SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Dan Van Orden, founder of Idea Realm, and we're proud to be the official sponsors of the American Build Special Podcast. Enjoy the episode, guys. America builds better. Well, well, well. So we're back with another episode of America Builds Better. And it has been an awesome week here in Southwest Ohio. And I can tell you the weather is starting to go in our direction. So if you are sitting worrying about the sheds, worrying about the metal buildings, the pole barns, I can tell you it seems like the weather is starting to cooperate with us here in Southwest Ohio, at least. We have been busy. I want to give a shout out to our team at Idea Room. Thank you to Idea Room for giving us the opportunity to be here with you guys each and every week on the podcast, talking about all things business development, community, uh buildings, et cetera, et cetera. We are excited and thrilled to have a partnership with Idea Room. If you're looking for a 3D configurator for metal buildings, sheds, post frame buildings, there they're going to help you out. Our friends over at Shieldwall Media, check out the Postframe Rural Plane and Builder show coming to York PA June the 10th and the 11th. We will be there. America Builds Better will be there in person with our friends from Defined SEO, Idea Room, and all of the above. We are back this week with a former guest of the Steel Kings podcast. And man, I have an immense amount of respect for this guy. He has one of the hardest jobs. He is a state rep from the 40th district here in Ohio. He serves, he is my uh state rep. He is just a friend of the program, friend of me personally. Um, he is a farmer, so he gets his hands dirty, he works hard, and I'll tell you, um, he'll give you a little bit more about himself. But Rodney Creech is back, and I am really honored to bring him on to America Builds Better. Where are you? There you are, Rodney. What's going on, man? How are you?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

It's you know, I tell everybody I've never had a bad Friday, but today is Good Friday. That's right. Uh it's great to be with you, and what an exciting weekend we're gonna have uh for the man who died for us.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, man. We are uh we are beyond blessed to be hanging out on Good Friday, April the 3rd, uh getting ready for Easter celebrations and the like. And I can tell you, I I don't think I'd rather have anybody on with me right now just to talk whatever it is and kind of give an update on what you're doing and the future of all things, right? But I think the thing that I wanted to, I really want your opinion on something that's been coming across from people in the industry, and that's like loyalty, right? Loyalty and business. So tell the audience a little bit about yourself, remind them who you are, what you've done, and what you're up to these days.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Well, yeah, thank you, Jared, for having me. And you know, it's it's an honor to be on your program and and to be able to talk to you. And you know, we have a lot of good discussions regarding politics and business. And oh yeah, you know, the one thing's the one thing that, you know, even though we think a lot alike, I want people to know that we don't agree on everything. And uh man, I'll tell you, uh, that's what makes America healthy. Um, you know, I always said if if we agreed on everything, somebody's lying because nobody agrees on everything. So, first of all, I just want to thank you for being a friend. And, you know, sometimes you'll call me out and sometimes I'll call you out, but that's what true friendships are about, especially in politics. And uh, but no, a little bit about me. Um, you know, I'm a fourth generation grain farmer. The house that I'm in right now, uh, my grandfather moved into when he was seven years old. And uh, you know, so I was raised here. I live down the road about a quarter of a mile, and I currently live on the fourth, fourth generation farm, farm with my father. Um, and it's been a blessing to, you know, live off the land, if you will. Um, and you know, like any farmer, um, a young farmer, uh, it's very hard to make a living off the farm. So I, you know, after I got out of college, um I started a business and uh just sold that business uh last year after 20 years. It was a lawn health business where we focused on fertilization, we control seed and aeration. Um, very, very similar to a true greener Scott's is what the business we had. And uh so, you know, we when you said talk about loyalty, I was like, you know what, we can definitely do that because I've learned a lot over 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

I can tell you, man, I've watched you for a long time, right? I mean, you've been a state rep now that you you you're running for re-election on uh how many terms?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Uh this will be my fourth and final term.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Fourth and final term as a state rep. That's a big deal in Ohio. I mean, obviously, y'all have watched the journey of Jared become business owner, podcast guy, now sitting on city council. A lot of that has to do with motivation from guys like Rodney. So I can tell you I've taken a lot of that to heart and really put my my best foot forward, right? I try to be honest in all dealings and I want to get out in the community and do something good for somebody else that makes you feel better. And Rodney was a huge proponent of pushing me to get my voice out there and be more involved in the community. So that's why we have him back on the program as we start this new journey with America Builds Better. And what better way to have somebody on that is in the kind of in the pit all the time, right? You're working for us here in Ohio, you're putting your best foot forward, and I can tell you it's not always the easiest thing in the world. So don't hear it from anybody else today. I appreciate you um really putting your money where your mouth is because it's it's not the easiest thing in the world these days.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Well, it's an honor to serve. I can tell you that. It's you know, going into what we're talking about today, I you know, I look at the political world and the business world, they're really similar, and we can talk about that. Um at the end of the day, serving your customer is no different than serving your constituents. You know, you want to underpromise, you want to overdeliver, you want to show up on time. You really, I you know, I tell everybody that in my in my mind, um, business helped prepare me for politics. Um, because at the end of the day, your your your constituent is your customer. They're not a paying customer, but technically they kind of are too, because they pay taxes and they pay my salary. Um, but they're not a paying customer for a service. Um, and then, you know, in business you can fire customers. And in politics, you can't. So a lot of times I'll have people call me up. They may be calling me a F-word uh on Tuesday, and but they need something on Wednesday, and I've got to look over that. And you know, in the business world, you can say, you know what, it was nice doing business with you. Don't ever call me again. And I have said that in politics, trust me. Um, but I try not to, you know, if the people cross the line, disrespect or whatever, then I'm done with them. But you know, it's it's an interesting, it's interesting when you compare politics and business. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

It is, it is because I'll tell you, you know, I always use the logic what's what's best for business, right? When I when I operate inside these walls, and I've had relationships that have been broken, lost. Um, I think what I'm going through right now on a personal level is I transition from working with the Steel Kings podcast to now doing America Builds Better. And as we continue to work with Dayton Barnes and Five Rivers Pole Barnes here locally in Southwest Ohio, I lean on people like Rodney for guidance because it's hard to when you kind of lay your bags down at the feet of someone, and these are your employees, you trust that they're going to be loyal and they're going to be honest with you in all their dealings. And I don't know that, you know, I don't know that these days that I feel like that's kind of a lost commodity. Maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just missing something, but I think from an overarch, I feel like that is something that is lost these days. And I think from in the industry that we're in, so we're talking specifically, almost exclusively, to people who are selling sheds, metal buildings, post frame buildings. We're also talking to people who manufacture components for those same buildings. This is not like a Jared Ledford problem. This seems to be an industry problem. And then when you go outside of the span that we're talking about here on this podcast, it seems to be a nationwide epidemic of like chasing the, you know, if I can make a penny over there and work significantly harder to make that penny, I'm gonna make it harder for the two people behind me to make their pennies. Am I wrong in thinking that?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

No, I mean, I think we're in the age where we got to see, you know, I think every generation says that, you know, the one before they can they can judge the the generation before and after them.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Every generation gets to do that, and that's where we're at right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

And so I think we were born at an interesting time because, you know, my grandfather uh in his early, early, early years was farming with horses. And, you know, when we lost my grandpa, we were farming with pretty big tractors. And so it's easy to say that they've seen a lot of change in technology. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of changes, you know, everywhere. Um, but the one thing um that I've noticed is, you know, when we were kids, there were people that were retiring from 30 years at Company A.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Or, you know, or maybe at most, they had two to three careers within their entire working life. Yeah. And today, you know, I always feel like um it is more of a what can the employer do for me and not what can I do for the customer. And it's they're chasing money, they're chasing dreams. And, you know, the one thing I would say is, you know, about being loyal is, you know, if you if you have a dream you want to succeed, uh, you know, if you say, I want to buy this, I there's a farm over here I want to buy, or there's this sports car I want to buy, you've got to, you've got to set that goal and and and work hard and and and to attain it. And today, people say, I don't want to work hard for it. I'm gonna go ahead and buy it. And, you know, it's just everything's changed. I mean, back when we were kids, people didn't use credit cards. You know, they if you couldn't pay cash, you didn't get it. And why do I say that? Look, let's come to today's world where we look at, you know, you can bend over backwards for a customer or an employee, but if somebody walks through that door, like you said, and they say, hey, we can save you X amount percent or whatever it is, they jump at it. And so one of the things that I built myself on, both in business and politics, is loyalty. It's like, I mean, you know, I don't call and get fuel prices. I can call, we we got fuel tanks out here uh that get delivered every week. I've been dealing with one guy for years. I don't care what anybody else's prices are. I know when I call Johnny, he's gonna be Johnny on the spot. There's been times that I've called him and said, Johnny, my tanks are empty. Yeah, and he comes here right away and fills them. That's worth more than money to me. That's true and so loyal loyalty pays. I think loyalty, I think you save money if you're loyal.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

That's why I wanted to ask you that question, because I feel like part of the the just the overall failure that we're suffering as a society is that we are diluting everything, everything is getting diluted down. So we've watched it in Southwest Ohio, right? We've watched businesses pick up and leave. There's a few big ones leaving right now. You know, we have watched that the economy in Montgomery County, Southwest Ohio just get decimated over the last couple of decades with losses of jobs, and as that stuff gets to start to be spread thin, it starts to affect every small business around it. Every single, you know, economic measures are built on your biggest businesses, right? And I'm starting to feel it now as a small business owner here in Dayton, you know, as an owner of Dayton Barnes and All Steel Buildings, we've been doing this now for seven years, right? And the nature of the beast is when you hire people to do a job, they can always leave and go do that job for somebody else, and that's perfectly fine and dandy. But what happens is over time, if at one time there let's just say there was 50 metal building dealers nationwide who dealt metal buildings, right? Now there's 3,000 dealers who deal metal buildings, and that's not a I mean, I think for the people who are listening, that's probably a real statistic. Seriously, do you not think that that drives the cost down? Do you not think that that drives the overall quality of the product down? Do you not think that that hurts everyone in one fill swoop, specifically the manufacturers who are feeling it the most because all of a sudden they have 2,000 dealers, which is great, but they're feeling it in their in their wallets because now the dealers compete against each other and drive the price of the product down. Yeah, the availability is so much the the availability of the product is just you can pick it up anywhere, right? There's nothing unique about it anymore, and that's why we have to set ourselves apart as a dealer of those structures to have you know an in-office team, a knowledgeable team. People here that have worked with our 3D designers and configurators, like our partners at Idea Room, right? Those are what we have to have to set ourselves apart. But if over time we completely dilute the market and make it less than, what do you think customers see? That's right, you know, and from a loyalty perspective, it isn't necessarily like I want you to stay and work with me forever and make less money. It's that do you want the product that you are you gonna honor the product in which you sell? Do you really believe in the product that you sell? And can you sell it at a premium price because you're selling a premium product? You know, we talked recently, you and I, about John Deere, right? There's other tractors, but they're not John Deere. Yeah, and John Deere keeps it tight, right? Yep, they've done a very good job of balancing right that quality, that growth strategy without sacrificing the end quality product, yeah, right. I mean, I have a John Deere riding mower, you have a John Deere combine, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I actually have we are 100% John Deere, but we do have a case combine. Case makes a very good case.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Okay, case combine. So I don't again, not putting Rodney on the spot. I don't know. I didn't ask him that. This isn't a John Deere spokes, but I can tell you, I love my mower.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It's easy to through.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah, I love my John Deere mower. I've got a nice little rider, like a 52-inch. It's a regular standard turn. I don't know much about that stuff, but I can tell you I'm loyal to the product line, right? You know, Boone's Boone's power equipment right there in Brookville, just outside Brookville. Love it. Love the guys there, love Daniel and his staff. They've done a great job for me over the years. I'm like Rodney, I don't care what it costs, I don't even care about it. I go out there, pick my stuff up, and I go home. I'm doing what you're gonna get. I get the quality product every time. I don't sacrifice what I want just to save a nickel or a dollar. And I'm not saying that you can do that in all situations, but there are circumstances where loyalty pays off. Rodney just gave you an example. His fuel supplier will show up if he needs him. Can't put a value on that.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

When you're out of gas, if I call Johnny, he'd be here at nine o'clock at night. I guarantee he'd stop watching whatever he's watching on TV and bring me fuel because I know when you're out of fuel, brother.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

That's that's a problem, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:53

But you know, Jared, one thing we got to talk about though, we're talking about loyalty.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah, talk to me.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Okay, so you you've got loyalty of the of the business owner, yeah. You've got loyalty from the custom from the from the um uh employees, yeah, and then you got loyalty from your customer. And you know, I think it all starts at the top, and and so if you want people to be loyal to you, then you have to know how to be loyal to others.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

That's why my thing is not that's that's why it hurts when they're not loyal to you. When you're overly loyal as a business owner, that's why you take it personal when things start to not show that loyalty below you because you may you know this. You were a business owner for 20 years, you've dealt with this nonstop. How many times did you sacrifice for an employee?

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Oh, many, many times.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

That's right. As a business owner, I I I recall recently, I've probably been within the last 18 months. I had a project coordinator here in the office. He needed tires, like badly, badly needed tires. And I I was looking, you know, we were walking out one evening after work, and I'm like, I'm like, buddy, your your your tires, they're looking a little a little sketchy to me. Like I'm seeing some cordage in these tires, and you're driving. So this is a guy that drives from Brookville up to Urbana, Rodney. He drives, you know, from Brookville. This is a guy that I grew up with, a guy that I I know his family. And and we went and got tires on his car. You know, did I expect to be repaid for that? Well, no, I didn't. He's sacrificing his time and his and his attention for my business to help me grow what we're doing here at Dayton Barnes. And you know, he kept offering to pay me back, like, hey, I've got the money now, I can pay you back. No, just consider it, just consider it a gift, right? Like that's that's the bonus you're getting right now because I saw you were in a moment of need and I had that opportunity to take care of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

That's awesome. You know, you know and and and and and that can go one of two ways. Um, he could say thank you, and I'll be forever grateful and I'll give you all I got. Just give me all you got. Or he could come back to you two weeks later and say, Hey, I I can get a dollar an hour increase down the road. It's an extra drive, and then you say, wait a minute, you know, I put tires on your car so you could drive here and and and you know, we work together. It's just, you know, and I think we've just I don't know how we get back to that point to where, and it's not a I do something for you and you owe me. That's that's not you, you did not do that. You did not do that for anything in return, nor would I. But you know, but what is it when I do something you scratch my back and I scratch yours, but then you say I'm scratching everybody else's back, but they're putting a knife in mine. That's just what is so hard to understand. It's like, how do you people sleep at night, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

These days it's really tough to be able to look somebody in the eyes and say, I know that I can do business with you and be clear-headed, and whatever comes out of your mouth is going to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I think there's two things in there's two things in our society that have changed a lot. You talked about people working in a job for 30 years retiring. We don't have jobs anymore that are set up with the kind of retirement that's needed. That's a totally different type of discussion from a small business perspective, and I know you go over and above for the small business owners in your community that you serve as the leader of you know, the state, the state rep for where we live, you go above and beyond. Now, if you're a business owner and you're in Rodney's district and you're not reaching out to him, you can't blame him for not reaching out to you. There's a million and one businesses in Southwest Ohio, specifically in Rodney's district. But I can tell you, he he is not shying away from communication with business owners. That's how he and I connected, right? And Rodney and I have become really good friends over the last couple of years because again, Rodney will take it right on the chin if you give it to him. I've given it to him before. What am I wrong? Am I wrong?

SPEAKER_02 19:48

I mean, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I mean, you you don't get rude, you don't get dismissive. You've taken my feedback, both good, bad, and indifferent. And most of the time, we see eye to eye probably 75% of the time.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

I was gonna say 80, so you're close. We're in the same ballpark.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I think 80's good, you know. We want what's best for Ohio, we want to see Ohio grow and thrive and survive. I want to grow my small business, my couple of small businesses here in Ohio, and he's done next level things. And again, this is how working with people, and again, Rodney's in a unique situation, but working amongst your business owners locally, working amongst your business owners nationally. If you're somebody like Dayton Barnes, I get called out a lot, Rodney. So I know you don't know like a lot about what we do as far as like metal building sheds and and pole barns. You can imagine what it's like. Everybody in this industry is like, no, those are my customers. This is how I do it. Stay away from me. People get crazy and get uh sideways with me because I talk about it. I talk about what works. Yeah, rising tide raises all ships. I want the industry to do better. You and I have talked about zoning issues with metal buildings, we've talked about how municipalities will shut stuff down if it's not done right. The race to the bottom will kill the industry. I'm telling you right now, I'm I'm absolutely quite certain of it. You know, we have really gotten into post frame, Rodney. We've done a lot of poll barns. Pole barns are super easy. Municipalities, zoning departments, they're accepted stack, you know, they're accepted standards, right? Because there's a governing body, not not necessarily a governing body, but there's a trade association attached to pole barns that work with legislators, state reps, they go to the they go to the state houses and they say, This is how we expect poll barns to be manufactured and installed in your area of the country. How can we go about making it easier for people to get these buildings? Steel buildings and sheds haven't figured that out yet. Who knows if they will.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Well, you know, one thing we were talking about earlier, too, and you know, I I love, I mean, we could probably do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

This for hours, but we did we could have a podcast just me and you.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yeah, I mean we could do this for hours, but you know, one of the things too, um, and and this is one of the things that so I was also a dealer for Bex Hybrids, which Bex Hybrid is they sell corn and soybeans to farmers, yeah. Um, and and one of the things that I heard that um that I'll I'll never forget is um uh you know treating treating your customer how you want to be treated, and it was the the golden rule, and they always live by that. And but this is one one of the things that they said we're not a seed company, we're a customer service company that happens to sell seed. Yeah, and when you think about that, that and when I was working for them, and I'm telling you, they were just a treated people as you want to be treated, they taught me how to run a business as a dealer for them. Yeah, and and so when I started thinking about that, and I'm thinking, you know what? I am I want to be a anybody can apply fertilizer, anybody can kill weeds. I mean, you can buy these products at Walmart, you do not need me to take care of your lawn. But what you do need, you're gonna need me when something goes wrong or when we come out of a drought and you don't know how to take care of that lawn, you're gonna be looking for advice. And so one of the things that I did, if you want to build loyalty, I think you need to build value. And and and I'm talking as a person, I'm talking as a business owner, you know, you've got to build value. And so one of the things that I've always looked at, and I'm telling you, we you know, we build a very good, you know, we were at 49 employees when I sold, we you know, we were over 40 trucks, and and how did I do that? Not magic. It was not magic. It was it was doing what I said I was gonna do. If I screwed up, you know, if if if I if if our team screwed up, we didn't make excuses, we made it right. And so if you want to build loyalty, or excuse me, if you want loyalty, you can't ask for it, you got to earn it and build it.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

And so, you know, I think a lot of people just expect loyalty, and uh that's something you should never expect.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

I've made that personal thing, Rodney. I've made that mistake. I mean, I'd be the first one to own up to it. I I I've made that mistake in spades, right? You know, you just trust that it's gonna be that way, and you and you sometimes you think, and this has been my big miss, is I've tried to throw money at it, right? I've tried to throw money at the loyalty, and sometimes loyalty is the one thing you cannot buy. There is not enough money in the world when somebody feels a sort of way. I want to ask you a question. So you said you worked with Bex, so you and again, take that off the table. Just a dealer seller, well, a dealer and a manufacturer type of situation. You were a dealer for somebody 15 years, yeah. If Bex had gone to 15 minutes down the road from you and said, Hey, I want you to sell, and you might impact Rodney's business, but we don't care about it, you would have never expected to continue to work in that relationship. It would have burned you. That's another thing in this industry that really is starting to get bad is there's shed manufacturers out there who want to put sheds all over the place, and that's fine, but they'll cut their dealers' legs off just because they want to have one more lot. And what they're really doing is they're cutting their business in half, they're not growing it, they're not expanding that market, they're just cutting the legs out from underneath one of the dealers to get market share on maybe the same exact number of customers. Yeah, what do you think about stuff like that? And I know I'm being very I'm trying to be very uh professional in how I word this, but it's the same with metal buildings and pole barns too. Pole barns specifically give territories, so most of the suppliers have really strict, like geographical territory breakdowns. And again, this is just post frame versus metal versus sheds. Post frame guys are like 100 miles, and anybody who wants to sell for the supplier that I work with, which is Graber Post, they have to talk to me about it before they bring on any more people selling their product, which is great. You know, working with Graeber's been next level because it's given me a free education in how to not only do business for myself, but how to interact with manufacturers. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

You know, I have mixed feelings on it, to be honest with you. I mean, and I'll tell you why.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Bex You're a free market guy. That's why I wanted to ask.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

I'm a free market guy, man.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

I know you are through and through no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

And and and you know, I'll tell you this. There were two Bex dealers in Preble County when I got mine.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

And and when I became a Bex dealer in the first five years, I blew the other two out of the water.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

And I continued to blow them out of the water.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

And until I technically sold the business. I sold that business too. And it was a separate business. And so, you know, my theory is this, and and I, and I'm not saying this to if you're doing the best job you can do, and that company knows it, and they put somebody in your backyard, shame on them. Yeah, but if you're not doing the best you can do, maybe they need to put somebody in your backyard to make you more loyal to them. And so, you know, I can tell you, like you said, that you know, rising water lists all ships. And I think when I got my dealership, I know for a fact it made the other two dealers go, we better up our game a little bit. Yeah. So, you know, when you're looking at the American way like that, and you know, it's beautiful. Um, but I also understand your take on it to say, you know, is this company really being loyal to their current distributors? You know, I would have to say, you know, as a current distributor, you know, what have you done to grow your business? Because I'm sorry, at the end of the day, the supplier wants to sell as much product as possible. Are you helping them do that? You know, so I got mixed feelings on it, but I was one of those new dealers that came in.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I love that perspective because I feel like that's an outsider's perspective looking at the same type of problem. And there's multiple, I mean, there's probably goodness, who knows how many people are having that exact issue, but that's been one that has come across my desk more often than not over the last two years of time. Where, hey, Jared, you know, one of the one of the problems I have with selling metal buildings is that I was doing really well with a company, and all of a sudden there was a dude 20 minutes away from me selling the exact same product as me, and he comes in and gets a share of the of the audience, comes in and gets a share of the of the client base, and now my business is hurting because that manufacturer decided to do that. And I'll be honest, I've heard it from the other side of the token where the manufacturers are like, we've got too many dealers now. How do we scale this back without yeah, they've gone, they've gone too far, and there's a there's a really fine balance here where if you're trying to grow your business and you want to have dealers or whatever all over the place, there is a moment in time when that's gonna break. There's too much cost.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Instead of having a few successful dealers, you're gonna have no successful dealers.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

And you know, I think again, when we look at, and that's what I love about this.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

I mean, we're you know, we can I mean that that's you know, I don't question Rodney. You just hit it on the head. You gave everybody a really good peek behind the curtain of why they would come in and have more dealers, right? But you're also hitting it back and saying, if you go too far, the free market will correct itself again, and there'll be a new player in your backyard who is not the current manufacturer in that area. Now all of a sudden you have competition on top of it. That's how in metal buildings specifically, you just nailed it. That I love that because you just nailed in so many words why the metal building market, the cost of the components is down when the tariffs and everything else should be driving the cost up. We should be forcing ourselves to a higher standard right now. We have to continue to drop the price and be more and more competitive because we are literally killing each other. Yeah, you just I mean, we like to call that greed. And yeah, that's greed, Rodney. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

We like to call it greed, but but I will tell you this. I mean, I'll tell you this, Jared. And we we have to put ourselves in everybody else's shoes. Um, if I'm if I'm selling widgets, all right, and I want to sell as many widgets as I possibly can. My goal is to get all my friends to sell widgets. Now, here's the problem some of my friends would be really good at selling widgets, and most of them would suck. So, what you just did is you took people that are really good and people that suck and gave them the same opportunity. And the ones that suck are gonna make the bad the good ones look bad.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

That's right. That's that's suck, man. See, this is why I wanted to ask you these questions because I knew we could get I knew we'd get there. I knew we would absolutely get there because to me well we've lived it. We've lived it, you know. I'm living it, I'm living it currently, right? Yeah, you hear from it right now. You you have had, I mean, just the successes that you have had, I I I am in just in awe of what you've been able to accomplish and the and the the things you've dealt with and everything else, right? But I can tell you, from a small business owner to a state rep, I appreciate that honesty about you because we just went really full circle in about five minutes, right? You gave us why free markets work in every capacity. Free markets work because it will expand everything, but free markets will eat you up if you're greedy. You will absolutely fail if you don't see if you don't see the value for manufacturers out there. Take a word of advice from what Rodney just said and what I'm telling you. Stay loyal to the ones who are working hard for you. The ones who are working hard for you, probably if they're not performing at the level that you want them to, do they know what level you need from them? Have you made that crystal clear? And if they know and they're not achieving it, what have you done to help them achieve it? Have you given them additional marketing budgets? Have you given them all the proper tools to stay in a tech savvy world where you can do anything you want in an online environment? Have you given them all the tools necessary to be successful? Why do you have a question, manufacturers, on why people are loyal to you? Are you being as competitive with your competition, manufacturer to manufacturer, as you should be? Because if somebody comes knocking on my door, I know who I work for. I work for these guys and gals in this shop who need to feed their families. And if they tell me that we're getting our butts kicked in pricing, you can bet I'm gonna take a call from another manufacturer that says, Hey, we're offering a discount right now. Because who wins there, Rodney? The customer wins. The customer wins, right? And again, you said that from the beginning. We have to value the customer. What the customer gets. I'm in the customer service business. I'm a customer service business that happens to sell metal buildings, pole barns, and sheds.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

That's what I'm in. That's the free market that I control. And from a dealer perspective, play that last minute and a half back in your mind for the rest of your lives.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Take care of your customers. Customers will never let you down if you take care of them.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Well, and I would take that a step farther. Take care of your employees and they'll take care of your customers too. Because there you go. You know, I think a lot of times people will or they're very loyal to their customers, but they treat their employees like crap. And keep in mind, if your employees aren't happy, neither will you be. And so, you know, I think if there's just so much that goes into this, but you know, the one thing that you just sparked a uh something with me, and you know, it's hard enough to work against your competition, but it's another one to work against your friends that are in the same business as you. And so, you know, I shouldn't have to separate myself from other Bex dealers, and you shouldn't have to separate yourself from other building dealers. That's right. But again, it comes back to when you hire those 10 friends with the selling the widgets, yeah. You know, the two or three that are really good with people, the two or three that are really good with time, and the two or three that understand that they're gonna shine.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

And the rest are gonna fall. And so my theory is, you know, why would you want 10 dealers when you could put all your focus into two?

SPEAKER_00 34:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

And I'm still, you know, and so I think, you know, every business is different, it's fun, you know, and a lot of this, you know, you what you you may say, yeah, this probably this guy's probably if we hire 10, this guy's gonna finish ninth. And if we, you know, this guy will probably be in the lead. And then you look back a year later and you'll go, Oh, I didn't see this one coming, you know, and and so sometimes we're wrong about you know what we think is gonna happen too. But at the end of the day, being loyal to people, I'll I'll tell you this, Jared, being in politics, and I just had a conversation, I was at the YMCA this morning, had a meeting at the YMCA this morning, and I was telling them, I said, you know, the key is uh in business and politics is being loyal to everybody no matter what. Because now that I've been in politics for 18 years, people know I'm not a politician, they know that. Um, you know, and and and my goal in life is to never be a politician. Now, do I go around and shake hands? Do I smile for pictures? Do I go to ribbon cuttings? Do I do the things politicians do? Yeah, yes. But when you're loyal to people, they'll be loyal to you. Now, I will say that's not always true. I've been loyal to many people. I mean, in this last when I was running for the Senate, one of my friends did the unspeakable, and the and I was very loyal.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Just because you're loyal doesn't mean you're gonna get loyalty in return, but don't be disloyal and expect loyalty, you know, and don't let the disloyal don't let the disloyal make you a bad person.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Yeah, 100%. That's what I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Motivate yourself beyond that moment because I can tell you Rodney has done a remarkably good job of that from my perspective. I've watched it happen, right? I've seen these things. Um and I can tell you, I have a lot of friends in this industry who have done me wrong over the years. I don't hold any grudges, I don't care about it past that moment, but it hurts your feelings, man. You know what I'm saying? It hurts your feelings because when you're a when you when you really in your heart and at your core, value what people think about you and value your time and love what you do. I think Rodney knows that about me. I love what I do. I I very rarely am not seen in my community repping my businesses, and I don't do it from a perspective of hey, if you buy from somebody else, I'm not gonna talk to you anymore. I just literally want people to know what I do. I love what I do, right? I was an FFA and 4H, and somehow I figured out a way. I was president of my chapter in Brookville. I'm now at the city council. Yeah, I was president of I was president of Brookville FFA. And you know, I I loved what I did there. I still use some of the teachings and trainings that I learned in FFA, job interview skills, just life skills in general, but somehow I've been able to get back to my roots. I don't have a farming background, right? I didn't raise anything, I didn't have that luxury. I grew up in Trotwood. I grew up in Trotwood, right? I lived in Broadmoor. You know, mom, mom gave me the best foot forward by paying tuition to go to Brookville. That's the best thing that ever happened to me. You know, I got to experience I got to experience the rural life while I lived in and and Rodney knows. For all you that are listening, look it up. Look at the differences between Trotwood and Brookville. I loved growing up in Trotwood, still have a lot of love for that community, yeah, and it's on the way back up. But I can tell you, there's a huge difference between growing up in Trotwood and growing up in Brookville. Yeah, the school size and everything else. For me personally, I have been able to over the years experience things that not everybody has gotten and will not get a chance to experience. And I want to love on my neighbors, get out in my community and do these things because that's what makes me feel good. Rodney, I can tell you one thing, brother. We've got to have you back. I know you're on a heart out this week, and I am too. So, do you have anything parting ways? Any any call to action?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

You know, I'll just leave you with this. Um, you know, and and Jared, I you we've had so many good conversations, and I know your heart and you know mine.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Um, at the end of the day, just be a good person. Be a good person, treat people how you want to be treated, kill them with customer service. They're either gonna be loyal to you or they're not. And what I'm gonna tell you right now is, and you know this better than anybody, you'll find out who your friends are.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

You find out you get into business and politics, you will find out who your friends are, and loyalty means everything. And and you know, and and I'll I'll leave you, you said leave you with something, I'll leave you with this. Um, I remember when I was younger, a lot younger, somebody said, you know what, Rod, you can count all your friends on one hand. And I thought, I feel sorry for you. If you can count all your friends on one hand, I feel sorry for you. But I'll tell you what, I'm getting ready to turn 50. I'm starting to figure out what they mean. Yep. And at the end of the day, I have a ton of friends. You have a ton of friends. We all, ever, all your listeners will have a ton of friends. How many loyal friends do you have? And I'm gonna tell you find out who they are, take care of them better than anybody that you've ever taken care of, and make sure they're loyal back to you and life is good.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

That's right. That's right, Rodney, brother. I appreciate you more than I than I can even explain, and you'll ever know. Same here. We will get you back on here, I promise. America Builds Better is all about community and getting people together. We build better everything in America. And I can tell you I can tell you, I can tell you something, man. That's what this is all about. So don't miss out on episodes coming forward. And in the meantime, we're gonna we're gonna get off here right now with get out in your community and do something good for somebody else. I promise you, in this day and age, it'll make you feel better. It always makes me feel better. Rodney, thank you for being on the podcast today, and we will be back at you soon. We'll talk at you later, fellas.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Just remember if nobody's watching, he still is. So be on your best behavior. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

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