July 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Forging powerful business partnerships might be the key to unlocking growth you never imagined possible. When metal building dealers Jared Ledford and Eric Olson (the Steel Kings) faced customers walking away because they couldn't provide concrete services or pole barn options, they didn't just accept these limitations—they transformed them into opportunities through strategic collaboration.
Meet Caleb Grimes, owner of GCM Construction and the missing piece in their business puzzle. What started as a simple contractor referral relationship evolved into something far more valuable. Caleb shares how his concrete expertise complemented the Steel Kings' building knowledge, creating a seamless experience for customers who previously had to coordinate multiple contractors themselves.
The trio reveals the pivotal moment that changed everything: losing a substantial project because they couldn't offer post-frame buildings. Rather than continuing to turn customers away, they formed a partnership to expand their offerings, effectively capturing an entirely new market segment while maintaining their steel building foundation.
This conversation goes beyond mere business strategy, touching on the personal growth required when venturing into new territory. "If you're not willing to get uncomfortable and learn something new, then it's not for you," Eric notes, highlighting how progress demands pushing beyond comfort zones. Caleb adds that local knowledge of building codes and permitting processes creates the trust necessary for customers to move forward confidently with larger projects.
Perhaps the most profound insight comes near the end when Jared observes that success without collaboration leads to isolation: "Even if you are successful and you're not taking advice or working alongside others, you're going to be lonely, and lonely is not a good place to be, even if you're successful."
Looking to grow your construction business? Listen to how one partnership transformed potential losses into exciting new ventures, and consider what connections might help you capture opportunities you're currently missing.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jared (00:27):
What's going on, guys?
How are you today?
Eric, what's good?
All right, we're back withanother episode of the Steel
Kings podcast.
I am Jared, and this right overhere is my main man, Eric, and
we are going to get into it hereshortly.
Right up front, this episode ofSteel Kings Podcast is brought
to you by none other than JMoney, the financing partner
(00:48):
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All right, Eric, brother, we arejumping into a really cool
(01:31):
topic.
Today we are going to beinterviewing one of our business
partners, one of our reallygood, close friends.
Caleb Grimes is here.
Caleb is part of GCNConstruction.
He's the owner and principal ofthat company, amongst other
avenues, and we'll get into thattoo.
Is this episode 20?
I think so, man.
It's somewhere.
(01:51):
You know we keep losing track.
I think somewhere along the way, but I think we're around
episode 20 now.
It's hard to believe that we'vecome this far, but here we are
back with another episode foryou guys.
Eric (02:08):
Eric, how have you been this week, man bro?
Wow, pretty good.
Just spent a week on SantaBella island with my wife and,
uh, it's hot there and it rainsjust like Ohio.
It's hot today and raining,it's not different.
Jared (02:20):
There's just not an ocean yeah yeah we don't have any
ocean views here in Ohio.
Eric (02:24):
No ocean views, I'm looking across the street at my
neighbor who is obsessed withtheir garden.
Right now they are hands andknees.
Jared (02:32):
for the past couple weeks , Well, it could definitely be
worse.
I think, man, we coulddefinitely be in a worse
situation.
I'm currently at the officelike normal and hanging out here
with the team.
It's the first of the month, soyou guys are probably going to
get this in a couple of weeks,but hope you guys had a really
strong month of June and gettingstarted for a first part of
(02:55):
July.
We've got 4th of July coming up, so, before I forget, I hope
you all have a happy and safe4th of July.
Keep those fireworks away fromother people's homes.
They start fires.
A little PSA there.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I'm not a firework guy,just FYI.
So, we've got Caleb here withus.
(03:15):
Man, I'm not going to waste anymore time.
I'm going to bring him into thestudio here and bring him on
board, and there he is and allof his glory.
Yeah, what's up, dude?
How are you man?
Hey, man.
How are you guys doing?
Caleb Grimes (03:31):
Oh, we're doing pretty good Awesome.
Eric (03:34):
Awesome.
I'm in the end year of beingOhio Boy.
That music is great.
Jared (03:39):
Caleb is jamming.
Is that me?
Caleb Grimes (03:42):
Yeah.
Jared (03:43):
Hold on.
Let me see.
We're going to turn off.
Eric (03:46):
The world's longest intro.
Jared (03:49):
Oh, I see, I can't hear that on my side.
Eric (03:51):
Bro, it's so loud.
Oh there, it is the world'slongest intro.
Jared (03:55):
It's the same, Okay so a quick peek behind the curtain.
Jared is now.
You know, I do the directing onthe show so I can see
everybody's cameras and things.
Now I do the directing on theshow so I can see everybody's
cameras and things.
But I got new headphones andclearly the new headphones don't
play the music in them.
So oops.
So, eric, for everybody outthere listening, I'm sorry I
blew your eardrums.
So yeah, that's on me, so yeah.
(04:24):
So, we are pretty proud of therelationship that we have got
with you, Caleb.
It's been a couple of years inthe journey.
Just to give you guys a headsup, Caleb owns a company called
GCM Construction and he got hishands on a little bit of
everything here in the DaytonOhio market concrete and lots of
other things.
But he came to us through oneof our employees.
(04:45):
So, Caleb Fogle, who's, youknow I went to school with his
older brother, I've known hisfamily for years, you know
approached me a couple of yearsago about coming on board and it
was a quick hire for me andhe's been great for the team.
But I think probably thebiggest thing that he's brought
to our team is this gentlemanhere, Caleb.
So, Caleb, why don't youintroduce yourself to the team
(05:05):
and then we'll jump into somehot topics and just riff for a
little bit.
How's that?
Caleb Grimes (05:10):
Absolutely Like you said.
My name is Caleb Grimes.
I'm the owner of GCMConstruction.
We specialize in concrete flatwork and ADA compliance.
We kind of dabble into a littlebit of the outdoor amenity
things and pools as wellAnything that has to do with
(05:31):
concrete.
We're kind of your guys.
Jared (05:34):
We've been working with you guys now for, I'd say, going
on three years through CalebFogle, just helping out the
process of getting the buildingdown and making sure it's a
seamless process for customersyeah yeah, yeah, man, it's been
great and I'll tell you, youknow, for our, for our fellows
out there that are dealing steelbuildings or working in and
(05:55):
around the industry probably thenumber one objection that we
get at least that I personallyget, and Eric can touch on this
too the one thing that we alwaysget thrown at us is do you guys
help with the foundation, doyou guys help with the concrete?
What's the process there?
And that's kind of where CalebGrimes came into the fold for us
.
And they work with a customerand customer says, yeah, you
(06:23):
know, so-and-so did my concretefor me and it was great.
But at the end of the day, youknow, working alongside someone
and kind of getting them intoyour business model doesn't
always necessarily work out theway you had planned.
So, when you start to workalongside somebody, you're only
as good as they are.
All of a sudden, if we'rerecommending the concrete guy,
that's not any good.
(06:43):
Then all of a sudden, DaytonBarns is not any good either.
And that's where Caleb reallyshined above the rest.
I mean, Caleb was brought inkind of as a fill-in.
At first, we had a guy that wehad been using for some time
come to find out that he hadsome issues and was causing our
customers some grief.
So, Caleb stepped up and hasbeen the primary concrete
(07:04):
contact for us now for some time.
Was that?
Eric (07:08):
the Irish guy.
Jared (07:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure was, and he was a super nice guy
, don't get me wrong.
He did a great job.
We just ran into some issues,right, and it just became a
situation where, as our businessscaled, we needed to have a
concrete contact and a partnerthat was on the same level that
we wanted to go to, because in alot of ways, I feel like Caleb,
(07:32):
you were more established atthe time than we were as far as
just making sure that thecustomers were properly taken
care of.
You had a thriving business.
You didn't need our help, butwe needed yours, and I think, at
the end of the day, we'vebrought you some pretty sizable
projects over the last few years.
And I mean we'll talk a littlebit here, yeah, we'll talk a
little bit more about where thatrelationship's gone.
(07:54):
But man, you know, Eric, jumpin here.
Man.
I mean you know you've beendoing this longer than me.
You started the company, so Imean, how important is concrete
to the finished product of abuilding?
Eric (08:05):
and I want to hear Caleb's opinion on that too you know, I
kind of feel like when I firststarted, my first exposure to
like this is a speed bump.
Like a speed bump, it's anobstacle you overcome.
Every customer.
Yeah, you can sell a steelbuilding to anybody, but the
bigger problem is notnecessarily the build, it's who
(08:27):
can do the concrete.
And then who can you trust forthe concrete?
Because, okay, not only are youbuying a metal building for the
first time, you're probablypouring a pad for the first time
as well.
Not having the all-in-onesolution is difficult because
customers are now going to go.
They naturally are going torely on the building salesman to
(08:48):
basically speak on behalf ofpeople like Caleb.
And it's always good.
I mean, gosh, I can't even tellyou how many lists I started.
I have 160 plus metal buildingsEvery probably once a week I
get a hey man, if you're in SanAntonio, I can do a nine mile
radius concrete guy, and sowe've, over the years, people
(09:12):
say that and you try to accrue alist and you call them and they
don't call you back and youcan't develop any trust with
them.
So, it's been nice to andthere's so many connections
outside of doing concrete thatwe concrete that I believe are
is the reason for the connection.
But when you have a goodconcrete guy, reliable, you
(09:33):
better relationship build withthem.
That guy was nice, that guywe're talking about.
I think he's had some issues,you're right, he couldn't keep
workers and he was taking on toomuch and he was basically doing
anything about himself.
Caleb's well established.
Like you said, I think it'simportant to be able to
immediately say to a person Idon't have a person, it's GCM
(09:58):
construction and we'll get intothe second part of it, because a
lot of people balk at concrete.
I think the second thing okay,not only overcoming, okay, I
need concrete, who do I go to?
But now that cost is more thanthe building most of the time,
especially if it's like a 30 by40 and the building is 15K or
(10:21):
something, that concrete isgoing to cost probably 15, 15k
too, or if not more, um.
So, it's, it's created some toptracks for the reps able to
speak on pricing, um.
So, it's not really being ableto pass it off, but being able
to kind of pre-warm the customerup for what.
You know, we, we know whatCaleb's gonna go and discuss
(10:42):
with the person.
It's good for us to be able toknow him and be able to speak on
behalf of like, so.
So, not only providing thesolution, but understanding what
that solution is, be able totalk about it before passing
Caleb.
It weeds people out and we'reblessed, bro, that's it.
We're just blessed to have him.
Jared (11:02):
So, um yeah, concrete, Caleb, Caleb.
Tell us, tell us a little bitabout how important it is the
concrete solution for a metalbuilding.
You've done a lot of them forus now.
Caleb Grimes (11:13):
Absolutely.
We've done gosh more than I cancount building slabs for metal
buildings.
At this point, really, thebiggest key is just knowing your
area, knowing your local codes,regulations and permitting
processes.
Every area you're in in county,municipality and city is
different and just having thoseconnections with each person,
(11:35):
each county and city in yourarea to know what their
requirements are, what theyexpect from you as the
contractor, and just that thatin turn provides a seamless
process for your customers.
So that's been something we'vebeen able, I feel, to help out
with.
Dayton Barns is just getting thereps up to speed so they can
(11:57):
answer some of those questionswhile people are still in the
process of buying a building, ofknowing hey, in your area, this
is what you're going to berequired to do, and just helping
that process go smooth.
I feel like that's one thing wedo well at and making that a
smooth transition from buyingthe building to having a site
(12:19):
visit and going over a plan ofaction on how we're going to get
this project completed for you.
It's gone pretty well.
We've done lots of them,haven't really had any issues
and had a lot of big ones, a lotof small ones and all the
in-between.
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Jared (13:55):
Yeah, I think it's.
It's made it extremely easy forus to close deals.
I think that that's one thing.
A lot of you are probablysitting on listening to the
podcast or watching us onYouTube or whatever, thinking
why are we talking to this guy?
The why behind it is simpleDon't ever overlook an
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(14:16):
job easier.
Okay, that's why I wanted tointerview Caleb today, because
that's the first step in thisrelationship that we built for,
you know, for Dayton Barns andfor GCM construction was to make
my job here, make my reps jobs,make Eric's jobs easier.
You know, and I think thatthat's a situation where you
(14:37):
know if you can really start toproduce a end product for your
customer, that is something thatthey will talk to their friends
, their family, their coworkersabout.
That's when you really start tosee those referrals come in on
a really, really quick basis.
And you know, Eric, I mean Iknow you've got a couple of
contractor buddies who send youleads on buildings, one
(15:00):
specifically in Florida.
That's done really well for usand helped us out a lot.
But Caleb's been that guy.
You know, not only does Calebdo our concrete and help us out
on concrete in the area, buthe's quick to send us a lead man
and you know it's led us to theother topic, but yeah, yeah, so
yeah other topic.
Eric (15:26):
But yeah, yeah.
So yeah, the guy in Florida wasunique because on the flip side
it's like hey, do you guys doconcrete?
We pass them to Caleb.
The guy in Florida is like, hey, I'll pour your pad, do you
have a guy to build a building?
And so I normally get thosedeals like the second, because
he's like, hey, I'm dealing I'mnot gonna say a guy's name, but
it's like um tbl construction inSaint Augustine's the name of
that company and they call andthey're like man, I got a pad
plan for Tyler and a permitalready, or, as I said, his name
(15:48):
.
I'm like, I'm like, oh, okay,all you need to do is give me
money for a building.
Sounds great.
Like what's your credit cardnumber?
So, like that's an easy.
You know, we've got an eveneasier process now because
Caleb's on the site quoting aconcrete and, uh, when they go,
oh, that's too expensive, Caleblike goes right into the you
(16:09):
know some more ideas and youknow yeah so we talked about.
Jared (16:13):
We talked about it on a previous episode.
I think you're gonna have uh,you're gonna have Eric
testimonial.
That's the one we're coming offof this coming week, so you
would have just heard Eric'stestimonial.
Um, previous to that, Eric andI hung out, we quoted some
buildings.
We just kind of shot from thehip, but on that episode we kind
of let the cat out of the bagthat we started something else.
(16:35):
Um, with steel, you know, withsteel buildings being what they
are, it's a limited market.
I can tell you our coreaudience so if you're listening
to this podcast and watching uson YouTube, from what our
analytics say with Shannon, ourpodcast father there over at the
Shed Geek Podcast is a majorityof our listeners sell wood
(16:57):
sheds and produce wood sheds,and that's great.
And if you are selling woodsheds or producing wood sheds
and not selling metal buildings,my story is the same as it has
been since day one.
You are missing out on someadditional foot traffic, some
additional leads, someadditional opportunities, all of
the above.
But when you graduate and yougo from sheds to metal buildings
(17:20):
, there's not a whole lot left.
You've got ibeam, you've gotpost frame, a couple other
avenues to go.
So what?
What Eric and I discussed andreally with Caleb's push um, was
we're taking a leap into postframe and we're going to start
doing pole barns, we're going tostart doing some kits, we're
going to start doing some, uh,fully finished turnkey type
projects here in Ohio and it'sjust getting off the ground.
(17:43):
It's something that Caleb andhis team have been working on
and you know it helps Caleb'sbandwidth by working with
someone like Dayton Barns tocome along and say, hey, can
these guys generate leads for me, can these guys sell buildings
for me, for my team to install?
So that's really where Eric,Jared and Caleb entered into a
actual partnership, started anactual business and became
(18:06):
business partners and that's,you know, to bring it full
circle.
Look at how important thatrelationship was.
It's a relationship that wasbirthed with a coworker, with
someone that I hired and someonethat you know was important to
the Dayton Barns team and hefelt like his relationship with
Caleb Grimes was importantenough to bring to the table to
help us.
And now that one action, oneaction from one really good
(18:30):
employee, has created a, youknow, a pretty, pretty large
thing going on in our lives,right, guys, Absolutely, you
know, don't miss theseopportunities, right?
I mean, these are the thingsthat we talk about every week on
the podcast, and I know thisone's a little bit more serious
and it's a little bit more kindof in your face, but I mean it's
meant to be right, it's meantto be a call to action.
(18:51):
We talk about this stuff on theon the podcast all the time,
and we would not have been inthe situation that we're in had
we not been approached by aco-worker.
So, if you have somebody in theoffice that's making a
suggestion, probably not a badidea to discuss that with them.
You know what I'm saying,because it can birth big things,
(19:13):
right?
I see you smiling, Eric.
I mean that's.
You know.
We don't turn away.
We don't turn away ideas fromour staff.
Eric (19:21):
That's true, and I'm the king of weird ideas, you know, I
feel like, okay, I want to hearsomething.
Like you know, we a couple ofyears ago we met the pole barn
team.
I don't want to say it waspremature, I just think we
didn't strike then because wedidn't have a builder yet and so
(19:44):
, but that was the seed that wasplanted, because we always knew
we could circle back to thattopic, kind of what, like give
us your.
Like, when did you first hearabout pole barns?
And like, why?
Like, why did it take so long?
Just like, talk about that.
Like you're, you don't want totell a customer no.
(20:07):
And I guess, before you respond,Jared and I have talked about
this.
A ton on our episodes is thatif you don't have more than just
wood sheds on your property,like you, you're letting people
come in and leave you.
You know, if they don't want awoodshed or a metal building,
you gotta have options and yougotta flow with the business
needs.
So, it's not like we're goingto do it this way forever and
that's a prideful sentence.
(20:28):
Basically, it's like we're justgoing to take what, we're just
going to listen to what's goingon, and, and so that's where you
come in, cause you're.
You're really the one that softserved us at first with the
idea and then, kind of like,over the course of time, we got
that big rejection in Germantownand so, kind of like, walk us
(20:52):
through your view of like man Ialways knew we were going to do
pole barns.
Just kind of like walk usthrough that.
I guess yeah, we'll hear thestory about it.
Caleb Grimes (20:56):
Absolutely.
Yeah, want to hear the storyabout it, absolutely.
So, one of the biggest thingswith a steel build is the footer
requirements and slab On asmaller scale building it's not
really too much of a financialburden to the customer.
But as you get into theselarger buildings those footer
(21:18):
costs start to rise.
And what I was running into onmy end is being able to get a
lead from Dayton Barns from oneof the sales reps to going out
to do a site visit, for them tobe shocked, with their jaw on
the ground, on the price of whatthat would take to do and
knowing that there are betteroptions out there for some of
(21:39):
these larger scale projects thatcould help not necessarily save
money in all aspects but helpmake it a more customizable
building for what they'reneeding.
And so that's when I approachedJared and yourself about hey
guys, there's other options outhere to where a sale that might
at one point have walked away isstill an open door, and being
(22:04):
able to offer post framebuildings and stud frame
structures to our customers hasreally, I feel like, opened that
door to where, at this point,Dayton Barns is offering all
aspects of a shop, of a garageworkspace and even now kind of
(22:25):
dabbling into like a barndominium type of area, and
that's something I'm excitedabout too.
It's kind of a big hot thingright now.
That's the new flavor is thebarn dominiums and those are
something that's kind of it'snot undoable, but it gets a
little tougher to do in a steelstructure.
So having those options openfor our customers I think is
(22:46):
great and it just made sense forus to partner up together and
provide that for the customeryeah, I think that.
Jared (22:54):
Uh, I think the initial conversation for us started.
Uh, you know Dayton Barns hadbeen looking into, had been
looking into post frame for sometime.
You know it was on my radar, ofcourse you guys know, you know
Jay Money's our title sponsor.
But I used to do some dabblingover there, used to work with
Joel hands on and went to acouple of post frame shows.
(23:16):
For those of you who don't know, check out shield wall Media.
The team over there does areally good job with post-frame
shows and role-forming shows andthings like that as well.
But I can tell you I was veryinterested in pole structures.
I think that if concrete is thenumber one, question number two
is do y'all do pole barns?
(23:37):
I mean, we get that questionnonstop and some people and
rightfully so want a pole barn.
They just do.
They want a wood frame, theywant it all.
They want posts and that's it.
They don't want to deal withsteel, they don't want to do
tubular steel and we didn't havean option for them and I had
been kind of scouring andscouring to see what we could do
(23:59):
.
I had reached out to some otherdealers, just wasn't getting
anywhere with it.
Had a meeting with amanufacturing partner and it was
something that Eric and I justdidn't feel was the right time
for us.
We didn't have the ability toscale, and I think what it was
for us, Caleb, was it was aspecific deal that you and I
were working on a rather largebuilding and I think I had
(24:22):
pretty much had that guy sold.
But he was one of those guysthat's like man, I really want
to post frame, really want to doa pole barn.
And again, this is why you workwith good folks and good
partners.
Caleb goes to the job site, doesa site visit and realizes that
indeed the customer does want apole barn.
He doesn't want to do a metalbuilding, especially once he
(24:43):
sees the price on the concretefor the footer and all of that.
So, we proceeded to touch baseagain.
We unfortunately lost that dealto a pole barn outfit which,
unfortunately for that customerhe had a lot of issues with that
(25:06):
was.
You know, Caleb can get intothat if he wants.
But it was a pick the rightcontractor kind of moment for
that guy.
Caleb calls me and says, hey,we're going to lose that deal.
We really ought to think aboutdoing pole barns.
We shelved it over thewintertime, picked it back up in
the spring and said man, wereally need to do this and again
working with the right peoplewho stay motivated and task
focused.
Caleb never forgot about it,neither did I, and we brought it
(25:31):
to Eric and that's the birth.
I mean that really, that singlecustomer, in my opinion, is the
one that turned the tide,because I think Caleb probably
lost I don't know probably 30,30 to $40,000 worth of concrete
work minimum, and we lost out onan $80,000 metal building
project.
That's 10 minutes from my house.
And if you guys don't know, Ido not like losing deals 10
minutes from my house Because ifyou sell buildings, so let me
(25:54):
give you this, let me give youthis tidbit If you sell metal
buildings where you live, youwill become the metal building
guy.
So whether I sell a metalbuilding in Brookville, Ohio or
somebody else does, if there isa single issue with that metal
building, you can bet I'mgetting a call from somebody and
I love the times when I can saywell, unfortunately I didn't
(26:18):
sell you the building, but I canstill get you some help, and
that's why I love to sell youthe building, but I can still
get you some help.
You know, and that's why I loveto sell buildings close by,
because they're easy.
They're easy, people know me,you know, people know Eric and
Caleb.
It's easy to sell buildingswhere you live, especially if
you talk it up all the time.
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Jared (28:02):
Caleb, do you see it any different?
I mean it was just low hangingfruit, right?
I mean, these are, these aredeals that we already had kind
of on the table that we weremissing out on with the answer
of, I can't help you.
Caleb Grimes (28:16):
Yeah, it was tough walking away from that site
visit with that customer knowingthat we weren't going to be
able to help him with his needsbut we had the capability to do
it.
And then getting a justbuilding a relationship with the
customer and having himactually call me to come out to
walk through some issues of whathe ran into with his experience
(28:39):
and then in turn, being askedto come out and fix issues,
knowing that if we did thatourselves that we could have
mitigated those problems fromthe start and been able to keep
that sale on the table and, likeyou said, with it being in your
backyard, nobody likes to see abuilding go up in their
(29:00):
backyard when by some, when youknow it could be you.
So that was tough but throughthat we've been able to blossom
into what we are now and beingable to offer, offer these post
frame buildings to customers andit's, it's been a cool match.
I feel like organic thing forus just to go into yeah, we had
(29:22):
the leads right, Eric?
Jared (29:23):
I mean, we had the leads, we had the opportunity to gain
the leads.
What we needed was a way toactually drive sales we didn't
have a builder.
Eric (29:32):
The issue was a fella from okay, so the original pole barn
was a fella from the okay sothe original pole barn, okay so.
So that company up there inMontgomery County, that guy that
owns it, knew we was causing ascene with metal buildings and
(29:52):
he showed up at our headquartersjust rant randomly one day.
He had called a couple of timesbut I always duck people
calling.
I never really honestly likecare about it.
Um, but that guy he just showedup started talking to him that
that one wasn't right, becausewe was going to be a dealer for
a dealer and that's not how wewant to do business.
(30:13):
Um, we just want to deal withdirect.
And so the fellow from church, Ibrokered the deal, but it was
too complicated because the guyin that sales office didn't want
to give up his builder's info.
So basically I just was likebro, if you're not trying to
help us out, like this guy cameand tried to bring us on and
you're holding your info supertight, so like how can we even
(30:35):
so, I basically just passed thedeal.
We didn't make any money off it.
But the guy got like a like a28 by 50, like Hayburn out there
in West Alex somewhere and, um,and I knew there was a
possibility at that timeframe,it wasn't the right one.
But then when the second guycame, it was like a third time
or a second time.
Um, a guy that used to workwith us basically was like, well
(30:55):
, we're not going to care aboutthis because I don't even
remember why.
He just didn't like the guy'sdemeanor.
Jared (31:01):
The training style, yeah, the training style.
And believe me, believe me, letme preface this, don't
interrupt.
Selling a pole barn is muchmore complicated than selling a
metal building.
Eric (31:14):
I agree.
Jared (31:14):
It's a graduated sales process.
This is something where acustomer can get up into the
hundreds of thousands of dollarspretty quickly and pretty
easily and it's not going to besomething that you can just
regurgitate and do over and overand over again.
For those of you that sellsteel know what I'm talking
about.
List 150 buildings, like Ericdid on Facebook, and you're
getting 20 chats a day and outof those 20 chats a day can you
(31:37):
sell a building?
That's basically the formula ofbeing successful marketing on
Facebook marketplace.
That's about it, and you knowyou can't do that with pole
barns.
Let me just tell you that rightnow.
If you think you can, you'refoolish.
And let me be the first one totell you it takes a little bit
of time to learn, and thegentleman that we're working
(31:57):
with at our manufacturingpartner knows that he's been
doing pole barns a lot longerthan me and Eric have been doing
steel buildings probably longerthan Caleb's been doing
concrete, quite honestly, andit's one of those things where
Eric and I specifically and Iknow Caleb's probably the same
way when somebody's trying toteach me something I'll soak in
every word they have to saybecause I want to do it like
(32:18):
they do it.
They're there to teach me howto do it like them, so that they
don't have to do it for me.
I didn't mean to cut you offthere, Eric, but to me that's
the main difference.
That was the reason we didn'tgo with it.
We didn't have the bandwidth atthe time.
Eric (32:32):
Well, and also, at the same time, if you're not willing
to get uncomfortable and thisis like a business lesson here
if you're not willing to getuncomfortable and learn
something new, then it's not foryou.
And so, at that time I think wecould have solved it.
I think bandwidth, we couldhave handled it.
(32:52):
I just think that we gave upbefore we gave it a shot.
Honestly, I wasn't vibing it.
I'm not going to lie, I wasn'tvibing it.
I'm not.
I'm not going to lie, I wasn'tvibing it Cause I didn't want to
.
I'm like well, this is where youknow.
Obviously, like in Caleb youprobably agree here Like in in
in Jared, we all own businesses.
We're like, if you're justdoing repetitively like the same
(33:16):
thing over and over again, it'shard to want to learn a new
thing because, like, the thingyou're currently doing is
working.
So that's like wood sheds tomastering, metal buildings.
Now we're on the pole barns.
I think if it was just one ofus, it would be difficult.
If Caleb's like, yeah, I coulddo it, like it will be tough for
(33:37):
and we can't do it because weneed a builder, I just think
that, man, we got uncomfortable.
We've placed a couple orders,we're putting them up.
Can't wait to share pictureswith everybody.
I think there's so many nuggetsof why you need to progress.
There are no wood tariffs, yeah.
(33:57):
There are not one wood tariffout there.
I can't find one.
I Googled it.
There's not one search result.
Caleb Grimes (34:08):
I think, just as a business owner, having the
right partners whether that bein business, referral partners
or even manufacturer reps andvendors is just key.
And sometimes people like totry to have the whole pie and
(34:29):
not just a slice, and sometimesjust having that slice and
having the right peopleconnected to be able to connect
the dots is really where it'sgoing to make a seamless process
and it's where it's whereyou're going to succeed the most
.
Yeah, and like with Jared, if,if, if you guys hadn't called on
, called me on concrete, youguys still might be looking for
(34:53):
somebody who can provide thatservice for your customers and
who knows there's knows there'splenty of concrete people out
there, but who knows if youcould have found one that can
handle all the permitting andjust make it seamless.
So having a good connection,good referral partners and just
good connections with yourvendors is key.
Jared (35:15):
Making the most out of the relationships has a lot to
do with it.
I mean, I love that you saidthat, because we've talked about
that in previous episodes.
Right, if you're a shed sellerworking with the right shed
manufacturer, if you're a steeldealer working with the right
steel manufacturer, real quick.
I want to give props to ourfriends over at Cold Spring
Enterprises.
If you're still bending bowsthe old school way, the
(35:38):
VersaBend is what you need.
Three bends, that's it.
It works with up to two and ahalf inch tubing, even the two
by three rectangular.
It's super fast and easy to use.
No tools are needed to switchsizes, it just does it on its
own.
It's $19,500.
It ships for around $600.
And if you're outside the stateof South Carolina, there is no
(35:59):
tax.
So that's another savings there.
Head over to csecarport.
supply orcall 864-446-3645.
Make sure to tell those guysover at VersaBend and Cold
Spring that the Steel Kings sentyou.
I wanted to jump in therebecause that's another thing
that we've really got.
I mean, we've been blessed farbeyond what we deserve, Eric and
(36:28):
I, both with the right partnersat the right time, the right
connections when we need them.
You know, I think that ourrelationship with you, Caleb, is
just getting started, and Ithink that it's one that we want
to make sure that we talk moreabout.
Bring you back on.
We're right at that momentwhere it's like you know what,
we've got another episode in usand we're going to save some
content for next time.
We're right at that 35 minutewindow, Caleb.
(36:50):
What do you want to say?
You know I know you don't dothis very often.
You're not a super out there,kind of a public figure, but you
know what do you want to say?
I mean, there's a lot of shedmanufacturers on the phone, uh,
and on the call here listeningto us.
There's a lot of steel dealersand manufacturers listening.
Anything you want to shareabout the industry or concrete,
(37:11):
just as a touching point on theway out, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Caleb Grimes (37:16):
I would say the biggest key to closing every
deal is just make sure you guysout there have the right
connections with a builder and acontractor in your area who can
help you through all the ifs,ands or buts with permitting and
site visits.
Every site's different and youcan put a building anywhere.
(37:38):
It's just about knowing theright person to do it.
So that's a very key thing.
Have good referral partners,Keep those connections and
you'll succeed from there.
Jared (37:49):
Honestly, yeah, I couldn't echo that more.
Eric, you got anything as wefinish up this week and, Caleb,
we're going to have you back.
Brother, I know you've got atight line today.
Eric (38:01):
I think every move that we've made has been, yes,
business decisions, but reallyrelationship building.
That's all it is.
And if you are keeping thingsto your chest and you just want
to do it, that's not going towork out.
It'll work for some time.
But you've want to do it likethat's not going to work out.
It'll work for some time.
But you got to mold and shapeand allow people to speak into
(38:21):
your life in a different areathat you don't know of and like
that is what really honestly get, pulls the best parts out of me
, who is just a creative weirdo,and uh, and go full, full force
.
I'm not afraid of anything andthat, and him, when you, when
you guys brought the complexproblem of pole barns to me and
(38:43):
officials, like man, man, I suckat that.
But like I was telling Jared,like I say this a lot, I want to
master everything that I'm notgood at, and so you know, we've
got a little baby to to.
So, man, yeah, getuncomfortable if you're trying
to grow.
Jared (38:59):
Yeah, I think for me.
You know, I'll echo off whatEric said.
The only thing I will add isthat even if you are successful
and you're not taking advice orworking alongside others, you're
going to be lonely, and lonelyis not a good place to be, even
if you're successful.
So, I can tell you that rightnow, um, it's always better to
ride with your friends and yourconfidants.
I can't think of two peoplethat I have more respect for
(39:21):
than these two guys.
We are going to finish up thisepisode of Steel Kings Podcast.
Give a quick shout out to theguys over at J Money.
Check them out.
If you're in need of financing,they will be ready to help you
out.
Contact Joel and the team overthere at jmoneyllc.
com.
We are going to head out forthis week, but we will be back
at you next week with anotherepisode.
(39:41):
Check us out at thesteelkings.
com.
Website's up and running.
Website's up and running, sogive us some feedback.
I'm Jared at the Steel Kings.
He is Eric at the Steel Kings.
We are out for this week andy'all have yourselves a blessed
and happy week, all right goCincinnati reds yeah, yeah, be
good to your friends andneighbors all right, go do
(40:02):
something nice for yourcommunity.
Have a great week, guys.
We'll talk at you later.
What's going on, guys?
How are you today?
Eric, what's good?
All right, we're back withanother episode of the Steel
Kings podcast.
I am Jared, and this right overhere is my main man, Eric, and
we are going to get into it hereshortly.
Right up front, this episode ofSteel Kings Podcast is brought
to you by none other than JMoney, the financing partner
(00:48):
built by builders for builders.
Founded by Joel Oney, he was afarm kid from Northern Ohio with
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J Money was created to solve areal problem.
Most homeowners needimprovements.
You don't always have to cashup front for those right.
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All right, Eric, brother, we arejumping into a really cool
(01:31):
topic.
Today we are going to beinterviewing one of our business
partners, one of our reallygood, close friends.
Caleb Grimes is here.
Caleb is part of GCNConstruction.
He's the owner and principal ofthat company, amongst other
avenues, and we'll get into thattoo.
Is this episode 20?
I think so, man.
It's somewhere.
(01:51):
You know we keep losing track.
I think somewhere along the way, but I think we're around
episode 20 now.
It's hard to believe that we'vecome this far, but here we are
back with another episode foryou guys.
Eric (02:08):
Eric, how have you been this week, man bro?
Wow, pretty good.
Just spent a week on SantaBella island with my wife and,
uh, it's hot there and it rainsjust like Ohio.
It's hot today and raining,it's not different.
Jared (02:20):
There's just not an ocean yeah yeah we don't have any
ocean views here in Ohio.
Eric (02:24):
No ocean views, I'm looking across the street at my
neighbor who is obsessed withtheir garden.
Right now they are hands andknees.
Jared (02:32):
for the past couple weeks , Well, it could definitely be
worse.
I think, man, we coulddefinitely be in a worse
situation.
I'm currently at the officelike normal and hanging out here
with the team.
It's the first of the month, soyou guys are probably going to
get this in a couple of weeks,but hope you guys had a really
strong month of June and gettingstarted for a first part of
(02:55):
July.
We've got 4th of July coming up, so, before I forget, I hope
you all have a happy and safe4th of July.
Keep those fireworks away fromother people's homes.
They start fires.
A little PSA there.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I'm not a firework guy,just FYI.
So, we've got Caleb here withus.
(03:15):
Man, I'm not going to waste anymore time.
I'm going to bring him into thestudio here and bring him on
board, and there he is and allof his glory.
Yeah, what's up, dude?
How are you man?
Hey, man.
How are you guys doing?
Caleb Grimes (03:31):
Oh, we're doing pretty good Awesome.
Eric (03:34):
Awesome.
I'm in the end year of beingOhio Boy.
That music is great.
Jared (03:39):
Caleb is jamming.
Is that me?
Caleb Grimes (03:42):
Yeah.
Jared (03:43):
Hold on.
Let me see.
We're going to turn off.
Eric (03:46):
The world's longest intro.
Jared (03:49):
Oh, I see, I can't hear that on my side.
Eric (03:51):
Bro, it's so loud.
Oh there, it is the world'slongest intro.
Jared (03:55):
It's the same, Okay so a quick peek behind the curtain.
Jared is now.
You know, I do the directing onthe show so I can see
everybody's cameras and things.
Now I do the directing on theshow so I can see everybody's
cameras and things.
But I got new headphones andclearly the new headphones don't
play the music in them.
So oops.
So, eric, for everybody outthere listening, I'm sorry I
blew your eardrums.
So yeah, that's on me, so yeah.
(04:24):
So, we are pretty proud of therelationship that we have got
with you, Caleb.
It's been a couple of years inthe journey.
Just to give you guys a headsup, Caleb owns a company called
GCM Construction and he got hishands on a little bit of
everything here in the DaytonOhio market concrete and lots of
other things.
But he came to us through oneof our employees.
(04:45):
So, Caleb Fogle, who's, youknow I went to school with his
older brother, I've known hisfamily for years, you know
approached me a couple of yearsago about coming on board and it
was a quick hire for me andhe's been great for the team.
But I think probably thebiggest thing that he's brought
to our team is this gentlemanhere, Caleb.
So, Caleb, why don't youintroduce yourself to the team
(05:05):
and then we'll jump into somehot topics and just riff for a
little bit.
How's that?
Caleb Grimes (05:10):
Absolutely Like you said.
My name is Caleb Grimes.
I'm the owner of GCMConstruction.
We specialize in concrete flatwork and ADA compliance.
We kind of dabble into a littlebit of the outdoor amenity
things and pools as wellAnything that has to do with
(05:31):
concrete.
We're kind of your guys.
Jared (05:34):
We've been working with you guys now for, I'd say, going
on three years through CalebFogle, just helping out the
process of getting the buildingdown and making sure it's a
seamless process for customersyeah yeah, yeah, man, it's been
great and I'll tell you, youknow, for our, for our fellows
out there that are dealing steelbuildings or working in and
(05:55):
around the industry probably thenumber one objection that we
get at least that I personallyget, and Eric can touch on this
too the one thing that we alwaysget thrown at us is do you guys
help with the foundation, doyou guys help with the concrete?
What's the process there?
And that's kind of where CalebGrimes came into the fold for us
.
And they work with a customerand customer says, yeah, you
(06:23):
know, so-and-so did my concretefor me and it was great.
But at the end of the day, youknow, working alongside someone
and kind of getting them intoyour business model doesn't
always necessarily work out theway you had planned.
So, when you start to workalongside somebody, you're only
as good as they are.
All of a sudden, if we'rerecommending the concrete guy,
that's not any good.
(06:43):
Then all of a sudden, DaytonBarns is not any good either.
And that's where Caleb reallyshined above the rest.
I mean, Caleb was brought inkind of as a fill-in.
At first, we had a guy that wehad been using for some time
come to find out that he hadsome issues and was causing our
customers some grief.
So, Caleb stepped up and hasbeen the primary concrete
(07:04):
contact for us now for some time.
Was that?
Eric (07:08):
the Irish guy.
Jared (07:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure was, and he was a super nice guy
, don't get me wrong.
He did a great job.
We just ran into some issues,right, and it just became a
situation where, as our businessscaled, we needed to have a
concrete contact and a partnerthat was on the same level that
we wanted to go to, because in alot of ways, I feel like Caleb,
(07:32):
you were more established atthe time than we were as far as
just making sure that thecustomers were properly taken
care of.
You had a thriving business.
You didn't need our help, butwe needed yours, and I think, at
the end of the day, we'vebrought you some pretty sizable
projects over the last few years.
And I mean we'll talk a littlebit here, yeah, we'll talk a
little bit more about where thatrelationship's gone.
(07:54):
But man, you know, Eric, jumpin here.
Man.
I mean you know you've beendoing this longer than me.
You started the company, so Imean, how important is concrete
to the finished product of abuilding?
Eric (08:05):
and I want to hear Caleb's opinion on that too you know, I
kind of feel like when I firststarted, my first exposure to
like this is a speed bump.
Like a speed bump, it's anobstacle you overcome.
Every customer.
Yeah, you can sell a steelbuilding to anybody, but the
bigger problem is notnecessarily the build, it's who
(08:27):
can do the concrete.
And then who can you trust forthe concrete?
Because, okay, not only are youbuying a metal building for the
first time, you're probablypouring a pad for the first time
as well.
Not having the all-in-onesolution is difficult because
customers are now going to go.
They naturally are going torely on the building salesman to
(08:48):
basically speak on behalf ofpeople like Caleb.
And it's always good.
I mean, gosh, I can't even tellyou how many lists I started.
I have 160 plus metal buildingsEvery probably once a week I
get a hey man, if you're in SanAntonio, I can do a nine mile
radius concrete guy, and sowe've, over the years, people
(09:12):
say that and you try to accrue alist and you call them and they
don't call you back and youcan't develop any trust with
them.
So, it's been nice to andthere's so many connections
outside of doing concrete thatwe concrete that I believe are
is the reason for the connection.
But when you have a goodconcrete guy, reliable, you
(09:33):
better relationship build withthem.
That guy was nice, that guywe're talking about.
I think he's had some issues,you're right, he couldn't keep
workers and he was taking on toomuch and he was basically doing
anything about himself.
Caleb's well established.
Like you said, I think it'simportant to be able to
immediately say to a person Idon't have a person, it's GCM
(09:58):
construction and we'll get intothe second part of it, because a
lot of people balk at concrete.
I think the second thing okay,not only overcoming, okay, I
need concrete, who do I go to?
But now that cost is more thanthe building most of the time,
especially if it's like a 30 by40 and the building is 15K or
(10:21):
something, that concrete isgoing to cost probably 15, 15k
too, or if not more, um.
So, it's, it's created some toptracks for the reps able to
speak on pricing, um.
So, it's not really being ableto pass it off, but being able
to kind of pre-warm the customerup for what.
You know, we, we know whatCaleb's gonna go and discuss
(10:42):
with the person.
It's good for us to be able toknow him and be able to speak on
behalf of like, so.
So, not only providing thesolution, but understanding what
that solution is, be able totalk about it before passing
Caleb.
It weeds people out and we'reblessed, bro, that's it.
We're just blessed to have him.
Jared (11:02):
So, um yeah, concrete, Caleb, Caleb.
Tell us, tell us a little bitabout how important it is the
concrete solution for a metalbuilding.
You've done a lot of them forus now.
Caleb Grimes (11:13):
Absolutely.
We've done gosh more than I cancount building slabs for metal
buildings.
At this point, really, thebiggest key is just knowing your
area, knowing your local codes,regulations and permitting
processes.
Every area you're in in county,municipality and city is
different and just having thoseconnections with each person,
(11:35):
each county and city in yourarea to know what their
requirements are, what theyexpect from you as the
contractor, and just that thatin turn provides a seamless
process for your customers.
So that's been something we'vebeen able, I feel, to help out
with.
Dayton Barns is just getting thereps up to speed so they can
(11:57):
answer some of those questionswhile people are still in the
process of buying a building, ofknowing hey, in your area, this
is what you're going to berequired to do, and just helping
that process go smooth.
I feel like that's one thing wedo well at and making that a
smooth transition from buyingthe building to having a site
(12:19):
visit and going over a plan ofaction on how we're going to get
this project completed for you.
It's gone pretty well.
We've done lots of them,haven't really had any issues
and had a lot of big ones, a lotof small ones and all the
in-between.
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Jared (13:55):
Yeah, I think it's.
It's made it extremely easy forus to close deals.
I think that that's one thing.
A lot of you are probablysitting on listening to the
podcast or watching us onYouTube or whatever, thinking
why are we talking to this guy?
The why behind it is simpleDon't ever overlook an
opportunity that can help youbuild your business or make your
(14:16):
job easier.
Okay, that's why I wanted tointerview Caleb today, because
that's the first step in thisrelationship that we built for,
you know, for Dayton Barns andfor GCM construction was to make
my job here, make my reps jobs,make Eric's jobs easier.
You know, and I think thatthat's a situation where you
(14:37):
know if you can really start toproduce a end product for your
customer, that is something thatthey will talk to their friends
, their family, their coworkersabout.
That's when you really start tosee those referrals come in on
a really, really quick basis.
And you know, Eric, I mean Iknow you've got a couple of
contractor buddies who send youleads on buildings, one
(15:00):
specifically in Florida.
That's done really well for usand helped us out a lot.
But Caleb's been that guy.
You know, not only does Calebdo our concrete and help us out
on concrete in the area, buthe's quick to send us a lead man
and you know it's led us to theother topic, but yeah, yeah, so
yeah other topic.
Eric (15:26):
But yeah, yeah.
So yeah, the guy in Florida wasunique because on the flip side
it's like hey, do you guys doconcrete?
We pass them to Caleb.
The guy in Florida is like, hey, I'll pour your pad, do you
have a guy to build a building?
And so I normally get thosedeals like the second, because
he's like, hey, I'm dealing I'mnot gonna say a guy's name, but
it's like um tbl construction inSaint Augustine's the name of
that company and they call andthey're like man, I got a pad
plan for Tyler and a permitalready, or, as I said, his name
(15:48):
.
I'm like, I'm like, oh, okay,all you need to do is give me
money for a building.
Sounds great.
Like what's your credit cardnumber?
So, like that's an easy.
You know, we've got an eveneasier process now because
Caleb's on the site quoting aconcrete and, uh, when they go,
oh, that's too expensive, Caleblike goes right into the you
(16:09):
know some more ideas and youknow yeah so we talked about.
Jared (16:13):
We talked about it on a previous episode.
I think you're gonna have uh,you're gonna have Eric
testimonial.
That's the one we're coming offof this coming week, so you
would have just heard Eric'stestimonial.
Um, previous to that, Eric andI hung out, we quoted some
buildings.
We just kind of shot from thehip, but on that episode we kind
of let the cat out of the bagthat we started something else.
(16:35):
Um, with steel, you know, withsteel buildings being what they
are, it's a limited market.
I can tell you our coreaudience so if you're listening
to this podcast and watching uson YouTube, from what our
analytics say with Shannon, ourpodcast father there over at the
Shed Geek Podcast is a majorityof our listeners sell wood
(16:57):
sheds and produce wood sheds,and that's great.
And if you are selling woodsheds or producing wood sheds
and not selling metal buildings,my story is the same as it has
been since day one.
You are missing out on someadditional foot traffic, some
additional leads, someadditional opportunities, all of
the above.
But when you graduate and yougo from sheds to metal buildings
(17:20):
, there's not a whole lot left.
You've got ibeam, you've gotpost frame, a couple other
avenues to go.
So what?
What Eric and I discussed andreally with Caleb's push um, was
we're taking a leap into postframe and we're going to start
doing pole barns, we're going tostart doing some kits, we're
going to start doing some, uh,fully finished turnkey type
projects here in Ohio and it'sjust getting off the ground.
(17:43):
It's something that Caleb andhis team have been working on
and you know it helps Caleb'sbandwidth by working with
someone like Dayton Barns tocome along and say, hey, can
these guys generate leads for me, can these guys sell buildings
for me, for my team to install?
So that's really where Eric,Jared and Caleb entered into a
actual partnership, started anactual business and became
(18:06):
business partners and that's,you know, to bring it full
circle.
Look at how important thatrelationship was.
It's a relationship that wasbirthed with a coworker, with
someone that I hired and someonethat you know was important to
the Dayton Barns team and hefelt like his relationship with
Caleb Grimes was importantenough to bring to the table to
help us.
And now that one action, oneaction from one really good
(18:30):
employee, has created a, youknow, a pretty, pretty large
thing going on in our lives,right, guys, Absolutely, you
know, don't miss theseopportunities, right?
I mean, these are the thingsthat we talk about every week on
the podcast, and I know thisone's a little bit more serious
and it's a little bit more kindof in your face, but I mean it's
meant to be right, it's meantto be a call to action.
(18:51):
We talk about this stuff on theon the podcast all the time,
and we would not have been inthe situation that we're in had
we not been approached by aco-worker.
So, if you have somebody in theoffice that's making a
suggestion, probably not a badidea to discuss that with them.
You know what I'm saying,because it can birth big things,
(19:13):
right?
I see you smiling, Eric.
I mean that's.
You know.
We don't turn away.
We don't turn away ideas fromour staff.
Eric (19:21):
That's true, and I'm the king of weird ideas, you know, I
feel like, okay, I want to hearsomething.
Like you know, we a couple ofyears ago we met the pole barn
team.
I don't want to say it waspremature, I just think we
didn't strike then because wedidn't have a builder yet and so
(19:44):
, but that was the seed that wasplanted, because we always knew
we could circle back to thattopic, kind of what, like give
us your.
Like, when did you first hearabout pole barns?
And like, why?
Like, why did it take so long?
Just like, talk about that.
Like you're, you don't want totell a customer no.
(20:07):
And I guess, before you respond,Jared and I have talked about
this.
A ton on our episodes is thatif you don't have more than just
wood sheds on your property,like you, you're letting people
come in and leave you.
You know, if they don't want awoodshed or a metal building,
you gotta have options and yougotta flow with the business
needs.
So, it's not like we're goingto do it this way forever and
that's a prideful sentence.
(20:28):
Basically, it's like we're justgoing to take what, we're just
going to listen to what's goingon, and, and so that's where you
come in, cause you're.
You're really the one that softserved us at first with the
idea and then, kind of like,over the course of time, we got
that big rejection in Germantownand so, kind of like, walk us
(20:52):
through your view of like man Ialways knew we were going to do
pole barns.
Just kind of like walk usthrough that.
I guess yeah, we'll hear thestory about it.
Caleb Grimes (20:56):
Absolutely.
Yeah, want to hear the storyabout it, absolutely.
So, one of the biggest thingswith a steel build is the footer
requirements and slab On asmaller scale building it's not
really too much of a financialburden to the customer.
But as you get into theselarger buildings those footer
(21:18):
costs start to rise.
And what I was running into onmy end is being able to get a
lead from Dayton Barns from oneof the sales reps to going out
to do a site visit, for them tobe shocked, with their jaw on
the ground, on the price of whatthat would take to do and
knowing that there are betteroptions out there for some of
(21:39):
these larger scale projects thatcould help not necessarily save
money in all aspects but helpmake it a more customizable
building for what they'reneeding.
And so that's when I approachedJared and yourself about hey
guys, there's other options outhere to where a sale that might
at one point have walked away isstill an open door, and being
(22:04):
able to offer post framebuildings and stud frame
structures to our customers hasreally, I feel like, opened that
door to where, at this point,Dayton Barns is offering all
aspects of a shop, of a garageworkspace and even now kind of
(22:25):
dabbling into like a barndominium type of area, and
that's something I'm excitedabout too.
It's kind of a big hot thingright now.
That's the new flavor is thebarn dominiums and those are
something that's kind of it'snot undoable, but it gets a
little tougher to do in a steelstructure.
So having those options openfor our customers I think is
(22:46):
great and it just made sense forus to partner up together and
provide that for the customeryeah, I think that.
Jared (22:54):
Uh, I think the initial conversation for us started.
Uh, you know Dayton Barns hadbeen looking into, had been
looking into post frame for sometime.
You know it was on my radar, ofcourse you guys know, you know
Jay Money's our title sponsor.
But I used to do some dabblingover there, used to work with
Joel hands on and went to acouple of post frame shows.
(23:16):
For those of you who don't know, check out shield wall Media.
The team over there does areally good job with post-frame
shows and role-forming shows andthings like that as well.
But I can tell you I was veryinterested in pole structures.
I think that if concrete is thenumber one, question number two
is do y'all do pole barns?
(23:37):
I mean, we get that questionnonstop and some people and
rightfully so want a pole barn.
They just do.
They want a wood frame, theywant it all.
They want posts and that's it.
They don't want to deal withsteel, they don't want to do
tubular steel and we didn't havean option for them and I had
been kind of scouring andscouring to see what we could do
(23:59):
.
I had reached out to some otherdealers, just wasn't getting
anywhere with it.
Had a meeting with amanufacturing partner and it was
something that Eric and I justdidn't feel was the right time
for us.
We didn't have the ability toscale, and I think what it was
for us, Caleb, was it was aspecific deal that you and I
were working on a rather largebuilding and I think I had
(24:22):
pretty much had that guy sold.
But he was one of those guysthat's like man, I really want
to post frame, really want to doa pole barn.
And again, this is why you workwith good folks and good
partners.
Caleb goes to the job site, doesa site visit and realizes that
indeed the customer does want apole barn.
He doesn't want to do a metalbuilding, especially once he
(24:43):
sees the price on the concretefor the footer and all of that.
So, we proceeded to touch baseagain.
We unfortunately lost that dealto a pole barn outfit which,
unfortunately for that customerhe had a lot of issues with that
(25:06):
was.
You know, Caleb can get intothat if he wants.
But it was a pick the rightcontractor kind of moment for
that guy.
Caleb calls me and says, hey,we're going to lose that deal.
We really ought to think aboutdoing pole barns.
We shelved it over thewintertime, picked it back up in
the spring and said man, wereally need to do this and again
working with the right peoplewho stay motivated and task
focused.
Caleb never forgot about it,neither did I, and we brought it
(25:31):
to Eric and that's the birth.
I mean that really, that singlecustomer, in my opinion, is the
one that turned the tide,because I think Caleb probably
lost I don't know probably 30,30 to $40,000 worth of concrete
work minimum, and we lost out onan $80,000 metal building
project.
That's 10 minutes from my house.
And if you guys don't know, Ido not like losing deals 10
minutes from my house Because ifyou sell buildings, so let me
(25:54):
give you this, let me give youthis tidbit If you sell metal
buildings where you live, youwill become the metal building
guy.
So whether I sell a metalbuilding in Brookville, Ohio or
somebody else does, if there isa single issue with that metal
building, you can bet I'mgetting a call from somebody and
I love the times when I can saywell, unfortunately I didn't
(26:18):
sell you the building, but I canstill get you some help, and
that's why I love to sell youthe building, but I can still
get you some help.
You know, and that's why I loveto sell buildings close by,
because they're easy.
They're easy, people know me,you know, people know Eric and
Caleb.
It's easy to sell buildingswhere you live, especially if
you talk it up all the time.
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Jared (28:02):
Caleb, do you see it any different?
I mean it was just low hangingfruit, right?
I mean, these are, these aredeals that we already had kind
of on the table that we weremissing out on with the answer
of, I can't help you.
Caleb Grimes (28:16):
Yeah, it was tough walking away from that site
visit with that customer knowingthat we weren't going to be
able to help him with his needsbut we had the capability to do
it.
And then getting a justbuilding a relationship with the
customer and having himactually call me to come out to
walk through some issues of whathe ran into with his experience
(28:39):
and then in turn, being askedto come out and fix issues,
knowing that if we did thatourselves that we could have
mitigated those problems fromthe start and been able to keep
that sale on the table and, likeyou said, with it being in your
backyard, nobody likes to see abuilding go up in their
(29:00):
backyard when by some, when youknow it could be you.
So that was tough but throughthat we've been able to blossom
into what we are now and beingable to offer, offer these post
frame buildings to customers andit's, it's been a cool match.
I feel like organic thing forus just to go into yeah, we had
(29:22):
the leads right, Eric?
Jared (29:23):
I mean, we had the leads, we had the opportunity to gain
the leads.
What we needed was a way toactually drive sales we didn't
have a builder.
Eric (29:32):
The issue was a fella from okay, so the original pole barn
was a fella from the okay sothe original pole barn, okay so.
So that company up there inMontgomery County, that guy that
owns it, knew we was causing ascene with metal buildings and
(29:52):
he showed up at our headquartersjust rant randomly one day.
He had called a couple of timesbut I always duck people
calling.
I never really honestly likecare about it.
Um, but that guy he just showedup started talking to him that
that one wasn't right, becausewe was going to be a dealer for
a dealer and that's not how wewant to do business.
(30:13):
Um, we just want to deal withdirect.
And so the fellow from church, Ibrokered the deal, but it was
too complicated because the guyin that sales office didn't want
to give up his builder's info.
So basically I just was likebro, if you're not trying to
help us out, like this guy cameand tried to bring us on and
you're holding your info supertight, so like how can we even
(30:35):
so, I basically just passed thedeal.
We didn't make any money off it.
But the guy got like a like a28 by 50, like Hayburn out there
in West Alex somewhere and, um,and I knew there was a
possibility at that timeframe,it wasn't the right one.
But then when the second guycame, it was like a third time
or a second time.
Um, a guy that used to workwith us basically was like, well
(30:55):
, we're not going to care aboutthis because I don't even
remember why.
He just didn't like the guy'sdemeanor.
Jared (31:01):
The training style, yeah, the training style.
And believe me, believe me, letme preface this, don't
interrupt.
Selling a pole barn is muchmore complicated than selling a
metal building.
Eric (31:14):
I agree.
Jared (31:14):
It's a graduated sales process.
This is something where acustomer can get up into the
hundreds of thousands of dollarspretty quickly and pretty
easily and it's not going to besomething that you can just
regurgitate and do over and overand over again.
For those of you that sellsteel know what I'm talking
about.
List 150 buildings, like Ericdid on Facebook, and you're
getting 20 chats a day and outof those 20 chats a day can you
(31:37):
sell a building?
That's basically the formula ofbeing successful marketing on
Facebook marketplace.
That's about it, and you knowyou can't do that with pole
barns.
Let me just tell you that rightnow.
If you think you can, you'refoolish.
And let me be the first one totell you it takes a little bit
of time to learn, and thegentleman that we're working
(31:57):
with at our manufacturingpartner knows that he's been
doing pole barns a lot longerthan me and Eric have been doing
steel buildings probably longerthan Caleb's been doing
concrete, quite honestly, andit's one of those things where
Eric and I specifically and Iknow Caleb's probably the same
way when somebody's trying toteach me something I'll soak in
every word they have to saybecause I want to do it like
(32:18):
they do it.
They're there to teach me howto do it like them, so that they
don't have to do it for me.
I didn't mean to cut you offthere, Eric, but to me that's
the main difference.
That was the reason we didn'tgo with it.
We didn't have the bandwidth atthe time.
Eric (32:32):
Well, and also, at the same time, if you're not willing
to get uncomfortable and thisis like a business lesson here
if you're not willing to getuncomfortable and learn
something new, then it's not foryou.
And so, at that time I think wecould have solved it.
I think bandwidth, we couldhave handled it.
(32:52):
I just think that we gave upbefore we gave it a shot.
Honestly, I wasn't vibing it.
I'm not going to lie, I wasn'tvibing it.
I'm not.
I'm not going to lie, I wasn'tvibing it Cause I didn't want to
.
I'm like well, this is where youknow.
Obviously, like in Caleb youprobably agree here Like in in
in Jared, we all own businesses.
We're like, if you're justdoing repetitively like the same
(33:16):
thing over and over again, it'shard to want to learn a new
thing because, like, the thingyou're currently doing is
working.
So that's like wood sheds tomastering, metal buildings.
Now we're on the pole barns.
I think if it was just one ofus, it would be difficult.
If Caleb's like, yeah, I coulddo it, like it will be tough for
(33:37):
and we can't do it because weneed a builder, I just think
that, man, we got uncomfortable.
We've placed a couple orders,we're putting them up.
Can't wait to share pictureswith everybody.
I think there's so many nuggetsof why you need to progress.
There are no wood tariffs, yeah.
(33:57):
There are not one wood tariffout there.
I can't find one.
I Googled it.
There's not one search result.
Caleb Grimes (34:08):
I think, just as a business owner, having the
right partners whether that bein business, referral partners
or even manufacturer reps andvendors is just key.
And sometimes people like totry to have the whole pie and
(34:29):
not just a slice, and sometimesjust having that slice and
having the right peopleconnected to be able to connect
the dots is really where it'sgoing to make a seamless process
and it's where it's whereyou're going to succeed the most
.
Yeah, and like with Jared, if,if, if you guys hadn't called on
, called me on concrete, youguys still might be looking for
(34:53):
somebody who can provide thatservice for your customers and
who knows there's knows there'splenty of concrete people out
there, but who knows if youcould have found one that can
handle all the permitting andjust make it seamless.
So having a good connection,good referral partners and just
good connections with yourvendors is key.
Jared (35:15):
Making the most out of the relationships has a lot to
do with it.
I mean, I love that you saidthat, because we've talked about
that in previous episodes.
Right, if you're a shed sellerworking with the right shed
manufacturer, if you're a steeldealer working with the right
steel manufacturer, real quick.
I want to give props to ourfriends over at Cold Spring
Enterprises.
If you're still bending bowsthe old school way, the
(35:38):
VersaBend is what you need.
Three bends, that's it.
It works with up to two and ahalf inch tubing, even the two
by three rectangular.
It's super fast and easy to use.
No tools are needed to switchsizes, it just does it on its
own.
It's $19,500.
It ships for around $600.
And if you're outside the stateof South Carolina, there is no
(35:59):
tax.
So that's another savings there.
Head over to csecarport.
supply orcall 864-446-3645.
Make sure to tell those guysover at VersaBend and Cold
Spring that the Steel Kings sentyou.
I wanted to jump in therebecause that's another thing
that we've really got.
I mean, we've been blessed farbeyond what we deserve, Eric and
(36:28):
I, both with the right partnersat the right time, the right
connections when we need them.
You know, I think that ourrelationship with you, Caleb, is
just getting started, and Ithink that it's one that we want
to make sure that we talk moreabout.
Bring you back on.
We're right at that momentwhere it's like you know what,
we've got another episode in usand we're going to save some
content for next time.
We're right at that 35 minutewindow, Caleb.
(36:50):
What do you want to say?
You know I know you don't dothis very often.
You're not a super out there,kind of a public figure, but you
know what do you want to say?
I mean, there's a lot of shedmanufacturers on the phone, uh,
and on the call here listeningto us.
There's a lot of steel dealersand manufacturers listening.
Anything you want to shareabout the industry or concrete,
(37:11):
just as a touching point on theway out, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Caleb Grimes (37:16):
I would say the biggest key to closing every
deal is just make sure you guysout there have the right
connections with a builder and acontractor in your area who can
help you through all the ifs,ands or buts with permitting and
site visits.
Every site's different and youcan put a building anywhere.
(37:38):
It's just about knowing theright person to do it.
So that's a very key thing.
Have good referral partners,Keep those connections and
you'll succeed from there.
Jared (37:49):
Honestly, yeah, I couldn't echo that more.
Eric, you got anything as wefinish up this week and, Caleb,
we're going to have you back.
Brother, I know you've got atight line today.
Eric (38:01):
I think every move that we've made has been, yes,
business decisions, but reallyrelationship building.
That's all it is.
And if you are keeping thingsto your chest and you just want
to do it, that's not going towork out.
It'll work for some time.
But you've want to do it likethat's not going to work out.
It'll work for some time.
But you got to mold and shapeand allow people to speak into
(38:21):
your life in a different areathat you don't know of and like
that is what really honestly get, pulls the best parts out of me
, who is just a creative weirdo,and uh, and go full, full force
.
I'm not afraid of anything andthat, and him, when you, when
you guys brought the complexproblem of pole barns to me and
(38:43):
officials, like man, man, I suckat that.
But like I was telling Jared,like I say this a lot, I want to
master everything that I'm notgood at, and so you know, we've
got a little baby to to.
So, man, yeah, getuncomfortable if you're trying
to grow.
Jared (38:59):
Yeah, I think for me.
You know, I'll echo off whatEric said.
The only thing I will add isthat even if you are successful
and you're not taking advice orworking alongside others, you're
going to be lonely, and lonelyis not a good place to be, even
if you're successful.
So, I can tell you that rightnow, um, it's always better to
ride with your friends and yourconfidants.
I can't think of two peoplethat I have more respect for
(39:21):
than these two guys.
We are going to finish up thisepisode of Steel Kings Podcast.
Give a quick shout out to theguys over at J Money.
Check them out.
If you're in need of financing,they will be ready to help you
out.
Contact Joel and the team overthere at jmoneyllc.
com.
We are going to head out forthis week, but we will be back
at you next week with anotherepisode.
(39:41):
Check us out at thesteelkings.
com.
Website's up and running.
Website's up and running, sogive us some feedback.
I'm Jared at the Steel Kings.
He is Eric at the Steel Kings.
We are out for this week andy'all have yourselves a blessed
and happy week, all right goCincinnati reds yeah, yeah, be
good to your friends andneighbors all right, go do
(40:02):
something nice for yourcommunity.
Have a great week, guys.
We'll talk at you later.
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