter if you're a small operation, we have really, really good clients that the person that owns the business also sells and also works on the crew. Now that limits the amount of um you know volume you can do in a year's time, but you know, I'll take those guys all day long because they're doing a great job and they care about what they do and they know what they need to do to make a living. And you know, they're repeat customers buying regularly and they're building good buildings. And and so, you know, that's we're always looking for clients, especially from I mean, our sweet spot here in the heart of the United States is Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains. Um, doesn't mean we're limited.

Jared:

to that that's just that's just the primary area which we're we I have actual sales reps out on the ground um prospecting in in that area and are you are you guys direct to consumer or is it all through that that's a good question Eric no we are not direct to consumer so um you know I know that some of our competitors dabble in oh we'll sell to the consumer or we'll sell and build in this area but we also sell packages in this area and no we stick to we support our builders we build builders we find our success in helping our clients build their businesses wonderful so you know what whatever that means you know if they need marketing support if they you know that that's kind of what my podcast is post frame 360 is it's helping educate these guys uh our clients to be better business owners be better builders be better business owners I'm putting on a uh webinar in a half hour yeah uh NFBA the NFBA webinar at 2 p.m today um for and it's really business 101 so uh it's really geared towards um really we're gonna build a foundation today yeah of uh do you have a Google profile so let's just start with that you know do you have a you know that type of deal so I get it I get it start with the most basic stuff I like I like what I really like what you just said josh because it you're not taking a slide at anybody you're not throwing punches you're just strictly saying what Burrows does and what they do really well and that speaks volumes for you on character and everything else because really what we're trying to do at this point is we're trying to educate our friends who are selling sheds selling metal buildings potentially manufacturing sheds manufacturing metal buildings to really give post frame a look in 2026 that's what we want to do here if you are between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains Burrows is probably someone that you really want to get a hold of if you're looking to get into post frame in 2026 I can tell you from my personal perspective as I got to know Josh this morning and was just looking over you know how we do these episodes I think I've told you this before but I'll tell you again we ask for a bio we ask for a headshot we try to learn more about the businesses that we're bringing on the podcast because we want to know if Josh comes on representing a company like Burrows's name speaks for itself it's been in the industry a long time they're one of the biggest players in the industry just like I said on the onset and we couldn't be more honored and more privileged to just bring them in front of you because if you're hearing us the truth of the matter is they'd be my first call truthfully based on what I'm hearing right now if you're in those in those areas where where they can help you out the most they'd be my first call that's the truth because the first thing that you need to understand when you start to sell pole barns and doing post frame is you have to source the material and it has to be ready set go. Okay if you're gonna take this on head first and you're gonna start doing this let's say the goal is going to be I'm gonna do one project a month or I want to do one project every 60 days the biggest thing that will hold you up is a lack of material okay we uh we talked about not having the installers we talked about not having the people to put the building up but if you can't get the materials there you're screwed from the jump you're screwed from the jump and so many people have told me hey I was gonna do pole barns and I ended up working with X company and they told me the material would be there in three Tuesdays and it showed up in seven Tuesdays or hey I got a kit and it was missing half what I can tell you is the track record speaks for itself. A company like Burrows isn't gonna leave you high and dry a company like Graber is not going to leave you high and dry we've repped Graber on here before Josh knows our relationship with Graeber. Graeber's an NFBA member they're a great supplier right we're not trying to hold back any punches here. What I'm trying to keep you from doing yeah I'm trying to keep you from going to some random lumber yard in the middle of 10 bucks two that promises of the moon and stars and doesn't give you what you deserve because at the end of the day you will get burned and you have to look at that you have to really understand that there is a quality control in every industry. And just because you want to save 10% doesn't mean that that 10% is not going to cost you the whole deal in the end.

Josh Nowlin:

Josh what do you think about that yeah I mean there may be some I know I go on these types so I don't look you you're you're spot on and and what I see is is there are people all over the country that they they they don't even know any better. They may have never even heard of Graber or Burrows or any of us um they may just know hey I'm gonna go down to my local lumber yard I'm gonna give them a material list you know and there's a uh 150 miles down the road this guy builds trusses and over there there's a metal supplier and I've literally met some of those guys right where they're at and I've said hey look what do you what's your biggest hurt what do you want to do this year?

Jared:

Well we need to hire because I need to hire this person and this person like wait a minute what if I told you if you do business with me you won't have to hire those two people this year well what do you mean well you know look at start and you start working out how much time are you spending you know to go out and shop materials at all these different places and what are you using to estimate and when the pricing's volatile and lumber and steel and it's moving how do you how do you quote a building right and ensure that you're gonna be meet the profit goals that you have for that project and the answer is they're not they have no in some cases they have no idea they're just shooting from the hip and yeah with our program yeah and we're not the only ones with it but we help our consumer or our not our consumer I'm sorry our builder from generating a lead from the consumer we help them generate leads we help them with software that they can estimate their projects um I you mentioned idea room earlier in your commercial we start with idea room we go to smart build they come into Burrows we ship the package we get to your job site we unload the package we'll even stage it for you around the job site okay one call one invoice one purchase order one sales rep and guess what you focus on what you're good at and we'll focus on what we're good at and together we'll grow the business right yeah I I love where this is going because as somebody that is somebody that really is dealer focused I know with you it's more with post frame it's not just dealers it's this whole thing it's contractors selling and installing and all these things but from a dealer perspective if you are sitting back and trying to get into post frame just like josh hit it on the head right there 100% you have to give Burrows a call I can tell you right now from what I've heard and what I've seen from idea room to smart build to reality they're using the same tools that we've been talking about for the last year on this podcast we love smart build we love idea room and the companies that are working with these companies are the ones that are at the top of the game when you can put something like a 3D configurator on your website that somebody can click on and see it becomes a reality for them in under 30 seconds that's uploaded into a tool that gives you every material and component breakdown for that particular building from there the order process is pretty seamless. There's a couple of checks you have to make inside smart build and there's you know a process for placing the order but it's pretty seamless. Josh just hit it on the head it can be done really quickly and this cuts down on so much lost time and bandwidth because again what's your time worth if you're trying to make 10 like this is the one thing that was hit me I don't know it's been about a month ago or so I had a guy that sells sheds who also does some post frame stuff and he sells for Graber, I mean I don't mind saying that he said you know I can get my materials cheaper if I source them locally from the lumber yard and I said well how many times has that been wrong and he said well you know it's pretty much wrong every time and we just got to figure it out and I said what's that time worth I said what you know I'm not trying to say anything about pricing or anything else but in post frame you have room to negotiate on these prices on these installs with customers you should know what your labor rates are going to be you should know what it costs per square foot to put up a 40 by 60 by 12 with you know insulated walls Waynes cot there's gonna be an upcharge for every piece and component on this building it doesn't even make sense like I run into these guys well you know I'm $12 a square foot well you can't tell me that you haven't even known what the building is yet what if I'm Waynes cot insulated what if I'm doing interior walls what if I have you know are we stud framing interior are we doing just post frame what are we doing you can't just say I'm $12 a square foot you're shooting yourself in the foot as a laborer as somebody who's putting this thing up you have to say I'm starting at nine bucks and here's a dollar fifty extra for this two dollars extra for that and at the end of the day I might be at 14 or 15 dollars a square foot but I can tell you I'm gonna take the time on every single every single project that's in front of me on this build I'm gonna be on it because that's the one thing we ran into right out of the rip Josh was we had these laborers that came to us and said hey we'll do the buildings for nine bucks a square foot and I was like great let's do it and then it comes to find out well it has Waynes cot on there so we're gonna have to charge you an extra 50 cents a square foot and then insulation this and wall height that and yeah garage doors this and you know you have to ask yourself all the right questions learn from the Steel Kings learn from me and Eric okay we what we did was we didn't write off more than we could chew yeah we should have called them a long time ago that's what I'm saying we that's what we do that's what we do for our people we went to NFBA we have these discussions education education education you're educating us right now right you know I can tell you again if you have we should no no we don't yeah no we no when we sign the hope is the hope is the hope is we'll buy the materials yeah I mean it's like we're saying hey you buy you say you'll buy your materials from me then we're gonna invest in you right and um that's right you know I have that I have that conversation regularly with people and well I would say well yeah you can you're gonna use smart build right okay yeah we'll set it up for you by the way during that custom setup process we're like do you want to include labor in here okay so do you want this to be a turnkey tool or do you just want your package price tool the turnkey tool we got we've got to talk labor we've got to talk about how do you calculate your labor what do you add to you know do you offer labor contract what does that look like you know we kind of walk through all of these things just to make sure that I mean if we're gonna use the tool we want it to work for you right and um so we do we do customizations to it as well so I love that I mean as somebody who has been struggling for this last year to learn I mean learning smart build on its own is difficult I do 3D configurators all day the team in here does them all day long smart build is its own animal you can do almost anything you want to make the building the way it needs to be for the customer and knowing it up one side and down the other I'm sure you got people that know it inside and out and giving those tools and putting yourself in a position to know more and educate and not just say hey give us more orders it's beyond that you know it's beyond that right it's you want to educate lifelong customers that are buying from Burrows using Burrows as their primary source for building materials and then getting next level buildings built all over your coverage area is that a fair statement a hundred percent that's perfect I couldn't have said it anybody myself I like it I like it I can tell you this you will be absolutely oh sorry I'm just I'm having a I'm having a delay but I was gonna say um half of selling to a customer is educating the customer what you can and can't do and what priced you know some people kind of know I guess what the deal is but a lot of times you know since we're in the metal building and post frame like a handful of our sales this year have come from a person who didn't really care which one they were getting and I think price was probably more of the they ended up going with pole barns because um because of knowledge that was shared on a uh like articulation to the customer and so just to zoom out you're our you know you're educating and training the people so that they can coach the customer and like honestly there's no better investment to be quite honest than investing in uh the person who's selling or the person who's building because they'll never leave you because you're developing trust with them that that that they can call you on the job and say man I am I'm over in this corner of the building and I'm doing and I can you hit me with the you know right exactly and that that really dealers have yeah I bet you have contractors that have been working for you guys forever.

Josh Nowlin:

For like we have clients that have been with us for a many many many years and um that's the way we want it um not that they feel like not that we've done anything to handcuff them you know they want to be with us because of the way we've treated them right and the service we've given and that's yeah it's a testament to our whole organization and what we do.

Jared:

So, um dealers are only as good as the main as the manufacturing partners that are behind them. That's a fact dealers can only be as good as who they represent by nature and I can tell you will not find a better partner out there than Burrows I truly believe that Burrows complete post frame solutions it's Burrowssupply.com Josh dude you've been great man and we're gonna have you back I can tell you right now we need to do a little bit different type of setting with you talk a little bit more about call to actions what I can tell you is you will be missing out if you are not with us at the NFBA trade show February in Oklahoma City we are so pumped up to be there josh will be there Randy will be there Morgan will be there all of the people that we've having on these podcasts are going to be there Burrows is going to have a huge setup I'm sure that they'll be able to show you anything that you want to know and it's right in their backyard. That's the best part about it is the home base for Burrows in Oklahoma not too far from OKC they're gonna be having a great time and we're gonna be putting on a good show for all of you at the trade show you guys got anything as we as we exit for the week man this is uh it passed too quick Josh I can tell you we have to have you back we have to talk more you know the I'll just leave it with this because we didn't I and I know you've met with others from the NFBA so I don't um not sure exactly how deep you went in the event but there is one thing I want to mention about the event that I think your listeners would appreciate and that is the keynote speaker and it it's an um a leading economic consultant um of the what do you call it the Northeast Atlantic area or something. But man who's not gonna want to know about the economy leading into 2026 right like especially in February you ain't kidding oh yeah I'm looking forward to that that keynote speaker is going to be good yeah okay we want to we want to give an ending shout out go ahead Eric okay I'll just say Burrows uh Burrows post frame is in booth 415 they're like pretty much right in the middle they got the biggest booth on the floor um they're really actually just a stone's throw away from where we're at um and I'm super excited to come over there and check you guys out we're bringing a whole team I think we're gonna have we're gonna be pretty deep in our booth so we'll probably have a little bit more maybe free time for Jared and I to come over and hang out and get a real combo going and um and can't wait to learn more about your business because idea room is um we're we've been tight with idea room and we're doing business with them on a big level and man anybody using idea room we want to be friends with and partners with because I I think at the end of the day the customer facing no I can't believe we haven't even said this the customer facing uh build tool for a consumer to use on a website is the next level um of lead generation which obviously leads to sales and then the need for more uh builders so excited to just since we've been on here I saw a message notification come up on my phone one of my clients is do you have my idea room set up yet yeah there it is they know yeah they know yep yeah it's like this it's like this if you need a good partner for a 3D configurator in the steel space or post frame give the team at idea room a call dan and his team are excellent they will do whatever they can to set you up in a way to be successful for your customers the team at Defyned SEO can implement that 3D design tool to be a sales funnel for leads that you can turn into sales and make them profitable. And as those leads come in talk to the team at Velocity360 they will be happy to help you organize those leads into an operational AI driven sales force and a sales funnel that will turn those leads into cash and done deals and once you're done with that contact the team at CAL for order management they're doing some really crazy things with idea room integrations right now all ships lead to more sales for you contact the team at J Money for financing needs they will be happy to help you out. Josh brother it has been a true honor to have you on here to give us the time we know you're busy and we want to let you get to that but I can tell you guys truthfully Oklahoma City, February 25th through the 27th save the date I've got it right here you know I've got it on my desk. I am super excited for what's to come the next few weeks check us out next week we're gonna have another NFBA guest we're gonna be talking more about the Trade Expo we're gonna be talking more about what the industry can do for you what post frame can do for you tomorrow. I'm Jared he's Eric Josh from Burrows we're out for this week on the Steel Kings podcast but what I can tell you guys is I'm gonna give you like I always do get out do something good for somebody else 2026 off on the right Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who is ready to level up. We drop powerful episodes every week filled with strategies, stories, and real talk from the builders shaping the industry. Stay hungry, stay focused, and keep building stronger. Make sure to visit us at thesteelkings.com for more resources and industry tools. This is the Steel Kings Podcast, where the industry talks back. See you in the next one.

Outro:

Before you go, the J Money team wants to thank you for listening to today's Steel Kings podcast. Remember, money is king, and if you need a financing option on your portable woodsheds or steel buildings, we are here to help. Just check us out at jmoneylc.com for more information. And don't forget to catch the next episode of the Steel Kings Podcast and have a great day.