Building the Foundations of Trust in Tech-Assisted Commerce

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SHED GEEK (00:00):
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
Geek podcast, Tristan.
Well over 200 of these goingnow, man, and I'm excited, super
excited, to have you back on.
I can't wait till we're hitting1000.
The only thing I'm strugglingwith is remembering all the
people, the conversations, thepeople we've met and all that,
and that's why I like an ongoingrelationship conversation.

(00:20):
Keep having those conversation,keep having those, and I've
been able to have that with youas well, too, and I just want to
.
I know you've been on before,but I want to welcome you back
and I want to give you a chanceto talk about Cal and just give
people whatever you want to givethem, man, a little more
understanding of who you are andwhat you do, the services you

(00:43):
provide.
So tell the audience a littleabout yourself.
How about that?

TRISTAN KLESICK (00:46):
Yeah, well, thank you, Shannon, it's good to
be back and to visit.
Yeah, we've been, you know, inthe software space for, you know
, 20 years and now we're in theshed space and the carport space
and the playset space anddealers and manufacturers and
dealer manufacturers are dealersthis space is really, really

(01:07):
fun and so we, you know, wepivoted pretty hard into a point
of sale solution and ordermanagement for, you know,
dealers and manufacturers, andbecause you know our broad
history in logistics andsoftware, we, we just feel like
our software helps you sellanything.

(01:27):
You know, that's the beautifulthing about our software is like
it's not specific to a shedmanufacturer, although we have
shed manufacturers.
But you know a lot of dealers.
You know they rep three, four,five products.
You know they've got, you know,play sets.
They build a line of sheds andthey sell Eagle carports.
You know like they're just allover the map and they need a way

(01:48):
to have one system that sort ofcan, you know, marry that all
together and you know, like,even what's you know like you
know RTO.
You know you can have oneperson do RTO or, in this case,
there are a lot of little RTOcompanies out there, of little
RTO companies out there, big RTOcompanies out there, and
because relationships are soimportant in this industry
relationships they're importantin every industry, but in the

(02:08):
shed industry in particular, youknow these are deep family
relationships, deep communityrelationships.
You know we want to justintegrate your partners into our
system.
So you know you can have three,four, five, six different
partners if you want, or you canuse the ones we're integrated
with.
But we're happy to integratewith any RTO company, any, any
configurator.
We have ShedPro and IdeaRoom.
Right now we work with, youknow Shed Geek Rentals, you know

(02:30):
Shannon, and then we work withJMAG and Heartland and Scott's
RTO.
We're talking to EasyPay.
You know we're, we're open tointegrating because really it's
your business.
You know you're the shed owner,the shed dealer, the

(02:51):
manufacturer.
You know we want you to bringyour partners to our system so
that you have familiarity withthem and then have one spot to
do most of your transactions,and so that's why we're really
excited about what we're doingbecause we're working with
people and their, their network.

SHED GEEK (02:58):
I love it, dude, and you hit on something early on,
you know I mean you've talkedabout this a little bit.
You know people work with, buyfrom people they trust.
You know what I mean.
So, building some good brandauthority and building a good
trusted relationship reallymatters.
It really works and it does alot of the work for you whenever
people feel like they can trustyou.
You're not just selling onservice and value.

(03:21):
Those things are incrediblyimportant.
But whenever I sold sheds, Ihad some people that would come
to me because they trusted me.
I didn't have to give them thespiel about the warranties.
I didn't have to give them aspiel about you know, the
service and all that.
Make sure my, my oatmeal, creampies and bottles of waters were
readily available and theywalked in the door.
They knew me.
They knew me and because theyknew me, they knew that whatever

(03:43):
I was selling they were goingto be happy with because they
were happy to buy from me.
And I think that's the, that'sthe power so many dealers hold
out there now already is, youknow, do they do they realize
that, like, sometimes it's brand, sometimes it's just them?
So trust is such an importantthing and we've tried to
establish that and build on that.
And I know that's superimportant for Cal as well too

(04:05):
that people are buying fromTristan.
They're not just buying fromand Tristan's this whole
character right Like.
He's this guy outside of justCal and like we're doing
business, he's, you know, he's aloving son who's taking care of
his parents.
He's a Christian who's faithfulin his duties and his
responsibilities.

(04:25):
And most of our conversations,tristan, don't circle around our
business.
Together, they end up circlingaround Jesus, like me and you
talk about, like our ministry,more, I think, than our business
.
I think that's beautiful.

So oh yeah, it is easier sometimes to talk
about the Lord actually and totalk about what you do, right,
you know, sometimes it's easierto just talk about who you serve
as opposed to you know why I'mhere today, but in the end it's
all blended together right,because the people we serve also
are.
In many cases, you know, sons,husbands, wives, daughters have

(05:02):
parents who now are gettingolder and they need to be able
to pivot with them or they'retransitioning to a different you
know a different familystructure.
Even right Now, son's takingover, the next generation's
coming in, you know, and being apart of those transitions is so
beautiful, right, because it'stender and it's hard and it, you
know, has to be clear andconcise and the new generation

(05:23):
has.
The new generation has appetitefor new tools, right, like we
were talking with this oneplayset manufacturer and he
wants to use our system becausehis dealers just need an easier
way to do playsets, but therereally isn't a software that can
do playsets.
But he also sells sheds andcarports right, but he wants to
focus on a dealer network andplaysets.
Like, well, we could doplaysets, that's not a big deal.
We tweak it here and there forthem to be successful.

(05:47):
In the end, he said, theseyounger families that are buying
play sets sometimes grandma andgrandpa buy them but the
younger families they're notafraid to buy a play set online.
They're seeing that the kids arewilling to buy cars and play
sets and even sheds online.
They're like how do we get toe-commerce?
Yeah well, we can help you withthat.
We can do the assisted salewhere they get a quote from the

(06:09):
internet, or they could fully doan RTO contract.
Shoot.
Those customers all know whotheir work references are, they
all know where they live, theyall know.
You know their phone number andtheir address.
You know, and with these newconfigurators out there in
particular and the calculatorswe build, you know you can dial
your budget right in.

SHED GEEK (06:27):
You know, as a consumer right into what you can
afford.

You can say oh, I can afford $300 a month, I
can afford $500 a month.
And if you can't, you just drawthe building a little smaller.
You take a slide off, in thiscase, and you add a climbing
wall and you say, oh, I canafford that, you know.
But you're actually with ideaand shed pro and those
configurators, you're getting aqualified customer right out of
the gate, and so sure, let themfill out the contract, you know,
and take a deposit if you wantto and if you want them to call

(06:50):
you, because there are things,shannon, in the space.
You know how big is your fence,what does the overhead wires
look like?
You know how close are thetrees to your house?
You have to know some thingswhen you buy a shed online, like
online.
Like you know there are somethings will help the transaction
go better than just, you know,putting out a deposit.
So you know we can helpwherever you're comfortable with
.
But there's a new generationcoming, you know, and you've got

(07:10):
a couple of kids in theirtwenties.
You know they're fine usingtheir internet.
They are fine buying online.
They trust that way more thanyou and I might.
You know, and maybe they'remore savvy and maybe they're
just more naive, I don't knowwhich.
But you know they're willing tobuy online.
And so the point of sharing thatstory is, you know, this is a
dealer network, but he also repsproducts and he also, you know,

(07:32):
buys from the manufacturers andwe can support all of his
business activity because we'rejust multi-dimensional.
You know, we're not shedspecific, we're not manufacturer
specific, you know, and we letyou bring your configurators, we
let you bring your RTOcompanies, and so we can kind of

(07:53):
build out who you're inbusiness with and then give you
one easy point of sale solutionand some good order management
tools.

SHED GEEK (07:58):
And that's where we start focusing Isn't it the
beauty of collaboration?
I like to say that the beautyof collaboration, when it works,
is that all parties are happy.
You know like there is a skewedview of collaboration that says
I get something, you may getsomething, and I'm like no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, that's notwhat we're doing here.
Like that's not.
Why Shed Geek Rentals, you know, chose to work with Kat, you

(08:26):
know, it's because it benefitsus.
It doesn't just benefit me, itdoesn't just benefit you, it
benefits us.
And I think that's the way good, true collaboration should work
.
And you're seeing a lot of thisin the shed industry, which is
really awesome, because the waytechnology kind of busted onto
the scene like a Kool-Aid manjumping through the wall,
everybody's like wait a minute,all these choices are so much.
And then there's this and that.
And then what about service?
What about price?
What about all of these things?

(08:46):
But then there's like whatabout all the technical
components about you guysworking together?
Because there can become a,there can become almost like a
skewed, like I have to work withthis one or I have to work with
that, and it's like well, haveyou ever considered that
sometimes they might worktogether to solve more of your
problems?
Instead of just this?
This uh, unrealistic allegianceto, to one brand there is, like

(09:09):
some of those brands arechoosing to be like wait a
minute.
We can help you and and you,the customer, the shed
manufacturer or the rto uhcompany looking for these
products, you win.
You win in the battle becausewe work together on these things
.

Yeah, no, I I find it interesting, you know, I
mean this industry has justbeen in place for a long time,
right, and there's some, youknow some Amish and Mennonite
builders that are, you know,limited in tech, and then you
know they have, you know, dealernetworks they've set up and
sometimes, you know, you takeyour commission to the deposit
world.
Sometimes you get a check at theend of the month, you know.
And so the industry is reallydiverse, but they have

(09:48):
relationships and the thingabout me is I love relationships
.
I am much more happy havingthis conversation about your
network because you're justinvolved in people's lives,
you're making a difference inyour community.
You have tools, but also Idon't like having all my eggs in
one basket and there are someall-in-one solutions.

(10:10):
But in the end I want to be sodiverse that if you need three
or four or five RTO partners, wecan put them all in the system.
If you just do Carports orEasyPay or Heartland, no problem
.
When you choose a Carport, thoseare the RTO companies that show
up, you know.
And if you do shares and youwork with JMAG and Shed Geek
Rentals and you know Scott's RTOor something, you know, that's
easy as well.
You know we just show those andthen you just train your sales

(10:31):
team to use whichever one isappropriate for you, because it
is nice to have multiplepartners.
In some ways it's easier tohave one partner, but really,
you know, having two or threetrusted partners is just safer.
The Bible teaches us that rightA multitude of counselors is

(10:52):
safety right, and so for us, youknow, we're just trying to help
our clients.
You know, run a little faster,save a little time and take
advantage of technology.
So it makes their lives better.

SHED GEEK (10:59):
We've even had in sort of our marketing campaign.
We've had customers that signup that say, well, you know, we
use this RTO provider, we likeyou guys and you know what.
Maybe you'll be a follow-upcall if something falls through.
But my question is is thereconflict in providing marketing
if we're not using your RTO?
And I'm like, why would therebe conflict?

(11:20):
And they're like, well, justbecause you know you're not
seeing the benefit, I was like,oh no, no, I think you're
misunderstanding.
I'm here to serve you.
Like I'm not here to serve me.
That's probably what you'reused to, you know what I mean.
So like I'm not here.
So like, wait a minute, you'retelling me that that RTO

(11:40):
provider is going to point.
And they're like well, yeah,wouldn't it?
And I'm like well then, I'mserving me.

If.

SHED GEEK (11:46):
I think that way and choose to not do business with
you.
No, we're here to serve you andif subsequently your RTO
provider does better because ofit, then so be it.
It's the same as offering, youknow, advertising on the show.
I'm like, well, I know,probably some RTO providers
aren't going to either come onthe show or offer that, but I'll
make them make that choice,like I won't make that choice

(12:07):
for them.
You're available to come on,you're available to advertise,
but what if I get some business?
Oh no, oh no.
What if you get some business?
You know it's like.
So it's one of those thingswhere I'm just like I love the
collaborative efforts betweenall the parties that are doing
it well, and you, sir, are doinga great job in that and we've

(12:28):
been super excited and verypleased with any collaborative
efforts we've done with you guyson Shed Geek Rentals.
So tell me a little bit aboutso.
Somebody's driving down theroad today, they're hammering
away building a shed today andthey say Cal consumer line
logistics, Consumer linelogistics.
What does that mean?
Give me the sixth gradeelementary explanation of what

(12:49):
Cal is.

It basically just streamlines your sales
process.
You know, we allow you not touse file cabinets to have down
paper.
Who has the nicest handwritingeliminates the errors from poor
handwriting and I am chief amongthe poorest handwriters there
is and then to have oneconsistent place.
You could be, you know, andShannon, you live this world
right now.
You get in that RV and I talkto you here in Texas, or you

(14:19):
know, Virginia, or whatever youknow, you could log into the Cal
system and you could check ontoday's sales.
No problem, you could, you know, see if there's one that needs
your attention.
You can, you know, you can beon vacation and just pop in and
look at the dashboard and seewhat's happening.
Matter of fact, you can take aphone call and complete a sale
right, so you're no longer tiedto your location as much.

(14:40):
So that means you can bevirtual, so like if you have a
sales call at somebody's house,you know you're going to go,
talk about a carport.
You can bring your iPad withyou, your tablet with you, log
into their Wi-Fi there and youcan draw the building in ID or
ShedPro and you can complete thetransaction right in their
living room and all paperwork issigned right there.
You know, we use a digitalsigning service so we can get a

(15:00):
real good stamp on it, and sothe Cal software really allows
the team members to spend lesstime chasing paper and more time
closing deals.
You know, and we have someclients that are Mennonite and
Amish, you know, and we builtsystems to get them bigger email
pictures so that they can faxthem around, you know, in their

(15:21):
community so they can get gooddrawings Right.
You know, like we wanted toserve these people wherever they
are, and we want to serve thesmaller manufacturer and dealers
in particular, right, whetheryou're a wholesale shed buyer or
whether you're a true dealerand you're repping five
different carport companies.
You know we handle that Like weare happy to help you sell more

(15:43):
carports, more shed, more playsets, more trailers, more golf
carts.
You know, like we are happy tohelp you sell more carports,
more shed, more play sets, moretrailers, more golf carts.
You know we are, we just liketo help you sell whatever you
want to sell, and I thinkdiversity in the marketplace,
being able to do multiple thingswith your software, is so
important, you know, and thenwhen we you and I, Shannon were
talking, you know, and youbrought up Shed Geek Rentals.
You know there was a point wherewe figured out that a lot of

(16:04):
the smaller RTO companies aren'tgoing to invest in a technology
platform and one of theirchallenges was was actually
getting away from fax and emailand snail mail contracts.
And so we we we figured out howto do that and we actually
built a.
It's a contract platform whereyou can receive the contracts
and it imports directly into RTOPro, you know, and so you can

(16:29):
do batch imports or one at atime.
But essentially, you know, yourdealers can just log in and
they can, you know, create thecontract right there on your
space and then they can uploaddelivery sheets and invoices and
it just it helped a small RTOcompany, you know, organize
their digital world so theycould get those contracts more
reliably, more cleanly.
Organize their digital world sothey can get those contracts
more reliably, more cleanly, youknow, more correctly, and then

(16:52):
get the payments also to them aswell.
You know chasing cash as an RTOcompany.
Oh, my goodness, Shannon, Ifeel for those companies who are
trying to get those dealers tofinally mail in the checks and
the cash.
With our system, you can justupload the ACH version of that.
Check into the portal and thenit's out of your hair completely
.
And, of course, cash is cash.
But they could also just make apayment from their own account
and keep the cash themselves andmake a payment on the contract,
right.
And so we just made it simplerfor rto companies to serve.

(17:14):
You know their back-endsolutions, right, the team is
having to do all the doubleentries and try to put the
chasing paper and then also forthe customer.
You know it's easier for themas well.
So so we're excited about thatplatform.
So we figured that out afterhanging out in the space, that
there are companies like ShedGeek Rentals who don't have a
way to get a contract online.

SHED GEEK (17:34):
Yeah.

You know, and so we just built a platform for
that, and we're super excitedabout that product as well.

SHED GEEK (17:38):
Well, it's worked great.
You know, whenever we jumpedinto the RTO space, of course I
was working in the RTO spaceeven whenever I started the
podcast, and who knows, we mayedit this out, we may keep it in
.
We don't edit too much.
But I'm pretty transparent andyou know, I like to.
I like to build consumerconfidence and things like that
and what we're doing.
Man, we jumped into themarketing.

(17:59):
We didn't know what to expectand I'm pretty confident that I
can say this, as long as itdoesn't sound like a statement
of arrogance, but rather astatement of humility, because I
couldn't get up and walkthrough this door without God's
permission.
I couldn't do anything.
I do without God's permission.
So, like I don't, like you know, it's like I told you before
the call started I take what hegives and if he doesn't give
what what others get, thenthat's okay, cause it's not

(18:19):
meant for me.
But we're excited to say thatwe've worked with as many as 30
clients in the marketing spacealready and we're like we're six
months in and we're like, ohwow, this is really a need in
the industry that we'rerecognizing that we can scale.
And then with RentOn, you know,it's just a little bit.
It's just a little bitdifferent.

(18:40):
I mean, you've talked aboutthat because it's so established
already.
We really want to put someeducation behind it.
We really want to focus on ourmarketing and how you know, a
lot of these guys are.
I used to struggle with thedealer premiums and things like
that and I'm like, oh, how doyou give this?
And it's just like you know,you give 2%, that guy gives 3%
and 4% and 5%.
You go back and forth.
I was like, man, I want toprovide so much service, so much

(19:01):
value that it's really not tobe competed with.
So we were like, hey, let'stake that 5% dealer premium and
let's dump it into marketing andwe'll make your value 10%, 15%,
because we'll start to show youdifferent levels of where your
business can go, hopefully, ifwe do a good job and the Lord
allows us.
So, if you are an RTO providerand you go to the NBSRA,

(19:21):
whatever, and you're like youknow what I don't have a
solution here for my RGLcontract you should give Tristan
a call.
Our experiences went reallygood with him.
A lot of good people out theredoing a lot of good things.
So I'm not taking anything awayfrom anybody.
I'm telling you my experiencehas been good and I think you
should at least give him a call,do a discovery call, that kind
of thing.
Now, if you're a manufacturer,you're probably struggling with

(19:43):
just a basic point of sale.
I love paper.
Tristan, I've got it here righthere.
I'm sitting here writing downnotes and stuff we're talking
about and things we're doing,and this is the old CRM.
This is the old paper CRM.
It still works good.
Sticky notes everywhere.
But I don't know about you, sir, but I just became a grandpa
and mental notes fail me attimes.

Cecilia Rose is a beautiful little girl.

SHED GEEK (20:09):
She is really beautiful.
She's precious dude.
She's just great.
I appreciate that.
She's got my heart already.
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
This is a special part of lifefor us and thank you for that.
I would tell you that from amanufacturer who struggles.
Yes, it's good to put stuff onpaper, it's good to have a nice

(20:32):
contract, it's even okay to havea fillable PDF and you might be
able to get through businessdoing that.
But my question is can you goto the next level?
Should you go to the next level?
And, if so, who should you goto that with?
So if you're trying to get apoint of sale system across like
who do you call?
How do you manage that?
Lots of good options, lots ofgood options.

But one of those great industry partners in
this world.
Yeah.
But, I do feel like I mean oneof the things about Cal which we
appreciate is that we allow youto wade in right.
You know you can just add, youknow the point of sale system at
this point, and then you knowwe can work on other
integrations later.
Or if you want to just addIdeaRoom and ShedPro or whatever

(21:13):
, and then you know our system,that's great too.
So we want you to sort of likeyou know, adopt technology as
you're comfortable with it.
But it's not really.
It's more, when you're going toadopt technology you are using
technology.
It's just old technology.
Pen and paper is a greatimprovement over, you know, our
memories.
Um, a file cabinet is a greatimprovement over our desk, you

(21:34):
know, and so we are usingtechnology.
It's a matter of organizingthat right.
Um, and you know, and theamount of time we spend in the
office chasing paper, the roiwith the configurator and cal,
is huge because you get theseefficiencies going this way back
into the system where you haveless trouble, less people, you
know, less need for chasingpaper, and then you get the
marketing benefit of thatconfigurator.

(21:54):
You know you start to win onall levels with a purchase like
CAL integration with theconfigurator, because you're
getting marketing wins andyou're also going to increase
efficiency in the office.
And people are premium, my word, you know finding a good team
and giving them better tools sothey can run faster and be more
organized.
I mean, when we, when we startedin this space, you know, four

(22:15):
years ago, we were still.
We were still doing organichome delivery of fruits and
vegetables, we were farmingpeople and, um, and during that
pandemic, you know, we scaledour business three times, just
like the shed industry did, butwe didn't hire any people.
It was, it was painless becausewe already had all the systems
in place, you know, and that'swhen I got this, like you know,
and you and I are come from thesame class, yeah, and like

(22:38):
always be serving right like wetook good, good profit and good
money, and we invested it backinto making the lives of small
business owners better becausewe saw the benefit.
I thought, oh my goodness, ifother businesses who can't
necessarily make this investmenttechnology or don't have the
time to make the investmenttechnology, if I could help them
.
And of course we were lookingto do it for other farms and

(23:00):
CSAs and home delivery companies, right.
And then we ended up in thehome delivery space sheds, tiny
houses, carports, you know andso just through some friends,
through Dave Ramsey and stuff,and so you know, we ended up
here and we just love this space.
This space is filled with goodpeople, hardworking people, but
they also need tech.
They need some kind oftechnology that will make their

(23:21):
lives easier and it's not hardto adopt.
And kind of technology thatwill make their lives easier and
it's not hard to adopt and ithas to be affordable.

SHED GEEK (23:28):
Shannon, it has to be affordable.

Yeah, absolutely, you have to be able
to justify the expense, becauseyou know we don't want to move
in.
But there is a cost to usingtechnology and we found people
you know our clients inparticular.
They're leery of it and so wecome in at such an affordable
price point.
You know it's going to take meyou know 50 or 60 clients to to
really make a profit, but that'sokay with me because I'm

(23:51):
serving 50 or 60.
If it only took me one or twoclients to make a profit, then
I'm probably charging too much.
You know, and for me as abusiness owner, fees and costs
are important.
They do matter and you have tobring more value as a business
to businesses if you're going todo business with them.
You know it's a win-win.

SHED GEEK (24:11):
I agree with 100% of what you're saying.
I've learned this and I'll saythis at risk of losing any
audience.
Let me tell you, selling to theshed industry is a lot
different than getting sold fromthem.
Because we're consumers, we allthink, you know, well, we sell
a quality building, so theyshouldn't really think about

(24:32):
price, because you know they'rewe're going to sell something
quality.
But then whenever we buy, wethink about price ourselves.
And so you got to think aboutthe way you sell also and the
way that you consume, you know,and the way that other people
consume as well too, because,you know, not everybody buys the
way you shop.
But if we just take and lookinternally on us, we go, well,

(24:56):
this is a good product, I knowmy price point, I know my value,
so this is what we're going to.
You know, put it at.
But then.
But then I go shop somethingand I go, oh man, how much is
that?
You know, put it at.
But then.
But then I go shop somethingand I go, oh man, how much is
that?
And it's like wait a minute.
Isn't that the one question youdon't like to hear, first and
foremost, from a shed shopperbecause you want them to be
involved in the quality of whatyou do and not just the price.
That's important, but it's notthe whole thing.

(25:16):
But, yeah, you guys, uh, youguys are able to compete in that
space.
It's really about apples forapples.
Like I want to be able to sellthe best shed at the best price
also, and the only way you cando that is is your unique
business model.
So I think the same way with,like you know, your, your, your
POS systems, you know what Imean.
Like you got to be able toprovide the most service at the

(25:36):
best price point you can, andthe only way you, you can
control that.
This is why we're we, we, wesay we're a copycat industry,
but this is where we're not.
No one can copy your service,no one can copy your dedication,
no one can copy your price.
They can copy your paint, theycan copy this or that or
whatever, but generally speaking, they can't copy your heart and
your service and yourwillingness to go in and go the

(25:58):
extra mile, and that's what youguys have done for us and we
appreciate that.

And people, shannon also, are just different
.
The industry is full of allkinds of people with all kinds
of needs, and sometimes theyneed a complete ERP solution
because they're just mammoth andthat's okay.
We want to serve the smaller 1to 20 or 30 dealer network.
We're looking to serve thesmaller businesses who are?
content with owning a county asopposed to owning the state or

(26:24):
owning the country, right, andyou know, and so we can serve
big clients.
But really, you know, we are,we're just small businesses and
we love serving small businessesand so our tools tend to
reflect, you know, that sort ofscale and niche where it makes
sense for a small business toadopt.
And then it's really importantthat we also just hear from them
.
What do they really want toaccomplish?

(26:45):
Why are they calling us?
You know that customer who sellsplay sets.
You know he was like, you knowhe still has a bunch of sheds
and carports, but he had a.
He led with his email.
You know, play sets was thevery first thing.
I'm like, okay, why did heleave with play sets?
I don't even see that on hiswebsite, you know.
And it's like you know, andit's like because he has a need
in places.
You know we had to lean intowhat his real need was, you know

(27:06):
, right now, and he wants tosolve this place at dealer
network, right, you know.
So we're happy to, you know, toserve that need and we can
serve all of his business, youknow, but right now he wants to
work on his place.
That's fine.
Wait in, wait in with play setsand then we'll bring over the
other things, right, but forsure we are happy to encourage
you to get the right partner foryou.

(27:27):
And we're not always the rightpartner, you know there are
other companies that do thingsdifferent.
But if you are kind of sellingmultiple products, multiple SKUs
, whether it's lawn furniture orgazebos or sheds, carports and,
in this case, play sets, we area viable solution and we're

(27:48):
super affordable.
You know we want to serve youand help you run faster, because
we've also shared.
One of my passions is smallbusiness owners.
Small business owners aredeacons of churches.
They teach Bible studies, theycoach Little League.
You know they go to Kalani'smeetings.
They are the heart of theirlocal communities and if they're
wrapped in paper then theycan't run as fast.
But if they can actually getfree of all the processes and

(28:09):
have it all streamlined, theycan run faster, they can serve
more in their community.
Oftentimes we just serve in ourbusinesses, because that's what
we're passionate about, butreally we have outside passions
that we can't get to or do aswell Like grandparenting right.
I got number nine just the sametime you got yours get to or do
as well like grandparentingright, I got number nine just
the same time you got yoursright.
And that little critter, he isprecious, oh my goodness.
He is amazing right.

(28:30):
And number 10 is coming.
I've got to have time to spendtime with this generation.
That's coming.
They're going to need grandma,you know they're going to need
grandma, and so for us, thetools have helped us actually
have more balance in our world.
But also do it from you.
Know, when I'm a baby I can beon my phone checking what's
going on in my software.
You know I can put in myAirPods and talk to you and do a
transaction right.

(28:50):
And so now I'm multi-talentedbecause I can actually be
working from you.
Know the crate you know justholding on to my baby and my
grandson or whatever.

SHED GEEK (29:10):
And so I'm excited about consultation more and more
, because we've talked for solong about creating the third
leg of the uh, the tabletop ofshed geek podcast and making it
consultation.
I don't know if we'll get there, when we'll get there or
whatever.
Uh, again, I'll take as thelord gives.
You know what I mean, uh, butbut uh, I found something
interesting in researching evenother companies one guy that
what he does at his consultationis he doesn't just come in for
your business, he comes, comesin and talks to you about your
health.
He comes in and talks to youabout your diet and you're like,
wait a minute, I just called onyou, for I just called on you

(29:31):
for my business needs.
Like I'm not, you know, I don'tneed all of this.
And he's like man, a balancedlife was going to help you in
your business.
Are you considering?
You know, your body is yourtemple.

(30:54):
It's kind of like how aconversation goes real quick on
how our shed sales this year.
Like, oh well, it's an electionyear, we just go straight to
national politics and for somereason, all of a sudden, like
national politics are affectingour inability to sell sheds on
the lot and it's like, well, weknow there's trickle down, but
generally speaking, we can.
We can get out of that frame ofmind and we can just put effort
to go in today and sell and notbe like, well, great, great

(31:17):
Biden's stopping me fromsucceeding.
And it's like, well, you know,I think it's more, it's deeper
than that, right?
So like we don't like.
I mean I partially agree withyou, don't get me wrong.

Well, I mean so was you know Bill Clinton and
Reagan and Obama and Trump?
You know, all of them arestopping us and helping us in
some way.
You know there's somethinggoing on.

SHED GEEK (31:38):
But it's not the catalyst for like why we're
succeeding and failing today.
So I thought that was reallyinteresting on his thought of
like taking an approach tohealth and like the whole thing
to consultation.
So it's where I'm trying to tiethat back.
Is it's about beingwell-rounded, just in general?
It's about you know what I'msaying being able to, to, to, to
, to manage your daytransactionally, like you're

(32:01):
saying, without it being like amajor pull on us and a major
thought of like oh, I got to loginto that system, this is going
to be a struggle, we don't wantthat.
Yeah.
Of like oh, I got to log intothat system, this is going to be
a struggle, we don't want that.
How's your experience been withJosh and Justin?

Oh man, your team is really good.

SHED GEEK (32:17):
They've been really solid.

They're really nice young men.
I say that now because Irealize I'm almost 60.
I'm like when did that happen,by the way?
But those guys are like mychildren, almost Like what
happened here.
So they're really insightfuland actually you know everybody
who's in the rto space.
You know, in particular, artistspace.
They're just sharp minds.

(32:40):
You know when, I guess when you, you know, they just sharpen
those pencils and they thinkthings through and and because
we collaborate with so manypeople, you know the product
just keeps getting better andbetter.
Right, because you know thenuances of how you run your
business versus somebody overhere over there, what the needs
are.
You know we didn't start tocover a lot of the industry

(33:00):
whether you do CRA this way, oryou do greater initial payments,
or you know two payments down,one payment down, or whether you
want to have different productfor car course you know, and so
it's fun for us to run with with.
You know, you know thatgeneration because they really
get it, um, but yeah, those guysare really talented, but the
whole industry is talented.
It's been, it's been amazing toto work in that space, um, and

(33:21):
I think about you know whatwe're doing and we're just
building products that serveright, like we're serving
different parts, because theindustry really is.
You know, you havemanufacturers.
You have these guys who haveair saws that just chop like
four things at once chop, chop,you know, and they're serving
the shed industry, right.
And then you have people thatare doing the drawing programs.
They're serving the industry.
And then you have the financepiece.

(33:44):
They're serving the industry,and so the manufacturing piece
is kind of the hub of it all.
But you know what the dealers do.
They start the whole processBecause without a dealer, you've
got nothing to do.
Without the dealer making asale, everything comes to a stop
, and so we're all integratedtogether.
But also making sure thosedealers have those good tools to
create frictionless sales tomake it easy for the customer to

(34:07):
buy from them.
That starts the whole process.
You know the dealer starts thewhole process.

SHED GEEK (34:15):
Do you have a way to walk me through some of this?
Do you have, like, if a dealerwants to see, if a manufacturer
wants to see, rto client,whatever?
You have something that you canlike, just I don't know a
little synopsis.
Maybe they can get on with you,do an actual discovery call or
whatever.
But I think, seeing thesoftware, like we talk about
visual all the time because it'sso important.

(34:35):
So do you have anything youcould share with them?
For those that are watching onYouTube, you can kind of get a
glimpse of this, but for thoseof you who are not, you can
still go check it out or messageme.
We'll try to send you a clip ofit or whatever it looks like
we're advertising with you aswell, shannon, right.

And so they can just scan that QR code on your
ad and they go right to ourwebsite.
The website's calcanhelpcom.
I thought about that for a longtime like CalCanHelp, but now
it flows so nicely.
Matter of fact, my name is nowCal.
It's no longer Tristan.
Just call me Cal and I'llanswer the phone.
I'm totally guilty of being Cal, but it's my personality.

(35:13):
It's serving right, like I was,you know, during a flood one
time we lived in the flood plain, and so he's like do you just
run around and serve people?
Like he's, like, you know,scratching his head.
Like you know, his hay wasgetting rained on, so I brought
my boys over and around andserve people.

SHED GEEK (35:31):
Yes.
In short, yes, that's what I do.
I like it.

Yeah, thank you for noticing that I'm always
here to help if I can.
But I also learned in that samemoment right that sometimes
it's better to drive by and pray, because I really can't help,
you know, and so, as much as youthink you might want to help,
can you, you know, and so, likeI, I'm always praying, but then
I do stop and help sometimes.

SHED GEEK (35:54):
Well, I gotta admit, no one, no one said no one's
called you cal to me yet.
But I can see how that happens.
Uh, tristan's the name, cal'sthe brand and uh, this is what
cal does.
This is what what they do.
You care to walk us through alittle bit of that?

yeah, absolutely so.
Um, this is the same forShedPro and IdeaRoom.
It functions the same.
They're different configurators, of course, but we use these
tools.
Up here in the corner.
You can actually create anorder from IdeaRoom or you can
create a product from IdeaRoom.
If you create a product fromIdeaRoom, you can create virtual
products, you know.
You can submit for inventoryrequests or you can import your
drawings.
So we have a way for you tobring in your existing inventory

(36:30):
right here as well.
And then, of course, you haveall your tools over here, and so
you know you can get there fromour tools right here and go to
your carports, your sheds, andthen you know we have our own
set of tools to work with IdeaRoom, in addition to the sales
new tools that people have aswell.
But over here in this world,this is where you know a

(36:54):
salesperson would log in, and wehave different sales tools for
the sales people and they justhave a different.
Let me click on that again.
They just have a skinnierversion of the of the tools
available.
Because they're salespeople,they don't need to have all the
admin access and things likethat, right, but everybody.
So they have their owndashboard of what's going on in
their sales.
Just a little quick screen viewAll the orders here, any quotes
they're working on.
They can see the status of theorder.
So if the customer calls andsays, hey, what's going on in my

(37:16):
building?
Oh, you know, we're justprocessing that, or it's pending
or it's in production.
You know, this tells thesalesperson, so they can just
quickly tell the customer what'sgoing on.
But the customer also, with oursystem, has their own login and
they could go to their ownsection and they can see where
their building is as well, whatstatus it's in.
So you know, you can eliminatea lot of conversation just by
this little bit of informationright here.

(37:37):
Um, you know, and that's goodenough, you know, and if you're
a manufacturer, you know youwant to know what's going on as
well.
So manufacturers can see allthis as well.
Um, but the salesperson cankind of get a quick view of
what's going on with thebuilding at that point right
here and you can just quicklystart.
This is a draft order here.
You can click on it and startit.
I'll just click on it here andit'll just open up the sales
process at that point and thenyou can walk it through the

(37:57):
system and so we've got this barright here and we can edit that
if we need to.
We can add prices, fees,discounts.
You know, right here you can doa red tone or buy outright.
You know it's just differentquestions, but it all starts the
same way.
Shannon, right, the same sale,no matter what it is, all starts
right here.
And if you're doing like, say, agazebo there aren't many

(38:18):
configurators for gazebos youwould just do the manual order
entry process and you would justtype in the specs you need for
that, upload a photo of it andthen walk it through the sales
process so we can support eventhe stuff that isn't in a
configurator.
You know, if you have, you know, lawn furniture in your system,
because people are, you know,buying houses and they want a
fire pit and some chairs to gowith it and you sell those.
They're just products.

(38:38):
You just sell those as part ofthe deal.
You know so we do that.
You know rentals are important,right?
And then you know, here itwould list all the partners.
So we're not, you know,specific to one partner.
We just have our own RTO demosite set up here.
But if you were using three orfour partners.
They would just all drop down.
So we're super excited aboutthat.
You can add notes to the deal.
You can add invoice notes,admin notes, production notes at

(39:06):
the time of the deal as well,and so you know, this is, you
know, pretty straightforward.
You've already got theinformation, the customer, and
then you just would hit I'mgoing to go back to a buyout
right building here.
Um, that little dashboard atthe bottom down there, shannon
is in the way of my screen.
Every time I go down, here, Igot you it wants to, and so then
you know what's your, what'syour payment method.
You want to do greater payment,a smaller payment if you're a
dealer, if you're a dealer,shannon, and you're just taking

(39:29):
the deposit for your commissionthen you would just use offline
credit card, offline payment andyou just record for the
manufacturer how you took thatpayment.
Now if you were a dealer who wasactually keeping you know like
you were selling this business,then you could use any one of
the other tools right here andrecord it for yourself.
But if you're like on amanufacturer's side and you're a
dealer, you just tell themanufacturer how you took the

(39:49):
payment so they know it wasthere, right, and so then we
just do that.
So if we have credit card, youcan do ACH or credit card.
We use Clarence as our primarypartner for that space because
they integrate with RTO Pro andso then we can share the tokens
from Clarence into RTO Pro onthe credit card side.
So we just put a check down herewhat's the amount of the

(40:10):
building here and the deposit.
You determine the deposit,right, we're not determining the
deposit.
So you just set a percentageper product carport, sheds,
gazebos, whatever percentage youwant to take down as a deposit.
That just shows up under theamount due.
And of course the customer canalways pay more.
We're being quick here.
We're just receiving a paymentand you know we're verifying

(40:31):
because you can take multiple.
So if you come in Shannon andyou want to put down 25% and you
want your brother a lot of putdown 25%, we could actually take
multiple payments on the sametransaction from multiple cars
you know.
So if you bring in a check andyou want to bring in a credit
card also, you know we can catchfor both, so that's why we do
the math here.
If you know we can catch forboth, so that's why we do the
math here.
If there's any math left, it'sokay.
So it was $250, right Gotcha.

(40:53):
And then if the deal turnsbackwards like for some reason
nobody's ever lost a sale inindustry, I know, but we account
for it and if it happens to gosouth for some reason, or they
want to make it edit after thefact, you know you make the
revisions and owe you more moneyor less money this screen opens

(41:15):
up and you can just either, youknow, take another deposit to
make it equal the amount theywant, or you can just apply a
bigger deposit to the buildingif they made a smaller
adjustment, right.
So we've accounted for themoney moving back and forth.
And then over here in thissection, we just hit continue
again and we have a reallysimple workaround.
This is just for reviewpurposes.
Peter's buying this building.
Peter's our lead developer, bythe way and then he's buying
this building here.
Here's the costs, here's thedeposits, add notes and then you
can sign multiple ways.

(41:35):
You can either sign thiscontract by printing it and
having the customer sign it, oryou can actually sign on device
and then it goes to sign nowpulls up the contract.
I'll just print the contracthere because we know we go to
pull it all together.
It takes a couple minutes soI'll just spare you the drama of
that.
But we hit this print buttonhere, this will actually pull up
you know, your brand, yourinvoices, and make it look like

(41:56):
an actual invoice at that point.
Um, and so here you know, yourbrand goes over here in the
corner, customer information,the date of it, the building.
If you have any drawings fromidea room, they come, any photo
id right here.
All that gets captured.
Your contract language goes inhere as well, and so we just
brand your invoice to fit intothis space, and so it's really

(42:16):
an amazing, powerful tool inthat respect.
And then you know, you can dothis from the living room or
from your office or from, youknow, vacation, like we.
It's not limited, right?
So if you, if you feel likeyou've been stuck on a lot and
now you want to sell to all ofGeorgia or all of Kentucky, you
now can sell to all of Kentuckybecause we can draw a picture or
a map of Kentucky and anybodycalls in, they go to your

(42:38):
website and they can justpurchase on there or they can
call you.
As long as you fulfill thatarea, not a problem, right?
And so once this gets fulfilledand submitted, it goes right
into the order processing screenright away, and so, even if the
deal is still kind of in thenetherlands, so to speak, you
can view this order immediatelyback in the order tablet and

(42:59):
your processing team can chooseto act on it or not act on it.
Right, and so here's the order.
These are the statusesavailable, and you can have your
own statuses.
Remember I talked about buildingyour system.
If you want to say I want towatch the paint dry as a status,
go for it.
We do not care.
If somebody wants to recordpaint drying, okay, you know.
But typically you know buildingorder, building receipts.

(43:20):
Starter production is fine, butwe don't.
We don't.
We don't have a monopoly onstatuses.
And then, at the very bottomdown here, you have the purchase
agreement available to view anda delivery receipt.
We haven't filled this outcompletely, because sometimes
you don't have your serialnumber yet, but when you go to
deliver this building, you justhit that and then it shows up as
a delivery receipt and you cantake it with you, you know.

(43:41):
So we're building tools likethat, and if this was a
manufacturing site, it would bea work order, purchase agreement
, work order and deliveryreceipt.
So then you could just send aredacted building drawings to
the, to the shop.
You know some people use theinvoice for everything, totally
fine, so they will just want tosend the shop what they need to
know.
You know they don't needanything else but the drawings
of where the doors and windowsgo on their house, right, and so

(44:01):
you know we make that available.
So in our world these tools areavailable and you know, if
you're in the order, I'm goingto move over here to the admin
team real quick and then I'llpop off this conversation.
But essentially in the adminworld, if you go to orders, we
highlight processing step inparticular.
That means typically that theseare orders that are in the

(44:24):
queue.
So if you just want to knowwhat's going on in just
processing because your job isto review the paperwork you can
select down to processing righthere and you'll just see all the
orders and processing.
If you're the sales manager, youwant to know why things are
still stuck in pending.
What's going on with this?
Is the customer not signed yet?
What's hanging up?
You can just look at all thepending orders.
If you're in dispatch, you justgo to ready for delivery and

(44:45):
you just pull up orders you need.
The tool is pretty robust.
Behind the screen I can't quitesee it, but you can search by
serial number or customer andpull up an order as well, and
these statuses only show up whenthere's something in them,
right, so this isn't alwayspopulated.

(45:07):
But if you have nothing readyfor delivery, start selling.
Let's go.

SHED GEEK (45:11):
You know yeah.

Let's give those shed guys something to do,
you know.
But it doesn't clog up thescreen, right?
It just keeps growing throughyour sales.
And so as you get busier,you're going to have something
any payment, any documents readyto order.
And if you're a dealer and thisis one of the things I want to
share as well we have a wholepurchasing segment where you can
build loads.
So if you're a wholesale shedbuyer and you need to buy from a

(45:34):
Lark or a Handy House orHomestead or whoever you're
buying from, you can actuallycreate a PO and load a trailer
full of buildings that have cometo whatever lot you want them
sent to, and then you have a wayto receive them in and take
pictures and create them asproducts Right, and we have that
whole process built.
So dealers you know we have awhole set of tools for them and
manufacturers a whole set oftools for them, because you know

(45:57):
they have different needs.
But what I really like aboutour system is that we are
serving multiple kinds ofcompanies in the shed space.
For manufacturers, we createthe dealer store on their site
and they have that order.
If you're a manufacturer, youhave access to all this stuff,
even if it's in the dealer'sstore.
You know what's going onbecause they're using your site
and your idea over your ShedProand so you can, as a

(46:18):
manufacturer.
You can see what's coming downthe pipe, you know, as opposed
to waiting for it to show up.
So we're excited about all ofour tools and you know very
flexible and flex.

SHED GEEK (46:29):
flexibility is what so many people need because,
although we kind of identifyourselves as being very similar
and we are and selling a lot ofthe same products, I mean
there's, you know, there's a lotof different things that we're
seeing in the shed space now.
There's, you know, there's alot of different things that
we're seeing in the shed spacenow and, like you said, you know

(46:51):
, your, your, your averagedealer location is going to
maybe have four or fivedifferent SKUs there.
So you one size fits all makesa lot of sense.
It's just, it's really aboutit's.
It's really about, like,increasing your, your, your time
, your availability and andtaking a more simplistic
approach is the way I wouldphrase it in a nutshell but yeah
, I love it, man, like yeah.

So you see that we actually added one more
building because I completedthat pending sale.
You know I went through theprocess and so the salesperson
got credit for one more buildingimmediately showed up on their
dashboard, right.
And if they want to start anorder Shannon, this is, you know
that I alluded to a little bitearlier when you click on this
screen create order here, youknow you can either select from
a catalog.
What I love about the catalogis you know your existing

(47:37):
inventory is there, of course,what's on the lot.
But the virtual drawings are soimportant because if you have
these hot sellers in these hotcolors that you know you're
going to be able to sell at a 12by 16 lofted barn or whatever,
or a cabin, you can justpre-design that and it just
grabs that product and over andover.
And so your salesperson can justgo right to the what the
customer's talking about andpull up an idea of a ship road
drawing and then start to modifyit and, you know, work with the
customer right from existingdrawings so the customer can

(47:58):
grab one ready to build.
Yeah, I want that blue buildingover there with that white you,
you know, trim on it and orderthat for me, you know, and so
that's beautiful.
But you can also go here to theto idea or ship pro and you can
also manually enter a building.
You can just walk through thatand you can pick your styles,
you know, and then you can putin the side 12 by 16, by seven.

(48:18):
So we just been listening tothe industry a ton and what
we've heard them say is theywant a simple point of sale
solution and good ordermanagement tools, but they also
want to be able to sell morethan one thing.
You know, and so you knowbecause if you have a, system
just to do one thing, then whatabout the rest of your business?
And so if we can knock outthree or four or five on your

(48:41):
list, you know and you have onesystem for most of your business
, you know we can't do allpeople's businesses most of the
time, but we can do almost allpeople's businesses.
But you know there's alwaysgoing to be a few side things
and so this manual order entryprocess works.
Also, this important design isgreat because if you're in an
idea room or shed pro, you knowyou can be doing all your lead
stuff in idea room and you canbe working with HubSpot or

(49:05):
whatever, and then when youfinalize the deal with the
customer, when you're in therebuilding out these things and
you want to grab drawing numberthree and start there, you just
grab the hashtag from there andyou just drop it in here and it
starts the sales transaction.
So you can do all your revisionsin your configurator and then
you can just grab it a littlenumber up here in the hash and
cut and paste that into here andstart the sales transaction

(49:26):
with the agreed upon drawingfrom the customer and just start
walking.
So we give you lots of ways toactually start a sale in our
space.

SHED GEEK (49:37):
Well, and you know a lot of this starts and you've
talked about it a couple ofdifferent times here at the 3D
Configurators.
You know we've been able topartner with several, not only
Idea Room If we're not finishedwith that, we're working through
the details of some of that butwe work with them closely, like
constantly, and then JamesPrice over at ShedPro, but even

(49:58):
some other companies DigitalShed Builder, my Shed and
Matthew Black's program butwe've reached out to all the
rest and said we want to be ableto have a partnership and a
collaborative effort with you.
It's like we we put it outthere to say, hey, if you want
that, we want that.
So like, by all means, we'dlove that.
And we've learned in themarketing space, particularly

(50:19):
Tristan, that like that's veryimperative to have a 3d
configurator and I'll tell youwhat.
You can go directly to them andthere's not a problem with that
.
But there's a reason we'recreating all of these
collaborative efforts is becausethey have affiliate programs
and there is money to be madefrom that.
So if you'll give me, the ShedGeek, an opportunity to help
make that introduction, we'll beglad to, because, guess what?

(50:40):
We do get some benefit fromthat financially and we just
that's just out there.
And we do get some benefit fromthat financially and we just
that's just out there.
And you know what In some ofthese programs you do too.
So, like you know, referralpartners are becoming very
important.
I saw, where you know, othercompanies have launched some of
these referral programs to say,hey, if you'll do it and you
already use my system, we'llgive you some money back on that

(51:01):
or whatever.

(53:30):
There's a lot of like work atpeople, obviously, you know,
trying to trying to do better,and this is what I say.
It's kind of like wheneverpeople say, well, what if
somebody else creates a podcast?
I'm like what if somebody elsecreates a podcast?
Like what about it?
And they're like, well, I mean,isn't that going to bother you?
It's like, hey, listen, I'm notgoing to operate with a
gatekeeper system here.
Like, no one can tell.

(53:50):
No one can tell you what to doand what not to do in business.
This is what I, this is what Iwould tell you.
Do a good job, do a good job,be consistent.
Be there whenever you don't feellike doing it, because there's
going to be times you don't feellike doing it and your passion
is going to have to be the thingthat's going to have to pull
you forward, not your profit.
You're going to have to feelvery passionate about what
you're doing.
You're going to want to give upon it quick, but if you come in

(54:12):
and you do a good job and Lordforbid you even do better, like
you even do better.
Well, isn't that theexpectation?
Because then it's going tocause me to want to improve.
I'm going to have to startdoing things or thinking about
other things.
So, instead of a gatekeeperapproach that says you stay out
of here, I've got this covered.
It's you're welcome and I hopeyou do better because it calls

(54:34):
me to want to do better.
So you know, some of thesesystems I don't know are is one
going to win out ultimately, andI still think it's going to
work that way.
I think out ultimately, and Istill think it's going to work
that way.
I think there's space foreverybody.
I think you're all, so many ofyou, doing a good job.
I think that people should callyou tristan.
I think they should give you acall I think, you recall, that's
the thing you don't know if youdon't call.

(54:55):
But all of these guys are goingto welcome your phone, call and
go through this system and, uhman, that service really becomes
super important at that point,doesn't it?
Because, like, who's going toserve you?

So yeah, you know, shannon, before you know
we part here, I've got a call ina few minutes as well.
You know we had a manufacturerwho got downsized right Like
they.
You know the manufacturer was abig manufacturer nationwide.
They decided they didn't wantto be in that space any longer
and he was at a funeral Of allthings and he met up with

(55:28):
somebody else and said you gotto call Cal.
And so he called me Becausehe's a builder.
He's been building Sheds forthis other company for so long.
And so they started buildingsystems and he was lost and now
he's up to 30 dealers Afterabout 7 months and he's been
Using our system and we're.
And that was up to 30 dealersafter about seven months, right,
and he's been using our systemand we're not.

(55:48):
You know, we're not perfect,right, but we took somebody who
was a builder and we gave himsome tools and we helped him get
a website, a URL, rto, partnersand configurators and he is
running, you know, and so youknow, even if you know some of
your clients are, you know,attached to large manufacturers
and they feel like they need tomake a pivot at some point or

(56:09):
they get downsized, you know,for whatever reason.
You know we wanted to serve themright and we were up with that
one manufacturer who gotdownsized you know, number one
manufacturer for this companyand got downsized, and you know
they're still in business.
Now they're like doing, youknow they're still in business

(56:30):
Now they're like doing, you know, a hundred transactions a month
or something, right, you know.
And so that kind of stuff is sorewarding to me because you
know we, we were to help, helpthem continue their journey and
do what they were, what theywere, what they want to do and
continue to do, and so you know.
And then we have the otherother spectrum where we've got
people now want to set up places, you know, or they sell just,
you know, carports and sheds.
Like we don't have a dog inthat fight.
We don't serve you, whateveryour business model is and

(56:51):
whatever you want to do.
We just want to see if we're agood partner for you, you know,
and we're excited to servepeople.
Jen, I will share also.
You know the affiliatemarketing thing is a little
tricky for us, you know we.
We do have, you know, a smallresidual we get for Clarence,

(57:12):
you know, because we built thesoftware to make that all
possible.
But usually, when it comes toaffiliate marketing, I like to
just advertise with my partners,you know.
And then, and then I also liketo have my partners just extend
discounts to my clients, because, you know, if it's IBM or or
chef bro, I don't really have adog in that fight, like I.
I want, I want you to pick theright configurator for you.
Sometimes it's price, sometimesit's not, and so both those

(57:34):
guys offer different discountsto our clients, you know,
because they want to, they wantto earn their business, but I
don't, I don't, I don't shovethem either way.
When it comes to rto, I onlyhave you a handful will be
integrated at this point, and soI always recommend Shanky, brad
Bills and Jay and Megan Scott'sRTO and Heartland.
Right, because those are theones that are integrated right
now.
And you know, but I just have,like you know, this desire for

(57:56):
people to pick the rightrelationship, right, you know.
And so for me it's been alittle simpler to just, you know
, not worry about the affiliateside as much.
It's helpful, but I just, I doget those affiliates because I
give them back to the customers,right For me, like, at this
point.
I'm like oh, just you know,make a deal with Shedpro or Idea

(58:17):
Room or Shedgeek, you just dothat and I will just plug you in
, right, yeah, so that makessense.
Right, it's absolutely.

SHED GEEK (58:32):
Right, so that makes sense.
Right, it's absolutely.
It's a, it's a thin line towalk, sort of whenever you're in
the program or in the industry,because you, you want to make
sure that you're doing right byfolks.
I mean, at the end of the day,tristan, like I'm just not going
to feel good about if I everget over on somebody like you
know, like you can't be walkingin Christ and like also feel
good about like, oh, I got thatguy for something walking in
Christ and like also feel goodabout like, oh, I got that guy
for something.
So like we, you know, wheneversomebody says, well, who do you
recommend, I say, man, it'sreally about figuring out who
matter, who makes the most sensefor you.

(58:52):
So, like, rather than come inand have a strong opinion
because, like what if I give youa strong opinion and strong arm
you into using one particularprogram, then like you don't
like it and they don't bestserve you and it didn't work out
, they're like I don't, they'renot going to take any
recommendations from you.
So like we have to askquestions, build relationships
and try and figure out, basedoff your business model, who

(59:13):
makes the most sense.
Like you can come to thatconclusion.
But isn't it nice to have thatconclusion with a sounding board
there to talk to and thingslike that.
And that's you know, and that'swhy the financial benefit from
it we and that's why thefinancial benefit from it we're
not making our living from it.
But here's what we did learnman, you need a 3D configurator
because in our marketingadventures it matters so much,
like we've seen so much moreconversion traffic from that.

(59:36):
So like I guess what I'm sayingis like I'm going to push these
guys' products, whether theypay us to push them or not,
whether they advertise with usor not, because we see the value
in those as well too.

And I think also, shannon, that consulting
space.
You know where you are.
That's how you sort of monetizethat service as you bring
partners to the group and youand that's the product you're
offering.
In my world I have a platformand I sort of you know it's a
little different nuance.
You know I will benefit fromintegrating with Idea Room or
Shepro, like it will be a betterexperience for my clients,

(01:00:07):
right, but in your world, youknow, that does make sense for
the way to monetize thatrelationship.
In my world I monetize itthrough a monthly subscription
of $3.99 or $5.99, you know, andso it's a different way of
doing business.
But I also, you know, for themost part I just want my
customers to get those deals,because if you're willing to
offer my client a deal tointegrate with you, then go earn

(01:00:28):
it.
You know, like you you alreadysaid, you know, talk to me and
I'm like, and I don't, I justsay, okay, talk to them, right,
and you and you and I both knowthat there are better fits for
certain clients, right, likethey're.
Just sometimes it doesn't makesense to recommend a certain way
because it just isn't the rightfit for them.
And that's the value ofgatekeeping, that's the value of
being a trusted source ofindustry is like you do.

(01:00:50):
You do know what might be bestfor them, but you give them the
benefit of the doubt to say, ok,like you know, here's what I
think would be best, but I wouldtalk to or three.

SHED GEEK (01:00:59):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
When you, when you've got arelationship working like that,
you can lean on that and that'swhat that trusted service comes
about.
We're going to get it wrong.
We probably have gotten itwrong at some point.
I'm sure we're going to get itwrong.
But you know, I try to clearthe air every night, especially
with myself and with my Savior,and pray about it and say, hey,
you know like, lead me into theright conversations and lead me

(01:01:22):
out of the wrong conversationsand things like that.
So I think you just have to besensitive to the holy spirit too
, on stuff like that too, andlisten.

TRISTAN KLESICK (01:01:28):
have a transparent you know, because if
people know that you're takinga commission, you know, then
that's okay, that's when theydon't, we do that we did that.

SHED GEEK (01:01:39):
Yeah, absolutely we.
And that's why we'll just sayit on the show.
And some people say you giveaway too much information.
I say for me it's the exactright amount of information
because they know who I am.
Like I'm transparent, it's easy.
Like you're not going to get adifferent guy when I'm not on
the microphone.
We did that in the marketingspace.
I know we got to go.
We did that in the marketingspace.

(01:01:59):
We had actually had some peoplesay man, why didn't you
advertise with us?
Like we sent you $200,000 worthof quotes and it's like we
didn't advertise because we weregetting free quotes and I'm
like, makes perfect sense, youdidn't have to advertise, I'm
sending you lots of business, Ijust needed to find a way to
capture that market.
And then the same with rent toown.
I respect the companies I'veworked for in the RTO space.

(01:02:21):
I respect all of the job offersand all of that stuff.
So so for me to be in thatspace is not a you know, to me
it's not a, a smack in the face,it's a can I be welcome to, can
I be part of this potentialsuccess too?
Because we have, you know, andI think I can do a good job too,
but I don't.
I don't think I can do a betterjob than you.
I'm not coming in saying you'redoing bad, so I do better.

(01:02:43):
It's like can I be involved too?
We've, we've, we've walked intothe space and we just we want
to be good stewards of that.
Tristan, I've been doing thiswith everybody.
I know you got to go first.
First and foremost, how dopeople reach you?
Let's go there.
How, if they want to get intouch with you, how do they
reach?

you.
Yeah, you can find it onShannon's site as well, and then
you can also call.
If you'd like to call, it's425-359-3279.
Happy to answer calls.
We can see at the shows.
You know we go to both the ShedExpo and the Shed Carport
Garage show.

(01:03:19):
You know, and I would just likethe opportunity to earn your
business Honestly for me justserving you, and if it's meant
to be, it's meant to be, and Iwould just like to earn your
business Honestly for me justserving you, and if it's meant
to be, it's meant to be, and ifit's not, it's not.
But you know I will be a betterperson for having a half an
hour conversation with you Iwill learn so much.
I will grow as a person.
But also, if we have the righttools for you, we would love to
develop a long relationship.
You know where.

(01:03:39):
We're just looking out for yourbest interest.
So yeah, however, you want toreach out to me?
Call, email, call Shannon.

SHED GEEK (01:03:51):
It's all good, we're happy to just, you know, field
those anyway.
That's perfect.
I need to talk to you at somepoint about setting up a, if
you'd rather have a lead form onthere I don't know if you got
conversion tracking set up onyour side when they get to your
website.
So we can.
So we can do that.
This is the beauty of thedigital era.
This is why I love what I dowith the podcast, because we can
say, oh, if somebody came toTristan through the platform, we
can sort of measure that.

(01:04:12):
And for other advertisers likeyourself, that's super important
because they're really tryingto gauge their ROI and we're all
trying to do that.
Even as a manufacturer, you'retrying to measure all your
customers that come to your site.
So I need to talk to you aboutthat.
But hey, rapid questions, quickquestions, any questions you got
.
I didn't let you do this lasttime.
If you want to do it now, Ididn't prepare you.
Any questions you have for theShed Geek, faith related, shed

(01:04:35):
related, personal related.
Put me on the hot seat.
Let you interview for a secondAny questions at all, one or two
.
We'll make it quick, simple,fast.
What do you want to know thatyou haven't heard from me yet
that I'll tell you live.

Well, what I want to know is what are you
working on professionally,shannon?
What are you working on to be abetter podcaster?
What are you doing to hone yourcraft?
What is the Lord speaking toyou about, and how you connect,
deliver, share.

SHED GEEK (01:05:05):
Well, originally I could go back and listen to
every podcast, but since Istarted going to two a week it's
been hard to do that, to goback and perfect myself.
I've tried to become a betterlistener.
I have had some people tell mewhenever I ask for criticism
constructive they say, hey,you'll ask a question and not
give them a chance to answer.
And I'm like, okay, so when youhear it multiple times, you go

(01:05:28):
probably accurate, right, don'tjust ask a question or an
elongated question, because Ihave to fill the space if I have
a guest who's not reallycomfortable with speaking.
So I'll fill the space untilthey kind of gather their you
know.
So I'll fill the space untilthey kind of gather their you
know composure to want to answeror ask another question.
And so I just naturally, as apodcaster, you fill the space,

(01:05:51):
even if you don't mean to you,just you just naturally have to
do it.
So I have to try to become abetter, a better listener and
that's the feedback I've gotten.
But as far as professionallygosh, we're going to we're
probably going to change some ofthe nature of the podcast soon.
I think you're going to seesome more co-hosting, you may
even see an additional show andI think we're going to try to

(01:06:13):
work on adding value, becausethe value of the podcast, just
like anything else you're doingwhether it's a magazine,
television show, it doesn'tmatter is the content.
If you keep good contentcreation as the king and not
your personal opportunities asthe king, then that's what
really matters.
And I think people driving downthe road or swinging away at
nails this morning or sellingsheds, whatever they're doing

(01:06:36):
today, they enjoy good content.
Every show is not for everybody.
Let's just be honest.
Not everybody's going to getsomething out of every show, my
favorite podcasters.
I don't listen to every one ofthem, so, like I don't take
offense to that, we just want tokeep content that is relevant
to all the shed industry andit's, it's, it's um, underlings,
whatever those things are otherancillary products.

(01:06:58):
So that that's just where I'mat, but I think you'll like
where we're coming in the nextsix months with, uh, some more
co-hosting and and more adcontent.
That's going to be creative.
So yeah.

No, you built some really good collaborations
and you've served this industrywell, shannon, and so I want to
just thank you for, you know,trying to walk that line.
Um, it's really it's a fineline to walk and you know this
industry is pretty tight, youknow.
I mean, you know, when I wastalking, you know I didn't
realize.
You know these people aretalking about actually,
brother-in-law.
I'm like whoa, or like, oh,you're the younger brother of

(01:07:30):
that one, like, oh, um, you know, it's like, you know.
You just, you just have toassume they're either related by
marriage or by blood um, yeah,or they they know somebody else,
right and um and so.
But it also makes the industryreally special because you know
it is so close, right, andthere's a whole new group of
people have come in that arebusiness people now, who now

(01:07:53):
aren't related industry and arein this space as well.
Right, and that's.
You know that's good becausecompetition is healthy.
You know it makes you a betterbuilder, a better seller, a
better business owner.
You know that's that's great.
We should always embrace, youknow, just being a better
version of ourselves and reallycompetition does do that Right.

(01:08:14):
My son, he's a, really he's a.
He's an elite 400 runner, 800runner.
But when he runs out in frontof the group he slows down
because the race is already over.
But when he's having to nose itout like he is hauling right
and like you know, it's betterfor him that he has more
competition right, it's betterfor him not to win every race by
a landslide, it's better forhim that he actually has some
people that can beat him right,because then it makes him come

(01:08:36):
to the gym more to put in moremiles to be driven.
You know and so you know thestory.

SHED GEEK (01:08:41):
You know the story then, like the four minute mile,
you know how the four minutemile wasn't broken for 25 or 30
years and it doesn't that speakbiblically to not to not know
it's possible.
This is a less Brown to notknow it's possible.
He says that all the time to,to, to, to not know that you can
even go do this thing, and Ilove listening to him.

(01:09:02):
But the four minute mile wasn'tbroken.
For what?
25, 30 years.

We thought we had peaked.

SHED GEEK (01:09:08):
We thought we peaked.
You know, I mean in track andfield and not being able to.
A human couldn't possibly do it.
One guy did it.
One guy did it I never canremember his name.
He done it and since he's doneit, it's been like 400 people or
something like that have doneit since, but mentally we've

(01:09:29):
already blocked ourselves insaying it's not possible.
So that's what I love aboutcreativity and I think that's
what God's made us to be.
Tristan is to be creative.
So, like, for me, when there'snot a way, I'm definitely the
guy back here going how do Ifind a way?
There's got to be a creativeway to solve or to create.
And you know, when you gocreate, maya Angelou said
creativity is beautiful the moreof it that you use, the more of
it you get back.
You know that's what's thebeauty of creativity.

(01:09:51):
So like, just go find a way.
You know the answer is not no,the answer is not yet.
Not yet.
I don't know how to do that yet, but I'm going to get there.
So listen, I've enjoyed thisthoroughly.

I'm so glad the internet held out for us.

SHED GEEK (01:10:05):
We love working with you.
We certainly appreciate youadvertising with us as well.
We love the industry and weknow we're going to see more of
you and wishing you lots andlots of success in 2024.
I know you got to go.
I've got a call coming up too.
Do you want to do a quickprayer over the industry?
Would you mind if I ask?

Yeah, I'll gladly pray, yeah.

SHED GEEK (01:10:25):
All right.

Father, I want to thank you for this time just
to talk about the importantthings family and serving the
customer in front of us andserving our team, lord, and I'm
grateful that we have toolsavailable today to actually, you
know, do that.
So for the dealers,manufacturers, people in the
space who are thinking abouttechnology, father and the next
steps they make, just give themthe insight they need and the

(01:10:47):
wisdom they need, the rightrelationships they need, father,
to make the best choice fortheir team and their customers.
Thank you for this time inJesus' name, amen.

SHED GEEK (01:10:56):
Amen, tristan, I will talk to you soon.
Appreciate everything you do.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Building the Foundations of Trust in Tech-Assisted Commerce

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

24/7 News: The Latest

All Episodes

Building the Foundations of Trust in Tech-Assisted Commerce

Stuff You Should Know