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
Networking and Growth in Turbulent Times
Ever wondered what it takes to thrive in the shed industry, especially during turbulent times? Join us as we uncover Austin Howard’s riveting story of resilience and innovation in the world of Yardscape Backyard Buildings and Yardscape Metal Buildings. Starting from scratch in 2021 amid a global pandemic, Austin defied odds to swiftly expand across North and South Carolina. Listen in to discover how he navigated the unforeseen challenges of 2024, and gain insights into the intricate dance between economic forces and the shed business landscape.
Austin Howard shares his secret sauce for standing out in a crowded market — a relentless commitment to quality and customer service. Discover how partnerships with reliable suppliers and a focus on customer interaction, rather than just sales, have set Yardscape apart. Austin discusses the transformative power of digital platforms, exploring how video content and educational outreach can elevate customer engagement and trust, while weaving in the broader societal impact of entrepreneurship.
Get inspired by Austin’s journey as we chat about creative problem-solving and the pivotal role of technology in modern business strategy. From the inception of "The Steel Kings" podcast to networking opportunities at the Garage, Shed, Carport Builder Show, the episode is a treasure trove of lessons in marketing, relationship-building, and adaptation. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an industry veteran, there’s a wealth of knowledge waiting here to be unlocked.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
LuxGuard
Shed Pro
Making Sales Simple
Digital Shed Builder
Realwork Labs
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast and really excited for today's guest, Austin looks like. Hopefully, I'm going to be meeting you next week in person, so that's cool. I guess we could have waited and did this then, but I'll probably be pressed on time. But we got it together. We finally made it happen. Between sickness, Christmas holidays, everything else going on in the world, the craziness. We got it to happen. But do you care to introduce yourself, the name of your company, maybe tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do?
AUSTIN HOWARD:So, my name is Austin Howard. I run Yardscape Backyard Buildings and Yardscape Metal Buildings. So, we started in 2021 during COVID and all the craziness with the shed industry. Before that I was selling modular manufactured homes and before that I was in another sales job. So, I've been in sales and retail sales for probably over a decade.
AUSTIN HOWARD:We've been in business for four years now and this is our fifth year. We started with Kenston, North Carolina, and in the same year we opened up Holly Ridge, North Carolina, and then we kind of took a hiatus from opening up dealers and last year we actually opened up two locations in South Carolina, in Columbia and in Gaffney. So, it were kind of pre-existing dealerships that we kind of took over and overhauled from our shed manufacturer, Pineview. And that's a little bit about me as far as in the shed industry. This year we're trying to focus on just growth within those four locations, without trying to add more unless a really good location pops up. But other than that, that's pretty much my little story. Like I said, been in sales for a while and just felt like a few years ago I had the opportunity to start this, and the rest is history.
SHED GEEK:That's awesome, man. Well, obviously you know there was a lot of attention drawn to the shed world during, uh, covid I, you know the, the podcast is coming up on four years. It'll be starting our fifth year in March. It's really exciting because, uh, we're starting a, a podcast called the steel kings. Uh, we mean you talked a little bit about that.
SHED GEEK:I listened to that episode with Jared and the guys over at Dayton Barnes and what they're going to be doing. So that's exciting because we want to be able to reach that side of the industry. It's kind of a sister or cousin industry if you will, and there's so many people in sheds that kind of operate in that world and people in that world that operate in our world and we're going to try to figure out a way to have conversation that's really dynamic content about all those things. But yeah, it was the same thing for us kind of with selling sheds and, believe it or not, I got out of selling sheds directly before COVID hit. So, I didn't get all the good times, you know what I mean. Like I didn't get the easy money.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was.
SHED GEEK:I was, I was struggling, you know, trying to figure things out, and there was, there were so uh, many, fewer, fewer tools and uh software's available at that time to kind of help with your systems and processes, and uh, but we did it, man, we made it work and uh, you know, and that's what ultimately led to a podcast, right. So, we, we launched that during, during COVID and, uh, I remember it was certainly a mess as we was traveling around visiting with people, but uh, hey, congrats to you first of all for having four shed lots, uh, immediately in the retail world. You know, two in North Carolina, two in South Carolina. That's a beast, you know, to take on in your first four years, but it sounds like you guys are doing great.
AUSTIN HOWARD:We're doing all right. 2024 was definitely a tough year and I think anybody that you talk to in the shed industry would agree with that was definitely a tough year and I think anybody that you talk to in the shed industry would agree with that. You know I had an opportunity to take on these two locations. I took on Columbia in March of 24 and Gaffney in May of 24. So literally back to back. The only reason I was able to do that is because the corporate location in Gaffney already had an employee, so I would not have been able to take that over without him and I would not have been able to do what I did this year without my team back in North Carolina holding down the fort. So, it is definitely a team effort. We all work together, we all communicate, you know, during the weeks and stuff, and I appreciate the congratulations.
SHED GEEK:Definitely been a lot of work for sure it is, but you know you're right. 2024 has been.
SHED GEEK:you know there's ebbs and flows and we've definitely experienced some of those in 2024, especially after the height of COVID, where we saw government subsidy readily available and people at home tending to their gardens wanting a new garden shed, or just maybe the influx of government money, influx of government money into the, you know, it always comes down to, you know, as a government money being infiltrated into the, into the economy. That's boosting the economy, or is it private sector money boosting the economy? And you can get into so many debates and I think I think it's. You know and we do.
SHED GEEK:I talk to so many shed people in my travels that some of the best podcasts that we have will never be recorded, unfortunately. I wish you guys could hear all of the conversations that I've had with some people, because sometimes we're sitting there trying to solve the world's problems and we're talking about, you know, trying to sell sheds and we somehow end up in this deep conversation about the nature of politics and how the nature of the federal government has a direct impact, or at least trickle down impact to some extent, on our small place in the world and you forget.
SHED GEEK:You're like wait a minute. What are we talking about you? Know, I need to concentrate on who's president in the office and how they're doing things and changing stuff, or do I just need to get in here and rise and grind right? I need to get in here and work, and you know so. It's always interesting to me because how you do anything is how you do everything, whether it's in the shed world or whether you was in some other world. You know, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN HOWARD:That whether you was in some other world, you know, like you, yeah, yeah, so that that I think I think is 100 true. I mean, you know, uh, whether, whichever side you fall on politically, you know I think everybody in 2024, whether they wanted to admit it or not, was just holding tight to the purse strings and I think that it I have friends in other industries and real estate, mortgages and mobile homes, and you know horse trailers I mean I've got a good buddy that does horse trailers, so everybody had a like what the world kind of year and I think it did tie to the election because there was so much focus on that.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I'm hoping that now that the election is over with you know, we can kind of get back to some kind of normalcy and, like I said, there's not a lot of people that come in and say I'm holding on to my money because of the election. It's just that you kind of just feel that, you know, that urge to not spend. And that's the first time I've been through an election year in business and, like I said, it was definitely a tough year but learned a lot of lessons and learned a lot what to do, what not to do. So, I will say that I'll be ready for the next one no matter what happens.
SHED GEEK:Yeah, it was definitely a year of learning and you know that's the thing. You know was that the Apostle Paul always says that we should always be in a learning state of mind. So, like we're, you know, we're trying to do that over here too, at Shed Geek. We're always trying to better ourselves and our different brands and things like that. And I'll tell you what amazed me. I learned something today that just not today, but this year 2024, rather. Today. That just not today, but this year 2024, rather. That blew my socks off. We had been looking for investment for Renton. We come across a gentleman, excellent guy, I love talking to him and he told me he's not familiar with the shed world. But he said I am familiar with the Renton side of how people do things because we actually rent-own cattle to farmers. And I was like what? This is something I have not heard of.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I would never have guessed that.
SHED GEEK:It was a new one on me and all the terms and the different things and the ideas all sounded very similar to what we hear. Never in my wildest whatever, I have imagined that that's a real business. But you know, Austin people find that out about the shed side Whenever you go deliver a building. They had no idea there was this different machines that you know what I mean can move a building around, whether it's a. You know a Cardinal Mule or a trailer. Or you know what I mean can move a building around, whether it's a. You know a Cardinal mule or a trailer. Or you know the new guys with the, with the challenger. We love their product and what they're doing, even the easy movers, all of it. People see those things and they go wow, these things are unusual, these are neat, these are, these are, these are different ideas and different tools, but really just the shed itself. They're amazed a lot of times at the quality that exists.
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SHED GEEK:What do you take pride in in terms of like your partnership with your supplier? But really even, what is your position as Austin, the owner of Yardscape? What's like your message to your customers, like, whenever they come in, they come in.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I would say the number one thing that I feel like we do differently and I'm sure everybody would probably say this about themselves is you know, we want to provide a quality product. Pineview provides that for us, and same thing with the metal. The metal manufacturers we work with provide a quality product and at a good price. So, I would say that would be our number one is to try to help people solve their problems, whether that be, you know, storage, home office, you know gym, home gym. We've had people use it for a bunny rescue, a pig rescue, I mean the whole gamut of things. So, helping people solve problems has always been a big thing for me. You know, I love helping people solve their problems. Uh, and, and we have a solution that can help the other side that I try to do differently. And how we operate. Uh, and what we hear from customers that come in is you know people that are shopping. They come in and say well, you're the first person that came out and talked to me, you're the first person that's been here. You know when I've been here. Now, of course, we miss people absolutely all the time, but we've heard that over and over again. You know, we try to give the best customer service, and I know that that's cliche to say, but we try to give the best customer service that we possibly can give. We try to meet people you know out on the lot. We want to go out there and show you the buildings. We want to tell you about the quality. We want to educate you, at the end of the day, about why you should buy from us so that I feel like is our number two or number three.
AUSTIN HOWARD:You know, niche, I guess you could say, in the market is that you know this industry. When I came into it, I feel like there was a lot of people that you know just had a lot and they were running it and they did a good job, but they didn't really have the growth mindset and not saying that that's a bad thing, but they just didn't, I guess you know, grow and essentially, uh, shake up the industry and just kind of show people that, hey, we're different, we want to educate you. We won't. We're very honest, we're very transparent and and I think that's what sets us apart you know we get that across all four locations is people are just shocked that we're actually there and we actually show up, which in my mind is, like you know, sales 101. But I guess you know it's not a common thread and some other dealers and everything. So, I feel like that's what sets us apart and I feel like that's one of the things that we do that really kind of separates us from the crowd.
SHED GEEK:You know, just being present a lot of times, I remember when we used to track our, when I was selling, we used to track our traffic to the website and we always took very serious the idea of like what works right, because you're always trying to track your marketing and your advertising to figure out where are my dollars best spent. And we were asking a gentleman one day. We said you know, there's three people to choose from here close to us. What made you choose us? And this was a Saturday. And he said well, you're the only one open. Yeah, like, I'd like to tell you that you know, like, maybe your buildings are better than theirs, but I don't even know enough about them to tell you that. I was just happy you guys were open, because I needed to get this done today, because I work Monday through Friday.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Absolutely, and we work Saturdays as well and we get that all the time. Now I think I think some of the dealers are kind of waking up to that are kind of waking up to that. But I think when I first started you know it definitely and then when I kind of started, it was COVID. And then it felt like everybody dove into the industry during COVID because they saw that there was a good potential to make good money. But at the same token, my reason or why to jump into the business is because I've always wanted to run my own business. I've always wanted to run my own business, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and this is the opportunity I had. So, I took it probably a lot differently than some people.
AUSTIN HOWARD:That just kind of jumped in to jump in and I'm sure you've seen where people start a dealership and it's gone in six months or gone in eight months or 10 months. And, trust me, I've had a dealership like that I in six months, or gone in eight months or 10 months. And, trust me, I've had a dealership like that. I had three in my first year actually, but the third one just didn't pan out. It just wasn't, you know, the best location, just sales weren't there. So, I'm not faulting anybody, but at the same token, there has been a lot of people jump in and jump back out of the industry. It's kind of like real estate, where people saw the peak of it and then I jumped in it, not because there was a lot of money, like, truth be told, I jumped in it.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I didn't know anything about the industry, you know, I just knew that I had an opportunity to start a business that I could grow and that I worked with a factory that wanted us to grow together, and that's kind of how my mindset was going into it and I think that's you know, I'm hoping that that's the reason why we're still around today. I'm hoping that's the reason we'll be around for a long time to come.
SHED GEEK:I'll tell you one of my favorite things in talking with you pre-recording. That was really awesome that I just want to bring up for other guests too, especially for dealers or for manufacturers, depending on how you curate your content and any type of like ad copy that you're doing, if you're putting any kind of reels together. You know you had mentioned about having a YouTube channel, you know Facebook page, a website, and you were like, hey, you know, it'd be really neat for us to take parts of this interview or the interview and stick it onto the website. And I want to talk about why that's really important is because in today's age, you know, in the digital world where people are scrolling through social media whether it be you know Facebook or Instagram, or you know Snapchat or LinkedIn or any of them, but then also those who are going to a search engine like Google or even using YouTube for that like second largest search engine in the world at this point. If you're doing that, you're searching for particular things or you're scrolling through leisurely in your social media and things are showing up, you're able to use things like this interview whenever I ask you hey, what is your message to your customer?
SHED GEEK:To create a whole bunch of short form video content for your YouTube channel to put it on your website, and I hope that a guest is listening to this today because you know we take great pride at Shed Geek in being, you know, a leading podcast, the only podcast that I'm aware of in the industry that really focuses on B2B, and we want to get your message out to your customers. So, when you come on here, it's not as though you're just coming on here to talk sheds and talk about stuff that's fun, all that stuff's fun, but there's actually a value proposition to it for you that you can download this. We can send you a video file, you can go make a ton of content just from this, and I've done 300 interviews Austin 300 interviews.
SHED GEEK:Wow, that's a lot of interviews and maybe five people have understood the message that you and you were the one that brought it up to me You're like hey, I want to, yeah, I'll chop this thing up, we'll make some good content, and here we have to educate people, most often, which nothing wrong with that. I was just so proud that you know, like you mentioned it to me, like I want to get you this episode quickly, cause I'm like yeah, man, you should be sending this out, you should be telling your customer I mean, you should be doing your own podcast, if you want to.
SHED GEEK:I mean you know you should do to get in front of your customer YouTube channel. You know, just, you know a lot of video videos so underutilized in the shed industry. Because you're selling a product, I want to see that product. That's why 3D configurators have been such a massive explosion in our industry is because people like it's a lot better than 2D.
SHED GEEK:Where I sit, here and just write it out on this piece of paper and I'm like I'm going to wallaby here and yeah, it looks like this, but you can actually envision it. And then you begin to dream with them and it's in their backyard before you know it. So, kudos to you, for it really made my day.
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AUSTIN HOWARD:My background is, you know the old saying, you know jack of all trades, master of none. So, I've done a little bit of everything when it comes to sales and marketing and, uh, you know, when it comes to the side of things, you know, I started my YouTube channel touring modular and manufactured homes, um, back when nobody was really touring it. Um, I wish that the circumstances would have worked out a little differently. Internally, I was just kind of limited to what I could tour just because of the company, but at the same token, I'm kind of glad that that happened, because I wouldn't be here today talking to you. So, you know it panned out. But at the same token, I like I have it and, like I said before, you know that's one thing I want to focus on this year is to really start trying to ramp up a consistent schedule with YouTube videos and everything, whether that's just talking like we are or, you know, just education about the products or whatever it may be it may be.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I'd love to do that, but you know that, just like you know it takes time. When you're a single entrepreneur, you know you kind of kind of have to focus on what makes you money and right now the business is.
SHED GEEK:I've told people before, I'm sure that you know. You figure, we're just getting on here and talking and it's really that simple. Snap your fingers and the podcast, right there's. You know we have four people that work full time just publishing, editing, loading things. I mean that doesn't even get into our whole marketing world where there's 10 to 13 people working on continuous projects. You know another four or five in rentals, another three or four on the financing side that we work with.
SHED GEEK:And you know you're trying to, you're trying to navigate this whole world of all these different things and all these different people. And yeah, there's a lot of work that goes into not just work but education, just to be able to know what cameras to buy, know what frames are necessary, understanding the ad deliverables on all the different media outlets, and then that's not even what your message is about. These are just the things. You have to learn to show the message, because we take for granted that we're in the shed industry and we understand what a gambrel roof is. Have to learn to show the message, because we take for granted that we're in the shed industry and we understand what a gambrel roof is, or, or you know, we understand, uh, that.
SHED GEEK:You know maybe a, uh, a non-lofted has, you know approximately, you know eight foot sidewalls, and you know, then you got to shorten the doors on your gambrels and you know, know, what about metal versus? I mean, I'm looking at your website and there's metal and shingled roofs. There's ridge vents, there's, you know, these windows. Oh no, are these windows single pane, double pane? How's the construction? What does 16 OC mean?
AUSTIN HOWARD:There's so much, get delivered.
SHED GEEK:You can show all that content through YouTube and through video's. It's a bit of a production, honestly, to make a lot of that stuff happen, but you're doing it, man, like you're doing that and you're dedicated to that for your customers and it's exciting to see people sort of embrace that, because we get left behind in the shed world sometimes when we don't sort of embrace the way consumers decide to shop in other areas yeah because we're kind of stuck in our ways.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I mean that's well yeah, and that's another thing, like just to give advice. You know, one thing that I learned, uh, is you know, embrace technology and embrace you know how things, how things are, embrace change. Basically, because if you don't, for example, I was just talking with my marketing guy today that handles the backend and it's just like okay, you know, I was talking with some of my salespeople and we were like, okay, well, when we were boosting Marketplace for this particular person, all she was getting was spam.
AUSTIN HOWARD:But now that we've stopped because we took a break during the holidays, now she's getting actual people messaging her and asking questions. So, it's just little things like that to kind of just pay attention to, to say, okay, well, we're going to hold off, you know we're going to take a minute and see where that leads and if it doesn't work, they will pivot and change again.
AUSTIN HOWARD:So, I think I think having the, I think the shed industry itself, and then that's one reason why I love Pineview, and now you guys are kind of working with them a little bit. They do embrace technology, they embrace change, they embrace new products and new styles and new colors and all those things, and that is what grabs people's attention. I think another reason that people do buy from us is, of course, location. We're nearby. But at the same token, when they are comparing, do we get?
AUSTIN HOWARD:that a lot is like, oh well, I love the style or I love that shape, or I love the colors that you have, or you know that we can customize a color and match your house or you know all those things, all those little things that really kind of add up to making the difference and making the buying decision easier. And one thing that I learned from other industries just watching is that if you could be a leader in education prior to the customer ever seeing y'all, we might have a customer that starts looking at our content two years and then coming by. So, is it a long game? Absolutely, absolutely. Is it a lot of time, effort and money? Absolutely. But I think, like to your point is you started this during COVID and now you've grown it over time and you're kind of the shed podcast that people would go to in my industry that want to learn more. Whenever I heard about you guys, I immediately went and watched a few episodes like we talked about. So, I love that that there's content out there that's geared towards us.
SHED GEEK:I'll tell you a couple of things that you said there. First, love working with everybody over there Chad, the whole crew, man, they're just excellent people and it's an excellent building. It's really you know what I mean like it's a staple, uh, in in that region, you know, and they just absolutely have done a phenomenal job. They're excellent people, very cordial, very kind, very polite to work with. So, we'll start there, and they make an excellent building, which is really awesome because you want to be able to stand behind that. Beyond that, yes, just the podcast itself. What a blessing to have the opportunity to do that. But it just goes to show that, to your point, if you embrace new ideas. You know I had no idea what this thing was going to turn out. It started as a labor of love. It turned into a career right, a little different when it's. You're doing it because you, you just you know and then you're like oh, I got to do it for work.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Well, that's, that's what I did for YouTube. I just like filming houses, I love houses, so I just started filming it one day and then we started posting it and it just took off. I wish I would have stuck with it, um, but at the same time, like I said, it just got just had a kind of you know a different path, and that's fine, but I, but I it led you to here, man.
SHED GEEK:It led you to here and the success that you're having.
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SHED GEEK:Sometimes the path that you start out and you set out on paper, it doesn't quite look the same by the time you know the actual path to get there. But you know what, man, you're doing an excellent job and it is really going good for you and I'm super happy for you and, uh, I'm really, more than anything I'm happy that you sort of embrace the ideas of, uh, the sales, the way the sales, um, um, what am I trying to say here? Not sales industry, but because that's, that's that just sounds too broad. Yeah, the way sales in general does begin to navigate away from even some of your more traditional routes. I'll give you an example. Something I dealt with this week is you know, I had somebody reach out and they say one of the hardest things that we're dealing with, you know, is we've we, we, we need marketing, we've got 27 locations, oh my gosh right.
SHED GEEK:I thought four was bad, 27 locations and uh, now this is from a manufacturer perspective, right, okay, but they said we got 27 and we have some dealers who are excellent sales people okay, but they need to go through an SOP manual just to learn how to turn on the computer. And they were making a joke and I was like I get it. You know, my dad carries a flip phone. He couldn't you know. There's no way he would understand.
SHED GEEK:You know some of the dynamics of technology without learning them and without going through the struggle to learn them. However, that doesn't mean that you can't learn it. But what's the hardest is when you have five of the 27 who really understand it well and they can pull on the power of the digital platform to increase their sales with half the effort, because you don't have to get people to the lot to get the sale, or you at least start your journey online before you get them to the lot. It's almost like you don't want to lose the two different things. If you've got a here, I'll get politically incorrect here for a minute you got a really geeky person that just understands the technology. Perhaps they lose a little personality.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Right.
SHED GEEK:Because you know we call them a geek, right, like me, a shed man, right, you know you lose a little personality. But then you got these men and women that have tons of personality, they're very experienced in dealing with customer service, they're very experienced in dealing with customer service, but then they struggle a little bit, maybe on the tech side, because they focus really on the relationship side and we just seem to be in this weird place of like trying to mend the two of them.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Well, and I say I say I raise my hand at that because you know I'm okay at technology. I don't say that that's a strong suit of mine, but I think you know another piece of advice would be surround yourself with people that are better at the things that you're not good at.
AUSTIN HOWARD:If that's a possibility. I know that that could be costly, and I will say this for the first two and a half, almost three years, I didn't have a marketing person, we didn't have a good website, we didn't have all those things. But we kind of, you know, going back to my prior point, is you kind of shift and change with the tides. You know we were on that rise of COVID. You know we killed it in 21, 22, and then 23 started to dip a little bit. So, I was able to kind of say let's take a step back and say okay, we're not getting the retail traffic that we were. How do we continue that? Or make online sales? So, I had to find someone and take that risk and pay them, you know, to help me build out the website that you see today.
AUSTIN HOWARD:And we're still not done. You know we've got a long road ahead. You know I always have heard, you know from other people in different industries is if you can get the website to 80%, you're golden. So, you'll never be complete with a website. So, and I and I feel like we're there, you know, and I feel like him being the SEO more, you know behind the scenes. I guess you would say geeky, even though I don't see him as geeky. He's also a realtor, so he's kind of a mix, but he knows stuff that I don't know. And you know, we kind of collaborate, like I said we talked earlier and figure out okay, this is working, here's the data. That's working, that's not working. And I didn't have that, like I said, for two and a half, almost three years at the company. Just, I sure, I just couldn't afford it. I mean, we were just, uh, we just were on a shoestring budget.
SHED GEEK:You know, and you have to work. You have to work inside your budget, and you also have to be willing to learn and grow and you also have to be willing to invest in things. You know I, I tell people all the time you can't sell a shed without investing in the lumber or the windows. You know. So, you know, I tend to think take a look at these different things. Like you know, you buy a shed trailer so that you can move it. So, you know, so you can make money on it.
SHED GEEK:It's the same thing in the digital world.
SHED GEEK:You know, as you begin to do these things like creating a website or something like that, and that's just one part of it, as you said, you know, a lot of people struggle with getting a website and they figure, once I finally do that, that'll be the solution to all my problems.
SHED GEEK:But then there's a whole other host of things, like SEO, as you mentioned. You know, really setting up your tags so that you can track the performance of the website, and then bringing all that stuff into somewhere. Right, like we've been pushing the CRM pretty heavy because it's like man, do you want to go to your Facebook ads manager and do you want to chase down your Google leads and your lead forms from your website and your configurator? Or would you like to have them all in one spot so that it's easy and has a user interface, a simple user interface? So, there's a ton of conversation that can be happening there that don't even have anything to do with sheds, right? Yeah, we're trying to build a system and process, you know, so that it's simple, so it's easy, so that your business can move and thrive and succeed.
AUSTIN HOWARD:We've had up and downs with that too. We've tried several, several CRMs and programs and everything too. So I interrupted you. No, you're fine, you're fine, I'm interviewing you.
SHED GEEK:I'm just excited about the conversation because it's really nice to speak with someone who's like, hey, look, we're willing to go down that road. And you do have to operate within your budget. You know, we tell people all the time if you're not spending at minimum 4% of your revenue on your marketing and that includes not just your website but your banners, your brochures, all that stuff you know then you're not in line with the majority of companies in the United States. That's not even just Shed Guys, right, that's Coca-Cola, Harley-davidson, Chick-fil-a, that's anybody else. You've got to invest in your future. The crazy thing is, with the dot-com boom, it created this network.
SHED GEEK:And then you think about Beos and what happened with amazon and the ability to uh, really be able to go online to just even learn things. You know google really beating out all the rest of you remember ask jeeves and you remember all those, yeah, search engines there and google really, it really won, didn't it right? It won in terms of like being a. You know, we think we go to Google. This is one of my favorite things to say. We think we go to Google to get information, but Google goes to all of the rest of these places to get information and then just become a lead generator. They lead you towards what they have deemed to be the best place, based off of your search criteria. Right, that's right. Like, hey, I need a shovel, where do I find one? Oh well, according to our million searches and all this big pool of data that we've had our bots go out and pull Ace hardware two miles from you, that's the best place to get one. However, here's collection two and three and four and five. You know, and, but we don't really go to get information. They go to get information from us, you know, so it's always fun to like walk through those processes. You know, so it's always fun to like walk through those processes.
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SHED GEEK:I want to touch on something real quick before we get out of here. You said you were in mobile home sales. I'm hearing just great things about mobile home sales and some guys that I know that are in that world. Where do you feel like that compares to what your experience has been in the shed industry?
AUSTIN HOWARD:I will say the biggest difference is and I always made this comparison- mobile home and manufactured housing is real estate. Sheds are car dealerships.
AUSTIN HOWARD:So, if you throw those two together, that's kind of the correlation I see. Whereas mobile home and manufacturer I may start talking to you today about a home, but if you actually buy from me, you're essentially locked in for two years. So, what I mean by that is between. You know, when you start, when you say, hey, I like this house, I have the land, let's just say you already have the land. If you don't have the land, then that's another whole. You know six months looking for land. You know, whereas the sales cycle is extremely long when it comes to mobile home and modular manufacturers.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Now they get paid dearly to be able to hold that money the whole time. And you know always from my previous owner that worked there, he essentially was like the first two to three years. You don't make anything because you're waiting for those deals to close. So, you've got to have the pockets to withstand those two to three years. And he did it in the 90s when it wasn't really two to three years because they weren't tying in land, it was more so like 90 to you know, 90 days to a year or six months to a year. Versus now it truly is that long because you're dealing with the dirt, whereas even there's a.
AUSTIN HOWARD:There's even a difference in sales cycle between sheds and metal buildings. Metal buildings are a construction project and you're a project manager, and then sheds are retail. So that, to me, is what the biggest difference is. Um, not saying one is better than the other, but you've got to look at it differently. Whereas a shed can be bought and purchased within 30 to 45 minutes and it can be delivered within two weeks if it's on the lot, whereas even though you can move pretty quickly with a metal building, it it's more of a process than just hey, I'm done, especially if you're getting a permit.
AUSTIN HOWARD:So, prime example you know you may sell or take a deposit in May and it may not be completed until September. Commercial building in 23 September and it did not get installed until September of 24, a year later, just because of all the litigation and all that other stuff. Now the lucky and the good thing with that is we got the deposit up front, so it doesn't hold up our money. But at the same token, you know we operate, you know, and that we want to make sure we see that customer through. So, we still had man hours tied up and making sure they got everything that they need. If they needed anything from the factory, you know checking up on them, seeing how the process was going. So that back end still kind of eats away your profit margin, so to speak, because you still have that customer in your pipeline until they're completed.
SHED GEEK:And I can't say enough good things about that little three minute riff that you just did there. There's so much content in that that you can eat on. You can talk for another 10 hours. You know acquisition time. You know just that alone.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Yeah.
SHED GEEK:Customer acquisition and sales cycle you're talking about, because I think that's where consignment dealers a lot of times get in trouble. Like hey, here's, here's, you got a two acre lot. You know, here's 30 buildings. Uh, hey, here's 10 percent, sell, sell, sell, and then there's nothing after that. There's no training. There's no training on RTO, there's no training on uh, um, walking that customer through the process as to shortening that sales cycle down to just that one visit, you know, but maybe being a helper, and they're, because maybe what they need is more than that, maybe they do just need a shed to show up and they need it for 30 days and then they're going to rent to own it and then send it back because that's all they needed. But that's usually our customers, typically. You know they're looking for a garage or a permanent storage solution, but maybe they don't have the cash for it, so they maybe they need some rent on options, who knows? Or they're paying cash.
SHED GEEK:But that customer acquisition time can be so deceiving because it's impulsive and we've had people show up. It's like the gum at the at the end of the Walmart counter. It's only there because you happen to be there waiting. So, you pick up some gum but you dip it, go in there and shop for gum. You just it's impulsive, the sodas, anything little impulse rack that they put there for you. And if you're, if you're not careful, you can fall into the trap in that of the customer acquisition and sales cycle from a customer perspective or from a dealer perspective. I just want to sell it and get it out of my hands, but you know it might be a custom order, that might be six weeks out or you know it's at least you know 10 days out if they're ordering it off and you got to work with that customer at least a little bit. But you're right on the customer acquisition time and becoming sort of that GC for you know, your shed guy or your metal building guy. And I can't wait until Jared and Eric get started on Steel Kings and that comes out in March, because they're really going to be addressing a lot of these things. And Steel Side differs from our Shed world.
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SHED GEEK:Dude, there's so much I even wanted to talk about. I sent a question on Shed Sales Professionals today that talked about rent to own. Is there anybody that does rent to own? It's my good buddy, john Newcomb, up in Cadillac, Michigan, and he was asking about you know, does anybody do rent to own on tiny homes? And I kind of answered the question real quick and I thought you 'd probably have a lot of good thoughts on how rent to own versus, you know, sheds versus the compliance issue that you run into in mobile homes and real estate and things like that. So, I need to have a real estate guy on. I keep getting calls from my buddy, Duncan Smith, down in the Boothill or down in the Ozarks down in Missouri. Duncan, if you're listening to this, I hope he's going to send me another email or send me another voice recording. I'm going to have to play these for you guys. He sent me 30 of them and he's high energy. Hey, Duncan, I want to tell you about this. You got to check out his YouTube channel.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I wish I had that much energy.
SHED GEEK:It depends on the day, brother. It depends on the day, brother. It depends on the day. But I want to end this interview with this we're seeing you. We'll see you next week, we'll be out there on the 15th. I love what you're doing. I can't wait to meet you.
SHED GEEK:My question to you is one that I haven't got to ask in a while. We took two weeks off around Christmas this year. It's the first time we've done that and not put a show out during the holidays. But we're back. We're in full steam. We can't wait to create content for 2025 that you guys are going to enjoy, like today's episode. But my question to you is the same thing that I ask everybody else that comes on the show, in full disclosure. I've spent this time asking you questions, grilling you, asking you your thoughts, details, your predictions over the future and all that. My question to you is do you have any questions for me? Shed geek podcast related marketing sales, rent owned. I don't care. I'll answer it to the best of my ability, in full transparency, and I may get it wrong. And if, if I do, come on and challenge me anybody, I'd love for you to get on here and educate me. I'm always looking to know more.
AUSTIN HOWARD:so, yeah, any questions at all um, I would say, uh, I guess one thing that that, uh, that is is interesting. You know we had talked and you had bringing Pineview on to help them with the SEO and all of that fun jazz. What got you more interested, I guess, in this side of things versus still becoming a dealer or staying a dealer during that time, since you did quit, like right before COVID?
SHED GEEK:I'm just curious I always had to ask.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I have to ask.
SHED GEEK:No, it's a great question. You know, I took a unnatural path toward things like marketing. I had worked selling sheds and, man, I was just all in. I genuinely was. You know like, I went and visited my neighbors, the other people who sold sheds, and I began to realize, like wait a minute, there's this big storage unit behind us and they're getting all the business right. Shed guys are losing out to the storage units because people see the value in just going and paying rent to leave something there for two years, just to turn around and either leave it behind or build no more.
SHED GEEK:And I thought, man, wouldn't it be nice to just get a shed delivered right there to your backyard where it's simple, easy, clean? And I had worked in procurement purchasing for a large company and kind of saw how it worked. But I just got super interested in figuring out how to reach customers. And the more I dove into it, the more I realized social media, websites, all these different things. So I took a very unnatural path towards that, got connected with Dylan. He actually started in our shed office, you know like. You know so, the president of Shed Geek Marketing. But I went and worked in our shed office, you know like you know. So, the president of Shed Geek Marketing. But I went and worked in rent to own, started learning a lot about that world and now learning a lot more about finance and and, and you know, essentially what you're trying to do is create a lead. And then the sales side of the world really grabbed me too. How do you walk through the sales cycle, the sales process? What's it look like? How do we differ from other industries you mentioned something on that here today between how we match the car industry versus the real estate industry because customer acquisition is shorter.
SHED GEEK:We took that approach even in our marketing. We we don't call and tell people let's just price shop, let's just hurry up and try to get your business. We spend an hour with a minimum talking about their needs and we even ask them in their broken language to tell us what they understand marketing to be or rent to own to be. We're educators at heart, you know. That's why the tagline's been education through entertainment over here at the podcast.
SHED GEEK:We don't win them all. We don't get everybody's business. We shouldn't. We don't expect that. We know that we're not for everybody, but it's exciting to be able to just be transparent. There's a lot of freedom that's offered in being able to do that. I still love selling sheds, but the only way I would do it at this point would be to use our own internal marketing. You know, maybe use some type of lead gen source like ShedHub or something along those lines. You know, use something so that I could pull everything in, organize it into a CRM and maybe not limit myself to selling in a 30 or 50 mile radius kind of like I had before, not that that's bad.
SHED GEEK:No disrespect towards that model, but I think we have the knowledge to be able to sell on a national scale probably. Yeah, so far I just really haven't done that. Because I enjoy this ride. I guess I take what God gives me you know what I mean Like I just try to stay up to what's in front of me. Um, I, I don't necessarily want to compete with my, my listeners, and uh, and if I did, um, I would never, I would never do it in a way that um would, would, would, would take their dealer network. You know they've already established that.
SHED GEEK:I had somebody say that recently Say, well, you want their dealer network, I don't. I don't want their dealer network, I don't want anybody's dealer network. That's like we could accomplish way more without having to stumble through working with dealers. But I just, I guess right now I just really enjoy helping people. I'm a Zig Ziglar guy. I got you. Help others get what they want, so you can get what you want. Leaders eat last. That's what Simon Sinek says. He's got a book what Leaders Eat Last.
AUSTIN HOWARD:That's a good point, I just enjoy helping other people.
SHED GEEK:We make a good living if we help others.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Absolutely. That goes back to what I said earlier Literally at the end of the day. You know, even when I was doing cars or mobile homes, I sold cars for a little while too.
AUSTIN HOWARD:You know, at the end of the day, it was trying to meet that need and trying to help someone, and you know I wanted to run a company, obviously so I can make good money and have a good living and be successful, just like at the root of anything else, but also create career paths for people. You know that could potentially make decent money. You know I'm still working on, you know, trying to grow our online presence, and here's why we're here today is, you know, trying to make sure that you know, when you think of sheds in the Carolinas, you think of us and in our brand and everything like that, and same thing with the metal, you know, just on a larger scale. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at, too is at the end of the day. You know we're in business to help people to solve their problems when it comes to storage, and I like that you brought up that the big guys down the street are getting all the deals and that is 100 percent true.
AUSTIN HOWARD:If you were to drive down the road where I live and up in North Carolina, they are building storage units. I think every half mile At least it seems that way, storage units. I think every half mile at least it seems that way. And it's because everybody's living in neighborhoods and everybody's living in communities that are really tight together. So, when you have a boat or when you have this or have that, you can't fit it in your yard because everybody has a postage stamp. Now back to the real estate thing. You know it's just really tight. So, I will say the real estate thing, you know it's just really tight. So, I will say the good thing, you know, is that with the new machinery and everything like that, you're able to get into spaces that you used to not be able to. So, I think we've had found good luck with that and selling into these HOA's and neighborhoods and stuff I'll tell you this I've made those who partnered with me way more money than I've made myself.
SHED GEEK:It's not about money. There's also a sense of purpose and dedication to your work, and there should be a purpose to your work. And if you don't feel that, then you're in the wrong industry, right? Like, if you don't feel satisfied helping your customers find storage solutions, you know, go somewhere else. Go somewhere that fulfills you personally, makes you happy. So, I, I, I, I do enjoy helping others and that's why I said I'm a zig guy. I love to see others prosper. I love to see others do well, that. That excites me and I believe that what I'm owed and what I'm due to be able to help others do that has been just fine for me and my family. We feel very satisfied. We don't feel taken advantage of. We feel we're doing better than we ever have. So, I mean, why would I complain about continuing to be a giver?
SHED GEEK:Because I'm doing a speech coming up man, I'm chewing on this, Austin, I can't wait. I'm doing a speech coming up, man, I'm chewing on this, Austin, I can't wait. I'm doing a keynote speaking event in Millersburg, Ohio, in February and I just got this burning inside of me to talk about what it means to be a giver and to give away, as opposed to being a taker. You can accomplish a lot more through the power of networking and helping others get what they want. You'll always be able to get what you want, but if you put yourself first, then you're not a leader who's eating last, you're a leader who's eating first. You know, I think I'll let you go on this. I think I read something that said. Somebody said well, our customers are always right, they're the ones that we make the happiest. And somebody else said it's not your customers you make happy, it's your employees. Your employees will make your customers happy, and if you make your employees happy, they will make sure your customers are happy.
AUSTIN HOWARD:No, I agree with that. I've worked for both where that was the focus, and then I've worked where that wasn't, and you can definitely you definitely want to. You know, stick with the person that treats you right. So, I've tried and I'm sure there's people out there that have worked for me that disagree but I have tried my best to try to take care of people that work for me and that, you know, spend time away from their families, to have a career and selling sheds.
SHED GEEK:We all got those that would disagree with us, but that was the path to get us to where we are today. Brother, I am so happy to meet you and to work alongside you and I can't say thank you enough for sitting down with me today. I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope it was simple and you know what. You're a sales guy, so it should be easy to sit down and talk to you and I thank you for it. Can't wait to meet you in person. Next week while we're out there. We're going to go attend the second day of the Garage, Shed, Carport Builder Show on the 16th down in Greenville, the day after we're out there with you guys, and we're going to get some interviews while we're out there in North Carolina in person. But I can't wait to meet you, can't wait to see Howie again while we're out there and just can't say thank you know the partnership that we've been able to establish with you guys and wishing you the best 2025, the best year you've ever had, man.
AUSTIN HOWARD:I appreciate it. I appreciate it a lot. Thank you for having me on and, yeah, I'd love to come back on and talk more. And yeah, absolutely looking forward to meeting everybody next week on I think it's Wednesday, right? Yeah?
SHED GEEK:Wednesday.
AUSTIN HOWARD:Yeah, well. Well, let's make that happen, man.
SHED GEEK:We'll do a round two, there you go thanks, appreciate it, yeah, absolutely