Strategic Planning for Shed Business Success with Coach David Greer

Send us a text

Coach David J. Greer joins us to share wisdom gleaned from his remarkable 40-year entrepreneurial journey and decade of business coaching. Our conversation dives deep into what truly drives business success beyond conventional growth metrics.

David introduces us to the power of the one-page strategic plan, a methodology that transforms business planning by starting with your desired future state and working backward. Rather than focusing on incremental improvements, this approach creates clarity around markets, capabilities, and quarterly goals that align with your true vision. It's a refreshing departure from the reactive planning most entrepreneurs default to.

One of the most thought-provoking moments comes when David challenges the "if you're not growing, you're dying" mentality that permeates many industries. He makes a compelling case that success should be defined by the entrepreneur, not industry standards or societal expectations. For shed business owners feeling pressured to constantly expand, this perspective offers permission to pursue profitability and personal fulfillment instead of growth for growth's sake.

The conversation takes a powerful turn when David courageously shares his recovery journey from alcoholism, illustrating how seeking help—whether for personal challenges or business growth—can be transformative. His vulnerability reveals a truth many entrepreneurs resist: we cannot solve every problem alone, and sometimes our fear of success proves more limiting than our fear of failure.

For shed industry professionals specifically, David offers strategic insights on navigating the shift to online retail, helping second-generation owners find their "why," and addressing industry fragmentation. His suggestion to focus excellently on serving the majority of customers rather than attempting to accommodate every unique case strikes a practical balance between growth and sustainability.

Whether you're struggling with strategic planning, defining success on your terms, or simply finding joy in your business again, this conversation will leave you with practical tools and a fresh perspective. And don't miss David's generous offer of a free one-hour coaching session—sometimes, an outside perspective is exactly what's needed to transform your business journey.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.

To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.

To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at [e-mail].

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

Calculate Business Service
Digital Shed Builder
My Shed Solutions
iFAB
Shed Hub

Episode Transcript

Intro (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast.
Here's a message from our 2025studio sponsor.
Let's be real Running a shedbusiness today isn't just about
building great sheds.
The industry is changing fast.
We're all feeling the squeeze,competing for fewer buyers while
expectations keep climbing, andyet I hear from many of you

(00:24):
that you are still jugglingspreadsheets, clunky software or
disconnected systems.
You're spending more timemanaging chaos than actually
growing your business.
That's why I want to talk toyou about our studio sponsor,
Shed Pro.
If you're not already usingthem, I really think you should
check them out.
Shed Pro combines your 3Dconfigurator, point of sale, RTO

(00:47):
contracts, inventory,deliveries and dealer tools all
in one platform.
They even integrate cleanlyinto our Shed Geek marketing
solutions, from website lead tofinal delivery.
You can quote, contract,collect payment and schedule
delivery in one clean workflow.
Contract collect, payment andschedule delivery in one clean

(01:07):
workflow.
No more double entries, no moreback and forth chaos.
Quoting is faster, orders arecleaner and, instead of chasing
down paperwork, you're actuallyrunning your business.
And if you mention Shed Geek,you'll get 25% off all setup
fees.
Check it out at shedpro.
co/ shedgeek.
Thank you, Shed Pro, for beingour studio sponsor and, honestly

(01:30):
, for building something thathelps the industry.

Shed Geek (01:35):
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
Geek podcast, and I have Davidhere with me today, and, David,
I'll tell you what I'm justgoing to.
Let you open up by telling us alittle bit about yourself who
you are, what you do, how aboutthat?

David J Greer (01:52):
Thanks, Shannon.
Thank you so much for having mehere today.
I'm Coach David J Greer.
I'm a 40 plus year entrepreneur.
For roughly the last decadeI've been an entrepreneurial
coach and facilitator.
I want all your listeners toknow that if there's something

(02:14):
in this conversation today thatShannon and I are going to have
that resonates for you and you'dlike some help, either in your
business or we'll probably talka little bit about my recovery
from alcoholism either in yourbusiness or we'll probably talk
a little bit about my recoveryfrom alcoholism.
I offer free one hour ofcoaching to anyone that is open

(02:35):
to it.
Visit my website.
If you just Google my name andcoach David Greer coach, it'll
take you to my website and thetop left corner has my phone
number, my email address.
Please just reach out and I'mhere to help and I promise you
after an hour together, you'llhave at least one idea to get
you unstuck.
So, I just wanted to put thatout there to start.

Shed Geek (02:54):
Excellent.
No, that's great, and I lovethat we started out with that,
because I can't, you know, wejust don't, we just don't take
advantage of those sometimesenough, those opportunities as a
free hour with a 40-plus-yearentrepreneurial coach at your
disposal.
Why not take that free hour?
So, my encouragement to you isgive them a call.

(03:14):
You never know what happensuntil you do that discovery and
start building that relationship.
So, 40-plus years in coaching,man, you learned a thing or two
or what, David Maybe?
Okay,

David J Greer (03:32):
I wrote a book.

It's called Wind in your Sales: Vital Strategies that Accelerate (03:34):
undefined
your Entrepreneurial Growth;and I interviewed over 45 other
entrepreneurs and sales andmarketing leaders for that book
and like it's kind of a quarterof theory book about 10 areas, I
think, of every business andthen three quarters like

(03:55):
practical ideas that you canactually implement.
And as part of that interviewprocess every chapter ends with
a case study of anentrepreneurial friend of mine.
So, you get my well the point.
I wrote it I had about 30, 35years of experience, but you
also get all these 10 otherentrepreneurs.
You get all of their experience.

(04:16):
They're a third of the contentof the book.
And why we got together andwrote this book is there's a lot
of potholes from buildingbusiness and if you want, you
can drive into all the potholesthat we drove into.
That's totally your choice.
But if you'd like to avoid thepotholes that we found, which
are some of the more common ones, and go drive into your own

(04:37):
potholes, you might want tocheck out the book.
And you know the idea of thebook is if you're stuck on
something, you look in the index.
If you have a print version,that old fashioned kind of thing
, or you know, in the Kindleversion you just do a search and
you know you read theappropriate chapter for maybe
three, four or five pages andyou'll again have one idea for
like the you can apply to thecurrent situation.

(04:59):
You're stuck in um for me orfrom one of the entrepreneurial
friends whose stories that Ishare, so we really wanted it a
book to be that had practicalideas that can move your
business forward today.

Shed Geek (05:12):
Well, it's excellent because you know you're, you
know, part of our part of ouraudience, and a major part of
our audience.
They're all entrepreneurs, youknow they're there, they all
have that spirit about them.
They started a business wherethere that was, you know,
starting a manufacturingfacility, you know, for sheds,
or po barns or furniture orwherever all the other things.

(05:32):
Or you know they've somehowraised up in a second generation
, third generation and, and likesome folks said, well, I never
really sought to be in business.
You know, like I just builtsheds for a living and then all
of a sudden there's all theseother business concepts that go

(05:53):
along with it.
You know, and that's maybe notwhat they're, what they're good
at or what they're familiar withor what they're used to, so a
coach or someone to help guidethem along the way and including

(06:14):
myself, is extremely necessary.

David J Greer (06:15):
I want to share one little story.
So, when I was 22, I joined ayoung software startup as the
first employee after thefounders, and I stayed 20 years
and built it into a globalpowerhouse.
So, for at least the first 15plus years, if you asked me what
I did, I said computerprogrammer.
But literally I'd, you know, begoing to a trade show in
England to give a presentationand on the customs form it's
like occupation computerprogrammer.

(06:37):
And then finally, I broughtsome outside strategy and
marketing people in and you knowthey said what do you do?
And I said I'm a computerprogrammer.
And then they'd hold up thismirror back to me and it said
entrepreneur.
And I said no, no, no, youdon't get, I'm a computer
programmer.
And then they'd hold up thismirror entrepreneur.
And I'd probably been anentrepreneur from age 23.

(07:00):
But I didn't think of myselfthat way.
So, when you share about peoplethat are in the shed business,
who came to it by family or youknow they're just good with the
tools and they started buildingthem, it's like when did they
become an entrepreneur?
Well, you just became one alongthe way.
But it actually helps if youthink more like an entrepreneur

(07:20):
if you want to build yourbusiness, which you know it
turned out.
Bob and I my former partner haddone quite a bit of thinking,
but at our heart we're stillcomputer programmers, so I can
really relate to that.

Shed Geek (07:34):
I can relate too, because I'm writing this down.
We used to have a programwhenever I worked more in the
corporate world.
It was a program called Own it,you know, and the whole idea
behind this own it program wasthat you treated your business
as though you were the owner.
You know, instead of uh, likeif it were, uh, if it were

(07:55):
retail, if someone says you know, could you uh give me
directions to the uh restroom?
You know, without trying tofeel overpowering or overbearing
, you'd be like, yeah, justright, this way I'll show you,
because the owner might take anextra special interest in just
like it's down there.
Right, it's down that way.
Take a right Like.
You know, I'm working, I'm busy,I'm in the moment, I'm working

(08:17):
in my job, so I don't reallyhave time to think Like.
And when you say, think like anentrepreneur, um, well, you're
forced to do that whenever youstart a business, aren't you?
Because you can, you're goingto have all of these issues come
up.
Um, one of my favorite thingsis like, whenever people say I
want to expand, like we get thisa lot right and like our

(08:38):
marketing, I want to expand, Iwant to double, and I'm like, oh
, do you really want to doublebecause, like, that's going to
be a whole new set of problemsand without addressing these
things.
So that's why we're having youknow, having you on the show
today, kind of explain thesethings to us, maybe some of
these processes, what it lookslike for a high performing
company versus a company that'sjust getting by.

(09:01):
You know, I open the floor toyou Share some thoughts.
I'm curious.

David J Greer (09:07):
Yes, so, um, so we built Robel, the software
company I joined when I wasstill at university.
I stayed 20 years, you know,bob, and I built it the way most
entrepreneurs build it, whichis kind of let's make it 5%
better than the year before, andit was hugely successful.
Like I don't want to, no, notright.
Like it's a perfectly valid wayto plan your business.

(09:28):
But after taking a break, um,after I ended up exiting that
business, Bob and I had a majordisagreement we only had one in
20 years, but it ended indivorce, and he bought me out.
Um, my wife and I commissioneda sailboat in the south of
France, and we took our kids,homeschooled them for two years
while sailing more than 5,000nautical miles in the

(09:49):
Mediterranean.
I came back was an angelinvestor and all my technology
entrepreneur friends kepttalking about this one-page
strategic plan and I reallyrecommend people take a look at
that.
It's from a guy, Vern Harnish,and his book is Scaling Up and
you can get the template for theplan.
You can buy the book.

ADVERTISEMENT (10:09):
Hey, I'm Clark Paquette, one of the founders of
Calculate Business Services.
If you're in the portablestorage building industry, you
already know how much is goingon behind the scenes Managing
lots, tracking sales, keeping upwith cash flow and staying on
top of your books.
It's a lot.
That's where we come in AtCalculate.

(10:30):
We specialize in helpingbusinesses like yours with
bookkeeping, accounting, taxprep, business support and even
fractional C-level services likehaving a part-time CFO or COO
on your team, without thefull-time price tag.
We know this industry and weunderstand its unique challenges
.
Our team helps you stayorganized, make smarter
decisions and keep your businessrunning smoothly so you can

(10:51):
focus on building and selling.
Whether you're just startingout or scaling fast, we've got
the tools, the team and theexperience to help you grow.
And to get the conversationstarted, we're offering a free
30-minute consultation nopressure, just real help.
Visit CalculateLLC.
com and click contact us toschedule your session today.

(11:12):
Let's grow your businesstogether.

David J Greer (11:20):
But I took one of my young angel invested CEOs to
a Vern Harnish event because Ididn't know anything at the time
about this one page plan and Ijust had so many people tell me
how wonderful it was, and hekind of blew my mind in the
morning when he said the way hisprocess works is where do you
want to be?
Pick a future point three tofive years out, so like December

(11:42):
31st, like 2027, that'd bethree years out Well, two and a
half, but let's call it threeand like where do you want to be
then and what markets do youwant to be in?
Especially, what markets do youwant to be in?
What product lines?
And like what are the keycapabilities you need to build
between now and then?
Like maybe you need to buildbetween now and then.

(12:03):
Like maybe you need to build awhole new product line, or maybe
you need to move into a wholenew market, or maybe you're very
satisfied with 5% of yourgrowth and so that's your future
point is you only have two moreemployees and your revenue is
growing 5% a year over thosethree years, so that gets you to
whatever that number is Like.
There's no wrong answer to that, but it's starting with a

(12:27):
process that looks three yearsout and writing down like the
four or five, like some keynumbers, like number of
customers, revenue, profit level, margin level, like that you
want to aim for in that time,which may be what you are doing
today, like again or in, ormaybe incrementally better,
maybe the same margin, and thenlike what are like sometimes, if

(12:51):
you want to double in that time, which is what you just said
you had a person come to you andsay, well, you probably need to
do at least one or two keyhires who are going to be help
you to manage to that level.
So, in your three-year plan,like one of the key capabilities
or thrusts you need to do is tofind, like this talent and

(13:13):
attract them and be able to paythem.
And then you work backwardsfrom that to what are the
crystal clear four or fivethings that we need to do for
the year.
My experience is either aentrepreneurs don't write
anything down and it's very hardto be held accountable if you
don't write anything down.
Also, coaches hint if you writedown your goals, it's a 50

(13:36):
increase your probability ofachieving them, even if you
never look at them again andeven if you don't show them to
anyone.
Um, so yeah, so what are yourfour or five goals for the year
that are going to get you tothat place you want to go to
three or five years from now?
And then the core of kind of theVern Harnish scaling up process
is to do quarterly planning,and a quarter is 13 weeks and

(13:59):
it's enough to get a lot doneand short enough that if you're
totally in the like, blow itcompletely or some new brutal
fact shows up, you can, course,adjust and you won't like crash
the business.
And so it's this meet once ayear, figure out your new three
to five year goal, figure outyour one year four to five goals
and then plan for the quarterin each quarter.

(14:20):
And I really recommend you getoff site with your senior team
to do that planning.
I think it goes better if youget a facilitator to do it, and
I have a video on my YouTubechannel that talks about why you
can do it yourself and I'vedone it myself.
I've done it both ways.
So, I have a video that talksabout pros and cons of that.

(14:42):
And anyways, I, because thisdoubling of business has a lot
of consequences which, if youdon't think through the
consequences of that, which Ithink is what you were alluding
to.
Um, then you know, like okay,you do a great marketing
campaign, you've doubled it.
Well, can you supply that?
Can you supply twice as manysheds in, like next year, let's

(15:07):
say, the marketing plan worksbrilliantly.
Like do you have thecapabilities to deliver that
many?
Because your marketing plan andyour operational plan have to
march ahead together.
I mean, marketing usually leadsit right Because it takes time
and takes time to generate leads.
But at the end of the day, ifit's too close, like if it gets

(15:28):
too far ahead and you haven'tbrought operations up to where
the marketing plan is, you'regoing to crash and burn.
Like you're going to have hugedemand and just massively
disappointed customers becausethey won't your marketing plan
worked.
They want it, they are coming,they want it, they want it, they
are coming, they want it, andyou can't deliver.
So, you also need that backingof the operational plan that

(15:50):
makes sense in that doublingmarketing plan.

Shed Geek (15:55):
It's almost as though we become comfortable with that
too as business owners.
If we're not careful, we getcomfortable with.
Well, there's plenty of leadscoming in.
I'm good for now, right, I'mgood for now.
But if you know, if you're likewhatever you're doing, um, with
the least amount of successwith you know the customer you

(16:17):
lost, that's just as importantas the customers you've gained.
I mean, you're as strong asyour weakest link, right?
So, like what you know, yourreputation starts to suffer.
And I wrote this down, David,because I've gotten in a habit
of trying to listen to you andwrite down some thoughts without
breaking my concentration.
Here I wrote down you knowsomething that was told to me

(16:39):
one time before there's nogreater burden than a good
opportunity.
You know, the good opportunitycomes and success starts, starts
to happen.
All of a sudden, you're in thistailspin because, like most
generation, the generation Igrew up in, our parents was
always like you better getsomething to fall back on, right
, you better have something tofall back on and it's like but
nobody ever said you better planfor the success you're about to

(17:01):
have.
It was always like be preparedfor failure, Don't be prepared
for success, and I think that'ssomething that we all do.
If you are a mechanic, it seemslike your car always needs
worked on.
If you're a carpenter, there'salways that work that needs to
be done around the house.
And guess what, If you're inmarketing or anything else, if
you're in manufacturing, thethings that don't get done are

(17:24):
us taking a step back and beingable to work on our business
because we're so concentrated onworking in our business.

David J Greer (17:33):
Correct?
And you know when you're on thehamster wheel, when you're in
the next fire like it I'm notsaying it's easy, like
strategically, to step back fromthe business and look at it is
a really hard thing to do.
You know like we get on thehamster wheel, and we get so
afraid that if we don't pedal tothe max to burn out that you

(17:56):
know, like if we stepped off thehamster wheel and actually
slowed down for a bit, we justthink the business will fail.
And that is almost likeprobably 99% of the time.
That is untrue but it doesn'tfeel like it.
And I want to circle back withan interesting thing you brought
up that happens in some of mycoaching and with me as well,

(18:17):
which is, you know, we have thisfear of failure, but I think
for a lot of us we actually havea bigger fear of success.
Right, and either from thatstory like you're talking about,
like a parental story of youhave to always have the fallback
Um, or like one of my biggestfears, who do you think you are

(18:39):
Like who?
Who do you think you are to bea multimillionaire?
Who do you think you know to betoo big for your britches to
like, so that actually umsabotages some of our plans for
our success.
And again, there's ways to workthrough it.
But I challenge some of yourlisteners to like wonder about

(19:00):
that.
Like, is there a part of youthat's actually afraid of the
success that you want?
Because at the end of the day,if that fear is present,
consciously or unconsciously, Imean it can really hold you back
and it's better to flush it outand figure it out and what it
means to you.
And again, that fear like whatyou're fearful of succeeding
will be different for each of us, like the underlying belief

(19:25):
story system that creates that.
I mean, that's part of a coach.
I help people go explore thatand figure that out.
Or I help them say, hmm, Iwonder if you're still back in
your fear of success.
Could that be what's showing uphere in this moment?

Shed Geek (19:43):
Well, that success brings, you know, as you alluded
to earlier, a whole host of newproblems, and without that
three to five year target thatyou're talking about, you know
how do you measure that success,or how do you measure that the
effectiveness of your plan?
Because essentially what you'redoing is just kind of throwing
caution to the wind and sayinglet's wing it.

(20:05):
You know, and at the end of theend of the year you're saying
did we make money?
I mean, it feels like we mademoney, but did we make money?
Did we do well?
Did I grow?
There's so many questions thataccompany it.
Did I grow?
Do I want to grow more?
What's it going to take to goto this next level?
Oh no, I realized that all of asudden, I'm going to have to be
this employer.
I'm going to have to hire three, four, five people to take this

(20:26):
, and I never set out to do that, I just set out to be an
entrepreneur and be successfuland it's like well, now you are.
So you know there's a, there's a.
You talk a lot about culture.
I know, and like one thing,that we, you know, we like to
talk about culture too.
And there's this thought, andI'm curious what your thoughts
are on it, because it's kind ofmade its circle around our, our

(20:48):
industry, for quite some time,and that is if you're not
growing, you're dying.
If your business isn't growing,then it's dying.
What are your thoughts on that?
What are your official coachingperspectives on that?

David J Greer (21:02):
I want to go back to that word, success Okay,
because I think all too oftenthat statement you just made if
you're not growing, you're dying.
So, by default, growth issuccess Okay.

ADVERTISEMENT (21:23):
Digital Shed Builder is an online shed
configurator that strives toprovide incredible visual
quality, fantastic customerservice and an amazingly low
price point, making it a perfectfit for any shed dealer looking
to increase their online sales.
Digital Shed Builder is simpleto use, taking less than five

(21:44):
minutes to integrate on yoursite.
The get a quote featurestreamlines your sales process,
showing you exactly what yourpotential customers need.
They offer a highlycustomizable experience that
accurately represents your brandand unique shed offerings,
working with you directly to setup everything you need in a

(22:07):
configurator need in aconfigurator, with no extra
startup cost, no lengthycontracts or commitments and no
hidden fees.
Digital Shed Builder has beencreated with quality, simplicity
and affordability in mind.

David J Greer (22:26):
And I challenge listeners and entrepreneurs to
figure out what success meansfor them and not the story like,
for example, governments lovemore and more employment, right?
So media loves to report that,you know, unemployment's going

(22:48):
down and all these jobs arebeing created by all these
wonderful entrepreneurs, and soit's really easy to say, oh, I'm
generating more revenue, I'mhiring more people, I'm creating
, unemployment is going down andall these jobs are being
created by all these wonderfulentrepreneurs.
And so, it's really easy to say, oh, I'm generating more
revenue, I'm hiring more people,I'm creating more jobs, I am
successful.
Well, that's someone else'sdefinition of success, and you
said that about your industry.
Like, there's this story in theindustry, if you're not growing

(23:08):
, you're a failure, and I meanmaybe the dynamics of your
industry.
That is a true statement.
I, I don't.
I know nothing about the shedindustry, so I I can't speculate
, although I would say off thetop it's quite unbelievable,
right, like you're, I don't know.
Let's say, you're a two milliona year business and you're
making.
I don't know what your marginsare in your business, but you're

(23:29):
making a quarter of a million,a 2 million a year business, and
you're making.
I don't know what your marginsare in your business, but you're
making a quarter of a million300,000 a year Once you're and
you're taking a hundred thousanda year salary and like, if
you've got a market you're happywith and you don't have 10
competitors trying to beat youto the door and you're happy
with that size of business andmaking that kind of money and

(23:51):
the runway for the next fiveyears looks pretty good for that
, go for it.
Like you don't need to grow.
I mean you need to be cautiousif some competitors are going to
come and take away a lot ofyour market share and then it's
like so that's part of makingsure that strategic thinking and
that marketing thinking.
But as long as that's there andyou've got key people and

(24:16):
you've got the finances to keepbuilding, to doing what you're
doing today, go for it.
I mean, you're the entrepreneur, you're in charge.
It is your choice.
I don't think you should buyinto the government media.
You have to make jobs to be asuccessful entrepreneur, because
that's what we say.
I don't think you should buyinto the shed industry story

(24:38):
that it's growth or failure.
It's just a story and you know,you decide.
And then the other thing.
You know I work withentrepreneurs.
They grow the top line revenue.
Who cares?
Like, you start a business tomake money.
Like, how are you going todouble your profits?
I'm way more interested inthose plans.
How could you, how could youbuild efficiencies in your

(25:00):
business?
How could you hire Shannon tobe twice as effective in your
marketing plans?
Um, and you know, spend half asmuch and get twice as many
leads.
Uh, so that, um, like, you aremaking more money.
Uh, I, I, I work a lot ofentrepreneurs to make more money
because, at the end of the day,like, I think that's why we

(25:20):
start, we should startbusinesses.
We start businesses for manyreasons, but at the end of the
day, go make money well, it hasto make money.
I mean even, even, but go makelots, like again it's, it's like
fear of six, like people gomake a million a year like go
for it.
I I'm like I really encouragepeople go make lots of money.

Shed Geek (25:40):
Don't just focus on like generating tons of revenue,
like just go make lots of moneyand be just proud of it well,
the more, the more that you knowyou're fine, the more that you
know you're fine, the more thatyou make you know, the more you
can be giving right.
So, like giving as a cause, forinstance, you know, and maybe
you've been you possess thetalents that have been given,

(26:01):
the talents you know to be ableto, to, to do that, to, to, to
learn how to earn money and like, then your heart is naturally
to be that of a giver and not ataker.
So, like you know, likenaturally you're like well, the
more I make, the more I canserve, the more I can minister,
or whatever it is that yourpassion is for, why you started
business.
So if you say, well, my job'snot to, it's like sales.

(26:23):
I have people all the time say,well, my job's not to pressure
the customer, and I'm like, noone's job is to pressure the
customer, right, whenever theycome in to buy a shed.
But everyone's goal is to sellthem a shed.
It's not my goal.
My goal is to help them.
Well then, selling a shed willhelp them, because that's
probably why they're there.
So, there's nothing wrong withsaying I have the product, I

(26:43):
have the solution, I have thefix to what you need.
And like I want to make surethat you know that I mean church
works in a very similar way,but it still has to pay the
bills.
You still have a light bill,right?
Yeah, it's still got to makemoney.
And that's the confusing sideis understanding your why, right
, understanding why do I do whatI do At the end of the day and

(27:06):
I think that's a challenge for alot of people and we have a
couple of strong lines that weuse, David, not to just be
self-promotional this whole timewe have a couple lines we use
in our marketing.
You know where it's strong?
It's strong language like we're, our job is to make you money.
Our job is to make you moremoney than you're spending with
us.
And if your marketing agencyisn't doing that, that's what we

(27:29):
want you to brag about.
If you're working with us byany means, it's like hey, they
made me more than they spent,because that's our value
proposition.
We're attempting to make youmore by spending, yes, uh, with
us, the professionals to helpaccomplish this.
So, like, if we're not doingthat, we're fired, like we got
to kill what we eat, right?
You?
know, like we're, we're you know,

David J Greer (27:51):
So, help me out.
So, if I'm a homeowner, so insay, the homeowner section of
the market, like what's thebiggest pain point for a
homeowner, as to like the topthree or four why they want to
shed.

Shed Geek (28:04):
Oh, great question.
So, like for many years, itseems as though sheds have been
primarily for storage purposes,for excess.
You know, what's interesting isthat now you're starting to see
like, especially COVID usheredin a lot of this.
You know, like home offices,you know additional housing,

(28:27):
maybe for, like, an in-law suiteor something along those lines.
Right, you know.
So.
Now, all of a sudden, there'sthis we went from building a box
right, building a little box tostore your stuff in, to
building a little box that'slike another version of a home.
So, the tiny home movement andall of that stuff.
And you know like, uh, we, weserve to me.
We serve both markets, we serveboth the, the minimalist who

(28:49):
wants to go smaller and have asmaller home and have less, you
know, excess things.
Then we also serve thetraditional American family
who's like all this stuff's notgoing to fit in the house.

David J Greer (29:01):
I got too much.

Shed Geek (29:02):
Yeah, we got to, we got to put it out here and then,
you know, that's kind ofmorphed into other areas like
gazebos and pergolas and youknow, play sets and post frame
and all these different things.
But generally speaking, you'reattempting to solve the problem
of storage and the key pointreally here is backyard storage.
You know, like storage that'sconvenient right there.

(29:24):
Like these things get delivered, you know, on a truck, a
trailer, a little coupledifferent machines out there
that move them right into placeinto your yard, level them up,
really nice.
And now you have theconvenience of a what would be a
storage unit down at the cornerof you know, x and Y Avenue,
two, three, 15 miles away.

(29:45):
I can go right out in thesafety of my backyard.
Well, now these people areturning them into yoga studios
and music studios and they'rebecoming so much more just a
place to keep your lawnmower oryour Christmas tree.

David J Greer (29:58):
I wanted to circle back to your sales
comment about helping people.
So, my belief in marketing andsales is it's all about the pain
in the marketplace and how yourpain pill solves their pain.
And the bigger their pain andthe better your pain pill, the
more value.
So, you know, to me, as if Iwere a salesperson without

(30:24):
knowing your industry very well,you know I would do the
discovery piece with every leadto like go one or two layers,
asking why, why do you want toshed?
Okay, and then they'll give youthe surface answer and then you
ask well, why is that importantto you?
And by the third time you askwhy.
You're probably at the root,like what really is bothering

(30:45):
them, and then you just need toshow them how working with you
like will put them out of thatpain.
And so I think you can still beof service and like it's not a
pushy like you know I'm just onquota and I'm just trying to
earn commission, um and you, youcan be of service and still

(31:05):
generate a heck of a lot ofsales by really understanding
deeply, like, the pain that theindividual lead is experiencing,
for whatever it is, becausethey need the home office,
because they do have a storagething, as you say.
That's 15 miles away and theyjust got really tired of driving
back and forth and they stillhave some legitimate need for

(31:27):
the stuff that's in there.
So, when I coach entrepreneursI help them at a high level to
better understand that and thenhelp them to coach their
salespeople to better understandand show up in that way.
Pain pill, pain pill.
Because if you can really helpthe client understand the pain
they're in and then really showhow your solution just puts them

(31:48):
out of the pain, I think itjust creates massive value.

Shed Geek (31:53):
And the value is so valuable.
What is that?
Somebody was telling me aboutthe Purdue study or whatever the
other day, where you know, ifvalue exceeds price by even 1%,
you have a buyer right.
So, it's always about value.
It's always about what valueyou're able to bring in.
In this case, like you said, asolution.
On that note, I'm going to askthis question.

(32:14):
I'm going to be bold, right,I'm going to ask this question.
Why should business owners hirea coach?
What is the value propositionthere from your perspective?
I see tremendous value in it,and I could probably go on and
on and on, but I'm curious.
This is what you do for aliving.
You got 40 years of experiencein this.

(32:35):
Yeah, I would be remiss not toask this question.
Why should business people hirea coach?

ADVERTISEMENT (32:45):
The shed business has always been grown on
tradition, but this year we'rebuilding the future and changing
the game, introducing thetechnology you didn't know you
needed until now on tradition.
But this year we're buildingthe future and changing the game
, introducing the technology youdidn't know you needed until
now.
Join us at the my shed booth atthe shed builder expo and
experience the innovation set totransform how shed businesses
sell, deliver and grow.

(33:06):
Are you ready for what's next?
Stop by My Shed.
See the future in action.
Few reasons.
One is so people oftentimes cometo me because they're in crisis
or like things have gonesideways or really bad, and I'm
happy to be hired on that basis.
Um, a lot of people are stuck.

(33:29):
So, they get to that million-dollar plateau or four or five
million dollar plateau and theystill want to grow the business.
They've been working at it forthree, four or five years.
It's not growing, so it'sanother kind of stuckness.
Um, and so you know theythey'll hire a coach like me to
help figure out like why andthere's no like universal, why

(33:54):
it's.
It's specific to theentrepreneur, their situation,
what the business they're tryingto trying to build.
Um, and I guess the other pieceis um, as entrepreneurs, we are
incredibly driven and it'ssuper, super hard for us to ask
for help.

Shed Geek (34:17):
No truer statement has ever been made on this
podcast.

David J Greer (34:23):
But at some point it's just too hard to keep
doing it alone.

Shed Geek (34:29):
There's only 24 hours in a day right.

David J Greer (34:34):
Yeah, there's only 24 hours.
If you don't work with a coach,find a mentor, join a peer
group I'm sure, like you've said, you've told me you know before
we started how big the shedindustry is like I'm sure there
is entrepreneur peer groups, orget involved in a local group
and have breakfast meetings,like yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm
happy for you to hire me and forus to work together if there's

(34:54):
a fit, um, but there's othersolutions and really, but at its
core is, stop trying to do itall alone, like it's just you
can like, but you know it's.

Shed Geek (35:06):
It's pushing a wet string uphill a mountain on a
muddy path and you can do it,but it's not the most pleasant
experience and it's a heck of alot harder than it needs to be a
lot of entrepreneurs you'veprobably seen this over your 40
plus years a lot ofentrepreneurs not just have a
hard time asking for help, butthey're so focused on um the,

(35:30):
the idea that is at foot andaccomplishing it, and then
oftentimes they don't know howto step away and allow for other
people to be good, because itconsumes you, because it's your
baby, it's your idea.
So, to let someone else come inand kind of offer some advice,

(35:51):
it feels like you're having tolet go and that feels very
painful to have.

David J Greer (35:57):
Very vulnerable and very vulnerable.
Right, I meet many, manyentrepreneurs that need help.
Most of them I can't helpbecause they're not open to it
Right.
Open to it right, like you haveto get to some point, um, where

(36:20):
you know, um, you're, you're atleast willing to uh, take that
chance and um, think of thingsdifferently, which, if you let
me segue into a deeply personalstory.
So, you know, I ended up hiringa coach because I was really
unfulfilled after three or fouryears of angel investing.
I didn't understand howunfulfilled I was till I was at
a, an event, a learning event,and there was a coach at the

(36:41):
back of the room and I talked tohim and he made me more
uncomfortable than I'd been infour or five years.
In fact, I had tears in thecorner of my eyes and I ended up
hiring him, coach KevinLawrence, brilliant
entrepreneurial coach, and weworked together for nine years.
But for about 18 months weworked together and
reestablished my career and gotme moving and working with more

(37:03):
people at my level and kind ofcleared all the clutter off the
table, till the elephant in theroom was the only thing left and
he was the first human being.
I admitted I had a drinkingproblem to, and I'd been an
alcoholic for over 20 years, adaily drinker for 20 years.
It was my deepest, darkestsecret.

(37:24):
I was in complete denial foralmost all that time, and you
know I engendered enough of atrust relationship to admit it
to Kevin, and we had workedtogether long enough that I knew
, once I put that out there,that Kevin would never let me
off the hook.
I didn't know what that wouldlook like, I didn't know what
would happen, but I put it outthere and it turned out in

(37:48):
Kevin's personal life, at hissummer place around the campfire
.
He had become friends withsomeone with decades of
experience in 12-step recovery,and Kevin is a very curious guy.
He talked to him.
You know how to get in theprogram, how to work for him.
So, when I showed up and Kevinhad no idea that I had this
problem, he knew what to do.

(38:10):
So, you know, he asked me tocommit to going to a 12-step
meeting by that Friday.
This was a Tuesday and I had anetworking event downtown that
ran until 8.
And I went online and lookedand lo and behold, at 8.30,
there was going to be a meetinga quarter of a block off the
road I'd be driving down to gohome and I went to that meeting

(38:31):
and about three quarters of theway through the chairperson
asked is there anyone new to theprogram that wants to introduce
themselves?
And I waited 10 seconds.
I probably waited 20 secondsand then I finally stood up and
said I'm David, I'm an alcoholic.
I probably didn't know in thatmoment what I was really
admitting to, but I was actuallyin fact admitting to my truth.

(38:51):
And a month or so later I madeit my home group and last night
I was at my home group and I'mnow almost 6,000 days sober and
two people were there last nightthat were there the night that
I walked in like to have thegift of that walking the path

(39:13):
together of recovery, and Ishare that.
So, know, if you're listeningand you are challenged by
alcoholism or addiction, thatthere is help, there is hope,
and if you've got sober or cleanand you're still struggling as
an entrepreneur, I get it.
I know what that is like and Ialso want to share it because,
first of all, it took a lot forme.

(39:34):
You know, Kevin's card sat bymy phone for three weeks and
every time I thought aboutpicking up the phone and calling
him.
The phone weighed 10,000 poundsUntil three weeks.
Three weeks in, Kevin called me,and he said, hey, do you
remember me from the VernHarnish event?
And I said, oh, yeah, I do.
I didn't say I hadn't thoughtabout much else for the last
three weeks and thank God, Kevinreached back out and you know.

(40:00):
So, it's really, I want toshare in that getting help it
was one.
I had the courage to hire Kevinand to get help from him, even
though my motivation wascareer-wise and it turned out to
be much bigger.
And then, you know, I got helpby going to a program of
recovery where we help eachother.
And you know my belief, atleast in in alcoholism and

(40:25):
addiction, is that the mind thatgot us to that point is not the
mind that can get us out Likeit's virtually impossible to do
it on our own, because we haveto change the way we think,
which is what 12 step.
You know.
The 12 steps are a way ofchanging how we think and what
we believe in, and so it's justtwo personal examples of where I

(40:46):
reached out for help.

Shed Geek (40:48):
Too much time has gone by for me to be able to
call names like off the top ofmy head, but the founder of the
12 step program, um which?
I used to know.
Yes, thank you.
Uh, uh, you know he talks aboutgoing to.
Was it uh, 365 meetings in 365days, or whatever it was?
And it was just like uh, yeah,yeah.

(41:11):
It holds a special place in myheart because if you're being
balanced in life, in yourapproach to business part of
that includes man you're holdinga lot of people's livelihood
responsible because of whatdecisions you make.

(41:33):
So, like if you're anentrepreneur and you hire all
these people, like the decisionsyou make are important.
So, in many ways your life iskind of on display as the owner,
as the boss, as theentrepreneur, as the leading
spirit behind.
You know the effort that youguys are putting out to run a
tiny home company or start ashed company or a furniture

(41:56):
company, whatever it is thatyou're doing, and I think that
being well balanced in thoseareas and addressing those areas
of difficulty, I think they'reimportant and we have, like we
have such a big part foraddiction recovery.
I think I told you I've workedfor you know, one year in the

(42:17):
faith- based drug and alcoholrehabilitation world.
It was one of the greatest,most excellent years of my life
to be able to serve.
You know you didn't do it forthe income.
You know you did it for theoutcome Because, trust me, the
income wasn't, it wasn't there,you know.
So, like you weren't doing itbecause you, uh, you, you were
hoping to get rich on it.

(42:37):
You, you had to go in with thementality of like how much you
wanted to help and there'salways this um Thank you for
your service.
Thank you for your service toall the people that you helped
in the time that you were thereall the people that you helped
in the time that you were there.
They helped me as much as Iever helped them I.
That's the way it works out.
That's the beauty of it.
I think some of those folksministered more in my life to me

(42:59):
I had yeah, it's just like.
They're just, people are peopleand some of them are absolutely
excellent and something like,uh, you know, alcohol is not
their uh identity, it's part oftheir identity.
And the truth is man, I've metsome of the best friends who
have gone through some of thehardest stuff.
Matter of fact, all the onesthat have gone through some of

(43:19):
the hardest stuff, they're someof the best ones to lead because
they can take you to all theplaces.
They've been there, they'vebeen through it, so they're very
confident it so they're veryconfident and it's good to see
their confidence, because theyneed that, because they're
attempting to live in freedomfrom this.

David J Greer (43:38):
And we're not as afraid of the darkness.
Because we've been in thedarkness, we know what it's like
to be helpless and hopeless.

ADVERTISEMENT (43:46):
Yes, At iFab LLC, our passion is welding,
fabricating and design.
That's why, in 2015, we beganto commercially market our
product to the shed, portablebuilding and minibarn industry.
Our product is primarily usedto build trusses.
Our truss saw system cutsboards in one motion and our

(44:09):
truss press system installs andpresses the gusset plates to a
finished truss.
We custom fabricate jigs thatassure perfectly symmetrical
truss setup without error.
We also have other productsdesigned to help your shed
builder increase quality,efficiency and save money.
Our precision door tape willbuild your custom doors square

(44:32):
every time and easily adjust tobuild any door.
For products like these orother custom fabrication
services for your barn shop,visit ifabllc.
com or call 563-422-7496, orsimply email us at ifabllc@

(44:54):
gmail.
com.

Shed Geek (44:58):
They're some of the best helpers.
That's why I love it that youknow for your life that turned
into you being a coach and I'dlove to just certainly know more
about your story.
And one of the first things Iwant to do is mention again an
hour.
Like, if you guys call David,he's committing an hour of free
coaching to you.
So, if you go on the websiteand do the things, find the

(45:20):
phone numbers, fill out the leadforms, do all the stuff to get
in touch with him, he's sayinghey, come on and talk with me.
Uh, you know I've got an hourhere so that we can figure out
if it's a good fit.
Um, but yeah, just your storyin general.
I definitely want to read yourbooks.
I don't know if it's on Amazon.

David J Greer (45:42):
When you're done your sales.
Every place that books areavailable you can.
You can Kindle, kobo, whatever.
However, you like to consumebooks, and audible too.

Shed Geek (45:55):
Yeah, well, I might do audible, do audible we.
We do a lot of uh.
We definitely do a lot of uhaudible I like a lot of.
I listen to a lot of podcastswe'll still a lot of music and
listen to a lot of audio books,David.
That's just that consumes a lotof my life.
So, um, yeah, man, I believepeople buy from people that they
trust.
So, you know, uh definitelywanted to have you on here today
to talk more about your product.

(46:15):
Uh, is there any questions youhave for me?
I always like to open up uhtowards the end of the interview
.
You know we're only I don'tknow, we're only close to 40
minutes in or so, but sometimesit'll create some good
conversation.
Uh, me and you don't know eachother extremely well, right?
So, so, uh, the audience isgetting this first fruit here.

(46:35):
You know what I mean.
Like, uh, do you have anyquestions about the shed
industry, David?
Any directions that I can point?
Podcast.

David J Greer (46:43):
I'd like to dive into your experience.
So, from your perspective today, like, and for the clients that
you serve, like, what do youthink is the number one
challenge that they're facingtoday?

Shed Geek (46:58):
Oh man, what a good question, because if I have to
break it down to one specificthing, Top three or four and we
can decide which one is thenumber one.

David J Greer (47:12):
Okay, perfect.

Shed Geek (47:14):
Yeah, I would say one of the hardest things is
embracing change in the retailworld.
So, like we sell a product thatis a retail product.
If you limit this to just sheds.
We sell storage solutions forpeople and then that's a retail
product, and to me the way thatretail is changing presents a

(47:35):
problem, especially to a ratherconservative industry.
The digital world, the digitalplatform specifically I think
COVID helped usher a lot of thatin Amazon.
I mean, we're seeing youngergenerations that are just
choosing to shop different.

David J Greer (47:55):
So are you saying so?
I understand correctly?
Like the change in retail isyou have this younger cohort
that like just want to go onlineand buy a shed.

Shed Geek (48:04):
Yes, that's that kind of the summary, or seemingly or
seemingly moving that directionfrom our eyes, of what we can
tell is like there's going to bethere's not going to be less,
there's going to be more.
And that's a littlecounterintuitive to like a more
conservative.
You know industry, especially.
You know I've talked with youwe have a lot of Anabaptists in

(48:24):
our community, Amish andMennonite, so it's not that
they're agnostic to technologycompletely.
There's a lot of you knowemails and things like that.
But it's hard to embracewholeheartedly the tools that
are going to allow you to takemarket share and still maintain

(48:45):
in this brick and mortar space.
That's not to say that weshould abandon one space
completely by any means.
It's online sales.
That's a term that gets thrownaround just all the time, right?
And it's like trying to reelall of these different terms in
and like educate throughconversation.
We like to use our platform,the podcast, to be able to help

(49:06):
educate some thoughts, and then,of course, we service that
industry too, right?
So, like, I don't know, maybewe're seen as biased is the way
we see it, but we welcome anyoneto come on and challenge that
thought either yeah, and you'realso on the cutting edge.

David J Greer (49:23):
Like you know, you're selling marketing
solutions that people are usingwho are trying to sell.
So, like you are seeing what isgoing on.
So, beyond changes in retail,what you know, so what would be
the second challenge you mightidentify in today's markets for
the shed industry?

Shed Geek (49:39):
I think, kind of going back to what we said at
the beginning of the podcast,like a lot of guys got into
building sheds because their dadbuilt sheds but you know, so
it's kind of like normal to well, let me take over the family
business or let me get involved,but is there a?
Is there a conviction on that?
Like, does the business drivethem?
Does it feed their, whatevertheir, whatever their success is

(50:02):
?
You know?
Um, I remember that a lot theirparents.

David J Greer (50:06):
Why was to?
Was to be a business, forwhatever reason that was
important to them.
And now the second generation,like they don't have the same
why, or they're having troublefiguring out why they want to
continue to run the business.
Is that a fair like comment?

Shed Geek (50:23):
very fair yes, yeah, yeah, and I think, uh, you know,
outside of that it's, it is um,um, it's a fragmented industry.
So, we have a lot of differentfragmented pieces to the
industry.
There's wholesalers and thenthere's consignment and there's
just not a one-size-fits-allright.

(50:44):
There's not a one-solutionsoftware that helps and there's
a lot of guys trying to race toget to that.
But to me, with thefragmentation of the industry
you were in software Every timewe work with or build a software
, it seems like in the industryit may fit 60% or 70% of the

(51:06):
clientele, but it's really hardto create something that is
going to be sustainable for allthe uniqueness that exist in our
industry so my coach'schallenge to you would be is 70
good enough, perhaps, like, isit worth pursuing that 30

(51:28):
outlier, given how muchcustomization and work and you
know how many little differentpockets there would be, and just
to stay hyper focused on the70% that you cover now just
really be awesome in there.
So that's my coach's question toyou no, I think it's a great
question, I think it's very fairand I would, you know, I would

(51:49):
almost challenge some of myfriends, who even advertise with
me here on the podcast, toconsider that question today,
because I think a lot of themhave either not came to that
conclusion or some have come tothat conclusion already that,
like we built this, we're goingto serve the greater good, the
greater majority.
It's going to be really hard tocustomize every detail based

(52:12):
off of all of these nuances andand you know, I think it's the
same way for even a shed, youknow, like I had somebody, I had
a shed manufacturer tell me theother day I gotta, I want to
keep that anonymous, it's a,it's a, it's a sizable company
and people would know the name.
And I was talking to one of thepeople in charge and they

(52:35):
basically said you know, like we, we, we kind of got away from
all these other products.
We did focus on the 70% to yourpoint here, David.
Like we didn't get into chickencoops and dog kennels and all
these other things.
And as a dealer and someonewho's been a dealer before, you
want everything you can sell,you want anything you can get

(52:59):
your hands on because, likethat's going to help increase
your uh, your success from afinancial perspective.
So, you want to sell more.

David J Greer (53:02):
But their thought was well, it takes away the
focus on selling the bread andbutter, the primary product so
if we go back to some of thethings we talked about, so like
first of all, success, like justselling more is not necessarily
success Cause, like if it's sohard to warehouse that and it's
a different market, and thenseparately, like one of the

(53:25):
advantages of this one pagestrategic plan is, from a
marketing point of view, likegetting really clear about
what's in and what's out, bothin, like the goals you're trying
to achieve and the marketsyou're trying to serve and the
product lines you're carrying.
Because I think in business,especially as we move down into
the organization, it's very hardfor people to say no.

(53:46):
And the idea of the one-pageplan is it gets crystal clear
for everyone in the organization, like right down to, like the
shipping doc or whatever youknow, whatever you want to call
you know the farthest away fromthe CEO position.
Make it easy for them to say noor yes and to know what's in
and what's out.
Because that's actually how wemake a high-performing business

(54:09):
is we make it easy to say yes tothe right things and then no to
all the other things that don'tmake sense.
And that's part of likegrasping and getting really,
really clear on these things,which is the one page plan is a
tool to help you get clear onthat.

ADVERTISEMENT (54:26):
That's right.
Shed geek is now a managingpartner for shed.
One thing we want to instillimmediately is your confidence
in this service.
The Shed Geek and ShedHubcollaborative effort means you
will get the same trustedvisibility from the awesome SEO
efforts already created by theShedHub team, while resting in

(54:46):
the fact that Shed Geek will bestreamlining the seller
interface website and overallsimplicity of the service.
ShedHub has already done thework to ensure that we are the
most visible shed shoppingwebsite, and here are the
analytics to prove that.
During the month of March 2025,ShedHub had over 2 million

(55:07):
impressions and over 41,000clicks from search.
This means someone is on theShedHub site every 60 seconds
shopping for a shed.
Why not have your sheds visible?
For just $39 per month, you canget signed up today by going to
www.
getshedhub.
com.

(55:27):
Once you sign up, a customerrepresentative will reach out
within one to two business daysto ensure that you are onboarded
and understand the programcompletely.
Don't wait Sell more shedstoday using shedhub.
shedhubcom by going to www.
getshedhub.
com.

Shed Geek (55:54):
I'll give you a real case scenario.
And again, I know I sound likeI'm probably pitching marketing,
I guess you know.
Constantly, because it's partof our business, we do several
things.

David J Greer (55:59):
Well, that's what you do.

Shed Geek (56:02):
I'm going to pitch it , if nothing else and just you
know, ask the audience toforgive me if nothing else to
say that, hey, we've earned theright to have the platform so
maybe forgive me for that, Right.
So, this is something thatwe've learned.
And, like, we've earned theright to have the platform so
maybe forgive me for that, right.
So, this is something thatwe've learned in, like, we've
had to educate a lot of ourconsumers over what we said.
Not because they're not smart,not because they're not

(56:23):
intelligent people they mighteven be better marketers than us
.
If they ever got into our space, it's because this isn't what
they've spent their life doing,or?
what they spend their every daydoing they build sheds.
I always tell them, if we wentout and had a shed building
competition, like, just imagineI could put together 80 percent
of what a shed might look like,but that doesn't mean that I can

(56:45):
.
I think I might have lost you.
Oh, there you are, you're back.
Ok, I might.
I might be able to build 80percent of what a shed looks
like, but it's really going tobe that extra 20%.
That's going to tell all thedifference, right, and it may
really tell a big difference ifit falls apart because I didn't
build the foundation right or Ididn't fix something, so the
customer is really going to knowhow important that 20% was.

(57:06):
It's the same way with marketing.
You can do 80% of what we dowhen we set ourselves apart in
specialists.
It's that 20% right.
And then it's like working withmultiple people in the industry
so we can pull on experiencesin Utah and Florida and New York
and we can say, hey, we can useall that that we've learned in
this industry to your benefitwithout having to talk about the

(57:30):
specific details of our clientin Utah or New York or Miami,
right.

David J Greer (57:35):
It's the knowledge base you're able to
build because you have such adiverse customer base, and your
future, existing and futurecustomers get to benefit from
that.
That's right, Because they getto draw from a much, much bigger
knowledge base and practicalexperience of what works and
what doesn't work that you'vebuilt just by the experience of

(57:57):
helping so many people in somany different areas.

Shed Geek (58:00):
Now here's what we've experienced through that
process recently.
Right, I go back to my shedselling days.
I had a guy come in one day andhe said, sniffing around the
building, he said they useformaldehyde in this building.
I was like you know, I don't, Idon't know, I don't know if
they use formaldehyde in theproducts at all.
I'll be honest with you.

(58:22):
I just that's a question Inever thought I would get.
Right, seemed very yeah, yeah,so anyway.
But I researched it, because Idid my due diligence, because I
wanted to know, and I was like Ihope I don't get caught off
guard by that anymore.
And it turns out that theformaldehyde that's used in it
is so little that, uh, thegovernment doesn't even require
them to list it as being used.
But for him he was like I cansmell it, so I won't buy it, you

(58:43):
know, as long as it's gotformaldehyde, whatever.
Then the problem was whenever,whenever I was selling, I became
such a product specialist thatI couldn't wait to tell
everybody everything that I knewabout the product, right?
So, when they came in, theywould ask a question that I
would never give them an answerto, like uh, you know, oh, they

(59:05):
might ask a question that's very, very generic, like, well, how
are they constructed?
Is this, is this one,considered a good building or is
that one a good building?
What's the difference in them?
I don't really.
I'm not a construction expert,so I don't really know.
Like, am I paying way more forthat?
Is this one way better?
So then, all of a sudden, Iwould launch into all of this
knowledge that I had right.

(59:25):
You know, well, you know, thisis built 16 inch on center,
which is built like a house, andall built 16 inch on center,
which is built like a house, andall that basically means is
this if you're going to finishit out, you put some insulation
in there.
You can get that r13.
You know, with 16s it's goingto be a little cheaper than you
can r19 or whatever on the 24inch on centers.
And I've got double top platesand, by the way, this thing does
not have formaldehyde in it andthey're just like okay, and

(59:51):
we've done this in in marketing,because what we've wanted to do
is we've wanted to say here'sthis comprehensive picture of
what we offer.
We do all these things, allthese things, and what you're
going to find is, if you the legbones connected to the debug
right.
If you use service A, it's amatter of time for you're going
to need service B, and it's amatter of time for you're going

(01:00:12):
to need service B and it's amatter of time for you're going
to need service C.
So let us just quote you on allthe things we do because you're
going to need them, and whatwe've done is we've failed to
lead the horse to water and letthem drink on their own, blow
them away with service A so thatit creates a problem and a need

(01:00:34):
for service B and service C.
And this is one of the bestexamples I can give you of what
we've learned.
I feel like in the last sixmonths, instead of trying to go
all in and tell everybodyeverything and prove that we are
who we are, we've almost kindof scaled back a little bit,

(01:00:54):
David, and said like well, let'shelp you in what you need help
with and let's blow your mind tothe point to where you need
another solution of somethingthat we offer.
Again sounds like a marketingpitch here, but it's a real case
in itself.

David J Greer (01:01:08):
Let me go back to my running Rubell and being in
the software industry.
So, by the time I was 24 or 25,I was probably giving 80% of
the trade show demonstrations,especially of our integrated
software development environment.
So, someone would come to thebooth, and I would ask them
questions for probably fiveminutes what programming

(01:01:28):
language do you use?
How many people?
What's the approval process fornew versions?
Like your listeners, it doesn'tnecessarily relate because I'm
not in the software business,but I asked these very specific
questions and we had thishorizontal tool that had
hundreds of features and thenI'd step up to the terminal,
because we didn't have computers, we had terminals back then,

(01:01:49):
and I would show them maybe 5%of the product back then and I
would show them maybe fivepercent of the product, but I
would show them the exact fivepercent that exactly match their
environment and they felt seen,they felt heard and they felt
that they had a solution thatwas very uniquely tailored just

(01:02:11):
for them.
And that's you know I get backto.
Early in the conversation talkedabout pain, pain point and pain
pill.
It's that digging down to findout that one, two, three, four
things that are the mostimportant to them and then just
showing that part of the productline that absolutely satisfies.
That, yeah Right, like it'sprobably still only 5% of your
product line or features that,yeah Right, like it's probably

(01:02:32):
still only 5% of your productline or feature set, right, um,
but it's the piece that reallymatters to them, right, right.

Shed Geek (01:02:40):
Right and really listening to them and their
questions that they're asking,like those are the things that
they're seeking to solve anyway.
Like, just like with myformaldehyde experience.
You know I told 30 customersafter that we didn't have
formaldehyde.
And you know I told 30customers after that we didn't
have formaldehyde.
And like 30 customers probablywalking out of there going what
the heck is he talking about?
I didn't even need to know ordidn't even care about
formaldehyde.

David J Greer (01:03:01):
Or even you mentioned, like yeah prospect
comes in and says you knowwhat's the difference between?
You know shed A and shed B, I'dfirst be tempted to like why
are you asking the question?
I'd first be tempted to likewhy are you asking the question?
Or what's important to you,like is it price, is it
construction quality?
Like what is really importantto you in the shed that you want

(01:03:21):
to get, and then I'll be betterable to tell you like what the?
differences are between some ofthe sheds, but let me understand
better your point of view.
That's right, becauseoftentimes the best way to give
the answer is to actually askthe question first.
I'm not trying to avoid yourquestion, but I feel I could

(01:03:41):
give you a better answer if Iunderstood better why you want
the shed and what you're goingto do with it and where it's
going to be in the yard, and ifyou could tell me a bit more
about that.
I'll be much better able toanswer your other questions.

Shed Geek (01:03:52):
We like to use a term called conditional logic.
You know, based off of youranswer, it conditions the
logical response that I shouldhave to take you down the path,
based off of your question, solike I could be giving you
information formaldehyde as anexample, that's not necessarily
needed, or even like the rightof the conversation, but because

(01:04:13):
of my previous experience oh,no, I didn't get the sale
because of this I want to makesure they know, but they're not
asking that question and we'vereally started to fine-tune
different processes, uh, to justbe better, to be sharper about
those things, and you know,coaching has helped me with that
.
You know, seeking coaching anduh, yeah, it's.
It's because you identifyproblems that you don't.

(01:04:35):
You don't see one of myfavorite uh books?
Um, uh, it's over here.
Um, well, I say it's over here.
I have to edit this out, becauseI'm struggling right now to
never split the difference.
Um, you know, uh, and one ofthe things that the author talks
about in that was he created aprogram called the Black Swan

(01:04:57):
Group, and the purpose of theBlack Swan Group is to imagine
looking out into a lake andthere's, you know, 100 swans,
and as those 100 swans look ateach other, they see the same
things, right?
But there's one black swan inthe middle of the hundred white
swans.
Well, guess what?
All the attention gets focusedon the black swan, but as the

(01:05:21):
black swan looks out, it justsees other swans and figures
it's just like them.
Uh, so everyone can see theobvious thing.
So, for instance, if you have acommunication issue, everyone
can see it sometimes, but you,if you have, you know, if you
have a rudeness issue, everyoneelse sees and experiences it

(01:05:42):
except for you.
And you know what, if you havea rudeness experience, someone
telling you you're rude doesn'tgo over very well, right?
Because you're probably going tobe rude in your response.
You're probably going to berude in your response, but these
are stepping stones to growth,no matter what it is.
If it's time, attention, lackof customer service, maybe it's

(01:06:03):
your product.
I've had guys contact me andsay like with our advertising,
half our products sold this yearwas because we advertised on
your program.
I've had other guys who say Inever got a call from anybody
ever and I'm like okay, well,how do I break this process down
?
Right, like, is it your salespitch?

(01:06:24):
Is it your product?
Is it your?
I mean, there's a lot of thingsI can't control.
I can get in front of the samepeople who had success over here
and this area, but I can't makepeople buy anything over here
because maybe they have yourposition in the industry is kind
of, you know, maybe not onethat that there's, you know,

(01:06:44):
maybe it's not too good.
Like, let's just take the right.

David J Greer (01:06:46):
And so, you have a branding problem that you need
to go solve first, which is tochange your perception out in
the community.
Yeah, the, you know that,entrepreneur, that's part of why
I'm a coach, just because it isvirtually impossible to see the
problems in front of us.
You know, I call it the.
Your nose is pressed so hardinto the bark of the tree that
it feels very uncomfortable, butyou don't even know what tree

(01:07:09):
you're pressing your nose into,let alone what forest you might
be standing in, and maybe Icould help you take a step or
two back and see a little bitmore.

Shed Geek (01:07:20):
I think it's great.
Somehow, we've managed to get60 minutes in here instead of 45
, but that's because you're agreat conversationalist and I
want to make sure people knowagain.
You can go to our newsletter.
You can click on the website.
You can find out more aboutCoach David.
You know he's offering up afree hour for anybody who
contacts him for a discoverycall to see if maybe more

(01:07:41):
business exists between the twoof you.
Maybe it doesn't, but aconversation never hurt anybody.

David J Greer (01:07:47):
Well, I promise you will have one idea to
accelerate your business in thenext 90 days after an hour with
me.
Promise Excellent.

Shed Geek (01:07:54):
Excellent.
Any final thoughts that youwant to give before we were in
here today?
David, I've enjoyed thisconversation thoroughly.

David J Greer (01:08:01):
I got one final.
I got one final thought havefun.
If you're not having funrunning your business, like why
bother you're not having funrunning your business, like why
bother if you're not bouncingout of bed in the morning, like
looking forward to going to yourbusiness and looking after your
customers, like something needsto change?
So, absolutely, that's reallymy, my final thought, because I

(01:08:27):
think that's what we're in thebusiness.
Businesses are brick, arereally darn hard, and so you
know, make sure you're havingfun while you're building them.

Shed Geek (01:08:38):
Great advice.
Couldn't have asked foranything better.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, David.
I hope people take advantage ofyour one-hour offer there and I
certainly encourage them tocheck out the Shed Geek podcast.
You know newsletter and youguys make sure you go and join,
like the private group shedsales professionals.
We've got a lot of coolconversations and things like

(01:09:00):
that happening on there.
If you ever have any questionsfor us, feel free to contact us.
If you want to be on the show,feel free to contact us.
No story is a story we're notinterested in telling, Even if
you compete with us.
Come on, tell us about yourproduct, Advertise it.
We can't serve everybody anyway, so feel free to give us a call
.
We want to see others win.

(01:09:21):
We believe in win-win.
So thank you, David, so muchfor being on the show.

OUTRO (01:09:28):
Thanks again, ShedPro, for being the Shed Geek's studio
sponsor for 2025.
If you need any moreinformation about ShedPro or
about Shed Geek, just reach out.
You can reach us by email atinfo at Shedgee k.
com, or just go to our website,www.
shedgeek.
com and submit a form with yourinformation and we'll be in

(01:09:51):
contact right away.
And submit a form with yourinformation and we'll be in
contact right away.
Tha nk you again for listening,as always, to today's episode
of the Shed Geek Podcast.
Thank you, and have a blessedday.