Your Financial Story Is Just as Important as Your Financial Statements

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When Steve Coughran started his first business at 16 from his sister's garage, little did he know this would lead to a career transforming how construction companies understand their finances. Today, as a fractional CFO who provides what he calls "CFO services reimagined," Steve brings a refreshing clarity to the often mystifying world of business finance.

The most eye-opening revelation from our conversation? Seventy percent of companies that go bankrupt actually show profit on their books when they close their doors. This paradox exists because profit on paper doesn't guarantee healthy cash flow – a distinction that has saved countless businesses Steve has worked with. Using vivid examples (including asking audience members for cash during presentations), Steve demystifies concepts like return on invested capital in ways that make immediate, practical sense.

We explore the concept of business "death zones" – those revenue thresholds where companies get stuck because their overhead structure doesn't align with their income. For construction businesses, these typically fall between $1-3 million, $3-10 million, and $10-25 million. Without proper financial planning, companies can find themselves trapped, unable to grow further or even maintain their position. One company Steve advised wanted to triple in size quickly – his financial models showed they'd be bankrupt within 18 months if they pursued that strategy.

Beyond the numbers, Steve offers refreshing wisdom on business growth itself. Having risen from blue-collar beginnings (much like myself) to advising billion-dollar companies, he emphasizes that bigger isn't always better. Sometimes your calling might be to build a $20 million company that blesses employees' lives, not to scale indefinitely. His "Boosting Your Financial IQ" podcast has reached over 1.3 million downloads worldwide, and he recently made his financial literacy course completely free – demonstrating his belief that money should be a vehicle to bless others' lives.

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn or visit cultivar.com to learn more about his approach to financial management. And if you're struggling with financial literacy, check out his free resources at byfiq.com – no strings attached.

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

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Episode Transcript

INTRO (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast.
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(01:30):
, for building something thathelps the industry.

Shed Geek (01:35):
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
Geek podcast, excited about thisguest today, James Lind, one of
our faithful listeners.
He's written a blog for usbefore.
James is just an awesome guy.
I always love communicatingwith him.
James actually made thisconnection.
So, first of all, thank you,James.

(01:55):
That's the mutual acquaintancethat we have here today.
But, Steve, if you want to justintroduce yourself, who you are
and maybe a little bit aboutwhat you do, sir, yeah, so my
name is Steve Coughran.

Steve Coughran (02:07):
Thanks for having me on the show.
I'm so happy to for thisopportunity to talk.
What I do is I provide CFOlevel support for companies in
the construction industry, sopeople that are building,
building projects, buildingthings and adding value out
there in the built space.

(02:27):
And it's interesting because Istarted my first company when I
was 16 years old out of mysister's garage.
So, I moved out of my housewhen I was 16, moved in with my
sister.
That's a whole nother story initself, but I had to do
something.
I was either working at DairyQueen for $4.25 an hour or I was
doing sprinklers andlandscaping, and the company I

(02:48):
was doing sprinklers andlandscaping for they went out of
business, so I was left withnothing.
So, I started this business outof my sister's garage, 16 years
old, started doing design,build projects, putting in pools
and water features and outdoorkitchens and all of that stuff.
I met a lot of CEOs, successfulpeople along the way and I
worked with a lot ofcontractors, plumbers,

(03:10):
electricians, concretecontractors in that time while I
was doing all this.
And then, after about 13 yearsof doing my landscape business,
I grew it to a multimillion-dollar company.
I was like you know what I want?
To go get a white- collar job.
And so I did that and I wentand worked for Ernst Young in

(03:33):
public accounting and then Irealized very quickly all the
work that I do is eventuallyjust stored in a file and put in
storage and it only comes outif there's a litigation issue or
something, because I was doingattestation services, auditing
services on these companies andthat's when I started Cultivar.
So, Cultivar, like I said, wespecialize in the construction

(03:55):
space.
We work with other companiesoutside of construction, but
primarily our main focus isconstruction, and we basically
help them put in place astrategy, combine that with the
financial management side oftheir business to drive more
value.

Shed Geek (04:09):
Very nice man.
Great, great info, well spoken,absolutely love it.
And you aged yourself a littlebit with your 425 an hour, just
because I know that.
So, I'm kind of guessing we'reabout the same age.
And I definitely remember thatmine wasn't Dairy Queen, it was
a Piggly Wiggly and it was myfirst job at $4.25 an hour.

(04:30):
And, man, I thought we werehitting it big, because it was
around the time that Clinton hadchanged the federal minimum
wage where it was going up like$5.15.
And I was like that's it, we'reretiring, we've hit it, we've
hit it big time.
We, we're retiring, we've hitit, we've hit it big time.
We got an extra 75 cents anhour.
And here I am, 15, 16 years old.

(04:50):
Break down a little bit of whata?
Would you call yourself afractional CFO, or how would you
describe that?
And like what are thoseservices entail?

Steve Coughran (05:06):
Yeah.
So, when I talk about Cultivar,I like to say we provide CFO
services reimagined, and what Imean by that is for years I've
been going around speakingaround the country.
I taught a class at theUniversity of Denver called
Strategic Financial Leadershipand the whole idea behind that
is I can go into a company anddo debits and credits and close
out the books and producefinancial statements and that's

(05:28):
valuable.
But I think the true value isin the strat, like aligning
strategy with the numbers.
So, for example, Shannon, youget numbers on a monthly basis,
so you're looking at your incomestatement, your balance sheet,
saving cash flows.
Maybe you have a few metricsyou're paying attention to.
And it's one thing to look atthe numbers and say, oh, that's

(05:49):
great or that's terrible, orprofits going down.
It's another thing to say, wow,our gross margin has been down
by 5% month over month for thelast three months.
Here are the three things I cango do to fix that.
And so, when I talk about CFOservices, we're not just in the
business of closing books andproducing financials.

(06:10):
We're in the business ofhelping companies to understand
their numbers and then go dosomething about it to drive
continuous performanceimprovement.

Shed Geek (06:20):
Man.
I'll tell you what that's soimportant.
You may know this, may not.
You know there's a couple ofdifferent services that we offer
.
That spun off the origin of thepodcast.
Right, because I was working inRent- to- own which is a big
part of our industry, you know,as a rep and the one thing I was
learning is I was relational interms of like sales and trying

(06:41):
to build relationships andhonestly, it was kind of a I
don't want to say a saturatedservice, but it just it wasn't
new.
It wasn't a new service, youknow, and it had been around a
long time and there was a lot ofties and relationships to that
and that was even part of thepodcast story was just like I
want to add value to peoplebecause I want to be a servant,

(07:03):
I want to be a relationship guythat can serve people and like
sometimes it's going to lead tobusiness, sometimes it's going
to lead to friendship, sometimesboth occasionally, neither, you
know, it just works for some,doesn't work for others.
But you know, always put theeffort in and like that's turned
into marketing, rent onservices, finance, some
e-commerce, some differentthings we've done or doing, but

(07:26):
the one thing we learned aboutthe marketing area was.
I asked a few people is thisgoing to bother you if I get
into this area or if there's anyoverlap services or things like
that?
Just kind of wanted to vet thatprocess and things like that.
And the one thing we learned isthat we had to educate people to

(07:47):
buy our services.
So, we became like by default.
We kind of became consultantsbecause we couldn't just say
give me your price, we'll beatit.
We do these things, and we'llbeat it.
We almost had to be like, well,have you thought about the
grand plan?
Like, hey, I sell 1.8 millionin sheds.

(08:10):
I want to double that.
Do you Like?
Do you know the problems thatcome with that?
Do you understand your numbers?
Do you understand the buyingpower?
Do you understand the stressit's going to put on your shop
or on your trucks?
Like, maybe slow and steadygrowth?
So, I mean, is that kind ofwhat you're saying you know with
, like these services, you'reable to break down those numbers

(08:33):
so they understand them?
And then the good growth.

Steve Coughran (08:37):
Yep, yeah, I mean as working with a landscape
contractor years ago and theCEO came to me and he said,
Steve, we want to triple ourbusiness in the next few years
and I said, okay, that that's agreat goal.
They were doing around $3million a year in revenue at the
time, so he wanted to get to 10million effectively.
I said that's great.
Okay, let's look at the numbersand let's build a model right?

(09:00):
So, I'd build out thisfinancial model and I had it
broken down from all the way,from revenue down to profit,
including working capital howmuch money is going to be tied
up in accounts receivable andaccounts payable in other
accounts, and then how much he'dhave to invest in tractors and
trucks and skidsters andtrenchers, et cetera.

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Steve Coughran (10:34):
And so, I ran the numbers, and I said if you
grow at the rate you want togrow, you'll be out of business
in 18 months.
And he's like what, how can Igo out of business in 18 months?
And he's like what, how can Igo out of business?
And I showed him, and I saidlook at $3 million.
You have a million dollars inaccounts receivable every month
because you go out and do work.

(10:54):
You bill your customers at theend of the month.
They owe you a million dollars.
That million dollars is tied upin the business, right, and
then you collect on the money.
But then you go bill again atthe end of the month.
So, you never effectivelycollect on that million bucks
until one day when you sell thebusiness.
I said so if you grow that andyou grow out the same proportion
you're going to need, you knowyou're going to have $3 million

(11:17):
in accounts receivableeffectively, so you're going to
need two more million dollars ofcapital.
Well, guess what?
Your business doesn't show thefinancial returns.
You need to go get a line ofcredit.
You don't have any more capitalto put in the business.
You definitely don't have 2million to put in the business.
So, if you do that, you're goingto bankrupt your company
because you're not going to havethe working capital to handle

(11:37):
the growth.
And he's like wow, okay, Ididn't see that.
He's like so what is the growthrate that I can handle?
So, I ratcheted back and showedhim the, the model, and I said
here, here's the growth rate.
And that is just one example ofmany examples of how taking the
numbers and combining that withthe strategy saved his business
.
Otherwise, he would have beenbust, he would have been

(11:58):
bankrupt because he would havegrown the business.
But he would have grown thebusiness, but he would have
grown himself out of business.

Shed Geek (12:03):
Does it really just come down to cash flow and
understanding that balance sheet?
You know, like, if you're, youknow there's this.
I grew up.
I grew up with pretty modestmeans, right Like parents who
weren't like college educatedreally not even high school

(12:23):
educated Right, so, like,financially.
It seemed like me being able tolook back on it now.
It seemed like there was likethis circle of decisions that
kept happening that I couldn'tidentify as a child, right Like
are these problems happeningover and over again?
It was because, like, themindset never changed.
Right, it was just a newscenario, it was just a

(12:44):
different job, or it was adifferent set of debt or a
different set of circumstances,but the mindset never really
shifted.
I see companies that sell 300million a year, companies that
sell 100 million a year, 60million a year, some that sell
10.
And there's certain areas thatthey get to that they just get

(13:06):
stuck.
Is that a numbers thing or isthat a personnel thing?
What advice do you givewhenever you see those
situations?

Steve Coughran (13:15):
Yeah, I think that's great.
And going back to your originalquestion, is it a cash flow
thing?
It does come down to cashflow.
70% of companies that gobankrupt.
They're actually profitablewhen they close their doors.
They have profit in the books,like on their books.
They show profit on theirincome statement, but there's
money tied up in working capitalor in capital expenditures and

(13:37):
those items don't show up on theincome statement, right, and
those are a big part of acompany's cash flow.
So that's one problem.
I think the other problem, likewhen companies are scaling, they
hit these different death zones, because think about the
overhead required to run yourbusiness.
You're running your businessand you're good, just doing it
by yourself.

(13:57):
And then all of a sudden,you're like, well, I can't take
on any more capacity, I'm justmaxed out.
So, you hire another personWell, but they have no place to
work.
So, you have to now go get anoffice and then sign a lease.
So, and you also need, like, adesk and you need a computer and
maybe they need a car allowance, etc.
Right, so your overhead startsto jump up and grow and then now

(14:20):
all of a sudden, you don't haveenough revenue to handle that.
So, you start losing money.
So, businesses will hit thesedifferent death zones, and it
depends on the industry.
For construction.
It's like you have to get to amillion or you don't even have a
viable business.
You don't even have a job,right, it's not even going to
cover your like your bills.
Then you get to a million.
You got to hire people becauseyou can't do it all yourself.

(14:41):
So, then you enter this newdeath zone between one and 3
million.
You got to get the 3 millionreally quick and then, once you
get to 3 million, you got to getto 10 million and once you get
to 10, you got to get to 25.
And otherwise, if you're in themiddle of these zones I call
them the death zones yourbusiness can go bust right

(15:02):
Because your overhead is goingto be disproportionate.
So, if you're really good atunderstanding your business,
scaling your business, gettingthe work, getting the projects,
it works.
But if you don't know how torepeat that cycle of generating
more revenue, you can definitelyfind yourself in trouble.

Shed Geek (15:20):
One thing I've run into systematically is you know,
in sales this is a common themeor common practice.
It seems like in a lot ofcompanies you've got a sales
person who's performing a high-level performer Great, let's
make them the sales manager.
You know why They'll make agreat sales manager?
Because obviously they'reselling.
Well, maybe they know how tosell, but maybe they don't know

(15:42):
how to manage people, which isreally what you're doing in that
sales management position.
It doesn't mean that they canshow people how they do what
they do and the temptation forthem if they're selling is to
continue to sell anyway.
And anybody who's beenmicromanaged knows that there's
always a boss that's like getout of my way, I can do it
better myself, or if you needsomething done well, you know

(16:02):
best to do it yourself, kind ofmentality.
I think that's a temptation fora lot of business owners.
Maybe in our industry is all ofa sudden, it's like, hey, I'm a
good shed builder, or like Ilearned how to do that, or a
good shed hauler, or whatever itis.
But then I had to grow, and Irealized, oops, I have a
business now and I don't know,am I CEO material?

(16:25):
I've literally heard so manyowners say am I?
I don't know.
I mean, do you think I'm doinga good job on a CEO?
And it's like, well, I supposeyou should ask those questions,
but at the same time, thenatural answer is no.
If you're asking me right, likein some ways you should have
the confidence.
But I get it.
You're, you're trying to growand learn.

(16:45):
What is that?
A service that you offer?
I mean like, do you find thatfalling under one of your?
You know what we offer on yourwebsite, or do you kind of find
that in like the, the in between, where you're like hey, I'm
Steve, I'm just a guy who runs abusiness too.
And let me give you some advicehere.

Steve Coughran (17:03):
Yeah, I mean we, when we start working with
companies, we get very embeddedin their businesses.
But we also say, like, the bestway to be a CEO is just to be a
CEO, and so there's no liketraining to become a CEO per se,
but we do provide a lot ofguidance.
So, when we get into thesecompanies we get, I mean, we

(17:24):
know their employees, we knowtheir dog, we know their cat, we
know like everything abouttheir business.
And we provide that likeguidance for the CEO who may
maybe they're not financiallysavvy hey, that's fine, right.
But maybe they're reallytechnically proficient with,
like, building sheds or, likeyou said, hauling sheds or
whatever portion of the shedindustry they're in.

(17:45):
Maybe they're really good atthat, but then the other side of
the business, that's not reallytheir strength.
So, partnering with them and welook at it as a partnership,
that's what like drives a lot ofvalue.
I'm not in the business ofgoing in and be like, hey,
here's a slide deck, here are myrecommendations, Shannon,
there's 50 things.
Just read it and go do it.

(18:05):
That doesn't work becauseyou're not going to have the
time or maybe the capabilitiesto implement our suggestions.
Then it's not going to give youthe results.
You're not going to think we'rea great company and it just
creates this like downwardspiral.

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Steve Coughran (19:29):
So that's how we work mostly with CEOs.

Shed Geek (19:32):
We've created, we've, we've understand this because
we've created sort of like this,this imagine of imagination
world I can't speak, I don'tknow how to say that word.
Imagination world I can't speak, I don't know how to say that
word.
But this world of imaginationsurrounding the digital platform

(19:55):
, you know, sort of like what wedo in our own services.
I'm looking at financialreporting and I think about how
that is like similar to thedigital platform of like hey,
take a look at all theseimpressions, take a look at all
of these click rates, take alook at all these, this
conversion, and like.
You have to stop sometimes andremember, like your, your
customer may understandmanufacturing and maybe they do

(20:20):
understand some of this stuff,or they learn it, or willing to
learn it, or have a hunger forit even.
And then o thers are like, Idon't care.
That's why I hired you is Iwant you to be able to decipher
that information.
Um, how do you approach that inthis, in like financial
reporting, breaking down abalance sheet of you know the p

(20:41):
and l, what?
How do you know you're makingmoney?
That happens all the time.
I feel like that happens allthe time.
I just feel like I've heardthis so many times from so many
different people.
We don't know if we're makingmoney, like there's money coming
in, there's money going out.
Commerce is happening, businessis happening.
We even bought this equipment.
I got a paycheck.
I don't know if we make moneyuntil we get our taxes back.

Steve Coughran (21:08):
Yep, yeah, I mean I was working as a CFO of a
billion dollar constructioncompany in our CEO.
He did not have strongfinancial skills, which is fine,
right, that's why he brought mein.
But I remember one conversationhe said, Steve, here's the deal
, cause he came up from theconstruction world, he is an
engineer, worked in projectmanagement, worked his way up in
the company.

(21:28):
He said so I always say dirt isthe deal, it's all about the
dirt, right, the dirt thatyou're gonna be building on.
And he's like so think aboutfinance like this.
You know, you want me to learnhow to read these financial
reports and understand theseKPIs and these financial
meetings.
But he said I push back and say, if I give you a soil report,

(21:51):
you want to know how to read asoil report and make a decision
whether we should build on thisproject, whether it's a go or no
go decision.
And so, I thought about thatconversation.
I didn't want to be adversarialat the time, but I said you
know?
Afterwards, in passing, I said,look, yes, I could agree with
that, but if my job is to makego, no-go decisions for the

(22:13):
company, I'm going to learn howto read a soils report.
I may not be an expert and tellyou all the different types of
soils and the ratios andeverything that comes off the
report, but I'm going to knowenough, I'm going to educate
myself enough to look at a soilsreport and say this is a
terrible site.
The civil is going to be waytoo expensive.
You know the soil is tooexpansive, there's too much risk

(22:33):
with the foundation, whateverit may be.
So I understand that part ofthe business because I'm making
decisions based on it.
So, when it comes to finance inbusiness, I don't expect people
to be nerds wearing greenshades, doing debits and credits
in the back office andcelebrating when the trial
balance ticks and ties, but I doexpect just a basic level of

(22:56):
financial knowledge.
So let me give you an exampleand this may be relevant to some
of your listeners too.
Relevant to some of yourlisteners too when you look at
returns on a project or when youjust look at profit in a
business.
If you had the choice betweentwo businesses, Shannon, okay,
I'll ask you this One businessmakes a million bucks a year in

(23:17):
profit and then another businessmakes 500 grand a year in
profit pure profit.
Right, you get to take thishome and you do whatever you
want.
Which business would you ratherhave?
The one that does a millionbucks in profit or 500,000 in
profit?

Shed Geek (23:33):
I mean, I guess, not knowing any more than the test
sample you gave me here, I wouldwant the million dollars in
profit.

Steve Coughran (23:41):
Right and you're kind of hesitant.
You're like Steve, there's somekind of trick here.
So, if you think about that,that's what we learn in school
Optimization, maximization,that's what we learn A million
bucks is better than 500.
Is better than 500.
But then if?
What if I brought in, investedcapital into the equation and I
said oh, by the way, Shannon,the company that does a million

(24:07):
bucks a year in profit, you haveto put in $20 million of
capital and you're going to geta million bucks a year.
But you have to put in 20million.
So, you got.
You have to like sell yourhouse, your farm, your kids,
your cat, whatever.
You have to go all in, take onall this debt, put $20 million
in the business and you're goingto get $1 million back here.
Then what if I said okay forthe business producing $500,000

(24:28):
a year in profit?
What if you only have to put in$50,000?
Now, which business would yourather own?

Shed Geek (24:35):
Well, I would start by being curious if you've
worked in rent-to-own already inour industry.
Based off of some of thesequestions and I hope that
generates a laugh from at leastone or two of you guys in
rent-to-own.
But, yeah, obvious choice B,because to me, most people in
business and I've been sayingthis for years business owners

(24:56):
are so risk adverse.
The one thing that I have foundis, like you know, I didn't
work in this world Me and youare very similar, my friend, in
the way that, like we work bluecollar jobs and like for me,
like I had a doctor tell me at19, he's like you need to find a
better job, you know he's likeyou're killing your back, I mean

(25:19):
at 19.
And I, you need to find abetter job, you know he's like
you're killing your back, I meanat 19.
And I was like, yeah, it justuh.
I remember saying like well,there's no opportunity.
Like I kind of lived in a in arural community.
There wasn't a lot ofopportunities.
Like well, you got to make thechoice to move and explore and
all those things and chasedreams.
But I did uh start to go downthis road where I found this
white- collar job where,admittedly, like I actually work

(25:40):
on the weekends in my yard.
I love it, Steve, because itreminds me of, like, what real
work sometimes feels like.
To complete a job, to start aday, I can work till 11 o'clock
at night, still not be satisfieddidn't do enough.
Or I could go home at three andit's like I'm not be satisfied
didn't do enough.
Or I could go home at three andit's like I'm not satisfied.
So, yeah, the obvious choice isthat second one, because that

(26:03):
risk adverse is what starts tobecome all of us in a business
setting, I think.
So, I would pick number two,and that sounds like the more
stress-free plan too doesn't itExactly?

Steve Coughran (26:17):
And I think I think the big thing, Shannon, is
like people tend to overlycomplicate finance.
I don't know why.
Like I spent eight years afterhigh school studying strategy
and finance and accounting,probably because I'm slow at it.
But in there, like they're at alot of great professors, a lot
of great programs, got myundergraduate in accounting and

(26:38):
finance to my master's inaccountancy, did my mba at the
fuqua school of business, sogreat, great schools, got my cpa
.
But Then I got out of schooland I got in the real world and
I'm like, why didn't somebodyjust explain it that way?
Like what?
Why did it have to be socomplicated?
If you would have just saidthat the light bulb would have
went on years ago, and so youknow.

(27:00):
Case in point the other week Iwas doing this keynote for a
company, and they brought me into speak to their staff about
financial literacy stack of cashthat I was doing this example
with and I'll get to the stackof cash here.
But before I did that, I wentaround and I just said, hey,

(27:25):
does anybody know what return oninvested capital is?
And like blank stares, they'relike I don't even know what ROIC
is invested.
Like you're.
You're speaking, I don't evenknow what you're saying.
And I said, okay, let me keepit really simple.
I said does anybody have anymoney?
I need some money, I need somecash.
And this girl she's so sweet,she's like I got two fives, and
so I walked over, and I said canI have that?
She said sure, so I took thetwo fives and I put it in my

(27:52):
pocket.
And then this other guy, hesaid I got a 20 and he I'm
taking my wife out on a date andI needed some cash.
I'm kind of short.
And then I just continued onwith the presentation and
they're like what the heck?
Is he really going to steal hermoney?
And then I said, okay, that waskind of rude, that was rude.
Here I reached into my pocket,and I had change and I went over

(28:14):
to the girl who gave me $10,the two fives.
And I went over to the girl whogave me $10, the two fives and
I said here, here's like 75cents.
And then I went over to theother guy who gave me 20 and I
gave him, you know, 50 cents,something like that, and I said
are you okay with that Cause I'mgiving you that return on the
money you gave me.
So, you gave me that in cashand I'm giving you 75 cents or

(28:36):
50 cents, are you okay with that?
And they're like no, I'm notokay with that, because how long
is it going to take me to getmy $20 back at this rate?
And I said exactly, that'sreturn on invested capital.
But in business we do that allthe time, right, we put money
into projects, into businesses,into ventures, and we're getting
some type of return.
And maybe we don't even knowthe return.

(28:58):
We're like I think I'm makingmoney.
I don't know if I'm makingmoney at the end of the day, but
when you break it down simplylike that, if you knew the
numbers, you would never be okaywith a lot of this stuff.
You'd be like I'm not going toearn a 1% return and go through
all this grind.
I'd rather just like put mymoney in an index fund, right?
So, the second thing I'll whichI'll say real quickly once I

(29:21):
went to the bank and I got athousand dollars in cash in in
$1 bills.
They were probably like what'sthis guy doing with you know all
this, all these $1 bills, butnonetheless I had it and it.
You know it's a pretty goodstack, but like, when you even
think about a million dollarsyou in the movies like a million
bucks is like a big old chestand it's not like a million
bucks is actually pretty small.
You could fit a million bucksin your backpack and um, but I

(29:44):
had this, this thousand dollarsin cash and is you know a few
inches tall, and I go to thismeeting with this other company,
and I said each dollar billrepresents a thousand dollars.
So, I have a billion dollars incash right here and I wrote a
thousand dollars on the dollarbill.
I said here, I'm going to writea thousand dollars on this.

(30:06):
And then I went to the firstdivisional leader.
They had like five differentdivisions.
I went to the first divisionalleader, and I said here, here's
your cash.
Went to the next one went downthe line.
We gave all their respectivestacks of cash to represent the
revenue.

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Steve Coughran (32:16):
And I said to the rest of the team I said
isn't that great?
Look how rich they are.
Like they're taking all thismoney in.
They're like so rich.
And then I said, oh, hold on, Iforgot.
And I went back to one of thegentlemen and I said, oh, I need
money for payroll, no, and Ineed a money for materials and
some subcontractors and stuff.
So, I keep taking his money.
And then I took all his moneyaway and I said, oh, by the way,

(32:38):
I need $3.
He's like what do you mean?
I said, because you have enoughcash to cover all the expenses,
I need $3.
And he thought I was joking andhe's like ha ha ha.
And I said no, I'm serious, Ineed $3.
And he's like I don't have anyinsight.
Does anybody have any three?
Does anybody have $3?
Somebody else reaches into theirwallet and they, they grabbed
$3 and they give it to me and Iput it in my pocket, and I said

(33:00):
thanks, you know.
And I said you know, thinkabout it.
You have this big stack of cashand all that money's flowing
through your business, throughyour bank account, whatever.
And you're either negative oryou're like this guy over here
and he's walking away with adollar here and he's walking
away with a dollar and they'relike ah, light bulbs went on and
I think, like that, Shannon,finance doesn't have to be the

(33:23):
scary thing, but you do have tounderstand your story, the story
behind the numbers.
And when you do, that's whenyou can get more laser focus and
you can have more of an impactwith the money that you make.

Shed Geek (33:34):
Your metaphor reminds me of two things.
One I always love.
Well, there's two videos outthere.
I can't really describe the onewell, but it's like a CEO
asking for money and he's like,you know, going through the
process.
But the one's the three stooges, which is my favorite.
It's like, hey, you owe me 20bucks.

(33:54):
And he's like, yeah, well, canyou loan me five?
Yeah, and then they go back andforth.
Next, you know they're squareand all they did was move this
same money around and it's likesomething you would see on
social media.
But it's like, isn't that theway it feels like money happens?
It's like, yeah, I don't know,did that we exchanged?
A lot of things happened here.
I'm not sure, did I make money,a benefit?

(34:15):
And the other is a story I'vetold on this before, so forgive
me audience for those of youwho've heard this, but if you
haven't, you know like one of myfavorite stories is Teen
Challenge.
We were involved with TeenChallenge, drug and alcohol
rehabilitation efforts andthings like that.
One of the biggest ones is inCape Girardeau, Missouri, not
terribly far from here.
It was a family farm that theydonated back in like 1969.

(34:35):
And challenge started in 59, soit's one of the new, earliest
ones and it's literally got likeI don't know 100 acres.
They.
They support like 300 men orsomething like that on this and
um, they have, you know, big,big events every year, you know.
And uh, I, I definitely rememberlike going and meeting the

(34:55):
pastor there and I thought, wow,this, this guy is just really
going to give me like some goodinformation, cause he's like
when I got here, it had beenrunning for 30 years and it
almost closed.
And you know, we forgetbusiness has a.
A church has a business side toit, right, like that's a big
conversation to me in the church, that that business side to it.
And I thought this guy wasgoing to give me like this like

(35:17):
you know, like God came down andordained this amazing situation
and I was like what happened,you know, because you got here
and it almost closed.
He said, Shannon, when I gothere, you know, like the
spending was right here and the,you know, the income was like
right here.
For those of you who can't seeme, just imagine my left hand

(35:37):
being up very high, my righthand being down very low, and I
was like man, he's probably gotthis great story about how, you
know, God, you know, suppliedthis miraculous, you know
situation that could only youknow, and I was like, yeah, man,
what'd you do?
And he was like man, I switchedthose two things, you know, and
I was just like I mean, that'sit, can you give me more?

(36:02):
And he's like no man, that'swhat we did.
It fixed all our problems, wequit spending more than what we
made.
Simple, huh, simple, verysimple.
So, finances are.
I can understand that they're alot easier than what we make
them out to be, but there's justlike this, there's just this
mystery behind what seems to beable to take you to the next

(36:25):
level in any business at anyrespect.
Right Like I, it doesn't matterif I got out of this and
started selling scuba geartomorrow, I would find some
ceiling in that.
That would either be glass oriron, and you know, like some
people break through it and somepeople aren't.
It just seems like you beat yourhead against the wall trying to

(36:48):
figure it out.
Is it culture?
Is it you know?
Do you guys focus on?
Yeah, I don't know, I love your.
I'm just looking at yourwebsite.
Consultants give advice.
Cultivar builds a system forprofitable growth.
You know how do you breakthrough that mindset of like hey

(37:09):
, we're just here to give yousome advice, help move you
forward.
We're going to get in the mudwith you and we're going to
again.
We're going to make sense ofthe, of the data.

Steve Coughran (37:20):
Yep, yeah, great question, I think.
Look, there's a, there's aconstruction management
technology software out there.
It's called Procore guys.
So Procore they, their softwareis very robust and they
ultimately went public.
Right, Great company.
And you know, I remember back inthe day on their slide deck

(37:43):
with that they would share insales presentations, it said an
overnight success pro core andovernight success in 13 years.
And when you understood theirstory at the beginning, they're
terrible.
They didn't sell anything,they're running out of money.
I mean, it was just like agrind for 13 years.

(38:05):
And then all of a sudden, itclicked and what happened is
cloud computing actually becamea viable technology and their
software took off.
Before then, then cloudcomputing wasn't viable on
construction projects, so itjust wasn't being used.
And so, I think sometimes it'stiming, sometimes I think it's

(38:25):
luck, sometimes I think it's God.
You know I'm a man of faith.
Um, sometimes I think the, themore times than anything else,
is system, and so, like atcultivar, we don't sell like
prediction strategy.
We don't come in and be likeall right, here's the industry
trends and we think the nextfive years are going to go in
here and like this is how youshould position your company and

(38:46):
sell you a bunch of garbage.
We don't do that.
We come in and we say, okay,here's a system for forecasting
your financials, for putting inplace key performance indicators
, so you have this dashboard toknow what's working, what's not
working and how to fix it, andthen setting initiatives,
actions, results and then goingout there and executing so you

(39:07):
can drive results, learn wherethings aren't working and then
make adjustments.
And it's just this buildmeasure, learn, adjust, build
measure, learn, adjust.
And it's that system whichseems like very basic, but most
people don't have a system.
They don't have a system tofollow, right, and so another,
another thought on this thatI'll share, shannon, is so I

(39:29):
just recently started Jiu Jitsuand I'm a white belt Woo, you
know woo.
And I can tell you it's terribleat first, right, anytime you
begin something and I'm like therookie in the class, I'm like
the most junior person at theschool.
Um, I'm so uncoordinated, youknow.
They're like move your left arm.
And I'm like they're like no,your other left arm.

(39:51):
And it's like move it here andput it here, and I'm just like
ah, I don't know what to do,right, and I feel so
incoordinated.
But I wrestled in high school,so that helps out a little bit.
So, I know a little some moves,but I just feel like a fish out
of water.
And so, I was thinking.
The other day this impressioncame to me in my quiet time and
reflection.
I was like if my instructorcame to me today and it
basically goes white belt toblue belt to, I think, purple to

(40:12):
Brown to black, if myinstructor came to me today and
it basically goes white belt toblue belt to, I think, purple to
brown to black, if myinstructor came to me and said
Steve, I really like youcharismatic, I like your bald
head.
I'm a bald headed guy, youcan't see me.
I like your bald head.

Shed Geek (40:31):
I just told me the other day God only made so many
perfect heads.
The rest he covered with hair.
So exactly, there you go, thereyou go.
God must be who we are.
I'm sorry.

Steve Coughran (40:41):
So, if he said, he said hey, you know I really
like you and who you are, so I'mgoing to go ahead and advance
you to a blue belt.
I know you've only been herefor about two weeks, but I just
want to move you to the bluebelt level.
I wouldn't want that Right,Because I, I would.

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Steve Coughran (42:06):
In the back of my mind I have this insecurity.
I want to have the confidencebecause I didn't go through the
hard stuff right.
And I mean, if you think aboutwhat's happening with AI and
everything else in the space,here's the problem, and I know
this isn't necessarily an AIepisode, but what happened back

(42:27):
in the day, like when I went togo write my first book, Shannon,
I'll tell you it like almostdestroyed my life.
I wrote the book.
It was a grind.
I mean, I'm not the best writerin the world, but I hired an
editor and then they'd give itback to me and they're like you
need to send back your revisions.
And I went through that, and Igave it to a book publisher and
then they they're like you needto read the thing and turn it

(42:48):
around by next Friday.
I'm like I got to read this200- page book and turn it
around and it's just this, somuch work to bring about the
book.
And it was reallytransformative.
The process was transformative.
That grind, they're likebreaking down in tears, just
like the discouragement, thefrustration, the fear, the faith

(43:08):
, like everything that wentalong with that.
Now the generation could go inand say, hey, I want to write a
book on sheds.
Put in chachubi t-bam, it'llbust out a book.
You have a book in a day, yeah,publish it, you're, and it's
like.
But what we're missing out on isthat journey, that journey in

(43:30):
the process, right, and the samething with me, with Jiu Jitsu,
like if I just advanced to ablue belt.
I missed out on all thelearning and growth, all the
takedowns, all the time that Ibanged my head, all the time
somebody put me in an arm bar,and I said, oh, don't do that,
don't put my arm back again orit's going to cause a lot of
pain.
All those early mornings, likeall the stuff like that allows
me to become as a human beingand I believe we all come to

(43:54):
earth to like, grow, to become,to progress.
I'd miss out on that.
So, I think in businesssometimes, like we get stuck at
different points.
Or maybe we're calling just tobuild a $5 million company,
maybe it's to build a billion-dollar company, who knows, but I
think it's less about to methis is just Steve speaking,
it's less about.

(44:15):
Okay, why am I not at a hundredmillion?
I, I'm so stuck.
Maybe my calling is to build a$20 million company and bless
all the people's lives who worksfor me.
So, like I don't like to losesight of that because some
companies think it's just scale,scale, scale, scale, scale, and
I don't always think that's theanswer.

Shed Geek (44:38):
I think it's more of this journey of like progression
, learning and becoming who weare supposed to be, who Steve is
supposed to be, who Shannon issupposed to be, et cetera, man,
I love, just like that wholefive minute skit that you just
did is kind of extremelyrelevant to my world and some of

(44:58):
those closest to me and youknow, like, uh, our, our sphere
of influence and and all of thatman, it's uh yeah, you've got
me in my head right now becausethese are things that are very
relevant to my life and and, uh,thinking about, even like the,
the, the podcast, and like the,the efforts that we've put in in
the industry, through thedifferent entities that I, I
feel have been blessed, you know, for us to be able to go and

(45:23):
and nothing happens, right,muscle doesn't build without
resistance, like you know.
Think like we're not called tohave an easy life.
You know, like we, we gothrough things because we're
able to then overcome them.
Uh, and that's the reason forthat difficult situation, um,
and instead, if you're like me,it's always like, oh, no,
deliver me from this difficultsituation.

(45:44):
And it's like right, so thatyou never go through anything
hard in your life.
Yeah, you know, that's the wayit's supposed to be.
No, you actually learn and it'sa resistance.
You know, you may know this, Idon't know.
You know this is a probablymarketing geek talk or whatever,
but you know, like Googlebought Reddit, right.
Like the reason they boughtReddit was because of that.

(46:04):
The reason they bought Redditwas because of that.
The AI advancements that you'reseeing of writing a book in a
day can sometimes be spottedbecause they're kind of generic
Now, sometimes they can't.
The descriptions on my show Ifyou're reading today the
description about Steve here,guess what's going to happen.
Ai is going to create thiswonderful description and

(46:27):
they're going to do it in all oftwo seconds and it's going to
sound way better than whenever Iused to sit down and try to
write this description and ittook me 30 minutes to try to
curate this description in a waythat was like interesting and
whatever.
I've actually gottencompliments on it.
People are like you must haveimproved your writing skills.
I'm like, actually I haven't,it's AI.

(46:48):
But then there's other timeswhere it's like it's obvious
that AI is generic, right, andit's like, oh, this book is kind
of lacking in terms of likein-depthness or something along
those lines, so they threw it inchat and that's why, like
Google bought Reddit for thatpurpose, right, reddit's got all
of these real-life situationslike I need to know how to

(47:10):
change the timing on a 1982Silverado, and it's like chat
can throw something up.
But even AI-generated podcaststhey're going and developing
that artificial intelligencefrom somewhere, probably from
someone else who's done apodcast.
Right, they're like trying touse the tone.

(47:30):
It's been kind of revolutionaryfor me in my life to kind of
understand this digital platform.
Gosh, it's just where AI isgoing to go.
I mean, you hear the presidenttalking about like we want to be
first in AI right now.
You know, like there's likethis race to I know this is

(47:54):
probably over exaggerating.
It was like almost like there'sthis race like we saw with
Russia with, you know, trying toget into space.
It's like this race with Chinato sort of like who's going to
develop and kind of control thespace in in artificial
intelligence as it moves forwardand does so many things.
It's revolutionary in our life,whether we want it or not.
Even things that are going tohappen.

(48:15):
And you, you know, saw aFacebook post this morning.
Somebody's like, you know,automation in this space, robots
building.
You know we don't just havepeople swinging hammers and
nails, now there's actuallypeople out there who are
creating these things to massproduce, you know, and then the
business is going to go downlike it feels, like it's going

(48:36):
to go down the same road,doesn't it?
Like all businesses go down of,like you know, market share
changes and mergers andacquisitions and, like you know,
is it?
Can you just build a shed, setit in your yard, sell it, make a
living, probably, you know.
But are you going to attainthat?
You know that $100 millionthreshold and you know it's

(49:01):
Steve, it's easy to say, oh, I'mnot going to attain that
because I don't want it.
I mean, it's like saying I'mnot going to start working out
because I'm afraid I'm going toget too big.
Right, no, it's like but youknow, like, did you do anything
today?
Or did you eat Oreos, RightLike right?
You know like, I at least wentfor a walk.
I'm in no fear of getting toobig that way, but by so, yeah, I

(49:23):
like everything that you'resaying.
What else do you do?
You've got some James said,you've got some really other
cool stuff going on, and I wentand looked it up Like you've got
a podcast.
You do some different things.
Give me a little info on Steveoutside of the business.

(49:43):
I got a big day tomorrow.
I have a fully finished 18 by40 cabin.
That's going to require two tothree mills to get it delivered
way back in the sticks and downa dirt lane.
With all the rain we've hadlately it's gonna be a mess, but
it needs a bigger mule well,when you talk, cardinal listens,
and you asked for it.

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(50:26):
That thing was awesome, that'sright.
You're talking about the onethey had up in Michigan at the
Shed Show, that monster meal man.
That thing was awesome, that'sright.
It's the one you've seen at all,the Shed Holler barbecues.
Man, yeah, there's nothing likea little diesel donkey to make
my day go so much better.

Steve Coughran (50:42):
Yeah.
So, I was a CFO of thisbillion-dollar company, and I
was flying back from Europe onmy 40th birthday and I'm sitting
on the plane and I'm thinkingyou know, what are the big
problems that you know I'minterested in?
And one of them was, as in theenergy space, we're building the
massive solar farms.
You know about approximately abillion people in the world that

(51:06):
don't have access toelectricity, which is crazy.
Right To think about that.
And I was like, okay, wow,that's a big problem.
And then the other problem wasfinancial literacy.
And so, like, I grew up with asingle mom you know for the
majority of my life, and she wasout there working her butt off
to support us.
She's like the hardest workerI've ever met, and she would

(51:27):
work multiple jobs just to paythe bills and we didn't see her.
So, money was a bad thing forme because it's like the our
lack of money took my mom awayfrom me and I needed my mom as a
teenage son without a dad.
And so, as time went on, I waslike you know what I'm really
passionate about this financialliteracy concept?
Because I think it can, like,bless people's lives, and so I'm

(51:50):
not a big like money guy.
I need the money to go buy thePorsche, to go buy the jet, to
go get the jet ski and all thisstuff.
Hey, that's nothing wrong withthat, that's your ambitions.
But for me, money is a vehicleto bless people's lives.
So, I created a podcast calledboosting your financial IQ, and
I've had other podcasts beforeand I could tell you, Shannon,
it's like the things you don'ttry at, that, that's where you

(52:12):
like succeed.
That, at least, that's myexperience sometimes.
So, I do this episode or these10 episodes.
I'm like I'm going to teachfinancial literacy.
I'm not going to.
I don't want to like repeatmyself how to read income
statements.
I'm just going to record 10episodes, put it out there,
didn't market, it Didn't tellanybody about it, I just put it
on like Spotify and Apple.
And then at first, it's liketwo episodes, two downloads.

(52:33):
The first episode I was like oh, my mom and my sister are so
sweet.
And then it's like five, andit's 10, it's 25, it's 50 and
time goes on.
And then here I was the CFO ofthis tech company and it's like
went from like 50, 75, 60, 73,is like right around that range.
Then it went to 500.
And I was like that's weird,what the heck?
Maybe there's an issue with thealgorithm or something.

(52:55):
And then the next week is like500 to a thousand and then it
like continued to grow and I waslike, wow, maybe there's
something here, so fast forward.
Here I am, you know, a couple ofyears later and I've had people
from all over the world reachout.
I think we have like 1.3million downloads, and so I have
people from you know Indonesiaand from France and from you

(53:18):
know Costa Rica, wherever allover the world, reaching out
saying thank you so much foryour podcast to change my life.
So I had this, um, this coursethat I used to sell, and I'd
sell for your podcast to changemy life.
So, I had this, this coursethat I used to sell, and I'd
sell for about 500 to 1000 bucks, and I had 100 video lessons
about financial literacy,business financial literacy, and
I used to sell it.
And at the beginning of theyear, in January, I had this

(53:38):
thought, this impression make itall free.
And it's like, okay, it's kindof a crazy thought, cause I
spent a lot of money on this andjust make it free.
Like I did, I took a leap offaith, and I made it free and,
um, I can't tell you, like thenumber of people who reach out

(53:59):
single moms, people in differentcountries.
I mean you gotta think like insome countries you make $3 a day
, so trying to buy a thousand-dollar course, yeah, that's
probably cost prohibitive.
So, I just made it free foreverybody.
And people reach out all thetime they say, wow, this is like
incredible, it changed my life,and so that gives me more, like
more fulfillment, I guess, thanmore dollars in my bank account

(54:24):
, so that I'm super passionateabout the boosting your
financial IQ.
I run that podcast.
I make negative dollars off it,so that's my joke.
The course it's free, nogimmicks, just get it for free
at byfiq.
com, boosting your financial IQ.
com.
But yeah, and then I have kids.

(54:44):
I have a 12 year old, I have anine-year-old, I got a wife.
I'm a man of faith.
Um, I like to run.
I'm a white belt.
You did so.
You guys just trying to likemake it through, um, but that
that's Steve.
In a nutshell, I just um, yeah,I love my life, I feel very
blessed and I just try to helppeople and don't know how all
the dots connect, but I'm surethey'll all connect one day.

Shed Geek (55:07):
Looking back and you're currently located in
Denver, Colorado.
That's where you're, you arehome, uh, bound, and then you've
wrote a couple of books.
What's what's a couple of yourbooks?
We'll try to put some links tothem, but, uh, in case
somebody's wanting to find outmore, read more or buy a couple,
whatever.

Steve Coughran (55:24):
Yeah, so I wrote a book called delivering value.
That was my first book.
Uh is just about the seven P'sof value creation.
Um, I wrote a book calledoutsizing and that's about how
to take strategy and financetogether to drive value.
So, if you want to fall asleepor if you have sleeping issues,

(55:44):
definitely get that book.
Guarantee you read one page.
You get that book.
Guarantee you read one page,you'll be out okay, or your
money back guaranteed.
But no, all kidding aside, Iwrote that book.
And I wrote Reframing Rich, andthat's more about a different
way to look at money as financeprinciples, but also as personal
stories for my life.
And then, most recently, Iwrote a book called Cashflow.
Because so many businessesstruggle with cashflow, I wanted

(56:05):
to write a book fornon-financial people to
understand how does cashflowwork and how to get more of it.

Shed Geek (56:12):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to get one of each
Um after this, after we in thepodcast stay on, I'll figure out
how to get that for people whowant to reach out to you.
How, how?
If someone's like hey, I justreally enjoyed this, so I want
to call this guy, talk to him,do a discovery, call something.
You know, um, I reached out toyou through this contact,
through James, so you didn'tlike call me, say I want to sell

(56:34):
somebody something, uh, butsomebody's just you know, uh,
enlightened by the conversationand want to do more or have more
.

Steve Coughran (56:41):
How they contact you yeah, so you could always,
uh, find me at cultivar.
com, that's my company, if youever want to talk business, talk
shop.
But probably most people findme on LinkedIn.
So, if you just look up SteveCochran, send me a DM, connect
with me.
I'd love to hear from you.
So, any feedback you have maybeyou have feedback good, bad,

(57:03):
ugly, indifferent, or you justwant to connect hey, happy to do
that.

Shed Geek (57:07):
You're in Denver.
Are you a Rockies fan and aNuggets fan and a Broncos fan?
I don't know if they have a NHLteam.
Maybe I should, but I don'tknow.

Steve Coughran (57:17):
I don't have a lot.
I don't watch a lot of TV, so Idon't follow them religiously.
But I do like going to aRockies game in the summer and
just sitting there with myfamily and seeing the green
grass.
I love that.
But we do like the nuggets, sowe will go to um a few nugget
games during the winter and it'syeah, that's our, our little
family gig.
We and they got close, they gotclose.

Shed Geek (57:39):
This year they got close like it was a game seven.
They did, they did really good,and they won last year.
So, I mean, I guess, going intoit, they were, you know, kind
of favored, but man, I love theconnection.
Uh, James made the connectionquite a while back and it's
we've.
We've just been so contentheavy.
I mean.
The truth is, you know, um, youknow your, your story, and just

(58:02):
getting to know you is veryrelevant to like where a lot of
things play out for me, even inthis moment.
I mean, you know I don't go toodeep, I don't get in the weeds,
but you know I started apodcast because it was a passion
project.
The next thing, you know, somepeople were asking me, can we
advertise?
And I was like I don't know.
Sure, you know, I was like,well, what do you have in front

(58:23):
of your audience?
And like kind of the same story.
You know, we, we, we were veryB2C, so we weren't just going
for like general knowledge toanyone.
Talk about a snooze fest.
Somebody gets on here and westart talking about the
in-depths of CRMs, 3dconfigurators and POS systems
and if you get into the weedstoo far, and it's just your
average person.
They're going to be like whatshed geek, and they're what.

(58:45):
I don't even know what this is.
What are you talking about?
There's more acronyms here thanI know what to do with um, but
for for me it was just like thisbig learning curve and it was
like cool people want toadvertise, so I'll do that.
And then people was like, well,you better stay in that space.
And it was like what if I getin here and like I don't like it
over here, some people do, somedon't Like you got to justify

(59:05):
every decision you know kind ofthat you make.
And it's like man, I'll tellyou what man, I'm just going to
really try to hear from God onthis.
How about that?
How about if I just really justlike hand everything that I
have over to him this podcast,this business, anything that he

(59:27):
wants me to do and then I reallyjust like put the rest behind
me and just move on and try toserve and and do the best we can
.
Uh, I'm learning so much.
I mean, we're five years in andI'm learning so much.
I want to read your books,because I'm like so hooked on
getting up every morning andhave a quiet time and reading
things.
That that, uh, I eat.
Through high school, Steve,like I didn't want to learn, I
was like I want to get out thereand work.
And you know, now I'm like Iwant to quit work and go read.

(59:49):
You know, it's just being ableto acquire information and
having a hunger for it, like Ididn't I.
I've already looked at yourwebsite.
I want to start following yourpodcast.
I want to listen to that forsure, and I definitely want to
talk to you.
But I'm happy to order somebooks, encourage others to read

(01:00:10):
them.
Maybe not the snooze fest books, but we'll see, maybe.
I believe no, nothing is wastedwhenever it's trying to educate
yourself.
Man, I would love to talk withyou sometime about coming back
on.
We'll get in the weeds a littlebit more, if you, if you'd like
.

(01:00:30):
I hope you get some calls fromthis.
I think you know more thananything.
I hope you get some discoverycalls or some people that just
want to know more about you orreach out, or hey, tell them
that you heard it on the ShedGeek podcast.
That's all I ask.
It gives at least me a littlebit of credibility and, man, any
questions for me.
I've done this for a long timenow.
Sometimes I hit miss, sometimeswe pray at the end of the
podcast.
We're people of faith, for sure, too this whole industry really

(01:00:53):
but I always ask people do youhave questions for me?
Because I spend so much timeasking you questions, whether
it's podcasting or sheds orpersonal or anything, any
questions that you have.

Steve Coughran (01:01:07):
Yeah, I mean I'm always curious, just like what,
what is like heaviest on yourheart lately, like what are you
most passionate about in in lifeand like when you're looking
ahead to the future.
I think there's a lot of fearmongers and reasons to have
despair and discouragement.
But like what gets you excitedlately and like what's on your
heart, oh, man, uh, that'sparticularly, um, a good

(01:01:33):
question.

Shed Geek (01:01:34):
When you say lately, like had it just been kind of a
thought, but you know, uh, whereI'm sitting right now, it's
kind of unusual.
You know, like, um, faithreally does play a big, a big
part of who I am, to the pointwhere you know, like I've never
been called a pastor.
I did some prison ministry andyou know some different things
and drug and alcoholrehabilitation ministry, and

(01:01:57):
I've always been reallypassionate about trying to help
people.
You know we've been helpingpeople in business, but we've
been, you know, learning too.
But about six months ago, justunknowingly what God's plan is
and how it was, we bought achurch.

(01:02:20):
Like I'm sitting inside achurch right now.
You know it was a hundred yearold church and it went.
It went, pretty much fell apartduring covid and it got sold
and we bought it from thoseowners.
We were just looking for aplace, we were looking for an
office and we really neededprobably like a thousand square
feet or so because we were inour working out of our home and
it was getting crowded and webought this, which is six

(01:02:42):
thousand square feet.
So that makes perfect sense,right, you know all this room.
But my son, who's 20, who worksfor us, needed a place to live
and he's like you know what thatactually is set up in the
basement where I could livethere.
I mean, there's everything Ineed and he's 20, so he doesn't
really need a whole lot and itwas just, like you know, a
really good deal.
We made an offer on it.

(01:03:13):
I guess it was about six months.
In that I was like, why don't Ichurch?
You realize there's a lot ofchurch.
So God's really been, you know,uh, not calling me to um, be a
pastor, but certainly, uh,possibly evangelize at a hit on
a different level throughpodcasting, because it has been
such a big part of my story andI think I was training to, to,
to be a podcaster all my lifeand just didn't know it, you

(01:03:33):
know.
So, whenever I started gettingthe compliments, you know, oh
man, you do a really good job,or I like your questions, I was
like me, like, like you like it,you know like I'm.
So, I'm so like doubtful to belike, oh, okay, well, maybe I
should do more of this, and it'slike you can find a way to

(01:03:54):
increase the kingdom of Godthrough, through making the
world a better place.
I mean part of the podcast.
For me, Steve, is communication,I feel like, can solve so many
problems, and I just feel likewe don't.
We don't communicate well aspeople because of our, our egos,
because of our desires, wants,uh, greediness, or it's just a
lot of things, and, like I'm, Ithrow myself in that circle.

(01:04:17):
I'm not agnostic from thatgroup.
I'm part of that problem too,and I just feel like if we could
work to be better, we could, wecould stop wars, we could feed
people, we could, you know, like, get people electricity.
There's just things that wecould do if the heart was right.
And um, and I do think that youhave to spend a lot of time
producing content that peopleare willing to sit and listen to

(01:04:39):
in their private time, goingdown the road, building a shed,
hauling a shed, just in theirsales office, wherever it is,
and whatever they're doing.
I believe that if we're soinfluenced by people, but if we
get alone by ourselves, and it'sjust us and we're alone with
our thoughts and God, I believethat people, you know, attempt

(01:05:00):
to be good in nature and want tohelp people and do good things
for people, and so I'm justtrying to be part of that
process, man.
I'm just trying to be a willingvessel as best I can.
That's, that's really all.
So that's what's got me excited.
I want to talk more about it,and I could give you an idea,
but it's going to be anotherpodcast episode, so that's the
reason why I'm being mysteriousright now.

(01:05:21):
Okay, we'll save that foranother time.
No, this has been great.
Thank you so much, Shannon.
Well, appreciate you being ontoday.

OUTRO (01:05:30):
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sponsor for 2025.
If you need any moreinformation about shed pro or
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(01:05:53):
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Thank you again for listening,as always, to today's episode of
the Shed Geek Podcast.
Thank you and have a blessedday.