Episode 279 Ben Simon with The Shed & Fence Company Joins Us Tonight

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Thees and things you can build yourself and what are the advantages of boat I'm excited to bring this to you guys and see what we can

Let's go that's it Sean Wednesday again another day another day another week I am wore out already it feels like it's Friday or Saturday Wednesday is the new Friday all right know we just made that rule up yeah yeah let's just yeah let's just three-day work week isn't that we're working for three day work week we're going for and then it starts back over for three more three days one day off three days on does that count as a three day work week about a day off brother three days you did lose a day in there somewhere huh yeah three three I can't do math very well gotta give a shout out to uh Jack fence the shirt I'm wearing tonight Kevin P yes Charleston fences.com that dude got just the tip give a shout out to these guys Chris get ready to do something amazing next two days top secret that's all I can to say about that right now but I love Uh Kevin p and Chris gas and represent them tonight that's what I'm wearing you've been busy though man you um you've been on the road you just got back from dereck's thing right yes yes so that's the the East Coast Fence rivalry put on by fce Cartel I think is what they call themselves now was a great time uh the the atmosphere the culture the people that was what made that event kind of unique um one going in there I was a nobody in in the in the AG world as far as like I'm they're doing things I don't know how to do uh and so I'm watching and learning in a perspective that uh maybe somebody might do coming to one of our trainings never been in defense industry so on the other side of that and a lot of respect and props to those guys for what they do with the a ornamental um it's it's it's very uh amazing to watch um and and I think it's more difficult than people think like to do it the right way I'm like I don't think I can pull that off dude they are not they're not fence installers they're like fence scientists right I mean right I mean the stes are higher they're holding in like thousands of pounds of Buffalo and animals and dinosaurs and I'm trying to keep a soccer bow in the backyard yeah yeah and they're like that brace isn't right that's 36 and a half degrees when it needs to be 42 to get the right up so the post doesn't have any uplift I'm like I don't even I have no idea what you're saying yeah I mean we when we I'm like literally we do chain link fences we just say put a corner brace in there and at no point am I putting any kind of uh any kind of degrees on that that right so they built fence that I'm pretty sure that I couldn't have done an entire day and I think they did and just a couple of hours right and then the technicality of how the judges judge it pretty amazing stuff we did have the opportunity to do a real quick uh two-hour clinic on chain link because for them that is difficult new to you Brian that's every day red and butter cookie cutter stuff but uh we got to do that and uh show build some confidence and a lot of guys walked away with feeling like I could do Chain Lake and it's really not that difficult right but they walked away with some tips and tricks on how to do it efficiently and fast great event uh in the middle of nowhere and I tell you what Virginia has some hills now yes Rock too that you know that was it's funny you say that was my first um AG event I ever went to it was a couple years ago and uh dererk invited me up there to that um you know Cox fencing one it puts it on and I was blown away man I mean it was in the middle it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere for me because you got to drive down all the roads to get there and stuff and uh you know you go to little town everything's everything's cool the people were so welcoming it was incredible I mean it was like you know stay in my house uh we'll come pick you up at the airport and I mean it was just incredible how how uh that EG industry is it's it's you know and they they literally when they say like hey you know what somebody gets hurt or something and they'll they'll drive out drive tractors four or five hours out there equipment everything and finish a fence for you it's yeah it's I had a hard time paying for anything every time I turned around somebody was buying our dinner buying our drink do you need anything I'm like oh my gosh you guys set the bar awful high like but great people I loved every one of them that were there felt very welcomed how about that yeah well that was last week that was last week what do you got going on this week so this week the biggest thing right now is I'm back home I'm in the fence lab we're working on improving

Uh things uh the installation side of our industry and uh we have been working on instigates hard for the past couple days I got to get these things dialed in and get them to everyone's EA his hands they're amazing I went and did three of them and I did a howto video start to finish the last one was 28 minutes that's me starting from nothing to completely completely built gate um and it was on a racked uh gate so it had a rack to it in 20 minutes I was happy with that you know talking the way through that'll be on YouTube uh tonight it's already uploading now so what's the instigate thing again so the instigate uh so it's here's what I said today I love this right so it's cool it's clean it works great and it outlasts your Woodgate so it's replacement to Woodgate aluminum frame we've had Metal Frames in the past but typically they're welded and the problem is when you go to a job site sometimes the posts are set now they're not always perfect where they're supposed to be you have elevation changes so if you're going to do a one-day install you need to be able to build the gate right there which is why wood gates are convenient but we all know what happens to wood with cracks warps sprinks all that crazy stuff so this is a gate kit the guys in the field can customize in width and rack up to 18 inches and it's never going to warp R crack split rot deteriorate disc color sag twist done one and done and it's not even that much more money we've created a way to sell the gate with the frame the hardware the hinge the latch like you know how many times got you got Crews go out and they forgot the hinch they forgot the latch I don't have these screws so keep it silly put it in one box or keep it easy put it in one box for them so that's what I focusing on uh getting the dragon up and running and get those instigates out the door you got you gota I'm gonna go check it out I mean what like the cat five gate stuff it is a CAT 5 gate from Jason ban we took his gate system so it is absolutely a cat five system and it's pakota black has a different brace and all the hardware with it so it is it is an upgraded version of the cat five that's all it is so this is absolutely Jason Baines I'm in partnership with Jason we're not competing against Jason we have both versions he'll be selling both versions as well so you have the standard Cat 5 which is aluminum has a rivets and and a gusset in the corners this is clean and neat it matches the rails on King plus that's a big part and it's powder coated black uh and it's a totally different brace it's intention so to hold more weight than the gusset would so yes you're right cat I have one well I have one because they sent me one last year and I it's in the box so I think when you come out I'm going to have you show me what it is because you know I like to suffer man if I don't spend three days building it I don't want nothing to do with it so I me it's like yeah no I want to I want to you know I I have a system down we go out we build it and then we go out and set the post incorrectly and then we rebuild it a couple times and then everybody's using that same system everywh we have perfected this and then when we go out we'll make sure we bring like one hinge that's like for a two and 38 post when it needs to be two and seven8 so we we do this for two three days and then you know and then we try to build a job after a lot that's absolutely my system I mean you guys all have your own systems over there we trying to get to your level brother I mean occasionally my guys still take a matching pair with them like why you doing that that's too easy come on take all green hands with you at least on a galvanized fence yeah yeah building a gate like three four hours those are rookie numbers man rookie numbers yeah speaking of numbers real quick hey I know the boss are mad about this because we're gonna go over our time Li but hold on a minute competition we have at the fence show demo day fence comp competition so sign up wood Vine aluminum and chain link good prizes to win no cost to enter we have tools there Mr Vince war wagon is gonna be there two of them come and show up you can dig in set you can pound you can build the way you want to build show us your skills heck you might be the only one registered you might win yeah H $4,000 driver from M from us Hammer right so got a bull driver going out there we got other things what is the deal sign up PR cash prices you can walk out enough to get all your money back for the trip pretty much show putting some nothing bolts together hog ringing off fence

Yeah you know what I mean stuff like that come on let's I was out there all day today with the couple of the guys and we were building out the fence maze I don't know if you saw some of the videos I posted but uh and we're only we're not even halfway through so I I'll send that over to you so it's pretty cool so you don't tell Susan but I did line up the crane did you don't say it too loud okay I don't want her to know but it's fine it's oosha approved there's a harness that comes down it's okay so Susan speaking of Susan she added a whole new segment to this and uh let me show you the intro she made not and then we're gonna get into

It oh it was uncomfortable for me when I first saw it so I'm you have all this screen space you could have put Shawn and Brian over here but instead you put the two of them lean what would Brian and Shan say oh boy good job Susan Susan you killed it you do better so we're gonna bring on some questions from fence industry only now you and I have not seen these questions at all have yeah you know so we're gonna go through a few of these things like we did last week and uh except this time we've got them up here we've organized this a little bit because we're anything um if not people that learn try try to make it better I'm trying to read this right now brother oh my gosh why don't you go ahead I really don't care to have a CDL but I want the trailer heavy at the hall a good size oh my Lord so so we're going to read this thing uh hey guys I'm looking at getting a gooseneck trailer and I'm w one with a gvr GVWR of 20K dual 10K why does she have to do this right why all the questions right dual 10K axles only problem is I don't have my CDL my truck is rated 3/4 ton Duramax it's got a diesel right um and the trailer rating would put me over the 26k making it illegal yes um I really don't care to have a CDL but I want a trailer heavy enough to haul a good size skit that's fair enough right 13k pound machine um I've heard I've heard d-rated trailer with super singles and am wondering if anyone is looking into this is it illegal man you know better about this man because you were calling trailer after trailers so that's a lot to unpack and one reason we got away from trailers and we have the super fencers now is because of the dot and the CDLs and all that crap exactly what he's describ ring we fought that for years if you have a big enough truck to pull safely a piece of equipment that big you're over 26,000 pounds so what happens is you start getting a smaller truck and a bigger trailer and get under the 26,000 pounds a half ton three4 ton he's at a 34 ton thank God but a 3/4 ton truck is less truck than a 550 you should be hauling out with a 550 but the problem is it has to go with a spec on the door of the truck the GV uh WRR spec of that has to by that to what they add up so you can get a derated truck and you can get a derated trailer you have to order it from the manufacturer that way okay first off so you're not going to the dealership and buying this stuff you're gonna pay for it and get it derated it can happen but the problem is I don't know how far you can derate those so if you're G to take and buy a one ton 350 uh and drate that and then a trailer derated I'm not I'm not real sure if you get down low enough to get under 26,000 pounds right so uh my advice would be get a CDL um or don't go with such a heavy trailer I mean that that's kind of Overkill a 20,000 pound trailer uh you know most skid steerers I had a fullsize skid steer I think I weigh 105 yeah maybe 11,000 right so I think you go a 16,000 pound trailer 14,000 pound trailer really uh and a 12,000 pound truck and you're at 26 right uh my my 550 uh I don't know I'm not sure about that so uh I probably aren't the best guy to give you the final answer on that but my advice would be go to the Super fencer or uh get a CDL no actually scratch that Brian super fencer is not going to help him with hauling at skid steer not not they're gonna help you go to stop holding skid steer and pound poles problem solved we're not holding concrete those skid stair all this goes out the window what are we doing we don't need new trailers no more just small trucks Rent One have it delivered have the have the Bobcat delivered and just bring out your uh your own Aug attachments maybe I don't but we you know we Haul our we Haul our our Bobcat with the skitzer attachment on it and I mean 10,000 it probably only raised 10,000 pounds so we haul it with anything down to the 250 truck if we had to so we told 250 12 or 14,000 M trailer I think we're over killing the trailer at 20 20K yeah sing cost more to buy the trailer and when do they when do they weigh you anyway you know I've never in my entire life of building fence if I had anybody weigh my truck parts well they're not weighing they pull you over and they read the sticker they don't weigh it so if the sticker's rated at X and it's you can be empty and get in trouble so it goes by the trailer plate by the plated weight on the truck in the trailer uh

And they generally do those by what it's registered at or what the manufacturer says that truck is yeah and there's some parts of the country they constantly get uh pulled over for this yeah we just we just don't we I don't think we've ever been pulled over in in the in 30 years here so that's why it's it's an interesting question and we don't have no CDLs I don't know I guess I just grew up you just pull it as long as the truck pulls it I thought it was legal I don't know that's not legal advice for those you guys watching my fence life did not just he did not say that you can't just you can't just flick a a black Chip from Caesar's Palace over to the guy when you get B over I mean what it doesn't work the same everywhere mute that that yeah call sure you do it legally get your CDL if you need to or or rent the equipment have it delivered to the job site have them pick it up and not deal with any of it at all right yep right we don't do any wood fence at all so this one's all you Sean okay let's talk shadow box vence I'm OCD about Picket spacing at the same time I'm trying not to take forever I like that I'm done with the two 2x4 spacer and then started eyeing them up for a few pickets out however I still noticed to change in the Gap absolutely I've also done a tape measure where I have different measurements marked out Mark them on the tape measure different spacing and try to find a one that fits I run along the top to Fair what color Yes uh that works best but is most timec consuming I ain't got so it's an easy solution easy this problem's been solved Shyer it's easy you put the picket on either end you hook the shadower up it instantly spaces all the pickets for you that's it down to the 16th of an inch so if you have an average space of three and a half it will automatically blend that space from three and an eigh to four and 3/4 as you stretch it out easy peasy Sherin tools.com other than that uh marking the tape measures the next best thing yeah yeah and it's because there because of the the wood is warping and changing and and shrinking and and everything poing changes no matter what you're not going to get them exactly exactly exactly and the pickets are different widths so as you start adding that up it gets off you know an inch or two at the end and then it changes over time anyway yeah the wood it's something else man yeah it's crazy um what do we got here oh she wants to start what is Susan by the way Susan's pulling all these up so uh we're we're reading these for the first time everybody um that's why we're I would suggest if you want to see us answer a question you should send that to Susan yeah tag Susan indry only say yeah there you go tag Susan don't tag us because I don't want to see it but tag Susan and say it's the good one this this will make him uh s or squirm let all night keep tagging and texting Susan about the question all night all night long how do you encourage customers to engage in social media posts how do you get customers to leave you a review after complet the job okay wow yeah that's tough I mean have to physically make them do it yeah and you know I we don't we don't you know I think that's more of the residential side right because commercial people just flat out will not in general and when I say commercial obviously I'm not talking about GC stuff but you know we mainly do commercial and I can't imagine getting one of them to come on our social media and and leave a review or shout out they just don't care enough to do it they don't care how the quality of the work is much either they just want they just want a fence up around their parking lot you know yeah no it's tough but I think that some people do uh have great success when they do that final walk through with the homeowner residential right final walk through you're what you do is you give them your iPad or you give them your your phone and I pulled this up would you leave us an honest review I'm going to do a final inspection on your fence while you do that make sure we didn't miss nothing and then you give them that and walk away and go look at the old fence and come back and say I found two things make it up I fix this and fix that and then maybe you get the review that way yeah yeah we don't really live we don't live in a review World ourselves but um we you know we have our system that through our use jobber mainly a lot of it that we send out you know so we send our final invoices when they pay I think they think they're leaving a review on

Social media somewhere but that's the only way that we found to get commercial people and stuff to leave a review is when you send the invoice have it send like five question you know a five question a thing and I think um I think Benji you know from um clever fox has this cool little tool where I you SE have you seen that he's got a cool little tool and maybe Susan can research that a little bit what's it called um okay from Benji's thing and pull that up but it's it actually sends out and requests the um reviews from the customers and then it's somehow does some filter thing where it's like all the good ones go instantly to your account and the bad ones you can respond to her ey does that we had that for a while we had an opportunity to fix it before it went out there yeah yeah yeah so that was kind of cool but we found good good success with people responding back to when they paid their invoice so they they go online they pay their final invoice and then right when they pay the final invoice that ask them the five questions because to get them to go back and interact you know a week later to an email they or Facebook it's hard incentivize them maybe this a good question here before we bring on our guests speaking of shadow box can they be done using king plus boxes yes you have to change up the box slightly so that's another discussion get with us but shadow box fence can be done with king plus yes he yeah cool hey and if you don't want your H boards to warp or Shrink or anything like that can you just like have a sprinkler constantly running on your wood fence to keep it moist so I've heard that actually works but I also that's frowned upon in Las Vegas where you have no water yeah they we can they're making us take all of our Lawns out by 2026 yeah see I think in Seattle where it rains um 99% of the time they had no problem yeah but hey I think we've had Ben in the back uh in the green room here long enough all right so uh let's bring out our special guest it's uh Ben uh Ben Simon uh from the shed and Fence Company if uh you know I mean he's been a he I think he was one of our first members as well with fwa so I'm excited to bring him on uh We've G for a little while I know you know him pretty well as well so let's bring Ben on and say hi what's going on Ben hey hey hey guys good to be here where are you at in the world Ben right now uh Minnesota about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis so weather's good this time of year right there right weather's beautiful this time of year it's perfect yeah not not not in December though January not so good right right nope we build fences all year long and that is not when we want to be building them we we muscle we muscle through it so yeah good for you no way Minnesota Minnesota's cool isn't that where Tonka truck came from or something too it is it is minona it's uh it's not far from here uh where we're at we're about 10 minutes from Minot Tonka so that's where it originated from the original Tonka truck and then I think the very first microwave as well if I remember correctly don't know these are useless facts these are useless facts by the way I know I mean I swear I I swear I swear I didn't smart on here like oh look at I had some friends from Minnesota and we used to tease each other and then also someone from uh uh Nebraska or said we talk about jerk I thought you were a f guy man F guys don't know that [ __ ] it's the Tonka truck oh my goodness useless knowledge useless knowledge nobody needs to know that so Ben how's your week been man oh busy you know our general manager out of town this week and uh basically put it all on my shoulders for the office admin work and it is stressful I feel like I'm just digging out of a hole but you know what that's part of the gig so uh it's been a good week overall we're grateful and very fortunate to be busy and uh and still scheduling out a ways so phones are ringing that means life is good that's awesome now I gotta say Brian I don't know what these colors mean that getting from the boss the boss is sending us and highlighting stuff in different colors I don't know what the colors mean it's different different levels of being bullied see it is yeah the yellow is like a soft bully it's like you know it's kind of like it's like it's like a recommendation you should talk about this the the orange ones the orange ones is is just kind of like she's getting a little irritated when it goes red she's

Got you if you can't see her she has a middle finger up probably and she I thought it's just you know red support of Ben Simon I mean it's color red so everything's in red I thought I'm like I know team red baby te red team red I get it red we're like Susan's puppets I feel like sometimes oh Lord this is a Susan show nobody knows it so so funny story about you though uh Ben it wasn't that long ago it was 2020 you started right with the what like five five eight th thousand doll or something when you decided you wanted to start getting into the fencing oh he froze on us pretty much about 8,000 bucks in my pocket yeah oh 8,000 bucks you started with 8,000 bucks yeah I had I had bucks in my pocket luckily the wife had a good job but I had 8,000 bucks she was down in Texas out of town at the time and uh I called her up I said uh babe I just quit my job and uh I'll figure out a way to make money wow wow she knew it was coming it wasn't a total surprise but uh oh I think he's got some uh technical issues that's Minnesota for you Minnesota right he's over there clicking on it I know right now he's been in the green room with perfect internet for like the last we bring them on and then it's just Minnesota's like oh timeout you're in the middle of nowhere we're gonna borrow the Wi-Fi Elon Musk said hey I need that for a minute I'm gonna launch a rocket and take all the Wi-Fi from that part of Minnesota like but we'll bring them we'll bring them back on because it is a really interesting story he said he started with 8,000 bucks in his pocket his wife was out of town so I could spur the moment decision start I'm gonna start a fence business because and he quit his job is what he said I heard him say that yep y so that's pretty ballsy now I wonder if he had any fence experience or he just like looked up said had none he had none I wanted him to tell the story because it's a really amazing story he had no he had no experience in it he's on track to do like3 million now and I mean it was I mean to hear his story about how he built this thing up and you know it's incredible like he said he's he's you know I know sounds like some of his office staff has gone this week and we don't realize how much everybody does for us you know until I mean I just I just learned how to put somebody on hold and transfer the call so um and it's been like 10 years so you know I couldn't do that I don't I couldn't put them in the Software System anymore no yeah you know what I mean and they're like yeah so I just learned how so I just I just shut theit the office down for the day oh we haveone in the office oh we closed I guess we're closed today right yeah yeah it's a holiday it's a fence holiday when they don't can you hear me now I can hear you I don't see him yet hear there you are yeah don't move too fast man that is my that was my biggest fear man that was my biggest fear that that happened we have real mediocre Wi-Fi signal here in St bonifacious Minnesota real media bous Minnesota you need to tell your neighbors to get off get off the internet yeah yeah if you maybe you need to move closer to the D truck Factory you know oh man what a bu yeah we might have to uh we might have to bring have him fix his internet bring back on can you get him audio without video let me see tell him to pause his video we might at least hear his story sometimes that works that's a lot more bandwidth for the video I'm gonna have Susan work on it on the background maybe have call in there we go I can try one more time on this there you go all right go there you are now you look good that's it yeah you and started a fence business on a spread moment quit your job take it from there don't move anything though don't cut don't don't move your head try not to move your head too much we're good hope hopefully this one sticks it out grab some tin foil hold on to some tin foil we're we're we're we're about 45 minutes west of the city so you know this is where it starts getting a little sketchy out here so yeah so I was kind of telling them you yeah you you didn't have much experience when you started uh you're on track to do about three million this year it looks like and uh you know tell us how tell us how that went I mean how was that when you first uh when you first started that fence

Company and and how did you get your first how'd you get your first sale uh Facebook was the first sale I mean the the biggest thing when starting out for me was Facebook it was the it was the networking groups um uh or the the neighborhood groups I apologize uh and honesty with customers and saying hey uh I know I'm handy I spent 15 years in Collision Repair so Body Lines door gaps sand scratches attention to detail was uh was like second nature so after 15 years of that I knew I could do it I knew I could make it look good it's just a matter of how long is it going to take to get there so money while doing it yeah yeah right love the fence industry nobody knows how to scratch and ding up trucks better than expensers so uh that's a good good business to come from Collision try to fix any of that stuff I would try to fix it let it go I had to learn real quick to cover my eyes on the truck because that's right let it go you you can't yeah you can't yeah what made you uh what made you decide to get into the fence it's a random thing I mean it's not something a lot of people think about what made you decide you wanted to go and get into the fence Biz uh honestly it was the neighborhood groups from the get-go uh with the number of people asking for fences again we're outside of the Metro there is fence companies popping up all over in the Metro I feel like that's been a huge part of our success is the market we're in so right away uh you know was just kind of looking for odds and ends to to make money when the reoccurring theme was I need a fence I need a fence I need a fence how did you learn how to build fence like what resources did you use to figure this out I'm glad you asked um and not not staged at all but I mean obviously you're all over the Internet so uh you were a big part of it you were I talked to you one of the first people I talked to uh just just starting out you Tony thoron was a great resource he was still with the AFA at the time I called Tony I talked to Tony for 45 minutes an hour uh got signed up for AFA uh fence the fence University uh I think that's what it was the AFA down in uh oklah down in Texas y so headed down there my first fall I I said I got to make sure I'm doing things right I mean that's number one is I got to make sure I'm doing things right so uh training continuing education that has been a big thing for me from the get-go I mean right out of the gate it was it was studying online all the Facebook groups many many many helpful hands uh your videos swi videos and it was it was around the clock I mean you want to beely Dedicated yourself to learning from others that were out there sharing content that's great to hear yeah I mean that that's rather than just trying to figure it out on your own and and and look where you're at we're talking four years yeah and you're almost at three million is that what you said yeah we're we're halfway through our fourth SE fourth full season and we're on the road we're knocking on the door at three million so I think that's amazing and I think there's a lot of guys that haven't hit that volume that maybe maybe didn't didn't dedicate uh the time you did to go learn from others there's a lot to be shared there's a lot to be shared out there are you running your own Crews or you st workout we we keep everything in house that was one thing that I wanted to do early on was build build our culture build our team not have to rely on somebody else and somebody else's company uh to be on your schedule plus there's a lot of loose ends loose regulations around those subcontractors that a lot of people don't follow and don't in mind that I I just not not really interested in going down that road yeah what what type of fence do you specialize in I mean what what is what's your Forte here our our most common is residential blackchain link um I mean it it's everywhere around here so a lot of backyards getting fenced for dogs that's that is probably are you digging and setting or pounding that we drive everything we've driven our chain link from day one oh wow wow you were ahead of the curve then yeah it's we did we were setting our vinyl and our aluminum and everything uh when we first started for that first year but we've switched everything over it's it's a no-brainer nice job good for you especially in Minnesota what was your very first fence you built the very first one do you remember the project what kind of I I drive by it every day uh it was a white 4 foot vinyl picket uh

A little ashamed to say it was from uh from The Big Box store you know but customer knew exactly where it was from it was again transparency and honesty from the get-go uh it turned out nice it's still looking good to this day they're still very happy with it to this day so that's a winwin but it it it kicked my butt I mean and it was all dig and set and it was miserable I'm glad I'm not humping concrete anymore you don't need a 20,000 pound trailer anymore right no sir I love Mixing concrete I said nobody ever know right it says nobody ever one time what's the shed part of it so you must doing some sheds I mean if shed and fence is in the name what's the deal with the sheds was that part of the original name were you always shed and fence company that is where it started that's how I started making money on the side after I quit the body shop industry was the sheds and it it it's it's there's enough leads coming in but we we basically tell customers when they call that we have partnered with another local fence Builder and we'll have them call them so uh we don't technically sub that out we have a deal worked out with them but we just we basically just give them the leads another Builder or a shed Builder shed Builder I'm sorry yeah another a local shed company so you're not building a shed for you're taking leagues and have a shed Builder build the sheds good idea correct correct what kind of advice you you give someone else that's just deciding right now say he's got $5,000 in the bank and he wants to get in fense he doesn't know anything about it would you say do the same thing you're doing or has it changed I mean has it you know is there more resources or different way you would have went do you regret anything I think gave you that question you didn't come that what's that I think Susan gave you that question you go that on your that's a good question that one a buckle up uh buckle up really it's if you're not willing to to put the time in it's going to be a long road I mean it quite literally has been 16 hour days six to seven days a week for the last four years I mean it's around the clock it's worth it yes but if you don't have the time if you're focused on on your kids are young you want to be there for your kids I mean there's a time and place for everything so um this opportunity will be here at a later time to to start a business but if you're not dedicated if you're not willing to to to go all in right out of the gate uh it's going to be tough especially right now this year's this year I think we've all seen a little bit of a change uh luckily we haven't we haven't seen it in any stunting any growth or anything like that but uh talk to enough companies out there to know that this year's different it's it's getting tougher to start you got to pay attention now yeah customer service is coming back so you're an fwa uh Minnesota Ambassador correct correct correct thank you for that that's awesome dude yeah I try to push it everywhere I can good it's a great organization you know fencers helping fencers brother that's what it's all about uh and you're going to do an education class at the F show yes sir yep I'm going to uh basically trying you know growth Beyond two to three people the goal is to share how I've built our company it's basically I mean it's it's people it's people people people if you don't hire the right people if you don't find the right people so you don't put in the right spot right seat great people but if they're in the wrong spot it's disastrous right round peg in square hole yeah but that's only part of the of the problem you just said it you gotta have the right people first yeah I love it you you are an example of why fwa was started I mean somebody that wanted to get in somebody that wanted to grab a wheelbarrow and a pair of postol diggers and get into our industry and in a in a short period of time with the access to the resources and the and the videos and the help and the hard work and now look four years later less than four years pretty much almost right four years later you're teaching a class at at one of the the major national offense shows in the country and that's huge so that you know kudos to you man to be able to to do that step up at the fence show and security Expo and actually come out and do a class and have the confidence to do it and and to to the time and the grit it took to get there man it's it's

Literally the drive behind um what we do so man I I can't thank you enough especially especially since you've been kind of uh involved in it since the beginning as well so Kudos man adopter I appreciate the opportunity for sure I'm looking forward to sharing again how built my business off relationships networking and continuing education so so what what's your next biggest goal for uh then for your uh business great question we uh we actually just launched uh a sister company we have there's I feel like there's an untapped Market about an hour Southwest of here Mano Minnesota uh so we actually just launched man fence so I'd like to by Next by next season I'd like to have one full-time crew running down there second location not even four years in yeah man you're on fire brother congratulations nice job appreciate it apprciate and you still have all your hair you're not like this man you can see you

See unplanned segue here though it's funny Sean would want to bring up hair because I have a few questions for you I want to ask you what's the deal with the p hair you just had this and your what give us the back story because you you you didn't always have that hand hair you do that then uh that was October breast cancer awareness raising funds that was during my late wife's uh the last battle with cancer and I supported and went to a function and and I walked in there with crazy hair I wore that hair all over the place I I took it to Orlando at one of the fence uh shows I do it I did wor with my uniform I was in LA P all the time there was a day I worked the shift with that hair just to get attention is an October so and speaking of that next month is uh October it's going to be uh cancer breast cancer month yep Y and we're what made you even have that ready like Jesus you don't know what's gonna happen with these guys now I'm now I'm scared we got a few more but we'll pull them up later no we got that was it that was it so you're safe for the rest of the show well Ben thanks again for coming on um we appreciate it and I'm glad we got some of the technical issues fixed and we could actually get get you on there to hear your story secondary Wi-Fi was great yeah yeah great great story and we're excited to if if everybody wants to hear more get over to the the fence show security Expo in Las Vegas class when is your class uh Wednesday and Friday I'd have to double check the times but I'm doing one Wednesday one Friday come D Vince and you'll you it work I can see you y walk up anybody ask but when's Ben when's Ben gonna be in there and we we have class schedules we'll figure it out you want to fill the room that Ben's in fill it to the brim this guy's got it figure it out I want no seats available yep after this we're gonna have to put a third one on you watch man I learned I learned from you guys man I learned from you guys so other people that got it figured out any last words for anybody out Ben what do you got no I appreciate you guys apologize for the technical issues thanks for having me on I appreciate it a whole bunch appreciate it man appreciate it thanks coming yep wow what a story huh inspir I love it now I'm motivated I back and figure out how to make my business better hell I've been doing it for 30 years I a got that figured out yet I feel like a slacker you know what I mean we bring people on here and I feel I literally feel like I have been slacking off when said 16 hour days I'm only been working eights yeah he's how to do two days in one so he working working all week or working uh by Wednesday he's now working the full week yeah I mean I was here all day but I was searching for pictures of you with purple hair and pink hair and I mean I you know what I mean so I mean was I really working that hard I was just sitting there worried about what you guys were gonna do tonight distracted distracted but demo days man Let's uh let's just recap demo days real quick I know we're coming on 40 some minutes but uh let's recap demo days man that has just been a lot of traction man a lot of traction few more people I told told these guys to come out I'm working on a uh a new fence I say new new to me horse fence super economical super easy to install you could literally sell this to the homeowner and they can put it in super easy try get this guy out there to demo this and show this up he's telling me like he can put in 100 feet in like less than an hour yeah by himself yeah like what wait a minute and it's horse safe and you don't have to worry about the horse again so we got new we constantly working on getting vendors out there to show us these cool products all right just talk to uh ranchan these lights are amazing he's bringing them out and going to show them off stuff like that so there'll be vendors out there you can try the equipment you can use it you can see it right there demo it and then we have the competition going on that day we got fence Wars going on that day and and the Maze yeah right what a what what a great time to spend out there I'm being told that demo days are gonna lower the temperature for us the high is gonna be 85 yeah no rain 85 we've already got the order I got I just I just had a couple calls from it's been I I didn't respond to the last one from the mayor of Las Vegas and they were Thanking us for bringing so many people to Las Vegas for

This show so um I called NASA and they're going to make sure that they take care of the line of the planets to make sure we lower the temperature on Tuesday yep I heard that I heard Nellis airf is gonna do a fly over I can't back any of this up but um I heard that they're gonna be doing a fly over Susan says according to Susan so if anything doesn't happen anybody has an issue definitely reach out to Susan and ask her why something you were looking forward to didn't happen show ask Susan days well don't forget on Monday we're doing uh free clinics you know the fence University is putting on uh two sessions no dig wood no dig vinyl that's free sponsored by the fence University right all you got to do is get your butt there going to build those fences start to scratch we're gonna have Billy Grove with the fence Academy Mr Fence Academy teaching those classes so if you want to see uh how they how Mr fit Academy teaches and does no dig wooden vinyl that's Monday yeah get their day early flying on Sunday yeah yeah and I you know what looking at the rooms and everybody that's booking there's twice as many people coming in early than there was last year so there's definitely a lot of traction in fact I was on the phone with Lowe's today and they're talking about bringing some extra people in um you know out for that for the demo days out there so people are starting to really this last two three weeks is is the time when everybody starts getting panic mode saying I got how where do I ship the equipment how do I get it out there you know all this setup so even us we're in here going man I need an extra forklift out in the out of the demo days another one in Las Vegas fence and to bring stuff and you know and all the all that so then at the towards the end of it though we're doing a happy hour we got the beer garden going in you know on demo days yep on demo days and then that's going to close out what about it's between somewhere around five six after that happy hour and then the party goes inside to uh boots and booze boots and booze kickoff party boots and booze yep and at least I think 50% more space than we had last year um because it was pretty packed last year more bars uh this time we're gonna have some more food and some live entertainment a lot more stuff going on um you know at the boots and Boos party so that's pretty cool that is uh who can come to the boots and boo party everybody it's open to anybody yeah anybody with a p a pass obviously so anybody with a fence Show Pass yep can come inside the the boots and booze party yep and there'll be some drink tickets being handed out so it should be a good time on that and that's all of this stuff has happened and the the expo hall hasn't even opened yet that's all before it's like a pre-show to the show like literally listen there's so much going on before the show even starts yep it's like two shows almost now right you got a show before the show and that's just Tuesday night that's uh that's a kickoff before the expo hall even opens up then there's shuttles gonna be waiting outside um after on Wednesday afterwards for the Homeland part which is crazy and the Spazmatics I was lucky enough to go see the Spazmatics and um Susan was there and yir we went to this thing and they were awesome so that's gonna be cool and they're they literally uh Homeland spares no expense toh throw a party there is no doubt so they took over the entire Stony rocking Country Place and you have to you have to RSVP this so either scan this thing if you know scan it right now it's on your screen your phone scan it right now reach out to somebody from one of us reach out to uh Jackie from Homeland somebody or Susan and get the uh code to uh you know the actual QR code and stuff so you can scan and in RSVP but get yeah definitely do that because that's going to be packed and you want to get in early enough to uh the home party last year was was lit was awesome yeah yeah so that's super cool gotta register to attend that one the other one um if you have a a pass you're going to get in so super excited women of fwa got their happy hour as well I mean it's just one thing after another going on they what what when is their happy hour oh my gosh Susan's gonna type it in right now the women of fwa happy hour it's Thursday right now well thank you Thursday one to two in a breakout we're reading it as typing it in as you can see we don't know what's going on the show has has taken off and evolved all on its own we just show up

And wonder around yeah the question is am I gonna am I gonna be on a unicycle a bicycle a robot am I gonna be rolling around on a little scooter we've installed cables we've installed cables so you're just going to be kind of on cables from the up above just kind of cruising around no like no like we like they like they like we told you you couldn't have a crane out there and you're not you can't lift people up they've already told me I can't fly things around inside the expo hall but but if I put a little crane on a cart and it lifts me a foot off the ground does that count and just roll that around I don't think it does I think that I think that you I think that if we fly you around on cables that that's that's okay because I mean you're there to make sure yeah that you're not gonna yeah yeah I'm not that tall so I up higher so I can see everybody so anyway so we're working on the details on that for sure geez okay fair enough yeah good show though man good show um glad we got to get Ben Simon Ben Simon that's a great story that's awesome we need more of that more wins like that me to uh hear more stories like that yeah right so we got a lot of stuff coming up with the fence University that we're gon to be launching here in the next probably three four days so everybody stay tuned definitely announ coming big announcements big announcement so big that we can't even announce it right here because it almost needs its own show Almost needs its own show it it needs more covers than just a fence University is gonna be making some big big moves across the country here so we're super excited about it Sean thanks again man um Chris registered that's my mom up there she says uh don't give Sean any ideas it's okay Mom I'll be tied off it'll be safe I'll make sure that that Brian I'll make sure he clicks it all in it'll be fine yeah yeah I got I'll be the safe I'll be the safety guy that keeps track of it yeah don't worry anything under six foot o approved Tech all right man uh anyway stay tuned everybody Sean thanks for coming on um Ben uh if you're still watching thanks again for uh thanks forg for everything uh hello Vegas yeah Vegas everybody get to fence show.com get registered get your passes Sean we'll talk to you later man take care team plus one see you guys see you everybody