Race to the Face: How Real-Time Video Is Transforming Customer Experience

Episode Transcript
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INTRO (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast.
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Shed Geek (01:35):
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
Geek podcast.
I'm excited about this podcastthis morning because this is
such a unique thought idea.
It just really, you know, to methis this just drools what

(01:57):
today is in the digital platformworld, like there's just no way
to avoid it and like we try toavoid that in our little neck of
the woods and our in ourindustry sometimes.
But I've got James here today.
James, just yeah, I've beenthinking about this and look at

(02:18):
your website.
I want to know more.
I'm a student right now.
I'll be honest with you.
I'm a student right now of whatyou do and I'm trying to
understand more.
Tell me a little bit about whoyou are and what you do.

James Hatfield (02:28):
Yeah.
So, I found myself intechnology, but it never started
here.
I never thought I'd be here.
It didn't come from family thatwould ever.
I never would have thought Iwould be a tech nerd when I grew
up, type of thing.
Because a few decades ago Icome from, you know my father

(02:49):
built his own home.
My grandfather, never evengraduated high school and, you
know, worked at a tire store.
We come from simple means, we'resimple guys, but we know how to
build stuff.
We're builders and inventors.
Like we build, we invent, youknow, we tinker, you know, and
so you know my grandfatherwanted me to be a painter when I
, you know, my grandfatherwanted me to be a painter when I
, you know, graduated highschool and that's what I did.
You know I started paintingcompanies and power washing
companies and had crews and youknow I knew how to.

(03:10):
I knew how to paint a house.
I had to tell.
I know how to power wash, knowhow to stain decks.
I know.
You know I was taught from myfamily how to do that.
I could do it well, I couldteach others to do it
accidentally found myself as abusiness owner.

Shed Geek (03:27):
Is that how it goes?
You're like I'll tell you what,if you could, if you could
write the story.
Like you know they say truth isstranger than fiction and I,
and I truly believe it becauseyou know a bluecollar guy here
myself.
You know same story.
It's like me and you.
The more I get to know you,it's like you're my, you're my
long- lost brother or somethinghere.
You know, like neither parentgraduated high school.

(03:48):
You know like I was the firstone to graduate high school,
first one to go to even someform of college.
You know, and like now my kidshave obviously, you know, both
graduated, they're both gettingdegrees, all of that stuff.
But yeah, I mean grew up in avery bluecollar world.
You know, where my parentstaught me work hard for a living
and you'll get ahead, and itwas kind of like man.

(04:10):
With the age and the emergenceof the dot-com boom in the
nineties and then all that'scome with the internet since
then, it's changed my wholeworld because I found myself to
be in this sales worldconversationalist, podcast Like
you tell people you make youknow what do you do for a living
?
I do a podcast.
People are like you can do that.
You can feed your family on apodcast.

(04:30):
Yeah, it's like, well, ifyou're one, if you are creative,
if you tap into thecreativeness that the creator
gave you.
You know, I always say all thetime you know, in the beginning
God created Like we're made inhis image.
So, I think we're made to becreative.
So, like for a lot of businessowners, they're like I need you
know they're risk adverse, Ineed tried.

(04:51):
True, you know I need all theROI, I need all this stuff and
like that doesn't really allowfor a lot of room for creativity
.
Like Maya Angelou said, you usethe more of it you have.
So, if you just keep findingnew ways and that's kind of what
Live Switch is I'm going toguess that you somehow made the
transition into that.

(05:12):
So, you tell the story, not me.

No, no, it's great, I love it.
We're definitely cut from thesame cloth.
So I was running my paintingand power washing companies with
my crews putting food on thetable, and I would go to the
bookkeeper right and thisbookkeeper, and I'd hand them my
stuff and they would talk to meand speak English to me and I
would nod and I'm like I don'tunderstand a word coming out of
their mouth and I was likethat's probably not good Cause

(05:35):
you, you start, like I said, youstart off being a builder and
you find yourself you'reaccidentally a business owner.
So, I was like I think Iprobably need to go and learn
business.
And I wasn't going to learn itfrom my family.
We had no business owners in myfamily.
So, I was like, well, I'm goingto.
Well, back in the day whencollege was affordable, right I
went to a state school and I waslike I'm going to learn
business, I'm here to learnbusiness and numbers, because I

(05:55):
was afraid maybe somebody wouldkind of pull the wool under me.
You know, because I didn't if Ididn't know the well enough.
So, I started doing that whilerunning the companies and when I
graduated, I connected with aguy who was running a
landscaping company and his sametype of thing.
You know, interested, theproblem that we're we both had,
which was not understanding thenumbers.
He created this like technicalmodel where you could take an

(06:21):
income statement and balancesheet, you could put it into the
system, and this again a coupledecades ago, before all this ai
stuff.
It would spit out a plainlanguage report that any
business owner could understand,and then the magic of it was it
was also collecting privatecompany data.
And he was like do you think wecould sell this?
And so, I'm like I can try.
So, I got off the ladder for alittle bit and started trying to

(06:42):
sell this software right beforesoftware thing was really a
thing, a big thing, and Istarted making sales and we
started an incubator.
We were nobodies and then itwent over the years.
It became Inc 500, which meansyou're one of the fastest
growing companies in America,and now it's a multi-billion
with a B, a multi-billion dollarcompany that we sold to KKR,

(07:08):
and so that worked out all right.
And from there it's like well,let's get into nonprofits.
So, we have a few nonprofits.
One of them is called Inmatesto Entrepreneurs, where we put
thousands and thousands ofincarcerated men and women
through our program teachingbusiness and that turned into an
ABC television show called FreeEnterprise Can't make this
stuff up Finished.
That season won a bunch ofawards.
It's fantastic, you shouldwatch it.

(07:29):
My business partner is a starof that show.
And then we decided well, wekind of don't feel like hanging
up our boots, let's do anotherbusiness.
And we wanted to stay in tech.
So instead of starting fromscratch, we had a little more
capital at this time.
So, we're like let's buy acompany.
So, we scoured for hundreds ofcompanies.
We found a company in BritishColumbia, Canada, that was

(07:50):
founder-led, family-led.
We wanted something like that,but we figured we could go and
help.
So, we bought them five yearsago.
And again, back to when someonespeaks English, I don't know
what they're saying.
I started hanging out with theengineers because it's a tech
company.
I mean, they are definitelytrying to speak English to me
and I'm definitely like guys.
I'm a pretty smart, educatedguy.

(08:12):
Now I do not understand.
And they're talking to me aboutthis technology called WebRTC.
I didn't know what that was WebReal-Time Communication.
So, I'm hanging out withengineers the builders of tech
companies are the coders right,just like when you've got your
crews, they're the workers,right.
So, I wanted to be with thepeople and again, it took me a

(08:36):
while to learn what we weredoing.
But my goodness, once I startedfiguring the things out, I mean
we're powering the Super Bowl,like if you go to an MLB
ballpark for professionalbaseball and scan a QR code and
they put you on the Jumbotron.
That's our stuff.
We do stuff with the government.
We do stuff with NASA.
We're doing stuff I mean sportsentertainment, like remember

(08:56):
during COVID the NBA had thebubble and had all the.
We did that.
We piped in for the All-StarGames.
We did it for that.
We piped in for the all-stargames.
We did for WWE wrestling.
I mean, I was behind the scenesfor WWE wrestling you know,
because we're helping them out,like it was crazy, right.
So here I am, like, okay, howdid I get here?
You know, I'm just a guy on aladder painting homes and now
I'm with these smarty pantsengineer guys.

(09:17):
Well, I got a knock on the doorfrom the chief of police in
Washington DC of all places, toreinvent our nation's 911 phone
call right.
So, when you place a 911 call,an emergency, you're on your
phone, and when you're in acompromised situation, it's hard
to explain what's going on.
I don't know.
We just had.
Hurricane Helene here inNashville and it was a war zone

(09:37):
in here and I mean we were doingriver rescues, all kind of
stuff.
My buddy got cut out of theroof of his house with a hatchet
and hacksaw from someonekayaking over Intense Trying to
explain where am I?
Well, I don't know how you gethere because we're surrounded by
the river.
Good luck, but we were tryingto save someone in the river.
So, we had to come up with a waynow that most everybody listens

(10:00):
maybe not everyone listens, butmost everyone listening has a
smartphone in their pocket andon your smartphone are these
things and you probably havefour or five of them cameras,
right?
So, the idea with chief ofpolice was how do we tap in to
those cameras?
With no app, you can't stop anddownload something in the
middle of emergency, like, oh, Iforgot my password, you're not

(10:21):
doing that.
So how do I get into thosecameras and then transmit that
live video to the police, car,fire truck or emergency medical
so they can see what they'redriving into?
It's called situationalawareness, right?
So, I woke up at like 3 in themorning.
I had an idea.
I was like I got it.
I think I got it.

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So, when that what I did I sketched everything
out went to my computerscientist, I was like you need
to build this because I want toshow it to the chief.
So, like we build it, I showthem a working model which
allows you, basically, whenyou're on a 911 call, to receive
a text message, because that'sa different data channel.
You can tap it and theninstantly we can, you know, if

(11:56):
you say allow, we can get intoyour camera feed, and now you
can just hold your camera up andfrom the citizen that video can
be piped into the police car,so they know what they're
driving into.
And so I was like that's awesomeyeah and then, and then we got
back in home services.
I'll talk to you about that ina little bit.
But you see the story kind ofconnecting it like how the heck

(12:17):
am I on the shed geek right now?

Shed Geek (12:18):
well, and it's, and it's wild because you know, I'm
writing down all the stuff, the,the web, rt, the real time
communication, like even the, Ithink me and you talked on our
first call, you know, like youknow, Hebrews 13, 3, be with
those in prison as though you'rein prison yourself.
I mean, that has been, you know, my, my calling, you know, and
it's something that I've notbeen able to do for quite some

(12:43):
time because my attention spanhas been very much on this
industry and things like that.
So there's other opportunitiesthat are starting to like pop up
in my life and I'm reallytrying to be like, you know,
listening to God on thesedifferent things and like, okay,
what do you want me to do, when, where, why, all that kind of
thing.
But I mean, we did some prisonministry for a time.
I worked for a year andfull-time in faith-based drug

(13:04):
and alcohol ministry, because Irecognize that you know, most,
most criminals are actuallynonviolent and like I think it
just depends on if you believein second chances and like
rehabilitation over retribution,you know, and things like that.
So, I definitely want to checkout the show.
I'm not familiar with it but Iwant to know more about it and,
um, I'm definitely going towatch it because it's just like

(13:25):
that, like that's the kind of tvthat I would watch.
Anyway, like you know, I don'tjust really spend a lot of like
just numbing hours of just tvtime.
Uh, you know, I watch sportsbecause I enjoy sports, but I'm
not, if you know, it's notpriority, but these kind of
things are learningopportunities for me and I feel
like they're just chances to uh,uh, to better the world.

(13:48):
I know that sounds a bit naive,you know, don't get me wrong,
but I believe that completely.
Um, and, and you know, I'venever really been a lock them up
, throw away the key kind of guy.
I've always been like, hey,where's you know, where's an
opportunity here in this, I meansome of the smartest people, I

(14:09):
know, best people I know.
I mean, you know a lot of thelisteners have heard the story.
You know I had Dylan on thepodcast a couple of years ago, a
marketing partner.
A lot of you guys know themwork with him daily.
You know, I mean he's got thathistory, he's got that past.
He literally is an inmate toentrepreneur, you know, and
because he was driven and he hada radical change in his life
right with know and because hewas driven, and he had a radical
change in his life right withhis salvation.
So, like that, it's like twodifferent people, like literally
born again.
Right, it's like two differentpeople.
He has his past, but he cannotrun his past, you know.

(14:32):
So, what he had to do wascreate his own future through
creativity.
And he's done.
He's done well, he's done great.

So yeah, no, we've seen it with our own eyes.
I mean, we hire people out ofthe program.
We all need second chances.
I mean, you're quoting the wordwhich one of my nonprofits I
found at churches.
So, the thing that's coming tomind is like when did I see you
sick and heal you?
When did I come and feed youwhen you were hungry?
When did you visit me in prison?
And then he's like well, youdid for the least of these, you

(15:01):
did for me, right.
And the Bible talks about hey,thieves, steal no longer.
Go get a job, so you havesomething to share.
I mean, if you think about thatfor a minute, like okay, stop
stealing back to yournonviolence, right, just stop
stealing, go get a job, go work.
There's Adam's curse, you know,like we've got to work in

(15:23):
thorns and thistles.
So, we're working.
Like even he's at work, likeyou would think, if you're
resting, like don't you justwant to rest, aren't you tired?
But he's there and he says workwhy?
So, you have something to share.
And why share?
Because he says it's better togive than receive.
So, what's really going to fillus up?
I think we're all chasing stuffto make us feel great, but what

(15:44):
we need to do is be generous.
We need to share, we needsecond chances because we all
need them.
I need them, right?
So, anyway, I'll get off thesoapbox here, but I mean, you
get me going.

Shed Geek (15:59):
Shannon, we can talk about this stuff all day long.
Oh man, I wish I might have toshare, like my, one of my most
recent like keynote speechesthat we did where it talks about
how much you know the bibletalks about giving and how much
giving is uh mentioned in thebible versus you know, um,
prayer, uh, you know, uh, just,you know, things that we think

(16:22):
of, that are the staples of ourfoundation, of our faith.
Giving is actually in there.
It was something like 8,300 andsomething times like you know,
even, even the Lord gave his son, right, he gave his son so that
we would be healed, you know,by his tribe.
So, like, yeah, we, I just loveeverything about what you guys
do, but I need to know moreabout life switch.

(16:42):
I need to, I need to figure itout, I need to understand how it
works.
So walk me through.
You know there's a coupledifferent options, like where I
look at like live switch contact, live switch concierge, like
you explained to me, like if youwere a I'm trying to think of
the listener's mindset right now, if you will, James, uh, uh,
and I'm not usually thisdisheveled after 300 episodes,

(17:04):
but you've got my mind going 100mile an hour with like your
services and your products.
So, like help.
Help me walk through.
If you're a business owner whobuilds sheds and you've already
talked about that that's athat's a huge thing in the
industry.
A lot of guys just wanted tobuild sheds.
They didn't want to be businessowners.
They didn't want to learn aboutse, crms, websites.
How does local SEO work versusGoogle Ads and meta ads?

(17:28):
And oh no, do I need to haveautomation funnels built out and
explaining to them howautomation funnels is going to
take a lot of pressure off ofyour salespeople, but how does
what you're doing help themanufacturer or the salesperson?

Yeah, let me tell some stories here and paint
a picture okay there's a greatdisruption going on, which was
ushered in through covid.
Right when covid came, we allhopped on this thing called zoom
.
I think we're on it right now,yeah, right.
So, we got ushered into thatquickly.
Very quickly, organizations hadto change how we met and didn't

(18:04):
meet, how we stayed connected.
So, this video came in to ourlives and now we have, like I
said, all these cameras on ourphones.
There's a time now to bring thisin professionally.
That's practical and tactical.
Okay, zoom is great right nowfor us to record a podcast for
me to see you, for us to recorda podcast for me to see you, for
us to have a thing many, manymiles apart.

(18:25):
But it's not so great forthird-party assistance.
It's not so great if there'snot another person on the other
end, like if you're talking toyourself, right, but now there's
these tools.
We want to like the chief ofpolice, literally after I
presented it, he looks over hisglasses.
He's like doing this on ourJames.
He's like just why didn't wealready have this?

(18:47):
This seems so like logical tome.
I'm like here's the thing.
We didn't have theinfrastructure.
Like I think now they issuethese cell phones to you when
you're born, right, yeah, solike they, we all have this
infrastructure.
We just haven't started toreally use these cameras.
We know from picking up thephone when it had a cord back in
the day and then it went tocell phone and now, we hook it

(19:08):
to our ear.
We know how to text really well.
Well, the next piece that we'remissing is these cameras that
are going to start.
It's coming for everything,everything, I mean.
The first place some people mayhave already experienced it is
when they get their car workedon.
Right, have you gone and gotyour car worked on?
Maybe you haven't experiencedthis yet, but some of the
dealerships are now recordingall their work that they're

(19:29):
doing.
We're changing the air filter,we're filling up the tire, we
just checked your oil.
Why?
Because when you give somebodyyour car and you're sitting in
the waiting room and they comeout with the bill, have you ever
questioned like did they reallydo all that or are they just?
I want proof of work.
I want to see that.
So, you can't argue when youshine light on things just like

(19:50):
why this is so important foremergency response, we're not
going to arm all of our teacherswith AK-47s in our schools.
I mean we could, but it's notgoing to work out.
So, we want to shine light onthe situation, right, and when
you can hold your camera, justas a citizen, just show the
video.
Doesn't that really shine lighton the darkness, right?

(20:11):
So now these video pieces aregoing to shine light on whatever
you do.
Oh no, Sam, what's goingAre you okay?
Yes, I'm fine, Lisa, oh no.
Sam, what's going on?
Are you okay?
Yes, I'm fine, Lisa.
I was just trying to get ascrewdriver, and all this other

(20:32):
stuff fell down.
I'm ready to go buy a shed sowe can have some space in this
garage again.
I agree, I keep looking at theshed Mr Jenkins bought.
Let's ask him where I got hisHowdy neighbor.
We're wondering how do you likeyour shed?
I love it.

(20:52):
It's exactly what I needed andI couldn't have asked for a
better service.
And where did you get it?
Hmm, I can't remember, but letme check Something.
This nice will probably havethe builder's name on it
somewhere.
Hmm, no, I'm sorry I can't find, but let me check something.
This nice will probably havethe builder's name on it

(21:14):
somewhere.
Hmm no, I'm sorry, I can't finda name anywhere.
Well, we finally got a shed yes, I just hope we're happy.
The thing is a lot more shoddythan I expected, and I'm sure I
told them I wanted a window, butthey didn't have it in the
paperwork so I couldn't argue.
Boy is this a lousy shed.

(21:42):
We haven't even had it twoyears, have we?
Barely.
It was just a bad deal all theway around.
Mr Jenkins told me the otherday that he likes his shed so
much he wants to get a secondone, but he still can't remember
where he got it.
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(22:03):
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Right, let's get into manufacturing and let's
get into building really quick,okay?
So, if you're manufacturingsheds, has your shed ever had an
issue?
Maybe the hinge didn't work,maybe a couple nails?

(22:25):
Did you ever have an issueafter delivery?
And usually when a customer hasthat, are they in a happy mode.
No, if you're lucky, they're alittle bit frustrated, right,
because they just spent a lot ofmoney and you delivered it and
maybe something happened on theway over.
It was looking perfect and itwould look great.
Before you put it on the truckway over, it was looking perfect

(22:45):
and it will look great when,before you put on the truck,
then you put it on the deliveryvehicle and then, all of a
sudden, you probably want toknow where did it break down,
right?
So, the NFL, you guys familiarNFL, they got these things
called the instant replay.
Wouldn't you like an instantreplay of what happened, from
manufacturing to delivery, toonsite?
Well, we have these thingscalled cameras now.
Okay, the problem was is that itwas never easy.

(23:07):
It's not easy.
You gotta download an app oryou gotta go into your camera,
roll and scroll through all thephotos of your family.
Like you don't want to have allyour family photos and all of
your pictures of all your shedstogether.
It doesn't really work rightand you're not going to really
use a facetime to like reviewsomething.
It's not good for same withZoom.

(23:28):
It's not tuned up for that.
That tool is not tuned up right.
So, what we've done is we'vetuned everything up for third
party and remote assistance, aswell.
As the nerdy talk is calledasync.
No one knows what that means,right?
It's?
I call it the video dropbox.
When my father was rebuildinghis, he had an old Datsun 240

(23:48):
Nissan Z for any of the carowners and he rebuilt the thing
from a rust bucket but he wouldhave to drop it off on his way
to work because he wanted to getit painted and he left the key
in the dropbox, right?
So, we created this videodropbox where you can put the
video in there.
So, let's go back to the shedto delivery example.
Okay, so what?
First thing you're going to dois have a QR code on the shed or

(24:12):
in your facility or a guy canjust pick out of his pocket.
You're going to scan the QRcode and take a video.
Okay, hey, I'm doing my walkaround.
Final inspection Everythinglooks great, got it, then that
video goes right to the cloud.
Nothing is stored on the deviceof your staff or your customer.
That's a liability.
If your staff quits that dayout with the video and you don't

(24:33):
want your staff scrollingthrough everything, right, and
some of the computer sciencebehind it is even in crappy
internet situations.
Maybe if you deliver thesesheds in the middle of nowhere,
right, you can still scan the QR, take the video.
The nerdy stuff is it'll cachein a browser and I can get even
a 3G internet.
It'll upload the video and it'sall very.
It's SOC 2 certified.
We had to get it for thegovernment, I mean, it's more.

(24:55):
It's safer than a phone call.
So, if you worry about safety,it's actually safer than the
phone call.
So now I'm going to follow thejourney of the shed.
All right, let's walk with theshed.
So now we've taken a video of itpost pre-delivery.
Now what you're going to askyour driver to do is hey, I need
you to take a video upondelivery.
So, we have a QR code on theshed Maybe it's on a hinge,

(25:17):
maybe it's on the inside of thedoor.
You're putting the name of yourbrand, your phone number and
then take a video QR code.
So now that delivery driver canscan the QR code and show he
didn't screw anything up, right,and then they deliver it.
And now when the customer seesa broken hinge or something,
they scan the QR code, take avideo.
So, you've got point-to-pointvideo evidence to find out in

(25:39):
your NFL incident replay.
Where did something go wrong?
Did it happen on truck delivery?
Did it happen at the truckdelivery?
Did it happen at themanufacturing?
Did it somehow happen from thecustomer?
So, you see how stuff'sstarting to weave in and I'm
just getting, I'm just gettingstarted right.
So hopefully this exampleresonates.
Maybe you tell me, Shannon, ifit does or doesn't.

Shed Geek (26:00):
No, I, I like I'm thinking about a million other
things like what's the journeylook like of the build, you know
, if the, if the customer has aQR access to the build and maybe
you don't want to provide that,maybe as a manufacturer you
just don't want to show theactual work being done, or
something like that.
But maybe it's not the, theliteral hammering, you know, or

(26:23):
framing of the building, as muchas it is a process at, you know
, three hours in, nine hours in,oh, building's complete, just
kind of gives you an update.
So, it stops a lot of thesecalls that are like, hey, is my
building done?
Is it ready?
Even though you've told themfour weeks lead time.
And you get a call a week laterand they're like, hey, I'm just
curious about my building.
You'd be like, oh, actually, ifyou just scan this QR code, you

(26:43):
can see that they're framing itup right now.
Here's a picture of it in thisplace, or they're starting on it
next week or whatever it is.
But there's a million thingsthat come to mind here and that
is, you know, podcasting.
It's a perfect example.
I follow a lot of podcastgroups and like just identifying

(27:07):
what we're on today.
And this is five years in 300episodes in like, if you ask
five different people what apodcast is, you get a different
answer.
What is it Video?
Is it audio only?
Is it you know is?
Is what's talk radio back inthe day?
Was that essentially a podcast?
Was talk radio back in the day?
Was that essentially a podcast?
We added video to ours for theYouTube watchers, for those who

(27:29):
just want to kind of understandmore.
I think it comes down to primarycommunication and I'm going to
liken this to like my salesexperience.
This is why the digitalstorefront is so important is
because people buy from peoplethat they trust and there's a
discrepancy there.
Maybe when they can't see youlike, there's just something

(27:51):
about visible that makes adifference, even if I tell you,
well, this shed today, James, isgoing to be seven thousand five
hundred dollars, and if youjust put, you know, five hundred
dollars down, your payment'sgoing to be 274, 76 cents or
whatever for however many months.
But when I write that down onpaper, there's a visual cue for
me to look at now as a customer,instead of you just rattling

(28:14):
those numbers off and me tryingto remember all that stuff.
There's something about thevisual.
That changes things completely.
And what you're talking aboutwith the police chief, you know
you're talking about uniformpresence.
That does most of the job.
You know throwing, you know, alot keeps an honest thief out,
right, that's the old saying.

(28:34):
Right, like, if they want toget in, they're going to get in,
but the lot just deters thehonest thief to say, oh, that's
too much trouble, I don't wantto do that.
Uniform presence does a lot oftrouble.
I don't want to do that.
Uniform presence does a lot ofthat.
Video does a lot of that.
Just having, you know, somepeople say I don't care, I'm
going to die on this hill.
So, you know I don't care aboutthe consequences, but video

(28:54):
does so much.
And the one thing I've toldsalespeople, like from my, from
my small little humble opinion,is like man, can you imagine the
customers getting to know youbefore they even show up?
I mean and there's so much more, James, that we can talk about
that.
I haven't even jumped into youknow the fact that that we have
a distributor who's anadvertiser here on the podcast

(29:15):
with us.
That does all of the uhinsignias on the machines.
You know they've talked aboutputting QR codes.
We own a uh, a company calledShed Hub that you know.
Like they, they establish aShed Hub ID.
So, it's basically every shedhas an ID, which means you can
track in the cloud, as you'retalking, all of these other
details.

(29:35):
Like, before I go move the shedfor a customer, is it actually
a something that has a lien onit, either through rent to own
or through traditional finance?
Oh, maybe I shouldn't move thatbuilding because it turns out
they're trying to get me to buythis building and it's not for
sale because it's owned byanother entity, like an RTO
provider or finance provider.
Now it's stolen property.

(29:56):
We've stopped that byaddressing this QR code and not
just the visual effect of it.
But how can you tie in all ofthese other you know?

So, my mind's going 100 mile an hour, but oh
yeah, no, I mean, these are thethings that are real right.
So, if you're in the salesprocess, imagine going from the
phone call where you're doingthe envelope 7500, you know
whatever, it's going to four orfive figures to say, hey, since
I got you, are you near the sitewhere it's going to be
constructed or where we're goingto put it down?

(30:24):
Can I send you a text reallyquick and you show me?
So now they just tap the text.
No download, you just send thetext.
If you can send a text, you canuse our stuff.
This stuff is you can learn ina minute.
They tap it, now they couldwalk out and show you where the
build is, or they can show youthe shed that needs to be moved.
And it does two things.

(30:45):
You get to see it all recordedso you can also share it after
the recording if you need toshare it with anybody.
Also, it's your NFL replay,like we talked about earlier.
But then it establishes thathuman connection trust.
Second, so being face-to-facewith someone shaking hands,
being on a video call, peopleclose a lot of business.
We've got thousands andthousands of customers.

(31:11):
I got all the data to back itup the difference between being
on property and being virtuallywith video is almost negligible,
and in some industries, beingon video actually has a higher
close rate.
How is that?
How could a virtual video of aperson have a higher close rate
than me being on property?
That doesn't make sense, right?
Well, let's talk about it.
Convenience and speed.
Are you the only shed providerin the country?
I'm probably not, right.

(31:31):
And so, what do normalcustomers do?
They go to Google.
They look at reviews.
You're not the only one with alot of high reviews.
So, if you're not fast enough,what are they going to do?
They're going to call the nextone on the list.
What do they care?
Right that they call the nextone in.
So, when that phone rings, youbetter pick it up.
Or when that quote comes in,you better respond quick because

(31:53):
you're on the clock, just likeI've been.
NFL wide receivers are on theclock and Olympians are on the
clock.
You're on the clock and youmight not think you are, but
look, look at what's happening.
Look at the age of Amazon.
People probably buy their shedson Amazon, some of them, lot of
the listeners.
You're already in this, and soyour customer is no different.

(32:30):
This is where they're beingconditioned.
I even saw an article todayAmazon's bringing more overnight
delivery locations to evensmall towns.
Okay, so it's only going to getworse, because we value an
experience.
If I'm about to pay you four orfive figures for a shed like,
connect with me, show me ifyou're going to come and

(32:52):
construct it on my property.
Now I can have the you know theShannon project and anytime I
scan a QR code, take a video, itgoes to the Shannon project and
Shannon, who's sitting at home,can watch the build from home
or office and chronologicalorder Right, and he's been in
four or five figures.
These are the kinds of thingswe like to see.

(33:19):
And the only difference is ithas not been easy in the past.
Now it's dead simple.

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Shed Geek (34:15):
James, there is a.
There is definitely apossibility that things get
criticized that aren'tunderstood easily.
I tend to find this is aconservative issue more than any

(34:38):
other issue, conservative.
I just can't get that word out.
Can I conservatism?
Bam, look at me like it's just.
It's just one of those thingswhere we the this is the way
it's always been done, okay,it's.
It's hard to move into adifferent world.
You know, some people embraceit wholeheartedly.

(34:59):
You know the ones that do yousee them like they just jump
into everything that's new,that's tech, a little bit
old-fashioned, right like mywife, my son.
New technology comes out,they're right on it, learning it
, figured it out, even a newphone.
I mean, they're excited aboutit.
They go home and like the firstthing they do, like I won't
even look at the thing until thenext day and be like I gotta
figure this thing out all overagain because it's a new

(35:20):
interface and I gotta do thislike my mind is just kind of
like you know easy to criticizethings.
Why don't they just keep thebutton right there?
You know, why is it?
Why doesn't it stay?
You know like I'm that old dad,you know that's like just
grumpy and things like that.
But I think we do.
I think we criticize things wedon't understand.
So, if it's not simple userinterface, if it's not simple
and easy to understand, there'sjust this.

(35:43):
I laugh about this all the time.
I joke about this all the timein the shed industry.
I say you could tell someone Ihave a new product, a new idea,
a new vision and people wouldsay it'll never work.
And then you're like, well, doyou want to hear it?
You know it's just thismentality that it'll never work.
First, and then tell me what itis so like.
How simple is this?

(36:05):
You talked about the text.
I mean, I'm assuming that's thelive switch contact service?
Okay, and then what's theconcierge?
What's the difference?

uh, concierge is more of live.
We call it wall to call.
Like you can scan a qr code andinstantly video connect.
Okay, so, like you just scan itand it'll tell you where the
person is, oh, or what shedthey're in front of.
You can have a different qrcode for every shed.
Oh, you're standing in front ofmodel one, two, three, four,
five.
In fact, this was the onepurchased by Johnny Jones.
Oh, are you Johnny?
Yeah, so we're trying to makeit easier to phone call.

(36:40):
Think of all the places thatthat can be used, and it gets
used a lot in propertymanagement.
We have a ton of self-storagecustomers here, but that may not
be something.
We have a platform, right,we're like a buffet.
You're not going to eateverything at the buffet, unless
you're one of those kinds, butyou're going to look at the
buffet and find the thing thatmakes the most sense for you.

(37:01):
So, on the platform, whattypically gets used a lot are
SMS to connect.
That's our most popular.
You send a text, tap it connect.
Like everybody uses that.
Every industry uses that.
Tap it connect Like everybodyuses that.
Every industry uses that.
The QR code that has the videoDropbox that's the second most
popular and then the otherthings that we have, like
instant recording.
Tap on a tablet kiosk toconnect.

(37:24):
Tap a button on your website tovideo connect.
What we're trying to do iswherever your customer is.
I don't care if they're on yourwebsite, if they're standing in
front of the shed, if they'rein their car.
I want to meet them wherethey're at right.
I want to human connect withpeople wherever they're at, and
I want to get we call it race tothe face.
Okay, the faster I can get myface in front of you, the faster

(37:47):
I can do business with you whenyou go to video.
For that you can take thesituation down notches and it
changes everything, becausepeople have a lot of keyboard
courage, even get a lot of voicecourage, but for you to yell at
me when you're looking at me,Absolutely.

Shed Geek (38:02):
It changes a lot of everything.
That's why you know the uniformpresence I talked about earlier
.
Just I wrote down the wordaccountability.
It just provides someaccountability because you see
the memes on Facebook and socialmedia and things like that.
This is man.
I'm glad I grew up in the lastgeneration where everything
wasn't recorded.
Well, take a look at theopposite side of that coin flip

(38:23):
there and say well, why it'slike because I'd be held
accountable or there'd be a lotof like embarrassing footage of
me doing some stupid stuffwhenever I was a kid.
Well, it just kind of likeneutralizes that platform, right
, like you know, if, if, ifsomebody's seeing you, I like
your, I like your term keyboardcourage and even you know voice

(38:46):
courage.
You know, sometimes my phoneman.
I love, I love.
I would love to see a demo ofsomething like this.
I don't know where I go to seethis or where would love to see
a demo of something like this.
I don't know where I go to seethis or where others go to see
this.
I'd like to find out moreinformation just to kind of
understand how it from a salesperson's perspective.
I don't feel like we've evenreally tapped into using video
chat.

(39:06):
Enough for sales, because yousaid it earlier.
I mean it's.
I'm going to get into this wholesoapbox here now.
Right, please forgive me, I'mgoing to get into this whole
soapbox about self-checkouts andthings like this.
Like, look, I try not to arguewith people too much, James, if

(39:28):
I can help it, but I loveself-checkout.
I love self-checkout notbecause I believe it's taking
jobs.
I take a look at somebody likeWalmart, let's say, their
largest employer in America.
How on earth are they the onesthat should be accused of
costing jobs?
Things change over time.
We don't pump.
Someone doesn't pump our gasanymore.

(39:48):
We pump our gas.
We never stop saying oh no,it's taking jobs because I have
to pump the gas.
Like we never stopped sayinglike, oh no, it's taking jobs,
you know, because I have to pumpthe gas.
Like I returned my own shoppingcart, you know, uh, you know
somebody doesn't like walk outmost of the time unless you're
elderly anymore and like helpyou with your groceries to the
car.
Like I remember my first jobwas a you know, as a grocer.
Like that's, that's all I didwas like you know, I I took

(40:10):
groceries to people's carconstantly because of the
service that you offered.
It wasn't removing people'sjobs, so we love self-checkout.
We love you know.
Uh, um, click and pay you know.
No, that doesn't mean that wedon't sometimes want to spend
some time in the store shoppingtoo.
We're in this hybrid modelwhere it's the best of both
worlds today, and that's why thedigital storefront in the shed

(40:32):
industry is necessary and thebrick and mortar location is
still very necessary.
Like, I don't think that youneed to be all of one and none
of the other.
I think that you just have tofind a way to navigate through
this day and age, which is acomplicated retail market where
you have to both embrace whatwas and what will be.
To both embrace what was andwhat will be, and this is part

(40:54):
of what will be because it'smaking it.
All you're doing is increasingthe efficiency of the person's
time in their day by being ableto look on this and see this.
Yeah, I'm soapboxing now it'salready happening.

This isn't something that is some idea.
We have thousands and thousandsand thousands of users all over
the world and all kinds ofindustries using this.
Once you get it in the hands,once you service a customer in a
way that wow, once you protectyour backside, you know like oh,
it left the manufacturingfacility.
Perfect, it was a delivery guy.

(41:27):
Or you know, once you're ableto save a trip out, like oh,
they just couldn't figure outthe latch.
Like I can just guide youthrough it Right.
Like it's little bits andpieces like that where you
didn't have to leave the dinnertable with your family at seven
o'clock and somebody was able tostill solve the problem.
I remember my big aha moment waswhen I was talking to this guy

(41:47):
who takes care of the NFL team,the tight Tennessee Titans.
20 years in the FBI, he's beenaround the block a bit and he
protects the stadium and theplayers, and the stadium at
Nashville is huge.
So, I'm talking to him hisname's CT and I'm showing him
everything and he's like James,I love this for emergency
response but he's like I got thestupidest question Like what is

(42:10):
it?
He's like sometimes the trashcans fall over on the other side
of the arena where my other guyis and I have to hop in my
little golf cart and drive allthe way there.
He's like, can I just send hima text and he could just show me
so I don't have to hop in mygolf cart anymore.
And I'm like, yeah, you could.
And that's when I was like, oh,this reminds me like the next
walkie talkie or cb radio that Iused to have, like I get it now

(42:31):
.
We were going from ears to eyes.
That was the big aha.
And so, once you start havingthat into whatever it's sales or
operations or post-deliverythink customer testimonials,
before and after's, thinktraining, think best of breed,
think of how we constructsomething, something, think
one-offs.
Like once you have a videorecord of everything you are,

(42:56):
you just have so much.
Imagine taking the NFL instantreplay away from the NFL.
People would go crazy.
Yeah right, it's that kind ofthing.
Once she gets into the mix andjust land and it'll expand.
It's what we've seen every time.
You just find a couple like, ohyeah, that's where it goes and
then it expands across thebusiness because your wheels
just really start to turn incrazy.

(43:16):
It's like I've had people cometo me oh yeah, I started using
this for recruiting.
I'm like what do you mean?
He's like well, we'll just ifsomeone's interested, you know,
I'll ask them three questionsand send them a video Dropbox
link and they have to answerthem and I'll look at it and I
can decide if they should becoming in for an interview or
not.
I'd rather just save myhour-long interview if the
person can't even answer threesimple questions and I get to

(43:37):
see them.

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So, all these crazy use cases and things that
happen, but you know, savingthat extra plane flight out or
that trip in the truck, that'sreally where the rubber starts
to meet the road, because thisstuff's really inexpensive, this
is not expensive stuff either.

Shed Geek (45:38):
Well, it works for all applications.
I mean pole barn, post framesheds.
There's a lot of people in ourworld that sell furniture
outdoor furniture, play sets,pergolas, gazebos, you name it,
the list goes on and on.
Animal shelters a lot of dogkennels, miniature play sets,
pergolas, gazebos, you name it,the list goes on and on.
Animal shelters a lot of dogkennels, a lot of horse run-ins

(45:59):
and livestock shelters andthings like that.
So, even if that's not theirprimary business and storage,
typical storage, backyardstorage, shed storage, is.
There's all these otherapplications in which it could
work, but there's a reason thatme and you were here, like I
could go to an audio onlypodcast.
That's what we did.
Start now, you know, andthere's nothing wrong with that.

(46:19):
Actually, audio only podcastsaves me a significant amount of
time because the video is morecomplex just in the sense that
you have to upload it, the editand things like that.
But the value that it offers isso much more valuable if people
and things like that.
But the value that it offers isso much more valuable if people
sometimes people just want tosee you, they just want to see
who they're talking to.

(46:39):
They even want to know thatyou're a real person in today's
day and age, with a lot of theai generated stuff that we see,
they just you know that's.
That's why google bought uh,was it was?
Was it a Reddit or whatever?
You know, what I mean Was justlike because the emergence of AI
just had so much, literally,you know, authentic or

(47:02):
artificial intelligence thatthey just wanted to hear from a
real person when you need tochange a timing belt on a 92
Chevy you know, like AI can getyou this really cool stuff.
But there's just some thingsthat human interaction is
necessary for, which is why Ilove that we still have regular
checkouts.
Like being a fan of the self-checkout.
When I'm in a hurry, is greatbecause I got to go and I'll be

(47:25):
quicker.
But you know, when we're in amore leisurely atmosphere and me
and my wife aren't in a hurryand we just want to go up and
talk to the cashier and havethat human interaction, there's
nothing wrong with that.
It's good.
It's a you know, like, butyou're in control.
The whole point is that, like,you're in the driver's seat
whenever you're able to havemore information.

And as the price tag goes up, the level of
expected customer service goesup as well.
Right, like when you're gettingready to spend four or five
figures or more on something,your expectations rise up a bit
more.
So, if your average productsize is four figures and up,
there's other kind of thingsthat you can do that makes sense
.
And when you can see what thecustomer sees like, let's say
you're, you don't ship thingsfully assembled and the customer

(48:08):
has to do final assembly.
And if you're most guys like melike we're gonna put the
directions down for a second,I'm like I got this All right,
and then we get in a little bind.
And we get in such a bind we'relike, oh, dang it.
So, we start going to YouTubeor we actually pick up the
instructions, right, and so thenif your person back on at in
your office can now see whatthey see, like no, show me, it

(48:30):
could be, a part was missing, itcould be a problem on here.
And oh, I need to ship you outthis part.
So sorry, I didn't come withthe kit.
Or actually it looks like yougot the wrong bar up.
Uh, take, let's take that oneoff.
And these people be educatedand the level of that is next
level for someone who might youjust dropped off something that
they've got to do, the finalconstruction on um.
Or call back, preventing thosecallbacks.

(48:50):
You know it's already expensiveenough to have somebody go out
there to deliver and to install.
Now callbacks are usually net$0.
People don't pay for callbacksso, but you're paying for the
callback, you're paying for thegas, you're paying for the
hourly wage person.
All you're trying to do is geta satisfied customer.
If you could prevent that fromat least looking at it first.
Also, it prevents oh crap, Iforgot to bring this tool Right.

(49:15):
Yeah, these are wasted time.
So, seeing what someone elsesees, or even when you have your
team on property and maybethey're more junior, I need to
talk to more senior, the owner,or hey, we got an issue here
Right.
When you can see it as theowner or as more of a senior
person, you can have your eyeson more projects and be in more
places at once.

(49:36):
You know, and in addition tothat, you talked about AI.
As AI, we like to view it assomething that as a co-pilot, as
something that empowers.
I always get the vision of Ironman with Jarvis.
You know he has an iron suit.
That's good.
Ai right.
So, things like we're adding islike translations.
So, when you're speaking tosomeone who's English as a
second language, think of aninja movie where it's putting

(49:57):
up that.
Think of it.
We have a laser guidance systemwhere you can put a laser on
the live video to guide someone.
Think about GPS measurementtools, like on video.
All these things that comealongside that are AI driven.
Still, we're having the humanexperience.
I'm still, you know, the guy inthe Iron man suit, but now I've

(50:17):
got Jarvis beside me helping meto serve and giving me that
next level of I don't knowprotection.

Shed Geek (50:25):
So, is this 100% like phone generated?
No, okay, so there's othertools you can do it on.

We have no app, we're appless right.
So I don't care if you're on aPC, a Mac, a tablet, a phone,
what brand phone, how old phonedoesn't matter.
If you've got a camera and abrowser, which most every device
does, you're good to go.
Okay, so we're off to the races, because I got guys that'll be
back working from a computer andthen sending the text to a text

(50:57):
there, and I got others that'lljust send a link to a tablet,
or someone will scan it withtheir iPad on the QR code.
So, it doesn't, it doesn'tmatter.
I would say that the phone andthe computer are the most
popular.

Shed Geek (51:10):
You talked about being in the home service field.
Tell me a little bit about that, because I work with a couple
other companies in that homeservice field in the tech world
and that's really a market thatobviously people are trying to
get into, because business isbusiness, but our daily lives
consist of all the products thatwe buy in business for a

(51:31):
purpose of trying to enjoy ourhome life or make it better or
whatever.
So how does this affect likehomeowners?

So, we are one of the only one of very few
companies in the world that dolive video and so we're powering
like.
We're even under the hood ofService Titan, If you've heard
them.
We're under the hood of Jobber.
Even the largest companiesstruggle with live video.
So, we're able to empower thosefolks when we have plenty of
electricians and plumbers andrestoration companies like serve
pro is our customer and one tomplumber and college hunks

(52:02):
hauling junk and all those areour customers.
So, all they are doing like thehomeowner, all they're doing is
tapping a text or tapping a link.
That's it.
Like again, they're not havingto go into any app, it just
launches and boom, they'reconnected.
Same with our home service guys.
They're literally just puttingin a phone number or sending a
link, boom, and they're on andit's tuned up for them.

(52:23):
So, because it's third-partyassistance the homeowner it's
actually the reverse of aFaceTime call for them.
So, they see themselves largeand they see the service person
or a salesperson small, and thatservice person even has a
virtual background behind them.
Maybe they're working in theirtruck or they're in a call
center or they're in the office.
Makes them look veryprofessional because they'll
have their branding and then thehomeowner can just hit a flip

(52:48):
the camera button and if you'relike you and I, Shannon, we have
these big glasses on right.
If you were trying to lookthrough a FaceTime call, it's
the size of a postage stamp.
I'm going to fall down thestairs you know, and now we've
made it to where you're lookingthrough your phone and it's
large and it's little thingslike that.
Like, even when you flip thecamera, you can hit a button and
it turns on your flashlight,like I got customers that will

(53:09):
have to go to water heater, tothe plumber or the breaker box,
to the electrician, right, sowe're able to just, it's just
thoughtful.
This is the kind of stuffyou're not going to find in
other platforms because itwasn't made for that right so we
use the right tools for theright job.
You know, I mean, I canprobably hammer a nail in with
the end of a screwdriver, but myhammer works better.
Yeah, no.

Shed Geek (53:31):
I get it.
Yeah, I'm thinking about likethe service after the sale, the
postscript, automations andthings like that that we're
doing right now, that we're eventrying to show that I can be
beneficial if you're amanufacturer who maybe you do a
finance or rent on payment, why,you know, once a customer gets
out there and then they're like,oh, I don't remember who I call

(53:51):
, who I talk to, or whatever.
We're trying to increase thatlevel of communication.
We're trying to.
I mean, there's some setbacksalong the way because when
you're working on your business,while working in your business,
those are very hard things todo, so you spend so much time.
Like a carpenter never finisheswork at home, right, because

(54:12):
he's finishing it for everyoneelse.
You know, if you're a mechanic,you know you never quite take
care of your car like you takecare of others, and it's the
same way whenever you're in anykind of other services.
You're working in your business, so you don't have a whole lot
of time to work on your business.
Hello shed sellers, let's takea moment to discuss the shed
customer and meeting theirexpectations.
I remember growing up in theneighborhood where a certain

(54:35):
percentage of the houses hadwell-manicured lawns and
well-manicured homes.
These were the type ofindividuals who felt it was
important to purchase awell-constructed home or vehicle
, or maybe equipment to helpmaintain the quality of the item
.
As shed manufacturers, we seekto provide a well-built, quality
shed.
We want the customer to feelsatisfied that their hard-earned

(54:55):
money has been well spent on aproduct that will last.
At LuxGuard, we believe addinghigh-quality rubber flooring to
your line of sheds makes senseto the customer and adds value.
The customer can appreciate.
With each year, sheds arebecoming more complex.
The customizations we areseeing are virtually endless.
LuxGuard not only gives acomplimentary aesthetic

(55:16):
appearance for their shed, butalso protects the floor from
spills and keeps cleanup simple.
Offer your customer thecustomer service they seek with
LuxGuard.
At LuxGuard, we are committedto delivering exceptional
customer service and innovativeproducts to help our customers
achieve their goals.
We strive to meet the evolvingneeds of the customers.

(55:40):
To speak with one of ourready-to-serve customer product
specialists, simply call336-468-4311.
To see our product and view aninstallation video, just visit
our website at luxguard.
com.
LuxGuard the floor that lasts alifetime,
And I think there's a lot of manufacturers that can
identify with what I'm sayingthere, because they're doing a

(56:00):
lot of this and you're the chief, everything you know.
Sometimes in the smalleroperations, you're the chief
marketing, the chief sales,you're the CEO CFO, you're the
you know, chief trash takerouter.
I mean like you got to do a lotof it.
So, time savings is veryimportant, but it's
understanding how to use thetools.

(56:20):
I think that's been my biggestchallenge is like, what we've
had to do is like and you talkedabout your, your aha moment, I
like to say my watershed momentand things like marketing was
whenever we gave a guy a quote.
We were a little concernedbecause the quote that he wanted
was very, uh, uh, rudimentary.
It was just very simple, it wasvery blase.

(56:41):
And we were like, man, we dohigh-end work and we're a little
bit concerned that this simplewebsite may reflect on our
inability to do some of the morefun things or bigger or better
things.
And he said, at the end of thephone call, we get through the
whole phone call.
At the end of the call he saidand.
And he said at the end of thephone call, we get, we get
through the whole phone call.

(57:01):
But at the end of the call, hesaid oh, by the way, I know it's
really important for thosewebsites to show up first on
Google.
So, for the same price thatyou're quoting me on the website
, can we ensure that I'm numberone on Google anytime someone
searches?
And I was like boom watershedmoment.
We have to educate people tosell to people and I think you

(57:22):
know that's kind of the approachI took with sheds, you know,
and you got to be careful not togo too deep, right, you got to
be careful that you know youdon't offer the kitchen sink
when all they're asking for issomething very smaller.
You know like you almost got tolead the horse to water.
So how do you guys navigatethat with video?

Yeah, we crawl, we walk, then we run right, like
as we talked, like oh, look atthis whole platform, like nope,
we're going to start right here.
This is it.
We're going to start with oneor two people on your team and
we're going to start with oneclear value that you can add.
So, we try to keep it.
We almost, as my sales team was, like hey, just keep it simple.

(58:06):
Like just, you know, keep it toone piece because we're going
through change management aswell, so we make that first
change very simple, like theycan learn it in two minutes.
You can start using it the sameday.
Time to value.
Like this is not.
We're not teaching you a newCRM.
We're not teaching you new.
You know AutoCAD or some likehuge program.
You know we're teaching youthis one thing and there's
enough value in that one thingthat I mean our stuff is so
affordable, so like that is howwe land it.

(58:28):
Then they get curious.
They start using it every day.
I mean I have people that theirtitles even change at work, like
they go from estimator tovirtual estimator or you know
on-site follow-up projectmanager to virtual project
manager, and because one they'revery good with people, so you
want to also start with a personthat not everyone likes to be

(58:51):
on video sometimes right, that'sone of our big challenges One
who is your best at customerservice or sales and is willing
to get on video, because now Ican put that person as my
Walmart greeter.
Right, I want my Walmartgreeter, I want the first
interaction you have with mybusiness to be this person who
actually likes people, who likeconnects with them and otherwise

(59:12):
, like if I got one estimatorover here or one deliverer over
there, one project manager overthere, like they can only
service so many.
So that's why you start to findsome of your best people and
centralize them.
I need you to touch as manypeople in a day as you can.
So, we kind of start there andthen we expand and, as they see
it, what they're doing iseverything they do is getting
recorded.
So now you've got best inpractice.

(59:34):
So if your sales people areselling world peace or
underselling or not doing theright thing, and maybe you as an
owner are the best salesperson,but you want to start making
yourself redundant so you canlet your business roll and you
can, you know, work on someother things, this is how you
start to replicate yourselfthrough all of these.
You can mark them all training,training, training, training,
training.
And like, hey, I need you to,this is our best in class.

(59:54):
Or if there's a certain thingthat happens sometimes, like, oh
, we better keep that onedocumented in case we see this
again, right we?

Shed Geek (01:00:02):
started.
We started adding like video asa primary thing that people get
to experience whenever theyfill out a lead form, perhaps
for, like, even a 3dconfigurator, because, like, how
much more personal is themessage from the actual owner
that you know?
Today you have one of twopeople.

(01:00:23):
You have people that justcompletely embrace it and
they're like yeah, I'll fill outall the information and then
I'll wait for the response.
And then you have some peoplewho just kind of want to
eavesdrop right, it doesn'tmatter, because Facebook, google
, DuckDuckGo all of them beingthey're all collecting this
digital data anyway, like theyknow way more about us than we
realize.
That they know anyway, becausethat they're following around
the ip address anyway through,you know, uh, through all these

(01:00:46):
different, uh, social media and,and, like you know, search
engines anyway.
So, like nothing that you do ishidden in that world.
Uh, anyway, and that's whathelps create good marketing
campaigns look like-alikecampaigns and things like that.
Where I'm trying to go is, likeyou know, I wrote down people
don't shop like us.

(01:01:07):
I'm you know we're KendrickLamar in this now to go off of
your, your, your, NFL.
You know, like experience there, that you know they not like us
.
Well, they don't shop like us.
You know, like that's the trapwe fall into a lot of times.
It's like that's not the way Ishop and it's like right, but
there's a whole generation thatis choosing to shop different.

(01:01:28):
You know there's that theretail experience is different
for them than what it was for usback in the day, whenever we
went to the store with ourparents, everybody got in the
you know station wagon and youwent to town and you was there
all day or whatever it was.
It's just not that way now.
You know TikTok's being used asa major search engine Instagram
being used in inner cities as asearch engine, as opposed to

(01:01:50):
you.
Don't ask your friends anymorewhere's a good place to eat.
You get on Instagram and youlook.
That's right.
Yeah, it's just.
People don't realize thatthere's a whole bunch of people
that choose not to shop, like us, and the younger generation
embraces these things.
My son will completely geek outover what you guys are doing
because he's going to recognizehow much easier it is for him

(01:02:12):
it's second nature at this pointnow for him to just embrace
something like this.

James Hatfield (01:02:15):
That's right and you start putting these
platforms and tools into thehands of folks.
They start coming up with veryunique ways to do things, like
one of our customers happens tobe a doctor and what he does is
this other service.
It's kind of like a conciergeservice where he'll send you a
link and you just tap it and youwill, you know, take a video of

(01:02:36):
what's going on with you andit'll be a two-minute video and
then it gets sent to the doctor.
The doctor can watch it at 2xspeed, so that's even faster
than that thing.
And then he will turn aroundand record a video of himself
and he'll do this at differenttimes of day and then he'll
record a video response andhe'll send the video response
back Right and so, and hecharges for that service, you

(01:02:57):
know, and people find itconvenient.
But think about this in your ownretail business too.
Could you imagine if you got arecorded video from the owner
after, maybe, a larger sale?
Yeah, that maybe you wouldn'thave ever.
You just hit record on thevideo right From your computer
or your phone, say, hey, Shannon, thank you so much for the shed
you purchased from us today.
I know you went with one ofthese models that we just love

(01:03:19):
our teams I've heard good thingsare taking care of you.
I wanted you know, as an owner,if you ever need anything.
We're here to service you andyou and your team, or you and
your family.

Shed Geek (01:03:26):
Thank you hit record stop record, grab the link, text
it or email it to the personand it's really the thing is,
it's simple, you can spend ahalf a day, so you know, doing
that to everything that you soldlast week, or you know.
Or even if that, or maybe youcan even automate the process by
doing a one-time.
If you don't make it aspersonal, hey, James, like if
you just say, you know, hey,thank you for purchasing our you

(01:03:48):
know side lofted barn, and thenboom, all the side lofted, you
know, get that same message.
It's still that personal touch,that personal message.
It's like getting the emails ofhappy birthdays right, you know
what I mean.
Like the happy birthday emailsI get from all of my previous uh
sales people.
Uh, you know that I boughtsomething from.
It's just the idea that, evenif it's automated, that they
took the time to think about it,to do it.

(01:04:10):
Even if they took the time tothink of, to automate it, they
still, uh, did something to tryand create some stickiness for
me as a customer.
Uh, and there's just a lot ofvalue.
We you know what I was sayingwas with that 3d configurator,
you know, we encouraged ourowners, like you, go to get
their name, call number, zipcode and address.
Sometimes people just don'twant to put that in right.
But you know, when you have amessage there from the customers

(01:04:31):
and say we just want to makesure to get this information, to
make sure we can service you,make sure you're in our service
area, we don't waste your timeor ours.
You know, we don't want to getyour information because we want
to sell it.
Google and all the rest of themare using that for their
advantage.
Right, we just need yourinformation because we want to
follow up with you, whether youbuy, whether you don't.
We want to offer you a discountin the future or something like

(01:04:53):
that.
And, like you know, you knowthe bird gets the worm, right,
it's speaking of google, thingshave changed.

Things are always changing with Google.
So, these recorded videos,photos you're taking
interactions.
Google is scraping yourwebsites, scraping your Google
store, and if you have stockphotos or if you don't have any
videos or photos that are real,you get downranked.
If you have real videos, realphotos, all of your website and

(01:05:21):
your Google business profile.
You organically get put upGoogle knows your credibility.
Google sees that and theyservice it.
So, you can take a customertestimonial, stand in front of
their new shed delivery.
Check me out.
Do you know how far that goescompared to keyboard, three
sentences and a five-star review?

(01:05:42):
Even you take that video andyou put it in your Google
business profile and on yourwebsite and on your socials that
actually elevate it's.
The impact of that is 10 X onit and not.
I know you have that marketingbackground, Shannon, so you know
what I'm talking about.

Shed Geek (01:05:55):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
We encourage more video all thetime.
We could keep our videoproduction team constantly going
, and they do.
They go on a lot of differenttrips.
They just came back from NorthCarolina on a big trip, but you
know, like, yeah, video.
I even called Nick, and I waslike you know, you busy?
And he's like, yeah, I'm in themiddle of the shoot, like well,

(01:06:21):
he should be, he's a video guy,right, that's what he does.
It's like man, I was thinkingabout having you on this podcast
.
I thought you would reallyenjoy the video aspect of this.
Uh, you know, just because he's, uh, he's, he's a genius at
what he does and videoproduction and things like that,
I was like man, you would,you'd enjoy this and how this is
relatable.
Uh, the live video, we're,we're, we're up against an hour.
I'm curious, who's Jamesoutside of everything?

(01:06:43):
Just a two-minute spiel on whoJames is.
I believe people buy frompeople that they trust and if
you're trying to showcase thevalue of something, you are here
today, how do I build trust intwo minutes?
Go, James.

Okay, so I'm definitely just an everyday guy
like everyone else listening.
I have a family of four kids.
We have two biological children, two adopted children.
We're a mixed race family.
We believe in adoption.
My wife grew up in thePhilippines and she built homes
with her father, so she grew upbeing homeschooled.

(01:07:19):
So, we homeschool our kids andher one dream was to adopt
children.
She's been saving since she's alittle girl she's way cooler
than me and so I knew thatgetting into the deal.
We've been married over 20years now doing well my
nonprofit.
I started with churches so Igrew up atheist and converted
after a bunch of my friends diedin college and so I know what

(01:07:41):
it is to be with God's not real.
And then I read the entireBible for myself and rewrote the
whole New Testament by hand andI felt called to start churches
.
And the church we just startedlast week is I sing in hospice.
I was in hospice rooms.
We started a church in ahospice.
We just launched it last weekand I lead all the singing there
, so I love singing to folks ontheir last day I find it to be.

(01:08:04):
I've been around a lot of deathin my life, so I spend a lot of
time there.
And then I come from bluecollar family.
As you've heard, I rentbusinesses, but I'm also come
from inventors and builders.
So, you know inventing productthat we talked about today, I'm
a proud papa.
You know seeing thousands andthousands of happy customers,
and you know I've got more andmore staff we're building and so

(01:08:25):
I really love second chance aswell.
Like we talked about, peoplewere hiring.
So yeah, I've got a lot ofthese values, you know, and I
try to remain judgment free asfar as possible and always
assume someone's innocencebefore their guilt and consider
others better than myself, and Ilike to give more than I take,
whatever industry we're in, so Idon't just come and squeeze

(01:08:46):
dollars out of it.
I really try to come andeducate.
I'm an educator, um I used toteach karate to duke university
college.
Um, so I was a second- yearblack belt, so an instructor
teacher, um, teacher, yeah, allthat stuff.

Shed Geek (01:09:00):
I stopped by Duke University when we were out
there Last time we were outthere I just wanted to tour the
campus and see UNC and Duke, soI drove around both campuses
while I was down there in thearea and, yeah, we didn't get a
chance to make Biltmore, youknow, it's just been too crazy.
And then of course, the floodand Helene came through and our

(01:09:22):
buddy, Sam's been doing a lot ofefforts over there as I was
telling you, about 600 sheds orso donated in that area.
It was hit really hard.
Obviously, you play guitar.
I'm assuming I see the guitarin the back.

Yep, that's why I was singing at hospice, and my
daughter and I uh, we're bigsinger, singers and we play
guitar I have a singing familyso, dude, I love it.

Shed Geek (01:09:43):
I love your spirit.
I love everything uh about youfrom the moment we first
connected and started talking.
Um, uh, any questions for me?
Like I always try to open upthe mic because I try to spend
some time and I feel like anhour is hardly time to do
justice, I really want toshowcase your product in a way
that we can show it, uh, so thatpeople you know understand it

(01:10:04):
easily.
Uh, maybe we need to just dovideo of some demo or something
sometime, or I don't know, we'llfigure it out.
But any questions that you havefor me before we go?

Um, you know I don't want anyone you know who's
listening to this to, you know,think this is all sunshine and
rainbows.
Right, because we're notsolving world peace or curing
cancer over here.
I wish we were.
But from what you've heardtoday, where are your biggest
skepticisms of everything you'veheard and where would you

(01:10:33):
challenge what you've heardtoday?
And what do you think thelisteners are thinking after
hearing us go for an hour?
You know you've been in theindustry for a long time and I'm
I love straight shooting andraw, and you know I really don't
want to come up here and I hopepeople's wheels are spinning.
That's what I hope.

Shed Geek (01:10:50):
I'm a firm, first of all.
I'm a firm believer in thedigital world, after not growing
up in it, not even having acomputer until I was 30, James,
and then, like, like starting togo down this Avenue I mean
starting a podcast alone was.
You know, it was a bigchallenge, but it was my
willingness to communicate andwant to talk with people and

(01:11:10):
solve problems throughcommunication, right and
nonviolence.
You know I'm a big fan ofMartin Luther King and all that
he preached on in terms ofnonviolence.
I love.
I love those ideas.
Now I know that there aresometimes, you know yeah, I
won't get into the politicalnature of that, but our industry
is a bit if they'll forgive mefor saying this we are always

(01:11:34):
behind.
We're always 10, 15 yearsbehind and, like you, don't get
first movers advantage wheneveryou, you know, whenever you
constantly like there's, there's, there's a lot of intelligence
in waiting and seeing thingsbeing proven and things like
that.
But I think sometimes you canget, you can get caught in that.

(01:11:55):
You know, I'm losing my mindhere this morning, james.
I'm struggling to think of eventhe things I want to say.
When you procrastinate, you can.
I want to wait and see proof.
I want to wait and see and thenI'll be a believer Right.
And so, like I'm much moreinclined that as I get older,

(01:12:19):
I'm probably doing differentthan what, like my parents
generation did.
They became more skeptical.
I become a little bit more opento the ideas and things you
know like.
So I love transparency.
I think I told you before we goton the call.
I was like if you have anyquestions, just ask them on the
podcast, because I don't care ifit's uncomfortable.
And you said the same.
I think our industry juststruggles to embrace things I

(01:12:43):
think that you know.
So, like a new technology likethis.
If I were going to challenge it,I would be like do people
understand it clearly?
Do they understand what it doesclearly, and do they understand
how it's going to help them?
And do they have a phone numberthey can call to get a hold of
somebody who can answer thosequestions?
Because that's going to solvemost of your problems is the

(01:13:05):
auto-generated stuff that evenwe do is excellent until it
doesn't work.
Sometimes people just need totalk to somebody and get a
problem solved and we're tryingand that means man hours and
manpower and things like that,so it cuts down a lot of the
automation.
So, I have no like for me.
I don't have any doubts oranything to really challenge.

(01:13:27):
I embrace what you're doing.
I feel like I get it.
Having a little bit of thatmarketing perspective allows me
to see the value in this quickly.
But are people going to embraceit?
That's the question I've got.

Yeah, yeah, Yep, and I mean you're not guinea
pigs, right?
I've got all the industriesthat we're in.
I mean we're talking movingboxes, talking about plumbers,
talking about electricians.
These are my people.
These are thousands andthousands of them, you know.
So, the beauty that I havefound is a couple things.

(01:14:01):
One they do get mistaken forthe knuckle draggers and the
non-tech and I'm like, no, yourstuff's just too complicated.
People don't want to use yourover-engineered nonsense.
They want a one-button solution.
And so, when they find thatthey tend to stick, and when it
sticks because they're slow tochange, they're slow to get rid
of things too.
Right, but also not just so getrid of things.

(01:14:23):
When they do adopt something,they're serious.
You know, you know you've got ayou know, like they don't mess
around, they're a no-nonsensecrew.
You know they're not justtrying something for trying's
sake.
They want tools that are fitfor purpose and they want to use
stuff that works because theyain't got time to waste.
So that's what I love aboutthese industries that are where

(01:14:43):
everyone's like, oh, they'reslow, they're behind
construction.
I'm like, no, they're notbehind.
Your product just isn'tcompelling enough, you know, or
when they used it they tried it.
They didn't like it, you know.
So it has to be simple, it hasto be easily understood.

Shed Geek (01:14:57):
It has to be simple.
It has to be easily understood.
It has to be simple.
I love your one.
You know the one touch comment,because it's like and the no
nonsense is absolutely right.
But you're also right in thatif they're slow to adapt, man,
they're slow to leave too.

I remember when I was in my painting company I
lived on a ladder.
I remember when the paintsprayers first came out and
everybody was skeptical, youknow, about them.
Like, are they going tofunction?
Can they handle full homes?
Can they handle years on thejob?
It was a new technology for us,it was a new tool.
Well, now they got them asbackpacks and you can just fire
away, put the paint in thebackpack.
You know we had ours, we'regoing to put it on the ground

(01:15:34):
and but were mistakes made?
Oh yeah, did we hit the roofand we shouldn't have had a
shield up?
Oh yeah, we made.
But once we got her down, wedidn't go back to rolling and
brushing siding anymore.
You know, we did all the sidingthere.
So, as it changes, as it adopts, you try it.
I mean my power washing company.
Now they got these soft washers.
Oh, my goodness, like I wouldhave been a pig in slop nowadays

(01:15:56):
with the tools that they got,you know.
So, you know it takes time.
But having come off a ladder, Ijust kind of know what we like,
you know, and so I've got tokeep, keep educating my
engineers.

Shed Geek (01:16:10):
I love it.
Man.
How do people get ahold of you?
Obviously, we're going to put alink to the website and the
newsletter.
If you guys aren't signed up onthe newsletter, go to the
website and sign up, or justsend me an email at info at
shedgeek.
com.
We'll get you signed up.
But how do people find out moreabout you?

Two ways.
If you're on LinkedIn, justlook up James Hatfield and
you'll find me.
Reach out, I'll connect withyou and we can talk.
Another very easy way is to goto our website.
A very easy way is to go to ourwebsite, liveswitch
L-I-V-E-S-W-I-T-C-H.
com, liveswitch.
com and click on Demo and justask for James.
I won't farm you out to anybodyelse.
If you're listening to the ShedGeek, I will personally take

(01:16:50):
care of you.
So, I have to say I want totalk to James and so that's an
easy way to get to me.

Shed Geek (01:16:55):
Perfect, me perfect.
But, James, I appreciate youbeing on.
I feel like we've covered a lot.
Maybe we could do a follow-up.
Uh, anything else that you justwant to share before we go?

No, just thank you.
Uh, anyone listening, you'realready two steps ahead of the
game, taking time to educateyourself and listening.
You know we love partneringwith um folks that, like Shannon
, that are just putting goodwork out there, um, because you
know good work from bad work,and so thank you for allowing me
to be on the podcast today,Shannon.
I really appreciate it.
I was grateful.

Shed Geek (01:17:21):
Hey man, we love it, I love your product and I hope
people come run and embrace itbecause it is the future.
Like that is the reality, likeit is the future.
Whether we choose to shop thatway or not, it is the way that
shoppers and retail shoppers arechoosing, and if we can make
that process easier for them,then we're just all the better
for it.
So, thank you guys for what youdo, and it's definitely been a

(01:17:43):
pleasure getting to know you.

Back at you.

OUTRO (01:17:48):
Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geek's studio
sponsor for 2025.
If you need any moreinformation about Shed Pro or
about Shed Geek, just reach out.
Any more information about ShedPro or about Shed Geek, just
reach out.
You can reach us by email atinfo@ ShedGeek.
com, or just go to our website,www.
shedgeek.
com, and submit a form with yourinformation and we'll be in

(01:18:10):
contact right away.
Thank you again for listening,as always, to today's episode of
the Shed Geek podcast.
Thank you and have a blessedday.

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