STEEL KINGS: Barndominiums? Are they worth the time?

Ready to stop guessing about barndominiums and start making confident decisions? We sit down with Emily—better known as Mrs. Postframe—to trace a remarkable journey from filming a DIY barn home to co-owning Back 40 Buildings, an architectural firm delivering buildable plans nationwide. Along the way, we unpack what really separates a simple post-frame building from a code-compliant home and why that difference reshapes your sales process, pricing, and project management.

We dig into the turning points that matter: how transparent YouTube content built trust and a client pipeline, why residential occupancy and structural loads demand a new playbook, and how to decide if barndominiums fit your business model. Emily breaks down the long sales cycle—months, not days—and shows how shifting early design work to Back 40 removes bottlenecks, keeps your sales team moving, and returns you a client who is aligned, funded, and ready to build. You’ll hear practical guidance on permitting, window and door density, truss loading, and the quality expectations that come with someone’s future home.

If you’ve avoided social media, this conversation makes the case for a simple, consistent presence that brings in real leads. No viral stunts required—just clean photos, clear locations, and a contact path. We also highlight community: Women in Post-Frame is growing fast, and the NFBA Expo in Oklahoma City brings it all together with back-to-back sessions on barndominiums, the architectural sales cycle, and a much-needed deep dive on spray foam in post-frame assemblies.

Join us in OKC, meet Mr. and Mrs. Postframe, and leave with a framework to pursue barndominiums profitably—or pass with confidence. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with a builder who needs clarity, and leave a quick review so more pros can find it.

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Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC

Transcript

Welcome And NFBA Expo Hype

INTRO 0:00

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 JMoneylc.com for financing solutions for your buildings. And now let's get back to the Steel Kings podcast. Yeah, what I'll tell you, dude, is I am beyond Jared Leford. It is time to get motivated about your business. It's time for some personal development. It's time to get out and shake it out with people. I can tell you now the Steel Kings are what one thing. I mean, if I can say one statement about the depth job, it's that people need direct help from Jared. We are to get out in your communities, everybody, and do something good for somebody else. It'll make you feel better.

Jared 1:06

Hey, hey, hey guys, what's up? This is Jared, and this is the Steel Kings Podcast. We are back at you with another episode of the show. And I am beyond blessed today. And it is January the 16th. You will be getting this episode probably towards the end of the month, into the first part of February, as we are on number five of our National Frame Building Association Expo, Extravaganza. We are hyping up the NFBA trade show. We want to see you with us February the 25th through the 27th in Oklahoma City, and we are focusing on post-frame and post-frame construction. We have featured people from boroughs. We have featured individuals, the president of the NFBA, the marketing coordinator for the NFBA. I am beyond measure blessed this morning to have someone who is doing things in this industry that nobody else is doing, empowering women and taking it to the next level. And I have with me the one and only Mrs. Postframe.

Emily Marshall 2:10

Hi, Jered.

Jared 2:11

Welcome to the show, Emily. How are you?

Emily Marshall 2:13

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.

Jared 2:16

Yeah, I am I am really beyond measure blessed this morning to have you on this. We've been talking for the last 45 minutes or an hour or so, getting to know each other, bouncing ideas off of each other. And I have been admiring your website, admiring your social media presence. You bring such a different energy to this industry and a different vibe. I mean, just give me the backstory, right? Tell me how it started. Tell me how it started.

Emily’s Journey From Law Enforcement Life To Post-Frame

Emily Marshall 2:44

Well, it started back in 2017. Paul or Mr. Postframe, he was in law enforcement and we lived in the Rockford, Illinois area. Very, very high crime area, dangerous. His job was very dangerous. He was on a specific unit that was find all the bad guys type of, you know, just cops tried to come film with their crew, and they were told it's not it's too dangerous. You can't so you know, it was it was too dangerous for the TV show, even.

Jared 3:15

Wow.

Emily Marshall 3:15

Uh and so, you know, so that's the life we were living. And in late 2017, um, he had just had just apprehended somebody that had shot one of his uh unit partners, and I had a baby six days later, and he came home from work and said, I can't do this anymore. Wow. And so, uh, because it took him it took a huge mental toll. So, he packed up, he retired from the police department, we packed up and moved to Iowa. And then uh, you know, where everybody kind of starts to get to see what started to happen is in 2019 we started our YouTube channel. Uh, and he started self-building our barnuminium, which I'm sitting in right now.

Jared 3:56

Yep.

Emily Marshall 3:57

And that is that was the catalyst. So he started self-building, he uh filmed everything, shared everything on YouTube. It exploded in late 2019, and then from that point, it just exponentially grew in 2020. And uh we went from, you know, I you and I have talked about the importance of social media presence in your business. Oh, yeah. Um it's literally it is literally what made our business because we went from we were not general contractors, we had never built new construction. We like we were remodelers, like we were doing side gigs like to build equity in homes. Like that's what we were doing while he was in law enforcement. So we literally went from we were not general contractors, had never built new construction, and social media is what then positioned us as we're some of the like leaders in the industry now, yeah, um in the professional space. So we uh, you know, we moved into that phase, building for other people.

Jared 4:57

Yeah.

Emily Marshall 4:58

And uh then in 2024, uh we were approached by the founder of Back 40 Buildings, which is a nationwide architectural firm that specializes in barndominiums per construction type. So, post frame, stick frame, steel frame, sips, whatever somebody dreams up as their barndominium or rule home. It doesn't have to be a Barndo. Uh she said, I need, I need some help. Would you guys do you guys want to come own the company with me?

Jared 5:25

Yep.

The YouTube Breakthrough And Business Pivot

Emily Marshall 5:25

And so we became owners with her. Uh her name's Liv Berg. And um, so we have grown back 40 buildings exponentially over the last couple of years as well. And it's a great compliment to the industry of being able to bring the construction knowledge and the architectural knowledge and just really put them together in and being able to educate people, provide built what we call buildable plans for the industry. So uh that's a very short version of what happened. I love that wild ride.

Jared 5:56

I love that because it's a business built on social media presence, it's a business built on a dream, right? I mean, y'all wanted to have a barn dominium, you wanted to build it yourselves. You took all of that knowledge that you had applied in that build and built it into a brand, Mr. Postframe, followed up Mr. Postframe with Mrs. Postframe. You've now taken Mr. and Mrs. Postframe and applied that into another business, back 40 buildings. Back 40 buildings is now giving back to the industry in the form of the one thing that I get all the time from contractors is quite simple. Barn Domdominiums, are they a headache or are they going to be the future of the industry? Right. We'll get into some of the things that you're going to do at the NFBA trade expo. I'm kind of dropping a nugget here, but I can tell you just from talking to you in this conversation, as someone who is doing construction and someone who has a pole barn company, I'm excited because now I have an outlet for plans. Now I have an outlet for how I can take this to the next level. And you're helping us do that. And for that, I'm grateful. I'm very grateful as someone, not just on this podcast, but as someone who's probably going to be utilizing your services very soon. And just in case you don't know, Mrs. Postframe will be featured at the NFBA trade expo. I said I'd drop a nugget. Here we go. She is going to be featured on Wednesday morning. So, walk us through Wednesday morning for you, Emily.

Emily Marshall 7:23

Right. So the NFBA uh they have education sessions on Wednesday and Thursday morning, February 25th and 26th. And they are they're wonderful sessions to go to. You can uh bring your crew, you can uh, you know, kind of have your staff divide up among them. So, Paul and I are kicking it off at 8 a.m. with a session on building Barndo's opportunity or headache. And yes, and so the NFBA, they asked us uh specifically to bring this type of session because they liked what we had to say about being post-frame builders, but being able to do barndominiums and um and knowing that there's a difference between the two. Uh, and you know, building buildings, building barndominiums, there's a gap. And then how do you become a barndominium builder? Or do you even want to become a barndominium builder? So, we're gonna talk through that. It's gonna be an amazing session where the outcome will be you'll walk out of the session knowing whether or not it's a viable thing to add into your business. So, and we will have given you a framework so that you can say, This is I'm going to build barndominiums, and this is how I'm going to incorporate into my business, or this is how I'm going to do it, or I'm not going to do it at all. You'll know the answer.

Jared 8:40

I love that. I so I'm I've gotten a peek behind the curtain of what that's going to be like. We've talked for 45 minutes to an hour. We got on that subject. I'm super excited. And Mrs. Postframe tells me, hey, you should come to the you should come to the educational breakout session. I'm kind of giving you the meat and potatoes before the meal starts. And that's kind of where I'm at with it is I can't wait to get there. As a contractor, I cannot wait to sit in that room with other contractors, hear what Mrs. Postframe and Mr. Postframe have to say about this. Because to me, this is something I'd love to do, right? And I know there's so many of you out there that are thinking, oh man, barndominiums, it is a headache, it's not an opportunity. What you don't have is you don't have the right tools in your toolbox yet. That I would argue that we talk about that all the time on the podcast. So Mrs. Postframe and the team at Back 40 Buildings will help you accomplish that.

Emily Marshall 9:37

Yes, 100%. Yeah, absolutely.

Owning Back 40 Buildings And Buildable Plans

Jared 9:40

They'll follow that up. What's the best part about it is, and I'm gonna steal your thunder just for a second because it gets me excited now. You'll get to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Postframe, they're gonna tell you all about barndominiums, opportunity or headache, but then immediately after you're gonna be able to talk to Mrs. Postframe again in another breakout session, basically continuing the conversation, but now bringing in um a live over at Back 40 Buildings, and they're gonna talk about the architectural side of things.

Emily Marshall 10:07

Yeah. So we're going to talk about in inside of the architectural side is the sales cycle.

Jared 10:14

That's exactly right. Yeah.

Emily Marshall 10:15

One of the reasons why barndominiums can be a thing you want to brush off is that you're not getting you're not getting the yes from the customer in 30 seconds like you do with the building design.

Jared 10:26

That's exactly right.

Emily Marshall 10:27

It is a long drawn-out sales process that you need to have, you need to know what support. And so we're gonna just walk that through step by step. It's like, okay, I do think I want to have barndominiums as a part of my business, but then what do I do?

Jared 10:42

Yeah.

Emily Marshall 10:43

And how much time, how do I spend time with customers that are gonna, it's gonna be nine months before I actually sign a contract with them? Like, how does that work? You know, like just all of those ins and outs of it, and just being able to mentally prepare yourself for how do we train our sales staff to not lose a great opportunity because they're not getting yes from the customer in 24 hours.

Are Barndominiums Worth It For Builders

Jared 11:06

Yeah. We're bad in this industry. So, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna lecture everybody. I do this at least once or twice an episode. I'm gonna lecture everybody, and I lectured my team recently. We are bad in this industry about if we can't close a customer that day, we just forget about them. We let somebody else take our sale away. And what I can tell you is if you're not willing to help your customers, even if it means somebody else gets the building sale, what does that say about you? And that's the challenge I make every day is like I give business away. I have I have people that do sheds that I send, right? I don't I don't have to sell every shed, I don't have the opportunity to sell every shed or every steel building or every pole barn. I don't have the scalability right now to do a realistic barn dominium. We have a couple projects in the works, and we and I can tell you the one barn dominium that we will sell this year, it's taken us every bit of seven and a half months to get to the finish line, but I didn't have the right partner. If I'd have had Mrs. Postframe and the people at Back 40 Buildings six months ago when I started talking to my customer, I'd be further along down the road. I've had to use individual firms, I've had to work with people that I don't know and don't trust. And not that I don't trust them, they haven't earned that yet. Right. This is a one-off situation for me. And what I can tell you from my point of view is that streamlining processes will make you more efficient. That's a fact. And having something in your toolbox that you didn't have before, if you're really thinking about barn dominums, you know better. Okay, they have to be permitted properly, there's an occupancy requirement, there's all these things that you have to know as a contractor that you should be honoring your customer by knowing in the first place and then putting into practice in reality. That's just the truth of it. I mean, look at the barn, look at the beautiful barn dominion Mrs. Postframe is sitting in right now. Now, you're gonna be responsible to do that. And I'm not not everybody is gonna build a house a house, first of all. A see you know, a single family dwelling. This is a totally different uh thing. This is not a 30 by 40 by 12 in someone's backyard with a couple of ATVs and a couple of cars. This is a occupied dwelling. Maybe you want to dig into that a little bit. I mean, I can tell you there's an importance here. The last episode we had was about safety. We're following it up now with talking about social media, how you can build a business through social media, how then you can take that business and do better for the industry. We love people that do good work for the industry. Maybe touch on that a little bit, the importance that you see in doing it the right way. There's I mean, there's a huge requirement here.

Emily Marshall 13:51

Yes, yes, it's a it, and that's part of why the sales process is so much longer because you are dealing with a residential construction now. You're not dealing with just somebody throw up a barn. Yeah, you can get a quick answer from somebody uh on that. But this is somebody that whether you are whether you as the as the structure builder are doing the structure or just the structure or managing the project all the way through, the your customer is at a completely different price point. So, your customer is gonna spend half a million dollars, a million dollars. So, you know, you might think to yourself, well, I'm only getting $150,000 of that, but they're spending all of that money. So that's part of why it takes so long to get them to yes, is because they have so much consideration, and this is a massive investment for them. And then from that standpoint, too, you know, understanding that it's gonna be a little bit more expensive than your run-of-the-mill building because it is residential construction. You have to change some of the way that you do things, you have to load your trusses differently, you have, and there's so many more openings. I have 29 windows in my barndominium. A barn, we nobody needs that kind of window set up for your cow.

Jared 15:04

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Emily Marshall 15:05

You know, it's just not gonna happen. So there's so many more factors that are gonna go into play um with this, and so um, you know, I mean, you'll have to come to the session to find out whether or not it's really the best opportunity for your business.

Jared 15:17

I think you should. So, in case you haven't heard me, if you're jumping in now, Oklahoma City, February 25th through the 27th, we will be there. We will absolutely be having a great time. We want everybody to come along to the NFBA trade show. I can tell you, it's probably the biggest event of the year in post-frame. I mean, I believe that whole heart. Oklahoma City is a beautiful city. I know the one feedback I've gotten is oh man, Oklahoma City, it's pretty far out there. Take the trip. I'm telling you, it will be worth it. So many strong positioned players, partners like Idea Room, partners like Smart Build, Graeber, Burroughs, you name it, all of these folks are gonna be there. I'm I I'll tell you, I haven't been as excited for something in a really long time because this time I'm going into it from a position of man, I've been talking about this now for like months. Normally it's like maybe a couple weeks before the trade show, like, oh yeah, we're going to the trade show. This is totally different. We've been hyping this thing up, and I'm meeting new people, and you're meeting new people, right? We're bringing them to your we're bringing them to your YouTube or to your podcast forum or whatever you want. Like, I'm just excited to meet you, to be honest with you. And I can't wait, I cannot wait to meet Mr. Postframe, and I can't wait to hear how you can help my business and you can help all these other businesses too.

Emily Marshall 16:35

Yeah, that's a fact. Absolutely.

What To Expect At The NFBA Sessions

Jared 16:37

That's a fact. So tell me a little bit more about social media because I know that that's one thing that I get a lot of blowback on. Um, obviously, I am on a podcast and I talk to people all the time and I share industry secrets. I can't believe you'd say that on the podcast. And it's like, well, isn't it a fact? Don't we all know it? Well, why would you say it? Well, because I'm truthful and honest. We should all know to which we have to battle. Okay. Yeah. I think rising tide raises all ships. Yes. If we can raise the quality of the industry as a whole, and if you know for a fact that you are doing uh maybe less than work, maybe step it up a notch. What can you do this year to take your business to the next level? Everybody's got a different level that they're playing on. Some people are running, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of buildings. There's companies out there doing millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. You have to decide where you want to be, you have to take your avenue and latch on to it. Social media is a big part of this, showing customers who you are and being present, opening up the doors of your business and saying, we're not only open for inspection, here's what we do every day. How has that changed your outlook? You obviously told us you started the business based on YouTube. You've got, I don't know, 440,000 subscribers. That's just an insanely high number to me. It's impressive, if nothing else. But how has that helped you build Mr. and Mrs. Postframe into back 40 buildings into what you're doing now?

Emily Marshall 18:06

Sure. Well, and we're definitely an extreme case, but as I but as I mentioned earlier, like it's the reason why we have a business. That's right. Like social media is what created all of the business. We did not, I think we did one project uh for a client that was not a longtime follower of us. Wow. Every other client had been like, I've been following you for years. I'm I've been dreaming of Mr. Postframe building my barndominium for me. Wow. Uh, you know, that's what I want. So, all of our business came from our social media avenue that they were able to visualize what he was doing. They it came across very clearly that he's good at what he does, like that we are top-tier quality builders. And so uh, and we're also DIY friendly. So you have that like really interesting mix of like, how can you be top-tier professional, but also show people how they could obtain the skills themselves. Like that's right, that's what we focus on. Um, and so it just created so much trust with our customers and it created a lot of trust in the industry, you know. As I've mentioned, like we focus now um on helping builders be better builders and then helping DIYers achieve their dream. You know, so we're working with both groups. I love that, and we're very passionate about that. We want builders to be excellent at what they do because also in the DIY community, when it comes to post frame, a large number of DIYers are still going to be looking for a post frame builder to put their structure up for them. Yeah, that's a it's a huge hurdle, even though Paul makes it look super easy, like he just scales the side of the building and dragsheets, and you know, it looks like he's doing a ballet practically. That's not feasible for most people.

Jared 19:56

For sure. For sure.

Emily Marshall 19:57

You know, they they're just like, ugh you made it look like it was easy.

Jared 20:00

There are very few people who are masters of their craft.

Emily Marshall 20:03

Yes.

Long Sales Cycles And Closing The Gap

Jared 20:04

Okay. I would argue that Paul is at that level where in his space there is not a lot of people that touch his quality and his ability. Now that doesn't mean that you can't strive to be there. Just because you're not on that level yet doesn't mean you won't be, right? Right. And just because you can't do it the way that he does it on Mr. Postframe on YouTube doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. It can still help your business grow. Oh so keep telling me about social media. Yeah, because I can tell you that's the one blowback. These guys don't want to do it. These contractors don't like social media. I don't understand it. The young guys, the young bucks are catching up with you guys. A lot of old timers out there, a lot of old timers not playing in the same sandbox as the new as the new guys. I know a lot of guys who are in their mid-20s doing millions of dollars in construction, doing millions of dollars in trade work. And they are, whether you want to hear it or not, I'm gonna just give you this little piece of advice. They are taking money out of your pocket. Okay. And I'm not saying that again, rising tide raises all ships, everybody can win. But if you're not even putting your hat in the ring, if you're not even gonna fight for your space, man, you're not doing something for your business today. Social media, go ahead.

Emily Marshall 21:21

Yeah. So to break it down to somebody who's like, well, why should I even bother? Because I'm not going to do full-on production videos of my builds, you know, that's it. We're an extreme case that we're producing that type of content and that volume. But if you just want the very basics of it, the fact of the matter is that your clients are on social media.

Jared 21:42

Yeah.

Emily Marshall 21:43

Uh they that's where they are looking for information. And so if you do not have a presence on social media, you're missing out on them doing a simple search and locating you. And uh, you know, and we and we use social media because back for A Buildings, we designed over 400 plans last year of barndominians. Four 40 some percent of them were post frame. And so, you think about there's that hundreds of clients out there that are trying to find somebody. We have to, we, we are trying to find people to connect them with. And so if you don't have social media presence at all, then I'm never going to know who you are. And you might be a phenomenal builder and I and no clue. So, whether you are big or small, you know, you might be a two-in crew or you might be a big conglomerate. You need to at least have your information available on a social media platform. And it can doesn't have to be all of them, it can be your choice. Instagram is a good one. Uh, Facebook is actually still an ideal place for the target audience. Uh, who your customer is going to be is still living on Facebook. And so just having basic information, you don't have to come up with a huge plan and try to become social media famous from it. You just need to have like, here's some clear images of the type of work you do. Here's a clear image on how you how you can get a hold of somebody. And um, you know, and that's it. Like, that's all you need.

Jared 23:11

I think that's a huge I think I think you saying that is the verification and validation that these people are listening to us need to hear. Like you go to Mr. Postframe, 441,000 followers. I'm looking at it now. Patreon, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, whatever your social media outlet is, check out Mr. Postframe. He's got content on every platform, whether you like Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, YouTube, you name it. That doesn't have to be for you, for your business. Okay. Like I can tell you, a general Facebook is gonna go a hundred miles versus not having one at all. You know, if you're not there, you're not opening the doors to your business. They might not even know you exist.

Emily Marshall 23:54

Right. And it's in it's also then an easy way. So, like we brought we've talked about like suppliers and stuff a little bit. Um, I often tell I have, you know, have a handful of suppliers that I might recommend around the country, and I tell them, hey, give them a call, ask them who their contractors are. So if you have a simple Facebook page, Instagram page, something, or you know, or really phenomenal website that's very not it doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be very easy for a client to navigate, then that gives your supplier quick, oh yeah, or like, or they're able to say something like, Oh yeah, go on Instagram, Mr. Postframe. That's who you need to get in touch with. Easy. You can say it over the phone, they'll remember to do it, they'll refer because, and so just that alone can help you get more business uh and good leads because people are trying to find out who do I have build my building, who do I have build my barndominium? I don't know where to look. And we need to be able, we can't we can't fly all over the country and verify that you're a decent builder. So if you don't have social media, I can't, there's no way for me to even start the conversation.

Jared 25:04

That's right.

Emily Marshall 25:05

Um, to refer one of our 400 and some odd clients to every year.

Residential Standards vs Simple Barns

Jared 25:08

That's right. That's right. And I can tell you what really struck me is that as a company who is pretty tech forward, we do a lot of lead generation on our own. What I love about it is now I can connect my customers with you, and you could connect them back with me. That's what I love about the process that you're talking about with back 40, because to me now, if the customer takes the first step in the process, you know, before we can really talk about any barn dominion building, we work with back 40 buildings to do an architectural design of the building. We want to make sure that we're meeting all the criteria and conditions necessary. We have basically now shared business with someone that we trust and want to work with. The customer has to take the next logical step, which is working with back 40 on the design, process, all of these things. And then back 40 passes you back the customer who's already paid for that plan, who's already been sold on they want a barn dominion. And what you can do at that point is you can start to build templates through your suppliers, you can start to have models, you can start to do all of these things. And I'm not saying turn yourself into a custom barn dominion dealer tomorrow. Okay, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying in my in my situation, we have a barn dominion on the books that's probably going to be between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars when it's done. Okay, that's a huge investment for someone to make, and it's a huge project for us to undertake. And I was not willing to rush it, I was willing to lose it before I was willing to screw it up. And you have to ask yourself that question. This is not your money, it's your customers' money. You owe them, you owe them that that that thoroughness, that thoughtfulness. Treat them the way you treat your mother, right? You know, and at the end of the day, I know now what I didn't know then, and I would have sent my customer to back 40. Back 40 would have put together. I mean, we spent hours, hours, hours working with Smart Build, and like, you know, it has nothing to do with Smart Build, it has to do with our lack of knowledge on residential building. Okay. And then we had to work with a local architectural firm who doesn't specialize in barn dominions, who thought we were crazy, who thought we were insane. And it's like, well, we're not, you know, we're looking at these buildings, and this is kind of what they want, and this is these are getting approved. Well, this isn't what we specialize in, and then it becomes a whole nother problem. Again, right, back 40 is going to be a specialist here, it's going to be a natural handoff and then a natural handoff on the back side. You're going to end up back with that customer.

Emily Marshall 27:49

Yes, you are, and you're going to get looped in during the conversation too. Like that's one of the things we pride ourselves in is that we're not we're not trying to like cut you out, we're trying to make it so that by the time the plans are done, you could be close to ready to break ground if you wanted to, you know, like so, depending on how quickly the client is moving, because it takes it takes a long time to plan out a custom home build, no matter what. It's just we, it's just uh, and we'll go into depth in this in our session, but we're taking those hours out of your business and we're spending the hours instead. So that's the trade-off is that your sales team can continue to get new clients and not get bottlenecked by I've got this one client that I have to spend the next seven months with trying to figure out are we moving this window four inches to the left or to the right? And hey, I want this bathroom configuration. You don't you don't need to bathrooms?

Jared 28:46

Yeah, we don't do bathrooms. You know, we could do a bathroom if we knew exactly what the customer wanted.

Emily Marshall 28:50

But as far as outfitting and designing and all of these things, and spitballing, like well, that I've got some ideas. Can you make it happen?

Social Media As A Growth Engine

Jared 28:59

Yeah, well, toilet goes here, yeah, right, shower goes there. I mean, that's where that's where our extent of it is, right? And I can tell you again, I cannot stress this enough. Come to Oklahoma City. If this is if this is touching a nerve for you, which I just was so excited to get you on the podcast, period. But I mean, we're really touching on stuff that's going to help your business grow, right? These are these are and again, I can only anticipate this is the way it works for back 40. Back 40, let's say five rivers pole barns supplies you a customer. That customer sees the plans through, and we give the plans back to do the project. I would anticipate if there's somebody in my area and we do a good job on it, there's a real good possibility I could hear from back 40 on my own. We might get a phone call. And that's again, that's the trade-off that I always encourage you guys to take in building relationships with people. Not every time that you pass off something, you're gonna make money on it. I know there's a lot of people out there that are like, Well, if I give up my lead, I've got to get money for it. And it's like, that isn't how the business works, and you know it. This is all, this is all trust and verify, building relationships. If you're a contractor, do you really expect someone to just say, I trust you? Right, you have to earn that trust, man. You have to do good work, you have to get on social platforms, you have to put yourself out there, you have to put yourself out there to be criticized and ridiculed, whether you like it or not. And if you do good work, you're very rarely going to see critic criticism or ridicule. That's my that's my thoughts on it, right?

Emily Marshall 30:30

And you know, and but back to people who don't have a ton of experience, you know, and you're newer in this in this realm. Yeah, being willing to own up to and take care of any mistakes that get made like that, that'll go miles. You will still have an opportunity for a referral from somebody. That's right. If you're just like, hey, listen, I didn't do that window trim very good. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna do it again.

Jared 30:55

That's right.

Emily Marshall 30:55

Uh, you know, where I scrap, you know, obviously, you want to get to the point where if you scratch a piece of metal, the customer doesn't even figure it out because you've already just taken care of it, you know, stuff like that, you know, like just taking care of your you want to be proactive, you want to be proactive in things like that.

Jared 31:09

You don't want a customer to bring those problems to the table, right? You want to fix them on your own.

Emily Marshall 31:13

Right.

Jared 31:14

And, you know, that's the issue that we've had here is finding the right contracting partners. We've got a contractor, one or one of our partners at the pole barns company, that's what he does. But obviously, we sub out some work here and there. And finding the right subs, go back to the episode with Josh from Burroughs, finding the right people, finding the right teammates, not just you have to trust and verify at every level of your business. Okay, it's your job if you're the GC on this project, if you're if your business is taking on a building project, it's your job to make sure that your subs are properly vetted, that you've got eyes on them, and you have to trust them and give them one task at a time and not just say, Okay, here's this building, build it for me. Right, you have to trust and verify the team that's underneath of you. That way you can build your relationships with people like Back 40. There's other companies out there that want to work with you. I can tell you, I can tell you right now that the post frame industry is primed for a good 2026. If you're listening to this and you're planning on going to the trade expo in Oklahoma City, you're in the right industry at the right time and the right moment. There are so many people that want to see you win. Myself, Mrs. Postframe, Mr. Postframe. We want you to win in 2026. We want everybody to win. Period. I know, I know you feel that way. I know you feel that way. So that's where I'm at with it. What do you what do you have in closing? We're gonna have you back on here. I think we're talking about some pretty cool stuff. Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna have some more conversations with Mr. and Mrs. Postframe. We are going to dig into barn domdominiums at some point, I can tell you. And I want to be at the forefront of that conversation because as a contractor and somebody who does it every day, I've learned more in 45 minutes with Mrs. Postframe than I've probably got from anybody in the last four years, and that's the truth. And if you are gonna be in Oklahoma City, you need to have your butt in position to be in that exposition training at 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning to meet Mr. and Mrs. Postframe and talk about barn dominiums and find out why they are not a headache, but they're an opportunity, they're a huge opportunity for you this year and going forward. What do you have for using?

Emily Marshall 33:33

And we'll give you the tools. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and also let's not forget, uh, we've got uh so Paul and I and Liv, we are all gonna be at the expo all week. Uh so if you're if you're there, you get the opportunity Wednesday morning for those two back-to-back education sessions. Wednesday night, I am the um host of Women in Postframe, which is an organ, which is a uh group that I started with past President Robin. Uh and her and I uh lead that up, and we're gonna have a super swanky place that everybody can gather for a couple of hours. And then Thursday morning, Mr. Postframe and um Mike from Spray Jones YouTube channel, they are doing an education session on spray foam and post frame construction. So big, big topic in the industry, lots of controversy around it. But you guys are in for a treat if you want some uh really solid information about it.

Simple, Effective Presence Beats Silence

Jared 34:27

I can tell you this. We talked about it not enough, but women in post-frame, they're gonna get together Wednesday, the 25th of February in Oklahoma City at the Petroleum Club. And from five to seven, y'all are gonna have a big time, y'all are gonna have a great time and have a lot of fun. And I can tell you, as a as a father of three daughters, it it motivates me a great deal. We talked about this before, and I'll get emotional if I talk too much about it. Finding women in this space that can motivate my daughters to want to be in a trade or want to be in this space with me someday makes me feel good. Guys, get your spouses, your significant others, get people to that trade expo with you. Show them what you do every day. Okay, show them what you do and motivate them to motivate you. I can tell you right now, if you've got the backing of a good woman, you've got all the luxuries in the world that you can afford. And you want to take good care of that woman and you want to take good care of your daughters if you have them, or your sons if you have them, whatever. But I can tell you that stuff excites me as a dad, as a dad of three daughters who are getting to that age where they're starting to think, what can I do to help my dad? We were talking about it and joking, like they watch the podcast, they get on my YouTube and watch me talk to people. And my oldest daughter Daily did say, you know, you don't seem to have a lot of girls that you talk to. And I was super excited about this genuinely from the from my heart, because to me, you're somebody that they can look up to. Yeah, and that to me is is very impressive. What you've done with your branding and everything. I I'm just blown away by it. And you know that's you know that's genuine because I shared that with you offline, and I'm sharing it publicly because it means something to me. Yeah, I love it. I can tell you I appreciate Mrs. Postframe coming on the show today. You're gonna be at the trade show February the 25th, the 27th, all over that place. Come check me out, I'll be at the expo booth. Come check us out, Defyned SEO, Velocity360, Idea Room, Cal, J Money for the whole team. I thank you for listening to this episode of Steel Kings podcast. As always, get out in your community and do something good for somebody else. It'll make you feel good. I promise. It'll make you feel so good. So, y'all have a great week. We'll get back at you next week with another podcast. We're gonna get into it with idea room and smart build. We're building up the hype. You want to find out about League Gen, check a topic. Thank you for tuning in to the Tokens Podcast. With that episode, fire two out. Make sure you work out stories, take off, take on it, take up. Make sure to visit us at the tokens.com for more resources and industry tools. This is the Steel Kings Podcast for the industry talks about team about before you go.

OUTRO 37:36

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 jmoneyllc.com for more information. And don't forget to catch the next episode of the Steel Kings podcast and have a great day.